Dear Jim: Please Find me a #2....

Toronto and Cleveland would want for Burnett and Sabathia?

And would you be willing to part with that?

Shapiro seems to be convinced he can sign CC to a new contract, even if it takes until the offseason to do it, so there’s no way Cleveland is gonna trade CC. Besides, in what appears to be a well-balanced AL Central, Cleveland won’t be out of it by the trading deadline, so even if Shapiro privately thought he couldn’t sign him, I don’t see him pulling a white flag trade and pissing off his fan base.

And finally, even if Shapiro ends up NOT being able to sign CC to a new deal, Cleveland is the type of organization that will make some really good lemonade out of those two draft pick lemons they get as compensation.

Please also do this during the season when it will be neigh on impossible to pry a legitimate #2 pitcher away from any team (who will no doubt be able to walk away from us at the end of the year as a free-agent) for anything less than

a) an integral part of the team we have now
2) at least 2 of our best prospects, depleting the depth we hoped to have in coming years
d) another player with an albatross of a contract that the other team wants to get rid of

Sincerely,
Santoswoodenlegs

P.S. Also please get rid of the alternate blue tops. They suck.

IIRC, he isn’t exactly known as the best teammate, but maybe I’m thinking of someone else.

And what does acquiring a #2 SP have to do with the batting order? If there was ever any motivation to drop Fonzie downward, it would be the acquisition of Brian Roberts, not a SP….or a Theriot/Johnson combo at 1/2 (flip-flop them if necessary) that results in a cumulative .370 or higher OBP.

If Soto can continue to hit the cover off the ball, then he can slide to #5 to protect A-Ram with Kosuke-san going to #2; with Johnson or Theriot going to #7 or #8. But for now Kosuke-san is providing good protection for A-Ram.

I agree they need to look into this. Whether or not Gallagher can fill in is TBD. He was somewhat sharp last night, only to hang that 0-2 slider to C-Lee (LESSON LEARNED and you can bet Larry and Lou will discuss this with the “young man”).

I really don’t know who’s “available” and that’s mostly because we’re not even to Memorial Day yet. They have to hold their ground, if not the division lead and keep it close for another 6 weeks before things start to take shape on the trade front.

As for those blue tops, if it makes Z focus, go out there and mow them down, no matter how silly some think that may be, it’s enough to say, “keep them”. Besides, who gives a shit what the shirt looks like – within reason – if they continue to play well.

No doubt about it. Otherwise we will be looking at yet another disappointing ending to a promising season. This team is as strong as it has been in decades. You have to pull out the stops to get over the top if you are Jim Hendry.

Rich Harden WILL be available. Maybe also Tim Hudson.

i quite sure our major league gm Jim Hendry has tried and will continue to do so. Ive seen the post about a Bonderman type acquisition. he’s no better than what we have and i’m pretty sure most of what will be available wont be any better than what we have. i think that about the best we can hope for is our old friend greg maddux.

baseball is making record money again this year and even teams that arent in contention dont have to dump salary especially when it comes to pitching. i’ll say this tooif and i mean a big IF a pitcher of that caliber was available we still dont have near the prospects to get a pitcher of this caliber. sorry but we just dont have the mastersons, adam jones, phillip huges etc of the world. the prospects we do have—-we as cubs fans way overvalue.

In other words you want a No 1 quality SP to be our No 2. C.C. is clearly a No 1. I think a more attainable goal would be to add another solid No 3. I’d rather have Three No 3’s and One No 1 than a No 1, two No 3’s and nothing else. Still with me?

Three No 3’s plus Z should give the Cubs a chance to win on a very regular basis as has pretty much been the case thus far.

As others have pointed out, Sabathia is not a realistic option—particularly as the Indians will likely remain in contention in their division. And I’ve heard Burnett’s name mentioned before, but, who would you give up for him?

Again, the bottom line here is there is little to no appreciably good starting pitching available. And it’s still too early to say that the Cubs don’t already have all the starting pitching talent they need right now.

And the lineup again? Really? (Y’know, Dome was in the two-hole last night.)

is for Marshall and/or Hart to step up.

Preferably both.

He’s not too expensive, he had been improving every year, and he’s struggling a bit now. Although, with Peavy down, Young is now the Pads #1 by default.

No doubt about it. And even if he does I would argue the need to acquire another prime time starter pitcher.

The stars and moons are aligned for the Cubs in 2008 like they never have been before. Outside of starting pitching this team is as strong as it has ever been. The National League also majorly sucks.