Aaron: November 2008 Archives

We all love to talk trade scenarios, free agent signings, and minor league prospects on this site. I must admit, I have come up with some pretty crazy scenarios. Many on here might remember my suggestions to trade Soriano for Beltran, Lee for top prospects, etc...Which begs the question: What is realistic, and what is not?

To start with realistic, allow me to examine a few recent trades of big stars, and the players that were traded for them (this will give you a good gauge of what's possible):

Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin: trade from A's to Cubs
-Josh Donaldson (top catching prospect and high draft pick), Eric Patterson (top infield prospect), Sean Gallagher (top pitching prospect), Matt Murton (former top prospect)
*comments: we had to give up our top catching, pitching, and infield prospects for an oft-injured "could be ace" pitcher, and swing guy. I'm not saying it's a bad trade, but merely stating what it is we actually had to give up for him, which b ...

All of you know my stance on Hendry, so I will be completely objective here, and start out with the Genius.

GENIUS: top 5
1) Mark Grudzielanek and Erik Karros-traded Hundley and Hermansen to Dodgers
2)ARAM and Kenny Lofton (Hendry's second genius move)-traded Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback, and Bobby Hill
3)Derrek Lee-traded Choi and a PTBNL to Marlins
4)Nomar and Murton-traded away in all Justin Jones, Alex Gonzalez, Brendan Harris, and Francis Beltran
5) a. Harden and Gaudin-traded spare parts in Gallagher, Murton, Patterson, and Donaldson
b. Chris Robinson (who?...you'll see)-I include this one as part b, because Robinson hasn't exactly panned out yet, but getting anyone breathing for Neifi---and the fact that Robinson was regarded as having significant promise at the time, was a complete heist for the Cubs

FORREST GUMP: top 5
1) Sosa-while we netted Fontenot, this was a horrible trade, because he knew of Sosa's me-first at ...

According to Ken Rosenthal: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8812098/Cubs-close-to-re-signing-righty-Dempster

The Cubs are close to re-signing Ryan Dempster. He goes on to say that this will NOT necessarily prohibit the Cubs from trading for Peavy or signing Randy Johnson, or another bat.

He also mentions the fact that the ownership issue will be resolved before Christmas, which falls into line with my prediction that the Cuban thing was a conspiracy set up by Selig to eliminate him from contention.

I'm not quite sure that I like the signing of Dempster. Our entire team will need an overhaul if we keep signing 30+ year old guys. I like Peavy, because he's still young, same with a Dunn signing, etc. But everyone else we've been linked to: Johnson, Furcal, Ibanez, Bradley, etc.----are all over 30

But...
I must comment on the Johnson thing. I believe he would definitely take us over the top. He is a proven winner, and has performed very well when ...

Minor League Free Agents
Baseball America ran a list of the players that were declared minor league free agents last week. Here was the list of Cubs:

RHP: Mike Burns (AAA), Hector Carrasco (AAA), Adam Harben (AAA), Billy Petrick (AAA)
LHP: Carmen Pignatiello (AAA), Jason Stanford (AAA)
1B: Matt Craig (AAA)
2B: Robinson Chirinos (Hi A), Bobby Scales (AAA)
SS: Andres Blanco (AAA), Luis Figueroa (AAA)
OF: Doug Deeds (AA), Jason Dubois (AAA), Josh Kroeger (AAA), Andres Torres (AAA)

*of these prospects, I'd like to see the Cubs re-sign Petrick, Craig, Deeds, Dubois, and Torres.
***in my opinion, Kroeger should be added to the 40-man ASAP

Baseball America Releases Top 11 Prospects List
1. Josh Vitters, 3B ****WHAT?!?! Dude hasn't even made it through half a season in
low-A ball
2. Jeff Samardzija, RHP ****shouldn't be listed, he's already with us
3. Jose Ceda, RHP ****high walks, but excell ...

Please see the following information from the Tribune website:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-07-cubs-gm-meetings-chicagonov07,0,7843897.story

Call if the Fukudome Funk.

Whatever caused Kosuke Fukudome to go from phenom to failure, all in his first major-league season, has put the Cubs in an obvious quandary.

With manager Lou Piniella insisting on more pop from the left side of the plate and with Fukudome still unproven, the Cubs made no secret about their desire for another right fielder at the just-concluded general managers meetings.

The Kosuke Crash has cooled the Cubs confidence that he will be an every-day player. Right now, he is probably a platoon center fielder, meaning the Cubs have to spend more money to protect themselves. That will make GM Jim Hendry's job even more difficult.

While Hendry tries to put a positive spin on things, it's obvious the Cubs don't know whether Fukudome is the All-Star player ...