I can see the Simpsons animating this one (with a guest appearance from heaven by Ricardo Montalbán).
byline, Nick Cough-fart-doo and Kent Brockman:
The Red Sox announced the completion of the Theo Epstein compensation package today. The Cubs will receive as their PTBNL, the bone spur from Chris Carpenter's elbow in a jar of formaldehyde.
Would the Red Sox really refer one of their newest hurlers to (video link) Dr. Nick?
On a more serious note, it's not a good spring to be named Chris Carpenter. The Cardinals ace pitcher has a significant pinched nerve somewhere between his neck and pitching shoulder that has caused some weakness and discomfort. According to the St. Louis media his timetable to return to the Cardinals rotation isn't certain.
News broke out of Red Sox camp yesterday as fans were wondering why "the other Carp" had only thrown 2 innings all spring. Former Cub, Chris Carpenter tweeted:
“Headed into surgery tomorrow with Dr Andrews to remove a bone spur in my elbow,’’ “Stayin positive and prepared to work harder than ever to come back as soon as I can this season.’’
I'm Spur-ed on to write just a little more, after the break...
Update: (Thursday noon, CST), per a Carrie Muskat tweet:
RedSox send 1B Jair Bogaerts to Cubs to complete compensation deal for Theo. Batted .288 in Dominican Summer League. He's 19.
lovely, put up a post on potential trade candidates for Feldman and Garza and it ate the bulk of the text much like it does with some of the comments...sigh.
Jeff Baker, the pro's pro
http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2013/06/18/jef...
Don't look now but Toronto is red hot and only 5 games out of the Wild Card. Unless they collapse again I don't think they're going to sell after going full tilt this year and with Reyes coming back soon.
The lesson is never try
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhjGoaKf52s
Thanks to both Rob and AZ!
archer only lasts 4.2ip today...109 pitches.
CHARLIE: If a club exceeds it's Signing Bonus Pool by 5%, it loses a draft pick. So the Cubs can spend about $578K above its assigned SBP ($10,556M) and not lose a draft pick.
The #2 overall SBP valus is worth about $6.7M, so the Cubs could offer Bryant well over $7M and still not lose a draft pick if they were inclined to do so (presuming they did not go over their SBP in other rounds).
If the Cubs don't feel they are getting fair value offered back, they can always just hang onto Garza and Feldman and make them Qualifying Offers post-2013.
I don't know the numbers as they spent a quite a bit to land the 12th round pick Clifton (allegedly 3rd round money which is 500 to 750K) and anything over $100K counts against the cap.
But Boras represents Bryant and Appel and I doubt he'd let Bryant sign for more than Appel who got $6.35M and Bryant's slot # is $6.7M. So chances are Cubs are getting him under (rumors is around $5.6M). Gray signed for $4.8M which was $800K less than slot as well.
rosscup may not have impeccable control, and injuries have slowed him, but he's recently turned 25 and needs to get out of AA.
his numbers are nice, but it's hard to get excited about them when he's feasting on 21-24 year olds.
i'm a rosscup fan, and i'm ready for him to be challenged.
And Chris Rusin is probably the #1 LHSP in the PCL right now. He is #1 among all SP (LHP & RHP) in WHIP, and he is 5th among SP in ERA (behind LHPs Brad Mills and Will Smith and RHPs Johnny Hellweg and Sonny Gray). He has been a real workhorse, too, leading the PCL in IP. and he has allowed only 5 HR in 97 IP (pretty good for a SP in the PCL). And he's hitting 222 and hasn't struck out in 18 PA (he was a DH at the U. of Kentucky on days he wasn't pitching), so he would fit right into the Cubs starting rotation.
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.