Little Slide Rooter

That would certainly be good news for our cause.

My sentiment exactly. There's no reason to keep looking at Valbuena, who could be a decent utility guy, and I don't think that there's any benefit to keeping him in Iowa. He's hitting better then ever, and making some progress in his patience, but still leaves much to be desired in that deparent. it's not like an extra 2 months in Iowa is going to suddenly turn him into vintage Kevin Youkilis. The fact that all the reports seem to indicate that the Cubs are looking for a 3rd baseman in a trade makes me wonder how they view Vitters future. There's a lot of talk that he's ticketed for LF as well. Wouldnt surprise me if we move Soriano.

Insisting that he absolutely had to be sold at a time when he clearly had very little value, for starters. It's hard to argue with that. I doubt that his value could have possibly gone any lower than it was when we traded him. Zambrano had no value then, and he has no value now. I haven't heard any rumors on Zambrano. Have you? I never said that it would necessarily get any higher. Just that it couldn't get any lower. And aside from a few good starts from Wood, it's not like the open rotation spot was of much benefit to us.

I wonder if they'd be interested in one of the best defensive outfielders in the game, who's having a damn good year with the bat.

My sentiment exactly. There's no reason to keep looking at Valbuena, who could be a decent utility guy, and I don't think that there's any benefit to keeping him in Iowa. He's hitting better then ever, and making some progress in his patience, but still leaves much to be desired in that deparent. it's not like an extra 2 months in Iowa is going to suddenly turn him into vintage Kevin Youkilis.

Ryan Dempster will accept trades to any NL team in Chicago or LA.

How fortunate for the Cardinals.

Sometime in the past few weeks someone approached Wood saying "hey, I bet you can't make fans miss Randy Wells"

That post was made about a half hour ago, and it now sits at a robust 4.93.

Holy [expletive], we scored off Lance Lynn. That's a win in itself.

Insisting that he absolutely had to be sold at a time when he clearly had very little value, for starters. It's hard to argue with that. I doubt that his value could have possibly gone any lower than it was when we traded him.

It all goes back to Crane Kenney, as all the evils of the Cubs world do.

Yep, you're talking about throwing 89-91 as a starter vs. throwing (from what I hear) mid 90s in relief. Assuming that's 94-96, that's 5 mph increase. Obviously, it's making a huge difference. Not sure it matters with him in this organization, but I'm sure someone will take notice and you'll see him in an ML bullpen in 2013 at some point. He's topping out mid-90's, but the better news is that his slider has supposedly been "found" again. I've always thought he had some late-inning potential. The Cubs are going to have to make some tough Rule 5 decisions on pen arms. I think Jay's probably on the outside looking-in (left available that is), and I think there's a chance he might get taken. Potential 2013 internal bullpen options include Russell, Cabrera, Beliveau, Dolis, and maybe Parker and Mateo. Who knows where Marmol will end up. Beyond them, there are plenty of 40 man spots occupied by relievers that could go to Jackson. Dempster, Castillo, Camp, Corpas, Germano, and Volstad are all candidates to be relieved of their 40 man spots in the offseason. Struck, Raley, and maybe Hatley are the only Rule 5 eligible pitchers I can think of worthy of protection. I'm not saying that protecting him is a must, but it's a possibility.

Daury Torrez continues to impress. Now 5-1 with a 0.99 ERA and 44/4 BB/K. I know it's DSL, but even I can evaluate players well enough to know that at any level, good stats>bad stats. Also, The DSL Cubs 2 lost 2-1. Doesnt sound particularly notable, but considering that the Cubs had 14 hits and took 5 walks, and the Phillies 10 hits and 4 walks, there must have been a lot of stranding going on.

At .303/.354/.515, Vitters has been kind of the opposite of dismal. Even Brett Jackson continues to keep his OPS above .800, and could still end up a Chris Young or Drew Stubbs type of hitter, which is fine and dandy by me, assuming you're not counting on him to be your cornerstone, which we're not.

Personally, I'm in the we'll end up with something good camp. On the surface, it would appear that Dempster's being, for lack of a better term, a bitch about this. However, there's a lot that we don't know. What we do know, is that there are two rent-a-pitchers on the market that would be difference makers: Dempster and Greinke. At this point, Dempster's value is equal or better than that of Greinke. Greinke may be younger and a bigger name, but Dempster's been the better pitcher this year. Also, Greinke's anxiety issues are something that teams could take into consideration. Even if the asking prices were the same, and every team out there were to prefer Greinke over Dempster, which I doubt, only one team can get him. We don't know how many suitors Dempster has overall. We do know that the Dodgers are by far his top choice. We can also assume that in the twilight of his career he'll want to contend. That won't be happening with The Cubs. Like so many last minute deadline deals, Dempsters best value could come when Greinke is off the market. At that point, they could present him with the options, and let him chose. If the guy's the top option on the market, I can assure people that other teams will manage to get over that fact that they're not his 1st choice. There's also the possibilities of Lee and JJ, but their asking prices will be incredibly high, and even the teams that have the prospects to acquire them might prefer not to.

Just when his OPS was in danger of dipping below .700, in his last 10 games Junior Lake is hitting .333/.385/.583 with 3 HR.

Even if the Dodgers believed that, which they very well might, I highly doubt that they'd come out and say it as such. They may as well just come to Epstein's office and dangle him out the window demanding Dempsters contract be transferred over to them, Suge Knight style. The bottom line is that we didn't assemble a FO dream team to be bent over by Ned [expletive] Coletti.

He might just deservedly win an MVP award for a change. The suspension would have ended a while ago. Herpes will not.

Jae Hoon Ha was taken off the field on a stretcher after crashing into the outfield wall.

Granted, there are times when I deserve your wrath. However, this is more of a hey, theres that guy I don't like, I'm going to pounce on him for no good reason. It was a basic discussion on a player, not a random, out of place comment.

The team has another year of control, which is different from another year on the deal. This is what makes him more valuable despite his mediocre season. The team could non tender him and let him walk in the offseason, though they wouldn't.

Maybe you are on to something here. Sadly it won't matter now. Atlanta wouldn't offer Delgado now, IMO. I'd rather wait until Tuesday afternoon before coming to that conclusion. There could be an agreement in place, something like we'll try to make this happen, but if you find something else between now and then, we understand. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that type of thing is more common than we think. Take Peavy to the White Sox. He blocked it, then minutes before the deadline, it happened. Sounds a bit too convenient. My guess is that Peavy told them that he'd ultimately accept if nothing could be worked out with one of his preferred teams.

This recently popped up on Twitter. @daytonacubs: Alcantara has some leg soreness. He's expected back as early as this weekend. No definite timetable set though. @Cubsminorswrap @Drewboke

Again, if it came down to it I'm not sure how the draft pick or another year of Dempster for 12.5 MM would be the worst thing in the world.