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.

"Should sexual assault accusations be reported, and who's names should appear" is an argument even I don't feel like having. That's a humongous sinkhole of complications and suck. It actually wasn't that part I was thinking of. It was more of the timing and/or the sourcing. There was nothing reported whatsoever on either of the two dailies' websites, which means they're having trouble getting confirmation of any kind.

It's very interesting that no other major outlets are writing about the story yet (as of 9 am), and that the reporter on SCR felt the need to explain why it was newsworthy at this moment. Might be an interesting journalistic ethics investigation (for those who find that stuff interesting).

Fixed.

an actual vision for the future and not taking on more bad contracts. let's be realistic, the cubs' core was lousy and the only way the cubs were going to be any good in 2012 was to make at least a couple of expensive free agent signings or trade the few good prospects we have for good major league players on other teams. Making the 2012 Cubs winners would have taken Fielder or Pujols, Ramirez and 1 of Wilson or Darvish which would have costed over 50 mil assuming 22-26 mil for Fielder or Pujols, 12 mil for Ramirez, and 16-18 mil for Darvish or Wilson. Also, add in the 4.5 for DeJesus which would be a great addition if we went that direction. Doable considering however much money came off the books from Fukudome(11) Pena(5) Bradley/Silva(?) and Grabow(4.5) and we could have backloaded a bit due to even more coming off the books after 2012 in Z, Demp, and Byrd. None of this mortgages the future. Now in this world, the Z trade would have been more palatable and a rotation of Darvish/Wilson, Garza, Demp, Wood(assuming that trade went down), and Volstad doesn't look half bad. There'd also be room to trade Byrd or Soriano for prospects or cash. Assuming the Stewart trade went down and he could play 2nd, the lineup could be DeJesus, Castro, Ramirez, Fielder, Byrd/Sori, Stewart, Soto, Jackson. Doesn't look bad to me. Bullpen solid with Marmol, Wood, Cashner, Shark, Russell, Carpenter, and Beliveau. Would have been expensive but good and we wouldn't have had to give up any prospects to get there. What would it look like 4 years from now? Who knows but that's where the front office dream team comes in. You need to prorate the posting fee on Darvish, which was 51 , plus the salary (according to BP, around 5/$75), which would put you at $25 mil for Darvish. Wilson turned down $100 mil from the marlins so it would have probably taken at least 20 for him. You're talking an outlay of $65-70 for a team that might contend his year, but still has major holes in the rotation (especially if Wilson or Darvish are no better than a 3, which many believe).

Or they're building the team for long-term purposes exactly like they said they were going to do. What? Z's gone after this year and if the news is true they are getting no salary relief. Volstad is not a building block, he's a non-tender candidate. I think Theo was given his orders. It's great that you think that. You're probably wrong.

Or they're building the team for long-term purposes exactly like they said they were going to do.

Yea, I don't normally buy into chemistry arguments. Ever. But Zambrano is pretty much the definition of the exception to that belief. I'll ask the same question I asked about Milton Bradley. Who on the team last year struggled due to Zambrano's presence? Zambrano did.

MLB Official confirms: MLB @MLB ·More OFFICIAL: @Cubs acquire LHP Travis Wood, OF Dave Sappelt and Minor League INF Ronald Torreyes from @Reds for LHP Sean Marshall.

Five pages of OH NOES! for the signing of a fifth outfielder? Jesus. This place has gone off the rails.