2012 Winter Meetings Rumors & Discussion (12/2 - 12/6)

[CubsFanBudMan74]

Hamilton is heading home per his twitter.

an 8 ball can change that right away...mr ricketts get on it!!

[Jack the Ripper]

an 8 ball can change that right away...mr ricketts get on it!!

I'm down!!

[CPorter07]

Hamilton is heading home per his twitter.

Signing with Tampa?!?

Oh, going home as in his place of rest... not nearly as interesting.

Jokes aside, how about the Rays ponying up on a 3 year deal for Hamilton? Not impossible with the money committed to Longoria and not much else there. Would Steinberg OK a 22-23M payroll uptick for the short term to take advantage of the Rays superior pitching for a couple more seasons?

[Jack the Ripper]

God love some of you guys for still giving a rip about the Cubs (not necessarily ABE32).

It's so cute that PSD has their little "correspondents" supposedly creatively loitering in the lobby at the WMs.

Tendering your overpaid players and praying for something in return, if you eat most of their salaries, is no way to be happy about an off-season.

I can see the Cubs signing a BP arm or two, and possibly another rotation arm.

Sure, there might be a decent bench player signed or something.

The Cubs are going to try and roll out a serviceable pitching staff and HOPE for one of those lightening-in-a-bottle seasons in, again, going the cheapest route possible.

The old Sveum, "Surprise some people," stuff.

AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN, if the Cubs are indeed reportedly willing to eat Soriano's and/or Marmol's salary, then that should be a hint and a half for your arse that the Cubs will then need to save money elsewhere.

The Cubs are not in any kind of position to remotely "overpay" for a player, which so many of you (and the media) pretty much statistically rationalize with every player signed.

It's simply not part of the current plan, as we're still in purging mode.

2013 will be better for sure, but still nothing to get excited about.

Oh, BB. lol He just can't stop coming back to let us all know how much he doesn't care.

[Yagyu+]

Danny Knobler:

Rays are favorites for Escobar.

Rays close to deal for Yunel Escobar. Derek Dietrich goes to Marlins.

[CPorter07]

Oh, BB. lol He just can't stop coming back to let us all know how much he doesn't care.

Interesting responses to 'BB'. Taking I should avoid.

[CPorter07]

Danny Knobler:

ABTY said this earlier on another site. Apparently Cubs were close at one point but backed out when it became obvious the bidding was going higher than they expected or at least were willing to go.

[cubsfan2206]

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show>>>Winter Meetings thus far

[northsider]

an 8 ball can change that right away...mr ricketts get on it!!

LOL this was actually really funny.

[Yagyu+]

NL Central related, Jeff Passan:

Hearing that Ludwick and Reds are getting close on deal. Cincinnati's offer has been out there, Reds expect it to get done.

[ABTY7]

ABTY said this earlier on another site. Apparently Cubs were close at one point but backed out when it became obvious the bidding was going higher than they expected or at least were willing to go.

Marlins wouldn't back off of Junior Lake for Escobar which the front office obviously felt was too steep consider the amount of negatives involved with Escobar...

[deltaclown]

Junior for Yunel seems reasonable, but I guess it's nice to know that the FO sees some potential there.

[eriod]

Interesting responses to 'BB'. Taking I should avoid.

Several months ago he gave us all a nice long rant about how he was leaving the site and never coming back.

But he came back.

For someone who is so much better and smarter than the rest of us he sure does seem to need our attention.

If you ignore him now you'll be doing yourself a huge favor.

[KyleJRM]

Marlins wouldn't back off of Junior Lake for Escobar which the front office obviously felt was too steep consider the amount of negatives involved with Escobar...

Yeah, that's too much, and I don't even like Lake that much.

[Yagyu+]

Yeah, that's too much, and I don't even like Lake that much.

I'm curious what the Cubs would have viewed as reasonable in exchange.