What do you think about Rebel's swing now, Aaron?

Nice to get a lucky break in our favor for a change!

whats wrong wit z comming out of bp today is there a chance we could see him

Matt read this about Big Z in bullpen Rothchild said he will be ready for the bullpen tommorrow!

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/2191500,CST-SPT-cubnt23.article

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/04/could-cubs-attempt-to-trade-gorzelanny.html

Rosenthal mentions Andrew Cashner and Jay Jackson Could make starting contributions this year.

neil what about today

Good ideas at 1B, but I think the plan the Cubs implement is moving Soriano there. Like it or not, he's under contract 4 more years and not going anywhere. Wouldn't surprise me if he is there next season.

Sucks, but that's reality

I would like a couple more OF prospects; alot of folks don't think Brett Jackson can stay in CF, so we could use a great fielder there.

good job as usual!

thanks Grant!

hey neil do you think big z will get to pitch today in bp

From everything I've read and heard, Zambrano will be available on Saturday out of the pen.

I would give Chis Davis a shot as his value in the eyes of the Rangers is down.

But really Aaron, these other guys you keep calling for are no better than what we already have, they are just different and 1 or 2 years younger, not enough for me. Didn't the Mets just send Jacobs to the bench? We want the Met's scraps over Lee? No thanks. I also do not want a breaking down and rapidly declining Berkman over Lee, no way. This is just your Lee bias talking.

I don't see any point in unloading the current team to replace it with 29-30 year old guys that are just now beginning the decline that you are constantly citing and ripping this team about.

If we are going to wait for the homegrown youth, then we just wait. A lot of the players you (and us) want to see are 1, 2 and 3 years away, which actually fits well with the departures of a lot of the current aging/aged guys that need to be replaced.

As for the rotation, holding onto Dempster and Z (ugh) as anchors with Wells' continued develpment and brining up Jackson and Cashner in a year would be really nice.

The future indeed looks bright going forward with guys like Castro, Hak Ju Lee, Flaherty, LeMahieu, B Jackson, W. Castillo, Chirinos, Vitters, Spencer, Cashner, Jackson, Carpenter, etc. coming along.

But the major piece missing is a solid 1B prospect. We had Rebel Ridling, but after his appendectomy, he doesn't appear to be the same hitter in EXST.

I am proposing that we look into a few different temporary options in lieu of re-signing Lee, which would result in unloading Lee before the deadline:

(ranked in order of preference)

1) Trade for Chris Davis of the Rangers, and reunite the 24 yr old with Jaramillo to turn him around. This would be an extremely low-cost move (in terms of prospects)

2)Trade for Hank Blalock. The 29 yr old is with the Rays minor league team right now, and is hitting .378 avg, .415 OBP, 1 hr, 8 RBI in 37 AB's. They have him playing 3B almost exclusively right now though

3)Sign Mike Jacobs. The 29 year old didn't get off to a good start, but still hit 19 hr, 61 RBI last year and 32 hr, 93 RBI the year before. Let's see what Jaramillo is made of, if he can turn this kid around.

4)Trade for Adam Dunn immediately. It looks like Mr. Dunn has finally got a better eye. He has exactly 14 walks vs 14 K's. While his power numbers are down and his average is suffering at .176 and .364 OBP right now, I'd say his value is down too, which means the Nats might look to move him in lieu of offering an extension which they were rumored to be doing. At 30 years old, he's PRECISELY the type of masher that we could use immediately, and would break up our righty bats. The problem is, (and this is why I listed him lower) that Lee likely wouldn't waive his no-trade until we're out of it, and at that point, I'm not sure if you'd trade prospects to get a 30 year old slugger, even if he averages 40 hr, 100 RBI, and close to a .400 OBP...and even if you did, you'd have to trade some top prospects, as he's likely to turn up his power and average between now and then, making him more valuable in trades

5)Sign Lance Berkman after this season. While he's just one year younger than Lee, and already experiencing injury issues this season, the dude is a career .300 avg, .400+OBP, .555 SLG switch hitter that plays good defense, and hit .321, .426 OBP, .566 SLG in the postseason, and more importantly, .385, .526 OBP, and .538 SLG in the World Series, a fact which should NOT be lost on any Cubs fan out there. He averages 30+hr, 110+RBI every year to boot, and has close to equal the amount of walks vs K's

A look at other positions reveals FA's Felipe Lopez, Jose Reyes (if the Mets are stupid and decline his option), Crawford, Kubel, and Werth, as the only guys I'd go for, and that would mean we'd have to get rid of Soriano and Fukudome somehow, or give up Byrd, who has done a nice job offensively for us thus far, but doesn't belong anywhere near CF defensively. So...

The likely scenario involves trading Theriot and bringing up Castro, and then possibly trading Fontenot while his value is high, and signing Lopez in the offseason, keeping the 2B spot warm for one of our young guys, whomever emerges from the system, like Flaherty, LeMahieu, Tony Thomas, etc. At this rate, even though ARAM sucks right now, he's likely to opt out at the end of the season, because he wants a championship ring, and he knows that the veteran era in Chicago is likely over, and they'll be starting from scratch, so unless we go after Dunn and/or Berkman this season or in the offseason to replace Lee, and someone like Crawford for CF, he's as good as gone, which would mean we'd have to find a replacement, which is where Hank Blalock would come into play, in which case we'd keep Tracy as a back-up to him.

I believe that Lee, Lilly, Soto, and Byrd, as of this writing, are our most valuable trade chips that we'd even consider dealing. Lee and Lilly own some degree of no-trade rights, which means we have to be out of contention for them to even consider it (which I believe we will be come June).

The pitching, I believe, will be fine. Even if we trade Lilly, we still have Z, Dempster, Wells, Gorzelanny, and Silva left. If you wanted to capitalize on Gorzelanny and Silva's value right now, I'd do it in a heartbeat, and just use them to net you a solid 1B or 3B prospect, or an OF power prospect. Lilly, even with his injury, would be close to Erik Bedard's value, which netted the O's Adam Jones. We could net a similar prospect, even though Lilly is a few years older than Bedard at the time of his trade.

If I were the Cubs, I'd start looking at Russell as a starter, and get him stretched out at Iowa, then I'd replace him with Gaub in the pen. If he failed at Iowa in a starting role, I'd go with Marshall in the rotation if you traded Gorzelanny.

Our pitching is probably the closest to the majors right now with Jay Jackson, Cashner, Coleman, and others about ready. Keep in mind that Samardzija is better suited for the rotation with all his walks, and we have some flexibility to make some trades.

The 3 guys I wouldn't trade under any circumstances right now (in terms of pitching) are Dempster, Wells, and Marmol. They would be a solid foundation to build around if we blow up this team.

Given the changing competitive climate around baseball, my desired scenarios are constantly evolving based on players having down years and teams being out of contention, but I guess my roster would look like this in September:

C-W. Castillo, Chirinos

1B-Chris Davis or Adam Dunn (depending on what the Nats demand)

2B-Tony Thomas (unless Flaherty starts hitting better)

SS-Castro

3B-prospect netted in trade of one of our veterans, or Hank Blalock

LF-Soriano (hey, I'm realistic...we can't trade him, but if we could get Vernon Wells, I'd do it in a heartbeat, even taking on his huge contract

CF-Colvin

RF-Snyder

Bench: W.Castillo/Chirinos, Baker, Tracy, Adduci, Barney...or, prospects picked up in trades

pitching staff:

Z (he's not going anywhere), Dempster, Wells, Cashner, Jay Jackson

pen:

Marmol, Marshall, Gaub, Caridad, Dolis, Mateo, Parker

traded: Lee, ARAM (because he'll opt out), Byrd, Fukudome, Fontenot, Theriot, Gorzelanny, Lilly, Silva, and Soto.

Believe it or not, all of this is likely to happen, with Lee, Lilly, ARAM (b/c of opt out), Fontenot (arb), Theriot (arb), Gorzelanny (arb), Soto (arb), technically all being on the last year of their deals. Arbitration players are attractive, because they're still under team control, and Fukudome and Silva will be entering the final year of their deals. Byrd will be the only one with more than one year left on his deal at the end of the season...and his deal isn't very large. All of these factors will figure into the trades, and make them valuable commodities to other teams.

We shouldn't have any trouble trading ARAM (even in a down year), Lilly, Silva, Gorzelanny, Byrd, Soto, and possibly Fontenot.

The difficult moves will be offloading Lee and Theriot (because he's having a down year and is a man out of position at SS, thus reducing his value). The wild card here is Fukudome, because the Nats wanted him, so obviously some around the league believe he still has value.

I might even look into Elijah Dukes if all the scenarios listed above pan out. We need some young, power prospects in our system, and he'd definitely give us that. Colvin, Snyder, and Soriano would still supply some power for us after losing Lee and ARAM...and then we'd have Chris Davis or someone of that caliber, plus a power 3B prospect or Blalock at 3B...so we would be just fine.

The thing that annoys me most about this franchise as I've mentioned this before, is the fact that we've had countless teams completely out of contention by June, and yet our management continues to play veterans. This has been absolutely damning to the organization, especially as recently as 2006 when we could've traded away our veterans and played young talent to see what we had, and if they failed, go ahead with the spending plan that netted us Lilly, Soriano, Marquis, DeRosa, among others.

We need a manager that's awake during the games, and has a game plan out there. I know the Cubs will likely wait until after the season to make a move, but I think they need to do it now, and place Trammell in there on an interim basis, and then choose between Sandberg, Brenly, and Girardi (if he doesn't re-sign with the Yankees).

Piniella will never play the young guys if his career depends on it (which it does at this moment), so he MUST go immediately, so we can see what we have for next year, and can plan accordingly for free agency

Aaron, Rebel Riding Had surgery. When you have an apendectomy the cut into you core stomach muscles, which you use when you swing the bat. It may take a little time for him to fully heal and regain that strength in his core. He had to sit, no lifting no running, no fielding, no at bats. to say that he is not still a potential 1b prospect right now is ridiculous! The Surgery could stunt his development for the time being though, but I wouldn't give up on him.

Our ML Club is in need of a rebuild IMO, and guys like Jackson are key. The middle of the rotation is crowded, but could mean somebody will be trade bait.

If Cashner stays as a starter, we have at least 2 good starters close to ML-ready for 2011.

Hmm...he and I share a birthday. Not the same year, though. It must mean this kid is destined for greatness...