Little Slide Rooter

Just in case, they're preparing to dig Koyie Hill out of storage.

Pirates and Orioles certainly have what it takes, though I suspect that they're not so much shopping him as waiting for some ridiculous desperation based offers to roll in.

Is this based on the Heyman story? Yeah, should have mentioned it was Heyman. Rosenthal mentions teams on both Schierholtz and DeJesus, with one likely to go. Incredibly intrigued. There's no way he's giving either away, so it could be an incredibly lucrative day. Granted, we'd be spending the remainder of the season looking at an awful lot of Conor Gillespie and Julio Borbon, but it could open the door for Ellsbury, Choo, or even Stanton in 2014.

Rather than devoting a new thread to the 2014 Rul 5, I figured I'd borrow this one; Arismendy Alcantara, INF Gioskar Amaya, INF Frank Batista, RHP Xavier Batista, OF Dallas Beeler, RHP Justin Bour, 1B Sergio Burruel, C Esmailin Caridad, RHP Marcelo Carreno, RHP Lendy Castillo, RHP Javier Castro, RHP Zach Cates, RHP Hunter Cervenka, LHP Pin-Chieh Chen, OF Casey Coleman, RHP Gerardo Concepcion, LHP Willson Contreras, C Wes Darvill, INF Antonio Encarnacion, RHP Luis Flores, C Anthony Giansanti, OF Enyel Gonzalez, RHP Carlos Gutierrez, RHP Jae-Hoon Ha, OF Marco Hernandez, INF Eric Jokisch, LHP Austin Kirk, LHP Luis Liria, RHP Matt Loosen, RHP Jeff Lorick, LHP Eric Martinez, RHP A. J. Morris, RHP Chad Noble, C Juan Carlos Paniagua, RHP (see NOTE) Loiger Padron, RHP Amaury Paulino, RHP Felix Pena, RHP Starling Peralta, RHP Dae-Eun Rhee, RHP Kevin Rhoderick, RHP Greg Rohan, INF Jose Rosario, RHP Zac Rosscup, LHP Victor Salazar, RHP Brian Schlitter, RHP Ryan Searle, RHP Elliot Soto, INF, Nick Struck, RHP Luis Villalba, LHP Yao-Lin Wang, RHP Since this is cut from an article, I didn't get the note on Paniagua, which essentially states that due to the fraudulent D Backs situation, it's not sure whether or not he'd be eligible. Now while there aren't a ton of guys worth rostering, those that are are musts. Paniagua for one, if he is eligible. Alcantara, Rosscup, and Ha are obvious. And there's plenty of cuts to be made for each. Maybe Rhee, depending on how the rest of his season goes. Amaya, Pena, Wang, and Contreras are all guys I'd like to keep, but I can't imagine anyone picking them and leaving them on a big league roster for a full season. A few guys that could be taken are Jokisch, Loosen, Batista, and Kirk, but I'm not so sure that I'd give up a roster spot to prevent it. An interesting case is Concepcion. A team could easily pick him and keep him on the DL for the bulk of the season. As far as available roster spots, there's Gillespie, Borbon, and Gregg as the only sure things to go. There's Rondon who will likely end up back in the minors. I could see them resigning Ransom to a very cheap deal if they don't have an alternative.

But those 400 PAs are likely to come at the MLB level while Vitters plays 3rd in Iowa and Baez and Bryant spend the next 2 years auditioning for the job for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, we have a serviceable, big league ready stop gap in Valbuena under team control for the next few years if Olt and Vitters both flame out before the other two are ready. Not saying Villanueva isn't a good prospect, just that while we have a stockpile at one position we should consider shopping for something we're in need of. Prospect for prospect swaps don't happen often, but that doesn't mean that they can't.

I believe that the primary purpose for shopping Kennedy was to free up salary space for Peavy, and with Peavy off the table, I'm guessing that Kennedy is as well. But damn, if healthy Peavy, Lester, Bucholtz, Lackey, Dempster. Damn.

I feel for Villanueva. Texas moved him because he was blocked by Beltre and the then untouchable Olt. Now, he's again blocked by Olt with Baez and Bryant behind him. I really think he should be trade bait, even if for a pitching prospect of comparable value.

Havn't seem Shawon Jr. in box scores lately. Is he injured?

-Kevin Rboderick gave up 7 walks in 1.2 IP. Wow. That's. Bad. -Daury Torrez with his usual 0/4 BB/K over 4 IP. Sadly, he gave up 6 ER along with it.

I did see it mentioned on Twitter recently that it was to build up arm strength for longer innings, which didn't make much sense to me as he's been going 5-6 innings all season.

Give me Skaggs or Bradley plus Kennedy and we'll throw in Kevin Gregg's remains.

Rosscup with 3 K in 1.2 IP. I like Rosscup.

Maybe it's just a shiny new toy thing, but Arrieta's stuff looks incredibly sick. If Bosio can be the guy to help him harness it, he could be as good as anyone in our rotation.

Olney, ABTY, and now Arguello all seem to think there's some smoke here, at least now we have something interesting instead of wondering if Schierholtz will still be here. They also agree that Towers is trying to clear up money to trade for Peavy, which is just the most Kevin Towers thing that could ever be. If it's relievers they seek, I'd send them Gregg and Russell plus whatever cash they need. I know Russell's a valuable asset going forward, but this is a risk worth taking, and we could still potentially go after Price in the offseason. Price-Kennedy-Shark-Jackson-Wood would be ten different kinds of awesom.

What would it take? If it's salary relief they want, we just saved a nice chunk of change on Soriano. As far as player/prospect return, we certainly have more moveable assets than the Angels.

Years from now, when looking back at old Cubs rosters, I shall furrow my brow and ask myself "who the hell was Gillespie?"

Any interest? 28 years old, 2 years under team control.

Is it safe to say that all that time in which Russell was our only reliable reliever is taking it's toll on him?

Ronny Alcala with another 3/5, all singles. Is he one to watch to any degree?

Make sure to give a follow up question asking what that would do to the Cubs' chances of being competitive next year. In a vacuum, Bundy probably has more value than Wood as long as his medicals check out. But punting that value until 2016 is not worth it considering the still-high chance that Bundy flames out. If we were to trade Wood for Bundy and then go with what we have for 2014, that would certainly hurt our chances of competing. However, I can't imagine that being the case. We have some cash for free agents, enough minor league depth for the right trade, and of course Theo's ability to make the most out of the scrap heap.

I respectfully challenge anybody here to await the next time Jim Callis, John Sickels, or Ben Badler hold a chat and ask them if the Orioles would trade Dylan Bundy for Travis Wood. They will respectfully suggest that the Orioles would want a much bigger return. Keith Law would give a similar reply, only not as politely worded.

Trading for guys like Olt, Grimm, Arrieta and Strop emphasizes a more near-term approach than trading for higher ceiling, lower-level types. You can disagree but you know you are wrong. Pretty much this. That argument would be relevant if we were talking about low level/ceiling prospects in general, but we're talking the number #2 overall prospect in baseball entering the season and #17 mid season even following TJS. Travis Wood for Dylan Bradley coming off of TJS is the very definition of selling incredibly high. And by that I mean that Dan Duquette would have to be incredibly high to make that deal.

I don't care how viciously I'm attacked for this; the very thought that the Cubs would be the ones with reservations over trading Travis Wood for Dylan Bundy is nothing short of delusional.

Alcantara seems to have hit quite a rough patch. His past 10 games, he's hit .195/.244/.317. Then again, at 102, it's the most games he's played in a season, so it could be fatigue. Maybe he needs a day off. Worked for Starlin. Quick, Kyle something something.

Hopefully the mechanical adjustments are finally working/taken to him. Any reports on what his velo is at/what type of secondary stuff he's throwing recently? Could it also have to do with the pitching coach in Boise pointing out something that the one in KC did not? In 4 games, 13 IP in Boise he owns a 1.38 ERA, 5/15 BB/K. His WHIP isn't anything special at 1.385, but one thing I can't help notice is that in his 58 professional IP, he's only given up 2 HR.