Jim Hendry made another minor move on Saturday when he traded Angel Pagan to the New York Mets for two minor league prospects, pitcher Ryan Meyers and outfielder Corey Coles. The trade opened up another roster spot as the Cubs 40-man roster currently stands at 38. Was the Pagan trade a prelude to a bigger deal? Only time will tell.
For the second week in a row, Bruce Levine mentioned the Cubs possible interest in Jon Lieber during his Saturday show with Chet Coppock on ESPN 1000. Last week Levine said the Cubs were going to add a starting pitcher via the free agent market before Spring Training started and he reiterated those words on Saturday. Levine also said that any deal with the Orioles for Brian Roberts would include Ronny Cedeno....and if Cedeno is dealt the Cubs could add Alex Cintron as a back-up middle infielder.
Here is the rest from the mill and the latest from around the league....
Bruce Levine, for the first time, mentioned the Cubs possibly interest in Alex Cintron on Saturday. Levine said the Cubs would turn to the former southsider as an option to replace Ronny Cedeno, if he is dealt to Baltimore in a trade for Brian Roberts, as a backup middle infielder off of Lou Piniella's bench. Cintron hit .243 with a .281 OBP for the White Sox last year. Before joining the Sox in 2006, Cintron was with the Diamondbacks. His career line.... .277/.315/.401 with his best year being 2003.
Levine did not elaborate any further on the Cubs' interest in Jon Lieber.
Levine did say the Cubs are looking to add a right handed hitting outfielder than can play all three positions and perhaps be a platoon partner for Felix Pie in centerfield. Levine did not mention any names.
A blurb in Dave van Dyck's report in the Tribune about the Pagan trade was very interesting...."With Matt Murton still on the roster, Felix Pie and Sam Fuld possibly ready for a major league spot and Mark DeRosa able to fill in at all outfield spots, Pagan was expendable." DeRosa in left and center?
Speaking of the "interesting", Phil Rogers released one of his all-time strangest reports....you have to read to believe. Rogers graded the off-season so far, on the amount of players each team has lost and replaced.
The Knoxville News Sentinel introduced Buddy Bailey, the Tennessee Smokies new manager to the local fan base in East Tennessee. Bailey was the manager of the I-Cubs last season, but Pat Listach was appointed to Bailey's previous position and Bailey in turn replaced Listach in Double-A. Bailey will likely start the season with a roster that includes Tyler Colvin, Jeff Samardzija and Donnie Veal....among others.
Joe Blanton
The Cubs interest in Joe Blanton is still unknown, but for what Billy Beane is receiving in return for his players, Blanton might be out of the Cubs price range. According to a report in the New York Daily News the Mets are still interested in the right-hander. The Daily News speculated the A's would be looking for three prospects for Blanton.
Kosuke Fukudome
A report on Japan Times.com talked about Fukudome wearing the number "one" for the Cubs and talks about when the Cubs did not allow players to wear that number....it was reserved for the manager.
The report also talked about Fukudome's success in day games....a lifetime .335 hitter during the day, .299 in night games.
The Cubs will be seen quite frequently in Fukudome's homeland in the upcoming season and in years to come.
From Around the League
The Pirates signed former Cub, Jose Macias to a minor league contract. Macias was a favorite of Dusty Baker during his tenure with the Cubs.
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Been reading avidly (and great comments out there everyone) but haven't posted recently, but that Phil Rogers article is dumbfounding and needed a comment.
It's like the older brother talking to his younger gullible sibling and saying "if I give you three pennies for that quarter, you'll have two more coins than you started with".
(shaking head)
It's one of the most inane things I've ever read. I didn't have that high an opinion of Rogers to begin with but now.... (shaking head again)
Let's see. Pagan is gone now too, so the Cubs are a minus 3. Wow, Cubs are going downhill fast. Rogers
should take Hendry's post since he knows what he is
doing. Clearly. :)
The Cubs got rid of what they didn't need.
Phil Rogers is a flip flop writer, the guy constantly changes his mind.
Let's see.......If we traded D. Lee and Ramirez and got Pedro Feliz, Neifi Perez, Johnny Estrada and Sean Casey, we would be better because we are a +2? Rogers must have been in a fog when he wrote that column. WOW! Maybe we should trade our entire active roster and get 50 players for them so we can be a +25!!!!
Phill Rogers was at a rave party last night or something.
Wow. Was Rogers drunk?
Some of us are mis-reading Phil Rogers. First, he says I'm guaging things simplistically. (He should have reconsidered at that point and said,
"Nothing's simple so fagedaboutit." Then he said, I'll leave out players developed on the farm who (could) be great. Then he said I'll look at CORE players from last year lost and replaced by core players for this year.
By that "academic", irrelevant measure, we gained Fukudome and lost Jones, Floyd and Kendall. Pagan doesn't count because he wasn't core. We expect Fukudome and Soto (and somebody else) to greatly out perform the three we dropped--and so probably does Rogers. Rogers is right in his "very limited" analysis--but it doesn't mean diddly squat. JimK
agustin: Picturing Phil Rogers with glow sticks in hands dancing around made me laugh very loud.
I too thought of a 'raving Rogers.'
This is rediculous because in the end we all end up with a 25 man roster.
I just...dont understand.
Jim K,
I understand what you are saying. However, I would argue that Jones, Kendall, or FLoyd were core players. Floyd definitelly not, but a case could be made for Kendall and Jones. I don't know how he could discount farm players. That is a very simplistic assumption, and while it does make some sense, I think that maybe he's just trying to give some credibility to Kenny Williams offseason, which as we all know has been crap.
Count core players and add or subtract for how many you trade and acquire? Sounds like some of the calculating I used to do at age 10, before being exposed to statistics. And this guy gets PAID for what he does? Surely there's an underemployed sportswriter out there who could be hired to do more than count beans. Does Rodgers know of the special rules that red-headed outfielders count double and no credit is given for people who choke up on the bat? These could really affect his results.
It's wonderful to hear from that revered Hoosier pitcher, Mordecai--who was the greatest pitcher ever (with three fingers on his pitching hand) and one of the greatest ever with two legs. Since, I'm into the minutia that Rogers should have avoided, it could be true that Z is a 30 HR guy--if you only extend for a season pitches that he hits fair and out of the infield. Surely Lou can tell him only to do those things.
This coming week, we should have several significant trades and free agent signings. Then we get into the serious business of deciding whether JH has dared to be a great GM by any measure or whether he did as well as any GM could with one or fewer testicles. (And no I don't know how many JH really has. Right now, I'd guess one.) JimK
JimK - here's the thing. Didn't misread Phil Rogers. Understood what he was saying from the outset. I'm pretty sure everyone understood his premise.
However - it was so incredibly moronic of a premise to begin with that it actually amazes me that the paper's editor didn't take the copy and beat him senseless with it.
...or maybe he did because the entire thing IS pretty senseless. :-)
It was obviously one of those "I've got deadline I've got deadline I've got deadline I've got deadline" moments where he had to write about SOMEthing but yet couldn't find anything newsworthy to write intelligently about. It's just that this was one of those times where you just man up and tell the editor "I've got nothin'" rather than just make something up and publish it.
Reminds me of South Park and Cartman's book reports.
Phil Rogers ranks third from the last as far as Chicago Scribes goes. His last column was riddiculous.
1 Joe Cowley of the Sun Times (Bridgeport's beat reporter) is a total jerkoff. Back in November he said that "Kenny Williams was on the cusp of signing
Torri Hunter, a deal was imminent, blah blah, blah."
He mentioned this while on the Mike North Show. He has also said some other false statements as well. I can't believe he still has a job. He is wrong more than he is right. I emailed him recently and the guy was pretty ignrant with me.
2 Paul Sullivan is a know it all and he looks like a dork. I liked to stuff this guy in my pocket. I get the feeling he doesn't like the Cubs.
3. Phil rogers changes his mind way too much.
I actually have no problem with any of the other sports writers in town. I actually Like Jay Marriotti the most. Nationwide I like Rosethanl, Gammons, Stark, Dayn Perry just to name a few.
dunno about Mariotti....
Ill take Woody Paige over him anyday.... hes a funny guy...
Steve Stone -- how can he do Sox games... ARRGH!! man that guy was amazing..
I have mixed feelings about this trade. Obviously, JH wants to free up a roster spot to make a trade, otherwise he wouldn't just make the trade to make the trade.....
However, if Murton doesn't fit anywhere, which is blantantly obvious, then why would you trade a good, versatile younger Outfielder like Pagan instead of the one position---left fielder in Murton?!?! And if indeed the Cubs trade Murton, then how in the hell does trading Pagan make any sense at all. DeRosa CANNOT play CF, and I don't care what anyone says....he is not fast enough. Pie's progress is up in the air. So does this mean Eric Patterson is in the fold? Maybe they're REALLY high on Colvin (though his stats were less than overwhelming----above average....maybe....but not the type that would warrant a call-up) So who the hell are we going to have as a fall-back? Kroeger? Hoffpauir?
Anyway, I'm not thrilled about this, but I'm also not too upset about it, so long as it's part of a bigger trade that he's setting up for.