~60 million to spend?

[JimJohnson]

Why are people being so stingy with money? The Dodgers, Yanks, Red Sox are all spending north of $200 million. The Cubs make a shit load of money, will be getting a new TV deal, and are building a renovated ballpark that will be generating substantially more money. TR has a shit ton of cash laying around and is spending a ton on Theo and Maddon. So it makes no logical sense to be penny pinching when it comes to the roster.

Jake Peavy? HAHAHA he'll be fucking 34 during the early stage of next season and some of you are complaining that Scherzer, Lester are too much risk for long-term contracts?

Assuming that Lester or Scherzer don't hold up in Year 4 of their deals, so what? The Cubs are a big market team that can sustain a loss like that. It's not the end of the world.

Come on guys!!

 

[Raskolnikov]

Why are people being so stingy with money? The Dodgers, Yanks, Red Sox are all spending north of $200 million. The Cubs make a shit load of money, will be getting a new TV deal, and are building a renovated ballpark that will be generating substantially more money. TR has a shit ton of cash laying around and is spending a ton on Theo and Maddon. So it makes no logical sense to be penny pinching when it comes to the roster.

Jake Peavy? HAHAHA he'll be fucking 34 during the early stage of next season and some of you are complaining that Scherzer, Lester are too much risk for long-term contracts?

Assuming that Lester or Scherzer don't hold up in Year 4 of their deals, so what? The Cubs are a big market team that can sustain a loss like that. It's not the end of the world.

Come on guys!!

I don't trust Scherzer long term. He might have to relearn to pitch when he can't throw 100 and he is a little wild when he has to pitch. Lester is a professional, and the game comes easy to him. I think he still has some clutch moments in him, and would love the signing. It would be cool if the White Sox went after Scherzer. I think he fits them better and is poaching off a rival. Then again, maybe he jumps to NL and its Lester who prefers AL?

It might not come down to just money and it'll have to play itself up, surely the Cubs will be making sound decisions.

 

[JimJohnson]

I don't trust Scherzer long term. He might have to relearn to pitch when he can't throw 100 and he is a little wild when he has to pitch. Lester is a professional, and the game comes easy to him. I think he still has some clutch moments in him, and would love the signing. It would be cool if the White Sox went after Scherzer. I think he fits them better and is poaching off a rival. Then again, maybe he jumps to NL and its Lester who prefers AL?

It might not come down to just money and it'll have to play itself up, surely the Cubs will be making sound decisions.

If we only come away with Lester OR Scherzer, I'd be okay with that. If we sign Shields or Peavy to expensive long-term contracts that only end up being about $10M cheaper than Scherzer, I would think that's a tremendous waste of cash.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Why would getting Lester and Scherzer to pair with Arriata be stupid? That gives you a 1-2-3 that could beat anyone if you get into the playoffs.

You should read the entire sentence. It isn't stupid to pair Lester and Scherzer. What's stupid is paying both of them and that isn't going to happen. They will be looking to add the second TOR at the trade deadline or in the off-season...a guy like Price.

 

[JimJohnson]

You should read the entire sentence. It isn't stupid to pair Lester and Scherzer. What's stupid is paying both of them and that isn't going to happen. They will be looking to add the second TOR at the trade deadline or in the off-season...a guy like Price.

Price would be great. What I don't want to see is the Cubs spend $18M on a guy like Peavy or Shields instead of paying Scherzer $25 or $26M. That would be an incredible waste of cash.

That being said, the Cubs need to come away with AT LEAST Lester or Scherzer. Anything less would be a massive letdown.

 

[CSF77]

If they cut Wood, Valbuena, Ruggiano, Baker payroll would be at 32,309,535. That covers 11 positions.

If they get Peavy and Lester which I would put at 30 mil combined. Add in the 32,309,535. That covers 14 of the 25.

Depth chart:
C: Castillo; open
1B: Rizzo
2B: Baez
SS: Castro
3B: Olt (Bryant week 3)
UI: Watkins, Olt after week 3, Open

RF: Soler
CF: Alcantara
LF: Open
OF: Coghlan, Sweeney

Rotation:
Arrieta
Hendricks
open
open
Turner

Pen

Rondon
Strop
Ramirez
Wright
Vizcaino
Rosscup or Jokisch or Doubront
Grimm


So I see a back up catcher, 2 SP a UI and a LF being needed. They opened up 3 spots on the 40 man. I see them retaining Valbuena here to be honest. There is a clear need for him on the team. so add back 3,100,000. 5.5 mil for league min players.

So 70,909,535 suggesting Lester gets 25 mil and Peavy signs for 5 mil. No back up catcher or LF. 10 mil would be a safe ball park figure for LF. 81 mil spent. Say A.J. signs at catcher 8 mil added. 90 mil total.

This would give 20 mil to play with. They could give Peavy 10 mil more and still have payroll at 100 mil.

Honestly the Cubs have plenty of payroll space to work with.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Price would be great. What I don't want to see is the Cubs spend $18M on a guy like Peavy or Shields instead of paying Scherzer $25 or $26M. That would be an incredible waste of cash.

That being said, the Cubs need to come away with AT LEAST Lester or Scherzer. Anything less would be a massive letdown.

That's right, JJ. They need 1 TOR this off-season for certain.

 

[chibears55]

You should read the entire sentence. It isn't stupid to pair Lester and Scherzer. What's stupid is paying both of them and that isn't going to happen. They will be looking to add the second TOR at the trade deadline or in the off-season...a guy like Price.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing them try to lure price away from the Tigers this off season to hopefully go with signing Lester..

just throwing this out there for thoughts but a part of me thinks that they may use Alcantara in a deal for pitching or LFer and use Coghlan in CF.

 

[CSF77]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing them try to lure price away from the Tigers this off season to hopefully go with signing Lester..

just throwing this out there for thoughts but a part of me thinks that they may use Alcantara in a deal for pitching or LFer and use Coghlan in CF.

I don't think they will subtract any youth. My top LF target is Milkey Cabrera and I'm guessing he will command 5 year 50 mil deal. He wouldn't block any major prospect in the system in LF. Alcantara I'm guessing ends up a super sub after Almora promotes.

The only guy I would guess they look at moving would be Castro next off season after Russell is ready.

 

[DewsSox79]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing them try to lure price away from the Tigers this off season to hopefully go with signing Lester..

just throwing this out there for thoughts but a part of me thinks that they may use Alcantara in a deal for pitching or LFer and use Coghlan in CF.

you will need more than alcantara to land price. lol


Sent from My 1998 Palm Pilot Using Tapatalk

 

[JimJohnson]

you will need more than alcantara to land price. lol


Sent from My 1998 Palm Pilot Using Tapatalk

They'll lose him after the year so they'll take a bag of balls if that's what we want to give up.

 

[DewsSox79]

They'll lose him after the year so they'll take a bag of balls if that's what we want to give up.

lol


Sent from My 1998 Palm Pilot Using Tapatalk

 

[chibears55]

you will need more than alcantara to land price. lol


Sent from My 1998 Palm Pilot Using Tapatalk

No shit,,lol

I didn't say mendy for price specifically

I said move mendy for a pitcher or LFer and obviously he wouldnt be by himself. ..

 

[SilenceS]

Lester will be 31 and scherzer 30 at the start of 2015, their basically in their prime years still but yes i agree its a risk down the road paying them 25+ mil at age 36,37..

im not saying they should or need to get both, just saying they have the available money to do so if they choose to..

Ill be more then happy with one ( most likely Lester ) and a 2nd tier starter..

Truly, thats what you should expect or hope for. Not being a dick but landing just 1 is a huge step forward. 30 and 31 with the innings they have is scary. Lester to me is less scary because he doesnt rely on the hard stuff.

 

[brett05]

I agree with ya SilenceS

 

[Zvbxrpl]

you will need more than alcantara to land price. lol


Sent from My 1998 Palm Pilot Using Tapatalk

Agreed.

Detroit planned to keep 2 of the 3 between Verlander, Scherzer, and Price. I Think they aim to keep Price and let Scherzer walk, something I think we can all agree on if we were in the same position.

Get the draft pick for Scherzer. Give him a qualifying offer--which they did 2 days ago.

 

[beckdawg]

People are being fairly short sighted when they talk about acquiring pitchers in my opinion. If the cubs sign Lester fine. But I don't think you make a habit of signing 30 year olds when your prime group of players is 25 and below. Lester would be a stop gap to keep them competitive(to an extent) now and help replace what they lost in Shark. However, if you're talking about actually improving the team for when it matters you shouldn't be thinking Hamels, Peavy, Price, Lester, Shields...etc. You should be thinking about ways to acquire someone like Strasburg or Latos or someone in that age range. If you stick with the FA plan for pitching the next two years, by the time those position players arguably hit their prime you're going to be facing your starting rotation likely on their decline.

That's why I have no qualms with dealing someone like Baez if it nets you Strasburg for example(would take more but he'd obviously be the big get). If FA can get you over the hump then so be it but you very very rarely find long term answers there and we're just tipping what hopefully will be a long term run of talent. Sure trading a player like Baez costs you something but you're also not having to deal with years 4-7 on some contracts of FA where the player underperforms his pay. That has value. You'd also arguably be getting better years out of a 27-30 year old than a 30-33 or whatever year old.

That's my take on the situation. I'm not saying they have to trade Baez in particular. However, you've built so much talent in the minors and you're simply not going to be able to use all of it. Take Bryant as an example. If he does eventually end up in the OF then what? You have Bryant, Soler, Alcantara, Almora, and likely Schwarber just as prospects to fit for 3 position not to mention guys behind them like McKinney and Eloy as well as guys still to be drafted/signed. Hell, would it even be that bad if you ended up with someone like Villanueva at 3B? Let's say for the sake of argument he ends up something like a .248/.310/.385(what he hit in AA) hitter with good defense at 3B and say 15 HRs. Is that an All-Star? Probably not. Is it significantly worse than the .279/.324/.415 with 16 HRs that Pablo Sandoval hit when winning a title this year? No. Point here being you don't have to have an all star at every position in order to win a championship.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

People are being fairly short sighted when they talk about acquiring pitchers in my opinion. If the cubs sign Lester fine. But I don't think you make a habit of signing 30 year olds when your prime group of players is 25 and below. Lester would be a stop gap to keep them competitive(to an extent) now and help replace what they lost in Shark. However, if you're talking about actually improving the team for when it matters you shouldn't be thinking Hamels, Peavy, Price, Lester, Shields...etc. You should be thinking about ways to acquire someone like Strasburg or Latos or someone in that age range. If you stick with the FA plan for pitching the next two years, by the time those position players arguably hit their prime you're going to be facing your starting rotation likely on their decline.

That's why I have no qualms with dealing someone like Baez if it nets you Strasburg for example(would take more but he'd obviously be the big get). If FA can get you over the hump then so be it but you very very rarely find long term answers there and we're just tipping what hopefully will be a long term run of talent. Sure trading a player like Baez costs you something but you're also not having to deal with years 4-7 on some contracts of FA where the player underperforms his pay. That has value. You'd also arguably be getting better years out of a 27-30 year old than a 30-33 or whatever year old.

That's my take on the situation. I'm not saying they have to trade Baez in particular. However, you've built so much talent in the minors and you're simply not going to be able to use all of it. Take Bryant as an example. If he does eventually end up in the OF then what? You have Bryant, Soler, Alcantara, Almora, and likely Schwarber just as prospects to fit for 3 position not to mention guys behind them like McKinney and Eloy as well as guys still to be drafted/signed. Hell, would it even be that bad if you ended up with someone like Villanueva at 3B? Let's say for the sake of argument he ends up something like a .248/.310/.385(what he hit in AA) hitter with good defense at 3B and say 15 HRs. Is that an All-Star? Probably not. Is it significantly worse than the .279/.324/.415 with 16 HRs that Pablo Sandoval hit when winning a title this year? No. Point here being you don't have to have an all star at every position in order to win a championship.

I agree with this 100%. I think the reason they're looking at Lester or another TOR pitcher this offseason is because they're a year or two ahead of where they thought they'd be and the evaluation of the young players is done yet. This time next year we'll be talking about them acquiring a 26-27 year old TOR pitcher via trade.

 

[TL1961]

you will need more than alcantara to land price. lol


Sent from My 1998 Palm Pilot Using Tapatalk

They are not going to trade for Price. he is a FA next year. Trading now for a FA to be is exactly the opposite of what they need to do.

Signing FA now, with no loss of the inexpensive youth is what they will do.

 

[CSF77]

I agree with this 100%. I think the reason they're looking at Lester or another TOR pitcher this offseason is because they're a year or two ahead of where they thought they'd be and the evaluation of the young players is done yet. This time next year we'll be talking about them acquiring a 26-27 year old TOR pitcher via trade.

Stras would never happen.

2016 market:
Clay Buchholz (31) – $13MM club option with a $245K buyout
Trevor Cahill (28) – $13MM club option with a $300K buyout
Doug Fister (32)
Yovani Gallardo (30)
Jaime Garcia (29) – $11.5MM club option with a $500K buyout
Hisashi Iwakuma (35)
Scott Kazmir (32)
Ian Kennedy (31)
John Lackey (37)
Mat Latos (28)
Mike Leake (28)
Tim Lincecum (32)
Corey Luebke (31) – $7.5MM club option with a $1.75MM buyout
Kris Medlen (30)
Bud Norris (31)
Ross Ohlendorf (33)
Mike Pelfrey (32)
Rick Porcello (27)
David Price (30)
Ricky Romero (31) – $13.1MM club option with a $600K buyout
Jeff Samardzija (31)
Alfredo Simon (35)
Jerome Williams (34)
Jordan Zimmermann (30)

Next years market looks deeper by far.