Little Slide Rooter

Garza for Rizzo? No thank you. Garza for Rizzo and Headley? Keep talking.

Dear Padres, Your're not going to be good. Ever. Sincerely, Major League Baseball

I heard that report, but I also heard another report that the Yankees actually made a substantial offer. Can't remember who said it though. It really is the Yankees main need and I could see them going all in on him like that. Beyond CC, their rotation is filled with uncertainty. It wouldnt surprise me if they hadn't initially planned on a large bid or even a bid at all but when they learned how much teams were asking in return for front end starters like Garza, Danks, and Gonzalez they just said [expletive] let's just do what we do best and douse the problem with a bucket of money.

A rotation of Darvish, Garza, Dempster, Z, and Maholm would be pretty sweet. Now if we could just build one of those West coast anti hitter ballparks by opening day we'll be the division favs.

So The Cardinals could potentially have a roster featuring Beltran, Berkman, Furcal, Carpenter, and Wainwright. I'm assuming the plan on having a lot of big league ready replacements at Memphis.

Yeah but its not hard to use back channels to get work out that they are interested in someone. Teams do it all the time. As we've seen, the new Cubs regime, starting with Tom Ricketts is very tight lipped and do not let much leak unless there's a reason to. We might have to get used to not having 3 month mega threads about Brian Roberts and Jake Peavy. Lets just say that if Hendry were still the manager, I would be pretty convinced that we werent going after Fielder, but with Theo in charge, I almost think the less we hear the better the odds are. Actually, if Hendry were in charge I'd be pretty convinced that we'd be giving Fielder a 8-10 year deal in a last ditch effort to save his ass move.

There's speculation that the Padres may now shop Anthony Rizzo. I think he's only 23 but would probably bequite expensive. Would he be a better option than Smoak?

Just more speculation by another media goon but something. kind of. That's definitely odd, especially because Strauss isn't one to typically throw stuff out there if he's not pretty damn sure of it. He's not just another rumor mongerer like so many of these guys have become. I'm really kind of perplexed by that. He even says its speculation.

I couldn't get much further, the nicknamification became too exhausting. I would have thought that even the meatyest of balls would have waited until at least spring training before turning on Theo and Co, but I guess he thought his jokes were just too damn funny to risk the possibility that we might make some more moves before then.

Just more speculation by another media goon but something. kind of.

Don't have a link but MLBTR reports that Cespedes free agency has been pushed to January. They say it's for residency purposes but maybe his agent is waiting for Fielder to be off the market.

Or you could be thinking Pat Maholmes.

I couldnt find a thread on this and I checked the Amateur and Minor League forums, and I thought it was definitely thread worthy. Th thought of an international draft is very intriguing, although possible unfair to teams who have haviliy invested in training facilities in latin and asian markets. Still, you have to wonder how it would work. I'm assuming that it would be limited to amateurs and not guys like Darvish and Cespedes who are already pro. However, how would the order go? It seems unfair that the team with the worst record would get the top pick in each draft. Perhaps an NBA style lottery would work?

You beat me to it by seconds. Now there's a signing I can get behind. Maholm's shown flashes but never fully pulled it together. If he could pull it together and we keep Garza we could end up with a very strong rotation. Not strong enough to support out existing offense, but it's only early mi December so there's still time to avoid a lineup that looks slightly better than the Astros but slightly worse than the Giants.

This isn't the first time we've been surrounded by uncertainty in regards to whether or not we'd land a free agent or trade target, but I can't recall the last time there's been this much on whether or not we're even going after the guy. I think that what it comes down to is that we have some interest in him at the right price and we'd all be better off ignoring all of the rumors and speculation, which sadly I am unable to do.

If we don't go big then I want a fire sale. Pretty much. If we went the firesale route and got some exciting young talent in return, I could still have fun following the team even if we only win 65 games. If keep what we have, don't add any big names (MLB or MILB) and only add a few low priced vets...I'll lose a lot of faith in the direction of the front office. I wonder what kind I prospects and young players we could end up with if we moved Garza, Soto, Marshall, Demoster, Marmol, and Byrd. Guys like Russell, Baker, Wells, DeWitt, and Barney should have some value as well. With Soriano and Zambrano, who knows. DeJesus is another one who would be a candidate to move on a fire sale but off the top of my head I can't think of a time a guy who'd just signed a multi year deal was traded before ever playing a game with the team.

no And I doubt that any of the other 29 teams are either.

If we didnt already have 2 of him I'd be OK with it and this isn't Voltron where you can take a bunch of mediocre players and combine them into one unstoppable or at least useful force.

Kind of reminds us of the days before the internet when I never really even knew of any rumors and didn't know about any pending trades or signings until the day they happened, only instead of a lack of reports there's an abundance of conflicting reports.

I don't know how these things work, but is it normal for the manager to have much dialogue before a players signed, or at least until serious negotiations begin? Sounds like it could be Sveums way of pleading the 5th. It says "Cubs have had no conversations with Prince" not "Sveum has had no conversations with Prince." I really doubt the Cubs would be talking with him without including Sveum in the loop, but there's still some outs there: 1) He's lying 2) They've had conversations with Boras but not Fielder Here's the actual quote I'm probably just grasping at straws here but who's to say that Boras didn't call them and they've been talking ever since? Remember, Epstein did go to law school and like most lawyers, he's likely a master when it comes to not divulging any information that he doesn't have to.

I don't know how these things work, but is it normal for the manager to have much dialogue before a players signed, or at least until serious negotiations begin? Sounds like it could be Sveums way of pleading the 5th.

The Cubs are front runners talk, the Cubs arent serious bidders talk, the Cubs don't have enough money talk or all of it?

I think that it's the fact that he has youth in his side which brings with it the hope that his bats more likely to develope than with a 27-28 year old.

DeWitt and Coleman are the best players our system has to offer? I never threw out a proposal of any type, so I don't know why you're assuming I'd throw out a silly offer that clearly has no shot of being considered. We could easily toss out package of significant prospects for Smoak if necessary and I'd make just about anybody in the system available in trade, as well as Barney - who they may have interest in since Jack Z has been gung-ho over defense and hasn't cared about offense since he got to Seattle. I'd make Castro and BJax off limits, but I might consider (depending on Seattle's ability to come up with a great offer) some form of a Garza for Smoak+ deal. Don't hold me to the Garza idea, though. I could easily be talked out of it. I wouldn't hate a Barton acquisition, but he's been really mediocre in more than twice the PAs Smoak has had and he's a year older. Maybe Oakland has suppressed his power, but I have my doubts. I'm not saying that you'd propose anything like that, I know you'r a lot smarter than that. What I'm saying is that if we are to build for the future, we want to hang on to what few guys we have that can be valuable for the future. Castro, B Jax, Cashner, McNutt, and Szczur are the guys we want to hang onto in additon to the younger guys like Wells, Golden, and the 2011 picks. As far as big league assets go, beyond Castro, Soto, Marshall, and Garza we really don't have anything that anyone would really want. I don't think that Soto or Marhsall would get Smoak and if we were to move Garza, I'd like to get something more. I don't know what else the Mariners have to offer, and I highly doubt they'd send Smoak and Ackley or Pineda for him.

I really don't care but I'm going with Gingrich because if nothing else, I can't hear his name without thinking of Chris Farley so he'll be good for a laugh.