texascub

Me too, the more I hear about trades this year the more I hope we sit still. I heard Stone mention having to send ARam as part of the deal to get Manny, and I heard somewhere that Texas was asking for Pie and Hill for Soriano...hopefully prices fall really quickly or Hendry does the right thing and sits tight. A healthy Wood, Nomar, and Williamson will be a big addition. A few trades would be nice to get another bat and some more bullpen help would be nice but not at these insane prices.

Yep, sad thing is that Epstein was actually going to throw in a decent OF prospect as well. The way that Epstein overly persues trades, I'm kind of surprised that he gets as good of a return value as he does in most trades.

Unfortunately, Epstein has been very reluctant to trade Kelly Shoppach and Dustin Pedroia. For good reason, they are both excellent prospects. Shoppach is going to be a good catcher and is known to have leadership skills. Pedroia is a good solid second baseman prospect that appears ready and would have been called up to replace Bellhorn earlier if not for a wrist injury. But, they may very well need to trade Pedroia and move top prospect Hanley Ramirez (a shortstop) over to second since they already have Renteria at short. However, the proposed trade would clearly be a rental player move from Boston's perspective since they wouldn't keep Soriano (Ramirez needs to play in the bigs and they prefer him as an infielder) and I don't see them paying that much for rental players. Right now it doesn't appear as though Epstein is too hesitant to trade Shoppach. He has been mentioned in the 3-way trade between the Sox, Rays, and Mets and he was also almost traded to the Rockies along with OF Adam Stern before the deal fell apart when it was pending approval from Boston's ownership.

No. But being a guy who wants to see every possibility exhausted to get Manny to the Cubs, I'd sure love to think that way! Even if ARam is part of the package sent back to Boston like Steve Stone was saying? I'd love to have Manny here as well (provided Boston picks up a large chunk of his salary) but not if it is going to cost us someone like ARam who we couldn't replace easily.

BTW, DJAXX when do you think you'll have the Q&A sessions from Jeff Parker and Ribbee posted?

Of freaking course it would be a 2:00 start. I have to play golf on Sunday after a couple of partners asked me to join them for a tee time at 1:00. Crap. On the first par 5 you get to, swing as hard as you can and pretend to twist you knee or ankle and not be able to continue playing. That way, technically you did show up and play golf with your bosses but an injury forced you to leave early. Have them help you back to your car and assure them that you'll be able to make it home ok. After that, just head over to the Chiefs' game. You might also want to get a set of cheap crutches before heading to the game just to sell the act even more. After that show up to the office with a knee brace on and limp around for a few days...what could go wrong?

Dopirak having himself a nice night tonight. 2-3 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. Also nice to see a Dope Slap...those have been few and far between this year. O'Toole is 2-3 and JJJ is 3-3 with 3 RBI as well. Also, Walker has gone 0-4 with 2k's but somehow managed to steal his 42nd base of the year.

Nomar 1-3 with a run so far tonight. He has also helped turn a 3-6-1 DP.

Unfortunately, Epstein has been very reluctant to trade Kelly Shoppach and Dustin Pedroia. For good reason, they are both excellent prospects. Shoppach is going to be a good catcher and is known to have leadership skills. Pedroia is a good solid second baseman prospect that appears ready and would have been called up to replace Bellhorn earlier if not for a wrist injury. But, they may very well need to trade Pedroia and move top prospect Hanley Ramirez (a shortstop) over to second since they already have Renteria at short. However, the proposed trade would clearly be a rental player move from Boston's perspective since they wouldn't keep Soriano (Ramirez needs to play in the bigs and they prefer him as an infielder) and I don't see them paying that much for rental players. I've actually heard that Epstein has been actively shopping Shoppach because Varitek is locked up through '08. I know that he has been reluctant to trade Pedroia but I think he is trade-able; it all depends on how much they want to have post-season success again this year. Trot is down, they are getting very little production from 2B, and Manny might get traded. Burnitz has an option for next year so that helps RF for them and if they can sign Soriano to an extension they'd still have a pretty potent lineup. Also, during the MLB Futures Game they kept talking about Hanley Ramirez moving to CF if Damon is gone after this year. They said that Ramirez is an incredible natural athlete and that he played there some during ST and actually looked pretty good.

I think that it would be interesting if we could acquire Soriano from Texas then flip him to Boston along with Burnitz. We give up 2 mid level prospects (or one and CPatt) for Soriano. Then we trade Soriano and Burnitz to Boston for something like Mike Myers, Kelly Shoppach, Dustin Pedroia, and a lower level prospect. It isn't totally giving up on this year IMO but at the same time we're adding alot for next year. Shoppach could come in next year to play catcher. Barrett is still good but Shoppach is 4 years younger and offers a little more offense and defense. Pedroia should be ready by next year to take over 2B for Walker, who's contract expires after this year. Myers would be a valuable lefty in the pen down the stretch this year as well. Any opinions? Edit: Forgot about the money factor for Boston. Soriano signed a one-year deal to avoid arbitration this year and has less then $4 mil left on it at this point. The Rangers may pick up a small part in the deal to the Cubs. The Cubs might need to pick up a small part of his contract but I don't see it being too big of a piece. Burnitz also has a one-year contract and is owed less than $2.5 mil at this point. I could see us eating a small part of this year's contract and offering to pay the $0.5 mil buy-out for next year's $7 mil team option but that is it.

So is the walk the only time he's been up to the plate tonight?

Thanks for answering our questions Jeff. My question is what did you study in college to get where you are today, and how did you get into MLB's Scout School?

Too bad the time zone situation for me is screwy; I would have made a sound clip of the interview had I known earlier. Just curious, but when will you be back in the states?

Does anyone know if the Cubs plan on fielding a Venezuelan Summer League team again any time soon? Very few MLB teams fielded VSL teams this year but it always seemed like the Cubs pulled some pretty good talent from down there.

I don't know exactly which teams would have the average longest and shortest trips between opponents, but the PCL probably has the longest average and the AZL probably has the shortest average. The PCL ranges from Tennessee to California and in the AZL, most teams play within minutes of each other.

I caught something on ESPN as I was walking out the door earlier and thought that some people may be interested. The were saying that getting back Nomar and Williamson will be like 2 trades for the Cubs and it should give us a boost. They also said that we are now looking for an OF (preferably RH) and that the 2 we were looking at were Kearns and Willy Mo from Cincy. They did say that Cincy has been a horrible team to deal with and they don't see us making a deal for either one.

I know that Nomar has been playing down in Mesa, so with Mesa's day off today is it just kind of like a travel day for him and he'll make his debut tomorrow?

CPatt goes 1-5 1 run, 1 rbi. Also walked once and didn't K. Hopefully he is starting to settle in and get his confidence back.

Veal pitched again today in Mesa and posted a good line: 3.0 IP 1 hit, 1ER, 4/1 (also had a throwing error). Francisco allowed 2 ER in 2.1 IP though and got the loss.

Wendell Kim is currently coaching the GCL Nationals (a rookie league team).

When pitching I like to leave my index finger out of the glove; it helps me to locate better. I always point pretty much where I'm going and I can visualize the ball's path as I'm winding up. While fielding though I really don't have a preference, whichever way my finger goes while I am putting my hand into the glove works for me.

Shh! Don't jinx us, Fuld and Walker have been healthy so far...hopefully they don't go down too.

Hopefully Grant can bounce back with a big game tonight after two straight bad starts.

I started wondering about this during the Futures Game. Whenever there was a camera shot in the world team's dugout, he was sitting next to an older guy with a cubs hat on. Montanez had his arm thrown over the guy's shoulder and they were sitting there talking and having a good time. The guy looked like Von Joshua to me but I'm not sure if he was there or not.

And the bullpen is very rested. Lets hope that the rest will help them, hopefully the rust can be kept to a minimum.