dew1679666265

I feel worse about missing on Cespedes because there was no reason to miss on him. It was a conscious decision by Theo/Jed to not give him the 4-year deal he was seeking. In Darvish's case, it's frustrating, but much less so because of the blind bids. That appeared to be less of an intentional pass (like Cespedes was) and more of just bad luck of the draw.

I do agree with you that in order to bring in star talent, you have accept that there will be bad contracts on the roster (and that's perfectly acceptable). However, I wouldn't include Prince in that conversation. The Tigers signed him to an unbelievably awful contract - one that there's almost no chance he comes close to being worth it. Passing/missing on Pujols, Cespedes, Darvish was bad, passing/missing on Prince was prudent.

I have seen a number of people on here say the Cespedes and Darvish contracts are pretty bad and their teams will be regretting them (especially Cespedes).

Next 3 picks: 40. Panthers (Andy) 41. Bills (imb!) 42. Dolphins (ManCrushOnNomar) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

I did get it this time, but wanted to give you the opportunity to make the pick. I figured on going ahead with the pick once I got back in tonight if you hadn't made it yet.

That would've been incredible.

While I agree about the FA pool thinning dramatically, I still wouldn't mind trading him as long as a team overpays quite well to obtain him. I wouldn't be critical of trading him if a team offered something kind of silly for him, but the biggest problem is who replaces him? We're already at least a year or two from likely contention, if we deal Garza we get even further away.

Play him or Cespedes in either RF or LF. DeJesus is a nice player, but I wouldn't think twice about benching/trading either he or Soriano in order to eventually get both Cespedes and BJax in the lineup.

Lannan: 4.00/4.61/4.45 (ERA/FIP/xFIP) - 4.71 K/9 - 3.38 BB/9 - 1.3 fWAR average Wells: 4.01/4.24/4.17 (ERA/FIP/xFIP) - 5.95 K/9 - 2.86 BB/9 - 2.1 fWAR average Lannan will turn 28 this year, Wells will turn 30 this year. Even if Lannan has better stuff, it's not shown in production over the course of their careers. Wells has been the better pitcher in almost every way. I'd have no interest whatsoever in a Lannan/Byrd swap.

The Jags and raw are on the clock. I PMd him. Next 3 picks: 39. Rams (Snayke) 40. Panthers (Andy) 41. Bills (imb!) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

The Browns and gorbs27 are on the clock. I PMd him. Next 3 picks: 38. Jaguars (rawaction) 39. Rams (Snayke) 40. Panthers (Andy) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

The Vikings and hawkeye are on the clock. I PMd him. Next 3 picks: 36. Buccaneers (minnesotacubsfan) 37. Browns (gorbs27) 38. Jaguars (rawaction) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

To be fair, saying we passed on Darvish is incorrect - unless Theo/Jed knew the Rangers would outbid everybody else by a very wide margin (if the reports are accurate). I really wanted Darvish and wish we had gotten him, but we don't know that it was lack of effort on the Cubs' part that led to him being a Ranger. And on Prince, it was a very good decision not to give him that contract.

There's plenty of reasons why it made plenty of sense for the Cubs to give Pujols a 10 year deal. There were also reasons not to give him the deal, but it's incorrect to say it made no sense to give it to him. I feel like the reasons to give him the deal outweighed the reasons not to.

Why not? Sure you'd prefer to get a guy like Cespedes on a 6 year deal, but is it better not to have a talented player at all rather than not to have him perfectly on your terms? Cespedes came out and said if the Cubs had offered him the same deal the As did, then he'd be a Cub but we wouldn't go to four years. Clearly that was Theo/Jed's decision and I disagree with it. Even if it took all of this year for Cespedes to acclimate to the states and the majors, if he develops as expected I'd still rather have 3 years of him than 0. Especially since he's got a lot of upside (something most of the players in our organization don't have) and he plays a position of need. The Darvish issue was likely much less in their power, especially if they had no idea the Rangers would bid as highly as they did. My comment was less a criticism of Cubs management not getting him and directed more at the people on the board saying they didn't want the Cubs to get him anyway at the price he garnered.

I've been wondering this and can't quite come up with a good answer to it. The talk out of the new Cubs management is that we need to acquire assets and that's the primary focus at this point. I agree with that line of thought, but I keep seeing people argue that it was a good idea to pass on FA this year because we can just trade for a big bat/arm next year. So a team that desperately needs to build as many assets as possible should pass on guys like Darvish and Cespedes (or Pujols if you want to spend big) so that we're in a position where, in order to have a chance to compete, we have to give up very valuable minor league assets to acquire one major league asset who we then have to give a huge contract to, at least similar to two of the guys we passed on (Darvish and Cespedes). To me, as well, adding impact or potential impact talent this offseason wasn't completely about winning 95-100 games this year - there was really no way to make this team anything more than a fringe playoff contender. What it was about, however, was to make incremental strides toward being a really good team next year while retaining as many assets as possible. Now, it looks like if we're going to compete in 2013 then we're going to have to give up valuable assets to do so - and that's even if there are really good young players available at our positions of need. If not, then we either overpay for the 2013 version of Alfonso Soriano or we forfeit another year in hopes that the market (either trade or FA) will break our way in 2014. That's my real concern with the current strategy. I think it'll ultimately work because the guys leading the way are really smart, but I question whether it was the optimal route to take.

As many as we can or that people want to. If interest wanes after the 2nd or 3rd round, we'll stop there. Or if we finish a round a couple days before the draft, we'll stop there. It kind of depends.

The Rams and Formerly Snayke are on the clock. I PMd him. Next 3 picks: 34. Colts (CCP, Exile) 35. Vikings (hawkeye) 36. Buccaneers (minnesotacubsfan) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

Next 3 picks: 32. Giants (gooney) 33. Rams (Snayke) 34. Colts (CCP, Exile) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

Most NL teams shouldn't have handed out a 10 year contract to Pujols, but a team with the monetary resources to afford a decline in the second half of the deal after a highly productive first half and a team with a front office that specializes in bringing in really good, young, cheap talent should have. The Cubs are that team.

The only really stupid contract we've handed out has been the Soriano deal. Grabow got too much in dollars and years, but that hasn't held us back to any real extent. We certainly haven't been a bad team because we've signed too many great to elite players to big contracts like myself and others on here have advocated doing this offseason.

Got it.

I agree that we should have made a move for one of the elite FAs, but Prince would have been the wrong target. That contract is an albatross from day one and while he has an elite offensive skillset, he's not an overall elite player. Ponying up for Pujols or Darvish would have been a much, much better option and is the route we should have taken. Chances are at this point if we want an elite player (outside of Starlin), we'll either have to wait 4-5 years for one to develop or pay a massive premium in minor league talent and in money to acquire one.

I figured it was a pipe dream that Janoris would fall to the Titans' pick in the second round. I too would have him in the top 5-10 picks without the character issues. I really like his talent. Next 3 picks: 29. Ravens (WrigleyField22) 30. 49ers (Raisin) 31. Patriots (Splinter) Again, if anybody isn't sure they'll be available to make the pick, shoot me a PM with your top 4 choices.

The only contract signed this offseason by a major FA that I thought was ridiculous was Prince's - there's no justification for it. However, I'd have been fine with the Cubs signing Pujols, Darvish, and Cespedes for the money they got. Wilson's a little tougher because he gave the Angels a major hometown discount and it's really tough to know what he would have been able to get otherwise.