Cubs Fan Dan

Haren could be the perfect buy low sell high type of pitcher Theo would pay for. Especially if he comes on a 1 or 2 year deal. Santana in the NL has always intrigued me. I think either gives us a solid rotation going into next year if Garza is healthy and fits the "you may see a deadline where half of our starting rotation is dealt again."

Im expecting a busy off season with a lot of Upside moves. Cubs trade Soriano to Rays eating majority of salary and acquiring Wade Davis and Ryan Roberts Cubs trade Dejesus, Barney, Jackson, vitters, McNutt to DBaks for Justin Upton Cubs sign BJ Upton 3 yrs 30 mil Cubs sign Stephen Drew 1 yr 8 mil Cubs sign Edwin Jackson 3years 40 mil Stewart resigns 1 year deal CF BJ Upton SS Starlin Castro 1B Anthony Rizzo RF Justin Upton 2B Stephen Drew/ Roberts C Castillo 3B Stewart / Roberts LF Sappelt / LaHair / FA? Lahair Roberts Clevenger Sappelt Cardenas / OF free agent Shark Garza Jackson Wood Davis Marmol Russell Camp Cabrera Beliveau Dolis / some other guy

Rodgers was probably the only reasonable non-RB option to take with the top pick, but I'd have still gone RB. Effective QB's are too easy to get later down the board, imo. But for a first ever FFB draft, that looks pretty good. Like you said though, RB is gonna be your weak area. I would see if anyone would trade you a Ryan Mathews or Forte for Brown or Nicks... something along those lines

12 person yahoo money league ($100 buy in) * - starting QB - *Cutler, Freeman WR - *Hakeem Nicks,*Greg Jennings, *Demaryius Thomas(FLEX), Santonio Holmes, Randall Cobb RB - *Ray Rice, *Steven Ridley, Ryan Mathews(injured), Mike Tolbert TE - *Vernon Davis, Brent Celek K - *Mike Nugent DEF - *SEA 2nd League - ESPN Money League QB - *Michael Vick, Ben Rothlesberger RB - *Ray Rice, *Matt Forte, *Reggie Bush(FLEX), Steven Ridley, Jonathon Stewart WR - *Wes Welker, *Brandon Marshall, Denarious Moore, Michael Crabtree TE - *Tony Gonzalez, Brent Celek DEF - Falcons K - *David Akers Very happy with both of my teams.

I would love to land Lester and build aroud he Shark and Garza. Still confused as to where Boston feels they are at as an organization though.

I envision a busy offseason for the Cubs, a slightly improved record in 2013 and then moving towards all in in 2014. How they could contend in 2013: Rizzo continues to be a masher (not at his current pace) but puts up his first full season line of .280/.340/.540, Castro continues to improve power numbers and hitting aproach, he gets back to .300/.340 but improves slugging to .470ish and improves defensively. BJax comes up and posts a similar avg/obp to his AAA #'s. Welington remains healthy and emerges as starting catcher putting up solid power numbers. Sign some high upside players after a down year (i.e Upton, Liriano, McCarthy, A.Sanchez) Keep Garza, Shark, Wood as a starting point for the rotation. Re-sign Camp, to go with Russel, Cabrera, Beliveau, Corpas, and Marmol. What I see really happening: Garza traded, Marmol traded, Soriano traded, some potential prospect for prospect deals to try to add mid-minor league Arms. Pieces like Szczur, Jackson, Lake, Ha, Vitters etc.. Cubs go into next year extremely young with high upside, continue to tweak roster throughout the year then fill in remainder of holes in 2013 post season free agency. I think 2014 the Cubs become a perenial division contender and possibly sneak into wild card. Their conerstone players in Rizzo and Castro is a great starting point.

Is it possible that the Cubs are giving up something else in this deal they do not want to? Also that the Dodgers need a slight nudge to give the Cubs what they want? I just have a feeling Dempster is helping the Cubs push the Dodgers into giving them Zach Lee for Demp, which then frees up Garza for Texas or a larger bidding war.... It seems like right as the Dempster trade gets leaked the Garza / Dodgers talks got leaked as well. Something about this scenerio seems off, Dempster has continued to speak highly of the direction Theo and Jed are taking the Cubs, knows he was a trade target and knows how media and baseball works. I really doubt he is pissed off and it sounds more likely he wants to go to the Dodgers and the Cubs prefer to get the Dodgers package over the Braves..... :hello:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpT5672AOa8 He kind of reminds me of Marlon Byrd.

In regards to the Cubs offense and need an upgrade i think you hold up a little longer, it may upgrade itself if Soto heats up and Soriano starts hitting for power. I do believe the Cubs need to look for a better long term solution at 2B. I think Stewart starts to get some improved luck that could help as well. This pitching staff has been awesome.

Volstad goes 9 perfect innings and hits an opposite field homer. I think this will actually be a slugfest. Dejesus, LaHair and Stewart all go yard.

With the game being on WCIU is it likely to be Blacked out on ESPN? I forget how this works but I live in Indiana and cannot get WCIU.

IllinoisandCubsarebroke.com

I agree on Darvish and Cespedes but no NL team should fork out 10 years for Albert, whether or not that not a horrible contract is 5 years from being determined.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/spring2012/story/_/id/7772198/2012-spring-training-washington-nationals-option-john-lannan So can we just get the Byrd, Wells and Barney for Lannon and Espinosa! DOOOOOOOOOO IT

I think Castro can hold down third, if the team is going to do anything this year it is going to be because of a many career years from the pitching staff. I think Barney hits .300 this year... Unfortunately his OBP will still be under .330. Soriano has to have a monster season for this team to do anything, unfortunately without medical assistance 36 year olds do not generally do this.

Where's Maholm? I'd assume traded if he's talking years end. Hmm DL or Traded.. Guess i did not think that through :wink:

AL West Angels Rangers - Wild Card 2 Athletics Mariners AL Central Tigers White Sox Indians Royals Twins AL East Yankees Rays - Wild Card Blue Jays Red Sox Baltimore NL West D'Backs Rockies Giants Dodgers Padres NL Central Brewers Reds - WC Cardinals Cubs Pirates Astros NL East Marlins Phillies - WC Braves Nationals Mets Wildcards Rays over Rangers Reds over Phillies Tigers over Rays Angels over Yankes Angels over Tigers Marlins over Reds Brewers over D'Backs Brewers over Marlins Angels over Brewers in 5. AL Cy Young - David Price NL Cy Young - Josh Johnson AL MVP - Miggy Cabrera NL MVP - Hanley Ramirez AL ROY - Yu Darvish NL ROY - Drew Pomeranz AL Comeback POY - Kendry Morales NL Comeback POY - Hanley Ramirez The Cubs enter early July just 5 out and a few games over .500. Theo sticks to his plan and deals Wells, Byrd, DeWitt, Soto, Soriano, Dempster and Marmol before the deadline. Jackson comes up in May and puts up a .260/.355/.450 line slugging 14 homers and stealing 20 bags. Rizzo comes up in June and puts up a .280/.350/.470 line hitting 20 bombs in just under 400 at bats. Cubs lineup/rotation at years end is: CF Jackson RF DeJesus SS Castro 1B Rizzo LF Sappelt/Lahair 3B Stewart/Vitters 2B Barney/Cardenas C Castillo/ Clevenger Garza - signs 5 yrs 65 mil deal Samardjiza Volstad Wood Rusin/JJax

I actually think the rotation keeps the Cubs in the race until the deadline. Improvements from Volstad/Demp, Maholm/Garza maintain, and an emergence by Shark and this is a damn solid rotation.

Top 10: 1. Justin Upton 2. Andrew McCutchen 3. Matt Weiters 4. Giancarlo Stanton 5. Eric Hosmer 6. Evan Longoria 7. Mike Trout 8. Starlin Castro 9. Bryce Harper 10. David Price Man, the 2017 Yankees are going to be stacked. So will the 2017 Cubs

Rizzo bomb ...I rizz'd in my pants.

Shark is closing by mid season an goes 21 for 23 in saves. Marmol struggles as closer and eventually re-discovers himself as a 7 inning guy. Garza posts a 16-10 season with a 2.98 era Wells and Volstad suck Demp and Wood finish with a sub 4 ERA The Cubs get production from Jackson and struck in spot starts and relief.

Castro reaches a .311/.355/.460 year with 17 homers and 29 steals. Stewart crushes righties and continues to struggle versus lefties, Vitters gets a late June call up after destroying Iowa gets 300 ML at bats putting up a solid .280/.320/.440 line. LaHair ha a huge first couple of weeks and then sucks. Rizzo is called up late May and hits .260/.350/.455 for remainder of the year. Soriano posts just above an .800 ops in 420 AB's Dejesus does not bounce back as planned Byrd gets off to a strong start and is traded mid season. Jackson shows flashes of power and speed but struggles to hit over .240. Soto hits .260/.360/.460 and reaches 20 bombs and 85 rbis Sappelt fills in as backup after Johnson hurts his back, takes over has full time back up hitting close to .300.

hopefully oldstyle

They do? I think so. Pitching-wise, it's weak. But you do have McNutt, Maples, Rhee, Concepcion, and Wells. All have a shot at becoming rotation guys. Position players have more upside with Brett, Baez, Szczur, Vitters, Vogelbach, Hernandez, Candelario, Golden, Rizzo, Torreyes, and Lake. If you add Soler to this group, our position players are probably just about as strong as anyones. I am really interested to see what Vogelbach, Baez, Candelario do over a full season. Torreyes and Golden could make big jumps this year with success at their next levels. I think Golden will be a guy to watch this year, the average may not shoot up but if he gets 400 AB's or so I would not be shocked if he hits 18-20 homers in A ball. Agree on Soler, adding him makes our potential offensive core of Castro, Jackson, Rizzo, Szczur, Soler, Torreyes, Castillo and maybe Vitters very appealing.

LaHair and Stewart will find that section 50 times this year, book it! Let's hope they are playing at the time.