Cubs likely active players in free agency

And why does everyone want Castro at third? His main problem is throwing accuracy, so why would you have him make even longer throws? And please please please no Pena again in 2012.

i dont want him, but i understand that thought….

Reyes on the other hand seems to be a little brittle, expensive and plays a position we have starlin castro playing.

my hope is that Z is back and we get out of the Soriano contract somehow.

It will take awhile, but make those attributes a priority when you draft pitching and start to transform your farm system from Rookie-ball on up. Within 5 years, you’d be the envy of every other mlb team.

moving Castro to 3rd is just a dumb idea. His bat is much more special at SS than 3rd base. Theo and the band should bring in their manager and coaches to work with Castro and see if he can stay at shortstop in 2012.

If they move him now, he won’t likely come back.

I don’t get why people continue to advocate another position for him. He’s not moving.

Minor signings seem more likely. The biggest splash could be a guy like Edwin Jackson or Paul Maholm on a 3 year deal.

Hope to see DJ L and Ryan Flaherty compete at 3rd.

Wouldn’t a stat savvy guy like Theo recognize that a good, young pitcher’s greatest value is as a starter — even if said pitcher has had one essentially lost season due to injury?

And, speaking of injuries, it seems a glaring oversight to sing the praises of Jose Reyes without mentioning his lengthy DL stints. I’d lean toward staying away from him unless he could be signed for a short-term or highly conditional deal.

Also, if Brett Jackson does head north with the team out of spring training, I’d assume that means Marlon Byrd will play right field. I do wonder, though, whether it would be worthwhile to leave Byrd in center for one last season so he could mentor BJax, who could play right field most of the time.

1. No, Castro is not moving yet. And, no, it is not likely he would be “more productive” than Ramirez. Eventually? Perhaps… but that’s too big a jump yet.

2. The title of your post is that the Cubs will be active in FA (a debatable contention… which is then further confused by essentially doing nothing but signing one SP), but then they are unlikely to even pursue either of the two biggest prizes?

3. A player whose most pronounced skill is speed… and has been dogged for three years by leg problems? And as a three hitter, to boot? Um, no thanks.

4. Mostly right in theory, but, personally I don’t want Jackson. For all his talent, there’s a reason he’s played for SIX teams in four seasons.

5. As daver noted above, this is likely to be very wrong. Cashner has far more value as a SP. And all of this “we shouldn’t ‘mess with’ Cashner as a SP” is simply misunderstanding the kid’s history. He was a reliever one year in college. Otherwise, he was a SP his whole life, including in the Cubs’ minor league system until the Cubs tried to get cute to bring him up to help the pen. But there’s absolutely no reason on earth to not give Cashner another shot as a SP, particularly given how weak the Cub system is at SP. If he proves he can’t hack it, he can always be bumped to the pen.

6 & 7. So Theo is just supposed to “figure out” who is going to play RF… and that guy then automatically bats 4th? What? Lou… is that you? And as daver noted, Byrd is reasonably likely to slide to RF unless he is dealt.

And as a last thought… there’s no reason to write off 2013 in general yet. And there are also a fair handful of prospects who could be contributors (I’m not claiming star status, but all have the potential to help) to the 2013 Cubs: Vitters, Clevenger, Szczur, Ha, Beliveu, Dolis, Jokisch, McNutt, Rhoderick, Whitenack, Lake, Kurcz). All those players, and possibly a couple more could contribute, given normal or slightly advanced development curves. Now, surely not all of them will be Cubs in 2013… but it is folly to think there’s no possibility of any help coming from the minors in 2013.

The Cubs need a 1B and big bat, and Fielder checks those boxes. The Cubs need that big bat to play every day. Reyes has a bad injury history – even in his “comeback” this year, he missed 36 games. Fielder missed 0 games this year and hasn’t missed more than 5 in the past several years.

I am not sure that they will be. They have certainly been tight lipped about any potential signings, as opposed to say Brian Cashman, who claims to be giving “due dilligence” to just about everyone. Or the Fish, who seem to casting quite a large net. Could be due to the manager search, which seems to be their top priority.

I assume everyone is pleased there will now be an official rebuilding plan in place, but this shouldn’t have to mean we have to wait half a decade for some hope of a team to arrive. I would hope they would make several positive steps toward next year this off season. Certainly seems like they have some money to spend. And if they sign someone to a five year contract, the Cubs will have guaranteed money coming off the books right at a point when their farm system should be taking over their roster. That is when you can pluck the “right” plug-in FA. That being said, I don’t think the Cubs have to sign someone like Fielder. But the key to these first years might be setting up contracts so some big money falls off the payroll every year. A lot more money comes off the books in 2013. Certainly they can spend some this year if they so choose.

if you are pulling for Pete Mackanin to be the next Cubs manager. I mean, he did own you, with two of his career home-runs coming off of you. For some reason, I have a very clear memory of his April 19, 1976 HR off of you in the fourth inning. I think it was on a change-up, which, as we all recall, was your out pitch.