Little Slide Rooter

I can safely say I've never heard of this 32 year old former 3rd round pick journeyman.

A nasty oral fungal infection.

China, Japan, Portugal, same difference.

The no option thing is atually a good thing for Sizemore, gambling on himself. Kind of like Penas 2011 contract where if he looked hard enough he could have got a 2 year deal or a 1 year with an option or 2, but this way if he has a nice bounceback year he could get a nice 3-4 year deal in 2013.

I think it might take more like Jackson, McNutt, Flaherty to land Gio. As for the cheap 3B, I don't know what we're going to get that's going to be that will be much of an upgrade over some kind of Baker/DeWitt/LeMahieu rotation. I would like to find a corner outfield upgrade, but I guess that can wait until next year. Josh Hamilton leads the 2013 list, and then theres Andre Ethier, Carlos Quentin, and Delomon Young. There's also Shane Victorino, and we could shift Cespedes to right for him.

By all means, let's pursue Phil Nevin.

Hey, just looking for 1B options if we can't get one of the big 2. The outlook on the remaining options is bleak.

I think your assumption is faulty. Trading Soto + Marmol (and Garza) would likely be about using our best trade assets to get as much a return as possible. Not to mention clearing close to $10M in salary for use on Pujols/Fielder/Wilson/Darvish/Cespedes The question is, how much cash will they give us in addition to a younger player with a similar ceiling to Soto? They have a new GM, and the final nail in the last guys coffin was picking up a bad contract, although Marmols is nothing compared to Wells, but still they might be a bit gun shy. Marmol could end up a steal if the top FA closers are asking anything clsoe to what Pap got, but as earlier stated they have Walden already and what they really want might be a set up man in which case they could get one for a lot cheaper.

I think if we trade Soto it's tp make room for Castillo, so unless it's a larger scale deal I don't think they'd send both Soto and Marmol for Conger. If dealing with The Angels, Mark Trumbos a name I'd be interested in, assuming that we don't get Fielder or Pujols.

Homer Bailey's probably more well known by Cubs fans due to his one time prospect statues and the fact that he's in our division. Andrews more well known overall for the fact that he's the far superior player and if he were on a relevant team he'd be more well known than he is. This being said, I really lost limited sleep over the title of this thread which could have been slipped into the misc. transactions thread and this riveting debate never would have taken place.

Looks like the Pirates will be the latest team to try and juice Jake Fox for anything he may have.

The Rangers seem the most interested. I don't know much about the Rangers farm system, but I wonder if we could start the conversation with Alexi Ogando. I'd prefer not move Garza, but if we do I'd expect something similar to the Greinke return.

Because Pena/Kotchman/Loney are the only alternatives if you don't sign Pujols/Fielder. Who did you have in mind? For 2012, pretty much as far as known available options, that's pretty much all I can think of. If Miguel Cabrera or Justin Morneau suddenly become available, then great. It's a little easier if you try to think of options that wouldn't be preferable to LaHair. The answer is most everyone. LaHair is not good, and even if a miracle happens and he's okay then you're still stuck with a 30 year old that has one year under his belt and you're back where you started. If you can't find someone with a better long term prognosis than that, then you're an embarrassment of a baseball executive. Of course you can, but there's really no rush to do it now. Without Pujuls or Fielder, unless they pull of some maverick series of moves 2012 will be junked, so just go with the free guy you have and don't waste any resources on a plan C. Even if they are better than LaHair, and I'm not denying that they would be but they wouldn't be enough of an upgrade to make what we have now resemble a contender or even a 70 win team. With Pujola or Fielder, you maybe have a .500 team for 2012 if your lucky and if enough things go right that didn't last year. With LaHair, Pena, Kotchman, Loney, Cuddyer, or any alternate realistic options you have a bandaid and I'd just assume go with the cheapest one possible if it's going to yield the same end result. May as well give the chance to become another Ryan Ludwick and if he becomes Micah Hoffpauir, oh well. Without any big acquisitions, my plan for 2012 will be to follow Castro, Jackson, Garza, Cashner and the farm and any wins we pick up along the way will be gravy.

Jose Canseco?

Link: http://www.csnchicago.com/blog/cubs-talk/post/Kaplan-Theo-Jed-in-Dominican-Republic?blockID=598278&feedID=619 Is it a pretty big deal that Epstein and Hoyer travelled al the way there to see him or is that pretty standard procedure for a top international prospect?

Because Pena/Kotchman/Loney are the only alternatives if you don't sign Pujols/Fielder. Who did you have in mind? For 2012, pretty much as far as known available options, that's pretty much all I can think of. If Miguel Cabrera or Justin Morneau suddenly become available, then great.

Matt Garza for Yonder Alonso and Travis Wood. Who hangs up first? I figure asking for Alonso and Mike Leake is a bit too ambitious.

Why? To pick 7 spots better in the first round for a player who's 3-5 years away? To get a more concrete idea of what you have in LaHair just in time for him to turn 30? There's really no reason to get a feel for LaHair. More than likely, he's either Jack Cust if we're lucky or any number of AAAA guys who have been given a chance at the big league level if we're not. Maybe we could even get a couple of Ryan Ludwick or Casey McGehee years out of him, but that possibility isn't worth passing on Fielder or Pujols. If you have the resources to sign a guy like Fielder or Pujols, you have to go ahead and do it. They'll likely be around for 6-8 years, and even if 2012 is a "lost year" they'll still be there to build around. I definitely think that if we didn't get one for one reason or another I'd give LaHair a year or 2 in the sun while Team Epstein execute their long term plan rather rather than giving a multi year deal to Pena or Kotchman or giving up anything of value for Loney.

Why would it be a "throw away year?" If Fielder and Pujols werent on the market, I might agree. I don't like the term "throw away year", but without significant help, it would probaby be dedicted to building and seeing what guys like LaHair, Colvin, and LeMahieu are really worth. The fact remains that if you want to build a team that can win in the next few years, that's where you start. That would give us some good frame work to build on: 1. Jackson CF 2. Castro SS 3. 4. Fielder/Pujols 1B 5. 6. 7. Soto C 8. There are obviously plenty of holes to fill in the long run but getting a monster bat like that makes it a hell of a lot easier and could be the difference between a 2-3 year building process or a 5+ year one.

They could scour local Wal-Marts for Cade McNown.

On one hand, the Phillies may have set the closer market nice and high, but on the other, with Ryan Madson, Heath Bell, K Rod, Francisco Cordero as well as Joe Nathan and John Broxton who could be lower cost but potentially equally high reward, there's no shortage of established closers on the market, so that could take it down a notch. I guess it depends on whether the Reds prefer to give up money or prospects to acquire one, and Billy Beane isn't going to let Bailey go for cheap and there are the injury concerns, which there more often than not are when acquiring an A's pitcher.

http://www.barplan.com/blog/home/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Bears-New-Quarterback2-300x268.jpg

I understand Jaramillo as they're paying him a ton regardless. Don't care either way about Strode. Not quite sure how I feel about Riggins. On one hand, maybe he can be blamed for Demspters struggles, but can he also be given credit for Samardzjia seemingly pulling it together? As for Listach, I'm not quite sure what the bench coach even does aside from take over when the manager gets booted. He seems like a smart and well respected baseball guy who could be a big league manager one day.

I'm not too familiar with Halman, but he was BAs #57 prospect pre 2009. He has a few short stints with the big league club in '10 and '11.

Clint Barmes getting a 2/11.5 deal from the Pirates? What the hell. Maybe if we were talking a team with money to burn and closer to contention, but this doesn't make much sense. I guess it makes me wonder that if teams are willing to give guys like Barmes and Caroll multi year deals what kind of trade value Darwin Barney has. He could certainly produce as much as Carroll and throw little meat on his bones Barmes as well.