WrigleyField 22

I wont be upset if a big name FA is signed for next year, but I almost want to see a youth movement with the pitching. If you have the depth to try it out you should give it a shot, because we cold potentially save a lot of money that will help us to solidify the batting order, a place where there isn't a lot of hope for cheap production. Yea we wont be as good next year if we do that, but I don't see us as being competitive in the "fight for the wildcard till the end and barely miss" kind of way than in a "legitimate W.S. contenders" kind of way, even if we get a big bat and frontline starter. So if we can go from compete to wildcard to hang around .500 for next year in an effort to better set us up for 2008 and beyond I could go for it. Either way could work and I would be happy with either. I will really only be upset if we go out and get a couple mediocre vets whose production over the young guys isn't worth the upside you lose out on.

He still has time to improve being that he is so young, but it looks like Pie will always be a players whose OBP will always be heavily tied to his BA. With enough time he could figure that out, but the Cubs won't see that as a problem so will be more likely to rush him. I think he will end up being a very good player, but I get the feeling he will never be that "Franchise Player". I am certainly not giving up on him, but I see him being more of a Aramis Ramirez/Michael Barrett(somewhere between the two) than a D-Lee in terms of being a player to build around. Prove me wrong Felix.

Yea I see one big FA pitcher signed. I would only do it though, if it was a top of the line starter. I would be upset if they signed one, or even worse, two "lesser" pitchers. While we could be in a position to be somewhat competitive next year with the right moves, I think it would be much more worthwhile to allow the young guy to improve because we have a lot of talented young pitchers coming up and we could concievably fill 2/5 or maybe 3/5 of our rotation for cheap in the following years. Basically you have three big pitchers on the market. Zito Schmidt The Japanese guy whose name escapes me at the moment. None particularly sticks out as the best option but it would be nice to establish a market with a big name Japanese player as it could help influence later signings. And you cant really count on Prior for next year. If hes ready he pushes a guy to the bullpen or AAA, no big deal. Zambrano and possibly Marshall look like the only definites, with Marmol pretty certain to get a spot. You have two spots and the possibilities include: Prior, FA, Hill, Guzman with guys like Ryu, Gallagher, Mateo, Wells long shots, but possible if they put up strong spring training performances like Marshall did. There has been a lot of talk that our farm system has gotten a lot worse, and while that is true, so many guys have stepped up pitching wise, including some others in lower levels like Veal that our system is really only weak because of the lack of position players. If you don't allow at least 2/5 (3/5 depending on Prior.. 4/5 even possible if no Prior or FA) of the starting rotation to the young guys, you might as well look to make some trades to improve other areas because we have some depth. One dark horse is Jerome Williams. I see him being traded for some low level/nothing prospect because of 40man roster issues, but he will still be just 25 next year and has had success at times in the big leagues.

I thought it has been confirmed before that buyouts are actually budgeted in for the previous year and don't count against that years budget. So its not like we have to worry about it being a 5mil contract, it would be 2mil (or whatever you work out)

Nope, he was never rostered to my knowledge. Wasn't Fontenot on the roster when he came over in the Sosa trade? I could swear he and Crouthers were on the Orioles' 40 man roster. I think the Cubs took Fotenot off the 40man this past offseason. No one claimed him.

The first that jumps into my mind is Fox because I know he actually was in danger of being picked last year. Beyond that, I think Gallagher and Patterson. I'm not sure there is anyone else noticable.

Any other SS we name? Is that in all of baseball because I could make an enormous list. Cedeno has the potential to be a big bat? He had the chance to be an good bat if used at SS where his defensive potential is a plus. At 2B, his offense is even more important and his deffense less important. Right now his lack of patience make him a bad hitter anywhere. Walker may be having a down year, but is hardly "light hitting". Glad we dealt him though.

WE NEED PEOPLE WHO CAN ACTUALLY GET ON BASE. You can get that from other positions. If Izturis returns to his 04 form his 330 OBP will be just fine from the 7 spot. If we can hopefully sign Carlos Lee or Soriano this offseason we will be set. Pierre, Barrett, Lee, Soriano/Lee, Ramirez, Jones/Murton, Izturis, Cedeno. You need guys to get on base at all positions. Besides the mediocre .330 OBP is counting on him repeating a career year.

Gregs ready to go out west in his Hawaiin shirt

Press Conference: Says he talked to Dodgers about top prospects... The excuse why that didnt go through seemed to be that the Dodgers needed them for the Lugo deal so it "worked out better for everyone" I didn't hear this exactly but thats what I got from it. God this season sucks

Press Conference: Called Izturiz an outstanding MIF

I'll bet a grammar text book. shut up. Don't tell other posters to shut up. He was making fun of my slang typing... I couldnt help myself Tons of other posters can "help themselves". The immediate reaction of frustration can't possible last the time it takes to hit the quote button, wait or the page to load, type the message, then hit respond.

That's funny. I didn't hear Aramis say anything like that either. Your right, he chose to just highliht two good days rather than two good months. I'm not trying to run Aramis out of town here, but he could learn to not give the reporters so much stuff to work with.

Who is he "calling out?" Possibly he meant to call out no one. Taken alone it seems like hes calling out the whole damn team. Lets just hope the team knows who he is actually calling or not calling out here. Don't believe everything you read in newspapers. I don't, thank you. I realize they are out to sell papers first and tell the truth second. I just think its worth noting and not completely ignoring. And like I said, hopefully all the teammates are on the same page with his quotes and know what hes feeling. I would love Aramis to not be so honest or try to be funny if that was really the case. If he just sticks to the "company line" this whole thing would REALLY be a non issue. He shouldn't give reporters anything to work with. As long as they won't be completely honest, you don't have to be completely honest.

Who is he "calling out?" Possibly he meant to call out no one. Taken alone it seems like hes calling out the whole damn team. Lets just hope the team knows who he is actually calling or not calling out here.

So his two game hot streak makes up for his poor play so much that he can say whatever he wants? Where did I say anything even remotely close to that? I said it's a guy trying to sound honest and funny...who cares if he said he wishes there were more guys on his team smashing the ball? Who WOULDN'T want that? He didn't single anyone out, so whose feelings are going to be hurt? The way we talk about this team, they're never going to win anything with the amount of crying and sulking in the corners they must be doing. I guess he just wasn't very good at being funny. That comment could have been made in a bad way. I'm not saying thats what it was. Other than one other quote from a couple weeks ago I have no reason to believe it was made in that tone. I will however keep track, and that right there is two times. After 4 or 5 or 6 do you start to think it happens too much to be that he is just being taken out of context. It might not get to that, I hope it doesn't. At this point I'm not taking either side, both should be held in consideration because its too early to say for sure that its one way or the other. Oh and the "remotely close to part" to was in reference to the fact that you only used the past two games ehre he hit 4 homers in support of his strong play. He's done poorly the rest of the season. I'm sure thats not how you meant it, my bad.

One of his reasons he explained this way... In another section, he mentions that he didn't use velocity to evaluate whether a pitcher is done, but rather his control and whether he was hitting his spots. Well that does sound better. You would hate to see a pitcher have to throw 120 innings with mad mechanics "because they're supposed to". I'm not too knowledgeable as to who other possible candidates might be, but he sounds like he could be reasonable.

Hmmm, his 120 pitch count theory doesn't sound so nice. At the least hes better than Baker though.

So his two game hot streak makes up for his poor play so much that he can say whatever he wants? I'm really not trying to say that I feel he is a problem on this team, but I'll watch what he says more closely thats for sure. Maybe reporters just don't like Ramirez, and only twist his words, but maybe Aramis is the only one whos saying things that are so easy to twist. Its really all specualtion becuase none of us know the context. Maybe this is somewhere Bruce Miles could help and chime in with since hes around the club. Are you out there Bruce?

I usually wouldn't feel that trying to get a draft pick is worth just offering a guy arbitration because the draft is suck a crapshoot, but seeing what we recieved, we shoulda tried that over a trade.

Honestly I just knew nothing about him. He may very well be a good option. If he could be had real cheap maybe you could even sign him AND Zito and try and consolidate some of out young pitchers to get an even better young player.

I've wont pretend to know what its like to be a major leaguer, but I can use my experience in team sports to try and imagine how that quote might go over. I can't imagine it will go over well. You dont leave your teammates hangin out to dry like that. I'm not trying to say that we need to strive for a chemistry-happy team where everyone loves eachother and are best friends. But a fueding team isn't going to help towards winning. Now if you are a VERY good team, someting this team is far from, you might be able to win despite that. But theres no reason to make it harder on the team that it could be by just saying "We need to play better". I don't care if none of the guys on the team talk, but there needs to be a mutual respect where you can go out and play together. I wouldn't wanna play with a guy who bashes his teammates and praises his own efforts. I would ultimately still go out and play, but some guys might not. Now maybe he's just trying to get guys a little fired up, but there are better ways to do that and it can stay within the team. Just as an example, I was far from friends with some kids on my football team this year. The one kid in particular I think is a jerk and I never spoke to him inside of school. He was a linebacker though and I was a defensive end so we had to work together at times. I had enough mutual respect for him though that we could get the job done. If I thought he would leave teammates out to dry though I would have had a much harder time working with him. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a happy-friendly club house. Guys can even get in some fights sometimes, that keeps some competitve juices flowing. But you gotta have enough respect for eachother as ballplayers to be able to go out onto the field and get the job done together. I question how guys will be able to do that with a guy who praises his own efforts when he hasn't been great most of the time and criticizes his teammates. I'm not saying this is what Aramis meant, he may have been misquoted or put out of context. I am definately watching to see if its something that becomes a habit though.

Thats the second time he's had a quote like that. I'm not ready to run him out of town, but I'm gonna have my eye on him. I don't buy that he's just frustrated. I didn't hear Z say... "I've pitched great the past few months and my offense on those days are the only reason we won." He very well could have too, because its true. Instead he's just said stuff like -We gotta catch the wild card. I haven't heard Barrett say hes pissed because hes doing great and everyone sucks. Aramis needs to learn to speak to the media. You just don't do that.

I was bored. I found myself talking a lot about the moves I'd make this deadline and this offseason in small broken bits in separate threads, so decided to make one large post stating what I would do with the trade deadline and the offseason all together. There is a lot of guessing, specifically with the trades and depending on who we might have to include or what we get, things could change considerably, but I simply tried to give an idea of what the general "gameplan" would be. I will be gone tomorrow morning so likely wont be able to repsond to many comments or criticisms you have but please discuss amongst yourselfs. Warning: I typed it all out on wordpad ahead of time and then never really proof-read, hope it makes sense. ------------------------------------------------------- Let me first say that while I think its possible to make a run in 2007, I would rather gain some valuable pieces and make a big run in 2008. This is based off that. ---- I did a lot of this before I found out about the Williamson trade. I figured him packaged with Jone or Maddux could get a lot. Hopefully we can still pull off some good trades. 2006 Trade Deadline: Trade- Walker Blanco Rusch Niefi Maddux Jones Nevin J. Williams(I like him. Dont't think he has a spot in our organization) Novoa In some cases (Rusch, Niefi, Novoa) if you cant find someone to dump them on, cut them. A lot of these deals I would think would involve multiple players (ie Maddux and Walker for a prospect) Look to aquire talented young players. Whether they be position players or pitches doesn't really matter, but I would place a preference on position players as we are weaker there. I would count on most of these guys being prospects who will take up a 40 man roster spot. I wont try and guess specific players who we might aquire, but lets say we get 3 position players. Assume at least two are ready to be tested for full time roles in 2007. The other guys could use another year in the minors or maybe is ready for a bench/platoon role in the majors. Just to make it easy I'll say we aquire a OF and 2B who are ready now, and a utility IF/OF who could go in the minors or fill a bench role. These roles just happen to be convienent which is why I assigned them. It could be a lot more tricky depending on the prospects we get. 40 man and roster at a glance: Aardsma Dempster Eyre Guzman Hill Howry Marmol Marshall Ohman Prior Ryu Wuertz Zambrano Barrett Soto Cedeno Dopriak Lee Moore Theriot Murton Pie OF prospect IF prospect 2B prospect I took Reyes off the 40, but would keep him around, Assume we get rid/dont bring back Bynum, Mabry, Negron, Miller So thats 25. On to the new additions. I am bad at figuring out who needs to be protected but will do my best: Fox Patterson Gallagher Wells Those are the only guys the best I can tell who would need to be added or threatened to be taken. That leaves us with 11 open spots on our 40 man. I'll add 3 extra spots in case I forgot about people who need to be protected leaving us at 8. Lets look at the big legue roster as it stands SP Zambrano Marshall Marmol Hill OPEN(Prior/Guz possible) RP Dempster Eyre Howry Wuertz Ohman OPEN(Ryu/Guz possible) C-Barrett 1B-Lee 2B-PROSPECT SS-Cedeno 3B-Ramirez LF-Murton CF-OPEN RF-PROSPECT BENCH-Theriot, Soto, UTIL PROSPECT, 3 OPEN Six Open Spots Lets take a look at FA Heres how I fill the 6 spots: SP-Zito/Schmidt -I'll say a top of the rotation guy is a must. They make us not so embarrassing next year and will still help for a big run in 2008. Doesn't place so much need on young arms. I'll say Zito here. CF- Pie is not ready and so we need a stopgap guy. Gary Matthews, Tori Hunter, Mike Cameron, Kenny Lofton are possibilities. At the most I would give one year with a mutual option. I think Lofton or Cameron are most likely to accept this. I'l go with Cameron. RP- I'm tempted to let a young guy take the last spot, but they can take Wuertz or Ohmans spot if they are that deserving. Probably a righty here: I won't speculate on exactly who this will be. Maybe a Japanese player. That leaves three bench spots. I would look for a SS/2B and OF who could push Cedeno/Murton/Prospects if they don't perform. The OF I would want some power from. The last spot I'd want a guy who provides power from the opposite side of the other OF. Position doesnt matter too much. It will be hard to get quality becaus guys might want starting spots. I'll throw out names. MIF-Loretta, Cora, Kennedy, Clayton, Counsell, A. Gonzalez..... OF/Power Bats-Nixon, Stairs, Marrero, Dellucci, I'll go with Marrero, Dellucci, Alex Cora --- One other Free Agency Option and it would really depend on what type of guys you net in a trade. You could try to sign Carlos Lee this year. This would likely negate Murton to a 4th OF role. This is a possibility. I'll hope we an get a legit RF prospect and go with Murton in LF. If no one steps up in the Corner OF you can try and sign someone next year. This site ( http://www.mlb4u.com/freeagency07.php?order=position) shows next years FA and it looks good, although I' not sure how reliable it is. With 6 FA signings you have 2 40man spots left, neither which look like they have a shot at a spot on the big league roster. I wouldn't mind Pagan if we could put him at AAA. Insurance if we needa CF. I'll also count on another one of Hedry's "recovery proects" like Demp, Williamson, Miller. Theres a lot of assuming going on here. We don't know what we can get for Jones/Maddux/Walker/Nevin- our biggest trading pieces- Even if we get good prospects are they guys who we can give a spot to on next years big league roster? Maybe we can only aquire a bunch of IF prospects or pitchers and NEED to sign Lee to play OF because we have no young guy we coud try out there. The important point of all this is to show that we can be sellers this trade market, aquire a couple valualble pieces this offseason, test a lot of young guys next year, and fill the spots that no one steps up to take in the following offseason, allowing us to be legit contenders in 2008. There is a certian poster, I don't remember who, who always reminds people in the offseason that only one team has ever gone on a huge FA spending spree in an offseason and won a W.S. the next year. I have to agree, lets not go for broke in 2007. For kicks my 2007 Chicago Cubs SP Zambrano Zito Marshall Hill Marmol(Prior if healthy) RP Dempster Howry Eyre Ohman Wuerts FA(?) Lineup 2B Prosect?(hard to say without a guess on who it is) LF Murton/Dellucci 1B Lee 3B Ramirez C Barrett RF Prospect(see above about 2B) CF Cameron SS Cedeno Bench- Theriot, Soto, Prospect(UTIL?), Marrero, Dellucci, Cora If you don't like the particular bench guys or CF stop gap I chose there are other options, they are just examples. Here's the FA list I used http://www.mlb4u.com/freeagent.php

Well so much for Bullpen arms being overvalued. I was just making a long trade deadline/offseason post hoping that if we included him with Maddux we could net a top prospect.