Bleacher Bums Forum

2013 Park Factors (5 year average)
NL West    Giants 94,     Padres 95, Dodgers 95, D-Backs 104, Rockies 115                                                                                                     NL Central Cardinals 97, Pirates 97, Reds 101,    Brewers 101, Cubs 104

Lake/Sweeney fWAR 2.3
Fowler            fWAR 2.2

Getting away from the Padres/Dodgers/Giant parks will help, but not near enough to make up for the loss of Coors.  Fowlers OPS will fall, the question is how much.  Fowler with a sub .750 OPS is going to be somebody fans want to replace quickly and my guess is he'd be sub .720 with below average to bad defense.

The Dodgers are shopping all their non-Puig outfielders.  Can't imagine anyone taking any of them without the Dodgers eating a ton of money.  Even with them eating most of the contract, I'd have very little interest in Crawford or Ethier. 

Since money seems to be no object to the Dodgers, though, I'd like to see the Cubs ask them about Kemp.  Who knows, maybe they'd be willing to eat $90-$100 million of his remaining $128 million and make him an affordable LIAB gam.ble. 

Franklin Gutierrez has long been an example of people looking at defensive stats and taking them too seriously.  He has never been more than a mediocre hitter at the major league level, and he is always hurt.  No interest there for me.

Young is interesting as the RH half of a platoon if he comes cheap, but I wouldn't want him as an everyday guy.

One guy who is probably available and fits the DeJesus/pre-2013 Schierholtz profile (cheap, LH, non-power hitting OF who can get on base) is Norichika Aoki.  He is only making $2 million next year and is under control for 4 years (but could be non-tendered any time after 2014), so there's not really a downside if the Cubs could get him without giving up any of the top 8 or so prospects.  I could see the front office targeting him.

I saw the Cubs connected to Omar Infante twice today--first on ESPN's Rumor Central where they reviewed the second base market, and later on NSBB where their version of that ABTY guy mentioned him.  I don't know if that's enough smoke to indicate that the Cubs really are interested.  But at the right price, he could be a pretty decent upgrade at second base (and a nice guy to have to move around the infield and outfield once Baez and Bryant break in).

If we trade Castro to the Cardinals it could get us final revenge for the Brock deal or it would guarantee that Starlin is headin' for the HOF.

I understand Weeks as a pure stopgap/LIAB candidate.  This offseason is probably the last chance to trade Barney, because he'll be too expensive for his production by next offseason.  So if they were to trade him, I could see why it would be worthwhile to try to get a rebound season out of Weeks. 

From another angle, I wonder if taking on Weeks would make it easy to grab Aoki if he is available.  As I mentioned earlier today, he's very much a DeJesus/Schierholtz/Sweeney-like outfielder.  He's a logical target based on this front office's history.

I think I'd see Infante more as the Cubs' poor man's version (or maybe just middle income version) of Ben Zobrist.  He'd play second base this year, and then he'd move around between 2B/SS/3B/OF once prospects started establishing themselves.  He's no Zobrist...but having a league average-ish hitter in that kind of role would have some value.

Won't shock me if Cubs trade Castro this off-season but makes a lot more sense to see if he can return to his previous offensive form---and trade him next off-season.

Granted, his current trade value goes down next year if he repeats his 2013 season, but I think a lot more likely that he has a much better offensive season in 2014 and is a hot commodity again.

My guess is that Castro will always be somewhat mentally challenged on the field, so I don't want to see him blocking Baez at SS or having to move either to 2B.  Just a waste of value to move a legit SS to another position at such a young age.

Replacing Barney with NL average 2B offense would be a big upgrade.  Cubs 2B OPS (.572) was lowest in majors (only Toronto was below .600) and a whopping .137 points below NL average at the position (.709). So, I could see pursuing Infante. But, Rickie Weeks at 2B--after watching Barney field the position--will cause many of us to jump off a high bridge.  I'm against it.

Nor do I see the point of trading for someone like Dexter Fowler.  Fowler is a similar player to Denard Span and Nats had to trade a premier pitching prospect ( a top #40-60 range overall prospect) to get Span. Not worth it with Almora on the way in a year or two, seems to me. 

As far as position players go this off-season, I'd be interested in a right-handed hitting corner OFer with some pop. (No, not Alfonso Soriano--younger). As things now stand, 2014 outfield looks awful and, other than Soler, Cubs not really loaded with corner OF types (assuming Bryant can stay at 3B).