Conky

no, that's pretty damn high for a middle reliever. he's a pretty good middle reliever but not an elite one. he's averaged barely more than 50 innings the last 3 years and his whip during that time is 1.355. he should probably be making like $2-2.5m. If we can get him for 2.5 it would be great or even three with incentives, When we aren't in it in July we trade him and Bird as a package to a contender. That's if he is not on the DL with a blister. If you sign him at all, do it because he's Kerry Wood. Don't then suggest trading him for whatever you can get at the deadline. Just. No.

Every time we trade someone, we should throw a massive party, where Tom, Theo, Jed, and the gang get to do the Limbo. Bar gets lowered each time payroll drops. I know we were a high payroll team with low payroll results. I was, though, hoping we would move to a high payroll team with high payroll results, rather than match the low payroll results with a low payroll. While I understand the need to go through a transition, it doesn't take a high priced front office to get poor results while saving the owner money. Salty Saltwell did that for Wrigley at a much lower salary than Epstein and Hoyer. At the end of the day, I want top results. If we pay a little for that great, especially if it lowers ticket prices. If not, I don't care how much or little they spend if it doesn't affect me. What are the poor results you are alluding to here? If you are going to call out the front office, please enlighten us with your perceived mishandling of the team thus far under Epstein and Hoyer. Salty Saltwell? Really? A google search and 1 minute read told me that he was the one that traded Bill Madlock for Bobby Murcer. Is that the type of front office you see here?

I guess I should have emphasized getting hurt over struggling as a reason for not getting another big payday. Anyone can get hurt, and that's a big reason why teams tend to be reluctant to give anyone a 7-8 year deal. I could see an NL team, such as the Cubs giving Fielder something between 3-5 years with some kind of option (player, mutual, or vesting) with a full NTC as I'm not worrid about moing him before age 32. This way, he'll be 30-32 by the time that ones up, still not yet having reached the feared Mo Vaughn 34-35 cliff, at which point AL teams would be inclined to give him another 3-4 years as a DH with part time 1st base duties depending on how his defense is by then, and ven after that deals up if his bodies still holding up he can still sign a few 1 year deals with the A's or a farewell tour with the Brewers. This is exactly the situation Boras is trying to avoid.

Disagree. Garza is head and shoulders better than Oswalt/ Kuroda. Best option available by far imho. Time to make someone pay.

I'm sorry I just really don't get how there's that much to give up on. There's not. Half price hot-dogs are a bonus, though! Beer? we can dream...

Seeing recent moves like signing Sonnanstine also signal that we're not players for guys like Jackson. If its truly gonna be Dempster (3), Z (3), Wells (5) and Wood (5) - lets hope we pick up some innings eater rather than what happended last year. Guys like Coleman - I hope to never see again. I think Shark gets one last shot at the rotation. Cashner gets work in Iowa. At least one major league ready starter will be coming over in the Garza trade. Might see a Kuroda type signing yet. Maybe not. Rumor mill has Marmol, Soto, Byrd yet to go, so there are options. I wouldn't be looking for a front-line staff next year, but I'm fine with that if that is the price for sustained success for the franchise.

It's been obvious for a while that the only solution was to allow Z to come back and try to get some value out of the remainder of that contract. It's the only option for him and the team really. Hopefully the Cubs get a save my career/ contract year out of him and bid Carlos adieu.

Agreed. Soriano is not a platoon partner in waiting. The other problem with him is his known streakiness. There is just no way to play a guy when he's hot and sit him when he is cold. The thing with Soriano was that you had to play him everyday and wait for the streaks to happen. He's no longer worth the suffering cold streaks while waiting for the diminished production spurts.

Awesome. Can't wait to see the haul they get from one of those teams. Cue sexual innuendo for 3 pages.

Three years actually makes more sense than six from Fielder's perspective. Getting another big payday at 30 would be much easier than at age 33 for him. That said, I think Boras holds out for the career contract for this guy. There is just too much at stake for Fielder. I could easily see this dragging out until Spring. If I'm Theo I move on to Rizzo and get that done.

I'm sure being in the Newspaper business had nothing to do with that. There's probably a way to miss the point by a wider margin than you did, but I'm struggling to identify it. Educate me please. I wish i had the last 20 seconds of my life back.

Or there might be a slight chance that he was occupied with other things between the 21st and 28th of December. What kind of optimistic thinking is that?

Nothing has been made official on this and it has been a week since the "news" came out. Wondering if RJ flunked his physical.

That's before trading Garza, Marmol, Soto, and possibly Soriano & Dempster without receiving anyone who will likely contribute anything to the major league roster in 2012. Possibly. But we flipped Marshall for two players who could significantly contribute in 2012, so Epstein has earned a little faith from me in that regard. Fair enough. If we can get the same relative haul that Marshall brought back for Garza (let's say a current 3 starter and starting OFer) and/or Marmol (say a current 4/5 starter and cheap utility guy), then they could be decent. Either way, the best thing about the whole thing is that the slate is essentially clear for the future. No contracts past 2014 and only 1 or 2 significant ones for next year as of now. This team will be all Theo's soon, for better or worse. Why is it so hard for some people to understand that the team was never going to win by building around the pieces that were in place? A complete overhaul is EXACTLY what was called for here. You have a veritable dream-team of front office minds assembled on YOUR TEAM now. It is cliche, but at the time of the Theo/ Hoyer signings, many said that Cub fans would not know how to react to having the best and brightest running their team. It was said that Cubs fans would not know how to react to actually being good. We're seeing that play out here already with doomsayers and ne're-do-wells popping up to criticize and over-analyze every trivial signing or move that isn't made. In two years no one is going to look at the state of the franchise and start bitching about how they got there. Pop a cold one and enjoy watching the process of building a baseball power to be reckoned with.

This is great news if true. Not sure if I trust the Cahman's and Cherington's of the world, but if they are going to take a back seat on this one, all the better. Looks like these guys are Epstein and Hoyer's targets for this off-season. They certainly have the money to outbid everyone. Whether they pull the trigger or not remains to be seen.

Cespedas will easily cost more than Fukudome. Probably going to take around 12M per or more to pry him away from the Yankees/ Marlins. I'd be fine with that gamble. Soler and Chen will not come cheap either. I could easily see 20M/20M+ being spent on IFA if they decide to go down that path.

Or they could plan to have Jaramillo back up Soto to keep Castillo starting in Iowa. The way this group is going leads me to believe the former. But you could certainly be right.

It's a minor league contract. Sounds like a harbinger of Soto being traded/ Castillo promoted to me.

Going to be tough getting anything of value back for Dempster at 14M. I think if he's traded it will be a salary dump. Paying a substantial portion of his salary offsets the move unless you get a great prospect in return. I don't really see that type of value coming back for Dempster at this stage of his career. Nice to see that he is willing to help the team by allowing a trade, though. Kind of a best of both worlds sito. He gets his money and the Cubs see what they can do with him. Always liked Demp. Will suck to see him go. Sadly, he and his 14M salary don't fit the team's needs presently or moving forward.

Or we could just keep Soriano and play him more smartly as he can still be a productive player if used in the right spots and we'd still have like $30-50m left to play with, with his contract on the books. What are these "spots" you speak of? If you mean him picking up his checks after he is DFA, then sure. Play him smartly.

I have to imagine if we'rei n rebuilding mode, some other 40-man guys are getting shipped off, or will try to be shipped off, i.e. Byrd, Soriano, Marmol, maybe Soto. Let's hope so. They really should have sold the rights to light the fuse, though...

Hey man. We gave you Lou Brock. What else do you want from us? :hello:

*Yawns* Did you used to post Cardinals related videos on Youtube? ;)

My guess is they are going to go hard after the Cubans and IFA. The ballpark needs a bit of work too.

So maybe the FO ought to tell the paying public exactly what the "big picture" is instead of expecting everyone to "keep the faith" when they sign Reed Johnson because it's part of a mysterious big plan If Marmol's arm explodes or if either has another bad season' date=' they become much less valuable.[/color'] The expected rosters of the 2012 & 2013 Chicago Cubs. The poll will be taken at the box office when the team loses revenue for 2-3 years. I completely disagree with the notion that the front office should openly announce their strategy to the public, all of MLB, or the agents and GMs they are in daily negotiations with. Your second point has nothing to do with the discussion over perceived value for Soto and Marmol now. Of course if Marmol's arm explodes or Soto has another bad season, their value will drop. In other news, the sky is blue. lol We have no idea what the expected rosters will look like in 2012 or 2013. Pure speculation and hand wringing over events that have not transpired as yet. Indeed it will. Thing is, you are not factoring in the drop in payroll in this scenario, so revenue is a bit tough to project. The Ricketts are shrewd business people. I trust they have the foresight to factor in possible outcomes to different business approaches. That said, some meatball fans may stay away next year. New fans may also take their places. This is not the same scenario as the end of last year. Not by any stretch. Cubs fans are very intelligent and informed (for the most part). With a new team/ ballpark/ and brand on the rise, I think people will come out. I know I certainly will. Are you flat out ignoring the post that started this discussion? He made presumptions about what he thought would happen including how the major league roster would be constructed. So those are the guidelines being used to construct the 2012 or 2013 roster. Sure payroll will likely drop to counter the revenue dropping. But in order to make a big free agent acquisition in the future, a scenario you don't dismiss, ownership will likely have to make a leap of faith and increase payroll over the revenue that is being collected. I certainly agree that the Ricketts are shrewd business people and I agree that they have considered all of these factors and have all sorts of what-if forecasts. Most teams are owned by such people. However, we aren't talking profitability here. We are talking about building a championship contending baseball team. I don't think that the Tribune Company probably ever took a loss via the Cubs but that didn't get the Cubs to a World Series. Pretty much, yeah.