Rafael Furcal Rumors: Thursday

You will see Furcal in Cubbie Blue...

"Orlando Cabrera Stinks!"

Not really, no. I went to a few Sox games last year, and he was one of their more consistent and solid performers.

The guy is still at least an average defensive shortstop, probably a little better than that, and he's still good for a .280/.330/.400 line with a few steals.

My issue with LA adding Cabrera is that I'm not so sure he's that much better than Chin Lung Hu or Ivan DeJesus Jr.

DeJesus showed plus plate discipline in the minors and is a very good defensive SS, and should be able to produce similar numbers to Cabrera for $400K rather than $9M.

I would freaking love to see Raffy in Chicago, with Theriot moving to second, DeRosa placed into a RF/Utility role, and then figure everything else out from there. Moving Soriano down and putting Furcal in the leadoff spot would really change the dynamic of that lineup.

"If we sign Furcal then Theriot will be our utility."

But why? Theriot posted a very high OBP last season and was a solid defensive player. He's too good to be delegated to only 300-400 at bats over the course of the season.

If they added Furcal, I would expect Theriot to move to second with DeRosa going into a utility/RF role, with Fukudome, DeRosa and Johnson sharing CF/RF duties.

I actually could see DeRosa having an even better year next year.

The Cubs can't afford Fucal without getting rid of Marquis and maybe another contract.

Also, Furcal really pis$ed Hendry off the last time Hendry thought he had him....so I really don't see this happening.

PS - I wouldn't be all that upset with letting DeRosa have RF and putting Fontenot at 2nd base and see if that +.900 OPS is something he can come close to doing again.

I don't see Fontenot hitting like he did in 2008...but if he could go

.290/.370, which is possible considering what he did last year, and he is left handed...why not?

i don't get it. Someone please explain this to me. The Cubs have a shallow system, yet fans and media always have them in on big trades like Peavy and Roberts. What exactly are they going to give up to get these guys? Magic pixy dust?

Unless Vitter and Marmol are included as the base for a trade I don't see it happen.

I mean for the Cubs to even get Dejesus from teh Royals they are going to need to do better than just Pie. And even then I'm not sure the Royals would do it.

So what I'm asking is what are teh Cubs trade options?

Come on Ned! Sign Orlando Cabrera!

Cubs have no money$$$

The Dodgers will resign Furcal if they dont land CC...which they probably wont. Think how good this team could be if they didnt waste 50mm building a bench. Colletti should be out the door.

"J.P. Ricciardi told MLB.com's Jordan Bastian he's not interested in Furcal."

JP says this year he is not interested in any FA, other than Burnett.

if furcal wants a ring...he'll go to the cubs. i would really like to see hin in real blue(cubbie blue). put soriano in 3 spot and get lee outta tha slot...put him 6th behind ramirez and soto

any idea on the mystery team?

reds ? they need a shortstop and a leadoff hitter

part of the reason the dodgers are worried about furcal, is ivan dejesus jr being 1-2 yrs away, can furcal play second? it would be very good to have furcal here to help his devolpment, and have furcal at 2nd(if he can play it) or dejesus jr at 2nd

I would go for Brian Roberts. A speedy, left- handed, lead off hitter. Just what the Cubs are looking for. Just McPhail is going to want Vitters, Marmol, Samardzija and Soto for him. Anyway the Cubs would probably start off by
Marshall
Cedeno
and so on.

Pie, Cedeno, Fontenot, Marshall, Veal (or Randy Wells)

Would that get it done?

Then we need should sign Furcal.

Furcal
Roberts
Lee
Ramirez
Soriano
DeRosa
Soto
Fukudome/Johnson

Whenever you read "mystery team", think Cincinnati Reds.

Then, when whoever was being talked about is traded to or signed by some OTHER team, get ready to hear Walt Jockicthy come out and say something like, "we were in on him until the last" or "we thought we had him but just missed out" or " we were real close to getting him".

Reds fans are going to have to face the facts that the Reds Ownership and Front Office personnel are incompetent and have NO CLUE about what they are doing and have no concrete plan in place.

Look, the Reds NOW have Ca$htellini as majority Owner. A George Steinbrenner wannabe in a small market. Ca$htellini meddles in personnel decisions and then thinks throwing cash at the problem will fix everything and does so wihtout even looking at what the guy brings to the table or if there are other, less expensive options out there which will get the same results.

Walt Jockitchy is the GM and he has hired Bill Bavasi (ex GM of the Mariners) and Cam Bonifay (ex GM of the Pirates) to work in the Front Office.

How much success did Bavasi have in Seattle? Remember, he is the guy who signed Richie Sexson to the big dollar, long term contract. He is the guy who gutted the Mariners farm system when he traded for Erik Bedard. Finally, he is the guy who put together a team with a payroll that exceeded $100 million dollars and they lost 100 Games. The first time THAT has EVER happened in MLB.

The Pirates haven't had a winning season in 15 years and Bonifay was GM from 1999 to 2004, so you can tell how good HE was.

So, the Reds have overloaded the Front Office and bloated the organizational salary structure with sucky GM's. Thus, there are many different voices saying what direction the team should be going in and how the team should get there.

This is why they have missed out on inexpensive players like Josh Willingham, Scott Olsen, Nick Swisher and Coco Crisp.

Are these guys BIG name players? No. But, then again, since they are NOT big name players, they wouldn't have cost too much as far as the players that would have been needed to acquire them. They also wouldn't have cost an arm and a leg, salary wise, either.

But, since Ca$htellini likes to be a big shot and overpay for BIG names (picking up Dunn's option for 2008, signing Coco Cordero and giving him a No Trade Clause to boot, signing Dusty Baker to a three year contract) thus making it EASY for his Marketing and PR Departments to do their jobs (instead of getting GOOD baseball players at decent rates whioh would actually fit into a sensible budget and maybe even give the team a chance at having a winning season now and again), then it looks like there is going to be one BIG name acquisition and then a bunch of scrubs, retreads, over the hill vets and/or guys coming off SERIOUS injuries being added to the team to fill in the holes.

So, forget about Sabathia, Peavy, Burnett, Lowe, Sheets, Manny R, Texiera and any big name GOOD player and start looking at guys who are BIG names but who have some type of flaw. Whether that be they are a ONE TOOL player (Dunn) are old (King Griffey Jr) or are coming off an injury. THOSE are the types of players Ca$htellini will focus on and have Jockitchy overpay for.

So think of guys like Pat Burrell or Mark Mulder and then add $3 or 4 million dollars per year to what they should be worth and THAT is what the Reds will end up paying them.

Then watch as Grumpy old Ca$htellini smiles at the press conference, announces these are the players the organization has had their eye on all along and this is the year the losing stops and Championship baseball is brought back to Cincinnati. Then watch as he grunts and grumbles when reporters start to question him and he then walks off the stage and leaves Jockitchy to answer for him.

THAT is your Cincinnati Reds.

Too bad Mark Cuban got into trouble with the SEC and was focused on buying the Cubs...

The dodgers would be stupid to offer furcal anything more than a 2 yr deal. Theres no way in hell I would give him anymore than that. Furcal couldn't stay healthy for a full season if his life depended on it. He's just not worth a long term contract.

I really don't see the Cubs trading for Roberts at this point. If Hendry couldn't get it done last offseason, despite his "good relationship" with McPhail, I don't see it happening now, when Hendry has fewer prospects to offer.

Besides, Furcal is now a better fit for the Cubs - he solves the SS defensive issues, which Roberts wouldn't and they would get him for multiple years, vs. Roberts being a FA after next year. Furcal would cost 4-5M more, but they could structure the contract around that.

If the Cubs do sign a FA (Furcal or Randy) then Marquis will certainly be traded to move the salary and trust me - there will be plenty of takers for a 30 yo starter with a 79-70 lifetime record who's averaged 13 wins the last 5 years, $9.875M would be close to the market rate for that right now if he was a FA. The Cubs could easily trade him to a team that loses out on the big name starters, for a low level prospect

Whoever is going around talking about their Cubs going to world series. Here is a little advice. Don't ever brag about the Cubs going to the series, you actually probably set them back another 20 years and that is just to get there. Everybody knows that once they get there they will lose.

mystery team is agent talk for, I can pretend that there is another team out there making a much better offer than you and so I can ask for as much for my client as possible. And there is no way for you to verify and disprove this.

It's a leak on the agents part to get Furcal more money. A smart but very tired move.