Little Slide Rooter

In order to sign Prince before the Darvish announcement, it's going to be even more espensive and he'd probably be outbidding himself. Whoever loses out on Darvish will be viewed as a strong suiter and Boras isn't going to sign away Fielder for anything les than 8-10 until he has all his ducks in a row. In order to sign him before the announcement, it will likely take at least 8 years or 6-7 at an obscene dollar amount.

How would Gammons know what's going on? However, it could be that Fielder has expressed a strong desire to play for the Cubs but Epstein is purposely telling people that thy don't have a ton of money so when the time comes for negotiations, Boras doesn't try to get ridiculous. It's also possible that Theo has heard that the other teams aren't as interested as we think and he's saying that we don't have a ton of money so when Boras doesn't get anything close to the 8-10 years he wants a 6/130-140 with an option will spin very appealing.

So we're front runners again, fortifying my theory that Hoyerstein is just [expletive] with the media.

I know there was someone on NSBB who had an obsession with Towles.

where do i sign? he's virtually guaranteed to be worth more than 5 million per every single year of the deal. Yeah that's a much different tune than the $50-60M we've heard. That said, I wonder how many minor league prospects there are around baseball that a team like the Cubs would be willing to cut a $30M check to acquire. For all intents and purposes, that's what Cespedes is. Come on now, for the sake of your arguement we'd be talking an instant top 10 prospect do its not like wed be shelling out for Marquez Smith.

I think Rob is wondering what has happened this week to change your perspective. The market hasn't gotten any thinner. Not a change in perspective. Barton is Epsteins type of guy. He takes a lot of walks and could be a high reward guy at the right price. With Smoak, he's younger but will be a lot more expensive. If we don't get Fielder, unless Theo and Hoyer come out of nowhere with some kind of splash, its more than likely a lost year, maybe even a few of them so the plan should be the original good, young players thing whether we're stocking up on existing prospects or seeing what we can do with guys like Stewart and Barton before they end up in Japan. Additionally, when posters whose opinions I have a lot of respect for are high on a player, it gets my interest. Looking at Barton's existing big league track record he strikes me as a poor mans Pena, but that doesn't mean there's no hope for him. Even if he can become a middle class mans Carlos Pena, it's not like we have anything to lose other than Brian LaHair and James Loney.

I didn't even know the Astros had given up on Towles. When the Astros give up on you it's time to start following your other dreams.

If this happens, then the Cubs need to get really serious about prying Justin Smoak away from Seattle. Easier said than done. We don't exactly have much in the form of moveable assets and The Mariners aren't going to just say since we have Fielder please take Smoak off our hands for Blake DeWitt and Casey Coleman. As far as attainable targets go, Barton might actually be the best bet in terms of affordability. Three days ago you called Barton "a very poor man's Carlos Pena" and questioned whether he would really be a better option than LaHair. But hey that was three days ago, right? Or maybe it just goes to show how thin the market is beyond Fielder. Do I really need to list the other options again? Barton is essentially the 1st base equivalent of Ian Stewart and there's at least the glimmer of hope that he can be a star, and if we could get him for a package similar to what we got Stewart for, if Fielder isn't an option may as well go with him rather than overpaying for something else and watch and see what become available in the mean time.

If this happens, then the Cubs need to get really serious about prying Justin Smoak away from Seattle. Easier said than done. We don't exactly have much in the form of moveable assets and The Mariners aren't going to just say since we have Fielder please take Smoak off our hands for Blake DeWitt and Casey Coleman. As far as attainable targets go, Barton might actually be the best bet in terms of affordability.

My thinking is that the Fielder sweepstakes is about to become a 3 horse race between the Cubs, Mariners, an whoever loses out on Darvish between te Rangers and Jays. I think all 3 have an even shot, however with Hamiltons impending free agency and their bigger need for pitching the Rangers may be less of a threat than the Jays. The Mariners, on the other hand strike me as a team that could put in an all in we suck and have nothing to lose monster bid.

Are you responding to me? Because I don't know how a team being good on offense is somehow a rebuttal for "Theo likes players with well rounded skillsets." Let me ask you this, how many one dimensional sluggers can you name that Theo Epstein acquired during his tenure in Boston? David Ortiz might've counted if he ever played the field, but he doesn't... so Victor Martinez, maybe? That year Wily Mo Pena was their 4th OF? The one year deal for Todd Walker in Theo's first offseason? You don't see Theo sign many guys who don't contribute in multiple ways. and yet you are supporting the notion of acquiring coco. your whole post was supporting the notion that theo goes after defensive guys My whole post? What about the part where I blatantly state "Theo likes players with well rounded skillsets." And the next post I made, where I quoted myself saying that. Respond to the point of the whole post... don't just pick out what you think will make for a fun argument. You aren't davearm. I'm only giving the most bare support for a Coco Crisp acquisition possible "if there's room for him on the team and the price is right, there's no reason for him to elicit the negative reaction he's garnered so far." He's just a guy. He walks that fine line between "he's a fantastic 4th OF" and "he's a pretty good stopgap option if we're spending our money elsewhere." I was only pointing out that he fits the description of the type of guy our front office favors. We're trying to build a winning team. Remember the whole good, young players to help us win now and in the future thing? Just because a guys available, relatively cheap, and not completely God awful doesn't mean we need him. If we could get Cespedes or some young, high ceiling guy then I'm all for railroading Byrd or Soriano, but I really can't justify doing it and replacing them with CoCo Crisp unless we can get something useful for one of them in the form of cash and/or players. At least Soriano and Byrd give us the glimmer of hope that they can put up an OPS in the .800s. Crisp is basically Juan Pierre with a touch of power.

We aren't talking about guys with well rounded skillsets. We are talking about one dimensional players whose dimension isn't nearly as important as the one they don't have. For the sake of arguement, if these were rounded skillet guys, that type of thing tends to work out better when you already have Manny, Papi, Damon, Drew, and Pedro.

You know we didn't actually sign Crisp, right? And that the only report linking us to him is from MLBTR itself, not any actual news outlet? I'm with Kyle, Crisp is a nice addition if Byrd and/or Jackson are no longer around, although it wouldn't be terrible if he fills Soriano's roster spot if he were dealt for prospects either. As an addition without losing a current OF, he doesn't make a whole lot of sense. DeJesus was a nice addition. Stewart was a nice additon. Barton could be a nice additon. Crisp might be a nice additon if we could move Soriano and/or Byrd. However, how good is our team going to be if we keep adding nice additons with no foundation? Guys like Crisp, Byrd, and DeJesus are good guys to sign to bat 6-7 if you already have a strong lineup but they arent going to make a bad team good or even average. I'm all about the low risk/high reward young players, and have no problem with DeJesus if he could give us Fukudome's production for less than half the price but we really shouldn't be filling the roster with these types of guys. I'm not saying sign Fielder or nothing, although I do want Fielder but signing a handful of average players isn't going to make up for the fact that we have nothing resembling heart of the lineup hitters.

Nothing changes the fact that we simply don't need him unless there's already a worthwhile deal in place for Byrd or Soriano and even then if we don't get Cespedes. Especially if they don't plan on building a win now team I'm fully on board with guys like Stewart and Barton who were once top prospects but are still young enough that there's still hope for them. Even DeJesus would be a solid addition if they planned a win now but I can't see the benefit to Crisp in any situation.

Then we also need to start accepting the fact that we aren't going to be good for the next 4-5 years if that's the case. And we'll waste millions on guys like DeJesus and Crisp in the process. You may be right, but I've got to believe Theo/Hoyer is smarter than that. Even if they were willing to throw away the next few years for no good reason, they really ought to target guys more like Stewart than Crisp - guys who might have actual upside. Maybe they plan on a foundation of Ian Stewarts, Daric Bartons, and Joe Sainders to come to town and finally reach their potential and use the David DeJesuses, CoCo Crisps, Jason Variteks, and Tim Wakefields to build around them and Starlin Castro. FFS just sign Fielder and Cespedes. We're not the [expletive] A's.

Don't we already have Sam Fuld v2?

I'm starting to wonder if it has yet to sink in for Jed Hoyer that he doesn't work for the Padres anymore and he has the freedom to go after good players.

My honest guess is we WILL sign another OF. But, it won't happen until we know whether or not we're able to land Cespedes. But what's the point even then? I'm all for Cespedes, but other than that, we have DeJesus, Jackson, Soriano, and Byrd. There's no rush to send Soriano or Byrd out of town right away unless someone plans on making a worthwhile offer.

I don't think running a lineup out there similar to that is really that out of the question. As long as we could end up with a rotation of Felix Hernadez, Garza, Darvish, Gio Gonzalez/Shields, and Dempster/Zambrano it just might be a near .500 team.

Either this hasn't been posted yet or it's just old news that I just heard, but I don't follow the NBA much these days but the Bulls signe Rip Hamilton to a 5/5,150,000 deal. Is he still any good?

Yeah we aren't going to be good. I would think the Garza to Rangers talks will heat up if the Jays did indeed win the bidding on Darvish. Losing Garza and going with someone like Scott/Lahair/Loney at 1B would put us in top 3 pick territory in the 2013 draft. i'm trying to think of two worse teams if that actually happens. Not worse, but on par with the Mariners, Astros, Mets and Pirates I'll give you the Astros. Mets are going to be pretty damn awful especially if they trade Wright.

Brett Jackson is 23 years old and did a good job AA and AAA last year, so they could at least entertain the possibility that he could be ready to take over center in 2012 and they can chose between Byrd and Soriano for left. No reason to go adding extra outfielders for no good reason other than the fact that they exist.

Now that I am somewhat intrigued by Daric Barton, has there been any hint of indication that Hoyer or Epstein have the slightest but of interest in him? I'm assuming that the A's would move him considering he's 3rd on their 1B depth chart and they have Kila and Carter. I doubt he'd cost too much if nothing else for the fact that Beane knows that he won't be able to fleece Epstein and Hoyer.

The fact that the baseball budget will remain the same and it appears we can't spend as much on IFA or the draft would seem to suggest so. We just blew a huge chunk of the baseball budget on a McDonald's. I doubt that they spent any of the baseball budget on that.

And that would be... Let me find it. I'm good at these. It would make more sense if The Cubs got Wakefield, Barton, and the mansion, The Red Sox got the McDonalds Parcel, and The A's got Scott and Varitek.