Little Slide Rooter

Fine, give us back Carpenter and help yourselves to Scott Maine or Casey Coleman.

I'm kind of surprised that we havent squared up with the Pads yet. I still think they'll get someone of some value or it would have been done by now.

Trade value or not, it's good to have him as a backup plan along with Wood. Any or all of Shark, Volstad, and Maholm could crash and burn hard and while they have higher ceilings, Wells and Wood are likely safer bets to be serviceable back end guys. Also, who knows if and when Garza could still be traded. It's good to have options like them rather than cycling through every out of work 30 something junk baller if the need arrives. As for trade value, when it comes to guys like Wells, nobody is going to jump at the opportunity to get him but if some team without sufficient depth loses a mid-back end starter for a month or two, those are the types of guys they'll inquire on. Despite public opinion, they're clearly structuring this team for the best chance to win, not just audition prospects and we can't fault them for that but as soon as they feel as though they're out of it, be it June, July, or August we'll start seeing some changes.

Dolis-Wood-Marmol could potentially be a very strong 7-8-9. I like Russell too. Not sure about Castillo but happy to see what he's got. Junky McJunkball is a mop up man, but I guess I prefer to keep Wood and Wells stretched out. Surprised to see them only going with 6. We'll see how long it stays that way. As for the bench, its no worse than most in the NL. I wish that theyd use Sappelt instead of Johnson, but even the best GMs have that minor mistake they refuse to acknowledge.

The rotation could be above average, but could also be as bad as those of the 90's. The offense could hypothetically be quite productive. Soriano, Soto, Stewart, DeJesus, and LaHair are all X factors. Don't love or hate the bullpen, I just can't imagine a worse choice for the final spot than Lopez. I don't like the bench much at all. All and all, I don't think that the team will be recognizable by August 1st.

Doesn't sound like much anything special, but I prefer something like that over a 26-28 year old organizational junk baller. He can join Rebel Ridling, Justin Bour, and Richard Jones in our line of 1st baseman I hope to never see so we can go from Rizzo to Vogelbach.

That was probably the point of that tweet. I just wish I could have been in the room when some of the SoSH folks received said tweets.

I'd have loved to see Wells traded, but I'm assuming if there was any real interest he'd have been before being optioned. Still, it won't surprise me if he's traded sooner than later. He is an experienced, serviceable back of the rotation guy.

You're surprised they want castillo to get every day ABs? A little. Although I think that's because I keep getting them mixed up. Castillo is the one with a little power potential. He's te one that's an actual prospect and not a backup catcher.

According to Kevin Goldstein, the Cubs released Cam Greathouse. Too bad.

I'd prefer to keep Garza unless the prospects coming back are blue-chip. Soto and Wells might be able to warrant a good prospect or two. Definitely agree on Garza and Soto, both of whom have real value. The other 3 are just worth whatever a team looking to fill a hole is willing to give up. However, I don't know how many "blue chip" prospects Garza is going to bring in. Thinking back a few months, when people were asking for Turner, Castelannos, and one of Smyley or Crosby, I'll admit I was sucked in, but in reality, something more like Drabek, Alvarez, and Snider from Toronto sounds more realistic. Maybe replace Snider with Gose if the Jays were desperate, and even then we might end up tossing in a minor piece. As for Soto, I still think TB , who are still in the hunt for a starting carcher would be the perfect spot, although their once plentiful farm isn't what it once was. I wonder if Soto and Byrd for Upton would be a possibility. I think we'd match up well with the Rays in a Soto trade, but would we trade to pry Upton when we have BJax waiting? I think that Upton can play a corner spot. That's the one area in which we have no long term answer, unless we get Soler.

Top 10: 1. Justin Upton 2. Andrew McCutchen 3. Matt Weiters 4. Giancarlo Stanton 5. Eric Hosmer 6. Evan Longoria 7. Mike Trout 8. Starlin Castro 9. Bryce Harper 10. David Price Man, the 2017 Yankees are going to be stacked.

I haven't remotely followed the career of Scott Downs, in fact I forgot that he was ever a Cub. He's been a pretty shut down guy for the past 5 years. But hey, he did get us Rondell White, who I also forgot was briefly a Cub.

Since last June, we've added Concepcion, Torreyes, Rizzo, a boatload of other Cubans and the great (or at least expensive) draft. The system isn't getting better just because of who we hired. It's getting better because better players have been added to it. heh heh

I have my doubts that Maine is making it. Sveum in a quote recently when talking about how many left-handers will make it only mentioned Russell as throwing the ball well, and downplayed the necessity of specifically having left-handed relievers at all. I'm sure they'll have another lefty in the pen. I'd prefer Beliveau, but if they don't want to start his clock, they won't. May as well give Maine a look and if he sucks, bring up Coleman. I just don't want it to be T. Wood. Please look carefully at this page and let me know what you think about Coleman being another lefty in the pen. how much worse can he be with the other hand?

I'd prefer to keep Garza unless the prospects coming back are blue-chip. Soto and Wells might be able to warrant a good prospect or two. Definitely agree on Garza and Soto, both of whom have real value. The other 3 are just worth whatever a team looking to fill a hole is willing to give up. However, I don't know how many "blue chip" prospects Garza is going to bring in. Thinking back a few months, when people were asking for Turner, Castelannos, and one of Smyley or Crosby, I'll admit I was sucked in, but in reality, something more like Drabek, Alvarez, and Snider from Toronto sounds more realistic. Maybe replace Snider with Gose if the Jays were desperate, and even then we might end up tossing in a minor piece. As for Soto, I still think TB , who are still in the hunt for a starting carcher would be the perfect spot, although their once plentiful farm isn't what it once was. I wonder if Soto and Byrd for Upton would be a possibility.

According to a Tween by BN/the guy who made the above post, in addition to Byrd, the Cubs are getting calls on Garza, Soto, Wells, Baker, and DeWitt. I say get whatever we can for the last 3.

If June/July roll around and we're well out of the picture, then I'll take it, but as of now, with a little bit of luck we could hang with the division so it wouldn't make sense for that type of return. I would like to see him instead of Johnson, but I dont mind so much. My gut is that his ceiling is a good 4th outfielder, but this would be a good year to have him start in Iowa in hopes that he could be something more.

As has been stated 800 times on here(so why would you have seen it?) Jackson shouldn't start from day 1 because it'd be a waste of a chance to get an extra year of control. I'm not saying that we need to start Jackson, I'm saying that they only reason to just get rid of Byrd would be to if they wanted to start him, unless someone wanted Byrd enough that they'd give up something of more value than an A baller with upside, depedning on the upside. As bad as our offense looks now, replacing Byrd with a 3 headed monster would make it downright brutal, however, I wouldn't mind giving Sappelt a look.

I have my doubts that Maine is making it. Sveum in a quote recently when talking about how many left-handers will make it only mentioned Russell as throwing the ball well, and downplayed the necessity of specifically having left-handed relievers at all. I'm sure they'll have another lefty in the pen. I'd prefer Beliveau, but if they don't want to start his clock, they won't. May as well give Maine a look and if he sucks, bring up Coleman. I just don't want it to be T. Wood.

Unless we get something of value, if we trade Byrd it should be for the purpose of making room for Jackson to start everyday, not Johnson, Mather, and Campana. If they don't think he's redy, but get a good offer anyway they should shift DeJesus to center and give Sappelt the first crack at RF before cycling through the spare parts bin.

He's had a few years as a decent reliever for the Blue Jays. Not bad to have as depth. He was a 1.4 WAR guy in 2012, which is pretty good for a middle reliever. Still, he's a 36 year old reliever, so I'mm guessing he's depth chart fodder in case Dolis or Corpas falter early on.

So here's what we have left. The bloded are pretty much locks barring trades. I don't think that anyone expects Concepcion or De La Cruz to make it, and Mateo is likely injured. Sappelt and Castillo will likely end up in AAA to start every day, although I see Sappelts ceiling as a 4th OF, so may as well get him started now uness they're concerned about his clock. Additionally, Caridad, Corpas, Miller, DeWitt, Mather, Amezaga, and Gonzalez have earned consideration off of the minor league invites. All signs point to Mathers Hoffpauir/Fox/Colvin-esque spring training will land him a roster spot. That cuts it down to 5 spots: 1 backup catcher, likely Clevenger, maybe 1 spare bat, and the rest for pitchers. With 5 OFs including Mather, an infielder will likely land the last position spot. Gonzalez has had an impressive spring, but DeWitt is younger. Both of them prety much are what they're going to be. Amezaga has the ability to play SS, which could cause him to beat out both. Personally, I'd prefer that Cardenas get the spot, but what can you do. DeWitt could have a scrap of trade value, as could Baker and Johnson. There's also the option of cutting our losses with Johnson and giving his spot to Campana or Sappelt. As for the pitchers, at least one will be a lefty. There's Miller, Maine, Coleman, and T. Wood. The best choice would be to give the spot to Maine, tell Miller thanks for coming out, have Wood start at AAA and whatever they do with Coleman is fine by me. If they want him to be a long man out of the pen, more power to them. That leaves 1 or 2 more, depending on what they do with Coleman. There is Wells, who I'd like to see shopped. If we could get something close to what we got for Gorz, I'd take it. Lendy Castillo seems to have good stuff but his control seems brutal. I'd say give it to Corpas and see how he looks. So that would make it: 1. SP Garza 2. SP Dempster 3. SP Maholm 4. SP Volstad 5. SP Shark 6. CL Marmol 7. RP K. Wood 8. RP Russell 9. RP Dolis 10. RP Maine 11 & 12. RP Corpas/Castillo/Coleman/Wells 13. 1B LaHair 14. 2B Barney 15. SS Castro 16. 3B Stewart 17. OF Soriano 18. OF Byrd 19. OF DeJesus 20. C Soto 21. OF Mather 22. OF Johnson 23. C Clevenger 24. IF Baker 25 IF DeWitt/Gonzalez/Amezaga So there they are, our 2012 Chicago Cubs. Not exactly awe inspiring, but perhaps not awful. If we could have managed to fix the glaring hole in the heart of the lineup, I'd like our chances.

Just out of curiosity, what's the deal with Ryan Rowand Smith and Nate Robertson? Havn't heard anything about them all spring training.

I'm not sure Sonnanstine cracked the Top 10 possible starters. He wasn't ever going to pitch in Chicago, so refusing the assignment gives him the chance to latch on to a team with less depth, potentially waiting until injury strikes somewhere. I was thinking that as well, with so much rotstion depth, but I can't imagine too many teams not having at least a few big league ready backup starters as good as or better than Sonnenstine so his best bet to get back to the bigs could be the pen, in which case he'd have as good a chance with us as anyone.