Little Slide Rooter

Taking on Hudson's contract should reduce the price for Headley. Let's expand the deal to include Clayton Richard. How about Barney + Colvin + Szcur + pitching prospect for Headley + Richard + Hudson? I think that's really slanted in the Cubs favor. I'd bet it takes almost that much to get Headley without Hudson or Richard involved. A B2B trade proposal that favors the Cubs? Stop the presses. They don't really have a reason to move Richard, and even if they did I'm not so sure I'd want him. His FIP and xFIP have been worse the last two years than his numbers dictate and he doesn't seem to do any one thing particularly well. I know he missed time this season, but he's still only been worth 2.5 wins the last two seasons according to Fangraphs... 1.5 if you trust BR's WAR numbers instead. Not to mention his home/road splits are incredibly polarizing. On top of that he's arby eligible for the first time this season so he'll cost a couple million. I'm not a fan. Hudson still has the chance to be decent. he's going to be 34 in a few days but I'd be Ok trading for him for something minor if theres no long term comitmant. He's owed 5.5 mil in 2012 which is OK, and in 2013 8 mil with a 2 mil buyout. That's the part I don't like. 8 mil sounds like too much to pay for 36 year old Orlando Hudson and 2 mil sounds like to much to make him go away. Last year he was pretty bad. Even his road splits were an unimpressive .260/.737 which beats the hell out of his .235/.634 home line. This being said, I can't see him not being more valuable than Barney.

The Anatole is monstrous. I am quite sure Theo and Jed are getting sloshed at the Gossip bar lounge while chatting up Boras and Lozano. Not to mention, the perfect 10 ladies who frequent this lounge. Ahh, I love Dallas. With the Rule 5 and all, I figure tomorrow will be more interesting.

They can also rebuild AND keep Matt Garza. Garza's young enough that even if the Cubs tank for a couple years, he can still be a very key piece of a good team. Some of these guys just don't seem to grasp that all bad teams are not created equal. When the Rays or Brewers start to tank that's when they should think about trading away key pieces to rebuild the farm system and hope to compete again in 3-5 years. The Cubs have the money that they can go out and buy some big pieces and trade for more over the next 2 years.

I think some people are overstating just how "worthless" Soriano is. Sori is still a 1-2 WAR player (probably more if he goes to an AL team to DH and you factor out his defense) and according to Fangraphs, was worth 5.9 million last year. So it seems there would be at least a few teams willing to take him on if the Cubs eat 40-44MM. I agree with you that as long as we have to pay him he's more valuable to us as a platoon guy than playing for someone else while we get nothing in return and put Lou Montanez in his spot. However, he's more likely to get worse than better and if we can get a few mil and a solid prospect or young player I'd do it.

Hopefully it weant something like Bryan, just so you know were close to signing Pujols(or Fielder) for 1st base but there's a bench role with your name on it but we understand fully if you want to try your luck elsewhere.

Shut the [expletive] up, Phil Rogers EDIT: Seriously though, that speculation is spectacularly dumb and doesn't even remotely fit in with anything we've heard about Hoyerstein's plans. Good heavens no.

Interesting. Surely the Cards and Brewers wouldn't be able to afford Rollins and their respective 2011 1st basemen. If they're both pursuing him that hard could it suggest that they're both considering moving on? We've all heard that the Brewers have no chance at resigning Fielder, but they keep popping up in his rumors. Of course they're lining up contingencies. If they weren't, their GMs would be really bad at their jobs (remember the Astros/Beltran fiasco after the 2005 season?). In the case of the Brewers, it's not really so much a contingency as their new reality. They made Prince their best offer, but it's not enough to get it done and everyone knows it. The thing is, most Brewer fans have long since accepted the fact that Fielders gone an are fine with it if means that their team can spread that money around. Such is the life of a small market team. Pump out top players and keep them as long as you can before they move on. Does anyone in Tampa really think that they'll have a rotation of Price/Hellickson/Shields 5 years from now?

If he wants to sign for 2 mil, why not. This is a team that figures to struggle for power and especially if Soriani and/or Byrd are traded be very lefty heavy especially in the outfield and the bench. However, he has a career .225/.263/.431/.694 line at Wrigley and much of that was when he was good.

Oh look another Davearm vs. the world thread. I figure it will be locked by lunchtime.

Then why sign Kuroda? If you're just hoping you catch lightning in a bottle in 2012 with a push towards 2013, the rotation future of Cashner, Wells, even Samardzija are more important than the 1-2 marginal wins(if any) that Kuroda provides. I agree on Shark, disagree on Cashner and Wells. That said, I think Shark is better suited for the pen myself. Although I understand if he's a frontline starter, he's much more valuable than any role he'll ever have in the pen. So, use him as your long guy in this scenario. He'll work his way into some starts with injuries anyway. I want nothing more than for Cashner to be a starter, but I don't see him as one in 2012. He needs to build his arm strength back up. Hell, if you want to give him a few starts late in the year, I'm all for it. Whether it's at AAA or in the majors is dependent both on where he is and the team is as well. As far as Wells goes, I don't look at him as an answer for us or being in our longterm plans whatsoever. And I could be wrong there. But I think 2011 is him, not 2009/2010. Wells is a guy who's great to have when you don't have to pay him much. He's under team control through 2015 and we could do a lot worse at the back end of the rotation. However, if someone offered us anything of value for him I'd do it without thinking twice.

Interesting. Surely the Cards and Brewers wouldn't be able to afford Rollins and their respective 2011 1st basemen. If they're both pursuing him that hard could it suggest that they're both considering moving on? We've all heard that the Brewers have no chance at resigning Fielder, but they keep popping up in his rumors.

Lake+Struck I'd do in a hearbeat. However, that seems like a case of us overvaluing our own prospects and I don't know if Lake or Struck are really on anyones radar. That looks like more of an Ian Stewart package to me. While Lake did have a great stint in the AFL, he struggled the 2nd half of the regular season after being sent to AA. Vitters+Ha, probably, although like I've said I'd prefer use a band-aid this year and give Vitters a year in Iowa. Headley isn't a great fielder himself. He has a career -1.1 dWAR.

Realistically, I think it would cost us 1 of McNutt or Szczur, 1 more of our top 10 prospects and a lower level guy. However, I wonder if theres any way that we'd be able to strike a deal for Headley and a starting pitcher. McNutt, 2 of Sczur/ Vitters/Castillo, 1 lower level guy and a Colvin/DeWitt/LaHair type for Headley and Latos/Stauffer/Richard anyone?

Too bad. The only thing better than the Cubs signing Pujols would be the Cubs signing Pujols and the Cards signing Jose Reyes to a 6/106 contract.

You should have stopped at Lawrie. Lind is a worse, left-handed Soriano. His OPS+ has been under 100 for the past 2 seasons. The first three would be really good, though. They also have Rasmus and Snider, both are still young with high ceilings.

Per rotoworld. I'd be fairly shocked if this were the case. Sorry, not how Boras operates. All big money teams are equally in the mix whether they have interest or not.

My main issue with Headley is that im not convinced that he'll be that much better than Vitters, and we'd likely have to give up 2 of our top 10 guys and 1 more high ceiling guy. Headley may have nice road splits, but hes 27 with minimal power, and if Vitters could finally learn some dicipline, he could be better than him. Thats what i like about Stewart. No commitmant it it gives us another year to decide if Vitters is the long term answer. Now if they'd give us Headley for something like Castillo, Dolis, and a minor lower level guy like Watkins or an older guy like LaHair or Colvin, go for it but I think that they'd want at least 1 of our top 3.

I'm definitely interested in Stewart but have no interest in any kind of bidding war for him. I'd offer them Colvin and maybe one more minor piece but if it's not enough then walk away.

In what universe does Colvin have the same value as those two guys??? I don't know, but we should milk it for whatever we can.

Problem is you're relying on a lot of breakout seasons. Your 4-8 hitters are all massive crapshoots as are the 3-5 staring pitchers. this being said, I don't think this team would contend though its not out of the question but I'd actually be OK with it as framework for the future.

1. Jay Jackson, Marwin Gonzalez, and Ryan Flaherty are picked in the rule 5. 2. Dae Eun Rhee and Jeff Baker are sent to Boston as compensation. 3. Jeff Antigua is sent to San Diego as compensation. 4. The biggest FA signing of the winter meetings are Mark Buehre by the Marlins and Edwin Jackson by the Nats. 5. A few trades, nothing earth shattering. The winter meetings are always a let down, at least the past few years. Mostly framework for trades to be completed in upcoming weeks.

I have a pretty good grasp on how the Rule 5 works, but what are the rules for the minor league phase?

Really hope we're not one of them. I highly doubt that we are. NTCs annoy the hell out of me. I can understand having a limited NTC with a list of teams that they'd refuse to go to buy a full is just dumb. My guess is Marlins and Nats. I know that it was reported that the NTC had the Marlins balking but I think that they'll end up agreeing to a partial.

Sorry, Soriano is at the point in his career where nobody is going to pay 9 mil/year for him as he continues to decline over the next 3 years. I'd be thrilled with a package similar to what we got for DeRosa and 10-15 mil, and even then we'd likely have to settle for either/or.

Why not? With the Rule 5 it's nothing to lose situation. All you're really doing is giving a guy a shot at spring training. If there's nobody a team really has their eye on why not take a look at a young reliever? We did a few years ago, and the Davd Patton era began.