jumbo

I would not be able to tolerate LaRussa's constant victim mentality

Thanks for the reply. I figured I was missing somebody, and I hope that next year isn't completely lost for Whitenack. If he heals at a normal rate he should be ready by middle of the year?

What do you expect the rotations to be in Iowa/Tennessee next year? Iowa: JJax, Coleman, Cabrera, Struck, Rusin Tennessee: Rhee, Whitenack, McNutt, Antigua, Searle/Suarez/Jokisch

Do you think there's ANY chance that Kurcz sticks as a starter? Does he have a decent third pitch to go along with his two plus pitches? Stamina? Thanks

What are his MLE's? Does anyone here buy into those calculations?

OK, I'll try this out There are 7 FA Spots that will open up after the season: Pena, Grabow, Wood (could be back), Lopez, Ortiz, Johnson, Montanez There are 3 players with options, 1 40-man spot will open up: Ramirez - Cubs will pick up his option, Ramirez will opt out. Samardzija - Cubs will decline his option which still keeps him under club control due to service time Dempster - player option. Possible for him to opt out given poor SP market this offseason. Only loyalty would keep him here. There are 5 player with MLB contracts for 2012, 1 40-man spot will open up eventually: Soriano, Zambrano (likely to be released, still counts on the 40 man for the time being), Byrd, Marmol, Marshall, There are 5 players arbitration eligible for 2012, 1-2 spots could open up: Garza, Soto, Baker, Hill (should be non tendered by new GM), Wells, DeWitt (could be non tendered by new GM) There are 19 autorenewal players for 2012, 3+ spots should open up: Keep: Castro, Colvin, Cashner, Russell, Barney, Campana, Carpenter, Castillo, Dolis, Gaub, LeMahieu Cut: Berg, Caridad, Schlitter Could go either way: Mateo, Cabrera, Coleman, Maine, Smit So as a rough figure, we should have 12 spots available on the 40 man. We would need to have slots available for FA signings, so maybe the Rule 5 draft will tell us something based on how many spots are left open. I'm not sure of the timing/sequence of the options versus rule 5 and FA.

If they call up Flaherty they will have to add them to the 40 man either now or in December. Jackson would cost them a 40 mam spot though, since he doesn't have to be protected this offseason.

That fills in a lot of gaps

I think Evan Crawford should get a look. Rohan has done well since his promotion.

I'm hoping that this disappointing season has convinced Ricketts to jump-start the development side of the equation. If he tried to get twice as many impact players in the draft w/overslots I wouldn't be surprised given their public statements about developing players.

Read on another site that Shoulders will sign.

If the Cubs decline the option on Aramis can they offer him arbitration and still get compensation? It seems like a safe move to me assuming he wants a multi-year deal this offseason. I had read some speculation that any trade would require the trading team to turn down his option so that he can be a FA. If he gets to type A it seems like a slam dunk to me.

Trading Gorz didn't make sense to a lot of people, but at that time, the cubs had Silva, Cashner, Wellenmeyer, Looper fighting for the 5th spot and Jay Jackson "ready to go" at Iowa. I thought they should have stuck Gorz in the pen until Silva got hurt. Using this logic Cashner would never get out of the pen. That said, I think they should have let him start the season in Iowa and wait for an injury or his dominance in Iowa to get him into the ML rotation. Ultimately, the rotation's had more injuries than in recent memory, and it's really affected Wells in particular (or he's just this good naturally).

I think it's more likely that Bautista improved his eye or plate discipline somewhere along the line. The idea that if you don't have the right plate discipline as a young hitter you'll never get it seems hard to believe. I'm sure that guys who understand the strike zone young end up better than those who don't, but I still think people can grow into it.

I've heard this comp before and would be happy if that's the case. If ARAM is back at third next year he will invariable need some days off or have some minor injuries that keep him out for days at a time. If Flaherty can be a lefty DeRo then we won't miss Jeff Baker when he's traded.

Are you counting a dribbler off the end of the bat that gets past Barney/Pena a hit to the infield or outfield? In Garza's first few starts it seemed like these were the only hits against him. He produced weak contact but the balls went for hits anyway. Sure, BABIP is an indication of a hard hit ball, for hitters and pitchers, but if every hard hit ball was a liner right at someone and all that weak contact turned into outs Garza would look like a God this year.

Love this organizational depth at CF

Hey - that's me!!!

What are some opinions on Carpenter? I love that he can light it up, but he doesn't seem to have had a lot of recent success. I imagine that him being up with the Cubs is to see what he's got before the decision on him sticking on the 40 man. Any thoughts on him? He's kind of struggled ever since the Cubs put him in the pen, but I think it was the right move for him. He certainly can amp up the velo more now and seeing him for a much shorter period also helps out some with his command issues. For him to become an elite bullpen arm, that's going to be the hurdle he needs to jump. That said, I'm not all that worried about what his numbers looked like down in the minors this year. For all we know, the Cubs had told him to work on certain things, results be damned. The eye test tells me that he's not overmatched at the highest level though and we need all the help we can get. I think it's mainly just him getting comfortable in this role and then he'll be fine. I think he could wind up as a very nice setup guy for us longterm. Thanks I think if he can fill the role that Cashner was slotted for last year as the 7th inning righty ahead of Marshall and Marmol that could be a great 7/8/9 pen. However, Cashner may be there next year, too. Does anyone think that the Cubs will continue to try him as a starter or will he immediately be relegated to pen duty following his injury? Obviously it all depends on how his rehab goes, but just wondering what thoughts are now

What are some opinions on Carpenter? I love that he can light it up, but he doesn't seem to have had a lot of recent success. I imagine that him being up with the Cubs is to see what he's got before the decision on him sticking on the 40 man. Any thoughts on him?

I just read this earlier today. Made me think that Vitters needs to spend all this season in AA and at least another year in the minors so he can focus on pitch selection. I wouldn't mind if he never walks a lot, but he needs to focus on swinging at hitter's pitches instead of anything he can get his bat on. I'm sure this has been said before, but it is nice to see someone in the scouting profession believe at least somewhat in Vitters. It's hard to be patient waiting for these young guys to develop when the big league team is so hard to watch.

I think that is a very good point. The top run scoring lineups (other than the Yankees and Red Sox) don't have a lot of great offensive players. They typically have 1 great bat and the rest of the team is filled out with minimal bad hitters getting tons of ABs. Cincy has Votto as the great bat, with Jay Bruce having an argument...but none of the other guys with over 125 ABs have lower than a .722 OPS. And the guys with the .722 OPS for the Reds are Rolen and Phillips who are outstanding defensive players. Arizona is up there in runs scored. They have Upton as the great bat, with only Kelly Johnson of the regulars under .730 OPS. I'd like Vitters to be an .850 OPS type player at any of the corners of the IF or OF. But if all he's going to be a is a .750 OPS guy, then they key is to have 5-6 regulars that are better hitters than he is, and 1-2 others who aren't significantly worse than that. I could see him being like a Martin Prado or a Hunter Pence with a little less power. I'd be fine with that. I like looking at a prospect from the perspective of can he be a piece of a winning team and what would have to be around him in order for him to be a good fit. Smart take. Never looked at it like that. That's similar to what I was thinking about the Cubs system. The typical take is lots of depth, but no clear cut stars. My thinking is that if the Cubs can fill out 5-6 position spots with good production at reasonable cost, then they should be able to afford to go buy a couple solid bats. Similar thinking on the rotation. If the farm system can produce #2, 3, 4, then we should be able to go buy a #1. A fifth starter will come along through the minors or a cheap FA.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/split/79/sort/OPS/order/true OPS by position. Half of the teams in mlb have left-field OPS of less than .710. Only two have LF OPS over .817 (Milwaukee and Cardinals, of course). Only five teams other than the Cubs have LF OPS above .790. Sixteen big-league teams have 1B-OPS of less than .780. Only nine teams have 1B-OPS higher than .832. I think it's within the range of plausibility that Vitters will improve his power or production so that he become an asset hitter relative to LF, perhaps even relative to 1B. Other positional notes: 2B: Only 5 teams with OPS over .760. 3B: Only 4 teams have ten 3B HR's. Only two have 3B OPS over .780. 21 Teams have 3B OPS below .720! 19 Teams have 5 or fewer 3B HR's. Given the poverty of 3B hitting and power, I think it's with the range of plausibility that Lemahieu could become an asset hitter relative to 3B, even if his HR power never evolves past 8-10 per year. Obviously what's plausible and what actually happens gor Vitters and Lemahieu may differ. But I don't think their hitting potential is unsuited to LF and 3B. According to BR, there are 79 players with career OPS of 780 or above (min 3000 PA), by position: 1B: 20 2B: 5 3B: 11 SS: 4 LF: 8 CF: 9 RF: 13 C: 5 DH: 4 I'm not sure how relevant you'll find this, but the last post made me curious As a follow up to this, here are the Cubs players who have an OPS higher than 780 (this season): 1.086 - Reed Johnson 0.837 - Jeff Baker 0.829 - Alfonso Soriano 0.822 - Carlos Zambrano 0.810 - Kosuke Fukudome 0.781 - Starlin Castro Just Missed: 0.765 - Marlon Byrd 0.763 - Carlos Pena 0.728 - Aramis Ramirez

What OPS would Vitters have to maintain as a major league player to make him a success? Feel free to answer by position if that makes it easier.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/split/79/sort/OPS/order/true OPS by position. Half of the teams in mlb have left-field OPS of less than .710. Only two have LF OPS over .817 (Milwaukee and Cardinals, of course). Only five teams other than the Cubs have LF OPS above .790. Sixteen big-league teams have 1B-OPS of less than .780. Only nine teams have 1B-OPS higher than .832. I think it's within the range of plausibility that Vitters will improve his power or production so that he become an asset hitter relative to LF, perhaps even relative to 1B. Other positional notes: 2B: Only 5 teams with OPS over .760. 3B: Only 4 teams have ten 3B HR's. Only two have 3B OPS over .780. 21 Teams have 3B OPS below .720! 19 Teams have 5 or fewer 3B HR's. Given the poverty of 3B hitting and power, I think it's with the range of plausibility that Lemahieu could become an asset hitter relative to 3B, even if his HR power never evolves past 8-10 per year. Obviously what's plausible and what actually happens gor Vitters and Lemahieu may differ. But I don't think their hitting potential is unsuited to LF and 3B. According to BR, there are 79 players with career OPS of 780 or above (min 3000 PA), by position: 1B: 20 2B: 5 3B: 11 SS: 4 LF: 8 CF: 9 RF: 13 C: 5 DH: 4 I'm not sure how relevant you'll find this, but the last post made me curious