Outshined_One

It's cool. It was hard to bring this particular topic up within a thread since one of the threads is already 20someodd pages long and that it wouldn't be a perfect fit in any of the other ones.

I'm curious at the willingness of both teams in terms of giving up their respective players. On the one hand, Abreu is beginning to leave his prime and is due $15m the next two seasons, as memory serves me. We all know what he can do with his bat. He has a terrific arm, but limited defensive ability beyond that. The Phillies also have a surplus of outfielders with the acquisition of Aaron Rowand. I am unsure about where they stand on matters financially. However, they will need pitching and I have the feeling they won't have much interest in Rich Hill due to his troubles with the home run. Yet, the Phillies are a few pieces away from being able to compete in the NL East. On the other hand, Baltimore is in a bad spot. They have good young talent in their rotation (Penn, Cabrera, Bedard), but are sorely lacking otherwise in the pitching department. They do have some good offensive talent, but have their share of holes that need to be plugged. They also have a disgruntled SS who wants out. Tejada is also signed to a reasonable contract and would be under contract for the next few years. It could be possible that the Orioles won't trade him unless a huge deal came along. Yet, the Orioles also have a farm system that's pretty much bereft of talent save for a few lone bright spots. On a final note, Dusty Baker supposedly is the master of making disgruntled players happy in the clubhouse. As far as I can tell, I think the Cubs have an equal shot at landing either Abreu or Tejada. I don't think it will cost Zambrano or Prior for either.

So, here's my line of thinking at the moment. The Cubs currently have a gaping hole in RF and a question mark at SS. If Cedeno plays at SS every day, then I'd say that SS production would be somewhat above average. I think he'd do alright defensively at the very least. Yet, in RF, the options for putting some one there are Murton (opening a hole up in LF), Patterson, Pie, and Brandon Sing. I don't think any of those options would be as usable as Cedeno. Secondly, they have only so many prospects/young players who teams would accept in a trade, who are cheap, and who are roughly a year away from being ML-ready (at most). Those guys being: Rich Hill Felix Pie Jerome Williams Ronny Cedeno Michael Wuertz Roberto Novoa Todd Wellemeyer Carlos Marmol Sean Marshall Angel Guzman You could also toss Corey Patterson and Matt Murton onto that list, although it's becoming apparent that CPatt's trade value has taken a nosedive and that the Cubs are pretty much set on having Matt Murton play LF. Anyways, the bottom line with this whole thing is that, based on the prospects I listed above, I think that the Cubs could only realistically get one of either Miguel Tejada or Bobby Abreu if they were to acquire one of them at all. Trading for both would be nothing short of a miracle, in my opinion. So, let's assume the following two things. The trade packages are fair for either player. If Tejada is traded for, Cedeno is shipped off to Baltimore. Given these things, would you rather have Abreu or Tejada?

So, I decided to wander on over to Sons of Sam Horn to see what was up with this situation since the Red Sox were rumored to be interested. Needless to say, I found a bevy of fun articles. Manny for Tejada Possible? Yes, it is possible. The Red Sox called the Orioles and offered him straight up for Tejada. That said, five to eight other teams seem to be in this thing. Still, whether or not Tejada will be traded remains to be seen.

Link Wonder if this one will be shot down?

Eh, I'd be more comfortable with Pavano than Rusch at the back end of the rotation. Pavano's not worth his current contract (Wasn't it a 5/50 deal?), but if you could sucker the Yankees into picking up part of his contract in exchange for CPatt/Novoa, that wouldn't be the worst of ideas. I grant you, he's not a front of the line guy. But as a 4 or 5? I'd be fine with it, assuming the price was right. Also, until I see a second reliable source about what Stark said on Gamenight (if he even was on that show), I'm calling shenanigans on this rumor.

I was asking you for a link to the post on the Yankees message board. Also, a second source (preferably non-message board) confirming this would be welcome.

Source?

They referenced the fact that he hit the high 90s to start the season, but wore down as the season went on in his scouting report pre-draft.

He's a good prospect with some sleeper potential. However, I am of the opinion that his numbers benefited from pitching in an extreme pitcher's league. Originally was a reliever that was converted to a starter and put up good numbers this season down in the Florida State League He has an average fastball and a plus slider. However, he's not sticking at this point in his career. My main reason? G/F: 0.76 Yep, that's his groundball/flyball ratio from this past season. I can't exactly say I'd be thrilled if I were a Cardinals fan.

HRs I can dig. But RBIs? There's too much stuff that RBIs depend upon to make me see them as a legitimate stat in objectively evaluating a player. Tejada's better than Walker by a fair margin, though.

This deal just got a heck of a lot better for Milwaukee.

Everybody dance now!

Hoo boy. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go.

Bush is a decent young pitcher, as memory serves me. Not a bad trade, imo.

Actually, the strange thing about Juan Pierre, looking at him more in-depth, is that his #P/PA took a noticeable leap to 3.69 last season as opposed to 3.51 and 3.44 in previous years. Kinda makes you wonder why his OBP was as low as it was last season.

They also have Salty coming up from the minors in the near future.

Alou was a tough strikeout, too. I wouldn't exactly say it was a result of his patience, though.

Nobody thought Hendry would be able to pull Murton from the Red Sox, also. So it wouldn't surprise me if Kensing, Vargas, or Olsen is coming along with Pierre. Which would be fine with me. That part of the deal will end up being a big key, imo. If the Cubs get some one talented who has logged a decent amount of time in the majors or some one who has a good ceiling and is close to being ready to go regularly in the majors from the Marlins, then they will have an important trading chip that would help them acquire some one like Bobby Abreu or Adam Dunn. A package involving Josh Johnson, Jerome Williams, Roberto Novoa, and Scott Moore would like quite tempting to the Phillies for Abreu, no?

Mench is going to Florida? :-k :wink:

http://www.heritagekonpa.com/images/Juan%20Pierre%20of%20Florida%20Marlin.jpg Chop chop gents! I shan't wait to be getting that Wiggly Feel in front of the lovely ivory of Wrigley Field!

Stubborn GM Chuck LaMar was shown the door not too long ago. I have no idea how the new GM operates, but the rumors regarding Lugo and Huff seem a bit more reasonable than demanding Carlos Zambrano straight up.

Hmmmmmmm...this OF has the potential to be dicey from an offensive standpoint. If Jim Hendry continues to pursue Milton Bradley, an OF of Murton-Pierre-Bradley is concerning to me, especially considering Bradley's never played more than 141 games in a season during his stint in the majors and coupling that with the fact that he played 75 games last season. I would have been fine with him in CF, but in RF? I'm hoping Hendry has a rabbit in his hat to fill that hole.

How does Petit not crack the rotation?!?!?!? Sounds made up to me :lol: Petit's highly overrated. None of his stuff is really noteworthy. He could pan out, but my gut's telling me he is on his way to getting shellacked in the majors.

Let's say that, given the time this deal was done, Jim Hendry got Larry Beinfest really drunk and convinced Beinfest to send Scott Olsen to the Cubs along with Juan Pierre. In possession of Olsen, do you think a package of, say, him, Williams, and Scott Moore could get a deal for Abreu done?