MWV

Cutler (Atl) vs. Flacco (Pit) D. Thomas (NE) vs. Spiller (@KC) In both cases, I'm leaning toward the first player listed.

And do what then? Tell the GM what to do? Then he's essentially the GM with a fancier title, and you're paying for 2 GMs. At least 2. What happens when the second GM also demands a title other than GM and subsequently hires a GM to do his/her bidding? President of baseball operations-->Player Development and Acquisition Czar-->Prince of baseballery-->GM.

14 teams, PPR and return yardage, 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, TE, K, P, D/ST, 2 IDP, WR/RB and WR/TE flex positions. I drafted 14th (again!). QB: J. Flacco, J. Cutler RB: D. McFadden, S. Greene, D. Thomas*, C.J. Spiller, D. Carter WR: C. Johnson, M. Williams (TB), A. Collie, E. Bennett, E. Sanders TE: R. Gronkowski, B. Watson IDP: J. Tuck, J. Peppers D/ST: NYG K: B. Cundiff P: S. Rocca *This league also allows you to keep your 6th round pick for the following season. Mine was Flacco last year, Daniel Thomas this year.

Cards fans: Why is Brandon Dickson pitching against Gallardo and the Brewers today? Is someone hurt?

I assume he's referring to the Cubs' appearing on the list of teams found to be in violation of MLB debt servicing rules. Although the commisioner himself pointed out that this is not a big deal and he has no problem with the Cubs' financial status, so I don't think Chicago's situation is at all comparable at all to NY or LA.

There are a few, and every one of them drinks Steel Reserve. When I used to live in Milwaukee, a bum offered me a tallboy of Steel Reserve in exchange for a plate of eggs. They use that [expletive] as currency.

Busch Light, Old Style, PBR and Keystone are all battling it out for dominance in the shallow gene pool market. You can go straight to hell for lumping PBR in there Yeah man, PBR is an award winning american lager.

Presumably, clubs with interest in Wright were aware of NY's asking price prior to the trade deadline and as such were disinclined to engage in negotiation.

Maybe the Cubs are taking the stance that they have no interest in Pujols or Fielder so as not to force the hand of a prospective GM, assuming the job might appear less attractive if it comes with the caveat of "Pujols/Fielder or bust"? Possibly? That's all I got.

Floyd has put up a nice whip (1.19) and a good HR/9 (0.9), in particular considering his home park. $7 million in 2012 and a $9.5 million team option in 2013 aren't that bad. We do need (at least) 2 starting pitchers. Depends upon what we would have to give up; I doubt the sox would let him go too cheaply.

Offering him arbitration probably nets the Cubs as much as any offer out there, even if he's type B. I think one can be pretty certain Pena would decline an arbitration offer; he's arguably the 1st or 2nd best of what's left in terms of free agent 1B next season(excluding Fielder/Pujols): Lance Berkman STL Russell Branyan LAA Jorge Cantu SD Brad Hawpe SD Eric Hinske ATL Ross Gload PHI Nick Johnson CLE Derrek Lee BAL Xavier Nady ARI David Ortiz BOS Lyle Overbay PIT Carlos Pena CHC Jim Thome MIN

Oh well. I'll be happy if his shoulder feels fine tomorrow.

"It will be interesting to see if..." Not a knock on you, WilcoFan, but has @Buster_ESPN ever been useful for anything other than making sure Buster Olney is alive?

I believe the positional adjustment is at least +.5 wins for SS relative to 2B, but assuming he could play even replacement level defense at 2B (and I still believe that with maturity he will learn to play at or above replacement level at SS) he stands to develop into a 4+ win player.

Checking out the box/recap, Vitters stayed on to run the bases after being hit (and scored), then played another inning in the field before being lifted for a defensive sub at the top of the 7th. Tennessee was leading 8-1 at the time, so hopefully they were just giving him the rest of the night off.

While I assume no one ever bothered to photoshop Quade's gruesome visage into the Cubs street sweeper pic, if someone did it is their time to shine.

I can't speak for everyone here, but I am pretty indifferent to Kenney. I haven't been presented with compelling evidence that he has "meddled" in any sense other than to tell Hendry how much money he has to spend, which falls under management of the business end of team operations, which is his job. Furthermore, after the events of the past few weeks, I am more inclined to give Ricketts the benefit of the doubt. He has come through with solid investment in the draft, he has canned Hendry, and he seems intent upon replacing him with a more analytical-albeit philosophically balanced-general manager. Ricketts seems to be pursuing a new course for the franchise, and he doesn't appear concerned that Crane Kenney compromises that pursuit. As of right now, I'm not really concerned either.

Your argument for canning Kenny is that two of the worst sportswriters in Chicago don't like him? I'll reserve judgement until I see what da bum thinks.

I presume that you feel the Cubs should not pursue Pujols? I agree he may not provide 8.0 WAR (his season average to date) at age 38, but his value in the interim should well outperform the 1.4 WAR average Soriano has provided as a Cub. My overall point is that Soriano's contract is a worst case example of a big contract. It should not be referred to as precedent.

http://photos.imageevent.com/sporksoma/pictures/Irony%20police.jpg

This is what is truly infuriating about the whole situation. The Soriano contract will go down as one of the worst in franchise history. This does not justify the organization conflating big contracts with catastrophes. Pujols, for example, is a generational talent. He has produced only 1 season in his career (3.9 and counting, this current season) of WAR less than Soriano's best season (5.7, 2006). Pujols is an investment. If you get a chance to sign a player of his caliber, you do so first and figure out how to build around him later.

What does $12 million in draft spending have to do with Pujols or Fielder? Unless Ricketts' ultimate goal is to win the PCL, the ML club must be invested in as well. Just because the Cubs are starting to invest in their MiL system on a level similar to smaller market franchises like KC, Pittsburgh and Tampa doesn't mean they have to operate their ML team like the Royals. The BoSox spent upwards of $10 million on this draft as well. Does that mean that Theo Epstein is going to slash ML payroll? What it sound like he's suggesting is that Ricketts will prefer to build a team from within rather than going after pricey free agents and build that way. It's not that one affect the other, just that he might prefer not even go after the big name players. The problem is, the only teams in recent memory I can think of that have had any real success building their teams that way are the Rays and the Twins, and I don't think we have anywhere near the kind of talent that those farm systems had. I understand what he's getting at. I just don't think it makes any sense. A team like the Cubs needn't build from within at the expense of acquiring available talent via free agency. It is possible (optimal) to do both. Teams that draw talent almost exclusively from their farm system (TB, KC Pittsburgh, Oakland) do so because of budgetary constraints. The Cubs do not face such constraints. For them to behave as though they do would be counterproductive and stupid, and I don't think Ricketts is that dumb. Maybe I'm too optimistic...

What does $12 million in draft spending have to do with Pujols or Fielder? Unless Ricketts' ultimate goal is to win the PCL, the ML club must be invested in as well. Just because the Cubs are starting to invest in their MiL system on a level similar to smaller market franchises like KC, Pittsburgh and Tampa doesn't mean they have to operate their ML team like the Royals. The BoSox spent upwards of $10 million on this draft as well. Does that mean that Theo Epstein is going to slash ML payroll?

I can't help thinking of .

Pierre, at age 21 in A ball, averaged an XBH every 17 AB (~every 20 AB over the course of his MiL career). Even given the poor start that he has had in A+, Szczur is averaging an XBH every 11 AB. Pierre hit 1 HR in 1452 MiL PA (and for all we know, that was an inside the park job). Pierre may still wind up with the better ML career, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a pretty poor comp.