Sever82

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4556560 WILMINGTON, Del. -- The sale of the Chicago Cubs moved closer Tuesday as a bankruptcy court judge said the team can go to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts in a $845 million deal. The judge had already cleared Tribune Co. to sell the team and Wrigley Field. But he gave his approval again Tuesday because the Cubs filed separately for Chapter 11 protection on Monday. The team cited assets of $1.42 billion and liabilities of $1.26 billion, but the Cubs' finances weren't in question. The bankruptcy filing was made to ensure that the team can't be hit with claims by Tribune creditors, because the ballclub wasn't covered when Tribune filed for Chapter 11 last December. The Ricketts family's deal for the Cubs could close in a couple of weeks, according to Don Liebentritt, Tribune's general counsel. The deal -- which involves a record price for a major league team -- has been approved by the other baseball owners. After taxes and fees, Chicago-based Tribune, which owns newspapers and TV stations, expects to reap about $740 million from unloading most of its stake in the baseball team. Tribune will maintain a 5 percent stake. Ricketts is the founder of Omaha, Neb.-based TD Ameritrade

I know this rotation would have a lot of health question marks but can imagine if the cubs traded away Z and then turned around to resign harden, sign sheet and sign Webb. A Rotation of Webb, Sheets, Harden, Lillly and Dempster would be amazing when healthy. But then again i'm dreaming, in that dream scenario the cubs would trade Z to the Yankees for Cano.

I definitely could live with a trade of Z for Escobar and Vazquez. Moving Theriot to 2nd would make me very happy :D . This offseason to me is going to be like the bulls offseason in 2010. I could see the cubs moving a decent amount of pieces. The only players on the roster i see the cubs not moving are Ramirez, Soriano, Lee, Marmol, Dempster, Lilly, Soto, Theriot.

hmmm how about Harden and Soto for Mauer LOL or Heilman for Lincecoum, ok ok Heilman for Cain.

What kind of racist crap is that?

It would probably take and i wouldn't mind parting with it: Vitters, Marmol, Shark, Wells, Fox and possibly Jay Jackson and maybe even Cashner. I would trade that for felix.

I'll be $100 that Hendry just is going to Deal either Fox, Hoffpauir, Jackson or another decent prospect in this trade. I'll guarantee people will be dissapointed in what he trades for and who he gives up.

Zack Duke? If the Cubs trade anything of value for just Grabow, Hendry needs to be fired.

Can anyone confirm this, my brother told me that on Comcast Sportnet, they mentioned Fox might be traded for a reliever? Are you kidding me if this is true? I also heard Jay Jackson might be moved for a reliever. If Hendry overpays for garbage like Grabow, i'm going to be greatly dissapointed. Jake Fox isn't a stud prospect but man he's worth more than that garbage.

Clemens did the same thing in an interview before he was busted.

To me its funny how the NY media bashes Ortiz and Ramirez because they were part of the 2003 world champion boston Red Sox. The only Yankee that has come out on that list has been Arod, i find it hard to believe he was the only yankee and i find it hard to believe the NY media doesn't know of another Met or Yankee on that list.

Not sure if this deserves its own thread but since the Indians look to be unloading their roster, would you guys be opposed to dealing bradley to them for Wood? I mean wouldn't it be the same years and money?

blue jays will demand a king's ransom to trade him within the division. which is why nothing has happened. They want Joba AND Hughes from the Yankees, or Bucholz, Lowrie, and some top prospects from the BoSox I was wondering if anyone else felt this way, but doesn't anyone else feel the red sox and Yankee prospects are overhyped by the Media, such as ESPN? I mean they mention these prospects all the time and none of them has really panned out to anything except for maybe Joba and Joba really isn't that impressive to me. I just feel it sucks that the prospects for both these teams get overhyped to the point where people start to think these prospects are up there as far as farm systems. I mean wasn't Melky Cabrera regarded as a top prospect and to this day still mentioned as a center piece in trades when the dude has been "ok" but not as great as some people made him out to be. I mean man, i know more about the Yankee and Red Sox prospects than i do about the cubs.

He got off to a very slow start in his first 2 weeks. In the last 2 weeks he's hitting .363 with some pop. We'll see how he looks in his second trip around the league. Yeah, I think of him as a former elite prospect and a future All-Star. He's hitting .340 with 2hrs and 9 Rbis, i wouldn't exactly call that a tear or some pop. He has had a good couple of weeks but i wouldn't exactly say this is the true Beckham. What if he slumps the next two weeks, would you say he's in a funk or that he sucks?

I wouldn't call .265/.339/.418/.758 with a .252 EqA proving he can hit well in the majors. Those are decent numbers, but not anything that makes me think he's a certain productive major leaguer. He is doing that at 22, though. It's very hard to compare Vitters and Beckham because Vitters is still just 19 and didn't play in college. Beckham is a much more refined hitter who is 3 years older and did play in college. Two completely different players at this point. Isn't Fox only 4yrs older than Beckham and hitting the ball better? I know Beckham was a highly regarded collegiate player and a 1st round pick but to this point, wouldn't you say Fox is the better player or at least better hitter of the two?

Take anything Mully, Hanley, Boers, Bernstein, or any of the other radio bunch says with a grain of salt. Pretty much, it just had me thinking. I keep forgetting which one of Mully or Hanley is the supposed Cubs fan. Everytime i hear him talk about the cubs or white sox i start to believe that he's more a white sox fan than a cubs fan. They always seem to talk positively about the Sox and their organization but yet are quick to talk smack about the cubs. I guess thats what you get when you listen to a sox radio station, i'm pretty sure when they began the show, the producers looked at them and said, "well one of you needs to be a cubs fan or else it would look bad on us if we have two sox fans talking about chicago baseball." In all of those shows, they're pretty much fans of whichever team happens to be doing well at the time. Back when the White Sox were struggling to score runs, they were the most pathetic team on earth and they should have had a fire sale then and there. Now the White Sox are the best thing since individually wrapped slices of american cheese. Pretty much, i like listening to ESPN 1000 though because Silvy, Harry and Yurko to me sound like Legit cub fans. They express their frustration with the team but they never turn their back on the team or say its over and blah blah. Carmen Defalco also sounds like a true white sox fan and he's really honest when it comes to whether or not the sox suck or not. To me when listening to 670 the score it just seems like all the baseball talk goes through a sox filter.

Beckham is hitting .261, does that make him a stud prospect? i mean he's had a few good games lately but with such a small sample i doubt that proves he can hit MLB Level pitching.

Take anything Mully, Hanley, Boers, Bernstein, or any of the other radio bunch says with a grain of salt. Pretty much, it just had me thinking. I keep forgetting which one of Mully or Hanley is the supposed Cubs fan. Everytime i hear him talk about the cubs or white sox i start to believe that he's more a white sox fan than a cubs fan. They always seem to talk positively about the Sox and their organization but yet are quick to talk smack about the cubs. I guess thats what you get when you listen to a sox radio station, i'm pretty sure when they began the show, the producers looked at them and said, "well one of you needs to be a cubs fan or else it would look bad on us if we have two sox fans talking about chicago baseball."

Listening to sports radio yesterday today on both 670 and 1000, i still dont get how people regard Beckham as an untouchable prospect. Listening Mully and Hanley this morning when the subject about trading Beckham for Halladay they both quickly responded by saying that they wouldn't trade Beckham in a trade for Halladay and then when comparing what the cubs could offer to what the sox could offer, they said the cubs dont have a beckham in their farm system. So Vitters quickly came to mind for me, I know Beckham is older but who of the two do you think GMs think is a better prospect. I'm not sure of who has the better minor league numbers so does anyone actually think beckham is the hands down better prospect or is this basically inconclusive for now.

Isn't Harden Canadian? Would a package of Vitters, marshall, Harden, Wells, Castillo be enough?

Just curious on this issue but is it time for ownership to Fire Hendry? I mean Fukudome is a bust and i've been backing this guy up for the longest. Soriano is awful way to waste so much money, Bradley is another waster, and the derosa trade was hated by fans and is proving to be a mistake. As much as i hate to admit it, If kenny williams was able to work with the payroll hendry has been, the cubs would no doubt have better talent on the field. I mean i doubt hendry or even piniella will be fired but one of them has to go in my opinion. Especially Lou, how do you continue to put someone in the leadoff role that has an on base under .300.

Hanley definitely will be the starting SS in the NL. As for Theriot, he could be tearing it up hitting .315 15hr 60 rbis by the break and he still wont make the all star team. Because of hype ESPN and other New york media outlets will give Reyes, there is little doubt in my mind that he will be selected into the All star team. Same thing with david wright. There is always a guarantee that both new york teams and also the red sox will have a strong presence in the all star game no matter what.

But that's only because their pitchers don't have any control. Ryan Dempster on the other hand has perfect control and can't accidentally miss his spot. Wow i hope you're kidding because if you aren't, that has to be the dumbest post i've ever read on this board to say that Dempster has perfect control.

has anybody posted the fact that Dempster is garbage. I've been saying it all offseason, you dont pay Dempster Ace type money after one career yr. Sorry but Dempster is not worth the money he was paid.

Not to bring Peavy Talk or trade talk into this but the obvious move would have been to send down guzman or patton but since you can't do either, they let go of the older vet. I think the Cubs still intend to trade Guzman away in some sort of deal and still feels he has value. His numbers dont show it until this point but Guzman still has value in a bigger trade as a piece to include. Patton to me is someone the Cubs want to keep because they feel he has upside and looking at him throw, i feel he's a good piece to keep. Eventhough Vizcaino hadn't given up an earned run, doesn't mean he was a good pitcher, look at his past two seasons out of the pen. I'd rather keep the kid who throw 95 plus than the old vet who's seeing his velocity decline. But like i said, i still think the cubs intend on making some sort of trade for either Peavy or another big time player. I would've liked the cubs to send down Cotts and bring up Stevens.