Lefty

Hey, he's a proven winner.

Write it under an assumed name. You can use mine.

Epatt? We have to be nearing the record for most people added to the 40-man in one season. And we clearly have a shortage of middle infielders. Epatt has been playing some CF lately. Still have to wonder why they wouldn't just bring up Pie. Exactly...why bring up a guy to play him out of position, when your top propsect that you would trade at the deadline is ready to come up and learn at the major league level? I'm guessing the blurb on cubs.com might be a typo because it says "top prospect Eric Patterson". Last I checked Pie was our top prospect. "Top Prospect" isn't the same as "The Top Prospect." You could have several top prospects although that usually wouldn't apply to the Cubs. Maybe they're bringing up Patterson as part of the deal for Dye. KWilliams might want to save on the plane ticket from Iowa.

No. There will be a platoon at all three OF positions. Floyd/Murton in Left, Pie/Pagan in Center and Jones/DeRosa in Right. When DeRosa plays RF Cedeno will start somewhere in the infield. It's very logical.

Is there a more worthless player than Jones without power?

Oh you missed it man! That actually happened last night.

Ginger Reyes, new bass player for the Smashing Pumpkins I'm gonna get my wife those boots. That's a "Transaction."

Cubbies75, who's the bass player?

ESPN.com and follow the links to MLB stats, team and player batting. Be sure to check out our catchers as well.

He started two games. We're in the race. How much leeway can we really afford?

I hope that Hendry got Kendall with the idea of pulling off a big trade, but somehow I am not optimistic. What if that was the "big trade?"

I think draft pick compensation was ended in the latest CBA.

No competitive throwing doesn't mean he won't be able to do any rehabilitation, it just means not pitching in an actual game. And it seems to me that pitchers who have shoulder surgery aren't usually out longer than a year; that's even longer than pitchers recovering from TJS. he'll likely not throw a ball at all for 6-7 months after the surgery, and that will be 20-30 feet and very softly. it will probably take another 3 months beyond that to get up enough strength in his shoulder to throw hard enough to be confused with a baseball player. after that 9-10 months, he's looking at either extended spring training or a tour of the minors, racking up 4-6 rehab starts. 1 year isn't out of the question and almost should be expected the rehab he'll do up to that point is mostly basic range of motion exercises I expect there is a solid chance he won't be back to start the year, but do you have any sources or evidence to back up your numbers, or are we just going with gut feeling here? Lefty, again, you say the evidence suggests Prior is gone, and yet you have yet to present any real evidence. What you have is speculative at best. What is speculation? Is it not someone's opinion based on available evidence? You may not agree with my conclusion, but labelling it "speculation" does not degrade it one bit. Until we know for sure it is speculation. As is your assumption that they will offer him arbitration or that he will accept a multi-year contract. Just writing that last sentence makes me look better.

While not something you would want to do in other areas of your life, around the trade deadline it could be fun. Trying to channel Hendry led me to a couple of trade ideas. Murton, Marshall & Gallagher for Griffey & Arroyo Failing that: Murton for Dye Accurate? Otherwise agreeable?

Is it already 6 years since he's been here? That's a nice career.

Be traded to the White Sox ...for Jermaine Dye.

If Hoffpaiur wasn't DL'd he might be up. Well then we get that messy 40 man thing. Never mind.

How about Hoffpaiur?

What makes this guy such an expert? :wink:

I never want to commit to a manager because they ultimately break my heart. But Lou does so many things that I might do, and are somewhat untraditional, that I find myself getting attached.

No competitive throwing doesn't mean he won't be able to do any rehabilitation, it just means not pitching in an actual game. And it seems to me that pitchers who have shoulder surgery aren't usually out longer than a year; that's even longer than pitchers recovering from TJS. Correct. Lefty, you don't seem to have any actual evidence that Prior is leaving. Those shadowy figures in the closet aren't monsters, if you bothered to look. Is it possible that the Cubs may quibble over an extra million for Prior? I guess, but it seems no more likely than any other doomsday scenario you could come up with. Might the Cubs have won the grievance case? I can't say for sure, but they probably wouldn't have, and by doing so they would have pissed off Prior (a definite sign they didn't care to keep him) and gotten a bad reputation for how they treat their players. As far as why he isn't rehabbing in Chicago, I have no idea what his rehab schedule is, and I'm sure he wouldn't want to make it more public than he had tok, considering what he has gone through. Those aren't black helicopters buddy. Giving up on an unreliable pitcher happens all the time. Not exactly a "doomsday" scenario. Of course we all wish it had been different. My sense of the original post did not imply that Kaplan knew for sure. I never claimed this as fact either. But the evidence seems to indicate that he will be non-tendered. Can't really know for sure until December.

That seems unlikely since the Cubs have control of him through next year. Unless he is done for 2+ years or Kaplan thought he was going to be traded, there's no reason to say he has thrown his last pitch as a Cub. Kap is right. Because Prior is making $3.6 million this year, the least the Cubs can offer him in arbitration next year is $2.8 million. And the best case doesn't have him pitching rehab until next June. If the Cubs wanted to keep him, they wouldn't have let him accrue service time this year and leveraged that. By reinstating him to the major league roster's DL, they gave up that possibility. They only control him through '08 now. Prior will be non-tendered this winter and will sign a two-year "sign and hope" with someone else. I just hope it isn't the Cardinals. Let me count the ways this is wrong. 1) His contract is small compared to overall payroll. They have shown willingness to take fliers on injured pitchers in the past. 2) Do you have any source for your "best case scenario"? Or are you just using your medical expertise to predict how long he'll be out? 3) They had no choice but to let him accrue service time, if they had refused he would have won the grievance case easily, since he was clearly injured before being placed on a minor league roster. 4) Again, any source on Prior being non-tendered more reliable than your cristal ball? If the Cubs wanted to release Prior, why not do when it becmae clear he was out for the year, rather than putting him on the DL? Do you really believe that they would give him a year to sit on the DL and cut him as soon as he is ready to pitch? If they were really planning to get rid of him, why wouldn't they have done it at the beginning of the year? 1) $2.8 million might be a small fraction of payroll, but is way more than Miller or Dempster got to rehab. That doesn't even include the $3.6 million they're paying him to rehab this year. 2) Reports at the time of his surgery mentioned previous instances of this kind of repair and mentioned no competitive throwing for one year. 3) Is this your legal expertise? Prior's insistence that he was healthy pokes a huge hole in his grievance. I don't think you can just dismiss the Cubs' claim. 4) Why isn't Prior doing any rehab here? The Cubs are cutting bait. Even if they give him arbitration next year, he's a free-agent after 2008. If the initial reports about recovery time were true, why would the Cubs pay more of the downside with less hope of getting the upside? And do you think Prior would take a two-year deal from the Cubs like Miller or Dempster got when Prior is guaranteed $5 million for '08 and '09 if he goes the arbitration route. HE IS GONE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH :twisted:

That seems unlikely since the Cubs have control of him through next year. Unless he is done for 2+ years or Kaplan thought he was going to be traded, there's no reason to say he has thrown his last pitch as a Cub. Kap is right. Because Prior is making $3.6 million this year, the least the Cubs can offer him in arbitration next year is $2.8 million. And the best case doesn't have him pitching rehab until next June. If the Cubs wanted to keep him, they wouldn't have let him accrue service time this year and leveraged that. By reinstating him to the major league roster's DL, they gave up that possibility. They only control him through '08 now. Prior will be non-tendered this winter and will sign a two-year "sign and hope" with someone else. I just hope it isn't the Cardinals.

you are low-balling the kid then eh? i expect above .260 easily BP's predicted line (prior to this season's big AAA year): .235/.307/.336 That would still represent a major upgrade to what we've been getting since we traded Barrett.

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