SouthSideRyan

Goony is just saying this because he's mad the FO cut off all his sources

There's not a single name on this list that you'd like to sign as a FA that you think will actually make it to FA next year? And even if that's true, it's good that the Cubs are still allowed to trade. He very clearly said "as attractive". Great. You pay Tanaka $225m and I'll pay Mad Max $150m. Look, we missed out on the prom queen and that sucks. But it'd be great if we could have 1-2 posts of ridiculous before we move on rather than 10 pages of it. There are other fish in the sea. If 2014 shows that some of our top prospects are ready to produce in 2015, I'll be as furious as any of you if we don't make some major moves to contend in 2015. But we made the best offer to the best FA and he decided to go somewhere else. What the [expletive] do you want? I don't think Scherzer even makes it to FA, but if he does he'll certainly get more than 150 and he'll still be 4 years older than Tanaka Regarding Tanaka, Well he took what he deemed was the best offer, so for starters I wanted to make the actual best offer

I think it's pretty easy to look at the organization and say we'll need to target OFers and starting pitchers. Very little can happen in 14 that would make me think otherwise

sign all of Brett Anderson, Brandon Morrow and Josh Johnson at reasonably reduced rates and you'll come upon a TOR arm (or two!) somehow or another Wasn't this your plan for this offseason only replace morrow with Hughes or something?

Tanaka wasn't making the 2014 Cubs a playoff team. And who knows what the team will look like heading into 2015. Too many possible FAs, trades, etc to write that off today. Not that it will stop you. I'll go out on a limb and say there will not be as attractive a starting pitcher available for nothing but money in the next 2 offseasons There's not a single name on this list that you'd like to sign as a FA that you think will actually make it to FA next year? And even if that's true, it's good that the Cubs are still allowed to trade. Brett Anderson (27) - $12MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout Homer Bailey (29) Josh Beckett (35) Chad Billingsley (30) - $14MM club option with a $3MM buyout Joe Blanton (34) - $8MM club option with a $1MM buyout Wei-Yin Chen (29) - $4.75MM club option with a $372K buyout Kevin Correia (34) Johnny Cueto (29) - $10MM club option with an $800K buyout Jorge De La Rosa (34) Ryan Dempster (38) Gavin Floyd (32) Yovani Gallardo (29) - $13MM club option with a $600K buyout J.A. Happ (32) - $6.7MM club option Dan Haren (34) - $10MM player option if 180 innings reached in 2014 Roberto Hernandez (34) Luke Hochevar (31) Hisashi Iwakuma (34) - $7MM club option with a $1MM buyout Josh Johnson (31) Kyle Kendrick (30) Jon Lester (31) Colby Lewis (35) Justin Masterson (30) Brandon McCarthy (31) Brandon Morrow (30) - $10MM club option with a $1MM buyout Jeff Niemann (32) Ross Ohlendorf (32) Felipe Paulino (31) - $4MM club option with a $250K buyout Jake Peavy (34) Wandy Rodriguez (36) Max Scherzer (30) James Shields (33) Carlos Villanueva (31) Ryan Vogelsong (37) Edinson Volquez (30) None of these guys are as attractive a target as Tanaka was. And there were several free agents I was interested in this offseason too. I also hear trades were allowed but I'll have to check to make sure

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Tanaka wasn't making the 2014 Cubs a playoff team. And who knows what the team will look like heading into 2015. Too many possible FAs, trades, etc to write that off today. Not that it will stop you. I'll go out on a limb and say there will not be as attractive a starting pitcher available for nothing but money in the next 2 offseasons

I'd take a team that projects to win 85 games when those key players are that young, though. Exactly. Thats my point. You can make midseason deals to put you up higher or whatever too. I just don't think we were going to be much better than that, with or without Tanaka, heading into 2015. Yeah, he's younger than the FA of next year by 3 years or so, but he costs the same and likely not any better. Sucks we lost a couple of years and likely a 2nd round pick next year, but my main point is losing Tanaka isn't THAT big of a deal, in the total scheme. We did if the plan was to sign Tanaka this year and Masterson next

i don't know if you're being serious, but agreed. just move to wherever you can get the best deal. would've been nice to renovate a have a real park, but it's not going to happen. time to do anything else. I was half joking. I don't love Rosemont, but I'm sick of this [expletive] and just want the Cubs to get out of this situation by whatever means necessary. The move would never happen but hilarity would ensue when the rooftops led the charge to sue to keep the cubs in Wrigley

I'd take a team that projects to win 85 games when those key players are that young, though. I don't get where Kyle is projecting 84 wins from that group

That 20m number was put out at the season ticket event back in November, this is just more rooftop tantrums

If we're not in on any of the actual good players leftover this offseason we're going to have an 80m payroll. If we trade shark on top of that we'll be around 74. We shed another 20m in contracts next year with only rizzo getting a non arb raise of substance

That better be one hell of an ofer were trading for because the 3 you have penciled in might be the worst OF in baseball. And that rotation kinda sucks

It hasn't. The late 1990s/early 2000s farm systems were quite productive. But you had ownership that wasn't willing to spend to keep that talent. You're not going to see that with today's prospects. Who could you possibly be talking about??

And it turns out on closer inspection Wrigley wasn't even part of the sale and Zell still owns it. Also TDAmeritrade is being investigated by the SEC

Because you weren't paying attention? Oh I paid attention. The only real prospects I saw come up where Mark Prior (no-brainer pick), Corey Patterson, and Felix Pie. Where is it you think Derrek Lee Carlos Zambrano Aramis Ramirez and Geovany Soto came from?

Because you weren't paying attention?

it may be worth noting then, that the Cards win lots of games at the big league level almost entirely with players pulled out of their farm system, or from trades using players from their farm system Did anybody say "don't build up your farm system?"

Playoffs are a realistic possibility with Travis Wood as our number 1 and the hopes that other teams don't like spending actual money to extend their own players?

Thank God we got rid of that bad ownership

If we came in hilariously far under the winning bid for Darvish what makes you think we would have won this one?

Is it because I'll be dead?

$25 million/yr should buy a pretty good FA pitcher next year. Doesn't have to change the timeline. We also have #4 draft pick this year which could be turned into a better pitcher than Tanaka as well. By the time that guy is a better pitcher than Tanaka, Tanaka will be a free agent again and we can slot him as the #2 behind him

That's not the "right way"

Man, if there was some sort of participation trophy for effort we'd have it on lock. Unfortunately who gives a [expletive] if we "finished second". Stunning that a terrible team wasn't able to convince a guy to play here instead of in NY for the same money and a somewhat decent team. Apparently our wave after wave of prospects pitch wasn't convincing. We'll win more games over the life of Tanaka's deal than the Yanks will. Even with us sucking in 2014. And 2015. If Tanaka opts out after 4 I'd bet on the yankees