Little Slide Rooter

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, or not digging deep enough in the right ones, but is there any word in regards to Juan Carlos Paniqua?

Ronny Torryes has just exploded the past few weeks or so.

In a league where you can't spend big on amateur talent anymore, using your excess cash for "free access" to quality veterans may be the best option. Beyond that, the recent trend is for teams to lock up their young star players before they hit free agency. Several years ago, you could plan on player X being a free agent in y number of years, but you can't count on that as much anymore. Not only does it make buying a team that much harder because of the lack of impact free agents, but as a result when impact free agents hit the market, they're even more expensive. The CBA even makes stacking a farm system more difficult, so anytime the opportunity to seize an impact player like that,you should try. I only brought up the salary dump because a lot of people seem to think that he'll make it through waivers because teams are afraid that they'll unload the contract on them. We're 4th in line, and I certainly can't see the Astros or Padres risking it. Not sure about the Rockies. If nothing else, we could take a nice piss in the Dodgers corn flakes, who are reportedly eyeing him.

And he failed miserably at that job. We simply don't know what kind of pressure he was under or what his orders were. 2006 was an awful season, not too long after The Cubs popularity was higher than it has been in years. He succeeded in building a contender the next year, and the best team of our lifetime the following. Remember even after signing Soriano and extending Ramirez, there were rumors that we could still go after Carlos Lee AND Barry Zito. God know what type of mess we'd be in right about now if that happened.Then the team was up for sale, and they wanted to try to pack in some more high profile players. He did build a winning team, but with a core of 30 somethings, it wasn't built to last. Sprinkle in failed prospect after failed prospect, and here we are today. Still, it should have lasted longer. Who knew that Soriano would decline as rapidly as he did after back to back seasons in which he was an MVP candidate. Who knew that Zambrano would become the [expletive] that he did? Who knew that Aramis would miss a goodchunk of the 2009 season? And then there was Milton. A lot of people questioned that signing, but I don't think that anyone expected it to blow up in his face as ubrubtly and as violently as it did. There were a lot of factors that went beyond Hendry's ability as a GM.

May as well start a catch all Waiver Deadline thread with this: Yeah, he's 33 and due a boatload of money, but of you're a team looking for a front end starter, assumign that the Phils opt to unload him to a claiming team, all he'll cost is money. As of now, we'd be the 4th in line behind the Astros, Rockies, and Padres for any NL waiver claims. He'd be a very risky claim, as the Phillies could very well just unload the salary, and 25MM for his age 34-36 seasons is a hell of a lot. Still, it is tempting. If we did claim him, and they unloaded him and his salary on us, we could sure use a front end starter. However, judging by our organization's willingness to eat salary, it could be an interesting possibility to claim him, and if they dump him and his salary on us, we could wait until the winter or next spring to trade him, and pick up up half of the salary for a very nice prospect package.

That's a big statement. While most GMs make their fair share mistakes,its one of the most desired jobs in sports, and there's only 30 of them out there. Whether we're talking Coletti, Hendry, Epstein, or Friedman, anyone who's ever made it to that point and stayed for any length of time, these guys are a lot more competent than even the smartest fans give them credit for. Most of these guys clawed their way up a ladder to get to where they are, and if they're doing a poor job, there's no shortage of guys waiting in line to take over. Also, a big market GM and a small market GM are very different jobs. With big market teams, the GMs job is to put a contender on the field every year. Obviously, unless you're the White Sox, the farm system's important. However, theres more pressure to contend each year and those prospects often become currency.With smaller market guys, it's to put a cost effective team on the field, and keep the farm system growing to work toward a window in which to contend sometime in the near future. When players become expensive, swap them out for cheaper ones. It's not often that you see a big market team do what Epstein and Hoyer are doing with the Cuba. I often wonder how Hendry, Colleti, or Cashman would make out in KC or Oakland Alternately, how would Andrew Friedman, Billy Beane or even Dayton Moore do with the Red Sox or Yankees.

What a lunatic this umpire is. http://www.sundriesshack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Nielsen-as-Umpire.jpg

As I've said before, the 2013 FA pitching market once potentially featured Cain, Hamels, and Greinke. Cain and Hamels are off. Greinke could very well resign with the Angels, especially looking at how much they gave up for him. Sanchez could easily as well. Marcum, McCarthy, and Jackson are now the likely headliners.While a lot of teams would like any of them, they'll now become very expensive. And cost a draft pick if offered arbitration. Peavy, Haren, Shields, Westbrook, and Santana each have team or mutual options. The only one of those options I could see blought out is Peavy's for 22MM. The others could be picked up and traded though. This could make Garza very valuable in the offseason. Possibly more than he would have been at the deadline. Of course you never know who could pop up on the block in the winter. Then there's the question of our 2013 rotation. As of now, it would probably look something like Garza/Shark/Wood/Raley/Germano/Volstad/Rusin/Struck/Coleman. There's Vizcaino, but a lot of the experts think that he'll be a reliever, at least for now. If we do trade Garza in the winter, we better acquire something big league ready. Take Garza out of that equation, and the result could be a historically bad rotation.

If they're willing to eat enough salary, he should be tradeable, assuming he'd accept it. He can play all around the infield, and had one of his best seasons last year. He'd make it through waivers without a problem.

Sounds like Sappelt's a few steps away from going all Chris Carpenter on us.

nonsense. hope like crazy the nl gets DH Well there is always that I suppose. Could Vogelsbach really be any worse of an OF than Adam Dunn was for all those years?

Not this year, but I'm surprised that nobody was willing to give up more than a middling reliever to find out for themselves.

After doing so well out of the pen since the move, the past 2 games, Jay Jackson's given up 9 runs in his last 2 games, 1 inning each with 2 K and 2 BB.

Yeah, I was thinking 2015 as well. 2013 - New players/young group 2014 - Same core, getting better - .500 ball, maybe some new FA additions that are being added to the piece of puzzle 2015 - Begin dominating NL Central. ? The problem with dominating the NL Central by 2015 is not only do the Cardinals have a very good big league team, with a lot of good, young players mixed in with the old timers, but they've also got one of the best farm systems out there. And that's not even taking into consideration the stars that they're sure to pull out of their asses.

Wait, what? I'd have sent those rat bastards Marmol for Cox, eating all of Marmol's remaining salary. I know that Cox has been having a forgettable season, but damn.

Part of the reason that the Hendry era ended up the way it did is because he tried too hard to go from awful straight to good without stopping at decent in between. I think that with this regime, decent is right around the corner, but good & great will take a while. However, when we get there we should be able to stay there for more than a year or two.

Nice debut by Cabrera by the way. And I knew about the Pirates getting Snider, but how/when did they end up with Gaby Sanchez?

I think all of the appearances early in the year are taking their toll. Or maybe, Camp remembered that he is not that good. They had just enough of whatever it was to get him through the trade deadline, but no one bit. Or maybe he had a bad game like so many middle relievers have before him.

:lol: That's fantastic. Sounds like the show Cheaters. I wonder if Dempster ran out of the room crying, or went after Coletti and got in a cat fight with him as the production crew half heartedly tried to break it up.

Interesting. Chapman has only started 6 games in his 6+ year minor league career. Has averaged over a K per game throughout his career though. Being the throw in in a deal which got us a top 50 prospect for a pair of scrap heap signings,I guess we can afford to experiment with him.

That explains why he had been out nearly a month with a "virus." Now he has 2 things in common with Hayden Simpson.

Certainly one of those guys that you'd think is a lot older than he is because he's seemingly been in the system for eternity. He won't be 24 until October.

That's geared toward Twitter. He seems to think that Lake is a decent enough prospect, but fans get a bit over excited about him last year and early this year. Eventually he started making a joke out of it and fans have been trolling him about Lake ever since. I think he comped him to Wilson Betemit at one point, which sounds about right.

Petition to change this to a catch all late summer transaction thread, as we really don't need a new thread every time something like this happens: @BleacherNation: #Cubs: Chris Volstad and Alberto Cabrera Will Be Called Up Today http://t.co/2yE2sz34 And I suspect there will be a lot of it.

So Theo was just [expletive] around with Ned Colletti for two weeks for his health before ultimately accepting a lesser package from the Rangers.