It has not been a secret that the Cubs would like to add an outfielder this winter. First line of business is when, where and how much it will cost the Cubs to trade Milton Bradley. The Cubs would like to move Kosuke Fukudome back to right field, where he is an above average defender then add a centerfielder to the mix ... that can drive in runs.
A report from FoxSports.com on Friday mentioned a few of the names that have been bantered around for the last six weeks and drove home the fact the Cubs will not focus on that player hitting left-handed ... like they did a year ago.
Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi reported, "The Cubs' off-season will truly kick off only after they trade outfielder Milton Bradley. Only then can they begin, in earnest, their pursuit of a centerfielder."
Various rumors have suggested that the Cubs will have to eat anywhere from $15 to $18 million of the more than $21 million owed to Bradley over the next two seasons. Paul Sullivan mentioned the same dollar figures during Chicago Tribune Live Friday night ... and Sullivan added the Cubs are not going to eat that much of Bradley's contract.
No one sees Milton Bradley back in a Cubs' uniform next season, mainly due to the fact Lou Piniella would not allow it. Sullivan feels the Rays and Rangers are the likely destinations for Milton Bradley.
The report from FoxSports.com tossed out the same names that have been linked to the Cubs: Marlon Byrd, Mike Cameron and Curtis Granderson along with Rick Ankiel and Scott Podsednik. Along with a new name, Coco Crisp, who has been in the Cubs' rumor mill in previous years.
"One agent who has spoken with the Cubs says the left-right issue is not as big a concern for the team as it was last offseason, when GM Jim Hendry was fixated on balancing his lineup with a left-handed or switch-hitter.No, the issue now is how quickly the Cubs can purge the player who was supposed to solve that problem -- Bradley -- and how much financial flexibility they will gain through such a move.
Those factors, as much as anything, might determine the type of player they pursue."
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So there is no-one in the entire farm system that can secure a corner outfield spot? How sad that we have to consider the names like Byrd, Crisp, etc.
If I was Hoffpauer and Fox I'd ask to be traded (which is likely to happen anyways). Two guys who kill the ball offensively at each level, but we have no room for.
And nice to hear that a left-handed bat is no longer on the priority list for JH. Considering how this was "a must" prior to last season, it just reinforces the type of GM/Mgr that we have. Tweedle dee/tweedle dum.
Bryan,
The reason those are the names being considered is because those are the names that are available through free agency (besides Bay and Holliday out of our price range)
Those names are not necessarily Plan A, just names that any team looking for an OF bat will inevitably be interested, we have the prospects to get great bats if we wanted to continue to mortgage the farm with guys like Castro, Vitters, Jackson, Cashner, etc...(i applaud Ricketts for committing to the farm btw)
One of Hoff/Fox will guaranteed be gone if not both but while they 'killed' the ball at each level, Hoff was definitely exposed as a pure bench guy with extended MLB time and Fox was beginning to decline but would be a nice cheap DH option for a transition team...
Again, just because they mention all the names that are available doesnt mean we cant get someone better...come on man
Besides we have our OF Bat...
CURTIS GRANDERSON.
Sorry Joel...but c'mon man!
Fox "declined" after a hot start because Pinella sat him on the bench for some doghouse reason. And the same was about true for Hoffpauer as well. You can't sit youngsters on the bench and provide them minimal at-bats per week while Soriano and Fukodome still try to "figure it out" in August/September. And BTW, if you annualize Fox's numbers over a full season, they exceed anything we'll find on the FA market. But hey, why would Hendry want to go that route?
And while I too applaud Ricketts for committing to the farm, we've yet to see any such similar commentary from Hendry. Based on past history (Jones, Floyd, etc) what makes you think a Crisp or Byrd isn't in Hendry's gameplan. And if you think Granderson is the answer, dream on. Think about it, if he sucks against lefties as badly as reported, how many at-bats (against righties) do you think he'll have after around the 6th inning of most games. Opposing managers will play the lefty match-up against him, and he'll wind up being a platoon player or a late game liability (and a pretty high priced one at that).
But hey, let's go give up some more solid prospects for a career .270 hitter. Makes great sense...sure!
Bryan,
I agree with you on the Granderson thing. In the late innings of a close game he will be useless, so really, what good is he ? And plus, Brett Jackson is supposed to be one heckuva prospect, the more I read about him. So why do we want to block him for the next 3 years with an overpriced platoon player ?
Someone needs to step in spring training and earn the job outright. Whether its Fuld, Colvin, or whomever. This team needs a leadoff hitter not a #5 hitter in Granderson. Granderson is just a younger Soriano from the other side of the plate.
The problem is a leadoff hitter is not even our top priority or need this offseason. The top priority is dumping Bradley. After Bradley is gone, then we move forward. Our needs in order should be:
1. Starting Pitcher or two
2. Speed guy
3. Power bat
4. Middle infielder
5. Outfielder
I still believe Hendry's first move after moving Bradley is doing what it takes to trade for Josh Johnson.
We need to find out the truth on Castro, is he the superstar everyone has hyped him to be, or just an above average prospect? If the latter is true then trade him while his status is at its highest. They say Lee is the better shortstop prospect but is still three years away.
We have plenty of trade bait if Hendry has the balls to deal guys like Soto, Samardjiza, Castro, etc to go and get the likes of Josh Johnson and a Grady Sizemore or Carl Crawford.
Well, I found some time...and access.
Woody, while you are spot on in your needs assessment...and perhaps a couple of those needs could be combined in one player...things are not likely to play out that way.
Hendry has been trying to dump Bradley for near to 3 months now...and it hasn't happened. As it APPEARS now, when he does, the Cubs are not likely to realize much savings or get a player we can really use.
Here's the problem...If the Cub's can't
save on Milton's contract...there is no payroll room to trade prospects for Vet's anyway...unless we trade one of the
other larger contracts away...even to fit say....the 4 to 6 million a Josh Johnson would currently earn.
Fuko and Soriano are untradeable.
Lilly's on the DL and can't be traded.
Indications are they are going to try to extend DLee another year.
ARAM is the only one we don't want to trade.
That's all our big money guys except for one....Zambrano...that makes almost as much as Soriano but might still have some trade value....No trade clause or not.
Warch what happens with Halladay and Lackey. There's three teams with a truly good shot at those 2 pitchers...
Boston, Yankees, Angels...(maybe Mets but doubtful).
Whoever DOES NOT land Halladay or Lackey
is probsably Zambrano's next team.
(Assuming Florida holds on to Johnson for the season.)
Zambrano will gladly leave if it's to a contender with a chance to go to the World Series...and the Cubs cannot afford 2 18 million players not giving them maximum production...It's the only way I see them getting any payroll relief
in the cming season....and the resources to fill needs going forward.
If Hendry can accomplish that...then we have the resources to fill needs and go after someone like a Josh Johnson at a lower price to replace Z.
(And of course...Z should bring Good
prospects back.)
Scotty Pods: hit a lot of singles last year, and provided the Sox with a good leadoff bat. But most most of his career he's been a lousy .235 singles hitter with no power. Worse, he's an awful baserunner--brings back memories of Dwight Smith, no less!--he can't field at all (has Sorry-oh-no disease), and he's due for an extended time on the DL. Last year was the first time he stayed on the field in years, and that after being released by Colorado. FORGETABOUTIT.
I've alluded to this several times this offseason, but to expect anything other than a Marlon Byrd or Mark Loretta or Austin Kearns signing from Hendry would be irrational. He simply doesn't have the balls....or the intelligence for that matter to pull off any logical trades where we don't get hosed, or sign the right free agents that fit our need or team chemistry.
Free agents like Felipe Lopez, Hank Blalock, Billy Wagner, and even Rick Ankiel make much more sense than having Miles, Fontenot, Grabow, and a Marlon Byrd or Loretta type on our roster.
I realize that Lopez and Blalock might command between $4-5 million each, and Wagner probably the same or more, but we just committed $3.5 million for a marginal talent in Grabow, and Miles is due $2.5 million next season, it's just unbelievable to think that we're going to get more marginal talent for the same or more than good to great talent (see Abreu and Hudson of last year).
I will go over why each of the players I mentioned fits well with our team:
Lopez-plays OF, and all IF positions, switch hitter, above average hitter and above average defender. VERY good fit for us, and is younger and cheaper than Hudson
Blalock-power hitting 3B/1B offering us what Fox might give, but will be just 29 next season, and is a proven talent, and better defensively than Fox. If ARAM or Lee miss time, who would you rather have, Fox or Blalock? That's about all you need to ask. I'll take my chances with Blalock, as Fox was MAJORLY exposed to the breaking ball late last year.
Wagner-can close in a pinch, or provide an excellent bridge to Marmol. Let's face it, if you're relying on Grabow to be your bridge, as Hendry is, you will DEFINITELY lose a LOT of ballgames. Grabow is one of a long line of Hendry's worst signings as GM. I guess being a marginal lefty talent with a career 4.03 ERA and 1.437 WHIP earn you 2 yrs and $7.5 million in Hendry's world. I tell you what, I really wish I hadn't blown out my arm in college, and would've given anything to have played for the Cubs, not because I was a fan, but because I know that even if I was a marginal talent, some sucker (Hendry) would give me the deal I wanted. There's just too many marginal players on our roster right now, it's ridiculous. Do you guys realize that? About the only standouts we have are Lee, ARAM, Theriot (offensively for a SS he's not bad), Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, Wells, and Marmol (I'd say Guzman, but he was hurt). Wells is iffy too, because he only has 1 year under his belt. Sorry, got on a tangent there, but do you see what I mean...when given the chance to get the better talent (Wagner) for around the same price, Hendry goes Black Friday shopping, hunting for "bargains" (Grabow). It's almost as if he would rather pay a combined $140 million for a roster of just 8 standout players, instead of a roster like the Yankees with AROD, Jeter, Texeira, Cano, Matsui, Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte, and Rivera. You'd have arguably the best 3B, SS, all-around 1B, 2 starting pitchers that are close to the top in rankings and closer in the game versus the Cubs, where we don't have the best of anything, and yet, the 9 players I just mentioned with the Yankees made a combined $140 million last season. Cano seems headed to becoming the best 2B in the game as well. It's incredibly frustrating that we're looking at a 2010 payroll close to $140 million again, and we STILL don't have a player at the top of his position ranking. To put it into perspective how pathetic that really is, our average player last year earned $5.6 million. If you're making it deep into the playoffs every year, I'd say it's money well spent, but the fact is, we were NOWHERE close to being a playoff team even though our record indicated otherwise, and next year, our average age in our lineup will be 32 years old, making it even less likely we'll contend next season. By far, that's the worst allocation of money of any team in major league sports. It borderlines the New York Knicks, though I'd argue that the Knicks actually had players that were near the top of their position rankings, but just didn't mesh as a team.
....back to my original point...
Ankiel-can play all OF positions, has a cannon of an arm, and has power to boot. He'd be a good pick-up in the interim until some of our better prospects like Brett Jackson and Kyler Burke are ready, and he wouldn't cost all that much.
If we had those players on our roster, it'd allow us to trade the likes of Marshall, Gaub, Colvin, Hoffpauir, Fox, Miles, Fontenot, and even Blanco.
Our lineup would look like this:
Theriot/Lopez-SS/2B
Theriot/Lopez-SS/2B
Lee-1B
ARAM-3B
Fukudome-RF (unfortunately)
Soriano-LF
Ankiel-CF
Soto-C
bench: K Hill/W Castillo, Baker, Blalock, Fuld, Snyder (if we can re-sign him)
pitching: Z, Dempster, Lilly, Wells, Samardzija/Gorzelanny
pen: Grabow, Caridad, Berg, Dolis, Wagner, Guzman, Marmol
*you'd have 6 guys in the pen throwing 95+mph, which is 100x better than what we have now.
I'm wondering what everyone else thinks about that.
I'm not sure I agree with Hendry's comments about, "most of what we do will be through trade". Why?!? If you have players like Lopez, Blalock, Wagner, and Ankiel that appear to be great fits, then why not expel your roster of the players I mentioned above like Fontenot, Miles, Marshall, etc. that don't appear to have a future with the team in trades meant to free up 40-man roster space, avoid arbitration, AND get low level talent in return. It'd be the perfect situation to take on a Kyler Burke type of talent like we did in the Barrett trade...a situation in which a top draft pick struggles, and you get him on the cheap because his team sours on him....whereas if you trade for a guy in AA or AAA, in most cases you have about a year before they have to be protected from Rule 5, thus giving you less time to see what you have. Look what happened with Burke this year for reference.
Anyways, I hope things turn around for us, and I really hope Ricketts realizes how inept Hendry truly is before our championship dreams have all been vanished. We have the solid core to at least make a run with the likes of Lee, Theriot, ARAM, Z, Dempster, Lilly, Wells, and Marmol...now it's all about surrounding them with a good supporting cast, and we don't even have to break the bank to do it and we don't have to go all young with our own prospects to start over either, nor do we have to trade anybody (except for Bradley) to get the necessary supporting cast. But I believe the biggest problem last year was finding a solid lefty reliever for the pen (which we still don't have as Grabow and Marshall are marginal), a versatile player to replace DeRosa, power/RBI threat (which Bradley never would've filled anyway, and STILL will be a need next season) and a back-up 3B.
I'm tired of signing the likes of Jones, Hollandsworth, Burnitz, Bradley, Gathright, Miles, etc. I want real talent, and if we have to go the free agent route, I want PROVEN talent, NOT one year wonders.
Aaron...I agree with you re Ankiel/Blalock/Lopez....and while Wagner would be a great fit...he's going to get more money than we can afford...(He made Boston agree NOT to oick up his 8 million option...so I assume that is his starting point.)
Yes we can save some money in the arbitration area...but not enough to make the moves you suggest...(I read that Marmol alone may garner 4 - 5 million in arb.
Bruce Levine said Texas is out of it
re Bradley...He said Texas is basically in receivership...and Bud Selig would have to OK ANY addition of payroll...so unless we GIVE Bradley to Texas...that isn't happening.
So now it's down to Tampa and Burrell...
(another untradeable contract due to talent issues...not mentality issues).
And yet, Hendry is excited about the owner's meetings...so the kool aid is brewing and God knows what he;s going to do...but I don't think it is on the public radar yet.
If I'm another GM Hendry is trying to trade Bradley to...I just wait...and wait...and wait...because in the end,
I know Hendry will give him away at some point.
And in the meantime...Hendry can do little else.
One other thing...before 2010 is over...either Gaub or Maine will supplant
Grabow as the lefty short man in the pen...if still on the team.
Nah Brian,
Fox declined because pitchers saw he couldnt hit inside pitches...I think Lou sat him to so that his value didnt decline anymore than it already had...
Also im pretty sure we all learned our lesson about projecting someones stats out over an entire season with Mike Fontenot, by that logic, last year he woulda hit about .300 with 20+ HRs and woulda been one of the best hitting 2Bs in the NL.
And as far as Granderson, he is an absolute stud... If you look deeper at the stats like BA on ball in play youll see that he got a lil unlucky, also the man is a doubles/triples machine with great speed from 1st to 3rd, the guy will easily hit 20+ HRs, 25-30 doubles, 10-15 triples, and steal 20+ bases while playing great CF defense... and he is a team leader and a great clubhouse presence (which last year we found is more than a myth)
Also movin him outta the leadoff spot and lettin him bat 5th between Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, and Soto will only help his pitch selection and RBI opportunities...
CG will not take Castro and Vitters and we can probably get him without either of those if we give up Samardzija (fine by me) and Cashner and Fox...that deal makes us instantly better and solves our CF issue, upgrades the D, upgrades the O, upgrades the intangibles....
On top of his being merely a '.270' hitter... In just four seasons as an MLB starter...
He has twice led the MLB in triples and finished 3rd and 5th
He has finished 2nd and 3rd in runs scored in two seasons respectively
He is an allstar
He has been extremely durable
He has finished 3rd in extra base hits
He has finished 4th in total bases
He has been a top 10 MVP finisher
He was 6th in Slugging Percentage
He has finished 5th in runs created
Sorry, in case you cant tell I love Granderson, he is one of my favorite non-Cubs in the MLB...I just really think you guys need to realize this could be an opportunity to buy low on a young allstar and a TRUE FIVE TOOL PLAYER...The exact player we thought we had in Pie and Patterson!
Felipe Lopez: smacked 23 dingers in 2005; 11 in 2006; hasn't smacked in double digits since. Hmmmmmm. But you gotta love that .310 BA. Has no speed anymore. Used to steal 44 bases a year. Hmmmm. Made $3.5 million last year. Unaffordable for us this year if Cubs have to hold the line on payroll. I'd rather have Lopez than Fontenot, but can Hendry pull it off? I'd hope so, but I doubt it.
Ankiel: you're joking, right? .231 BA, 11 HR and a lousy .638 OBS. No speed (4 SB, 3 CS) and strikes out every third AB. Power arm. Injury prone ala Bradley. Hoffpauir is better than this, although Ankiel can play CF. Somewhat of a head case, too.
Blalock: .234 25 HR, 108 SO in 445 ab and ZERO speed in Texas. Ya gotta subtract on the stats once they leave Texas. How about .215 15HR with 120 K in a parttime role with the Cubs? FORGETABOUTIT. Fox can do this badly. Geovanny Blalock in the outfield.
The Cubs have had great success in over-hyping marginal prospects. Brooks Kieshneck comes to mind, along with Pie, Patterson, Bobby Hill, Choi, etc, etc, etc. Keeeeeenny Williams is right: prospects are just suspects until they prove they can play at the ML level.
I read on Castro that the Cubs are overblowing the hype on him. No power. No stolen base speed. Mind you, I haven't seen him play. I am just repeating what I've read by some. But my point is that he's still a suspect. And with the Cubs poor record of getting players through the system to the ML level, their record backs up my thought.
Therefore we may not be wise to count on him as the next Willie Mays. He may not even be the next Shawn Dunston.
I have to agree with Bryan re Hoffpauir/Fox and even Fuld....Lou mishandled them all in favor of Soriano
and Fukodome.
To be honest, I'm not sure what to think of Granderson...his splits are absolutely horrendous...if he is a platoon player as many suggest...I would
rather we pass since he could be expensive...both in prospects and eventually $$$.
I do know and like Snyder...and believe we might possibly get the power we are looking for there...at a much cheaper price...although he KO's a bit...He could be the poor man's Granderson...
without the bad splits. (This years
Mcgehee???)
Rip...you're right about Cub's prospects from the past....and possibly Castro...
The thing is...HE HAS PRODUCED...at his various pit stops...and he does play
at a premium,valued position.
So while we cannot bank on him...we also cannot discount him...power or not...if he can hit/get on base...and play the position...we can use him...it's hard to find a GOOD ss...so here's hoping.
Btw...my Shawn-O-meter is a little dusty these days.
Suzy,
Glad to have you back in touch. Now keep in touch! : )
The Cubs' best option right now is to keep Bradley. If they have to pay $15-$18 million to get rid of him, they're nuts. (Something I've accused JHendry of in times past).
It's truly insane to be put in this position. Perhaps Ricketts himself can talk to Little Milty, and convince him to play.
I don't die for Byrd, but he is way better than all the players mentioned like Ankiel, miles,Mark Loretta or Austin Kearns. I think we should go in house anyway but Byrd would be a solid addition.
I agree: Sam Fuld is a better choice.