Little Slide Rooter

So the secret is out. JeffH is actually Steve Rosenbloom. :D I would very much like to see which teams out there can lose their starting LF, CF, and 2/5 (3/5 at one point) of the starting rotation, 2 valuable bench players and bring up adequate replacements for each from the farm system. And yes, that article does sound like a meatheaded rant from an NSBB poster.

Stop saying this like it's fact. With the money coming off the books the Cubs could very easily be competitive as early as next season. No, it's by no means a lock, but that so many people have this automatic assumption that the Cubs are going to so hopelessly suck and can do nothing about it for the next 3+ seasons is absurd. Its not fact, if they do spend some of that money in the offseason, they could be competitve again as soon as next year, but if they try to take what we already have and sprinkle in some middling free agents of the Jeromy Burnitz/Jacque Jones variety, it could be 3 years if were lucky, especially since our farm system seems to be producing some solid building blocks, but no foundation. This is a very important offseason coming up. You're stating the painfully obvious. Which has been stated over and over in multiple threads. I just wish that we knew their plans. While I havnt heard any implications by those truely in the know that they plan to leave things as is and go with the youth movement, I also havnt heard any concrete implications that they plan on going out and spending in the offseason. The sense of uncertainty is killing me.

Stop saying this like it's fact. With the money coming off the books the Cubs could very easily be competitive as early as next season. No, it's by no means a lock, but that so many people have this automatic assumption that the Cubs are going to so hopelessly suck and can do nothing about it for the next 3+ seasons is absurd. Its not fact, if they do spend some of that money in the offseason, they could be competitve again as soon as next year, but if they try to take what we already have and sprinkle in some middling free agents of the Jeromy Burnitz/Jacque Jones variety, it could be 3 years if were lucky, especially since our farm system seems to be producing some solid building blocks, but no foundation. This is a very important offseason coming up.

None for me thank you, Ive had quite enough already.

To be honest, the only way that we would be able to win anytime with a youth movement is if we pulled a '08-'09 Cleveland Indians and sold everything of value. However, Z, Garza, and Soto are good and have plenty of value, but they arent Sabthia, Lee, and V Mart.

+1 for the Meatballs out there Or maybe they arent meatballs and understand that he said nothing wrong and this wasnt your average Z mad, smash Gator Aid cooler tirade.

I really doubt Lawrie would be made available. Chisenhall is a bit more likely, but not terribly so... we could probably pry away Kipnis though. Are these posts sarcasm? We're not getting near anyone's top prospects for Z. If were picking up some salary, yes we are. But like I said, he still has that NTC and probably has not intention of going to Cleveland or Toronto.

I see your point, but your average fan really doesnt care much about CUBTV, Mesa, or even the farm system. While it is easy to say to hell with them, they know nothing about baseball, they are still the ones you need filling up the seats. If they do indeed decide not to make an offseason free agent splash, and go with the youth movement, it will be a loooong several years. Our system isnt the Royals or Rays that will be able to compete with it anytime soon. If this is the plan, they may as well start trading pretty much everything of value on the big league roster with the exceptions of Castro and Cashner. This means dont waste money offering arbitration to Garza.

Right, but it's not news to anyone in that clubhouse. Aramis Ramirez isn't going to react to Z calling them a AAA team in the media and start hittting home runs. It does no good and only possible tension and harm can come from the comments. These guys are professionals and are well aware of how bad they've been playing. But he wasn't singling anyone out (besides Theriot). He said "we" the entire team. It was an indictment of the team as a whole, as it should be since this season is a breakdown of both the players and the coaches, and yesterday was a perfect microcosm of that. I agree, guys shouldn't single out other players on their team in the media to pick a fight...and Z didn't do that. Zambrano's had plenty of examples of his temper getting the better of him and lashing out unnecessarily; this isn't one of them. This is a guy being paraded in front of the media after a tough and, quite frankly, stupid loss, and he said it like it is without singling anyone out. This hits the nail on the head. There really hasnt been much going on this season on either side of town, just one awful team and one really bad team. All of the sudden this presents itself, and they can spin it into another Z "meltdown". Theres no reason to suspend him indefinitely. Theres no reason to trade him unless we get top value for him. And I hope all of these clowns who keep suggesting the trade arent forgetting that NTC of his. This being said, even if we could get Lawrie or Chisnell, I cant see him waiving it to go to Toronto or Cleveland, contenders or not. The Yankees, thats a different story.

Yes, this would be great. Except I don't even think they'd do Zambrano/Soto for Montero straight up if it meant they had to pay all the money. They wouldn't trade Montero and Banuelos for for Z/Soto straight up with even money. Neither would I. Soto has a ton of value, especially considering the Giants, Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox all need catching. Plus he is relatively cheap, and under control for a couple more years. I think we could get a ton for him as the race heats up, and why not package Zambrano with him to the Yankees just to get the money off the books? If we can create a bidding war for Soto, I think Montero and Banuelos are possible. I dont know who Baneulos is, but I think its very reasonable to send those 2 plus some cash for Montero, 1 of the back end of their top 10, and 2 more low level high ceiling guy. If they like, we can throw in Grabow if they have any use for a LOOGY who cant get lefties out. This being said, if they are assholes and trade Zambrano for calling out this joke of a team, they damn well better have a plan to fix the rotation for next year. Garza, Dempster, Wells, Cashner, Coleman/relievers/retreads isnt going to do too much winning even with Pujols.

Can we just set fire to this thread and urinate on the ashes?

This will be the general sentiment of the fan base. There's no way they'd be able to justify trading him for nothing to the already fed up fan base.

Rich Hill and Seam Marshall are two more we developed. We just then chose to not use them in that role. But, both of those guys were good starters that we turned out. Rich Hill was good for five minutes and fell apart. Marshall was decent as a starter, but there was always a question over his ability to deal with the workload of a full season. He's much better in his current role. This organization hasn't produced a SP the caliber of Matt Garza in almost a decade. Z and Prior were probably the last 2, and they were almost a decade ago, so I guess you're right on that, and I don't think that we so much produced Prior as we drafted a natural.

IMHO, Z said nothing wrong. He didn't point any fingers, although maybe a bit toward Marmol, but this isn't a middling team striving to be above .500. This Should be a .500 team thats playing like trash, even before the injuries. I have no problem with him calling the team out on it. I'm not saying he should repeat last years tirade, but theres no reason for people to act like this is OK anymore. As for trading Z, it would be foolish, but how would people feel about Z and Soto for a prospect package built around Montero?

And he would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling prospects and their dog.

Come on, lets be realistic here.

The Cubs and the Cardinals will be playing baseball this afternoon.

This time in 2002, Cubs were 22-35 with a -49 run differential, en route to a 67-95 finish, and Sammy's numbers that year were at the top end of what we can reasonably hope for from Pujols. Baseball boners that year were pretty scarce. I don't understand your point, unless you think I expect that the Cubs will only sign Pujols and do absolutely nothing else. Pujols is only one part of the baseball-boner. Granted, he's a big part, so he'd be the turgid shaft. The point was, this team+Pujols =/= perma-rager. I don't expect them to do much else right, but maybe apart from staying healthy, they wouldn't need to do much else right to at least be relevant to post-season discussion at the beginning of August. Definitely no less than conspicuous chub. Theres no question that there are other holes to fill. 3B:They could pick up the Aramis option. If not, trading for Mark Reynolds might be the next best thing. I dont see a combination of Baker, LaMhieu, DeWitt and whoever else as a viable 3B 1 Outfield spot: Soriano is pretty much planted in LF. Other than that, we might need to pick up another solid bat. I dont know how good the mix of Byrd, Jackson, and Colvin will be. SP: We ould definitely use a front of the rotation pitcher.

No. You don't draft with the MLB team or it's needs in mind. None of the college guys we would likely take are going to be Mike Leake and jump to MLB quickly anyway. They wont be ready immediately, but they could be ready in 2-3 years rather than 4 years-never. A lot of our college picks have some along well, Jackson, McNutt, Cashner, Flaherty to name a few, but our high school guys dont seem to pan out. Im not calling Josh Vitters a bust just yet at the age of 21, but our track record with these kids isnt great. Yeah, but Wilken has drafted far, far fewer HS kids so you don't have a fair sample size to compare. ETA: 2006 - Cliff Andersen, Chris Huseby, Drew Rundle, Kevin Kreier, Nate Samson (5) 2007 - Josh Vitters, Ryan Acosta (2) 2008 - Matt Cerda, Logan Watkins, Tarlandas Mitchell (3) 2009 - Austin Kirk, Wes Darvill, Blair Springfield, Sergio Burruel (4) 2010 - Reggie Golden, Ben Wells, Austin Reed, Colin Richardson, Ryan Hartman, Dustin Geiger, Brian Smith (7) For some reason, I thought Wilken went a bit further back, at least to Pawalek. I guess the Austins are both doing pretty well as is Cerda, and you cant count out Vitters. Golden is off to a rough start, but its way to early to make a decision on him. Is Wells even pitching yet this year?

I know nothing of Cuneo, but Rohans on pace to hit AAA around the same time his medicare kicks in, so Cuneos probably a better option.

No. You don't draft with the MLB team or it's needs in mind. None of the college guys we would likely take are going to be Mike Leake and jump to MLB quickly anyway. They wont be ready immediately, but they could be ready in 2-3 years rather than 4 years-never. A lot of our college picks have some along well, Jackson, McNutt, Cashner, Flaherty to name a few, but our high school guys dont seem to pan out. Im not calling Josh Vitters a bust just yet at the age of 21, but our track record with these kids isnt great.

I dont think theres anyone left who thinks this team has a hope in hell of competing this year. Hopefully we can fully revamp in the offseason, because if we dont,it could be a long several years.

Oh what the [expletive]. [expletive] everything about this season. May as we'll cut to my nightmare World Series of the White Sox vs. Brewers. Why are you upset now? It was known that McNutt would miss at least one start and head to the DL yesterday. I'm just a bit agitated due to the series of events that has been the 2011 baseball season. At least he doesn't sound all that serious like Whitenack.

I hope Selig is right, but truth be told its very easy for us to take his side, because we like what je has to say and to discredit Wittemyer because we don't like what he's saying, but the fact of the matter is we won't know whose right until this winter.

Oh what the [expletive]. [expletive] everything about this season. May as we'll cut to my nightmare World Series of the White Sox vs. Brewers.