What a class act this Votto dude is.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Reds-Votto-dislikes-Cubs-disses-All-Star-teamm?urn=mlb,256004

I'd still want him on my team,reguardless but what an a-hole. Hope this lights a fire under the Cubs arse atleast whn they play the Reds.

WOW. F*** that dbag

Checking in hoping hoping to some action...nah...I am impatient. I hate the All Star break. I am junkie for the game.

Great to see Marlon contribute last night, both at the plate in the field. Smart hustle.

Alex Gonzales for Escobar seems short-sighted to me. Gonzales can't keep that pace, not even close. A year ago everyone was drooling over Escobar. The Braves see their opportunity and are moving.

Should be an interesting stretch, particularly in the NL.

Darwin Barney just knocked in the first run of the Triple-A All-Star game. A two-out solid single to center.

Barney is hitting eighth and Thomas Diamond started the game.

Howry HAS NOT pitched well for us. Sure, 1.69 ERA. lol He's how it goes: Howry comes in with two outs and runners on 1st, or 1st and 2nd. He gives up a two run double right away, then gets the third out. That 1.69 just hides his lousy, ineffective pitching.

Rip, here are the numbers on Howry since joining the Cubs

0-2 with 2 holds

16 hits

4 walks

6 strikeouts

19 games, 16 innings pitched

Howry has allowed 9 runs, 3 earned.

Howry's ERA is 1.69 with a 1.25 WHIP. Teams have hit .250 against him since he re-joined the Cubs.

As for inherited runners ... five of the 10 he has inherited have scored.

For comparison ... Sean Marshall has inherited 20 runners this season, five of them have scored.

If you look at the peripherals Howry has pitched OK, but not great, and past history indicates that could be luck/mirage. We could probably give him away, but that's about it. Anybody could have signed him a month ago.......

Again, I am surprised by the lack of Silva rumors.

One trade partner gone: Braves pick up new SS from Toronto, Alex Gonzalez.

No one is going to give us prospects like Mike Trout for anyone in our organization especially over the hill, over paid players. We as fans need to be more realistic in our expectations. We should just be happy to be rid of lee, nady, and theriot instead of expecting other organizations to give us their best propsects.

I forgot to mention...

While I'm still down on Lee and Nady offensively, I think given their track records, some team might still give up a low level prospect or an out of options young player if it means they don't have to pay much of the remaining contract of our veteran.

For instance, if we can move Lee to the Angels, it's quite likely we could land Brandon Wood, especially if we include a middle infielder like Fontenot or Theriot in that trade.

Or, if we move Nady to the Rangers, and kick in a pitching prospect of our own like a Gaub, or something, it's quite likely we might be able to land Mitch Moreland, who was ranked as their 7th best prospect (11th in some other reports). Despite his excellent bat, the knock on Moreland is his lack of speed, defense, and a position in general. He also doesn't hit with tremendous power that would allow you to put up with that on an everyday basis, despite his excellent bat control. The best case scenario, is he probably ends up a slightly more athletic Sean Casey. For the Cubs, it'd be better than anything else we have, so it's a win. Besides 1B, the only other positions Moreland can play are corner OF and DH, and the Rangers are blocked at all positions with no less than Chris Davis, Hamilton, Cruz, Borbon, Guerrero, and then even Salty.

The additional problem for Moreland is he'll have to be on their 40-man roster to avoid the Rule 5 this year I believe, and he turns 25 in September. I think the Rangers will see it as playing for perhaps their best chance to make the playoffs in years, and sacrifice a little of their future to do so. It's also quite possible that if we include someone like Howry to provide veteran relief help for them, it might seal the deal. In any case, however, we'd have to pick up virtually 100% of Nady's salary given their financial situation, and because we'd have to do that, it gives you extra leverage to demand more in return.

Here are the likely landing spots of our veterans:

Lee-Angels, Giants

Nady-Angels, Rangers, Giants

Theriot-Angels, Rockies, Tigers

ARAM-Angels, Twins

Fontenot-(pretty much same as Theriot)

Baker-(see above)

Hill-DFA candidate

Fukudome-Red Sox, Yankees

Lilly-Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, Rays

Silva-(see above)

Howry-(basically a "throw-in" in any trade we make)

Grabow-DFA, or like Howry, a "throw-in" if we pick up salary

It is quite possible...I know that it seems crazy at this point....but given the Angels' extreme interest in signing Carl Crawford next season, it might be possible that they'll look to trade one of their OF prospects, such as Mike Trout in a larger package. Here's what I'm thinking, and I realize it seems crazy:

Lee/Nady (or both), Theriot, ARAM, and a reliever

for nothing more than Brandon Wood and Mike Trout.

Think about this for a second before you shoot it down, and realize the Braves just traded Escobar and Jo Jo Reyes for Alex Gonzalez and 2 marginal prospects. They did this to put them over the top in their division like a lot of contending teams do, sacrificing the future for the present in hopes it'll land them a championship. We've done it in the past, most recently with the Harden trade, and before that with the Trachsel trade. The Brewers did it for a rental in Sabathia. Teams get crazy this time of year for marginal veteran talent, based solely on track records, often out-bidding division rivals by a wide margin.

The Angels and Rangers are both going to be fighting for 1B help. Why not create a bidding war?

Anyway, just a thought...

Aaron, much as I'd like to see Fukodome traded...I don't really see that happening until about a year from now...when his contract is almost up...too little value for too much money.

Looking at the BIG picture...Ricketts probably realizes that he is going to have to eat some BIG MONEY in the near future...Soriano and Zambrano...in order to move the Cubs into a building mode

again...I don't see the Cubs eating any money until those 2 behemoth's are dealt with...and really no large need to unless they trade with Texas.

Other teams would probably give Nady a bit of a pass...based on his past production...and figure he will be better in the second half...at a semi-reasonable price.

If we continue the second half like the

first...JH may finally be sent back to Creighton...and should be.

I see Nady/Lilly being the first to go...

DLee still has the no trade clause...so he may opt to stay...BUT would be silly to...if he plans on to keep playing.

ARAM will be at 3rd next season...he won't get 14.6 million anywhere else...

especially if he doesn't heat up quick...

and it's his choice...not the Cubs.

by the way...I thought Nady's contract was for just over 5 mil...with incentives???

DIEHARD and others...thanks for the kind words... and prayers...we're hanging in.

The Cubs, are still a great respite...bad as they've been...Great catch by Byrd last night...too bad Hendry did not sign him last year instead Uncle Milty...might've saved a lot of headaches and heartburn!!!

Well Looky Looky who came up for air. Where you been? You have been missed. Hope all has worked out as best it could. (not knowing any details of course)Don't be a stranger.

If the Cubs do not make any deals during the All-Star break, I'll scream.

Patience, Patience, Patience!!!

But I'll keep my ears open for you!!!

Rip, I'm anxious for a deal too, but I think we might be better off being patient to see if Nady, Lilly, Theriot and Lee could get in a hot streak in the next couple weeks, this getting their value up a little.

Teams know their history, but if they get hot it erases the age decline factor. I think this especially holds true for Lee and Lilly. Nady there could be concern about him being fully recovered from TJ.

I'm kind of excited about a possible deal with Texas for Nady, because it seems like the scout they have in that area knows his stuff. For example, Derosa and Byrd signing have been great. I would think Rudy could have so good inout on a possible prospect from the too!

I certainly can agree to your premise. It's absolutely true, although I disagree with you on Lilly based on his track record. Teams usually don't shy away from pitchers of his caliber coming off a few brutal starts. Do you realize that with 3 of 5 really poor starts recently, he still has barely over a 4 ERA (4.08). That just goes to show you how good he's been the rest of the time, so, no, I don't think he needs to "build up value".

However, with Nady, Theriot, Lee, and pretty much every other veteran we have, they ABSOLUTELY need to "build up value".

Nady has been downright horrific overall. Looking at his stats, if you didn't have a name to go off of, you'd think you were looking at Ryan Theriot's stats, except with a far poorer avg and OBP than Theriot. And he has this alarming GIDP-disease thing going, where he's grounding into one in virtually every appearance he's made (which obviously isn't true...it just seems that way), plus, he's not making good contact, plus he still can't throw from the OF, plus, he's proven he's not 1B material (especially after his most recent game there). All of this combined stinks of a DFA to me.

As for Theriot, the only thing that needs improvement is his OBP, otherwise he's reached his ceiling for us, and a light-hitting 2B without huge range, extra-base power, or a good avg and huge amount of hits, just isn't valuable to any team.

Ditto for Lee. At a premium power position, Lee is slugging a paltry .366. Do you realize how bad that is?!?!? Nobody will want him. It's wishful thinking on my part, and any Cubs fan's part to think anybody will rescue us, and take his "bat" from us.

The most valuable veteran trade chips (that we'd consider trading) we have right now are Lilly, Silva, Howry (1.69 ERA since joining us), Fukudome (if we eat 1/2 to 3/4 of his remaining salary, believe it or not, he'd have a little value), ARAM, Soriano (similar to Fukudome, if we eat 1/2 or 3/4 of his remaining salary, which isn't likely at all...but he ranks 5th among OF in OPS), and Fontenot. We'd also have Theriot if teams still consider him a SS, as his bat wouldn't be near as bad from that spot as it is from 2B.

Just for argument's sake, let's remove Fukudome and Soriano from trade consideration due to salary, because I could be wrong about them attracting other teams.

That means that from our pitiful offense, we're realistically just removing Theriot, Fontenot, and ARAM (just ARAM and Theriot if you're counting everyday lineup). Will that even make a difference?!? Sure, I'd say that Camp and Tony Thomas might outperform Theriot with the bat, but who are we going to get that equals ARAM's 10 hr?!? Marquez Smith is the closest to us, but Vitters is the long-term hope there, and he's not even cutting it at 3B in AA for us right now. I'd say that before ARAM's recent power surge, Smith could easily step in and give us at least what ARAM has given, but not now.

The wise thing to do on Hendry's part would be to trade every single veteran player he could right now, and then in August, after the deadline, try once again to move some veterans for minimum compensation. If that fails, then simply DFA them, and allow them to catch on with other teams through the stretch run, but it won't be a PR disaster since the season is already over.

The thing is, they have to get younger, and do so very quickly. When you have an underperforming veteran team like we have, the best thing for your future is to purge your team of the veterans, and start over.

At the very least, Nady, Lee, Theriot, Fukudome, Fontenot, Koyie Hill, and Baker should be traded, and if it's not possible, then you DFA each and every one of them, and bring up Snyder, LaHair, Barney, B Jackson, Camp, Chirinos, and Tony Thomas at the very least. If the season is lost, does it really freaking matter if these guys don't produce?!? Hell no! But you have to find out if the older minor league guys like Camp (26), Chirinos (26), LaHair (27), and Snyder (28) project as bench guys at the very least. If they do, then you don't have to worry about spending twice as much on a veteran bat for next season, but at least you're armed with knowledge, rather than being saddled with a $3 million contract like we were with Nady, when we had more than capable replacements at the minor league level.

Then you start arranging your rotation for the future by offloading Lilly and Silva.