Gilby

I'm glad Jim Bowden is not our GM. Drabek hardly has enough value right now to headline a Garza deal. And I would hate factoring the compensation issue into a Garza deal. That should be done separately. Garza is our best trade asset after Castro, and we need to trade him for everything we can get.

Plus Keith Law broke the Gio deal, and he's been asked on twitter his opinion of the Marshall/Wood deal which he replied that he likes the prospects involved. Yet, he's not giving the names.

Signing Reed Johnson on a cheap one year deal really pisses you guys off this much?

I wouldn't get your hopes up for Hamilton. That's a little much. And the more I think about it, the more I think Wood will be a Padre.

I'm confident the minor leaguers will be pretty good pieces. I'm sure there was plenty of interest in Marshall. Or, it could be, as soonercub mentioned, this leads directly to Rizzo.

That seems possible. Wood and Petco would be a good match. Certainly more than GAB.

It's more than just about him being fat. It's about trying to match up his best years when we're going to be competitive. If we're signing him while accepting the fact that we still won't be much more than an 80 win team next season, then likely his best season as a Cub was just wasted. Also, a lot of posters seem okay with the thought that the end of the contract won't be great for Prince personally, so there's 2-3 wasted years of a huge contract. It's just a bad time. But yes, fat players have shown more of a propensity to decline sooner. good luck lining it up perfectly so that a 27 year old elite hitter at a position of need is available as a free agent EXACTLY when the cubs are going to be ready to compete. especially in an offseason when you are not competing against the pocketbooks of the yankees, red sox, mets, dodgers, angels, white sox, phillies, etc. especially in an offseason where the cubs have a ton of money coming off the books. especially in an offseason where the cardinals and brewers each lose elite hitters. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. ideally, yes, you would prefer a grand buffet of superstar free agents EXACTLY when the cubs are primed to be competing for a world series. however, this is living in a fantasy world. There are always top of the rotation pitchers on the market. If there's a position player Theo and co. want to spend big money on in the future and that position isn't necessarily "open," then there can be a trade for different assets to create a spot for the FA.

It's more than just about him being fat. It's about trying to match up his best years when we're going to be competitive. If we're signing him while accepting the fact that we still won't be much more than an 80 win team next season, then likely his best season as a Cub was just wasted. Also, a lot of posters seem okay with the thought that the end of the contract won't be great for Prince personally, so there's 2-3 wasted years of a huge contract. It's just a bad time. But yes, fat players have shown more of a propensity to decline sooner.

Honest question... Is there any actual evidence to back up the old "get more for pitchers/relievers/lefties at the deadline" theory? I'd be really interested to know. In this case, I'd think Marshall would have quite a bit more value now because at the deadline he'd only be under team control for half of a season.

Personally, I'd trade Marshall this offseason and Marmol at the deadline (assuming he has a better season). We have young relievers with late inning potential in the system. But I do think Marshall is pretty much a must-trade.

Well, hell, sign me up twice then. Good thing we didn't waste money on a fatty Seriously guys?

There's no way the Cubs will eat 80% of Z's contract. It was Gammons who said it, and I don't think he really has a clue what's going on. He's probably just confusing Zambrano with Soriano.

People are trying too hard to focus on specific names. Guys will become available, and fortunately there are a lot of good hitters that play 1B. And heck, Barton put up a 5 win season in 2010.

That's fair and Scott does make some sense for us to sign. But this is one of the few times that I'm going to look at someone's personality instead of their stats. As Banedon said, I just really want to punch him in the face and would not enjoy watching him have success.

As far as Luke Scott goes, I'd much rather not have a crazy gun-wielding racist birther on the Cubs.

Okay then, what's true? Heavy/fat players tend to really decline around age 30. He might have a few prime years left, but he is almost certainly not entering his prime. Considering Prince is already a bad baserunner and fielder, I'm scared what he's going to be like after age 30. I don't want to speak for davearm2, but I think we both would argue that Fielder isn't necessarily an elite player. Elite players' value don't fluctuate as much as Fielder's has over past seasons.

One thing I'll say is that the thought that Prince is "entering his prime" is not true.

No he wasn't and I have no idea where you came up with that. The only tool keeping him from being one of the worst all time outfielders is his arm. Guys take extra bases on him all the time and occasionally he makes up for his terrible judgment and routs by making a strong accurate throw. He was and is a terrible fielder. EDIT: 1st base is the easiest position to play so the SD of great to worst is really small. In other words, he's not that bad. EDIT 2: I hate the DH. Both UZR and DRS have Soriano as an elite LFer from 2006-2008.

Soriano was a heck of a lot better at his position when we signed him than Fielder is at his. Anyway, I'm really intrigued by Morales especially if our front office plans on spending big on Darvish.

Trade Starlin to the Rays, then Law will have him #1. Honestly, it even hurts to joke about trading him.

If you're going to sign someone for $22-25 million for 6-8 years, he better be pretty much perfect.

I'm not expecting him to get an extension quite yet. I just think the new president of baseball ops wants to meet the face of the franchise. I do want a picture of this meeting. That'd be one sexy pic.

While he's a magician around the base receiving throws, he doesn't have great range on groundballs. Fangraphs has a stat where they keep track of the number of scoops a first baseman had, and according to that Pena led the majors by quite a bit. Though that is unfair to compare considering our left side of the infield had more bad throws than probably any other team.

You really don't think the Cubs can or will be able to swing a $150+ million payroll? Or one around $170 million? Why not? I don't know what the Ricketts family's plans are, but $170 million is a pretty large jump from what it is now, especially if they want to spend a lot in the draft. They're a family with a ton of money with a major market team that makes a ton of money. I don't think the payroll increasing between $30-$60 million is all that unlikely. Fair enough. If they have the payroll that high, I would have less of a problem with a Fielder signing.

Very true, hitting is important, but it's not the only thing. Runs are runs. He gives some runs back on defense and by being slow on the bases. Prince is a very good player, I get that. I'd love to have him hitting 3rd or 4th for the next 5 years for us. If we sign him for 5 years, I'll be giddy like a school girl. But he's likely going to want more. And there are enough concerns for me to not want him for longer.