WrigleyField 22

Yea, but so is Santo right? And we all love him :D

But don't our guys have to clear waivers too or at least have no team worse than Atlanta claim them in order to trade with the Braves? It's hard for me to believe someone not claiming a Pie or Marshall, etc... They could be sent as PTNBL though correct? A PTBN can't be on the 25 man roster, but currently Marshall is on the DL so could just be returned to AAA afterwards and Mateo was likely only up here for a short stint anyway so he could be sent back down, allowing Guzman to get some starts.If this doesn't work we can send players not on the 40man, correct? Maybe we have to do Veal/Pawalek/Gallagher(:()/ EPatt/Fox type guys.

I disagree on how you rate Guzman, but otherwise agree. I'd rate him ahead of Nolasco. A trade for Andruw, if the Cubs picked up his full salary, would still probably need someone like Pie or Gallagher or Veal (along with Guzman). While Guzman has the stuff over Nolasco, Nolasco was coming off a great year in AA at the age of 22. All of his other seasons besides 2004 were just as good. I guess Guzmans health may have restored a lot of the value he lost, but we have seen him stuck at AAA and not doing so great. Maybe they are equal, but I don't see Guzman as having more trade value than Nolasco did.

The only way I see the package not including Pie is if its EPatt they want. You figure you have to at least give them our best 2B Prospect. Hows their catching prospects? Maybe they'd like Soto/Reyes/Reed and EPatt? Doubtful, but maybe offer higher end pitching prospects and we could hold onto Pie.

The plate appearences wont matter if the o-fer of the difference still has him on top!!! Cubbie Kool Aid!

That might be enough to get Hollandsworth back. Maybe Jaime Navarro. Oh, I forgot...........when posting a trade I should overvalue whoever the Cubs are trading for and undervalue the Cubs prospects......... my bad! Jerome Williams is a 24 year old that has MLB experience and decent stuff. Angel Guzman is a 24 year old that has MLB experience and GREAT stuff. Theriot is a good player. He's also young and cheap. Berg is a 22 year old with decent upside. Atlanta develops their prospects as well. What do some of you guys/gals think it will take? I can't wait for the Prior/Pie/Guzman/Brownlie/Petrick/Veal.........etc. Ricky Nolasco was better and had more value than any of these guys and along with two other decent prospects (one high cieling/low floor, another low ceiling high floor) was able to net Pierre. Nolasco>Guzman... if it were 2003 this wouldnt be the case, but its not.. Mitre=Williams Pinto>Berg And Theriot puts this deal over the top? Yea we overpaid for Pierre and might be able to underbid a bit for Jones, but it wont be so extreme. This may all be a moot point as we likely didnt claim Jones...

I doubt the Cubs made a claim, but for fun, I'll say they did. Marshall, Pie, Mateo- You figure Pie is definitely apart of such a deal. To hope otherwise is unrealistic. I'd throw in a second/third tier pitching prospect if they were willing to throw in a positional prospect of about equal value. Someone like Ryu, Wells, Williams, Shaver, Layden, Johnson. I would be willing to do this just because if we lost Pie our farm would go from bad in positional prospects to downright pitiful.

Plus hopefully the addition of a big bat, and Aramis Ramirez 04'/05' I think we could afford to have 3 #8 hitter in the lineup Nothing like banking on career years to win a championship :D Your "career year" 2007 Chicago Cubs CF- Pierre .327 .378 .415 2B- Soriano .300 .332 .547 1B- Lee .335 .418 .662 3B- Ramirez .318 .373 .578 C- Barrett .338 .398 .559 LF- Lee .305 .366 .525 RF- Jones .288 .320 .498 SS- Izturiz .288 .330 .381 -Of course we get both Lee and Soriano! For SP We get Zamrano(any season baby!) and 2003 Prior... Of course we sign Zito(02) and Schmidt(03). 2001 Wade Miller anchors the back end. Bullpen? Who cares. Let 06 Rusch close for all I care, he wont blow our 10 run leads. For Kicks- Closer: 03 Wood! On second thought Wood anchors the back end of the rotation and Vances famous Wade Miller for Closer BandWGN takes off again!(I was a proud memeber btw) Bench? 05 Niefi 01 Nevin 05 Murton-over full season 05 Cedeno-over full season WHO CARES WHO CARES W.S. HERE WE COME -we also get goat and bartman in prime and whole thing blows up Oh man, I wanna go play MVP Baseball now :lol:

I remember recognizing this guy on the Boise Roster last year becuase he was so young. This year after putting up a .275 BA in Peoria he got a promotion to Daytona and is hitting .278. While his OBP and SLG were underwhelming, his BA gives and indication he must have a lot of natural ability at a young age, he is only 19. Stats For anyone who is more familiar with the minor league system and has seen guys play, does he have enough natural ability and raw skills to become a top prospect? He is obviously young and at a high level, but is there enough talent there, that with the right coaching he could flourish? Also whats his defense like?

Am I crazy for thinking that Hendry's comments that lead us to believe he wants to keep Izturiz is just him talking him up/trying to make the trade sound good and that he may be looking to trade him as part of a bigger deal to improve a spot in the offseason? I think the answer is yes(about being crazy) but would like to hear your opinions.

Exactly. He's a fantastic LOOGY. Problem is, he's faced 112 righties this year as compared to 79 lefties. What the hell Dusty's thinking with this guy is anyone's guess. His numbers against lefties this season have been really, really good. Against righties...things get ugly. Cripes, he has a .72 WHIP against lefties and a 1.04 WHIP against righties. This is like Mike Remlinger all over again. Ugh. Its even worse. At least with Rem we knew Dusty was just too stupid to grasp the reverse splits concept. With Ohman, Dusty could follow his 'convential wisdom' and still be right.

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.