Little Slide Rooter

It would be more reasonable if we needed him more and he hadn't already stated repeatedly that his only options are the Cubs and retirement. He doesnt exactly have a ton of leverage and his budy isn't in charge anymore.

Yes. The fact that he's a 26 year old former top prospect coming off an injury and they want Tyler Colvin for him.

Too bad, I'd have happily taken fliers out on Kendrick or Blanton.

I think these guys are just reacting to Papelbon and Bells contracts and think it will cause teams to stay away from big ticket closers but in reality I think all of them, K Rod, Madsen, Lidge, Cordero will end up with 2-3 contracts once they come to terms with the fact that they won't be getting the kind of contracts the other 2 got.

I'll be very surprised and mildly disappointed if we don't end up with one or both by the end of the week. I actually think we can end up with both without giving up anything like Szczur, McNutt or even Vitters.

Pirates are close to signing Eric Bedard. Could be a good move for them depending on the contract.

Judging by the contract he's looking for, I don't think the Cubs are even a remote possibility.

Marshall should be untouchable, he was the only one that has stayed healthy and was consistent from day one of the season. He should be given a raise as a thank you for last season Nobody not named Starlin Castro should be untouchable, especially a guy whose contract expires at the end of the year. Additionally, the Cubs view him as a reliever and he's expressed his desire to be a starter in the past and if another team views him as such that will make him all the more expensive next year.

Was there ever really a concern that he would?

I only entertained the Shields idea because the Rays have said they'll trade Nieman or Davis for a starting catcher and have also been in search of offense and I think a closer so if we gave them al 3 maybe they'd give up Shields.

Does this sound like too much? 1. Garza and Marshall for Montero, Banuelos, and Nunez 2. Soto, Marmol, and Soriano(eatling 80-95% of his contract) for James Shields and maybe Brignac 3. Russell, Vitters, and Castillo for Headley and Blanks 4. LeMahieu, Colvin, Maine, and DeWitt for Street and Stewart Opening day: 1B ? 2B Nunez/Stewart SS Castro 3B Headley LF Blanks CF Jackson RF DeJesus C Montero SP Shields SP Z SP Demp SP Cashner SP Wells CL Street BP Wood BP Carpenter BP Beliveau BP Dolis BP Guzman BP Gaub Bench Stewart/Nunez Bench Byrd Bench Brignac Bench Baker/Barney/LaHair/Campana Bench Clevenger A lot of house cleaning, a lot of new faces. Obviously, 1B dictats how the lineup will be and could be anything from Fielder to LaHair.

As good as Garza is, some people don't seem to be wrapping their head around the fact that this is the first time I can recall that the Cubs have had this good of a trade chip on the block and the ball was 100% in their court. There's no controversy surrounding him, no obvious attempt to railroad him out of town no salary dump. Just a great player under team control for another 2 years. If we do it, I think we can get 2 near big league ready young players and another high ceiling prospect. I'd still love to target Rasmus and Drabek from Toronto and think we could get them and another high ceiling guy, although that would give us 3 lefties across the outfield for the next 2-3 years. Basically shop him around and if we don't get exactly what we want he's starting for us on opening day and we play the same game again in July.

For a year of Marshall, Banuelos or Betances is not realistic. Only way we'd get one of those 2 is if we traded them Garza. Beyond those 2, I don't know a ton about the Yankees farm system other than that it's very good and they have 2 more top catching prospects other than Montero. Yankees would be a good target though.

I don't know. Would you want to stay in St. Louis if you could help it? Even if someone paid you a crapload of money? Considering he has a restaurant there/bunch of money invested there/has talked about how he loves St. Louis, I would think pulling a fast one on the Cardinals probably would not go over very well for his legacy there. Probably be as big of a blow to St. Louis as Lebron was to Cleveland. not even close Maybe if he sets up a TV special to announce his decision.

Yeah, Cubs probably can't win in 2012 so may as well not make any moves to help them win beyond that. Makes perfect sense. Lets just go with a core of LaHair, Barney, Colvin, and DeWitt for the next 5 years. Worthwhile free agents? Non for us thank you. So how again are The Mariners who are being taken seriously as suiters for Fielder in any better position to win in 2012?

Where's the rest of this tweet? Hopefully it makes more sense than the first part.

This is gonna get fun. Mostly because every entrant makes it less likely he returns to STL. and AL would be even better Cubs are moving to the AL?

I'm thinking that as soon as Pujols is inked Prince talk will heat up. Boras is likely hoping that Pujols ends up back with the Cards so he can use the Marlins as another suiter and try to bump those with 5-6 year offers to 7-8 years.

I want both. If the plan is to not go after any big money guys than I'd prefer to go for a handful of guys like this. Also, I really havn't heard much concrete evidence that the Pads are asking to much for Headley, just speculation. Now if the Padres asked for Sean Marshall straight up for Healdey what would people think about it? I'd go for it. we still have Marmol, Wood(probably), Russell, Dolis, Samardzjia(or Cashner, 1 will be in the pen), Carpenter, Beliveau, Gaub, and Whereabouts Unknown Guzman to put together a solid pen. I'd also like to take that ambidexterious fellow in the Rule 5 if he's there by the time our pick comes around. Even if Marmols traded it's decent if Cashners ready to take the closers role. Marhalls great, but he's a free agent after this year and we've all seen how highly back end bullpen guys are, especially lefities. If anyone views him as a possible closer, that makes himeven more expensive. If we could do Marshall for Headley and LeMahieu(although I'd first prefer see if they'd take Colvin or DeWitt in his place) and Maine for Stewart, I really can't see any reason not to be happy about it. If you're going to start floating Marshall's name out there, the Yankees would probably start offering more valuable pieces than Headley. If I made that trade proposal there would be 3 pages of posts making fun of me. We would be getting Headley and Stewart while giving up Russell and a few maybes. I think we ought to go after Daniel Murphy unless the Padres and/or Rockies meet our offers. everything gets something of value in this deal. The thing about baseles trade proposals, especially with multiple teams involved is that they rarely go down. I'm going by the needs of each individual team. The Padres could use any kind of bat and Smith is a solid one. They also expressed interest in Russell. The Rockies have expressed interest in LeMahieu, Colvin, and Maine. Cubs have expressed interest in both Headley and Stewart. As for Marshall, I'd love to put him out there and see who bites in general. He's great but he's a free agent after this year and I've never been big on giving relievers big multi year contracts.

The Winter meetings isnt the trade deadline. Everything doesnt have to be announced by the end of the day or the week in this case. A lot of what's going on is framework for contracts and trades and they have all winter long to compelete the deals and hammer out any details. Everyone likes instant gratification but that's just not how the GM meetings work.

Good luck with that Pirates.

Buehrle has always been very vocal about his desire to play for the Cardinals. My bet is that he'll either sign with them for a home town discount or at least won't sign anywhere else until the Cardinals have decided whether or not they can sign him. I also have to assume that the Cards are going to wait until the Pujols situation is fully resolved. If they lose him I could definitely see them getting Buehrle and working on a trade for Lohse or Westbbrook later on and signing a bat like like Pena, Willingham, Cuddyer, or Kotchman plus a big name closer.

As long as someone goes high enough to trump the Brewers. Sure, like everyone I'd prefer Pujols or Fielder come to the Cubs, but the next best scenerio is Pujols to the Marlins and Fielder to the Brewers, and there's really not much that they can do to make up for it judging by what's left on the FA market. This is great news for Reds in the immediate future, especially if they can trade Alonzo for a good starting pitcher. As for us, assuming those 2 are off the market, how would an opening day lineup of CF Jackson SS Castro 3B Headley (depending on the price: Marmol, Russell, LeMahieu centric) 1B Sanchez (depending on the price: perhaps something Zambrano-centric?) RF DeJesus 2B Hudson (acquired with Headley) LF Soriano/Byrd/some guy C Castillo SP Garza SP Dempster SP Niemann/Davis (acquired for Soto) SP Wells SP Samardzjia CL Cashner BP Marshall BP Wood BP Beliveau BP Dolis/Carpenter (the other traded along the way?) BP Gaub BP Guzman Bench C Clevenger Bench Baker Bench Barney Bench 2 of LaHair/Colvin/DeWitt/Campana/other Certainly wouldn't have a ton of power, but would be a balanced lineup with some high reward guys. Sanchez would be the toughest to get as is always the case when dealing with the Marlins, so we'd have to brace ourselves for LaHair at 1st as a backup plan unless of course we kept Z and tried to move Garza for a Alonzo or Montero centric package and try them at 1st.

If you trade Garza now you almost have to go after at least 2 front end starters or 1 front end and 2 good mid rotation guy between now and opening day 2013. Dempster and Z are gone after this year and any rotation pieced together with what we have now would be a bigger mess than Human Centapiede.

If we lose out on Pujols and Fielder, would trying to get them to pick up a lot of Dunn's contract be something to consider or are folks too scared from this past season's numbers? Absolutely, positively not. If he has to play the field, he's barely an average overall player even when his bat is good. The gap between Soriano and Dunn last season in fWar was bigger than the gap between Albert Pujols and Darwin Barney. No interest at all. The difference being that Dunn could rebound and pay off big time whereas Darwin Barney is Darwin Barney. Still, depending on how much salary we take on and what else theyd want in return its a huge risk.