Sever82

Wes (Wrigleyville) Is Starlin Castro the top SS prospect in the minors? top 3? Jim Callis (2:13 PM) For me, yes. My top three are Castro, Alcides Escobar and Dee Gordon, with Grant Green right behind Gordon.

Really no way? really? I guess you have a crystal ball in your room i'm guessing. The guy is making a guess at what could happen. Its definitely a possibility, its all based on potential, it either pans out or it doesn't, so yes, it is a possibility.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/01/dodgers-resign-ronnie-belliard.html If Belliard signed for this much, what will hudson sign for. I mean he's still asking for 7 million range according to levine. Any chance the cubs pick him up for 2 million

Its Nady according to Heyman

Ha ha wow Mcgwire is dumb for thinking he would lie and everyone would believe him. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4849158 Nice piece on the dealer who gave Mcgwire his roids.

Man i read this so wrong at first. The Angels are picking up all but 2 million left on GMJr deal, so they're picking up 21 million. at first i read it the other way around and thought the Mets were picking up most of his deal which would mean they might be out of the race for sheets.

http://nybaseballdigest.com/?p=20559 Not much but it says Sheets is likely to go the Rangers and that the Rangers will make a strong push for Sheets.

I wouldn't beat yourself for it. If you look at other boards, they'll point to steroids when they see soto lose so much weight, despite the fact that the guy has always been a fatass and his first full year, he did pretty well because he lost 10-15lbs. I remember an interview during his rookie season in which he said he was doing so well because he lost the weight and he can get around on balls faster. Last year he couldn't catch up to a lot of pitches. I think he'll do fine this year and still hit between 15-20 hrs. I think his average will go up. Now its up to him to keep that weight off and maybe add some muscle

I confirm he was just on cbs2 chicago. He definitely looks thin, thin like ramirez did. Said he did it to surprise and show he is serious about playing.

You aren't even coming close to addressing the topic that is being discussed. How am I not coming close, you're implying that Byrd's deal is going to be in that category of bad deals for the cubs in the upcoming years. Dont know how Byrd's deal fits into the same category of Zambrano, Dempsters, etc. When we haven't seen Byrd put a Cubs Uniform. The Cubs are in a bad situation with some of their long term deals but i wouldn't put Byrd in that category, at least not yet.

And Dempster and Zambrano, and Byrd. Still a fairly significant amount. The problem is they have guys signed longterm, but not their best players. Ramirez and Lee are going to be gone or have big deals of their own. It's not an inescapable hell, but it's a really big problem, that is going to take work to avoid. I'm sure Byrd's 6 million or so will be a huge burden on the Cubs payroll. Zambrano's contract will be a burden but it also depends on how he performs, if he performs like the 18 win season he had a couple years back then it wont be such a burden. Same thing applies to Dempster, as for Byrd, i dont think you can count him in this category until you see how he performs. If he has a Mark Derosa type stint with the cubs, he'll be worth his deal. As for Lee and Ramirez, Ramirez will probably get another decent sized deal for 4-5 years. As Much as i like the guy, i hope the cubs are smart enough to either trade him this season if they feel he'll opt out or let him walk and get the picks. Ramirez is too much of an injury risk to sign long term and you already have one in Soriano. Lee on the other hand will probably take a pay cut to stay with the cubs, he has been asked to wave his no trade to a west coast team and also to a winning team and he has declined both times and has been very public on his desire to stay a Cub.

Did Bruce ever chime in on this discussion? I've been trying to keep up with his blogs on DH, but haven't seen him comment yet. I'm guessing that the Cubs are simply involved only if the price for Sheets is bargain basement price, which I doubt will happen with all of the interest. I have seen anything from Bruce, but during the MLBTR live chat yesterday, someone asked the % chance they felt that Sheets would land with the Cubs and they said 15%. ehh i wouldn't look to much into that. Tim Dierkes who does the MLBTR chat doesn't really have any inside information, he posts information thats already on the web or from people who send him articles and what not. Its based off his opinion, pretty much as a poster on this board posted a percentage, he's not a bruce miles type who has people inside the organization that he speaks to. I also wouldn't buy too much of bruce levine's report in which he feels there is zero chance or that sheets will only end up being a cub if he takes a 1 million deal because thats all they have in the budget. The fact that cubs are watching him throw should tell you a lot. The Cubs know that sheets wont sign for 1 million or 3 million. They know he'll end up getting a contract in the 4-6 million range with incentives that might double it. Cubs probably want to see if he's worth it and if he's throwing well before looking more into sheets. Supposedly sheets also prefers the cubs over some other teams. Not sure who his top teams are to go to but supposedly the cubs are one of them. He's friends with theriot and some of the other cubs so i wouldn't be surprised.

According to MLBTR, Tigers are going after Damon. I dont really get the tigers, why would they sign valverde and maybe sign Damon but yet trade Granderson. I would rather keep Granderson than acquire Valverde and Damon. Its not like the Tigers got a future star in the Granderson deal. They could probably even waited Valverde out and signed him for less than they did end up signing him for.

Signing Sheets may be stupid if it's another bad contract. Also, someone here said MLB Network was reporting he was topping out at 90? If that doesn't increase, i pass. Of course but correct me if i'm wrong on this, wasn't sheets suppose to start throwing later this month? Didnt know he had already started. Also in regards to Muskats report, its pretty much what we already know. Cubs aren't going to sign sheets unless his demands go down big time.

Some of those don't seem like big losses, because some of those players regressed even when they were healthy, and because other people stepped up. But, if you looked at them preseason, compared them to their 2008 team, and said that they'll lose their #2, #3, and #4 RBI men to significant time, as well as losing their wins leader for much of the season and a former Cy Young for part of it as well, you would hardly say that they caught a break on the injury front as compared to the Cubs. Thats the key though because the players they had go down weren't exactly big time producers. Lohse could easily be produced and glaus hasn't been much since he tested positive for PEDs if i remember. The cubs injuries were more costly because they lost players like Ramirez, Zambrano, Soto, Lilly, etc and not to mention Soriano playing on a bum knee for most of the season. It would've been as if the cards lost Carpenter, Pujols and Molina for extended period of time. Not to say Ramirez is as good as pujols or zambrano is as good as carpenter but both mean as much to their teams as those players do.

The Cubs had injury prone guys get injured. Zambrano isn't injury prone, neither is Soto, Ramirez is injury prone. Lilly isn't injury prone.

But the Cubs had worse luck. The cubs had more injuries and more down years than the Cardlinals. Looking at both teams lineups, i dont think the cards are a clear favorite. The Cards have just as many holes in their lineup as the cubs. The Cubs no doubt have a brighter future than the Cards in my opinion because their Farm system is way better and they're a big market team that can spend. I agree with the statement that pujols wont give the cards a discount on his next contract. Pujols next contract will be his big payday and will set his family up for life. Why would pujols take a discount when he has done nothing but give the cardinals his all everygame.

I think this is a bad contract by the cardinals, not a bad signing but a bad contract. They probably slightly overpaid because i would've given holliday more time outside of coors before justifying such a contract but most importantly, they had no competition in signing holliday and bid against themselves big time. When the Cubs overpaid soriano, they at least knew that a handful of teams would offer him a contract above 100 million. With Holliday and this economy, who did the cards actually think would bid for holliday? Maybe the Red Sox, but thats a maybe since they haven't really been rumored to have been offering him a deal and the yankees were never interested cause they felt they had their outfield settled with Granderson. But I'm wondering if someone could name one team that would come remotely close that deal. I feel they could've gotten away with a contract very similar to Bay's deal. The Cards definitely are the team to beat in the NL central but i wouldn't put the cubs too far off. The Cubs have a better bullpen and rotation as hard as that is to believe because once you get passed wainwright and Carpenter, the cards have three average or below average starters. The cards do have the advantage with the everyday lineup but if the cubs stay healthy and if the players who had down years bounce back, you could argue the cubs lineup is right there with the cards.

Out of all the possibilities out there, i think i'd rank the signing i want in this order Sheets (If healthy, he would be the Ace or Number two) Bedard Hudson/Lopez/Cabrera ( I would be happy with either three) Calero

I think its a good move and we should reserve judgement until spring training to see what other moves hendry does. If all he does is this Byrd signing then yes, its a bad offseason. But since he continues to try to save flexibility for this year, it means he's looking to do more moves. I think hendry will end up signing hudson, cabrera or lopez plus a bullpen arm like calero. Or he'll gamble and sign sheets and hope moving silva to the bullpen would be enough, we'll see.

Yes. I'd argue no when you consider the limited budget and other places we need help. Obviously Byrd is better, I just don't know for this team right now. I think its fine. Its not an expensive contract and Byrd's year last year was the most playing time he has seen in a full season. Kind of reminds me of Derosa's season in Texas before he signed with the cubs. I think it will end up being a solid good contract.

As soon as i saw three year i was real mad. But then i saw 15 mil over three years and thats not bad at all. Eventhough its backloaded this isn't a bad contract.

It was on Jim Callis' chat yesterday on espn.com. He said he ranked Castro 13th on this list and that Vitters and Brett Jackson would be ranked in the 51-75 range.

With Soriano you knew what you were getting because his numbers were consistant. Holliday's numbers were pretty good in Colorado but he struggled a bit in Oakland which was the first time away from Colorado's launching pad. If I'm a Cards fan i'm more worried on whether the real Holliday is the Oakland Holliday or the Holliday that played in St. Louis. Just like some cubs fans didnt like the Bradley signing and dont like the idea of the Byrd signing because they both played in hitters parks so their stats might be a bit overblown. i think the same thing can be said somewhat about Holliday. Since Boras is Holliday's agent, i can see Holliday getting the 18 million annually he's looking for at maybe 6-8 years which would be a huge mistake in my opinion. We'll see though. i will laugh my butt off if come august Soriano's line is better than Hollidays.

I'm starting to sense a Vernon Wells/Alfonso Soriano type of mistake for the Cards. which is fine with me because then the Cards can't tease Cubs fans about overpaying Soriano. You can put it anyway you want but Holliday is not worth 18 million per yr. I thought Bay's contract was bad but if Holliday's deal gets up to 8yrs, it will be worse.