WrigleyField 22

How does his "spot" change how many wins he'll get? That might be one of the most absurd things I've ever read on this forum.

If we get anything for him, this is a good deal. The only way it could turn out bad, is if the PTBNL is Monroe himself. Other than that, I'm glad we're getting anything.

The injury risk is enough for me to say hes not worth than a couple mid level prospects. I wouldn't even trade Murton. Full Season of Murton > Half Season Baldelli. Not that Murton will actually get the chance to produce over a full season.

I'm sure their main pet peeve is 12 straight post-season appearances --- currently the longest streak. Really, they don't know how good they have it. I'm sick of having all this sex all the time Well for all the money you're paying for it maybe you could get some better sex. :P

Eh, they're also pretty good for information on contracts. But yea they certainly aren't a legitimate source for rumors.

Maybe if we had missed the playoffs this year we coul talk about trading our franchise players and blow up the organization so we could rebuild the right way. Since we made the playoffs, we are pretty much stuck with making whatever moves we can around these guys and their contracts that will increase. You are right. I did mention that Hendry would never do it. Maybe a new owner will bring a new GM who may be much more progessive. I'm not really even sure it's a Hendry thing. There's not many owners/GMs that would. However it should have been done last offseason, because other than Soriano we had those same trade chips.

Maybe if we had missed the playoffs this year we coul talk about trading our franchise players and blow up the organization so we could rebuild the right way. Since we made the playoffs, we are pretty much stuck with making whatever moves we can around these guys and their contracts that will increase.

We're doomed.

I'd pay up if I didn't have class to go to. Does southwest fly to Arizona?

Wow, its really cool to hear all you guys that got hooked in my grandfathers. Same here. My dad isn't really a baseball fan, but if he had to choose he's a Sox fan (no ones perfect).

drunken celvraton??? whooooootttts!

Heh, so I just went to baseballcube to check out Kyle Burke's stats. He has the SAME EXACT birthday as me. Month, day, year. He's my new favorite prospect, obviously. Oh, and what trade/transaction brought him to us?

I love Wood!

I wanted it banished. Now we are just giving Bonds more attention. Couldn't we have banished the ball and pretend he never played this game?

1. Derrek Lee 2. Matt Murton 3. Mark Prior 4. Aramis Ramirez 5. Sean Gallagher

Its too bad he's not from the African sun, Dusty.

The biggest issue, it would seem is that we need to match salary. With the sale of the team adding a lot of salary may just not be realistic. Tejada makes 13M. Lets just say we need to have at least 10M outgoing. The one thing this does, is require us to give up better younger talent than if we were offering a salary dump. Even if we gave up guys with one year left, its not that much better than the two years Tejada has. Dempster: 5.5M 28/31 SV with the "closer" tag. Jones: 5M He doesn't really do anything any of their other OF already do. Not much value there. Eyre: 3.8M We would probably end up eating a lot of his contract in the trade, but they might take a chance and agree to take on a million. Blanco: 2.8M Way overpaid, but maybe they want a backup catcher with Bako a FA? Pick and choose to make the right salary. Then we need to add actual value. Probably some young pitching and then a cheap position player. No Soto or Pie, so its pretty much Murton, Theroit, Fotenot, Cedeno. Marshall, Jones, Dempster, Murton, lower level pitcher for Tejada and Markakis Okay fine just Tejada. :) Other possibility: Perhaps they don't want Jones, because, hey who needs that many mediocre OF on one roster? Maybe we sell high on Marquis and even net a decent prospect in the process. We already have a good staff and then we just fill the fifth spot with one of our young pitchers like Gallagher, Hart, etc or someone like Traschel who might sign a cheap or non-guaranteed contract. We also take Marshall out of the deal then.

Eh, at least they can afford the nice hotels and nice rooms. Minor leaguers everywhere would envy them!

Not gonna win any games with turnovers like that. That's the bottom line.

I would think Dempster could be moved without eating any salary. He has the "closer" label and has a good save percentage, so some team would probably like him. Eyre, I would take on most of the contract. Even if we save 1 million, thats one million more to spend, or one million less we have to backload someone's contract, etc. Jones is another guy who could be moved by taking only a little or no salary.

I wouldn't mind Fukkudome, but the sale might make adding salary difficult. If you figure Soto and and Pie can fill CF and C, that leaves two holes at SS and RF. Theriot could play SS, but I'd prefer him to be the main MIF backup where he would still get a lot of time playing 2B for DeRosa since DeRosa is the "supersub". Murton could also fill in at RF cheaply. So really, at all of our positions that we could fill we have cheap young players to fill the holes. I would take out CF and C right now because we have players who are at the least, excellent defenders at the spot and one who is likely a good offensive player within the next few years. The other I'm not as sold on, but he plays a mainly defensive position. So we need to fill SS or RF with a big acquisition. This is assuming we can move around some big contracts like Jones/Eyyre/Dempster to make room. Whatever position we spend on we will be looking at the scrap heap for the other spot. So that being said, aren't we much more likely to find cheap help from a RF/CF than from a SS? It seems like every offseason there are those decent hitting cheap contract OF available. Think of the Milton Bradley's. Anyways I'm rambling, but I just hope that we give some young guys a shot. LF-Soriano RF-Murton/? 1B-Lee 3B-Ramirez SS-Tejada or ARod? 2B-DeRosa CF-Pie C-Soto The other option: LF-Soriano SS-Theriot 1B-Lee 3B-Ramirez RF-Fukudome 2B-DeRosa CF-Pie C-Soto I'd be pretty happy with either, but I think the first would be a little more proven. Another good note is that we could potentially put together a pretty cheap bench. Fotenot, Theriot, Blanco, Ward, Murton, Pagan, Patterson, etc are all potential bench players with Blanco the only one who really makes a lot.

I like him, but would probably prefer his role next year to be backing up SS and playing 2B with DeRosa. Between resting the SS and starting 2B when DeRosa needs a rest or is playing supersub, he could still get a lot of bats. His numbers just doesn't justify playing everyday. That being said, who knows if the Cubs will be able to spend on a starting quality SS this offseason, in which case he might be the best option.

The fact that Fukudome can play CF makes him even more appealing to me (I thought he was only a corner OF). Your Of could be Soriano, Pie, Fukudome. If Pie struggles, Murton is the 4OF and can step in quite effectively.

Fukudome was the guy I had specifically in mind when I made this thread. What kind of numbers is he putting up this year? What kind of contract is he likely to demand? What kind of numbers could we expect next year?