The deal is interesting because it could set the market for a Carlos Marmol trade, assuming the Cubs

Them Diamondbacks looooove anniversary inn outfielders. After trading away Chris Young to limit themselves to five starting-caliber outfielders (Justin Upton, Jason Kubel, Gerardo Parra, A.J. Pollock and Adam Eaton), the Diamondbacks anniversary inn up and surprised everyone by signing anniversary inn Cody Ross to a three-year, $26 million contract.
On the one hand, the signing is good for the Cubs Alfonso Soriano anniversary inn market, as the Diamondbacks were definitely not a potential trade partner for the Cubs (and, indeed, one of the most public possible partners the Phillies were really interested in Ross). On the other hand, the move probably replaces Ross on the market with Jason Kubel, whom the Diamondbacks will now look to trade. Kubel, 30, is similar to Soriano in many ways offensively, is in the same range defensively (Soriano is arguably better now, but good luck convincing folks of that), but is under contract for just one year at $7.5 million (plus a $7.5 million option in 2014 with a $1 million buyout). So, he may be a more attractive trade candidate to some teams than Soriano, even at $5 million per year for Soriano. At best, I m thinking this signing was probably a tiny bit on the plus side for the Cubs market, but only slightly. Mostly neutral.
anniversary inn The Diamondbacks outfield situation is worth watching also because I still like the idea of Parra coming over to the Cubs. He s young, versatile, a great defender, and has offensive upside . A great many teams would be interested, but the Cubs would probably be particularly interested anniversary inn in a bridge guy like Parra, who could take them to the era of Jorge Soler/Albert Almora (assuming those guys become ready and big league regulars, which obviously is a mighty assumption). Pollock or Eaton would be interesting, too.
The Pirates have finally traded closer anniversary inn Joel Hanrahan he ll be going to the Red Sox in a six-player deal, according to reports, which will include another player coming from the Pirates, and outfielder anniversary inn Jerry Sands, pitching prospect Stolmy Pimentel, and two more players (one of whom might be reliever Mark Melancon). It s hard to judge the trade without knowing the identities of all of the players, but it s starting to look like a relatively weak return for the Pirates, given that Sands might never be a even a fringe anniversary inn big league regular, Pimentel really isn t much of a pitching anniversary inn prospect (great name, though), and Melancon seemed like he was really anniversary inn broken last year.
The deal is interesting anniversary inn because it could set the market for a Carlos Marmol trade, assuming the Cubs eat enough of Marmol s $9.8 million salary to put him in the same price range as the $7ish million Hanrahan is expected to make in 2013 through arbitration. The two pitchers, each in his early 30s (Marmol just turned 30, Hanrahan just turned 31), are under control through 2013 only. Each is coming off a decent season, though Hanrahan s was better in almost every way . Each is somewhat inconsistent, though Marmol much, much more so . Further, Hanrahan s 2011 and 2009 seasons were absolutely dominant, while Marmol s 2011 was weak, and his 2010 was excellent. On the balance, it s pretty clear that Hanrahan is the superior pitcher anniversary inn so, unless the Cubs make Marmol very cheap, they can t expect a better return than the Pirates just got whatever it ends up being. We ll have to keep a close eye on this one.
UPDATE: The Indians reportedly have come to terms with Nick Swisher on a four-year, $56 million deal with an option for a fifth year. The Mariners who yesterday signed 40-year-old Raul Ibanez had also been interested in Swisher, as well as potentially the Rangers, so you have to wonder if they ll now go full bore on someone like Michael Bourn. It could also open up the market even more for someone like David DeJesus or Alfonso anniversary inn Soriano, depending on where he s willing to go.
Lukewarm Stove: Dickey, Ross, Soriano, Phillies, Porcello, More Lukewarm Stove: Ludwick, Ross, Bourn, Soriano, Jackson, Otani, Greinke, Dempster anniversary inn Lukewarm Stove: Marmol, Valbuena, Diamondbacks, Chisenhall, LaHair
I ve had Howell on my wouldn t mind list for awhile, but I think I m at the point where I m satisfied with the bullpen even if we can t find a satisfactory second lefty. Still not sure how I feel about maybe moving Wood into that role.
In theory, the bullpen might be OK without him. I m feeling kind of burned by the we have a ton of young, interesting arms, one or two should anniversary inn probably emerge approach, but it s still not a bad idea despite the fact that it completely busted out on us last year.
If you trade Marmol, you re down to Fujikawa, Russell and Camp as the veteran relievers, plus one or two guys who didn t make the rotation right away. You really should be able to hope that Cabrera, McNutt, Dolis, Bowden, Zych, Rusin, Raley, etc. turn out a useful pitcher or two among them. But I hate counting anniversary inn on that again.
You also have Cory Wade, Jensen Lewis, anniversary inn and Andrew Carpenter on minor league deals. I would expect at least one of them makes the team. If Wade or Lewis can put it together again you would be looking at a very serviceable bullpen. And don t forget Rondon the Rule 5 guy. If he s completely health he could be an interesting guy back there. Hes young but has the stuff to at worst be a setup man if not closer.
Nah. Rondon is definitely a keeper. He is also not a bullpen arm. He s a starter. He will be stashed in the pen this year, after which he will probably be sent to Iowa or Tennessee next year to be stretched back out. Similar anniversary inn to Lendy Castillo
You can say what you want, however, modern economics tells us that if the cubs start the season successfully and ticket sales are up there is NO WAY the cubs can give up players and lose that much money again.
Not only that but at 2.5mil ticket sales that s a 500k loss over the usual 3mil they get that s AT LEAST 30mil right there. THat figure anniversary inn is just for tickets. THey make at least 70 percent of that in concessions.
If I recall anniversary inn even with a 145mil payroll back when the Cubs spent money they were still profitable. Think about that for a minute .. How much would they make if they kept the team at 500 and didn t let the payroll fall under 100mil? Which it s under right now!
None of that puts the Ricketts in any sort of precarious financial straits. anniversary inn If nothing else, then their remaining money could buy up the debts and still leave them all more comfortable anniversary inn than any MLB player for the rest of their lives.
Nothing is precarious associated with the ownership structure. You are trying to make the point that the FO will not flip flippable assets at the deadline for prospects if the team has first half success. I think that is a reasonable assumption, but if assets anniversary inn are flipped anyway, it will likely be due to the return the FO would be getting, and it has nothing to do with the ownership structure.
Our system is as deep as it needs to be. We dont need anymore maybe prospect, or utility players. Unless someone is offer us some star power, we won t be trading guys just to acquire fringe prospects.
Yes. The our system depth is our strong point. We might have arguebly the deepest system in the league. anniversary inn What we lack is star power at the top. So if we trade someone to add prospects, it would have to be someone with star power. anniversary inn We have a surplus of AAA fillers and utility anniversary inn playing major leaguers.
Very serious. There is a reason why we lost more players in the rule 5 then anyone. Our IF prospects are as deep any team. Our OF is lacking depth at AAA, but we have some talent at the lower levels. And we have a tremendous surplus of #5/bullpen arm pitchers. Once again, we lack star power. anniversary inn So if we trade someone, it won t be for another anniversary inn potential #5 starter and a utility OF. It will be for someone with star potential.
Serioulsy. The cubs may have an intriguing lower level system but that s not saying that you have a deep system. I agree they may not be needing anniversary inn to take postion flyers where their best postion maybe utlity but you always can have more prospects as some look great now but may not in a year or 2. If you think the Cubs have a deep system then explain to me why they don t have the goods to go any make a trade for a Upton or a Shields or someone like that?
Think about it this way everyone .When the Ricketts anniversary inn company bought this club it was averaging 3mil tickets sold a year for the last decade I believe, so do you think their purchase price as well as debt payment strategy anniversary inn and business model were based on 3mil in tickets sold a year or 2.5mil anniversary inn which hadn t happened for a while before the Cubs were bought?
If the team lost 100 games again this year that numer would slip again maybe even to 2mil. If that happened even having a payroll of 60million the cubs would still lose money versus 100mil and 3mil tickets sold.
Got the link. It really does not provide any hard projections: as such, I lean towards Brett s view, as the Cubs now will have about league-averge run prevention but still have well-below league anniversary inn average run production.
Regarding the dollars made and ticket sales, why would I ever think that these are unrelated? I do think that the Cubs always have good sales (and sometimes spectacular sales), so this is not a concern: and that ticket sales are not the biggest form of revenue anymore. Your model for why the Tribune wanted a winning team sounds good, but it falls apart there: the team simply looks to be worth more if it s doing well. (That said, the Ricketts almost certainly could sell the Cubs at a profit this year.)
Has anyone actually run a business? The object from the owner of any business is not to just worry about what the resale value of the business is and only that. If that were the case teams would be flipped all the time.
From a business model standpoint you want your business to be solvent and pay you back or at least pay its own bills. If thats not the case then its a disaster. In the ricketts case the took heavy heavy amounts of debt to buy the cubs which means the business has to pay those loan payments as well.
What you a