ArizonaGM

OMG we need to just throw ridiculous cash at this guy. What a freaking stud! He's just below Barry Bonds in the fear factor in my opinion.

No way Grace leaves Phoenix and his broadcasting job to be a coach. He's said many times that he doesn't miss the uniform and he loves to be able to just watch and talk about baseball. No meetings, no working long hours. 3-4 hours a day then its beer:30. I'd rather see Larry Bowa the manager. If he's the bench coach i can't see him go ape [expletive] every once in a while.

Matt Garza to a copule of A ballers shows who really had the leverage and who didn't. Maybe the holdup is one or both of the players are in the Dominican or somewhere else and have to be flown to Boston to have physicals.

This is almost too good to be true. If we have Theo, Jed and Jason running this operation, that's the friggn front office dream team right there. Moneyball the movie? W'ell be in Moneyball 2, Money(expletive deleted)Ball, starting the World Series trophy! :clapping:

Any chance Jed Hoyer has his Presser on Friday if Theo's doesn't get done by then or do they want to do them all at the same time?

No interview needed. Moorad wants his boy Byrnes to be the GM anyway. Epstein as President has the power to hire whoever he wants as GM and he knows Jed like a brother. I imagine it goes down pretty close to how they say. Jed comes over a few days after the Friday Presser. I am a little surprised they don't want a little cash though.

Is Theo like a son to Gammons, or does Pete think Theo is his son? Here is the SOSH quote. Just a fan of his team like us, but it seems on the money. A little something about Gammons. Was always a fan of his growing up, but the man is pretty much a complete Red Sox fanboy. I'm sure most may not believe me but I was shown an Email back in 2003 that he sent to Curt Schilling when he was contemplating waiving his no-trade clause before Theo, Jed and the rest of the entourage showed up at his house the day before thanksgiving. The email from a supposed objective national baseball writer was fanboy drivel pleading and begging Curt to come to Boston and help break the curse. I always knew PG was less than objective but it was pretty embarrassing. He sounded like a 15 year old boy pleading for his hero to show up at his birthday party. Anything written by him involving the Red Sox should be taken with a spoonful of salt.

Jed AND Theo?!! That's big time Mr. Ricketts. Really hoping for a Friday morning presser!

Respected as in not like their colleague Bob Hohler, who will report BS personal information that has little to do with anything just because a member of management *cough* Lucchino *cough* wants to use you as tool to slime the outgoing manager.

Lake is relatively fast and an efficient base runner. He was 38/44 during the regular season. On the flip side, while he's hitting well, he's sporting a 10/2 K/BB ratio in 36 AFL at bats. Bothersome considering some of those walks will end up turning into doubles. I've been quite impress with what i've seen thus far. He's an intriguing player with some nice tools.

That being said i'm sure Selig would prefer the presser be done on the off day before the World Series starts.

Never thought a Cubs thread started this October would reach 100 pages in 4 days. How many days till Pitchers and Catchers report? :clapping:

Also the Futures Game on NOV 5th and the Championship game (which I doubt we will be apart of) on the 19th will be shown live on MLB Network.

Too many more important guys to protect: Vitters, Flaherty, Szczur, Clevenger, and Jackson, possibly Lake and Rhee although i cant see a team keeping either of them on their big league roster all season. If someone takes Hatley, I'm OK with it. I don't think you need to protect Hatley either. He needs to find a consistent release point with his slider. He has some work to do. I can't see anyone picking him up in the Rule 5 but we'll see.

THIS. Exactly what i've been saying they have zero leverage. Take Cash and a box of baseballs and like it Sox!

Went to the game was nice to see Gerit Cole make his proffesional debut. The kid throws hard. He was throwing 98-99 and hitting 100 a few times on the gun. Has a hard slider that bites hard. His delivery is very balanced and he uses his lower body well. Very repeatable delivery. Was cool to see him face another first overall pick in Beckham from TB. He got him out the first round but the second time around Beckham doubled hard into the gap and sent Cole packing to the showers. As for the Cubs, Lake played 3B today which is something I’d like to see more of. Hit got robbed in his first AB on a diving catch and hit a Home Run in his next at bat. He was overmatched badly in his next AB by Miguel De Los Santos of the Rangers. He had a nasty change up had Lake guessing and ended him with a high fastball at 91 that looked like 96. Lake grounded out sharply then struck out in the 9th. Vitters hit the ball hard almost everytime up. He was DH’ing today. Did a great job in his first at bat turning on a 96MPH fastball inside. His bat looked real quick. Second AB he inside outed a ball diving in at him for another knock. He hit a rocket to SS that the guy made a good play on it. Vitters got another single in his next AB and in his final AB went the other way to the Gap for a double. Overall a solid dat at the plate for Vitters. LeMahieu played 1st and singled up the middle in his first ab. Flew out to CF in his second walked and stole a base in his 3rd flew out his next AB then hit a bomb in th 9th to score teammate Vitters who had just doubled. The hitters did well today but the pitching was a different story. Hatley came in to pitch was throwing 94-95 and blew his first hitter away on a 94, 95, 95 MPH Fastballs. His next hitter singled the other way on a fastball, then Beckham came up and smoked a ball to the gap. It seemed like he lost some composure from there. Threw a wild pitch and walked a guy, gave up a Sac fly and a single and seemed to lose velocity as he was trying to find the zone again. Got out of the inning on a running mistake after the last base hit. He came out the next inning and gave up a single the got a groundball to 3rd. He proceeded to hit the next batter on what looked like a slider that got away then gave up a Sac fly and was pulled. I’ve seen Hatley’s last two starts and these guys are wacking him around. He doesn’t have much of a 2 seam fastball and his ball is very straight. 94-95 isn’t enough to get away with straight fastballs unless you’re locating on the black. His secondary pitches don’t seem real tight and he looks like when he gets flustered he looses his release points and looses 3-4 MPH on his fastball while trying to find it again. Seems to be pretty quick to the plate for a Righty however. Cashner came in throwing gas again. Blew away his first hitter then walked his next guy. That man Beckham again turned a pitch around and hit it for a triple He popped the next hitter out but gave up a single and a run before inducing another groundball. Didn’t realize I wrote so much this time but saw a lot of good talent today and again was impressed by the 3 Cubbie hitters in the heart of the order.

Kaplan Cubs are going to get hosed. I imagine that the compensation won't be a top prospect like all these talking heads keep mentioning. What little leverage the Sox had dissipated when Theo agreed to the contract and got thrown under the bus a little bit this morning in the paper. Besides there is no Apples to Apples precedence for this so this is a negotiation where the Cubs have a little bit more control than the opposition. I'm sure there are some players that the Cubs organization undervalue that Cherington will find however.

you really think that the cubs and red sox would have theo epstein making the decision about compensation for himself? come on. Beane did when he was originally planning on jumping ship to the Red Sox. He and DePo had decided on Youkilis as the compensation. Hanley and Shoppach were being considered as well. really??? that seems completely insane to me. but i am sure that red sox front office people and a's front office people would have been involved. azgm made it sound like epstein would be working the deal out himself. If Theo is the end all when it comes down to baseball decisions and the compensation is going to affect him going forward why wouldn't he be involved in the decision? I was just pointing out how odd it is if that's how it's going down.

Who is deciding if the compensation is too much or who they give up? Is it Theo himself making that decision as his first trade of his Cubs career for himself? Very odd position to be in to potentially cut your own wrists in order for the new team to get you. I'm feeling more and more like this is a done deal. Theo is a competitor and competitor's need new challenges and this just seems like it has all the aspects of a perfect fit. *Crossing Fingers* AZGM

Took at look at BP before I headed over to watch the AZFL and one of the balls that Vogelbach hit went at LEAST 400feet. He looks like freaking Babe Ruth up there sometimes. AZGM

Just got back from the game in Mesa. Junior Lake had a couple of base hits and stole a base. Vitters crushed an RBI double. Nice to see the guys hitting 3-4-5 in the lineup. Just out of curiosity what is the thinking on Lake? Can he play somewhere else? AZGM

We could see a presser on Thursday or Friday. Cautiously optimistic. AZGM

Payroll is something that allows you to make mistakes in free agency and recover. Some like the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox are allowed more mistakes. Why would the Cubs be spending 100 MIL for the next few years? This is the 3rd biggest market in the US and the 5th most valuable team in the league. Getting out spent by the freaking Twins wouldn't be acceptable. Give Theo or someone half worth a damn 120 MIL and a few years to undo the mess Hendry left and the NL Central will be obtainable every single year. AZGM

The job here has a lot of pressure it's just a different type of pressure. Fans will give Theo a little more leeway here knowing that this isn't going to happen overnight. A championship team is going to have to be built here. In Boston they wanted results like yesterday and had a very similar drought. Kaplan insinuating that for some reason Theo is an idiot and thinks there is no pressure here is asinine. There is plenty of pressure but its a little different with different obstacles and challenges. AZGM