NASHVILLE — Despite 101 losses in 2012, Cubs president Theo Epstein said there is no shortage of free agents who want to be part of the organization.
Epstein said free agents “believe in the positive direction that we’re going,” and heard about the clubhouse atmosphere under manager Dale Sveum.
“When we express interest, we’ve been hearing back to us, ‘That’s a place we’ve had our eye on and we’d really like to consider playing there,’ which you don’t often hearing coming off a 101-loss season,” he said. — Hobbit
How would Theo know? His teams have never lost this many before.
It doesn't much matter if free agents want to play for the Cubs if they aren't interested in signing them.
It sure has been fun catching up on the comments and posts. They’re coming so quickly, I feel like I’m at the winter meetings!
has anyone heard rumors regarding what the soriano strategy is? is it feasible to dump him for 3 good pitching prospects if the cubs eat his entire salary? (maybe 2 good prospects and a fringe player?) they’d effectively be paying $12m per prospect. would the cubs do this? would another team? seems like it could be good for both sides but i have no idea if it’s realistic.
Hmm. I guess ballplayers really are kinda dumb.
/fixed for truthiness
Cubs interested in trading for homophobic asshat Yunel Escobar
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/40513908/
Joe Pos thinks they’ll just make a special committee to vote in all the guys the BBWAA are too good to vote for.
Berselius37 wrote:
Seriously why the hell would we want Escobar? MLBTR has tweeted 3 times about us being linked since last night. (dying laughing)
I don’t care much about character in baseball (Escobar is a piece of shit), but he’s a league average or better ballplayer at a premium position. My question is this: what do the Cubs need him for? SS is already taken. So is 2nd base (Escobar might be a better option than Barney, but it’s pretty close). 3rd base? Couldn’t they get someone with a little more power?
This seems strange to me.
Escobar is unwanted garbage that the Marlins got stuck with from their big house cleaning. They have a rookie shortstop. I think Escobar and his $5 million contract are part of any trade they make. Nolasco wants out. Cubs want SP. Cubs might have to take Escobar so this is why they are being linked with him. Because I can’t see why else they would want him.
Bill James projects a .317 wOBA for Escobar and a .292 wOBA for Barney. Escobar could probably be counted on for 3-5 runs at SS so that’s about 8-10 runs at 2nd base. Barney is probably a little better than that, but Escobar might be the more valuable player at 2nd base. That could give the Cubs the chance to trade Barney who has quite a bit of value, but I don’t see them getting as much as they should.
Flip Marmol for Nolasco?
(Marmol gets flipped to a contender with money, Miami gets a prospect).
Suburban kid wrote:
The only thing I can think of is that the Cubs believe they can get more for Barney than I do.
EnricoPallazzo wrote:
Depends what you mean by good. There’s no way they’re getting 3 good prospects even if they pay all his remaining salary. 2 is probably a stretch and I’d actually be surprised if they could get anything that would be considered good in return for Soriano. They might get something useful. Perhaps a good relief prospect, but unless I’m undervaluing him I just don’t see it.
Is Dan not doing any ZIPS this year? What about THT’s Oliver?
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/commentary-and-analysis/10-years-ago-today.html
@ dmick89:
I care a lot more about character in baseball when we’re watching a 60-win team. Contending for the playoffs can assuage a lot of dislike.
dmick89 wrote:
Quasi-Pope is doing them for espn now, they might be insider only. I think they’ll end up on fangraphs eventually though.
I haven’t heard anything yet from the Oliver guys, which is strange.
@ dmick89:
someone on twitter last night seemed pretty confident that escobar would play 3B. i’ll try to find the twitter thing to see if there’s a source.