While Jim Hendry and the front office continue doing absolutely nothing, I try to come up with blog material. Here's one just for fun, a list of my all-time and current favorite players to watch. This has little to do with my generally numbers obsessed way of analyzing the game, rather just the guys I like to watch play. Now my all-time list was heavily influenced when I was a child and the players that had cool batting stances or pitching motions that we would then try and emulate during recess and after school and of course the Cubs. As I get older, I tend to have a finer appreciation for the more talented players that just make the game look easy.
one problem is going to be a glut in available SP.
josh johnson and r.nolasco are strong candidates most likely to be available...along with a slew of others not so strong...then there's garza/feldman in the mix on the strong side.
teams like CIN, DET, and ATL are most likely not even going to be looking SP.
So, how much do we think they can spend on the 1st-rounder before they give up a draft pick then?
Rosscup and Burke--gotta figure at least one of them makes the 40. Lefties that through like that don't grow on trees. It'd be nice to see Burke developing a bit faster as a pitcher, though, and Rosscup being pushed a bit more.
LHP Zac Rosscup missed most of last season with biceps tendinitis, but once he got back into action he looked very good (his fastball was clocked at 94 MPH in his last appearance with the AZL Cubs before he was moved-up to Tennessee),
Rosscup, SS Arismendy Alcantara, OF Jae-Hoon Ha, and LHP (ex-OF) Kyler Burke are the Cubs minor leaguers most-likely to be added to the 40-man roster post-2013 (Rosscup, Alcantara, and Ha will be Rule 5 eligible, and Burke can be a minor league FA), although Rosscup, Burke, and Ha might have to show something in the AFL
If the other option is to get nothing for Feldman, then sure, talk with him about an extension. But if they can find a way to get a Maholm-esque return on him, I say pull the trigger.
I'm curious to see whether opposing GM's are still willing to part with any quality prospects for Garza after he missed nearly a year due to injuries. To me, you could make a stronger argument there that the Cubs might be better off extending than trading.
heh, I can't imagine a world where the Orioles would consider trading them both. I'm not sure they'd be willing to trade either of them unless they got a guy for more than a half a season.
rizzo sits tonight.
TEX has called up chirinininos today...
archer has had issues with control to the tune of barely being able to go 5 innings without throwing more than 100 pitches...AAA and especially majors where he's had a couple of 4ip outings. this season in the minors he's only gone over 5ip twice...both 6ip.
I'd probably hit that, but I don't love Gausman and the injury stuff with Bundy is definitely disheartening.
I got only 6. Sad considering I'm the commissioner of our local Pony league, and study the rulebook every year.
Disagree. This team is merely below average, with the chance to be awful after the sell-off in July. As for prospects, I don't expect a lot for Feldman even if they do trade him, which is why I think he's a better extension candidate than trade candidate.
This is opposed to Garza, who is likely to be a better pitcher over the next 3 years than Feldman, but is also far more likely to fetch an impact prospect. Garza is also going to get way more than 3/30 this winter, assuming he doesn't break again before that.
ugh, only got 4 of 10...quiz on baseball rules
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/quiz/_/id/4979/do-know-mlb-rules#top
Well, I think you are right and you can judge the "decision" to make the trade based on what people thought at the time of the trade. Did the GM get "good value" in return, etc.
But then we can still look and see how "the trade turned out for each team in the end" and I think that is a different question and injuries can come into play here.
Soler headed to Daytona's 7-day DL...some sort of shin injury.
5th round pick Trey Masek out of Texas Tech tweets that he signed with the Cubs. 10th round pick Godley signed for $35K, more than $100K under slot. Currently BA has Cubs at $22K under slot.
I wonder what Chad Fox is up to these days...