Little Slide Rooter

Fun fact: 30 games through the season and Castro already has a 1.7 WAR. Matt Kemp has a 1.8. More of our players should be so dissapointing.

Any chance of him seeing Daytona soon or even Tennessee by the end of the season? Jones has been awful, Bour hasn't been much better and Rohan has been serviceable but is the embodiment of organizational filler.

I see to think that something like that has happened in the past and a pinch runner is allowed.

If it weren't for that lousy Dempster refusing run support and successful holds and saves we'd be over .500.

He's signed to a team friendly contract. He's no #1 ace that teams tend to look for at the deadline he's more a #7 starter on a contending team Are you kidding? The way he's pitched since the 1st 2 outtigs he's a 4 for most and a 3 for some.

That's what you get you tree hugging hippy. I kid.

Why on earth would you do that with LaHair on deck?

I'm not talking long term. Just saying that if he continues to resemble Ryan Theriot with the bat, the time could come sooner than later. On thing that you and I have agreed upon in the past is that there's no reason to just get rid of him as long he's not blocking anyone because chances are whoever is put in his place won't match his production. Well, LaHair might be able to match his production, and before stomping all over the idea of him playing LF because he's big and oafish he should be given the chance to do so if not here and there this season than in Winter Ball if we haven't traded him.

using zips' ROS (.274/.341/.499), he could still play -15 defense in LF and be an above-average starter over a full season my growing suspicion is that there's enough sorcery to Sveum's shifts (which have rated Soriano the best fielder in baseball, per UZR) that would cover up some of LaHair's limitations now i'd still be fine with trading him, but i think you're underestimating how bad the offensive climate is in the MLB now, mojo Fine, then hopefully they can hold out for more when they trade him. Again, comparing Soriano to LaHair is nonsensical; Soriano has been a bad fielder in the past because he makes terrible judgements in the field but has the athleticism and the arm to at times help compensate (or actually be good). LaHair has nothing of the sort. Those would have to be some pretty magical shifts. In the past, he made certain bone headed plays that made him look worse than he was. Like you said, he alsways had the arm and athleticism. However, as he ages the athleticism is clearly declining, and his bat is no longer good enough to make up for that. If it gets to the point where he becomes a liability on both sides, then you have to cut your loses no matter how big they are. I'm not saying that it's at that point yet, but he's more likely to move in that direction than back to at least 2010.

What if we hold out for a top 5 prospect and another top 10-15, don't get the offer, keep him, and then he finishes the year with a sub-.800 OPS? Then we have an average bat and a below average glove on our hands - not a very valuable commodity on the market. While it's nice to think about your scenario, the sub-.800 OPS scenario is more likely. I'm not in favor of giving him up for scraps, but if we can get two of another team's top 15 prospects, I do that trade without thinking twice. This is a guy who had 0 value prior to the season. Is a sub-.800 OPS more likely at this point? No matter how much you attribute his start to luck, his numbers are so absurdly good that I have to think he'd have to really fall off a cliff to not end up with respectable numbers by the end of the year. The walk rate and LD% suggest he should maintain some production going forward. Overall, I think it's worth holding onto him. As has been documented, guys like LaHair do come out of nowhere every once in a while and have productive careers. Jumping at the chance to trade him for two C to C+ prospects seems premature, as those trades rarely work out and the consensus outside of this board seems to be that this is not a complete fluke. The concern with LF defense is a bit excessive, especially considering the LF defense this team has dealt with (and succeeded with) the past 6 years. Best case scenario, we have an Andre-Ethier like player for cheap the next few years. Worse case, we lose out on the ability to add two more Brett Wallach's/Abner Abreu's to the system. So you think Soriano has been a poor defender throughout his tenure as a Cub? I don't know much about how WAR is calculated, but aside from 2007, when it looks like he was pretty good his number have a minus before him, and I'm pretty sure that means poor defense.

If someone offers 2-3 of their top 10 or even 1 of their top 10+ 2 high ceiling young guys you don't say no. If not, as mentioned in the other thread in which this discussion is going in offer him 12.5 arb, but in a wink wink fashion. He says no, and we either pocket the pick or resign him to 2-3 year team friendly deal and he can finish up as a Cub.

@BruceMiles2112: #Cubs: DeJesus RF, Campana CF, Castro SS, LaHair 1B, Stewart 3B, Soto C, Cardenas LF, Barney 2B, Maholm P Cardenas did spend about half of 2011 in LF for the's A's AAA team last year, but the fact that they gave up on him despite his bat continueing to be solid suggests that it didn't go so well.

I'd much rather wait until the offseason and go for Upton rather than give up prospects for Snider. LaHair would be the center of the deal. by prospects I mean fringe guys or big league ready extras.

I don't think there's too much hating on LaHair in this thread. Just people being realistic. It's not so much the lack of realism as much as those stomping all over the possibility of letting LaHair play a few innings in LF to see how disastrous it would be. There have been some brutal defenders stashed in LF in the past to keep their bat in the lineup, and when you're a team who doesn't exactly have power to spare you should at least be willing to entertain the idea of finding a way to keep this guy especially if you're not going to get a strong return. Since we do need an outfielder, I wonder if we'd be able to package him with a few prospects or big league ready guys to Toronto for Travis Snider.

is redundant. Just accept it. Rizzo should really be our 2013 opening day 1st baseman, I don't think anyone disagrees with that. If LaHair finishes 2012 with an OPS in the mid .900s or higher, then some teams could take him very seriously. The same teams I listed above should still have interest with the exception of the Tigers who would have V Mart. Rays, Dodgers, Indians, and Blue Jays as well as maybe Brewers and Rangers will be on the hunt for a 1B, and The 1B market looks like this next year. First basemen Lance Berkman (36) Russell Branyan (37) Jason Giambi (42) Brad Hawpe (34) Eric Hinske (35) Aubrey Huff (36) - $10MM club option with a $2MM buyout Casey Kotchman (30) Adam LaRoche (33) - $10MM mutual option with a $1MM buyout Carlos Lee (37) James Loney (29) Xavier Nady (34) Mike Napoli (31) Lyle Overbay (36) Carlos Pena (35) Ty Wigginton (35) - $4MM club option with a $500K buyout Here are the DHs Designated hitters Bobby Abreu (39) Johnny Damon (39) Edwin Encarnacion (30) Travis Hafner (36) - $13MM club option with a $2.75MM buyout Raul Ibanez (41) Hideki Matsui (39) David Ortiz (38) Manny Ramirez (41) Luke Scott (35) - $6MM club option with a $1MM buyout Jim Thome (42)

Wait, what? What the hell are you expecting? We're talking a guy who can hit the [expletive] out of the ball and is under team control for the next 6 years. If someone wants to give us one of their top 5 and another of their top 10-15, then we'll talk but theres no reason to rush him out just to so. Even if he can stabilize as a mid-high 800s OPS guy, thats better than most of what we have. If someone wants to overpay, then great. If not, have him spend the off season playing LF at winter ball. I could see the Indians, Tigers, Dodgers, Brewers, Yankees, Angels, Blue Jays, and Rangers as teams that could come sniffing around in July as either a 1B or DH.

McNutt was once again not good. 3 IP 5 H 4 R 3 ER 1BB 1 K Rusin's been quite good so far. 4IP 1 H 0 R 0 BB 4 K.

u think he would decline 12.5 mil??? It's debateable, but why would you hope for him to? A 1/12.5 for Demp would be great, eapecially if we extend Garza and add another front-mid end guy. As good ad Demp's been, he's 35, so he might be able to get a 3 year deal from someone, but he'd be 39 early in the 3rd season of it. However, if he'd be willing to take a team friendly 2/20 with an option for a 3rd, I think he'd take it and finish his career here. Remember, he could have got a 3 year deal after last season but chose to pick up his option. There's no question that he's happy here.

[expletive], so if we got some combination of run support and non awful relief pitching in a few of Dempsters gems we'd be above .500.

My God, Josh Vitters at .244/.281/.311. No matter how old he is, that's a great way for one to deficate all over what's left of ones prospect status.

Never mind.

I'm talking O'Flaherty-Venters-Kimbrel. We didn't score 3 runs off them last night, though we did get 1 off O'Flaherty. I think I enjoyed last nights game more than this evenings.

Here we go again.

That's a relief.

If Castro's injured we may as well just trade everyone.