Odds And Ends: Harper, Pirates, Hanley

I say Bucs contend in 2011.

The Cubs are really close to being pretty damn bad for a few years. Their farm system is barren. Their core is aging. They'll have to build their team through FA or by extending the current aging core. The Astros are just awful. It's going to be between the Brewers, Cards, Bucs, and Reds in the next few years.

I wonder if the Braves and Brewers match up trade wise. As a Braves fan Id hate to lose Javy Vazquez but Id think he'd be appealing to the Brewers tho...IMO he's worth more than Hart but he's not enough for Braun(whos prob untouchable anyways).

We have Kosuke through 2011, buddy. His arm is great, his offensive stamina is not.

I do look forward to Lee being gone though. The market isn't good for a defensive light-hitting 1B. I'd love to see Hoffpauir and/or Fox (he's not hopeless people, he just needs a LOT of defensive work) man 1B, which would save the 13M we owe Lee every year.

The money we've been spending on Lee after 2010 can go to a reliever and strong 4th outfielder, unless we deal for one before then. Resigning DeRosa would be nice - another solid MIF would be another good idea if Fontenot can't find his offensive consistency before then.

Aramis at 1B - interesting. I think his contract is also up after next year, isn't it? Or is it through 2011?

I'd rather see us make maximum use of Hoffpauir/Fox, though.

"With Jeff Stevens, Andrew Cashner, Jose Ascanio, Kevin Hart, Jeff Samardzija, and Carlos Marmol they have a lot of cheap arms."

If all those guys are in the pen, then the Cubs are going to have to buy 2 rotation spots. They only have Z-Demp-Marshall after 2010. They have to either resign or replace Harden this offseason. The pen is the least of their problems, and I'd hope Cashner and Samardijija are starters.

"If all those guys are in the pen, then the Cubs are going to have to buy 2 rotation spots. They only have Z-Demp-Marshall after 2010. They have to either resign or replace Harden this offseason. The pen is the least of their problems, and I'd hope Cashner and Samardijija are starters."

I think that the Cubs either resign Harden or go after Bedard, Lackey and/or Myers this offseason, because they're going to need another starter long term.

They have Zambrano and Dempster locked up, and Marshall is a solid lefty BOR starter, but behind that their starting rotation depth is really thin.

I could see them bringing back Lilly on a one or two year deal as well, while they wait and hope that they can get a decent starter or two out of Samardzija, Cashner, Rhee and Jackson.

I have two wishes from the 2008/2009 Cubs drafts, and it's that I wish that they had gone after college starters in each one, they really need that kind of pitching.

They passed on Christian Friedrich in 2008 to take Cashner, which has worked out okay so far but we'll see.

And honestly, I wish they had taken Rex Brothers or forked up cash for Scheppers instead of taking another toolsy center fielder that sounds a lot like Tyler Colvin.

"Impressive reporting. Apparently, Chico Harlan is now a master of body language. Let's try some other Chicoisms."

A broad grin isn't body language. It's right on your face, it's awfully blatant.

While you're at it Theo, bench Ortiz, make Lowell the DH, and get Adrian Gonzalez to play 1st, and move Youk to 3rd, a man can dream right?

Well they drafted Cashner to be a closer. And the reason hes starting is to give up more innings to work on his control and secondary pitches. They would love for Samardzija to start, but he cant locate and only has one pitch.

And yeah for some reason I thought Kosuke signed a 3 yr deal. He isnt really a problem as long as he plays solid defense and can get onbase at a .360 or high pace. You dont really expect great offense up the middle of the field.

I totally agree Aramis to 1B and Vitters to 3B is the right move for the cubs. I would also like to see them move Theriot to 2B and aquire a SS with some power.

For the Cub fans: I'm friends with Cashner (I didn't like seeing him go to y'all, but happy to see him drafted) and last time I talked to him he was saying he wanted to be a reliever so he could get up quicker. But, he was saying that they were planning on turning him into a starter, so the he is just starting to get innings is not it.

I don't know how I would feel about him starting. I know in high school he couldn't handle it, but that is high school and he got a lot better after that. Unless he gets his control down I wouldn't put him in the rotation. He was fine for the first few innings and then got wild.

A pretty good story of him starting was his senior season and he was throwing a no-hitter, but had hit 8 people and had thrown about a 100 pitches in 4 innings. He gave up 3 runs and my brother came in and he kept the no-hitter up, but he only threw like 40 pitches the rest of the game.