Report: The Cubs Are Interested in Dan Haren (UPDATES: Bruce Levine Hears It, Too) Cubs Sign Lefty R

I ve been wondering openly for weeks now what the Cubs plan was in the bullpen with respect all inclusive family cruises to their paucity of lefties. Right now, it s James Russell and uh Travis Wood, if the Cubs sign another starter? Chris Rusin? Brooks all inclusive family cruises Raley? The Cubs DFA d Jeff Beliveau last week, so it probably won t be him.
One such option I d mentioned in the past is J.P. Howell , and it sounds like the Cubs do indeed all inclusive family cruises have some interest. Nats beat writer Bill Ladson reports that the Cubs, together with the Nationals, Phillies, Mariners, and Rangers, are pursuing all inclusive family cruises the lefty. Ladson doesn t expect a decision to come before Christmas, however.
Howell isn t free from some concerns, however he underwent shoulder surgery in 2010 (labrum), and didn t fully rebound until 2012. Even then, his 2012 season was far less dominant than he d been in his pre-surgery days.
Howell is more effective against lefties than righties, but he s better than a mere LOOGY. Pairing him with James Russell as lefties in the pen would give Dale Sveum a great many options later in the game, particularly if Russell is viewed more as a traditional all inclusive family cruises setup guy than as a match-up guy.
Bidding all inclusive family cruises on Howell falls into the same vein as the Cubs failed bids on Mike Adams and Jason Grilli, though all inclusive family cruises Howell s age potentially makes him more likely to stick around as a longer term piece than as a short-term flip candidate. The Cubs clearly would like to improve the bullpen for 2013, even thought they may not believe it is going to be a competitive year. They can try, see what happens, and move Howell if the team isn t surprising to the upside. Quality relievers on relatively short-term contracts are among the easiest pieces to move. And, setting aside the possibility of a flip, there remains all inclusive family cruises the argument that the Cubs are looking ahead to 2014 as a possible target for competitiveness. Having someone like Howell locked into the bullpen at that point would help.
Report: The Cubs Are Interested in Dan Haren (UPDATES: Bruce Levine Hears It, Too) Cubs Sign Lefty Reliever Polin Trinidad Cubs Continue to Look for Bullpen Help, Reportedly Interested all inclusive family cruises in Jason Grilli
Howell would be a perfect fit for the Cubs. At the age of 29, he could be a long term fit and grow as a smarter reliever when the Cubs are in contention. Also, he might be a pretty nice trade chip if he pitches extremely all inclusive family cruises well and could be very valuable as a lefty in the pen.
I agree to the point that spending $4-$5 million per year on a situational relief pitcher seems like a misuse of resources all inclusive family cruises especially when our 3B is Stewart/Valbuena and our OF consists of Soriano, DeJesus, and Schierholtz. But, if Theo is trying to build a competitive team for the onset of 2013 than a LH RP is an area of need and just plugging in a minor leaguer isn t a great idea. Also, as soon as we can develop a LH RP Howell will make for a great trade chip.
My question is, how long of a contract would you want to go with Howell? He s already had one shoulder surgery and in order to sway him from signing with an immediate all inclusive family cruises contender we may need to offer 4 years.
Given circumstances as I understand them, I d be surprised if he is getting many, if any, 3 year or + year offers all inclusive family cruises except perhaps as an option or at least performance based extension. If my guess is somewhat accurate, then a 2 year deal w/ an incentive based extension year 3 and possibly year 4.
Didn t he lose quite a bit of velocity since the surgery? Still put up good numbers, but he wasn t the same kind of pitcher last year that he d been previously. I wouldn t pay big money but for the right price he interests me.
They maybe easy to move (but loose a lot of value when you have to outbid all other teams with dollars all inclusive family cruises and years to get the pitcher on a losing ball club) but they are too risky. they are relief pitchers for a reason.
all inclusive family cruises I like the scrap heap signings that we are making. load the triple A team with reliever arms that can maybe catch lightening in a bottle and create value out of nowhere. these signings are difficult for us because of our 40 man roster situation. I would like us to lead the league in minor league contracts to relief pitchers. Sign a lot of them to short non risk deals and see if some can pan out.
Yea, but in order to catch big fish you have to use big bait. We can sign all the Schierholtz s in the world but they re only going to net low level prospects. If we can get a couple of useful pieces like a Howell, Mike Adams, Jason Girilli, etc. we might expect something better in return.
That s exactly what they need to do, stockpile triple a with a bunch of recllamation projects, etc. We could have a reliever in our minors that could put up Howell type numbers. Were talking about a middle reliever here, not bob Gibson.
Howell had a .200/.306/.306 slash line against lefties last season, so he can still be useful. It d be nice to have a second LH out in the pen and let Rusin and Raley keep starting at AAA. Plus it gives Sveum more options on how to use Russell. It s not an overly all inclusive family cruises exciting move, but one that could add value to the bullpen.
How do you get there from Jackson s WAR? I m just trying to understand this. Appears to me that his WAR over the past 3 years averages about 1.5 per year. Is each point of WAR now worth $8-10 million? all inclusive family cruises I m just trying to understand this.
Yes. Every site seems to use a different formula to calculate WAR so they re they re all different. I think it s become pretty much a consensus to use fangraph s version, fWAR, just so everyone is on the same page.
First, I really hate fWAR s scale. I ve got some nit-picky issues with their valuation formulas, too, but mostly I hate the scale. It s set with the assumption that replacement level is a 43-win team, which is way too low imo. This has the effect of inflating pretty much everyone by about one win per full season of playing time, and for some reason this effect really seems to show up in pitchers. A 3-win pitcher all inclusive family cruises is probably all inclusive family cruises only actually worth about two wins over what you can find for no real investment. A 1-win position player is essentially worthless.
This feeds into the whole $/WAR idea (basically Fangraphs thinks everyone is a steal because of the free win), which I like in theory, but has another issue as well. *It s not linear*. It s not even close. Getting all inclusive family cruises more value from the same position without expending extra roster spots and playing time is much more valuable than getting more value from a different, empty position. Thus, decent players are overvalued by $/WAR and really good players are severely undervalued.
*It's not linear*. It's not even close. all inclusive family cruises Getting more value from the same position without expending all inclusive family cruises extra roster spots and playing time is much more valuable than getting more value from a different, empty position. Thus, "decent" players are overvalued by $/WAR and really good players are severely undervalued.
Folks pitch because they don t go after players who can make us better and then when they do they pitch that he might cost$. You want to build the entire team on a budget. We arwnt the darned all inclusive family cruises Pirates or the Astros and so on. This kid is better than Russell on Russell best day. I have watched Howell pitch bullpens many times in person. Withstanding his shoulder issue a few years back he was one the best young LH bullpens pitchers in the game. If his shoulder is good we need to sign him. He is a High Quality all inclusive family cruises asset that would anchor our pen for years.
all inclusive family cruises Who in the minors is prepared to take over the role of second lefty in the pen? We just DFA d the only guy who *might* have been able to do it, and he s not a sure enough bet that he won t need competition even if he doesn t get claimed on waivers.
Well, since I was recently reminded that I so conveniently forgot that the Cubs are able and willing to roll over any current saved payroll money into future years, not sure why the Cubs would spend anymore than the bear minimum this year. Which would mean that unless all inclusive family cruises you already have the player under contract and can t move him or you are reasonably confident you will be able to flip a recent/prospective free agent, why sign anyone for more than the major league minimum?
Under this money saved now will be spent in the future guideline, any superfluous signings will only hamper the long-term competitiveness of the team, which if you avidly read the comments, is in some people s eyes a sort of biblical quest that cannot be questioned under any circumstance.
I m being facetious here, as I believe a rebuild is 100% needed, but I do find it amusing that almost any dissension from the plan currently being employed by the front office is typically met with strong and often snarky rebuttals.
Overall, unless the offense is upgraded, I don t really see the point in spending $3-4M on a lefty reliever unless you are fairly positive you can flip him or you are signing him to a 3-4 year contract, which can be somewhat scary for relievers.
The problem with the we ll just hold the money is that baseball is experiencing rapid inflation. The $10 million you save this offseason for the future won t buy you near as much as $10 million today.
Not the ownership. What was said was that the money will be put back into the organization (including FO salaries, DR facility, scouting ect.). Any money left over from the budget then rolls over to the next year and so on.
"All the money will go back into the team in some form or another whether it's things that can help us in the future, whether it's free agents or keeping money aside for the next free agent class. All the money baseball operations is given will always go back to the club."
My whole grumble is that the cubs are saving a lot of money be running out a completely shit product, yet still want fans to pay tip top price for it. In the end, they may very well roll over every single dollar saved into other initiatives (including payroll), both in the present and future, but I m also not convinced these comments are lip service to some degree. It s hard to spend $