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The off-season free agent frenzy officially began at 12:00am eastern this morning, so the 148 players that filed for free agency are free to negotiate and sign new contracts with other teams. Jim Hendry was unable to resign Kerry Wood before he lost exclusive negotiating rights with the club's former ace. According to a late report in the Chicago Tribune, Hendry still thinks "a deal can be done."
The first of the post seasons BBWAA awards were handed out on Monday. Ryan Braun of the Brewers was named the NL Rookie of the Year and Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox was voted the American League Rookie of the Year. The American League Cy Young Award will be announced later today.
The biggest news from the North Side of Chicago on Monday was the trade of Jacque Jones and cash to the Tigers for Omar Infante. Here is the rest of the rumor mill, including an addition and a subtraction....
The Cubs....
More on Kerry Wood.... The late report on Monday night in the Tribune stated Hendry and Wood's agent, Pat Rooney, have "been speaking." The Cubs will have competition for the services of Wood, the Rangers are rumored to be very interested.
Hendry said the upcoming Mitchell Report will not have an affect on "the way he conducts his off-season approach."
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune late Monday night, Jim Hendry could "try to pull off a trade for Carl Crawford." According to the report it "would probably take Rich Hill, Eric Patterson and a couple more prospects."
Steve Henson recently examined the Cubs off-season plans.
Felix Pie, Sam Fuld and Ronny Cedeno? Yes, Ronny Cedeno could join the mix of Pie and Fuld to fill the vacancy in the Cubs' outfield with the trade of Jacque Jones on Monday. Apparently Cedeno has been working on learning how to play the outfield....Jerry Hairston, Jr. anyone?
Jim Hendry has a plan according to the Associated Press:
"We'd like to add some speed and more left-handed hitting in the outfield and keep an eye on pitching. It will be a daily stay-on-top-of it. We'll try to show up in Spring Training with a lot better club."
Dayn Perry thinks the Cubs should go after Francisco Cordero.
Kosuke Fukudome is everywhere....here is the latest from Dayn Perry. John Donovan, from SI.com, stated "the Cubs are going hard after Fukudome." Donovan said there are "questions about his elbow" and Fukudome is not a "huge home run threat" but he could hit 25 a year at the Major League level. Donovan said Fukudome would "look good near the top" of a lineup that includes Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano.
The Cubs were rumored to be interested in reliever Hitoki Iwase. Iwase decided on Sunday to stay with the Chunchi Dragons for the 2008 season. The southpaw is off the market.
The Mariners will be "major players in the bidding for Hiroki Kuroda." Kuroda has stated he will make the move to MLB next season but several reports are indicating Kuroda's desire to play on the West Coast in a "warmer" climate.
Around the League....
The newly renamed Rays have made contact with Michael Barrett. And the Cubs' former catcher is on the Rockies radar as well.
Miguel Cabrera could be reunited with Ozzie Guillen according to Ken Rosenthal.
SI.com, on the eve of free agency, mentioned the "Best Free-Agent Contracts of the Last 30 Years."
Trips to the Northside
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I read that SI article abou the best FA contracts signed during the last 30 years. I couldn't believe that Andre Dawson's fill in the blank contract ($750,000) wasn't among them during his 1987 MVP year.
Jim I agree, I think the "30 years" should have been "15" (maybe) on the title of their article.
Disappointing about Wood not signing - but I imagine this was less about Hendry's efforts and more about Wood's agent wanting to hit the market and drive up the price.
Also a little disappointed that Iwase is staying in Japan as I thought he was the top reliever out there this year. I know it didn't necessarily mean the Cubs would have signed him, but even one more closer of that caliber on the market would have increased the chances significantly for the Cubbies to lock one of them up.
Also as more info on the Jones/Infante trade surfaces, it looks like "cash considerations" freed up even more 2008 budget than was originally thought. Anyone think we can't get a player more vital to the Cubs 2008 success than Jones for $5.5 million? Anyone? Forget Infante. Look at the dollars.
hmmm....
The Sun-Times is saying now that the Cubs sent 2 million to the Tigers along with Jones, so that means we're only saving about 2 milion as far as I know. I guess it does free up an actuall position in the outfield. I'm assuming that Pie gets CF and we sign a free agent or let a younger guy take RF. At this point I have no idea.
My question is, since Infante is up for arbitration in '08 can the Cubs non-tender him this year? I admit I'm not sure how that process works at all. I know that Prior can be non-tendered this year.
Also, the new rumor now is that Craig Monroe to the Twins for a PTBNL. That dosen't make a lot of sense to me at all since obviously the Cubs were going to let him go anyway, and why wouldn't the Twins just wait and pick him up for nothing?
Well now the Minniapolis paper is saying this is a done deal.
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/christensen/?p=418
Doesn't look like Twins fans are happy.
4 million for a guy your going to platoon? That really dosen't make sense. Doing more research, I think they could very easily non-tender Infante if they chose, although I'm not 100% sure.
Ryan,
The Cubs can non-tender Infante if they want. If we don't deal Cedeno and we sign Matsui, Infante will likely be non-tendered.
I hope these are the teaser moves before the big one Hendry is going to make.....
It better be on the Crawford/Fukodome scale, especially after Tom Hicks gives Woody like 12 million a year and steals him away...
If we lose Wood, and don't sign a top-tier outfielder, Hendry should be immediately fired for gross incompetance, lots of Neifi/Monroe/Traschel/Burnitz/Randall Simon/LaTroy Hawkins type signings... and 3 good signings in A-Ram, Soriano and D.Lee....
12 million a year for a setup guy? Is Texas actually talking that kind of money?
I just read that ESPN 1000 out of Chicago is claiming the Cubs are preparing a package for Carl Crawford. No names were mentioned, but speculation involves Rich Hill and/or Marmol. Oddly, Pie was left out. But again, just speculation. I would hate to see Hill AND Marmol go...But I really don't see how its going to get done w/o one of them. Maybe a package of Patterson, Veal, and Ceda or Marshall would get it done. Depends on what else we get with Crawford.
Wow, losing Marmol would be huge. I'd hate to see Crawford come to town at the cost of decent pitching. I'm not sure how we would make up the difference in pitching if we have to give up Marmol, especially if we don't resign Wood. Hill, I have mixed feelings about since I'm not sure who would replace him in the rotation.
I thought that the Rays wanted a new shortstop? We have like 5 of them now on the 40 man don't we. LOL
I sure hope moving Dempster to the rotation wasn't a precurser to trading Hill. Thats a downgrade IMO. mlbtraderumors.com says that no names were dropped in the ESPN 1000 report as to who the Cubs would send to Tampa.
What, Marmol and Rich Hill?? Is he mad? They are the only young Cubs with any real talent... They are going to keep our mediocre young guys like Theriot and Fontenot and trade these 2 guns??
I would give up Hill for Crawford in a Heartbeat. Not Hill and Marmol. Marmol stays. I bet it would be either a Ronny Cedeno/MattMurton or Ronnie/Hill combination. If there is one player out there that I drool about is Crawford...but Marmol? I don't know.
Hill/Marmaol makes me cringe. Anybody/Marmol makes me cringe.
But Crawford is a special player. There aren't many guys that can do what he does. IMO the only other player in baseball comparable to him (offensively) would be Jose Reyes of the Mets. And we know how good he is in a lineup full of sluggers. He's a game changer. Crawford would be the same in this lineup.
And he's only 26. He could be a mainstay here for a long time...
Tough call for Hendry.
I'd go for Marshall/Cedeno and another player (Patterson/Fuld?) for Crawford. He is a tremendous talent but giving up Hill and/or Marmol is killing your pitching staff. I don't think Dempster lasts to the All Star break. So then who takes his place? Marshall or Hart will be playing if Hill gets traded? Who's left? If you lose Marmol and Woody, you now have two arms to replace in the pen.
Groom Marmol for the closer and sign Woody so he can close this year. He definitely has the makeup for it. Give Marmol another year to be "The Cleaner". He makes messes go away.
Carl Crawford would be an excellent addition to the Cubs outfield. I would just hate to see the Cubs totally deplete there farm system in doing so. I wonder if the bad blood between Lou and the Rays will have any impact on the deal?? I know Hendry does the wheeling and dealing but, Lou did go out with a bang in Tampa. I would say if a deal went down it would have to have Cedeno, Marshall or Hill, and proly either Veal or Gallagher.
Hendry is not dumb enough to give up two of our best young arms (Hill AND Marmol) in the same trade. I think they Rays will obviously need a bat to replace Crawford (Cedeno/Fuld/Pie) and they will certainly want a young arm (Hill/Marmol/Marshall/Gallagher/Veal). One can only hope Hendry makes the right choices....And finds a good replacement (not Dempster) in the rotation.
However, if we do get Crawford, do we still go after Fukudome? I hope so. I mean, I think Crawford would bat 2 and Fukudome somewhere in the middle of the lineup, although a one-two punch of Crawford and Fukudome would be killer with their OBP's, assuming Soriano bats 5...who know, just get them both!
if Marmol or Hill are traded for Crawford, I'll Sh$T a brick....
I think it'd be absolutely the worst move Hendry will have made. I mean, outside of Veal, Gallagher, and maybe Samardzija, we really don't have any guys that could step in if we needed them to. Now, if trading Marmol and Cedeno nets you Crawford, and we sign Rivera or Francisco Cordero, or place Wood in that role while grooming Samardzija for a possible closer's role, then it might-----emphasis on MIGHT make sense.
However, Marmol is a really steep price to pay for Crawford, as there are not too many "lights out" type of relievers out there, and Marmol fits under that category, as he's both a lights out reliever, AND a potential Zambrano-esque starter.
I would think if Hendry is creative, a deal including Cedeno, Patterson, Marshall, and maybe a Jake Fox should get the deal done. Perhaps that's why Hendry went out and got Infante?---b/c we'd be losing 2 infielders in the deal
I heard the package included:
Marshall, Cedeno and prospects.
Jim,
I like your listed package better than the names I have been hearing. I would be really reluctant to move Hill and Marmol as part of any deal that didn't bring Santana and Papelbon in return.
Hill and Marmol for Crawford is like:
Robbing Peter to pay Paul,
And after awhile, Peter gets pissed!
Jim,
That's cool, but where is your source.....that seems like a good deal (ie.-one that Hendry normally doesn't make)
LOL X100!!!Jim! Funny
Hey, how about Hill and Marmol for Crawford is like:
Buying a happy meal for your daughter on the drive-thru…only to find out halfway home that the bastard forgot to put the darn toy. Daddy can we go back???NOOOOOOOO! and then comes your wife to the rescue. [Last time I had to go back I started yelling at the guy until my wife was ashamed and now she won’t ask me to go back for the toy]
The source was Bruce Levine, A friend of mine listens to ESPN Radio 1000 all day and there was a segment with Bruce. I would think that Tampa Bay would want at least one impact player for Crawford.
Marshall and Cedeno aren't exactly impact guys so I had my doubts but that was what my friend heard and he is as reliable as they come.
I would love to see Crawford roaming the new outfield in Wrigley, I just hope it doesn't come at the cost of both Hill and Marmol. I like the sound of Marshall, Cedeno, and prospects a lot better. Come on Trader Jim get it done.
Wow. Marshall, Cedeno, and anyone of Gallagher/Patterson/Fuld, maybe even Pie or Veal, and I think we still come out on top of this trade. That would be great. Just need a starter now...