WrigleyField 22

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.

If hes that important make him an offer as pitching coach that he can't refuse. Hell he doesn't even have to be pitching coach. You could make a whole new position for him.

They are just as ready as the pitchers that you are so concerned about that we gave up for Pierre. The ones who aren't RIGHT now like Gallagher, Ryu, Wells, maybe Guzman could be ready sometime next year. If we sign a FA pitcher your rotation is Zambrano Zito/Schmit/etc Marshall(ready) Hill(ready) Marmol(ready) Sixth Man/Bonus- Prior(could still be All Star Caliber) On the Cusp- Guzman, Gallagher, Ryu, Wells. A strong spring training like Marshall any of these guys could make a run at the last 3 rotation spots. The popular view seems to be to go for it all in 2007. I think while possible it makes more sense to aim for 2008. You can still be active this offseason and aquire guys who will help in 2007, but also make sure that they'll be aoround for the long haul. Any extra spots should be used on young players, trying to find out who may a piece for a real run in 2008. Any spot where a young guy doesnt emerge, you can fill via FA the next offseason. Right now we have enough pitchers to work with and try to find a couple keepers. You can't say the same about position players so theres no reason to shy away from aquiring some top position players this trade deadline.

Also regarding Blanco, if you do decide to keep him then you gotta do something with Soto and Reyes. Soto has spent two years at AAA and proven to be a strong defensive good OBP catcher. And in either 2007 or 2008, I forget which, he will either have to make the big league club be exposed to waivers. Then theres Reyes who is great defensively, but still can't hit. You could take him off the 40man without too much concern, but then theres Fox. We were able to keep him off the 40man last year, but might not be able to this year. SOMETHING needs to be done with catchers on the 40man. My preference is to trade Blanco and groom Soto into the good backup he looks like he could become.

What difference does it make whether or not we get pitching back? Yea it hurt to lose Nolaso and Pinto, but Marshall, Marmol, Hill, Guzman, Gallagher, Ryu, Wells, are more than enough to fill the void. If you can get a good position prospect for Pierre it would essentially be like you traded a strength (pitching) for a weakness (position players). I'm in favor of trading him. While he could be a decent stop gap for Pie next year, there are likely to be some other decent CF you could pick up in FA over the offseason. With the way Pierre has played of late, he may have risen his value enough to get a decent return back. It wont make up for what we gave up, but a good GM will admit a mistake and cut his losses. I agree we would need to be blown away with an offer for Dempster, Howry, and Eyre, but you never know, a team looking for a closer might do just that. And I would go back to the same thing with Pierre, who cares if its pitching or not? Just aquire assets. As an example you could look at John Paxson for the Bulls who picked up a strong SF in a draft day trade even though its the strongest position, but its a strong asset that he can use to consolidate when one specific need comes up. Right now the Cubs have more than one need so theres no sense in trying to only accept help a one area.

Anyone else glad to see him finally healthy and putting up decent numbers at AA? At this point it doesn't matter as he is 26, almost 27 so he doesn't figure to ever amount to anything more than a minor league roster filler, but its kinda nice to see a once top prospect at least get healthy. .297 .368 .442 .810 His line at WestTenn

I would trade Blanco because he is entering the last year of is deal and we have two young defensive capable catchers on the 40man. While neither have the power Blanco has shown capable of, Soto has good discipline and has been at AAA for 2 years. After those two Fox will likely need to be added and theres still Reed who could become pretty good and will need to be protected within a few years. Pierre is getting hot now so we might be able to net something good. Not as good as we gave up maybe, but sometimes you have to admit a mistake and cut your losses. That being said I wouldn't mind him as a stop gap for Pie next year, but he cant go in as a leadoff hitter next year. I like Howry, Eyre, and Dempster too, but in this market if someone is willing to overpay, these guys may very well not be in our plans past 2007. They are keepers but not on the level of Lee, Aramis, Barrett, and Z IMO.

Definite: Nevin Williamson Maddux Jones Probable: Walker Pierre Possible: Dempster Eyre/Howry (wouldn't do both) Dump as part of bigger deals if you can: Niefi Mabry Blanco Novoa Rusch Then you could use Murton or Cedeno if it is neccessary to net a top notch prospect. Theres also Wood whos kind of tricky because his value is at an all time low, but if we think there is no chance at him coming back then you might as well trade him for whatever low-level prospect you can and hope you find a diamond in the rough. I'd lean towards keeping him around at a very reduced salary. Those aren't firesale type names, but I think of it as a firesale in the sense that you would be seeing a big turnover in roster. Basically the only players not up for grabs are Z, Lee, Aramis, the young SP(unless blown away of course), Barrett. Guys kept unless needed to complete a bigger deal Eyre, Howry, Dempster, Cedeno, Murton, Ohman.

This post is kind of contradictary. First the whole thread is based on the basis that Maddux is traded so he shouldn't be included. Secondly, you say shut down Prior, but then include him in one of the scenarios.

I don't think a full firesale is a good idea, but just those guys who aren't in our plans past this year and maybe even next. So I'm not advocating trading Lee and Zambrano. But I say trade away guys rather than letting them just walk and hoping maybe for some draft compensation. As far as firing Hendry, I don't recall him specifically taking blame. Not saying he didn't, but I don't remember it. If he did, I'm glad, but it may be too little too late.

no need to dwell on the past..and personally I think Wood was ruined before he got to the majors because of his back issues he had as a kid.. as for Prior.. as I said in the other thread... I think he will return to form next year.That is just irresponsible. Wood wasn't ruined in 98 or 01,02,03. He was ruined by Johnnie B Baker. Plain and simple. It would be classic Dusty to push the blame off on anyone else besides himself.

Why do some people assume Prior is just a big wuss and cant take pain? Did I miss the quote from any reliable source that said his injuries were overblown by him? Also sometimes a coach forces the issues and takes caution with a players pain.

Inadvertantly left him there. I only skimmed the list to see if it looked accurate. Like I said it was very rough and done quickly. Fixed it.

Let me first say I completely don't expect management to take advantage of the Jones situation and sell high. But theoretically, how much could we get for Jones? From the right team could we net ourselves a top prospect? I don't know other teams minor leagues as well so I'll just compare to ours: Could he net us a: (Roughly tried to rank these players in order of value) Pie Gallagher Marshall Marmol Pawalek Hill Guzman Patterson Fox Veal Reed Dopriak Ryu Moore Hoffpauir Soto Theriot Harvey Sing

Rolleyes have their time and place. Rarely do I see them used correctly. And more than one rolleye is never neccessary, under any circumstance. (waiting to get a multiple eyeroll response from gilesbro on this one)