doschi

Why in Jebus's name are we talking about trading proven talent and/or potential everyday players for pitching, when the 2016 FA market is going to be chock-full of proven starters whom we could potentially sign without giving up any homegrown talent? This boggles my mind.

C Montero/Ross 1B Rizzo 2B Baez/Alcantara SS Russell 3B Castro LF Bryant CF Fowler RF Soler I see no redundancies. I see a stacked freaking lineup.

Depends on if it has been well fed with nacho cheese sauce and thick onion gravy. I've been a lurker for a few years. Can someone point me to the origination of the "thick onion gravy" meme?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-report-cubs-sign-outfielder-chris-denorfia-20141231-story.html Looks like Sully started hitting the New Years juice and/or pipe a little on the early side.

Word on the street is he banged Sandberg's wife.

Meh, RoboDavid has them as like the 20th best franchise. Why would Lester ever pick the Cubs over the Giants if the money is close? Good God. Oh and Jake Arrieta [expletive] sucks. So does Carlos Gomez. [expletive] Carlos Gomez, and [expletive] the Diaz Brothers. I'll bury those [expletive]-a-roaches.

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal 1m1 minute ago Sources: Lester to #Cubs. IS THIS THE REAL OR FAKE ROSENTHAL????????? IT'S THE REAL ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not need to know that that was a thing.

LF Coghlan 3B Valbuena 1B Rizzo RF Soler SS Castro C Montero CF Alcantara 2B La Stella P Lester LaStella over Baez???

http://www.overthemonster.com/2014/12/9/7362385/red-sox-jon-lester-free-agent-rumors-cubs Jon Lester expected to sign with Cubs, say industry insiders According to multiple league sources, there is a growing sense among those in the industry that Lester is leaning towards signing with the Chicago Cubs. Sources have indicated to Over the Monster that the Cubs are making a hard push to sign Lester and the two sides are deeply entrenched in conversation. A final decision will likely come on Tuesday or Wednesday from Lester's camp. The pitching market should fully awaken after Jon Lester decides where he will be playing for the foreseeable future. A report from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports stated on Monday that Lester was choosing between the Cubs and the Giants. WEEI's Rob Bradford spoke to Lester's agent, who denied the report, while further reports mentioned the Red Sox still had to meet with Lester in San Diego. Since then, there has been a holding pattern waiting for Lester's decision, with the perceived favorite and the offers from all four interested clubs the only things changing. San Francisco assistant general manager Bobby Evans told Jim Bowden on Sirius XM that they believe that the Red Sox and Cubs are ahead of them and the Dodgers in the pursuit of Lester, saying that Lester will not be taking the top dollar on the market and is instead following his "heart strings" to his destinations. This likely means the seven-year, $175 million offer reported by Ken Rosenthal on Monday night won't matter to Lester if it's not coming from the right team. Whether this decision means a reunion with Boston and the Red Sox or the chance to reunite with Theo Epstein and Co. in Chicago, where he can attempt to be the ace of the team that finally brings a World Series to the north side, remains to be seen.According to multiple league sources, there is a growing sense among those in the industry that Lester is leaning towards signing with the Chicago Cubs. Sources have indicated to Over the Monster that the Cubs are making a hard push to sign Lester and the two sides are deeply entrenched in conversation. A final decision will likely come on Tuesday or Wednesday from Lester's camp. The pitching market should fully awaken after Jon Lester decides where he will be playing for the foreseeable future. A report from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports stated on Monday that Lester was choosing between the Cubs and the Giants. WEEI's Rob Bradford spoke to Lester's agent, who denied the report, while further reports mentioned the Red Sox still had to meet with Lester in San Diego. Since then, there has been a holding pattern waiting for Lester's decision, with the perceived favorite and the offers from all four interested clubs the only things changing. San Francisco assistant general manager Bobby Evans told Jim Bowden on Sirius XM that they believe that the Red Sox and Cubs are ahead of them and the Dodgers in the pursuit of Lester, saying that Lester will not be taking the top dollar on the market and is instead following his "heart strings" to his destinations. This likely means the seven-year, $175 million offer reported by Ken Rosenthal on Monday night won't matter to Lester if it's not coming from the right team. Whether this decision means a reunion with Boston and the Red Sox or the chance to reunite with Theo Epstein and Co. in Chicago, where he can attempt to be the ace of the team that finally brings a World Series to the north side, remains to be seen.

Source?

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/lester-sweepstakes-giants-cubs-red-sox-dodgers-winter-meetings-scherzer-shields-hot-stove-120914

SN is saying the Dodgers may trade Greinke in order to get Lester, and that the Cubs and Red Sox would be teams to watch if this were to happen. http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2014-12-03/jon-lester-rumors-dodgers-mystery-team-red-sox-cubs-giants-free-agent-athletics Edit: Apparently the original source was MLB Daily Dish: http://www.mlbdailydish.com/2014/12/3/7331013/sources-dodgers-may-shop-zack-greinke-to-make-room-for-free-agent-scherzer-lester http://giphy.com/gifs/explosion-wtf-10YS3ooFq0neiA

http://i.imgur.com/Il0zVhel.jpg Is that ketchup on Eddie's hot dog? Gross.

This kid supposedly had the Hanley or Panda deals before anyone, correct? Yes. He's from outside of St. Louis, but apparently has some contact in the Red Sox FO.

Is it also possibly because Scherzer is considered more of a fly-ball pitcher, and that might not bode well at Wrigley?

According to 14yo internet troll...

The 14-year-old kid who first broke the Sandoval and Hanley signings is now saying that Lester is close to signing with Boston. God, I hope he's wrong. Backstory on the kid: http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/11/24/jake-wesley-mlb-twitter-account-broke-red-sox-signings-of-hanley-ramirez-pablo-sandoval/

Can you elaborate further for those of us who do not have time to hunt for this wonderful news? The fact that 1.3 years of David Price just got acquired for Austin Jackson and Drew Smyly That's not actually the deal. The Rays got Smyly, Franklin and 18-year-old, highly touted SS Willy Adames. Addison Russell is still easily the best player among those three but let's talk about what we're talking about here... Even factoring in Adames, our return is far better. Adames just makes it slightly less lopsided. Perhaps even more so now, considering Hammel is 0-4 with a 9.53 ERA and a 2.12 WHIP in 4 starts for Oakland.

I'm so glad you're not responsible for making any front office decisions.

No thanks.

Now you're onto something. You need a seismograph for something like that. Something really big and you just feel that [expletive]. Just speculating here, but isn't there a player that the Cubs are purportedly trying to sign from a country that is particularly notorious for "seismic" activity, both historically, and with quite recent significance?

Am I the only one that thinks that the recent allegations surrounding Ryan Braun may have at least a minor impact on the Fielder negotiations? The NL Central just got a bit more interesting, depending on how a whole lot of chess moves pan out.

:banghead: