Of course its my opinion. ..
Why the negative connotations with these players ?
Besides Russell til they traded for him, these are the guys they've been counting on to get the major league team going again as a core with Castro and Rizzo and I just dont see them trading these guys off before they even had a real chance of playing together..
What team is going to give up a young allstar caliber player for.... using your words, a maybe prospect ?
I mean think about it.. if these 20-21 YO kids are good enough for a team to give up on a young AS caliber player.. then wouldn't you wanna hold onto them yourself ?
Dont get me wrong, im not saying prospects shouldn't or wont get traded... just saying these guys in particular, im 99.999% positive that the cubs wont trade them this off season
Just mean the cliche that opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one.
As for the trade part, fans have been counting on them getting to the majors. I'll be clear about this as well. If you go back and look at what I've said I've always said that you develop players as currency to trade for proven major league players back when the "fun" group was still talking about this being the worst team since the 2003 detroit tigers. For whatever reason, it seems like there's always been two groups of people here. Those that are all on the prospect train and those who've suggested FA was the route. I've always suggested that FA is for complementary players and that prospects are best used as trade currency. Sure you'll keep some of the players they have but the simple fact is anyone with reason knows all of these players aren't going to work out. That's not news. And surely the cubs with all their access have a pretty good idea which they believe will. They are never going to come out and say yeah we're going to trade Baez or any other prospect because it would kill their leverage.
In reference to the question about young all stars do I really have to go through a list? Off the top of my head...
January 24, 2013 - 25 year old Justin Upton with Chris Johnson to the Atlanta Braves for Brandon Drury (minors), Nick Ahmed, Randall Delgado, Martin Prado and Zeke Spruill.
December 17, 2011: 24 year old Mat Latos for Yonder Alonso, Brad Boxberger, Yasmani Grandal and Edinson Volquez.
December 23, 2011: 26 year old Gio Gonzalez with Robert Gilliam (minors) to the Washington Nationals for A.J. Cole (minors), Tommy Milone, Derek Norris and Brad Peacock.
December 14, 2007: 26 year old Dan Haren with Connor Robertson to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Brett Anderson, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith.
December 9, 2011: 24 year old Trevor Cahill with Craig Breslow and cash to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Ryan Cook, Collin Cowgill and Jarrod Parker.
November 10, 2008: 28 year old Matt Holliday for Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith and Huston Street.
December 4, 2007: 25 year old Miggy Cabrera with 26 year old Dontrelle Willis to the Detroit Tigers for Dallas Trahern (minors), Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller and Mike Rabelo.
December 6, 2010: 29 year old Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later, Reymond Fuentes, Casey Kelly and Anthony Rizzo. The Boston Red Sox sent Eric Patterson (December 16, 2010) to the San Diego Padres to complete the trade.
July 25, 2012: 28 year old Hanley Ramirez with Randy Choate to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Scott McGough (minors) and Nathan Eovaldi.
December 8, 2009: 29 year old Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees. The Detroit Tigers sent Edwin Jackson to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The New York Yankees sent Phil Coke and Austin Jackson to the Detroit Tigers. The New York Yankees sent Ian Kennedy to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Arizona Diamondbacks sent Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth to the Detroit Tigers.
July 31, 2007: 28 year old Mark Teixeira with Ron Mahay to the Atlanta Braves for Beau Jones (minors), Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
And that's just off the top of my head in the past 10 years. There's numerous reasons "why" it happens. Generally happens to be a team that can't pay their players and want to deal them before they hit FA. As this pertains to 2015, that's exactly the reason that speculation is one of Justin Upton and Jason Heyward will be traded. Either way, the "why" it happens isn't important. The fact that it often does and the cubs are in position to take advantage is what matters. Maybe 2015 will a lot like last year's hot stove where the "big" trades were lessor names like Trumbo. It's far to early to say what teams certainly will do. However, you're generally talking about one of these types of trade per year for a soon to be 29 or younger player.
Also, why the negative connotation on the players? It has nothing to do with them individually. It's the fact that prospects fail.... often. Javier Baez could be the second coming of Miggy Cabrera for all anyone knows. That's not the point. The point is 70% of the top 100 prospects end up being below average major league players. And even if you want to include just top 10 prospects it's something like a coin flip. Call me crazy but I'd prefer to take known quantities over gambling on prospects. Part of the problem teams like KC and Pitt have long had is that they are the ones on the opposite side of trading their young players they can't afford and instead have tried to develop within. So you see stars like ARAM and Carlos Beltran leaving those teams and they are back to hoping for prospects to pan out. Unless you're exceedingly good at development which few teams have been historically it's a slanted game.
