Quote:

rufusTfirefly said:
Rumor around Chicago is that The Yankees want Felix Pie and I think Rich Hill in return, which wouldn't be such a bad deal for The Cubbies.



If that's all it would take, it would be quite an extaordinarily spectacular deal for the Cubs, even if they had to inherit all of A-Rod's contract. Keeping both Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambarno, their two top(healthy) players, and adding the best player in the AL? Hendry would probably crap himself.

Quote:

For years I've heard people complaining because The Cubs keep getting rid of their farm guys for established veterans, but I don't mind it. I don't want a chance of winning in five years, I want to win now. I like The Yankees model of letting a guy go through his growing pains on a small market club, and then picking him up when he becomes a stud. For years I railed against the "haves and have nots" system in baseball, but now I'm changing my tune. If that's what the owners and the league want, then a major market team like The Cubs should take advantage of it.



I am a prospectphile, and as such have a tendency to tout farmhands from time to time, although I've tried to temper my optimism over the years. It's true, prospects are far from sure things. Only a couple of years ago, the Cubs were considered to have the best collection of minor league pitching talent in baseball(and this was after having graduated Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano to the majors the year before), with more high-ceiling arms than they knew what to do with. Even a reasonably cynical person would have assumed that at least one would "make it", but due to a combination of poor roster management, freak injuries and simple poor performance, none have. Andy Sisco was left unprotected in the Rule Five Draft and was taken by the Royals(a foolish move by the Cubs, in my opinion). Bobby Brownlie, Chad Blasko and Luke Hagerty all succumbed to injuries. Ricky Nolasco, Renyel Pinto and Sergio Mitre were included in the awful Juan Pierre deal(who was, in a depressing but perhaps somewhat forseeable bit of irony, outperformed by Corey Patterson in Baltimore). Angel Guzman, one of the most touted pitching prospects of the last decade, might still make it, but he too has faced injury problems.

Throw in the way Prior and Wood fell apart, and it really becomes quite astonishing just how much talent has gone bad lately under the Cubs' watch. And you can't blame it all on Dusty Baker and his "leave the pitcher out there until their arm falls off" approach to managing.

That all being said, moderation in all things. You can't completely devalue the prospect. Trading Dontrelle Willis for Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca was not a good move, at the time, or in retrospect. Winning now is great, but if you're sacrificing winning later, make sure you're getting something that can actually help you win now. I think the worst trade since Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell was the now infamous Kazmir for Zambrano deal, which infuriated me, not only because of how obviously preposterous it was, but also because of the way the New York media tried so desperately to spin it in the Mets' favor.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.