Little Slide Rooter

More importantly, is it a bad sign for the pitching in the Cubs organization that Justin Berg's still a part of it?

And the Cardinals pick up as a non roster invitee in 2014 where he earns 68 saves and in 2015 he returns to the rotation and goes 26-3 with a 0.82 ERA.

Replace Mather with someone like Austin Kearns or Conor Jackson, and this could be a very familiar lineup in 2013.

Shark/Wood/Volstad/Germano/Raley might not be a pretty rotation, but before anyone calls it the worst ever, I challenge them to take every single Cubs starter between Madduxes '92 departure and Wood's '98 debut and put together a rotation that would be much better.

Jackson and Vitters were the Christmas gifts. Raley's more the type of trinket that I used to get for day 3 of Chanukah. Part of why I married into Christmas. Anything's better than a lump of cole(man) in my stocking.

Just for the hell of it, I was combing through the Tigers minor league affiliates for possible PTBNLs for Jeff Baker, and came up with a few. Forgive the lack of exciting optiong, but this is Jeff Baker we're talking about. 2 moths of Jeff Baker to be specific. -Jeff Farrell. 21, SP/RP. In his 2nd season in A ball, he's pitched in 17 games, 10 as a starter. 4.42 ERA 1.136 WHIP 22/60 BB/K in 59 IP. -Ryan Robowski. 24 LHRP. Bad ass mustache. in 55.2 IP between AA/AAA, mostly AA 3.56 ERA 1.114 55.2 IP 16/49 -One more interesting option would be Colin Balestar. Fits the Theo reclamation mold as a former top 100 guy, last on the list in 2008, he just turned 26 in June and is under team control through 2017. Perhaps we could aim for one these 3 and 1 raw low level guy.

Paul Maholm and Reed Johnson say "hi." apples and oranges. Paul Maholm is a left handed starting pitcher who has been quite effective this season while David Dejesus has been a completely unimpressive RF. LH starting pitching is going to get overvalued, pitchers pitching well are going to get a nice return midseason. Completely replacable bats like DeJesus probably aren't. How is DeJesus defensively in CF? If he can play an acceptable CF that increases his value- though not to the level of an effective starting pitcher. Normally, no. But we're talking a team with pitching to spare and not a ton of money. Their starting CF is likely to depart, and DeJesus is a very cheap replacement for his production. They could avoid paying Shields, 20 MM the next two years. It might not sound like much, but to a smaller market team that has to compete with two of the highest payrolls in baseball on a much smaller budget, especially when they have no shortage of younger and far more cost effective options.

DeJesus came as cheap as he did because he was coming off a horrible 2011 following a 2010 which he lost half of to injury.

How about the guy that's younger than all three of them? Yeah, how do people keep forgetting about him? Plus Shark, Wood, Cabrera, Beliveau, Russell, Wellington Castillo, Clevenger... there are a ton of you guys worth watching right now. They're all worth watching, but if we're talking about the core foundation of this particular wave, it's Castro, Rizzo, Vitters, Jackson, and Samrdzjia.

I don't see DeJesus being moved. He has exactly the prototype approach at the plate the organization wants. It's debatable whether any of the younger guys can learn anything from him, so that isn't a reason on its own to keep him. But the FO has no pressing need to trade him since he's both affordable and productive. If these younger kids can learn anything from him it's a bonus, so why trade him just because? If they get a good offer for DeJesus, I expect they would consider moving him. Short term assets moved = potential long term benefits. That said, my guess is that he'll likely be around as well. There really isn't many top of the order type guys in the system/in the organization, and I still am not a fan of Brett Jackson as a top of the order option (and same goes for Starlin Castro). DeJesus provides some stability in that regards, without putting people in positions that they might not be fit for. DeJesus could be dealt for a few solid pitching propsects, say 1 big league ready type, like Scott Barnes or Wade Davis (yes, I brought up Wade Davis again)plus a lower level lottery ticket. Also, we could build a package around him to TB for James Shields. For the Rays, DeJesus could be a cheap alternative to BJ Upton, and for us, while Shields is 30, and has only had 1 impressive season in the past 4 years but as scarce as front end pitching seems to be, he could be our best bet. Plus there's the whole AL East to NL Central thing. He's has 9 MM option in 2013 and a 12 MM in 2014.

I'm starting to think that the starting offense we see over the next 2 months is very similar to what we'll see next Spring. The only difference is that either Soriano will be traded by the deadline or DeJesus in the winter. They could be replaced via trade or FA, but I could also see Vitters moved to the OF with Stewart back at 3rd. Yup, still rooting for Stewart.

I don't care how broken of a record I may sound like. Raley, Rusin, and Struck are each Rule 5 eligible this winter, so they may as well start getting looks at them. Raley's been the best this season so he should get the first crack. There's no benefit to watching Casey Coleman horrible again. He's had enough chances.

No, if Volstad is on the roster a few years from now it will mean that he figured things out, which would be the opposite of horribly wrong. If not, he'll be non tendered by then. In fact, if he doesn't look a lot like he did yesterday the rest of this season, he may very well be non tendered this winter, which is why he should be startinng the rest of this season regardless of the results.

At this point, my point of view is that unless were talking full time players like Soriano and DeJesus, nobody who has no chance to be a part of the future should be on the big league roster as long as there's an option who has any chance to be. That's the whole reasoning behind my seeming obsession with fringe prospects like Cardenas, Raley, and Watkins. At least Campana and Volstad have an off chance I being useful over the next few years. Mather and Germano do not. It's Logan's Run and these guys should be on their way to the carousel.

As for the other move, while I'm no Tony Campana enthusiast, wouldn't the more logical move been to do away with Joe Mather? Surely we'll be seeing Campana again by September at the latest, but if he has a future with the team it's pretty much as a 5th OF/pinch runner, which is what Jackson's call up makes him.

Sprinkle in Paul LoDuca and Eric Gagne, and you have a damn fine Indy League team.

In a corresponding move, the Iowa Cubs have been demoted to the CanAm League.

It's more that I think that he has a chance to be. Valbuena was once a somewhat well regarded offensive prospect but he's had enough chances to prove it. Cardenas was very highly regarded, and we know it wasn't for his glove. If ever there's a time to be auditioning guys like Cardenas and Raley, it's now, especially with the guys holding the positions in question are not likely part of the futur plan, so may as well take a look at the guys that have an outside chance to be.

I agree, that he would ultimately be a utility guy. But my point is that he's more likely to be a utility guy for us in the future than Valbuena, so should't he be getting more reps at the positions he'd be playing as a UT guy? He barely even gets that. Yeah, Valbuena's a decent defensive guy, but decent is the key word and it doesn't strike me as being good enough to make up for his lack of offense, which he's had more than enough opportunities to improve over the past 3 years, and Cardenas has not.

My only regret is that Baker won't receive the public display of man-love that Johnson and Soto did.

Glad to hear Jackson will start most of the time but not sure why Vitters isn't given the same chance. Didn't Sveum say earlier that if these guys are brought up they need to play everyday? Dumb, just keep Baker in that role then and leave Vitters in AAA Valbuena::Sveum=Neifi::Dusty

You're pretty much right. edit: Unless you're WSR. Then it would be Brooks Raley. Why yes, I do stand by my claim that Raley's the closest thing we have to a big league starter, even though we're likely talking a 5 starter. And yes, I stand by my claim that he should get a look over a 30 year old career minor leaguer or another chance for Casey Coleman to prove that he's merely bad instead of awful. A few other guys I could see up sometime next year are Lake, Watkins, Struck, and maybe even Burgess. As for Jackson and Vitters, I'm incredibly excited. Another big step toward the future and anything they do in the big leagues over the next two months is far more beneficial to them and the organization than anything that they would do in the PCL. I just hope that your average fan is patient with them. While they are important building blocks for the future, they're not phenoms like Castro and Rizzo were when they came up, and not everyone's going to come out slugging the moment they reach the big leagues like they did.

Valbuena has gotten 2 walks against possibly the best lefty in baseball and made a few good defensive plays. What odd timing on this rant. Just a random observation upon tuning in. Giving a guy like Cardenas as much time as possible to get an idea what we have in him or if it's even worth keeping him rostered next year is more important than giving Valbuena a pat on the back for a pair of walks that boosted his OPS past the .600 mark. As was mentioned, Cardenas isn't good defensively. He shouldn't be an option for anything besides utility guy (ditto Valbuena). Neither is a good option, even for a second tier team. Cardenas was picked up for his bat with the hopes that he could improve on his defense. Really, if there's nowhere to put him on the field he may as well be in Iowa, with Vitters at 3rd. At this point in the season there's no reason for someone like Valbuena to be playing everyday. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you've got two guys like that, the one with the higher offensive ceiling should be getting the most PT.

It's very rude to call dames broads.

Valbuena has gotten 2 walks against possibly the best lefty in baseball and made a few good defensive plays. What odd timing on this rant. Just a random observation upon tuning in. Giving a guy like Cardenas as much time as possible to get an idea what we have in him or if it's even worth keeping him rostered next year is more important than giving Valbuena a pat on the back for a pair of walks that boosted his OPS past the .600 mark.