You're the GM (Game)

ZAN

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You're the GM of the Cubs this off-season. Here are the rules.

1. Money is not a problem. We have several revenue streams we will be cashing in this winter.
(Be within reason; we are not signing Price, Grienke, and Cueto)
- highlight guys you target and sign in green

2. Don't be "trade stupid"
(Oakland is not trading us Sonny Gray for CJ Edwards for Kyle Hendricks - TRY to be realistic)

What do you try to do with this 25 man heading into Opening Day next season?
 

beckdawg

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You're the GM of the Cubs this off-season. Here are the rules.

1. Money is not a problem. We have several revenue streams we will be cashing in this winter.
(Be within reason; we are not signing Price, Grienke, and Cueto)

2. Don't be "trade stupid"
(Oakland is not trading us Sonny Gray for CJ Edwards for Kyle Hendricks - TRY to be realistic)

What do you try to do with this 25 man heading into Opening Day next season?

The cubs have several ares of need. They are fine at C with Ross/Montero signed and Schwarber at C/LF mix. They are losing Herrera but with Alcantara in AAA and Baez already trying to find playing time I don't really see the infield as a big deal either. OF is a bit of a problem area. I believe Deno and Fowler are both FAs. Assuming they bring Cogs back in arbitration you need a #5 OF and a starting CF. Between Alcantara and Szczur they should be able to piece together a 5th OF on the cheap so I'm not that worried there. You could also find a ST invite guy to make the squad. But this topic clearly isn't about the #5 OF so who cares.

As for pitching, assuming they bring back wood they go 5 deep already with Rondon, Grimm, Ramirez, Strop, and Wood. Assuming you go with the traditional 12 man pitching staff you need 2 arms one of which being a lefty. In the starters, Harren is retiring and the #5 starter had something like a 4.50 ERA between all the guys they threw out there. Obvious problem area. Assuming Edwards sticks int he majors he can easily be one of the 2 missing BP arms. IIRC Richard is a lefty or perhaps I'm thinking of Cahill. Regardless you could bring either back or look for a lefty specialist to go with Wood.

So, that realistically leaves you two large FA needs being CF and a starter. With current salary commitments and probable arbitration the cubs are around $110 mil. I assume they will have around $30 mil more in payroll with signage, playoff revenue and tv ratings being up. The only two realistic options for CF are Span and Fowler. There's some talk of Heyward to the cubs but given he doesn't want to lead off and he's more a RF I don't think that makes a great deal of sense. I think Span will cost around $15 mil considering Rios got $11 mil to play a corner position for one year. I imagine Fowler costs around $20 mil. I don't really see any obvious trade options so it basically comes down to those two.

As for starters, there's 15-20 guys who are worth talking about which is a bit absurd. You should have around $15-20 mil to play with after making your choice in CF. It's kind of hard to realistically speculate on who will cost what. But the biggest thing for me is where is all the money going to come from for these starters? Typically speaking in a given offseason you have the top dog get <x> the #2 guy gets around <x - $5mil> and the #3 guy is around <x - $10 mil>. After that it's usually guys in the $15 mil range. I can see an argument made that the pitching is good enough this year that this model isn't going to be accurate. But if we assume Grienke and Price are the clear top 2 dogs, you still have Shark, Leake, Cueto, and Zimmermann behind them. And behind them you have guys like Lackey, Kazmir, Marco Estrada, Wei-Yin Chen, Yovani Gallardo, J.A. Happ, Brett Anderson and if he doesn't retire, A.J. Burnett.

As for starter trades, that's too difficult to speculate on. And honestly, I don't see that many trades happening because let's say you are San Diego for example with Tyson Ross/Cashner. Why would you deal either of them when you're looking at that many starters as FAs? Who's going to break the bank in terms of prospects when you can get a Lackey or a Kazmir maybe for $15 mil? My guess is the teams who might be looking to trade starters wait until the deadline next year to build value.

So, what would I do? I think you re-sign Fowler. I don't really see any reason to screw with something that worked. But I also don't really think you can give him more than a 4 year deal. As such, I think you toss a QO on him which should hurt his value some and if someone gives him more than a 4 year deal let them have him and focus more on Span. If Span doesn't work out either, you have some options in re-signing Jackson, giving Szczur a whirl, giving Alcantara another shot or possibly playing Castro/Baez in CF though that is obviously not ideal. As for the starter, Lackey makes a lot of sense to me on a 2-3 year deal. The cubs have some pitching it's just below AA. He provides a bridge to that. Obviously, if someone like Zimmermann goes for $15 mil over 4 years then you should jump on that instead but as I said I'm not 100% how the pitching market will develop. Basically, I'd get the best guy you can for a 4 year deal below $20 mil.

That takes care of the basic opening day roster. After opening day I think they will eye Pierce Johnson as a possible replacement in the rotation around the start of July if Hammel/Hendricks aren't pitching well. You could also eye a trade to improve the rotation at the deadline possibly including Hendricks/Hammel or Johnson as well as probably better prospects.

I also expect the cubs to make a few minor trades to move some rule 5 eligible players like Vogelbach because I'm not sure they will be able to fit them on the roster and let's face it, guys like Vogelbach, Corey Black, and Daury Torez probably don't figure into plans. Trading them for a young lefty reliever could make a lot of sense to strengthen the bullpen.

Some have also mentioned the idea of signing and trading for a second starter. I'm highly dubious on that. Only way I see that going down is if someone who's too good to pass up becomes available and you do a large trade. For me that would be someone like Julio Teheran or the aforementioned Gray but again I don't think that's likely. Some of the lessor names mentioned around the deadline like Tyson Ross and Carlos Carrasco I certainly wouldn't mind having but I just don't really see the Padres or Indians getting what they will want to move either given the FAs.
 

ZAN

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I Bring Back

Chris Denorfia (outfield glove - hits LHP well)
Trevor Cahill (he earned himself a 1yr deal this post-season)
Austin Jackson (see below)


My Free Agency Targets


Main Starting Pitchers Targeted
1. David Price - heavy
2. Jeff Samardzija - medium
3. Scott Kazmir - medium
4. Jordan Zimmerman - medium
5. John Lackey - kick the tires (Jon Lester connection)

Position Players
1. Jason Heyward - heavy*


Relievers Targeted
1. Antonio Bastardo - heavy


*My goal is to attempt to target Jason Heyward to be our everyday RF, while attempting to move Soler or Schwarber on the trade market. It pains me to do so, but what we just watched is what happens in the playoffs. Mistakes are magnified, and we can't have two 40-grade fielders at our corners. It's one or the other, and I'll take the more advanced bat of the two in Kyle Schwarber. If we don't find a perfect deal, we will go into next year with our playoff outfield & and pray that we can outhit our mistakes.

My optimal trade partner - the San Diego Padres

We trade:
Jorge Soler
Starlin Castro
Kyle Hendricks
either CJ Edwards or Duane Underwood

San Diego trades
Tyson Ross
Craig Kimbrel
- possibly Melvin Upton Jr. as a throw in? Not sure I want that, but it might be a deal breaker for SD if we don't take him. We have $ to spend.

Analysis: Do we overpay? Yes. Probably. But Kyle Hendrick plays better in a PETCO Park than he does at Wrigley. We need young arms that miss bats, and Ross does that for us. Kimbrel gives us the best closer in all of baseball, and we will be able to slot Rondon down to the 8th, and Strop down to the 7th (along with Bastardo for situational left handed relief).


25-Man Roster

I'll carry 11 pitchers and 14 position players to start the year with all the extra off-days worked in.

C- Miguel Montero
1B - Rizzo
2B - Baez
SS - Russell
3B - Bryant
LF - Schwarber (emergency catcher)
CF - Austin Jackson
RF - Jason Heyward

Bench
David Ross
Chris Denorfia
Chris Coghlan
BJ Upton
Arismendy Alcantara
Tommy La Stella

Starting Rotation
1. Jake Arrieta
2. David Price
3. Jon Lester
4. Tyson Ross
5. Scott Kazmir

Bullpen
Travis Wood - long relief/situational lefty/spot starter
Trevor Cahill - spot starter/high leverage ground ball guy/middle relief
Antonio Bastardo - high leverage situational lefty
Pedro Strop - 7th inning specialist
Hector Rondon - set up man
Craig Kimbrel - closer
_________________________________

Farm Notes:

I'll be accelerating Albert Almora. We need his + contact and + defensive tools badly in our lineup. If he's producing at AAA by the ASB, he'll be up and playing every day during the second half, giving us a pretty good outfield, defensively. Until then, Austin Jackson will get another shot to prove he can be a table setter/difference maker.

Billy McKinney will continue to move at his pace.

I'd float around the names of Vogelbach/Johnson/Sands/Candelario...if they are "deal breakers" with someone at winter meetings for a piece we need (I think bench bats are weak on this 25 man roster) - I'd most likely part with them to get another position player with some pop off the bench.
 

FrankieLyrical

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People really want to get the Shark back, huh?
 

ZAN

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People really want to get the Shark back, huh?

He was fine with us on the North Side, and wouldn't be expected to be more than our 4th. He lost himself $ with his tenure in Oak/CWS. Could come back cheaper than we expect.
 

FrankieLyrical

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He was fine with us on the North Side, and wouldn't be expected to be more than our 4th. He lost himself $ with his tenure in Oak/CWS. Could come back cheaper than we expect.

Maybe. I don't want him though
 

JP Hochbaum

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Go after two starters with cost control in Tyson and Tehran (spelling?). Rotation becomes Arrieta, Lester, Tyson, Tehran, HEndricks. With loads of injury depth in the minors.

I will stick with BEckDawgs ideas on the bullpen.

As for the lineup, I would sign HEyward, we need better defense and more contact type hitters. This means we try stick HEyward in CF and leadoff, or trade Soler for one of those pitcher above. We would also likely have to trade Baez to get the other pitcher.

So the lineup after trades would look like this:

OF - Schwarber, Heyward, (Fowler, Span, A. Jackson)

IF - Rizzo, Castro, Russel, Bryant, Montero

My thinking is that I would rather spend 200 million on an everyday player over a pitcher who can get hurt. STay with the idea of trading our hitters to obatin cost controlled pitchers and load up depth there.
 

CSF77

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To start the biggest needs are CF and a top of the rotation. Even Maddon said that was the biggest problem. They need another TOR.

The easy way to address this is to sign Zimmerman. He would cost no talent and becomes the new #3. After that they have to replace or Resign Fowler. I would and I believe what they will do is move Bryant to CF and Baez to 3B. Let Almora develop in Iowa some the promote him to let his glove play a factor later season.

Other then that they need to bolster their middle relief. Wood and Cahill were invaluable there but not for the price they are making. But a combo like those 2 pretty much were the reason why they even got this far. A very underestimated factor.
 

FirstTimer

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I think this offseason might be pretty straight forward for the Cubs.

-Fowler or Span. My money is on just bringing back Fowler.

-Signing two SP's. I expect the Cubs to be involved with every big name out there. Price, Grienke, Cueto, Zimmerman etc. I fully expect them to sign one or two of the top guys and don't be shocked to see them grab Shark on a discount.
 

Raskolnikov

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I really don't like going after Free agent pitchers or even tradable ones all who are on or need big contracts and getting older. That said, if a special guy comes around you do it in these championship windows. I think this pitching class is special.

If Ross can be pried by all means you do that, but don't trade your starting hitters. I would be ok moving Baez, and keeping Castro, but move one of them and pair the other with Russell while continuing to develop ammo.

I actually try to sign both Greinke and Price. I believe in the one big FA pitcher per year philosophy. Or at least every other year if you are serious and have money.

Either guy is better then the guy who will be available next year, or the year after. They both can pitch and have adjusted to declining velocity already.

I don't like Zimmerman as much. Just I really like stuff as opposed to mechanics speed changers.

Ross-Greinke-Price-Shark I go after them all and hope for 2. I then stay with those 4 pitchers for a 3-5 year world series window while drafting nothing but pitcher. The Cubs can literally stand pat.

Yes...Fowler to center field might be the best option. However, Austin Jackson on the cheap despite failing his tryout, or trusting Almora to try for it until trade deadline might be best if that means the second pitcher money.

1. CF (Almora/Fowler/Span/Jackson)
2. Rizzo
3. Bryant
4. Schwarber
5. Soler
6. Baez
7. Montero
8. P
9. Russell


Literally just stand pat or buy the right CF. This is a rare opportunity. I prefer 1. Greinke 2. Ross 3. Shark 4. Price maybe a Latos who might turn around. Or pulling Johnson out of the hayfield and giving him a shot.

There isn't much left to do, Epstein did it. The rest is up to the players.
 

PatrickShart

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I agree....not a big Zimmerman fan.

Now if they signed either Greinke (which I prefer) or Price.....THEN add Zimmerman as well, ok.

I'd Zimmerman as the "B"...but they still need another "A"

If they can't sign Greinke or Price...I'd like to see them trade for Sonny Gray. If they can move a package of Soler, Castro, Baez...Edwards....for him - great. (Not all...but probably 2 of them). Hopefully not Schwarber...but if that's what it takes, so be it. Maybe get Gray and Doolittle both

Then, they need to get better defensively in the OF. So moving one of Schwarber or Soler for an arm...then go after Heyward.
 

dreadpirateroberts

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Here's what I'd do:

– Re-sign Dexter Fowler to a 2-year extension

– Re-sign the bullpen arms of Trevor Cahill, Jason Motte, and Travis Wood to team-friendly deals

– Re-sign Chris Denforia and Chris Coglan to team-friendly deals

– Sign John Lackey to a two-year deal with a team option after the first year

– Trade for Indians pitcher Carlos Corrasco


This is what the team would look like:

Starting Pitching:

1. Jake Arrieta
2. Jon Lester
3. Carlos Corrasco
4. John Lackey
5. Kyle Hendricks

Bullpen:

LR: Travis Wood
MR: Trevor Cahill
MR: Neil Ramirez
MR: Justin Grimm
SU: Jason Motte
SU: Pedro Strop
CL: Hector Rondon

Starters:

C: Montero
1B: Rizzo
2B: Castro
SS: Russell
3B: Bryant
LF: Schwarber
CF: Fowler
RF: Soler​

Bench:​
Ross
Baez
LaStella
Denofria
Coghlan​
 

SilenceS

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Tim Kurkjian(SP?) said last night after the game that he guarantees the Cubs sign a big name pitcher. So, theres that.
 

DanTown

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Tim Kurkjian(SP?) said last night after the game that he guarantees the Cubs sign a big name pitcher. So, theres that.

If the Cubs go for a big time SP via FA, I wonder if that makes them more or less likely to move Kyle Schwarber to C.
 

chibears55

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It gonna be pretty simple...

Sign Price
Trade for another SP
Bullpen help
Improve the hitting on bench
Sign or trade for CF

2 guys I hope not to see back is Ross and Hammel

I think Baez will be traded and possibly Soler

Price and Heyward are probably their main FA targets...


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk
 

Raskolnikov

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I agree....not a big Zimmerman fan.

Now if they signed either Greinke (which I prefer) or Price.....THEN add Zimmerman as well, ok.

I'd Zimmerman as the "B"...but they still need another "A"

If they can't sign Greinke or Price...I'd like to see them trade for Sonny Gray. If they can move a package of Soler, Castro, Baez...Edwards....for him - great. (Not all...but probably 2 of them). Hopefully not Schwarber...but if that's what it takes, so be it. Maybe get Gray and Doolittle both

Then, they need to get better defensively in the OF. So moving one of Schwarber or Soler for an arm...then go after Heyward.

The thing with Zimmerman being a B though is I keep hearing A- money thrown around for him. I'd rather pay the A+ money of Greinke/Price and get an A to A- player for sure than pay A- money and restrict my future for a stop gap high end #3 starter in Zimmerman, and that is his ceiling.
 

JZsportsfan

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I don't think Gordon is a good move. If the Cubs want to go after an OF, I much rather add Heyward. He is elite defensively and gets on base. Both things that plagued the Cubs over the course of the season. I think the rest of the Cubs defense will shore up over time, but adding Heyward would be a huge addition in that regard.

I think adding 2 more SP is the biggest thing. Ideally, one would be a TOR arm, with the other being a MOR arm. It would also be nice to a highly dependent arm for the pen. They do those things and I think this team wins 100 games next year
 

FirstTimer

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If the Cubs go for a big time SP via FA, I wonder if that makes them more or less likely to move Kyle Schwarber to C.

I would say less(and FWIW I think it has zero to do with them signing a big time SP via FA).

IMO Theo isn't dumb, He knows elite bats have a shorter shelf life at catcher for the most part. Especially if the defense isn't there to balance it out(see Molina, Yadier.)

You don't want to risk losing the offense over some sub par defensive catching. If Schwarber were an elite or even a "+" defensive catcher we'd be having a different discussion but he's not. Having him play catcher really doesn't do much for you. Especially if you Contreras keeps developing and he can backup/learn from Montero
 
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DJMoore_is_fat

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We were so successful this year (far beyond what most of us hoped) I'm afraid to tinker with our formula too much. I'm also weary of making of huge investments to SP's over 30. And it's important to realize we can always add high impact players (both pitching and position players) at the trade dead line. Look what it's done for the Mets.

So I'd be pretty conservative about what type of moves we make. I'd be extremely wary of signing Price or Grienke. So here are the few moves I'd do this off-season.

1) Sign Jordan Zimmerman to a 5-year/$100M contract.

2) Acquire Tyson Ross (SP) from San Diego in exchange for Javi Baez.

3) Sign Ben Zorbrist to a 2-year deal. With Baez gone and Addison Russell frequently hurt, Zorbrist will maintain our depth with Castro. Zorbrist has multiple connections to Chicago (Illinois-born and long time Joe Maddon favorite). Its amazing he's only making $3M this year.

4) Trade Jason Hammell for a mid-tier prospect and eat $4.5M of his contract.

5) Acquire Zach Britton from BAL for Dylan Cease (P) and Donnie Dewees (OF). You hate to give up a guy in Cease who throws 95+ but we have a better hard thrower (Underwood) waiting in the wings. The allows Rondon to move to the 8th inning and Strop to full middle relief - along with Grimm, Richards, Cahil.

6) Sign Denard Span to a 2-year deal. Span is a savy vet who consistently generates high OBP% and will be a lower cost replacement to Fowler in CF.


CF Denard Span
LF Kyle Schwarber
1B Anthony Rizzo
3B Kris Bryant
RF Jorge Soler
SS Addison Russell/Ben Zorbrist
2B Castro/Zorbrist
C Montero

SP1 Arrieta
SP2 Lester
SP3 Zimmerman
SP4 Ross
SP5 Hendricks

Bullpen:
Grimm
Cahill
Wood
Ramierz
Strop
Rondon
Britton
Richard
 

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