Outshined_One

I say we argue about it for another 20 pages.

How about instead of wishing injury, we wish for something that will still keep him out for the season without being too particularly hurtful or mean. I can think of two things: 1) Having his work visa denied for the season, thereby forcing him to stay in Oz as mayor of the Oompa Loompas for another year. 2) Inconsolable grief over the death of his favorite pet goldfish, which would render him bedridden for the season.

Yes, but when you look at the systems in the 10-15 range and 15-20 range, you're not exactly blown away, either.

I'd say our system is slightly below average, but on the way up. At this moment, the strength of this system is at Peoria and below. There are a lot of guys down there who have really nice ceilings (Vitters, Donaldson, Huseby, Hernandez, Suarez, Burke, etc) and who already have enough polish to them that there is plenty of reason for us to get excited about them. Perhaps they will not pan out, but there's enough depth in the lower levels to think that there's a good chance some of them might pan out. When you get to the middle levels of the system, things get dicey. Guys like Jeff Samardzija, Tyler Colvin, Donald Veal, Ryan Harvey, Brian Dopirak, Mitch Atkins, Mark Holliman, Jose Ceda, and others all have causes for concern that are problematic. The problems vary from having low ceilings to having major flaws in their games that may never be corrected to being unknown commodities, despite being in the system for a decent amount of time. Maybe one or two of them will put it together and flourish...but don't hold your breath. When you get to the upper levels of the system (including guys who were rookies last season), things look better. These guys have advanced far enough that they're already contributing or will soon be contributing to the majors. Felix Pie, Sean Gallagher, Kevin Hart, Carlos Marmol, Ryan Theriot, and Sean Marshall all appear to have roles carved out for themselves that will see them contributing meaningfully to the majors if they keep healthy. That's not too shabby. We might lack superstar-caliber prospects (for now) and have depth issues at some levels of the minors. However, two years from now, I have a good feeling this system will be back in the Top 10.

If that's the case, then that raises a rather large red flag in my mind regarding how productive he could be next season. At least we know Lieber will be ready come Spring Training.

Was he at all interested in coming here? I think it's safe to say any free agent would be interested in coming to the Cubs. There's no reason to assume otherwise. I don't know about that. Jennings grew up in Dallas and went to Baylor. He wasn't too far from home with the Rockies and Astros, plus he just signed with a team right in his backyard. It could be possible that he wanted to stay close to home in Texas rather than head elsewhere. After all, plenty of other teams beyond the Cubs would have been interested in his services (see: St. Louis). Why didn't he sign with them?

Was he at all interested in coming here?

I never was a fan of Taveras or Buchholz, but I get the feeling they're going to regret trading Hirsh. ...and Patton, for that matter.

Colvin only has one major flaw, as far as I'm concerned: his lack of walks. The high reward I see in him is if he sticks in CF and if he manages to pull an Alexis Rios/Jose Reyes and starts talking more walks. If that's the case, he has the potential to be an All Star OF. That said, I don't have much faith in this organization to teach him better patience at the plate.

I'd take Hill over Bedard at this point, but that's me. I figure Bedard is a bit better talent-wise, but Bedard's injury history compared to Hill's, along with the fact that Hill will be cheaper for longer, tips the scales towards Hill, imo. As for Colvin, I'm not overly impressed. He and Veal are at the top of my "high risk/high reward" prospect pile for the Cubs. Typically, when you have a guy like that who is at his greatest value, it's smart to sell. Both have glaring flaws which could completely submarine them.

*Shrug* I'm expecting more of the same from him: decent production against righties and murdered by lefties. For a $3.5m minimum, that's not so bad. However, we now have to wonder about who will take the last rotation spot. Between Dempster, Marquis, Marshall, Hart, and a few others, there are some questions that need to be addressed.

I'd give consideration to it. Pawelek hasn't been able to stick above short season ball while Craig will likely make a decent 1B/3B utilityman with good plate discipline and a bit of pop. Craig's much more likely to contribute something to the majors than Pawelek at this point.

Donaldson can't be traded until the summer.

Can't say I blame him. She's hot.

Sadly, I'm inclined to agree with leaving Pawelek out of the Top 20.

My guy can beat up your guy.

Looks like the Orioles dumped him just in time.

Yes. This. Hi Brian Roberts!!!

Does that mean its gonna take 228 pages to get this deal finalized??? Of course not. It means that 228 pages from now, we'll be back to where we started on the 114th page, which is where we started on the first page.

It's a BS website with less credibility than the yahoos over at OH. Don't look into it.

I can't wait for the day David Eckstein is inducted. That'll be epic.

I have the game on mute. Has the commentary been as bad as I've imagined?

Word is it's for Joey Devine.

It's official. I'll now hate whoever is representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. Green Bay? Yuck. Dallas? Please. NY? That'd mean Eli Manning would lose his status as the "happy accident" Manning brother. Something about that would make me sad inside.

Bonderman the last two seasons: 14-8, 214 IP, 1.30 WHIP, 18 HR, 202/64 K/BB, 4.08 ERA, 112 ERA+ 11-8, 174 IP, 1.38 WHIP, 23 HR, 145/48 K/BB, 5.01 ERA, 91 ERA+ Bonderman's younger than Hill by about a year and a half. Other than that, I really don't see how you can objectively say Bonderman's a much better pitcher than Hill.