The Winter Meetings are underway and even though the Cubs won't be that active, I wanted to keep up with what's going on with them.
Kyuji Fujikawa
It still appears as though the Cubs have signed Fujikawa to a 2-year deal worth $9.5 million plus an option. However, the Cubs have not yet confirmed this.
Early arriving scouts at the Gaylord Opryland Resort on Sunday for the Winter Meetings were as curious as Cubs fans: Did the team sign Japanese free agent pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa or not?
The Cubs continue to keep quiet about Fujikawa, whom they have reportedly inked to a two-year, $9.5 million contract. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network reported the deal on Saturday, saying Fujikawa would receive a signing bonus of $1 million and $4 million in salaries in 2013 and '14. There also was a vesting option valued at $5.5 million or $6 million, to be determined by games finished.
Cubs officials would neither confirm nor comment on the report. – Carrie Muskat
My guess is that the contract is official depending on a physical, but I was under the impression he was still in the US so that shouldn't take all that long. I haven't heard any reports that deny the Cubs signed him so I think we can be about 95% certain they did.
3rd Base
Muskat also mentioned the Cubs will be looking for a 3rd baseman after they non-tendered Ian Stewart. Josh Vitters provided no reason whatsoever to think he's capable of playing that position every day and Luis Valbuena will at the very least need a platoon partner. I still like the idea of signing Kevin Youkilis, but the Cubs have been in contact with Jeff Keppinger.
Peter Gammons Q&A
Tim Dierkes of MLBTR did an interview with Peter Gammons and I really enjoyed it. This part blew my mind:
Is there any reason the Dodgers can't jump up to a $300MM payroll in a couple of years?
I think it's a distinct possibility. I could see them at least going $220MM. Some of the people in the organization have said that the goal is to have an All-Star at every position. George Steinbrenner had that same goal once in the 80s. It'll be fascinating to see. They clearly understand baseball is entertainment. The competition with the Angels for the market and the Giants for the division is absolutely fascinating. It's such a high-stakes poker game, it's going to be really fun to watch.
Gammons also talks about the shift from the AL East to the West (both divisions).
Alfonso Soriano
Alfonso Soriano will be shopped as the Cubs have done for at least a full year now. They had worked out a trade with the Giants at the deadline, but he extercised his no-trade rights. The Cubs will have to kick in some money to find a team and probably won't get much in return. Bill James projects a league average .325 wOBA for Soriano next year. He's due to make $36 million over the final two years of his contract and the Cubs have already found one team interested so my guess is that Soriano will be traded this winter.
UPDATES
* Justin Upton is still on the block and the Cubs have been connected to him at least twice so far, but that doesn't appear to be the case right now. I'd love to acquire Justin Upton if he's really available. He's the perfect age the Cubs are looking for and he'd instantly be the best player on the team.
* The Brewers and Ryan Dempster are talking. The Brewers reportedly want a 2-year deal while Dempster is seeking more than that.
Was looking at A-Rod’s stats…
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodrial01.shtml
I guess so far he’s produced 50ish WAR with the Yankees so the contract isn’t terrible at all. It will likely start getting terrible to this point, so I stand firmly by my “maybe” from the previous thread (dying laughing)
At least he actually won a ring.
I wonder if the Yankees would be interested in Soriano with A-Rod’s injury issues.
@ Rice Cube:
He’s only produced 20 WAR in the first 5 seasons of that 10-year contract they signed him to ($275 million).
@ dmick89:
Oh right, the extension happened in 2007. I guess the contract does suck. Is the suck mitigated somewhat by the championship though?
Napoli —> BoSox
@ Rice Cube:
His first year of the deal in 2008 was a really good one, but the 3 years after that he was basically just good and last year only average. It’s a terrible contract and it was going to be one at the time it was signed. More than likely the Pujols one ends up being a terrible contract (same with Fielder). It’s actually surprising how well the CC deal has turned out to be in that it hasn’t been a bad deal (yet!).
The Cubs really need to try and trade for Justin Upton. If they can’t get it done, fine, but they need to be in the discussions.
Brewers are talking to Ryan Dempster
dmick89 wrote:
“Will you stop with the Harry Caray impressions? We’re trying to negotiate a salary with you. PUT THE WHOOPIE CUSHION AWAY! No, I don’t want to see your fucking rubber chicken… what are you doing? PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON!”
@ Aisle424:
Bet he does a hell of a Uecker.
@ dmick89:
I think the Braves get Upton.
@ Rice Cube:
The racist/hack writers will have a field day with an OF of the Upton brothers and Jason Heyward.
Napoli —–> Red Sox – 3 years $39M
@ Rice Cube:
I think I’d become a casual Braves fan (in addition to my Cubs fanaticism) if they landed Justin. That’s a really neat outfield.
@ Myles:
I just figured that since the D’Backs seemed to want shortstops and pitching, and the Braves have SS and SP/RP Pez dispensers, it was a logical trade destination.
Rich Harden is making a comeback. He could be a low risk high reward type of signing.
Holy shit, we’re really really really bad at this Hall of Fame election thingy.
@ dmick89:
Did nobody vote for Lee Smith?
@ dmick89:
You fucked up the poll app, or we picked shitty players?
@ Rice Cube:
Nobody voted for anybody. Only 2 would be getting in.
@ Suburban kid:
I’m wondering if we fucked the poll up. I don’t really see how, but it’s about the only explanation. Either that or there are some very small hall guys who visit this place. The poll was self-explanatory. Vote yes for no more than 10. I’ll have to go through some of the surveys.
@ dmick89:
I definitely voted. i saw at least 10 people in that thread that said they voted. How many were you expecting? That has to account for 90% of the readers here (dying laughing)
@ dmick89:
So did you get lots of entries, but we all voted for different players so nobody got the quota or some shit?
@ WaLi:
There have been more than 70 who filled it out. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the highest total for any player is 79% (only two players). Those are the only two who have more than 73%. There are another 4 who are over 70%, so it’s possible those guys finish over 75% though I doubt it.
@ Suburban kid:
I’m not sure yet.
(dying laughing) some people even voted for more than 10. I’m going to throw out 2 of the entries because one of them only voted for 1 and the other 2. Everyone else voted for 5 or more.
5 free subscriptions to the person who guesses the two that are over 75%.
@ dmick89:
Ah, I misunderstood what you said when you mentioned “nobody voted for anybody”
@ dmick89:
Clemens and Shilling
Bonds and Bagwell.
It appears we just spread the vote around. Perhaps we should have done it so you could vote for an unlimited number of players thanks to the mistakes the BBWAA has made in the past.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/jiggly-kate-upton-gifs-to-brighten-your-monday
dmick89 wrote:
I’m interested to see how it turns out in the end. I like that we kept the rules the same so that we have to make our choices based on the same criteria that the BBWAA uses. I thought we’d elect a ton of people, but it appears that there is far from a consensus.
@ WaLi:
I don’t know why I said Shilling, I meant Bonds.
@ dmick89:
We probably all just wildly disagree about who should be in. I didn’t vote for Sosa, but I saw other people did. He was borderline for me, given that I could only chose 10, and there were a lot of good candidates.
I definitely submitted a list of ten, and ten only. I thought there’d be consensus on at least five of them. I did share your poll with our followers and (no offense to anyone) some of them are not the best at following instructions, so if the source of the crap is coming from that subset of voters, then my bad…
Was reading old comments and RC said something about the World Series. And then I had to look up who won the World Series. I already forgot.
@ WaLi:
Bonds, yeah, but Schilling is a 1st rounder to me as well.
For what it’s worth…from the Twitters:
dmick89 wrote:
bonds and schilling
I blame RC’s followers.
Here is the post I did when Deshaies’ name first came up. There’s a couple of videos of him doing his thing. I think we’ll be happy: http://www.obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/will-jim-deshaies-be-the-replacement-for-bob-brenly.html
dmick89 wrote:
Fan favorites Rondell White and Todd Walker
No correct guesses yet.
@ Suburban kid:
Is this really necessary?
No, it is not.
@ Berselius:
Sosa and Lee Smith
@ josh:
Sosa/McGwire?
Something Mish and I talked about in passing was the notion of the “Fame” in the “Hall of Fame”. If you consider the contributions made by guys like McGwire and Sosa that most likely extended off the field, they should almost get into the HOF on Fame alone even if their statistical cases are merely borderline. That’s also why I think Jack Morris is always in the running and will probably get in this year or next.
@ Berselius:
There are only 37!/(2! * (37-2)!) different combinations. I’m going to begin posting them one by one.
I really want that subscription.
@ WaLi:
That is 666 combinations.
THIS BALLOT IS THE DEVIL!
Jim Deshaies -> Cubs
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/03/jim-deshaies-leaves-astros-to-become-cubs-announcer/
I heard that someone from the Astros is replacing someone from the Cubs.
The two are Bonds and Clemens. Fo sho
@ dmick89:
This destroys my faith in internet polls!
No one has guessed it so far.
For those interested in the broadcaster selection process, Kaplan’s tweets the other day said Glanville was never even interested in the job, and he implied that Sutcliffe and Plesac decided they weren’t interested after all. Then he did a little lobbying for his boy Hollandsworth who turned out to be the loser along with Karros.
@ Rice Cube:
You threw them under the bus, not me. (dying laughing)
Someone tweeted that Kasper pushed for Deshaies.
JonKneeV wrote:
Fixed.
@ Suburban kid:
I know, but I couldn’t resist a meme opportunity
So Dave Kaplan sent me some extremely angry emails defending his fake tan again. (dying laughing)
The guy takes his oompa loompa skin quite seriously.
@ PFD:
What’s this about? He just sent them out of the blue?
A 250M+ payroll is madness. Do y’all think they would just pay the luxury tax every year and say fuck it? Or would we see some weird ass 15M/15M/5M/15M contracts? Or is the tax determined off average annual values?
I’ll guess Bonds and Biggio for the subscriptions. Those will make great holiday gifts.
Damn it. I’m not gonna stop until I get it. Piazza and Biggio? I’m taking a different approach.
@ MJK:
They use average annual value for luxury tax purposes. The Dodgers did just get that huge tv contract so I do think they’ll be over $200 million before long.
Wrong guess.
A bunch of you have been half right, but I”m not going to tell you which half.
Biggio and Schilling?
@ Suburban kid:
False.
@ JonKneeV:
Ok last guess from me. Either Raines and Biggio or Biggio and Bagwell.
Bonds and Piazza
@ WaLi22:
Correct
@ WaLi22:
Damn you, sir.
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/major-league-baseball/the-hall-of-fame-is-worthless.html