Nas, I was thinking the same thing today as far as what they have to give up. I didnt have a problem with cedeno, marshall, pie and vitters (who has a bum wrist from what I read), but now derosa? Thats makes me nervous, not that derosa is this all time great player, but he is valuable player for the cubs.

I will send u the link about his arm issue, its nothing really and SD has these million dollar docs they use, so that doesnt really worry for me. But if this peavy does happen, dont be surprised if they look to move Harden or possibly even Z.

Harden is a bullpen guy if they get Peavy. But like you Nas, I'd rather have Roberts. He's been the missing piece for two years now.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

[quote="City of Fools"]Harden is a bullpen guy if they get Peavy.[quote]
That's crazy.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Kerry Wood, its not a bad idea to put harden in the bullpen.

they dont need peavy or brian roberts as bad as they need a left-handed power hitter or quality middle relief, especially if they deal marshall. the quest for peavy is puzzling to me since the cubs signed dempster. if they land him, im all for it, depending on what they give up - i read today mark derosa's name being thrown around on mlbtraderumors.com. if they trade him and pie and marshall cedeno AND vitters, it all seems a bit much for what looks to me like an extravagance.

perhaps this move would be a precursor to another big move, one where the cubs trade from strength (starting pitching) to achieve the missing lineup pieces. doubtful, but who knows.

at the end of the day, if they get peavy and can add a left-handed hitter like ibanez in right, and keep the rest of the starting lineup from last year, id say it was an improvement, but only time will tell at what cost.

btw - no way would i put harden in the bullpen.

this is a common thing with hendry, it seems, where he seems to play fantasy baseball owner a little too much, and get the big name all the cubby chubbies want.

i hate to give murph ANY credit, maybe i can give it to the guy who was feeding him this info...but peavy has a great ERA in that cavernous hole in san diego, but his ERA (especially at wrigley) is not stellar.

he likes to give up the long ball.

my explanation on not moving harden to the pen is that every 5th or 6th day (he is the #5 starter in a rotation adding peavy) harden will go out and blow them away for 5 or 6 innings. he will throw 80-100 pitches. fine. but if the guy has recuperative problems where he cant throw every 5th day in the rotation, it makes no sense to me to have him in the pen, where good relievers are called on to pitch 2 out of 3 days maybe, 3 times a week, or maybe 2 days in a row. you need a strong arm that can recharge quickly. the move to the pen worked for wood because he didnt have an recuperation problem, he had structural problems to his arm that need to be protected. as long as his arm wasnt hurting, he was good to pitch. harden doesnt have structural arm problems, he just has an recuperation problem where he cannot recover as fast, he needs the time between starts.

if he can get 27 starts and throw 140-150 innings as he did last year, and blow them away as he did last year, he is a starter all the way in my book. plus, as we all saw last year, as effective as he was, he was throwing 20+ pitches an inning. if he did that as a reliever, he would be done for a couple days after that before he could pitch again.

No to Peavy.
Yes to LH Hitter and Roberts.

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Either they do not know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood.

It certainly could.....Or it might just be that Jim Hendry wants to put together the best starting staff in Baseball....

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Go Cubs!!!!

Hmm... let's see.

Harden's arm could fall off at any moment.

Zambrano is a head case and had a pretty mysterious issue with that pitching arm at the end of the year.

Dempster had a once in a career year and then folded under pressure in the first playoff game. I am waiting to hear if he does his ironman workout again to get in shape.

Lilly is still an average pitcher.

Im picking Zambrano as the pitcher with the issue.

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The only thing wrong with Cubs pitchers is that they can't win in the playoffs.
Moving Harden to the bullpen is silly. He can and will pitch every 5 or 6. Putting him in the pen where he'd have to be ready to go 2 or 3 days in a row, that won't work. You don't burn those bullets in the pen.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I agree with MOFO that a big left handed bat at the middle of the lineup is the most pressing need for this club. The Cubs need more balance in the lineup, especially in the middle of the order. Pick up an Abreu, hope Fukodome has a bounce back year at the plate while playing center and maybe using Fontenot more. If landing Peavy precludes the Cubs for signing a quality left handed hitter due to budgetary reasons, than I say no to Peavy

But if the Cubs can sign a left handed bat and trade for Peavy, then go ahead. While adding starting pitching may not be the most pressing issue, you can never have enough good pitching. And I would leave Harden in the rotation.

Vitters, Pie, Cedeno are expendable and while Marshall and Derosa are valuable to the Cubs, you have to give up something to get something. If the Cubs do sign a right fielder, then Derosa's at bats are reduced in the outfield. And if the cubs plan to play fontentot more than Derosa's AB are reduced even more.

He had career lows in starts, innings pitched and K's so you may be on to something.

I understand how nauseating it was to keep hearing the workout story but the guy went from Closer to 200 IP and 17 wins so whatever he did physically worked. It was probably a career year but I dont expect too much of a fade. I would think he be in the 14-16 win range.


32 Wins the last 2 years...I dont care what team your on or what circumstances theyre are but winning that much is not average.


He has head issues and I agree not counting the china doll Harden...Z would be the next guy with arm trouble.

But your going to need Derosa's Ab when A Ram goes down and D Lee goes down. I would rather give up D Lee for gods sakes than Derosa.

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what do you mean? if lee went down you would have the great micah hoffpauier ready to step in. you do have to wonder who will back up ramirez though. i think there is more moves to come if they trade for peavy.

Jeez, Roberts must be the greatest baseball player on earth with all the knob slobbing Cubs fans make about trading for him. If only the Cubs had some lefty to match his .296 BA, .378 OBP, and .450 SLG at 2nd base. How about if the Cubs got a lefty 2nd baseman with .305 BA, .395 OBP, and .514 SLG instead and they didn't even have to give anybody up for him?

he's a missing piece, not a savior. they have needed a patient lefthanded leadoff hitter since they parted company with Lofton. No coincidence that's the year they went the farthest in the playoffs. And moving Harden to the bullpen makes more sense than having to work around his 5-6 day schedule neccesities.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Peavy, Peavy, Peavy...Roberts, Roberts, Roberts....ughh.

Anyway...looks like the Twins may be after DeRosa & joining forces with Cubs to make a Peavy deal happen.

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/playerbreakingnews.asp?sport=MLB&id=2670&line=252899&spln=1

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

This team will miss Derosa more than you think.

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Maybe. I'm as big a Cubs meatball as anyone but I won't miss anyone on this team. As far as I'm concerned, everyone is trade bait.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I like Mark as much as the next guy, but he's 34 and you have to figure he's given you as much as you're going to get out of him. They're too right hand heavy and they'll find a one year stopgap to do what he did (Aurilia).

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Chris you dont know what I think....Darkside nailed it. If this team had an untradeable talent said talent would have willed them to one god damned playoff victory the last two years.

Peavy 2009 = Roberts 2008

Peavy's mechanic problems due to being hit by a liner!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I wont miss him booting a routine double play ball in the playoff's. How the hell does a professional second baseman end up doing a belly flop on a double play ball? DeRosa was successful at that!

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

yeah, if derosa goes, and it leads to peavy, i am ok with it as long as they sign ibanez, abreu or make a 2nd large trade to get the lefty slugger they need. derosa has had a great run with the cubs, but he is no way "untradeable" to me.

why would you play pepper with your car mechanic?

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Well I know that Big Fan would hate to see Derosa go, as he is a sponsor of Derosa's baseball reference page. He didn't leave any snarky remarks like he did for Kenny Williams' page

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LOL. That's actually been my Facebook status since this AM.

Question: What's with all the Raul Ibanez love? He's old and is getting bad. Abreu: Yes. Ibanez: NO

Yeah, I would definitely hate to see De Rosa go, but I agree w/C.O.F. in that you don't know how many more productive years you'll get out of him - the thing is, we DO have Fontenot and I'm pretty confident that he'll be a pretty good lefty bat if given consistent playing time, add another lefty and all we have to do is hope our pitchers' arms stay intact...