If you were one of the Chicago Cubs fans wringing your hands on Twitter yesterday, thanks to a litany of national baseball writers who insisted the Cubs were still “in” on Michael Bourn, you can relax. Michael Bourn will not be a Chicago Cub in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, or 2017, barring trades, of course. Yesterday, he signed a four-year, $48 million deal with the Indians.
Mercifully, that ordeal is now over, and we can turn back to the matters at hand, like bunting tournaments and whining 
about Tony Campana being DFAed. Unless, of course, your Carlos Marmol. He is busy attempting to dispense justice far and wide. Or at least in the Domincan Republic:
“I didn’t do anything,” Marmol said. “The stuff that she says is not true and I proved it. … It is about the money. The first thing, when they went to the police, they asked about money right away.”
Marmol said he knew the woman, Miledys Mejia Cepeda, because she grew up in his hometown. But he said he had never spoken to her before that Oct. 28 night, when he gave her a ride home from a party. Marmol said he was surprised when he learned of the charges from a radio report.
“They tried to make me scared,” he said. “They were going to (ruin) my reputation in baseball. The easy way is to (make a claim) and then I’d give them money. But I’m not going to give them money because I didn’t do anything.”
(snip)
Marmol’s attorney filed a countersuit to try to prove the accusation was a blackmail attempt. President Theo Epstein said the Cubs support Marmol and believe he’s innocent. Marmol said the Cubs “know what’s going on.”
Marmol said it’s not unusual for occurrences like this to happen in the Dominican because lawyers know it’s an easy way to blackmail well-paid players for money.
(Obligatory joke about knowing the accusation is false because Marmol’s aim isn’t that good). You guys know as well as anyone that I’m usually the first person to defend an alleged victim, but, in this case, something has just felt off about this allegation from the beginning. I’m glad the Cubs investigated the matter on their own before throwing their weight behind Marmol, and, at this point, I’m inclined to believe him unless other evidence comes out.
Are you worried about what the future will bring for Matt Garza? Matt Garza isn’t. Matt Garza is going to be allllll rriiiiiight.
Does Garza want to stay with the Cubs long-term?
“My goal is to go out there and pitch and prove that I’m healthy enough and make them want me to stay,” he said. “That’s my job. Right now there’s all the questions: ‘How is he going to come back? How is he going to rebound?’ Those are legitimate questions. I haven’t thrown off a mound competitively for two months. Now I’m getting back into it, feeling great. … I’m just excited to be pitching again. Not really too worried about what the future holds. All I know is April 1 is Game One and I want to be there.”
So . . no.
Hey, did you miss Wrigley Talk Friday on Sunday? No worries, you can catch up here or download from iTunes.
I would have liked to see the Cubbies sign a SERIOUS talent to a long term contract this winter.
Bourn just isn’t that serious a talent. He’s good, but not a game changer.
I’m glad they passed on him.
Honestly, Bourn went for less than I thought he would. For $12 million per, I could have seen Jed and Theo pulling the trigger on him. I was expecting that Bourn would get $15 million per.
So last night Zach Zaidman was going off about the same thing on the Score. Here’s my question to both him and you: Who is out there that you’d want to the Cubs to consider giving a long-term deal to?
I know this wasn’t directed at me…
But I wouldn’t have signed anyone long term this past off-season (even Edwin Jackson).
Next year, is when I would start trying to bring in some components long term…specifically starting pitching. My gut tells me that after 2013, the Cubs offense is going to start to quickly get better, but the pitching staff is full of holes at this point. If Josh Johnson is available, I’d go after him aggressively. Lincecum still hasn’t signed long term with the Giants. I think Phil Hughes is a Jackson type of player (but younger). I think Jon Lester is available…he hasn’t been quite as good for the last couple years, but he potentially very good #3 or even a #2 starter. Overall, the free agent class pitching wise is pretty damn weak…which isn’t good because this year’s group wasn’t too awesome either. Teams are locking up good young pitchers to long term deals right now.
My point is that there’s this contingent out there that is espousing this dual approach to rebuilding. They keeps saying ,”Why can’t we develop the kids and, at the same time, bring in one or two free agents to help this team compete?”
So my question is: Who are these 1-2 free agents that would be so good they would make this team competitive? Josh Hamilton? Michael Bourn? Who?
Its the same contingent that Bitch and Moan when signings and trades don’t work out our way. Probably the same contingent that complained about trading a setup man in the last year of his deal.
The lanscape of baseball as a whole has changed. At some point were gonna have to “probably” overpay for big names. Next year is gonna be very comparable to this year in terms of qaulity,quantity and age on the FA market.
Would I have paid for a player like Hamilton….no I wouldn’t have. Would I have have signed Michael Bourne to a 4/48 knowing we give up the draft pick and knowing his age etc. I have thought long and hard about this and I know this is unpopular and yes I may be very wrong and I accept that. But “YES” I would have pulled the trigger and done this deal. I understand he alone won’t make us a legit contender this year.
With that being said I believe in foundation so to speak. We haven’t had a legit leadoff hitter in quite sometime. I think it would have or could have led to getting other guys in better spots in the order which I believe their more suited for. The OF Defense would be vastly improved.
This year the list was short….
Hamilton
Upton
Greinke
And MAYBE Martin.
A Hamilton contract would have had to include a litany of escape clauses for the Cubbies regarding
drug/alcohol/behavior lapses.
After this season I gotta believe alot of things are gonna start to play out in terms of the building process. With that being said would you sign a Cano or an Ellsbury?
Cano would be a fortune…but might be worth it…I just don’t see him being available. I love Elsbury…but his injury history scares me.
The Cubs first game is on April 1st? April Fool’s Day? The schedulemakers must have fallen over themselves laughing when they scheduled that game…
After April 1st, none of us will be laughing.
Hey, sometimes if you don’t laugh, you cry.
Yep…that’s about right.
I can’t believe I’m not getting more kudos for my “Bourn Vacancy” headline. Do you know how long it took me to come up with that? I spent a whole 3 minutes thinking about it on the train!
Meh.
I don’t get it but I upvoted this post anyway.
I read somewhere Gordon Wittenmeyer mentioned we didn’t have the payroll space to sign Bourne…any truth or more of him talking out of his ass?
I’m guessing he spoke out of context. The Cubs have the payroll…unless they intend to divert funds to renovate the ballpark.
Just got interviewed for a piece in Men’s Health about how to talk to women about sports. I’m not sure I was the right person to ask. Heh.
I’m sure. You weren’t.
I can’t wait til the piece is published and its another “here’s how to convince your girlfriend to let you watch the game” or “pink hat or purple jersey, picking the right gift for your girl”
and your quote goes from “Girls like sports as much as guys, we love the passion of being a fan and the excitement of games. Guys don’t have to be scared that having a girlfriend means giving up watching the game.” to “having a girlfriend means giving up watching the game”
I completely forgot about the fact the Carlos Zambrano is a free agent.
* sarcastic mode on *
I’m stunned he hasn’t found a team to sign with yet.
* sarcastic mode off *
Boooo. I will always love Big Z.
I have a Big Z Cubs jersey which I still wear. (I actually wanted a Maddux jersey, but apparently MLB won’t sell retired players’ jerseys, so my uncle got me Zambrano. Which would’ve been my choice among active players.)
And before anyone says anything, at least it’s not a Theriot jersey. Or Neifi Perez.
Or Darwin Barney.
I don’t wear/buy player jerseys (since, you know, I’m not a player), but I’ve received as gifts Sosa and Prior jerseys. They’re in storage somewhere.
MLB?? Who the hell buys jerseys from MLB??? CHINA, baby!!!
If you love him, then you should sign him to a contract to pitch for you.
Otherwise, it looks like he’s going to Japan.
I do not have that kind of money, but I hope he does well in Japan. I kind of doubt he would fit well in their culture, though…
Hey, the Japanese loved Bobby Valentine…I’m thinking Big Z would end up being a huge hit in Japan.
Think of the commercial oppertunities…
Sveum on Kerry’s new role with the team:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-video-cubs-sveum-on-woods-new-role-20130212,0,2344079.story
So he’s one of the countless former players that they bring in to teach the players the art of losing in Cubs uniform. They should bring in former World Series winners instead.
And Samardzija is a number 1 starter?
PECOTA has Jeff Samardzija projected as the Cubs worst starter.
The bright spot for that, is if he isn’t the worst picture, then he has exceeded expectations…
WHAT?
I don’t even know what to say to that.
I’m guessing the fact that Samardzija’s lack of starting experience before 2012 probably had something to do with those projections.
I haven’t personally seen the PECOTA ratings, but according to B&B, he’s only projected to have a WARP of 0.6…
Garza is 3.0 supposedly. I should really subscript to BP.
I’m waiting to see what the OV guys have to say about the projections.
Josh Hamilton has dropped between 20 and 30 lbs.
Please tell me…name me one player that has dropped that much weight in the off-season who went off and had a spectacular season. Just one.
Pablo Sandoval dropped a ton of weight when he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, and had to change his eating style.Then there’s poor Tim Lindsceum, who gained weight and it messed up his pitching…
Sandoval…I’ll give you that…but he was actually overweight, not quite the same thing. I’m kinda talking more about the muscle players…you know…like Marlon Byrd last season…or Ivan Rodriguez a few years back.
Hopefully,tomorrow my job can return to normal…