WilcoFan

I'm surprised Colletti gives quotes to Goldstein.

Worst cubs team evar now two games better than last year's team.

This is true, but I'm holding out hope that next year is a "this is a .500 team this year, but they consistently show glimpses of being amazing in the near future"-year.

Are Olt or Castellanos (+a pitching prospect) realistic options? That seems like an awfully big haul for 7 starts of Ryan Dempster. I'm hoping for the best, but prepared for the "THAT'S all we got?" comments as well.

what 3b prospect is that? 2 questions: 1. The FO has just started looking in earnestat minor league players at the lower levels of almost every farm system? 2. What about Baez? Baez has played all of 40 games in A ball. Kid's years away. Aside from this, many 3B prospects end up as major league 2B.

Again with this [expletive]. My apologies. I didn't realize speculating about a hypothetical situation that's never going to happen, especially when fans have no impact on the likelihood (or lack thereof) of said situation even occurring, was so offensive. I will go back to adhering to the unwritten rules of baseball message board fandom.

"Two impact prospects" can mean a lot of things. For example, if the Orioles offered Bundy and Machado for Castro, I couldn't get the paperwork in fast enough. It all depends upon your definition of "impact."

Serious question: If it's a lock that the city would make money on this, why aren't there private banks that would be willing to loan the money?

Actually, the Cubs owners already support candidates outside of their work for the Cubs. Laura Ricketts is a fundraising bundler for the Obama Campaign. That must be an awesome Thanksgiving.

i thought theriot was booed. I know he was booed when he came back with the Cardinals. Don't know if he got booed when he was with the Dodgers. Regardless, what's interesting is not the truth of the reaction to Fontenot and Theriot, but the fact that the broadcaster not-so-subtly called out a whole lot of people.

Jumped on here late and didn't see anything earlier in the thread, but I found the Len/Bob exchange during Ramirez's first at bat really interesting. Brenly said something to the effect of "I'm really surprised to see such a tepid reaction to Ramirez in his return to Wrigley, given everything he did for the Cubs in the last eight years. For crying out loud, Theriot and Fontenot, players who didn't accomplish anywhere near what Ramirez did for the Cubs, got stronger positive reactions in their return." I know that Brenly was pretty hard on Ramirez for his (perceived) laziness, but this was about as close as a broadcaster can come to saying "fans unfairly like white players more than guys like Ramirez."

it's so strange seeing that come out of the cubs front office I like this quote almost as much as the trade itself.

I have to believe their intention is to use him in the pen in 2012 with the goal of getting him stretched back out to join the rotation in 13 or 14. You would hope, for their sake, that this is their plan. But then again, screw 'em.

I can't believe that the Padres did this deal, considering they feel Cashner is a bullpen arm. You don't deal your #1 prospect for a bullpen arm, even if you expect it to be a very, very good bullpen arm.

Fun fact: Andrew Cashner is older than both Travis Wood and Chris Volstad.