Johnny Sleeper

Bryant is having an insane AFL. However, let's try to keep that in perspective. The AFL is traditionally a very hitter friendly league. There are 9 players with over 1.000 OPS in the league right now. Last year Nate Roberts put up a 1.226 OPS with a .446/.565/.662 triple slash and is not considered a top prospect. In 2011 Jedd Gyorko, Mike Olt, Wil Myers, Bryce Harper, Nolan Arenado and 4 others had an OPS over 1.000. Outside of Harper and Myers none of the others have been overly impressive with the bat in the majors. In 2010 Dustin Ackley put up a 1.338 OPS in the AFL and over thee big league seasons he has a .669 OPS. In 2009 Colin Curtis put up a 1.203 OPS in the AFL. In 2008 Tyler Flyowers posted a 1.433, in 2007 Sam Fuld put up a 1.1118. Most of those guys with great AFL numbers have not translated to studs in the majors. I'm not saying Bryant won't be a great player, because I believe he will be. However, the toughest competition he has faced is high A ball! Having a great AFL doesn't make you ready for the majors. It means you are destroying a hitter's league that doesn't have much top pitching talent present. Having a monster AFL does not mean Bryant is more ready then Baez who tore up AA and will be starting the season in AAA. It means Bryant is tearing up competition that he should just like Almora having a 1.090 OPS is him tearing up competition he should at this point. It doesn't mean Bryant and Almora should jump to AAA and be up mid-season with Baez. It means they are continuing to show that they are better then the low minors. Bryant should start next year at AA and probably will finish in AAA and get called up in 2015.

It is rare for a player of Vogelbach's skill set to crack the top 100 because of there lack of defensive ability. To put it in perspective David Ortiz was only a BA top 100 prospect once in 1998 at #86. Frank Thomas appeared in BA's top 100 once, 1990, at #29. Ryan Howard only showed up once, 2005, at #27. All three were ranked after they were certain to be in the majors that next year. None profiled as strong defensive players which took them until they had performed offensively at higher levels to be considered top 100 prospects because of how much their defense hurt their overall value. Prince Fielder is one of the rare exceptions, but as a prospect scouts thought he could drop some weight and become a good defensive 1B and he was putting up insane numbers, .400+ OBP and .500+ SLG at most stops and was in the majors at 21. Fielder's defense was significantly better then Vogelbach's who has had his range described as "a step and a fall". It is a testament to just how good Vogelbach's bat is that he is considered a top 150 prospect and fringe top 100, by some, given his negative defensive. Vogelbach holds more value to an AL team where he can DH most of the time. I don't think they will trade him until next off-season when he should be near-ready and a team could trade for him with the intentions of bringing him up mid-season to give their offense a boost. Similar to what the Rays did this year with Myers and Dodgers with Puig and if you go back to last year Trout and Harper for the Angels and Nationals, granted Harper was more out of need as injuries were killing them at the time.

John Sickles did a top 125 list right at the end of the season. He ranked the top 75 then threw another 40 names in random order. Vogelbach was on that list. A jump from the top 125 into the top 100 isn't a breakout. If it were just Cubs fans that were high on Vogelbach I would see your point, but scouts love everything about Vogelbach except his defense which limits him to DH without his defense hurting his value. I won't be surprised if he ends up sneaking onto a few top 100 lists.

I'll go with Dunston and Trevor Gretzky.

Since the city would be the jurisdiction of the law suit they can take the stance that the contract would not be in breach by obstructing some of the view. Without going through the contracts I have no idea how specific the language is, but it could have language that says they are guaranteed a certain number of viewable seats or how much of an unobstructed view they are guaranteed. It could also be that there are no provisions in the contract guaranteeing an unobstructed view in which case the city will pressure the judge to dismiss the case. This would be an overreach of powers, but again this is Chicago we are talking about. The other thing the city could do is to suddenly find a zoning problem and shut down the rooftop owners taking it out of the hands of the courts.

How would Theo know if he and Sandberg were compatible or not in their philosophies when there was no interview to discuss it. I just don't see Theo as caring enough about Sandberg while he was managing in the minors to watch him at all much less enough to know if they would have meshed philosophically.

Hendry told Sandberg he had to pay his dues in the minors then hired Quade over Sandberg after those dues had been paid. Theo ruled out Sandberg right away using the excuse of lack of big league experience. I'm guessing the real reason Theo wouldn't touch Sandberg at the time is because it was very possible that the fans would have either turned on Theo for giving Sandberg the rebuilding rosters or it would have hurt Sandberg's legacy and Theo didn't want any part of that potential mess. Can you imagine the outcry right now if we were replacing Sandberg instead of Sveum with all the people crying about how Sandberg never got a fair shot.

With the money they have coming off the books throwing top dollar at a manager isn't a big deal. Joe Maddon makes $3M/yr and Mike Scioscia makes $5M/yr. So giving Girardi $5-6M/yr when you could have payroll around $75M isn't a big deal. Landing Tanaka would be opening up the pocketbook because of the posting price he will cost. If they drop $50M, give or take, to win the bid on Tanaka then I'll see that as money starting to be used. Even if they do not add any other significant piece this off-season. If the Cubs get Tanaka and Girardi I'll consider it a good off-season. If they only get Girardi I won't be overly impressed, but I will consider it a good addition.

Cub catchers led the NL in OBP and OPS. As for 2B, Barney will be gone at some point next season so that will no longer be a black hole of offense. Alcantara is the most likely candidate who, like Barney, is a converted SS who has a very good glove at 2B and will provide some offense. Baez is the other option who again, should be good there defensively, and would provide a very good bat for the position. Before anyone says something stupid about errors for Baez at age 20 keep in mind that Barney had 27 errors at age 23 in AA and AAA in 137 games which is more then he has had in 470 games in the majors.

The DH also give the AL an advantage in FA. You think Pujols or Fielder get the contracts they do if the DH isn't there for them to play down the line? That is why no NL team would go close to the length they got. Selig has already announced his retirement after next season. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the NL doesn't get the DH in 2016 or 2017 with the new commissioner wanting to make an instant big move and that would be a big one. With all the changes to the game Selig has made, rather you love them or hate them, I can't see a new commissioner not wanting to make some kind of instant mark on the game to show they are going to keep "progressing" the game. We all know chicks dig the long ball and most fans prefer more offense and adding the DH to the NL provides more offense.

The posting fee for Tanaka will be at least $30M by itself before you get into his actual contract. I can see Tanaka as the big off-season move if they see him as a potential ace given his age. I don't see them going after Cano, because someone will be dumb enough to give him the 10 year deal he wants.

Is there something wrong with being a big market version of the Rays? Imagine if the Rays had the same ability to keep their players as the Cubs will? If you give the Rays a modest $110M payroll they still have James Shields, Carl Crawford and could have added someone like Prince Fielder to be their DH and they are running away with their division instead of just being a wild card team with a $60M payroll. The ability to not keep the players they develop has been the undoing of the Rays for the last several years. Just like it is the reason teams like the Royals, Pirates, A's, etc have such small windows when they do get a nice homegrown core together because they can only keep them for 4-5 years before they have to be traded for prospects due to finances. When the Cubs get their revenue up to a big market team in the next few years from the advertising and new TV deals they will have no issues keeping players and adding what they need. Theo has said he expects to get the payroll back up to where it was before he got there, $135M, in the next few years then grow it from there as they add new revenue. Wrigley needs a lot of upgrades and the organization has to pay for it themselves which limits their ability to spend. Improving the facilities with things like indoor batting cages, film rooms, a clubhouse that is on par with other major league teams, etc will not only help the players develop but also help attract FAs who do not want to play in a stadium that has facilities that were average, at best, in the 1960s.

No. However, they were part of Hendry's philosophy of never cultivating the farm. The player development under Hendry was terrible and the prospects that were traded didn't pan out and overall were of a much lower quality then the top end of the Cubs' system now. While Hendry was GM the Cubs were the lowest spending team on amateur talent in all of baseball year after year which is why there was so little come up from the farm. How much of that was on Hendry and how much was due to ownership is up for debate. However, the fact remains that under Hendry's watch the farm system was horrible.

To be legitimate contenders, yes. Do you honestly see a way to make them faster contenders for a World Series? Not just a playoff birth which they have a shot at in 2015. The only way to get them into World Series contenders this year would be to trade Baez, Vogelbach and Pierce Johnson for David Price. Then trade Soler, Alcantara and Szczur to the Rockies for CarGo. Then go out and sign Cano, Choo and some bullpen help. Then you end up with a rotation of Price, Samardzija, Wood, EJax and Arrieta/Raley/Hendricks/etc. A line-up of Rizzo, Cano, Castro, Valbuena, Choo, CarGo, Shierholtz and Castillo with Barney and Lake as your primary guys off the bench. However, there is no way they will send the payroll that high, $150M range. So they will continue to let the prospects develop and do very little in the off-season with the possible one big move being Masahiro Tanaka.

The same way trading the farm for Rammy and Derek Lee were. However, the bigger picture is that acquiring Carlos Gonzalez would require more follow up moves if the intent is to speed up the time frame of contention to 2014. Which would require signing players like Cano and Choo. If it would just be trading for Gonzalez while keeping the timeline where it is, which appears to be 2016 for a contending team, then why would you not keep Almora who just a very similar season in A ball to what Gonzalez did at the same age in the same league? Trading for Gonzalez as a single big move would be $17M to the 2016 payroll to fill a whole you expect to be filled for $600K. The Cubs are not lacking offensive prospects between Alcantara, Baez, Bryant, Vitters, Soler, Almora, Szczur, Ha, Vogelbach, Lake, Rizzo, Castro, Castillo, etc. the Cubs have more positions players then positions for them in the near future. Why give up the prospects to fill a hole that can be filled internally by the time you are ready to contend? Now if the debate was to add a legitimate ace to the staff that would be a different discussion as there isn't a pitcher in the organization that you can say projects to being an ace. However, you are talking about trading for a guy in Gonzalez that will be making $17M in 2016 then $20M in 2017 then hitting FA again so you have him for two seasons that you expect to be contending in without having to get in a bidding war to keep him in what will be his declining years. It is a short-sighted move that makes casual fans happy because the Cubs make a big off-season splash, but it does nothing improve the team's ability to make the playoffs much less win if they get there and it hurts their ability to contend long-term by giving up long-term assets in the form of prospects and future cash.