re: Chicago Cubs Super Prospect Futureboner Sploosh Emporium Thread | Maddon Thread

I think he's upset you didn't have his boy junior lake in your future plans

Don't be sorry, chèr. Every post you make is bitchy and sensitive in nature and I expect you to overreact to such a simple post. 'Tis all good. I just made a speculative guess at our pitching, if wasn't meant to be gospel. I subscribe to vine line so I know a lot of stuff about the cubs

Bump the post in 2016 when EJax and Wood are still in the rotation and strop is setting up Rondon, k?

What do wood, Rondon, and strops contracts look like?

On the bright side he will only be 32 with probably a 6+ ERA making 11 million

This is where I parked my Fiat

Well, being away from computers and hardly checking my phone all weekend was probably a good thing. But this would be the weekend the Cubs deal 40% of their rotation? Thanks for thinking of me, Theo.

I'm pretty sure everyone has heard, but for sake of semantics let me just post: Cubs trade Hammel and Samardzija to the A's for Addison Russell, Dan Strailey, Billy McKinney an a PTBNL/cash considerations.

Now, we all know about Addison Russell. How good is Addison Russell? So good that he was reportedly being compared to Barry Larkin with more power. I'll take that. The Cubs would have the #3, #5, #6 and #18 prospects in all of baseball.

But, that's not all. The Cubs got Dan Straily in the deal. Straily is a 25 year old RHP that has had a case of the ups and downs between MLB and AAA for the A's. He's got a career 4.11 ERA and 1.257 WHIP in the majors (230 IP). In the minors, his ERA is at 3.68 and WHIP at 1.218 (614.1 IP). He's one of those guys that you hope gets the Arrieta/Hammel/Feldman treatment and discovers greater success in this organization.

The other minor leaguer in this deal is OF prospect Billy McKinney. McKinney was the A's first round pick last year and was playing at High A. He's likely a ways away from producing, but the value might be strong there.

I've read an interesting take on what this could mean for Starlin Castro. One of the theories is that the Cubs could sell high on him and try to net some pitching prospects (something missing from this A's trade) with the Mets and/or Yankees being interested trade partners. Russell's long term future is as a MLB SS (from what I can tell), so that creates a major log jam (a good one, though) with Javy Baez, Arismendy Alcantara and now Addison Russell. However, Theo gonna Theo, and says Starlin has no reason to look over his shoulder.

Kris Bryant could eventually move to the OF to make room for the infield prospects, but it's becoming more and more apparent that he can handle the chore at 3B. This creates a surplus. Alcantara is likely headed to the OF to make room for Baez at 2B in Chicago. The other theory is that maybe the Cubs flip Russell for pitching talent. I wouldn't put that past them.

What you have here is more collection of talent and a strong possibility that the Cubs add payroll in the form of starting pitching (the bullpen is a very strong point right now) for 2015 with the hope of finally being competitive.

ETA: Bleacher Nation theorizes the PTBNL could be Raul Alcantara. I know nothing about him, but BN and the Twitter monkeys seem abuzz about him. The Cubs are just in the business of collecting Alcantaras.

ETA 2.0: Looks like RHP Kyle Hendricks will be called up to start at some point this week.

Kris Bryant is named the Cubs minor league player of the month. All he did was hit .354/.447/.781 with eleven home runs and seventeen walks between Tennessee and Iowa. On the year, between AA and AAA, Kris Bryant has been incredible: .355/.451/.720/.1.171 with 30 HR, 26 2B, 51 BB/100 K and 80 RBI in just 87 games. Holy fricking shite.

HOLY frickING shite!

Baez, Bryant, and Soler all went deep yesterday

so i guess best case for the cubs (of which is likely) is that russel moves fast, baez gets up towards the end of the year and does some damage because you have to think he's the most likely of the current prospects to get traded for pitching.

Sounded like the castro to mets chatter was just that, but i'd expect those talks to heat up around winter meetings.

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Is there really any pitching out there worth Castro's value right now? Especially considering a pitching prospect's arm could fall off at any minute?

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I think if the cubs trade baez or castro it's for a major league pitcher. A young one who has room to grow but is already a middle of the rotation guy (like zach wheeler).

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The Cubs have done a very fine job of aggregating a rotation together with Jason Hammels. Whatever money they don't have to spend on stocking the lineup (which shouldn't be much if even HALF the prospects are hits), they will put into the starting rotation in 2015

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yea other than pitching i'd like to get an outfielder, but that market looks slim. It was nice reading that hoyer said he expects teams to inquire about our prospects this offseason and they expect to be to spending money in FA this winter.

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they expect to be to spending money in FA this winter.

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Nice to see this and that this is the last year the FO expects to be obvious sellers. I have been thinking this team isn't too terribly far off from competing and now that seems to be coming together. Lots of prospects that seem to be *close*. A bullpen that is pretty damn solid. A solid bounce back year from Rizzo and Castro. A homerun with Arrieta. Now go sign a couple of starting pitchers in the offseason and you have a playoff contending team.