I'm fine with Shark. I wouldn't break the bank for him, but I'd have no issues if he were brought back. He's had his most success while teamed with Bosio, so if he thinks it would work out, bring him in.

And yes, last night I would've taken just about anybody over 2nd half Hammel to start that game.

On one hand you could add David Price for a shit ton of money and he can lose in the playoffs and get old....or.

You could have either of these rotations and a CF addition.

Sign Mike Leake
Sign Jason Heyward
Make one of these 2 trades.
1. Trade Baez and Carl Edwards Jr. to the Padres for Tyson Ross
2. Trade Baez and Soler to Tampa For Chris Archer

Now your rotation is

1.Arrieta
2.Lester (Archer)
3.Ross (Lester
4.Leake
5.Hendricks or dipshit Hammel

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

Lackey is magically somehow more bearable if he's on your team. A good contingent of fans embraced his saltiness and made it a bit of a meme. Then again you are talking about a fanbase that embraced Carpenter as some sort of redneck demigod.

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

At any terms???
Both would take shorter/cheaper deals. Depends on the #.


PLEASE NO THANK YOU on Greinke.
Do. Not. Touch.

_________________

Cahill is the opening day starter and a 20-game winner.

_________________

Shark is really really bad. Why do we need another Hammel?

He's a hell of a lot better than Hammel & has a better arm & better stuff. I don't want the Cubs to overpay for Shark though. I'll take him as the #4 starter.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I'm sure it won't be exactly this, but these are the types of moves I believe they will make. I also think Cahill is a rotation possibility.

It makes so much more sense than breaking the bank on a 30 year old guy. That is going to guarantee a huge payroll in 2020 and you will likely have two $25 million+ guys in steep decline. Remember Theo's mantra about paying for future performance rather than past performance. Do any of you believe that Greinke and Price's best years are still to come?

_________________
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

Not at all. While their deals won't be long or for $25M they will still be expensive. I think both will suck next year.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

With all this said about the modest moves and Cahill and not breaking the bank, for some reason I keep thinking Price ends up here.

He certainly could, but doesn't that scare you? I mean, don't you think the future looks a lot bleaker when you're paying $50 million to two 35 year old guys in 2020? Do you think that gets you closer to a championship than you were this season?

_________________
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

I agree

_________________

Im not really worried about 2020. I think getting the AL Cy Young winner will make them better next year for sure.

As has been discussed, making the playoffs is promised to no team regardless of how much the arrow is pointing up. I think Price would make them more likely to make playoffs in 16

With that said, Id be fine if they stayed with the modest approach and/or targeted a pitcher via trade

That's really not "The Plan" though, is it? I mean, it's really more the jimmypasta plan. If they give price $170 million for six years and they win the World Series next season, I'm sure no one is complaining. But that puts an end to "waves and waves of talent" and competing each season. You're definitely creating a window to win that doesn't currently exist, because you're going to be chewing $50 million in payroll on two old ass pitchers, one of whom many fans are already complaining about.

_________________
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

I believe part of the "plan" was spending the big FA $$ on pitching not positions, yes.

Didn't Theo openly state yesterday that the Cubs would be aggressively pursuing big $ pitching this offseason (which seemed odd to me)?

_________________

I dont think that is necessarily true. He did this with the Red Sox and they stayed contenders thru his whole time there.

Getting FA pitching was always part of it.

I don't believe that's true. I think one of the tenets of "The Plan" was that your safest shot in the draft is a college bat. Obviously that approach was going to leave the pitching short, thus, the possibility that free agent pitchers would be necessary. I don't think signing pitchers for $150 million was an actual part of "The Plan", but rather a potential necessary evil. As I understand it, if I had to sum up "The Plan" in a single sentence it would be, "Pay for future performance rather than overpaying for past performance."

_________________
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

Is the plan written in stone? Who cares either way?

Results are all that matter

I'm glad you and jimmypasta now see eye to eye on the approach the Cubs should take.

_________________
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

Guess a lot of this comes down to what Theo means by impact pitching? Does that mean a guy like Price or does that mean solid middle of the rotation guys to come after Arrieta and Lester.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Imagine how dead these threads would be if it was.......

_________________

I think it just means he's going to try to improve the pitching. That may not be so easy to do, at least over the regular season. As has been discussed here a lot, the Cub had one of the better rotations in baseball just on the numbers. I guess the idea is to find a guy(s) that can shut it down in the bright light situations of the postseason. But Lester was supposed to be one of those guys.

_________________
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

Well, I find it a little disingenuous to spend three or four years going on and on about how the Cubs were doing it "the right way" only to spin on a dime and say it doesn't really matter how you do it.

In fairness to RPB, he has always said there is no single "right" way to build a baseball team. But it doesn't take a genius to identify the best free agents on the market and throw a shitload of money at them. Jim Hendry did that and had some good bites at the apple.

_________________
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

Don't know if he wants to play another year but I think signing Mark Buehrle on a one year deal makes some sense.

He'll be in the NL which probably plays better to his soft tossing. He's going to give you 200 IP at about 15% better than league average. In a perfect world he helps Lester learn how to hold guys on/throw over to first.

I'd rather see Buehrle as the #5 next year than Hammel, probably Hendricks also.

Chris Archer. Josh Donaldson.

There are times to spend money and times to not spend money. When a team is coming off a 97 win season where they seemed to lack one pitcher is different than coming off a 67 win season with very little MLB ready talent in house. But you know that.


Jimmy and I have agreed before and disagreed many times. Im sure that will continue.

I heard him say a starting pitcher is a winter priority. I never heard him say yesterday it would be big $170-200M level. He did not say it wouldn't be but as I posted earlier on in the thread I think media and fans spending of Rickett's new flows of revenue is not guaranteed.

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Jim Hendry did it with the entire roster. This regime is doing it with pitching and fililng holes here and there.

Also, they've been pursuing FA pitching the whole time. Going back to Tanaka, Darvish, and Sanchez

Get 1 new Pitcher.

let Hammel have his solid first half....and then make your trade for a top line guy....yes, you will need to give away Ian Happ....or something, but thats why you got the,....Torres...etc,

Got get SHARK and HEYWARD.....

I want the guy who can have the dominant game in the playoffs and SHARK, can....not saying he will, but he can be that guy. Plus, semi affordable. This team will have enough power to get there....now need to have that plan hat you do when you get there....

_________________
"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.’”