Official Chicago Cubs Thread

[TheBest21]

Might as well start this one.

Acquisitions and Signings:
Aaron Miles- 2 yrs for 4.9 mil
Joey Gathright- 1 yr for 800,000
Milton Bradley- 3 yrs for 30 mil
Resigned Ryan Dempster- 4 yrs for 52 mil
Kevin Gregg- via trade, signed to avoid arbitration
Signed Michael Wuertz to avoid arbitration
So Taguichi- minor league deal
Aaron Heilman via trade
Luis Vizcanio via trade
David Patton- Rule 5
Prospects from Cleveland trade: Jeff Stevens, John Gaub, Chris Archer
Prospect Henry Williamson in Baltimore trade

Players Left
Kerry Wood- Free Agent
Henry Blanco- Free Agent
Jose Ceda- trade to Florida
Mark Derosa- Traded to Cleveland
Jason Marquis- traded to Colorado
Ronny Cedeno- traded to Seattle
Felix Pie- traded to Baltimore
Garrett Olson who was acquired from Baltimore and now traded to Seattle for Heilman

Well, the Cubs have been pretty busy this offseason. Have done a lot of deals but not the big one for Peavy. Now with Olson being traded to Seattle it will not likely happen at all because Olson was the prospect that the Padres were looking at along with a few others such as Josh Vitters. Although they could substitute Sean Marshall instead for a trade.

And finally announced the winning bid for the sale of the team.

With Wood leaving a big thing to solve will be the closer's role which will be fought between Gregg and Carlos Marmol. Marmol should win it. It seems like they've traded power for speed and left-handed bats which is ok but not sure how they'll replace DeRo's numbers.Hoping Harden can stay healthy for at least 25 starts. Bradley is a good signing but probably overpaid. Dempster had to be resigned because he was their best pitcher but maybe overpaid on that one as well.

Overall, I feel the team has improved a little but maybe could have done more and has restocked the farm system. That's ok to me because nobody in the Central has made any big signings at all. Mostly I'm worried about the bullpen and the power that was lost.

Discuss!

[TheNamelessPoet]

So...
Pie became Heilman???

[TheBest21]

Cubs sign Bako to one-year deal to back up Soto.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/art...=.jsp&c_id=chc

[TheBest21]

Cubs deal Rich Hill to Orioles for player to be named and deal Michael Wuretz to Oakland for two minor-leaguers. Knew the Hill trade was coming but not the Wuertz one. Guess Samardizja will be guaranteed a spot in the bullpen if he doesn't get the 5th starter spot.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/art...=.jsp&c_id=chc

[TheBest21]

Curt Schilling interested in joining the Cubs. Piniella sounds intrigued.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,0,27792.story

[Jeffy25]

boooo

[michaelg123789]

I don't think the Cubs improved this offseason tbh.

[200tang]

I don't think the Cubs improved this offseason tbh.

It's easier to improve a bad team than a good team. Did they need to improve a lot anyways though? It'd be hard to improve the Cubs with the Yankees snatching up some of the big FA's.

[Jeffy25]

The Cubs got better in areas that they needed to. I don't understand a couple of their moves though: Heilman and DeRosa mainly

[200tang]

Heilman is a pretty good reliever despite last year

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx...751&position=P

his K/9 were at his highest but his BB/9 had quite the spike along with HR/9. If you buy in to the NY media hype then Heilman should be better this year. By no means do I guarantee he'll return to form, but he's definitely worth a shot and I believe Cedeno was out of options with nowhere to go.

[DarthJaker]

Cubs should suck some @$$

[Jeffy25]

He may be good, but I thought the Cubs were trying to dump salary by moving Marquis. and then they sign Bradley to almost the same deal they were giving Marquis. and Heilman brought on salary, and they got rid of Olson for him....a pretty good prospect

[200tang]

Good point about Olson, but I imagine they're more concerned about winning now than gathering prospects. If they thought Heilman would raise their chances in return for 2 guys who aren't going to help them this year I can see why they would make the deal. It is a bit odd though I'll give you that.

[HoustonGM]

He may be good, but I thought the Cubs were trying to dump salary by moving Marquis. and then they sign Bradley to almost the same deal they were giving Marquis. and Heilman brought on salary, and they got rid of Olson for him....a pretty good prospect

They dumped Marquis to make payroll room FOR Bradley.

[Jeffy25]

They dumped Marquis to make payroll room FOR Bradley.

I thought they dumped the payroll of Marquis so they could take on Peavy. Everything I saw said this.