Little Slide Rooter

So does the big league backup C end up being Max Ramirez, or Koyie Hill?

Im going to bet that Ojeda earns a spot after an impressive spring training, but doesnt make it to mid may.

The Angels get their outfielder. Blue Jays shed Wells contract(maybe he had Alex Rios just need to get the hell out of Canada syndrome). Rangers get their power hitting catcher. everyones happy. BTW, isnt Frank Francisco the guy who hit a lady with a chair during a melee?

I really don't see Pujols leaving St. Lou. He loves the city and the fans too much, and even if they just couldnt pay him, I really dont see him jumping to their arch rivals. It would lead to Lebron-esque backlash. If not the Cards, he'll probably end up with the Angels, Dodgers, Yankees, or Red Sox, who WOULD find a spot for him if the opportunity arose. Maybe even Seattle or The Mets who always seem to spend big money to be bad. Maybe thats what The Rays are saving up for. My bet is that Pujols is extended by the Cards by the end of the season, leaving Fielder even more in demand and Scott Boras doing a happy dance.

I always thought he was mixed. Darwin Barneys about as un-Asian of a name there is. Then again, Im still getting over the fact that Khalil Greene is white.

How about Choi instead. Whatever happened to Billy Petrick?

If Welle wants to battle it out with Stevens, Berg, Shark, Diamond, and whoever for one of the final bullpen spots, whatever, but if he even sniffs a shot at a rotation spot, that will suck. I guess Welles a guy who could pitch long innings out of the pen if a starter implodes early, but then again, so could some of our other non descript AAAA relievers.

If we were in need of middle infielders, Guzman, Lugu, and Cabrera woul be intriguing names at the right price. Were not though. Castro and DeWitt are our starters. Darwin Barney and Jeff Baker may never be all stars, but as far as backup shortstop and utility infilder/super sub, there probably as good as any in baseball. To me, it sounds like Hendry has a few extra mil burning a hole in his pocket and looking for something to buy. Youve had a solid off season Jim, quit while your ahead.

Now I hope he quits on the team. That's being paid by the Dodgers, by the way. Between Manny, Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, and Jason Schmidt, Ned Colletti sure does like to pay guys big bucks to play for other teams, or in Schmidts case, not play at all.

Isn't Brett Jackson a better fielder than Colvin? Just wondering why Colvin is gonna stick at RF in 2014... They must think he's gonna be a very productive player considering that's all Cubs players in the OF (no FAs)... And Vitters, Flaherty, Watkins, and Ridling across the infield and Clevenger behind the plate. Whitest team ever. Well, not ever, but you know.

Gorz I think I much prefer the take we got for Gorz over a guy whose claim to fame is an almost fluke.

I really dont know how the Cards will be able to extend Pujols and build a major league baseball team around him and Holliday. Are Carpenter and Wainwright due for FA any time soon?

Just out of curiosity, who have we really blocked in recent years? Micah Hoffpauir? Jake Fox? Sam Fuld? If we had a shred of the talent in our system that The Rays have, I assure you that they wouldnt be asting away in Iowa. No, no, and no. Pie was the main guy I was thinking of. Although he was up, he wasn't given any sort of chance to work through anything. Neifi/Macias blocked Cedeno. Koyie Hill would have kept Chirinos down and didn't we sign Trachsel when either Rich or Sean could've been the 5th starter? I wouldn't say Pie was blocked, he was given the opening day job as starting CF. It was more a case of lack of patience. Keep in mind that the Rays have Desmond Jennings who probably is as ready as Pie was back then and they are now kind of blocking him with Damon so it isn't that different. Manny kind of makes sense because they need the DH anyway and he is super cheap but the amount they will pay for Damon considering how much production he will give over what Jennings would have done seems to be more of a play to drum up interest and sell tickets. Pie wasnt blocked at all, they just ran out of patience too quickly. 2008 was a bad year for him to struggle, because we were favs for the divison, and didnt have time for him to train him on the job, so the options were to either let him waste away on the bench or go to Iowa. I think they made the right choice at the time. However, the next off season, shipping him off to Baltimore for next to nothing and then turning around and signing Joey Gathright was just idiotic. If they had gotten something, it ould have been one thing, but they just ended up with some pitcher who The Padres supposedly wanted as a piece of a Peavy trade, and we ended up flipping him to Seattle for Aaron Heilman.

Just out of curiosity, who have we really blocked in recent years? Micah Hoffpauir? Jake Fox? Sam Fuld? If we had a shred of the big league ready talent in our system that The Rays have, I assure you that they wouldnt be asting away in Iowa.

My bad, guess I misread it but "flame" away if you must. The fact of the matter is I never understand why teams would go out of there way to sign a Nick Punto or Aaron Miles when they could just as easily pull an equally productive player out of their farm system, and if not, just wait it out until either just before ST and willing to take a minor league deal with an invite or the end of spring training because such a player is sure to be DFAd. Given a chance to play a full season, Id bet that Bobby Scales could probably give a team the same thing that Punto or Miles could.

My thinking is that if Hendry had detected the Angels level of desperation sooner, we could have perhaps made this deal happen. I know that the Rays had serious interest in Napoli, so maybe we could have pulled off a 3 way deal and hung on to Archer Cubs would get Garza Prospects Angels get Soriano Rays get Napoli Lee Guyer Fuld

They also have Vitters as number 7 for 3rd baseman. Tomorrows pitchers seperated by LHP and RHP. I wonder if Archer or McNutt have a shot.

Didnt he get A Rod comparisons at one point?

Like Electron Blue said, there really hasn't been any complaints about the trade. As for Gorz himself, the interest in him is that he's kinda young (28), cheap and had really good minor league numbers. His 9 K/9 last year was a positive as well. He's probably not more than an inconsistent mid-back rotation guy, but he can be pretty serviceable while he's cheap. You don't want to give that up for nothing, but this was a really good trade. Here's an interesting article on Gorz from FanGraphs. After looking back, you're right...I read the thread after already knowing who was included -- I know he was decent and cheap last year but I've just seen him pitch so much with Pittsburgh and here that I'm not impressed. Although no facts to back this up, it seems he's super inconsistent from one start to the next and he would certainly be a guy we'd be saying "The Cubs need to beat" if facing him. I'm pretty happy we got anything of much value honestly. Off to bed, I'll read your linked article tomorrow Keep in mind that this is a team that would otherwise start the season with a front of the rotation featuring Jason Marquis, Livan Hernandez, and John Lannan. Heck, Gorz could end up their ace, at least until Strasburg is done buying some lucky doctor a fleet of yacts.

yeah, I hear all 3 of them are pretty pissed. You're such an anus. death, taxes, and unprovoked N&G attacks.

yeah, I hear all 3 of them are pretty pissed. I do like the move alot. Nothing against Gorz, but with Z, Garza, Demp, and Wells, we have a solid 1-4, and with Cashner, Silva, Jax, Carpenter, Coleman, Diamond, and for some odd reason, Russell, we have more than enough candidates for the 5 spot. The fact that we got 2 seemingly solid prospects for him is gravy.

you underestimate the number of short white Cub fans who wear Ed Hardy tee-shirts Also, many girls I know loved theriot..................and not because they thought he was good at baseball (because he is not). Chicks may dig the long ball, but not as much as the slow grounder to 2nd.

Meh, Fulds the type of player that I can see going on to play another 6-7 seasons for 7-8 teams.

That would be all fine and dandy if we had a lack of rotation depth, but assuming that Z, Demp, Garza, and Wells are 1-4, Gorz, Silva, Cashner, Jackson, Carpenter, Coleman, and Diamond all should be in line in front of Russell. These are guys who have had success as starters be it in the majors or minors as of recently. Hell, even give Samardzjia one more shot to figure it out before finally giving up on him.

I bet Sean Marshall just punched something.