Did anyone read that Byrd has lost 40lbs since the end of the regular season? That's almost as much as Campana weighs!

Hey, do any of you guys know anything about Jason Jaramillo's defense?  Is he known for calling a good game?  Cutting down base stealers?

I've just read that Cubs fans will be in for a treat this season, as Tennessee Smokies broadcaster Mick Gillespie has signed to do 20 spring training games. I've had the pleasure of listening to Gillespie for a while, and he's a real pro.

By the way, although Rodrigo Lopez was signed today, he won't be covered in any winter league reports. His Culiacan Tomateros (that's Tomato Pickers) were eliminated from the MPL playoffs yesterday.

Time for another time out from this stuff until the MILB reports from Tom

and not from some stupid list maker from momma's basement

Every player has a shot!

Unless they comb the Barrios

Geez

Play Hard

I hope you enjoy your R&R!

Haven't the time to read all that's written and posted today, so if this is a repost, please forgive me. 


The Cubs signed ChiChi Lopez to a minor league deal for 2012, with invite to ST

Rodrigo Lopez will earn $900,000 if on major league roster or $235,000 if in the minors

I can name 100 players in the Cubs minor league system that deserves the 235K instead of this Ace

You can?  Did you watch the team last year?  We have no starting pitching in our system.  He was the best we got off of the scrap pile... rather see him starting then Russel or Coleman.

I think Garza has over shot his arbitration number and will lose in arbitration.  Remember, the arbitrator picks the team or the players number, and the players number is way too high.  

I believe he asked for this amount, to state a point, of wanting a contract, and that it's not gonna be cheap.

Maybe he won't get 12.5, but the Cubs won't submit a mere 7.95; the Cubs will try to match along 9-12 millions just to be safe. In any way, Garza still wins. The arbitration allows the player to have a voice and pushes the clubs to pay his market price.

You might be right that Garza still demands a lofty sum for extension. Anything could be signed the day before his arbitration hearing.

Not following you.  The Cubs offered $7.95M and will win if they go to arbitration, as Garza's number is way too high.  I believe they will settle and work towards a 4-5 year deal, but a fair price for this year is $9.XM.

Tony, I thought the Cubs OFFERED $7.95 to Garza's agent before they filed a number to the arbitrator. Nowadays, clubs will always FILE a bigger number than what they initially offered, so the arbitrators will see: We make sense.

But I don't know exactly what the Cubs filed... It seems Heyman reported it was "filed." The twitter didn't specify. The wording confused me, at least. Arbitration hearings are usually held in closed door, without the media knowing anything. The reporters are always unhappy about not having first-hand knowledge of the action there. That's why through them, fans got confusing and distorted reports about what happened during an arbitration.

I think in any way, Garza still wins. He'll earn more than 7.95M for 2012. If he wants an arbitration, I'm cool with that, too.

Here is the info on MLBtraderumors arbitration tracker.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/... It shows the Cubs arbitration number is $7.95M...it could be wrong.  If they would have put $8.95M, they would have the upper hand completely, but I still think their number is realistic, and Garza's is way too high.

I dont think Garza would take anything less then 10.5.

If it goes to arbitration, he will get $7.95M, as that is in line with what he should get, and $12.5M is way too high.

Here is MLBtraderumors, projected arbitration numbers for players.  They have been really close on every player I have checked, and they projected Garza at $8.7M.  If he holds out for a 1 year deal, at over $10M, it will go to arbitration, and he will lose. The best solution is a 4 or 5 year deal.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/...

Cubs sign Rodrigo Lopez!!

This pitching staff is now taking shape!

Minor League deal for Lopez with a NRI to Spring Training

Cubs signed Rodrigo Lopez! Rip is happy Chi Chi is back :)

I think we all knew he was going to be re-signed to a minor league contract, as one of the 8th, 9th, 10th option.

Just read that Fausto Carmona's real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia and he is 31 years old....not 28. Lol. How typical it is for many of these players from the Domenican.

dont say that even if its true you will be called a racist.

It used to be called "The Great American Pastime"

I won't get into a discussion about the demographics of professional baseball these days, but lets just say foreign born players have merely supplanted American "minorities" more and more every year, for various reasons.

You can have an ineffective RBI program in an attempt to keep baseball diversified in the US, but 1,000,000 times more funds are funneled to the islands by MLB clubs to fund the "cattle farms" there, and you know what they do raising beef, they inject them.

Roughly 1/2 of MILB are not US citizens. Are American players that inferior, or is it really the system that warrants the need to go full bore Global?

Its all about MONEY. The Cuban League, is craaaap, the Nippon League, is craaap, all the Leagues across the pond in the land of speed skaters are craaap.

If MLB and their Clubs would truly Invest in the development of US born players a fraction more instead and less to what they send abroad, then the need to troll the "barrios" wouldn't be that great.

Instead, kids in the US get a small fraction of 11.7 college baseball grants allocated amongst 27 kids as their platform for quasi-pro baseball development.

Sell the seats, sell the parking, sell the $8 cheap beers, the $6 hot dog, the TV contract, make it unaffordable for a US family to take in a ballgame without the need of a home equity loan, and pay some Cuban $50,000,000 that leaves the USA to be spent in the Dom Rep versus being re-injected back into OUR economy.

By the way, did we sign that Cuban pitcher yet?lol

Where's the Tylenol?

you don't want to get into the demographics of professional baseball these days...but you do!?!? I try to ignore this post of yours but can't.  You are soooo contradicting yourself including a Cuban in this matter and you are so apart of the truth that I would lose my time trying to explain to you the difference. 
What made America what it is today is what you are criticizing.  What happened to the Land of opportunity?, the american dream?!!!!  Look at it this way; at the very least kids in the US get to go to college if they want to even if they play ball or not.  In the Dominican they can't, not even if they wanted to because there is over 90% poverty.  Baseball is the only way out, the only way to feed their family and therefore they dream the american dream. This is while the average young american is already living the dream because he can eat, have shelter and progress through education.....BASEBALL is an alternative of life for the American Kid [which is great] contrary to the Dominican and most latin american kids who clearly do not have other options.  In principle its the same reason that the american flags are "Made in China".  They live a necessity life, therefore they need to work cheaply and the capitalists take advantage.
Good american players go to the big leagues regardless of your speech.  And to your future wisdom, the 50 million dollar Cuban will only reside in the Dominican because US laws have changed and it is not a given anymore that the Cubans get automatic US citizenship when asked for as it once was. 

I agree, but this is how our economy works. Signing Dominicans is a cheaper and more "club-friendly" option. Americans complain too much. Latinos shut up and play according to the club's direction, while they are still in the minor league and as a teen. They don't make 100% of the signing bonus. Their agent and buscones (most of the time two different parties) get half of those.

Let's put it this way. Pro baseball is no different from Walmart, who sell a minimum of products from American manufacturer, but stuffs made from Chinese slave-camps in prison. Nike would rather operate underpriced sweat shops for child labor in Vietnam, until someone blew the whistle and people filed human rights lawsuit and also stopped buying their products.

As long as fans go to the games, the clubs won't complain about a substantial ratio for Dominicans to make a Big league roster along American citizens, for maybe half the latter's price.

You have my respect tonight, Dorasaga, for speaking the truth on this issue and NOT glazing it over with innuendo and nationalist platitudes.

Last night, I had enough. I'm not against patriotic minds or any particular individual(s). But if we aren't drinking Cubbie Kool-aid at a bar, maybe this is where we think twice before we repeatedly accuse someone whose situation we don't understand. Maybe we can start a little reading on Latino baseball. It won't hurt, yeah?

@Dorasaga:disqus I just caught a glaring typo, had left out the NOT...I meant to thank you for pointing out the innuendo and not glazing over it.  Sorry. Thanks again, you are correct.

No problem. I knew you replied me with good intent.

Americans don't complain, unless they are duped, and your Buscones are mere Pimps, useless foreign fatguys trolling the barrios like an AAU basketball sludge

Is that accurate?

No.

I'll add one more detail: Those videos on mlb.com when a scout shakes hand with a teen player and handed him a check? That's PR. The scout had already gone through all the dirty works with the teenager's buscone and agent.

Isn't part of it that many of the best US athletes pursue football or basketball instead of baseball?

for the inferred reasons, yes, and too bad

70's-80's baseball seemed more right, but, if the checkwriters prefer it this way, we could only beeeeach about it to no avail

they win

Agreed on all counts

It's no wonder these guys seem to "age" so quickly, they're already aged out of the gate.

And that is why you stay the hell away from Cespedes....at least in my opinion. For all we know, he might really be 35 yrs old and his real name might be Fidel Jr.

Aaron, I must say that's enough, demonizing ALL players on cheating their age. The Dominican players who were signed out of the island (NOT PUJOLS, who grew up in the States) had a "middle man" called buscones. The buscones created fake documents and taught teen players how to cheat.

That's not the case in Cuba. They have a complete record of player registry from birth to death. Necessarily so, because they are a Communist state that needs to monitor all details, while refusing to open up their market. It'll be another story for the Olympics, when their are rules not allowing YOUNGER players of certain age in swimming, or not OLDER in soccer, for example. But in international baseball, it's not that younger is better. And a closed market does not have the incentive to lie, while it creates a whole havoc of registering data under the Big Brother.

In any event, I thought you, as an educated fan, can do better than calling on someone.