By John Arguello, Thursday at 12:10 am

Chase Headley

In case you missed it, Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod are now officially part of the Cubs front office.

The way things have gone so smoothly between the Cubs and the Padres, you have to wonder if this won't be the last time these two teams get together. You often see GMs go back and make deals with their former team, not in small part because they tend to be familiar with the players, system and front office. Of course, that could apply to Boston as well but, although Theo Epstein and Ben Cherington seem to be getting along just fine, you have to wonder if a deal could get vetoed by Larry Lucchino or John Henry, both of whom seem determined not to let Epstein get the best of them.

The Padres, though are a different story, Hoyer and McLeod know that organization well and, along with Epstein, they still have a strong relationship with Josh Byrnes. Even the teams owners Tom Ricketts and Jeff Moorad are on friendly terms. The environment seems ripe for a deal, so what player(s) might the Cubs be interested in acquiring?

One interesting possibility is Chase Headley, who is said to be available and MLB TradeRumors listed the Cubs as a possible suitor. Headley is headed for another arbitration year and could start to get expensive for the Padres. Moreover, they have an excellent prospect, Jed Gyorko, possibly a half year away from taking over at 3B. Gyorko was named the 2nd best prospect in the California League. He has continued to hit well since being promoted to AA (where BA rated him the 9th best prospect in the Texas League) and then again his fall in the AZ Fall League.

Headley fits a lot of what Epstein was talking about. He gets on base (.374 OBP) and plays good defense at 3B. He has a career 7.8 UZR/150 rating at the hot corner, which is well above average. He's also an excellent baserunner. The one thing he lacks is power, having hit just 4 HRs last season and slugging a mediocre .399, though he did hit double digit HRs the previous two seasons. Overall, however, he was a good offensive player. His RC+ (runs created) was a well above average 125. It was actually higher than Starlin Castro's RC+ which was 109, and not too far behind the man he'd be replacing, Aramis Ramirez, who had an RC+ of 133.

When you factor in the superior defense, lower cost ($2.325M last season), and age (27), the switch-hitting Headley is a more than adequate replacement as well as a potential piece for the future. He also has more than a couple years left of team control before he hits free agency. Headley has about 3 1/2 years of ML service so far.

One of the first decisions the new Cubs brass will have to make is on current 3B Aramis Ramirez, specifically whether or not to pick up his option. Ramirez has indicated that he'd like a multi-year deal and is likely to reject the option if the Cubs do decide to pick it up. If that happens, the Cubs can safely offer him arbitration, which he presumably would turn down, and then pick up a supplemental round draft pick for their troubles.

Although the Cubs would have to give up value for Headley; the money, youth, better defense, and the ability to recoup some of the loss with a draft pick make this a deal worth exploring. If the Cubs let Ramirez hit the market, don't be surprised if the Cubs and Padres once again get together and try to hash out a deal.

I've seen him play before when he was in AA San Antonio. He has more power than his numbers in San Diego indicate. Not a ton more but he should hit 12-15 hrs, not 4.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

This tells Josh Vitters, YOU SUCK KID, if it is done.

Or just the rumor of it, tells Aramis to shut up and take your 1 year deal as agreed upon. Better rumors are that numerous teams inquired about Vitters as he hot over .300 for the second half of the season, with some power.

Maybe it was just a fluke, as he needs to have a full good season at AA or AAA to be looked upon as a MLB player, but he was a #3 pick overall, so if he does well he is not coming out of nowhere.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Any deal that Theo makes will make Lil Danny Cum Stain cream his pants.

Headly is "meh" and has been "meh" for ever. But he will fit that "timely targeted numerically mathematically approved" signing....or what the fuck ever BERN STINE will use to comfort himself at night with.

WHAT?!

Vitters is doing well in the AFL too so he keeps gradually making progress. He's still just 22. Needless to say, 2012 is crucial for this guy to prove he can play. He is not a Theo type player though, so that will be interesting moving forward.

Aramas needs to fuck off and enjoy playing for the Angels already. I'm tired of him sending messages through his agent every week going back and forth on wanting to leave, wanting to come back, wanting more money, wanting this, wanting that. Just leave already.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I wonder if they offer the 16M option? If they don't, they lose the compensatory draft pick. I can't see Aram taking a 1 year deal so it would seem a no brainer you offer him the deal and take the pick.

Seems like a decent player. I wouldn't give SD much in return though.

What's a "Theo Type Player"?

Sees alot of pitches, high OBP type.

Vitters hasn't played a game at 3B in the AFL. DJ Lemahieu is getting most of the starts there along with the Sox Tyler Saladino. Vitters has mostly been the DH with occasional starts at 1B and one start in RF (where he made an error).

Vitters has repeated AA and now is repeating the AFL. I'm pretty much ignoring his numbers (especially in the AFL) until he's presented with a new challenge which I'm assuming will be AAA next season because he has nowhere else to go.

As far as the Chase Headly rumor I think he would be a very good addition for the Cubs. He's a switch hitter who has more power than he's shown in San Diego and is pretty good defensively. He's still only 27 years old and is under team control for 3 more seasons. He's the type of guy the Cubs should be targeting now and for the future.

Given the dearth of third basemen in all of baseball, I agree Headly may be a good fit. I just wouldn't give up to much for the guy. As to Vitters, him being a player at 3B seems like a long shot for sure although I have read where they are targeting a return to 3B defensively for him in 2012.

That's everyone's type of player. Except Ozzie Guillen's.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

True. Like it's some deep dark Theo World Series secret....

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, you want a guy that gets on base and doesn't swing at the first pitch????" and then Theo goes into the back room and gets the "real" lowdown that all 10 trillion execs ,who all copy some sort of sabr shit, missed.

Oh brother!

Don't disagree with most of this BUT repeating the AFL is a good sign not a bad one - too many examples to list.

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Kenny Williams fell for the banana in the tailpipe

The only recent repeater of the AFL I can remember is Brandon Wood.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Bryce Harper and Chris Carpenter this year. Lots of guys have done it in the past.
It means they still think you're a prospect but want to see you against top talent.

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Kenny Williams fell for the banana in the tailpipe

like the $140 million man carl crawford.

Im pretty sure this event would not be the first time he is told that. The scouting report I had read on him at one time was awful.

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Cubs exercise Ramirez's $16M option for '12. Ramirez informs club he'll decline. Cubs secure sup.draft pick comp.

Exactly as expected.

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ramirez is stupid to turn down the option

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Out w/ the old, in w/ the new. Dumpster mustn't've got the message. Maybe he needed it translated into Canadian. Up next, Big Z and Phonsie. Eeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh!

He'll get a 4/$60M or 3/$45M contract from someone.

I think Dempster realized that he will get paid $14M to pitch this year. He would get $10M if he opted out and signed a new contract.

He made it quite clear about a month ago that he had no interest in picking up the option. I would like to think that he did that for the Cubs sake. Even if he no longer ends up playing here, he still gave the Cubs a draft pick.

Aram was officially designated as a type B free agent. I'm not sure exactly how the hell the figure this stuff out but from what I was reading he was lumped into the 2b,ss and 3b class as opposed to just being ranked among 3b. I would still like to know how in the hell Placido fucking Polanco is a Type A free agent with a garbage stat line compared to Aram.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Agreed, UMN. how is Ramirez not a type A free agent?

Cubs declined Shark's option. Expected to resign him for less money

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Team Cutler.

Here is some of the stuff I was reading. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/10/o ... kings.html

It has some links to some other pages and 1 of them had all of the rankings. I originally thought that only the free agents were ranked but everyone is ranked A or B or nothing regardless of contract status and then those rankings are assigned to the free agents. Some notable type A's that are not free agents. Keppinger was given a type A ranking, not a free agent though. Castro is barely a type B.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

I guess he wasn't in the top 20% of free agents over the past two seasons according to Elias.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don