Neuby

Interested to see what Theo and Hoyer are able to get from the next bunch to go. Still plenty of useful pieces for a contender. Gregg Soriano Nate Barney Russell Navarro DeJesus Ransom

Garza/ Russell/ Soriano for Profar and filler. Do we then immediately flip Barney?

If Russell can bring back a Sean Marshall type return in talent I don't think Theo & company will hesitate for a second.

Does Codey Ransom have value comparable to Jeff Baker last season?

Wait, what? Navarro? What exactly does he have to do with this? It was mentioned by one of the local beat reporters that Navarro has been Garza's personal catcher and provides a nice bat off the bench with some pop for a contender.

I'm not opposed to to re-signing in the offseason but would be disappointed if we didn't package him and Navarro for a significant return.

Actually Puig is about a year older. And has had character issues. And, you know, small sample size. Darvish was a blind bid. Cespedes is the one you can point at and say the FO messed up. When people were talking about the Cubans before they signed, the discussion was about Cespedes and Soler. Puig was an afterthought almost, certainly not a "priority" sign. But hindsight is 20/20. Can you though? I think the jury is still out. This year he's on pace for an OK WAR total (that is largely tied up in fielding after having it be a huge negative last year - but he is playing more LF than CF) but his triple slash is pretty gross. And (to Neuby's post) what the hell does "hit enough to warrant his strikeouts" mean? Nothing has to warrant strikeouts. They aren't inherently bad and don't need to be made up for or "warranted." People may have thought that Davis's strikeout numbers were an indication that he wouldn't be able to be a productive hitter, but that's a completely different thing. And yes, we understand that highly thought of prospects bust (re: Patterson). David my choice of words might have been off but your just agreeing with me. The message board Scouts were wrong on Davis who didn't want him as return on a trade. The question was always would he hit enough to out weigh the strikeouts and he has the last two years.

This portion right here is completely stupid to include. If I was scouting a guy and he got suspended and received a talking to from the front office and then fresh off that gets benched by his manager for not playing the "Cubs way" it raises a red flag stupid or not I'll include it. Sure we aren't talking about Milton Bradley but you'd be stupid not to include that in the discussion.

Well looks the Dodgers have the best scouts in baseball because Puig looks like Bo Jackson on the field and is the same age as Soler. One is in the majors one is in Single A coming off a league suspension and one from the team. If you want to exclude Puig from the discussion the Cubs still came in second on Darvish and Cesepedes too young all stars currently in the majors. |ts good to hear some scouts view him the better players long term but those same scouts also thought Corey Patterson was the next Barry Bonds and Chris Davis wouldn't hit enough to warrant hs strikeouts.

Soler? Soler is still a few years away and is having some character issues with lack of hustle and getting suspended. He was ranked well behind Puig and Cespedes who are currently staring in the Majors. Soler was a great signing but we didn't land the big fish. The bold isn't exactly true and the first part is LOL. Are you trying to say that Soler wasn't ranked behind or that he isn't a few years away? Just based off the contracts the three of them landed there is quite a bit of difference in terms of how teams viewed there talent and it looks like the scouting reports were spot on considering both are all star caliber players currently putting up numbers in the majors not single A Daytona.

Soler? Soler is still a few years away and is having some character issues with lack of hustle and getting suspended. He was ranked well behind Puig and Cespedes who are currently staring in the Majors. Soler was a great signing but we didn't land the big fish.

I'd be more interested in Gonzalez but Theo so far has struck out when it comes to landing top international talent thats not restricted by the new CBA. We've come just short in trying to get Darvish,Puig,Cespedes. Maybe Gonzalez is the 1 we finally win.

I saw somewhere in the madness that is my Twitter stream right now that we're sending some money with Marmol, like $2m or something. That sounds right. If we were saving about $3 mil on a guy we were going to cut in a couple days anyways, that would be crazy. Unless less I missed something we just saved 2.5 million on the Marmol Deal. I read we sent 2.5 mil to the dodgers with Marmol. He is owed 5mil for the rest of this season.

Torreyes hasn't been hitting and thats his only tool. Castro,Barney, Baez, Alcantara, Watkins, Lake, and the young shortstop we just signed are all depth. We dealt from a strength and from all indications are going to use this cap money to land a potential impact talent for our system.

The Cubs Torreyes are strong up in the middle throughout the minors and at the big league level I don't have a problem losing him if it's nets us one of the remaining top stars available. Still trying to understand why we gave the Dodgers pool money in that deal?

Very small chance they are connected but Andre Ethiers agent told him to expect a trade in the coming weeks. With Dejesus, Soriano, Schierholtz all possibly on the block, Jackson sucking at IOWA and renforcements in the minors years away could Theo gamble on an old favorite if the Dodgers take Marmol and eat most of Ethiers contract?

Marmol to Dodgers Close ( ESPN 1000 Levine) No details other than two sources confirm deal is close. http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9442602/carlos-marmol-chicago-cubs-close-being-deal-los-angeles-dodgers-sources-say

At this point even a guy like Cody Ransom who can play all over the diamond and provide some punch off the bench could be an attractive add on to one of our pitchers for a contender. Theo and company got good value for Jeff Baker last year who's thriving in texas this season 82 PAs 317 9HR 16RBI .391OBP

Barney Dejesus Soriano Feldman Garza Gregg Marmol Navarro Russell Would love to see the Cubs sell high on Russell similar to the Marshall deal a few years back.

Excited for tomorrows draft. There's a couple real wild card talents to be had.

With Fujikawa /Baker/Fieldman/Navarro in the fold where does the Cubs payroll stand at now?

Is this because the team Lake plays on is loaded in the infield or have the Cubs decided his future gonna be in CF?

If the Cubs do indeed ink Bourn, I really hope they flip DeJesus.

Absolutely. That said, if we get offered a couple of top 20 prospects from an average system for him, I'd just hold onto him. If we get a young major leaguer with upside or a prospect package at least as good as the Dempster deal, trade him. If not, what good does it do to get rid of him? Soriano is a sunk cost. His value possibly at it's highest. He's not part of the future so if you can get a couple top 20 prospects for him and some salary relief for the next two seasons you do it. At the same time you could be opening up at-bats for a young outfielder who's part of the future or another free agent off the scrap heap that they hope to flip for assets at the deadline. This same theory applies to Marmol/Dejesus .