[Pun]

Yup, leave it to a Cub fan to start the off-season thread....

Looks like the Cubs are getting Rudy Jaramillo:

SI
ESPN

I like this pickup. Jaramillo is regarded as a hitting guru. I know he worked in a band box for a while, and that may contribute to some of his players' big numbers, but even guys that are no longer on the Rangers go back to him in the off-season. I'm hoping he can get Soriano to regain some of his form. It's nice to see the new ownership making somewhat of a splash. I just hope they do the same with players.

It's interesting that Bradley is not mentioned in those articles. I guess it's a forgone conclusion that he's gone. Rumor is that Bradley will be swapped for Burrell shortly after the World Series.

[Outback Frito Pendejo]

Almost 2 days later and no Peavy jokes???


Forgot where I saw it, but I read an article about Papelbon explaining that the Sox have tinkered somewhat with his delivery to trade off between velocity and control. More notably, he has become almost exclusively a fastball pitcher, despite having come up as a starter with decent secondary pitches. I am concerned about the idea of shopping him to fill other holes, since Bard has so little track record. I suppose it would open the option of re-signing Wagner while seeing if Bard pitches well a second time around the majors, or if Delcarmen can step up.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Can Rudy teach Bradley how to count to 3?

[Pun]

It's official.

CHICAGO -- The Cubs hired former Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo on Wednesday to be the newest member of manager Lou Piniella's staff.

"Rudy Jaramillo is widely regarded as the premiere hitting instructor in the game," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said in a statement. "The addition of Rudy to our franchise is a strong statement from our new owners, the Ricketts family, and we thank them for allowing us to move quickly to fill this important role with the best in the business."

Might not be huge in the grand scheme of things, but it is encouraging that Ricketts signed off on the deal and (so far) doesn't seem to be going cheap.

[Lucky]

I don't mean to mock, but you should really pace yourself if you're posting official news about the hiring of hitting coaches.

I don't know why I'm surprised Boston fans have by and large turned on Papelbon so quickly and are so ready to move him a year or 2 after comparing him to Mo, but I'd certainly be worried about that if I was a Boston fan. I know Epstein and Co have a generally very cold and professional approach and for the most part I think that's wise, but moving one of the top young closers over a bad season because you assume a kid like Bard will be able to do the job is a big risk. If they do it there shouldn't be one Red Sox fan alive surprised if the Sox are desperately searching for a closer come June.

[Pun]

Oct 21, 2009 19:12:44 GMT -5 Lucky said:

I don't mean to mock, but you should really pace yourself if you're posting official news about the hiring of hitting coaches.

If it was anyone besides Jaramillo, it wouldn't be news.

And like I said, I'm mainly posting it because it's an encouraging sign that Ricketts may actually be willing to spend money.

[Eric O'Mac]

Are you saying that the Cubs have the best coaching staff on paper?

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Oct 21, 2009 19:49:17 GMT -5 Pun said:

And like I said, I'm mainly posting it because it's an encouraging sign that Ricketts may actually be willing to spend money.

He won't have a choice if he wants to move Bradley, Sori, or Z since he's going to have to pay chunks of those salaries.

[Pun]

There's never been any mention of moving Sori. Z will not be moved. All that was just talk during the season. And the rumor is that Bradley will be moved for Burrell. It's being said the deal is already done in principle, and they are waiting until after the World Series to announce it.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Did Bruce Levine report that?

[Tommy]

Oct 21, 2009 20:16:37 GMT -5 Eric O'Mac said:

Are you saying that the Cubs have the best coaching staff on paper?

Well done. +1

[Lucky]

Oct 21, 2009 21:48:13 GMT -5 Pun said:

And the rumor is that Bradley will be moved for Burrell. It's being said the deal is already done in principle, and they are waiting until after the World Series to announce it.

Mind if I ask where? I look but all I see is the Chicago Sun Times saying that Burrell and the Rays MIGHT be a possible avenue to unload Bradley because the Rays wanted him last winter and settled on Burrell. But I just read half a dozen articles and (a) they all seem to lead back to the Chicago Sun Times article that just speculates and (b) the most any of them say is that Tampa might be interested and Chicago is pushing. I easily could have missed something.

Its a terrible trade for Tampa straight up. Burrell is owed 1/$7M. Bradley is owed 2/$21M. Unless the Cubs give up a crazy amount of money that I doubt the commish would approve, find a terrible contract of Tampa's to take on, or send over some cheap talent I don't see how that makes any sense for Tampa.

And I say that saying that I think Bradley's PROBABLY the better player and that Chicago should just hold onto him if that option wasn't so clearly off the table with the way their relationship (shockingly) went. But at an extra year and $14M its just insane for a small market team to take that on because they think an injury prone certifiable lunatic has a better chance of rebounding.

[Pun]

I think this is from MLBTradeRumors.com, but I'm not sure:

Pat Burrell will likely be the Cubs first Off-Season Acquisition

The Cubs and Rays will likely swap free agent busts Milton Bradley, and Pat Burrell shortly after the World Series concludes. As first reported by the Sun Times, Chris de luca, the Cubs will send Milton Bradley and some salary relief to the Rays for Pat Burrell. The Cubs and Rays have been having conversations for the last couple weeks, and it appears that they have a deal set in stone, and are waiting till the World Series is over to announce it. This is Plan A for the Cubs, they are so confident this will happen that they don't have a plan B.

Burrell, 32, hit .221 with 14 homers and 64 RBI's no doubt had a down year, but the impressive .294 average at Wrigley is certainly a good sign for Burrell, who will be playing in more of a hitters park playing half his games at Wrigley.

Burrell also will likely be that RBI bat that manager Lou Piniella wants, and will likely benefit from hitting in the middle of the Cubs lineup. Despite a down year, I would still take Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Pat Burrell, and a healthy Alfonso Soriano in the middle of the order, over just about any other lineup in the NL.

Another reason for the Cubs being anxious to finish this deal, is because it will give them more money to lure free agent 2B Chone Figgins away from his other suitors, and provide the Cubs with speed at the top of the lineup.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

The Rays won't even start the season with Price just to avoid his arb clock but they'll take on a pricey clubhouse cancer? Really?

[Pun]

It could very well be bullshit. Hence why I said it's a rumor.

[Mikey]

If there was one year left on the deal, I could see Tampa maybe trying to get a quick upgrade. Two years on the deal makes no sense for the Rays.

If anything, they're gonna want to move salary to re-sign Crawford. If they think Jennings is ready though, it's not out of the question for them to let Crawford sign elsewhere to free up cash. I think that would be dumb, but it's possible. But I don't think they'd turn around and use that cash to Bradley.

Though if this did happen, it'd be fun to see Bradley go off on the Tampa fans for the cowbells, comparing them to Pavlov to the black players' dogs. Or something asinine like that.

[Lucky]

Oct 22, 2009 7:06:20 GMT -5 Pun said:

I think this is from MLBTradeRumors.com, but I'm not sure:

Regardless of where it comes from, its just bad journalism.

As first reported by the Sun Times, Chris de luca, the Cubs will send Milton Bradley and some salary relief to the Rays for Pat Burrell.

Sure enough, De Luca is the Sun Times writer being credited in all my articles. They all seem to be referring to an article from Oct 8th that does nothing more than speculate that TB might be a fit and that Chicago is pushing to do something. De Luca specifically describes the Burrell deal as a "best case scenario."
www.suntimes.com/sports/deluca/1813475,CST-SPT-deluca08.article

Unless there's another De Luca news bit in the last 2 weeks that advances this story or the writer from that blurb has an unnamed source it just looks like the terrible and dishonest journalism you can usually credit most false rumors in sports to. One reporter speculates on a trade making clear that he's jumping to conclusions for the sake of the article. Another reporter quotes him and makes the speculation part less clear, making it seem as if the deal may be more of a reality. Enough shitty journalists repeat the original reporter's rumor or you play enough chains of "telephone" and eventually what started as speculation becomes a "rumor" and then a "basically done" situation.

People get on baseball writers for being so inaccurate with this stuff but over the last few years I've taken to following the path of the rumor and it always seems to amount to this situation. The original writer (usually the credible guy people know) says something vague and from there it takes off with bad journalists either exaggerating the story or erroneously repeating false information to spice up a story.

Again, I could be missing something but I spent a little while searching last night and a little this morning and didn't turn anything up. And MLBTradeRumors doesn't seem to have anything on it since they said that a trade wasn't imminent and Chicago was talking to multiple people on Oct 16th. Which was really little more than a throwaway line in an article about Jaramillo.
blogs.dailyherald.com/node/2753

Along those lines, I'd caution against drawing the conclusion that a potential Jaramillo hire means that the Cubs will reconcile with Milton Bradley because Jaramillo and Bradley had a good rapport in Texas in 2008. The Cubs are still discussing a possible Bradley trade with more than one team, but a deal does not appear imminent.

www.mlbtraderumors.com/milton_bradley/
www.mlbtraderumors.com/chicago_cubs/index.html

EDIT: Please note, I'm not scolding you for not doing the research I did. I'm just saying. The reason so many of these rumors sound like total horseshit is because if you follow them back logically through 1 or 2 chains of sources they tend to in fact be horseshit.

[Pun]

Again, hence the reason I called it a rumor.

[Pun]

MLBTR has learned that the Cubs and White Sox have expressed interest in free agenty lefty Aroldis Chapman. The Cardinals have been more aggressive than those clubs, and plan to meet with Chapman next week.

The Chapman tour began yesterday in New York, as the 21-year-old's agency decided not to make MLB clubs come to Andorra. ESPN's Jorge Arangure Jr. believes Chapman will command a contract in the $40-60MM range.

I must be out of the loop. Who is Aroldis Chapman?

[punk/core]

He's that young guy who defected from Cuba.

[Pun]

Couple more tidbits from Ken Rosenthal

Multiple teams are in contact the Cubs about outfielder Milton Bradley, with one source saying, "You would be shocked at the level of interest."

The Cubs remain confident that they can trade Bradley without assuming the vast majority of the $21 million remaining on his contract over the next two years.

New owner Tom Ricketts has set a limit for how much money the Cubs will include in a deal, one source says. The Cubs can take back a contract but pay only a fixed amount of cash.

If Hendry is able to pull off a deal without eating a ton of money, it will be a miracle.

Former Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo might be a steal for the Cubs, even at more than $800,000 per season over three years.

Players rave about Jaramillo, and an executive who knows him well says that Jaramillo works hard, instills confidence in hitters and excels with mechanics.

Another exec says that Jaramillo also relates exceptionally well to Latin players — good news for the Cubs, who need left fielder Alfonso Soriano and catcher Geovany Soto to bounce back from subpar seasons.

If those two are able to come back strong, I don't see why the Cubs can't contend again next season.

Oct 22, 2009 15:14:22 GMT -5 punk/core said:

He's that young guy who defected from Cuba.

Damnit, punker. I was hoping Luckypedia would chime in.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

There's no way Chapman is 21. Didn't Cuba claim the Hernandez brothers were around that age too? Anyway I hear Chapman is pretty good and throws over 100 mph so there's that. Kick those tires, Omar.

[Jack Quinn]

Oct 22, 2009 16:10:56 GMT -5 Pun said:

Damnit, punker. I was hoping Luckypedia would chime in.

Nice.........EXALT

[Outback Frito Pendejo]

Oct 22, 2009 15:09:04 GMT -5 Pun said:

MLBTR has learned that the Cubs and White Sox have expressed interest in free agenty lefty Aroldis Chapman. The Cardinals have been more aggressive than those clubs, and plan to meet with Chapman next week.

The Chapman tour began yesterday in New York, as the 21-year-old's agency decided not to make MLB clubs come to Andorra. ESPN's Jorge Arangure Jr. believes Chapman will command a contract in the $40-60MM range.

I must be out of the loop. Who is Aroldis Chapman?

His people were trying to get contracts without workouts previously, raising questions about how good his stuff really was, but for a while the Red Sox and Yankees were rumored to be bidding for him. He was hanging out in Spain after defecting from Cuba

[Beer Baron]

Aroldis Chapman is going to be good. From an article I read in Sporting News or some other type of magazine a few days ago said that's his style is similar to a Randy Johnson. Obviously being that he's a lefty, but somewhere closer to 6'7". The caveat is that he may not be able to jump right into a big league rotation, he may spend a year in AAA to prove he can handle hitters of AAA and beyond caliber. I heard he strikes out a lot, but also walks a ton. He was also clocked at a high of 102. I'm sure all the big teams will be trying to sign him.