(peaks around corner of dugout)
Is everyone okay?
(steps over bodies)
I think we’re all okay. For now. But not matter WHAT happens today, DO NOT let anyone hug you! God only knows what will happen today. As @mproper said on Twitter this morning: “I saw a helmet nachos helmet full of human ears!”
So I was at the game last night, and, I have to tell you, it was pretty hilarious. Players just kept disappearing from the game, and we had no idea why. It wasn’t until a cab back to Union Station in the 9th inning that I started getting word of what was going down.
So let’s recap:
- The Cubs sent Paul Maholm, Reed Johnson (SNIFF!!), and cash considerations to Atlanta for Jaye (lame spelling) Chapman and Arodys Vizcaino. (Seriously? Arodys? That looks like a typo. . .).
- Vizcaino, who entered the 2012 season ranked by Baseball America as the 40th-best prospect in MLB, had Tommy John surgery this spring. The 21-year-old posted a 3.06 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 97 innings for three Braves affiliates as he made his way through Atlanta’s minor league system in 2011. The right-hander reached the Major Leagues last year, posting a 4.67 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 17 relief appearances.
Chapman, a 25-year-old right-hander, has a 3.52 ERA with 10.1 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9 in 53 2/3 innings of relief for Atlanta’s Triple-A team so far in 2012. The Braves selected him in the 16th round of the 2005 draft.
- Meanwhile, on the manscapey front, the Cubs also sent Geo Soto to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Jacob Brigham.
- Brigham, a 24-year-old right-hander, had been pitching at Double-A Frisco. He has a 4.28 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 124 innings over the course of 21 starts this year
In other news last night, Alfonso Soriano joined the “People who would rather play for the Cubs than have a chance to win at baseball” club last night, blocking a trade that would have sent him to the Giants.
This means that, as of this morning, Dempster, Soriano, Garza and Brett Jackson (?) are reportedly still on the block. Jackson was pulled from his game in New Orleans last night, presumably because he was called up to Wrigley. However, late last night, Carrie Muskat tweeted that Cubs fans shouldn’t expect to see him at Wrigley any time soon. The plot thickens.
We’re getting more details this morning on what a two-faced jerkoff Ryan Dempster is. This morning on 670 the Score, Mully and Hanley stated that Dempster reportedly told players in Atlanta that he was ready and willing to make the move there THE LAST TIME THE CUBS PLAYED THE BRAVES. That latest rumor is that Dempster won’t approve a trade anywhere but LA. Have we decided yet what exactly is IN LA that makes him so hell-bent to go there?
If Dempster makes his start tonight, he’d better bring a thick skin and some ear plugs.
On the Matt Garza front, both the Reds and the Jays have expressed interest.
Carl and I are hunkered down in LOHO Trade Deadline HQ, and we’ll be closely monitoring the situation all damn day. Or at least until 3:00 pm CT.
Let’s all hold hands, huddle together, and hope for the best.
Dodgers, Yankees, Rangers said to be in on Dempster.
And as of right now, Dempster has said he would accept a trade to any of the three of them.
Of course that will change in a few hours.
He’ll have to “think about it.”
By the time he decides, we’ll all be singing Christmas carols and drinking eggnog.
I’m not sure way, but I would love to see Matt Garza go to the Reds. That seems wrong, I know…but for some reason I love seeing Dusty ruin pitchers.
THAT he is GOOD at.
I’m surprised he hasn’t broken Aroldis Chapman yet.
Over the years it does seem like the Yankees do collect assholes, so I anoint them the favorite in the Dumpster race.
If that’s true, I can’t believe they didn’t take Zambrano off our hands.
There are a lot of Port-o-potties where assholes accumulate.
That new stadium down in Miami does look a bit like a fancy toilet bowl.
I’m pretty sure the new Miami stadium is done by the same firm that designed Target Field in Minneapolis, I wonder if there are different lead architects, or if they really did go with what the client wanted
I believe the same team who did Camden Yards did the old Joe Robbie stadium (whatever that multi-purpose football/baseball thing in Miami used to be called).
I think it’s all about giving your client exactly what they asked for.
I’m a dork, but I find this interesting
Actually, I’m not so sure about that…
Populous (formerly HOK Sports) did Target Field. I though Jeffrey Loria did the rare move of hiring a different company for the Marlins Ballpark. There are some very non-Populous like features to the place.
But I could be wrong.
I was really surprised actually, after doing everything from Oriole Park to Target the new Yankee Stadium & the Nationals new home the Marlins park seemed to be a totally different design style
according to them the concept is a merging water and land reflecting the coastal identity of Miami (I’m slightly paraphrasing) a completely understandable and fairly obvious choice
sigh, now I really want to know who the designer is
“The more self-centered and egotistical a guy is, the better ballplayer he’s going to be. You take a team with twenty-five assholes and I’ll show you a pennant. I’ll show you the New York Yankees.” – - Bill “Spaceman” Lee
I get the feeling Jackson was actually pulled from his game last night to replace Soriano on the roster…then Soriano turned down the trade.
It figures…after like 3 years of trying, the Cubs finally find someone to take Soriano and then he turns down the trade.
Designate him for assignment.
Arodys Vizcaíno seems like a pretty good get, assuming he recovers from Tommy John surgery fine.
Braves fans weren’t thrilled about losing him.
I agree. I like both trades. This kid had a great arm, and they say that a lot of kids coming off that surgery actually get 1-3 MORE MPH on their fastball.
Getting anything for Soto was also a great trade. I doubt he hits over .225 ever again.
I disagree…I think Soto will eventually bounce back. He’s never going to be the power hitter that we saw in his rookie year, but if he is able to change his mindset, he can be a very effective singles and doubles hitter…especially with this patience at the plate.
I really don’t know much about the kid that we got for him. He looks like he, at best, will be a bottom of the rotation type of starter or long reliever.
Sorry, Soto sucks and will continue to suck in his baseball endeavors.
IF he can change his mindset….
VERY doubtful.
Pitchers, pitchers and more pitchers…
I see Jed and Theo haven’t changed their priorities much since the draft.
Quality pitching can EASILY be traded to fill ANY hole in your lineup.
Many times even mediocre pitching can easily be traded to fill any hole.
I know it’s popular to rag on Dempster now, but seriously, can you blame the guy for having the reaction he had to finding out he supposedly was traded by Twitter?
I guess he should be the bigger man, but if you’re leaving a club, do you have any responsibility to help THEM get the best deal (unless you truly DO plan on coming back soon)? That’s _their_ job and frankly, if it was the Braves who leaked the original theoretical deal, why the hell would he want to go there then?
I’m not happy he’s being such a jerk about it all but alas, if it was me and my career, I might do the same thing so I can’t hate him for it, nor scream my displeasure at him if he’s at Wrigley.
He also realizes that Cubs fans are the same ones who boo’d Starlin Castro every time he kept making an error in his first season so he knows that the fans here are ridiculous to try to please at times.
It’s fine to be upset about the “leak” on twitter, but the rumor had been around for a couple days before that and it isn’t a reason to sabotage the teams efforts by going back on your word.
Booing Rookie Starlin is like scolding a puppy for peeing in the house; it’s loving, teaching scolding.
Booing Veteran Ryan Dempster is being polite because one can only guess that children will be at the game. Yelling “hey F#*k-stick, I hope the Twins and Astros are the only ones considering signing you in the offseason” isn’t really family friendly, so we boo. We’re thinking of the children here, something Ryan Dempster seems unable to do unless they are his own kids- useless jerk.
So yeah, Dempster is persona non grata by his own doing. He could have taken the trade to Atlanta and gone off in the sunset, remembered as one of the team first guys follwing the “me, me, I’m Sammy” era. Instead, he’s just showing why it is he’s getting divorced- massive communication issues with a martyr complex when his asshole behavor gets interpreted as such.
If you soldier up and go… you will always be welcome back.
Do a Bradley on us and you’ll NEVER hear the end of it here.
Jon Heyman of CBS says there is no evidence of the Yankees being interested in Dempster.
Jayson Stark all is saying this.
Not sure where Kaplan got his info from.
wow, I go to sleep early and don’t check anything social media or sports related for 12 hours and this is what happens?
I guess the New England Brain Trust wasn’t kidding
congrats Reedz, you finally got traded!
Supposedly the Cubs will be getting a PTBNL or cash in the Soto deal as well.
The deal is that the Cubs are sending cash along with Soto…if the Cubs decide not to take a PTBNL, then they will receive some of that cash back.
It seems like there is a lot of talk about Garza right now…but I’m wondering if it would be smarter for the Cubs to try to trade him after the season since he does currently have an injury which could be reducing his value.
aside from Starlin Castro, I say we purge this team of all MLB players who played for Quade or were signed by Jim Hendry. Heck, if I’m GM of the Cubs, I start all conversations with “so imagine I was to tell you Starlin Castro was available. What could you do to make that happen? OK. Now the reality is I have to move Dempster, Garza, Marmol, and Soriano first, so which of those guys would you like to trade for first before we get to the Castro deal?”
Dave Kaplan just told me on Twitter that BJax was pulled last night as part of a double switch. Not getting called up, (supposedly) not on the block.
BJax only gets promoted if Soriano is traded.
Um, can we come up with a better nickname that “BJax”?
That sounds . . . either dirty or like some kind of bathroom cleanser you’d see an infomertial about.
That’s what all the cool kids on Twitter call him.
Oh, I see. I’m not on the Twitters.
It is wise to stay away from the Twitters. Once you get it, it’s hard to cleanse yourself of it.
I would get a tattoo of the twitter bird . . if I was the kind of person who got tattoos. Which I’m not.
My point is that I really really REALLY like Twitter.
You would.
i do not
You like me on twitter
Ah. So it’s kind of like gonorrhea?
Slightly worse.
Gonorrhea can be cleared up with antibiotics. Think Bubonic Whooping Herpes.
you seem to know a lot about this particular disease.
I was a Military Medic within the past decade. You’d be surprised what people bring back from the sandbox.
You have reminded me of a note from Rotoworld I saw last night. They reported that Ryan Braun did not start last night’s game because of blisters. Insert your own Valtrax joke here.
Actually, it strikes me as my ideal form of communication.
Brief, and one-directional.
If only I had anything to say.
Pffft. I don’t have anything to say and I have 12k+ followers. Having something to say is totally irrelevant.
Pfft! Hardly. It’s assholes farting at 140-character bursts.
give me a break, I’m trying do this and be on a conference call.
You still haven’t quit that job? Geez.
Apparently the thing Dempster likes about LA is Ted Lilly
Blame Canada or Blame Jim Hendry? Choices choices choices….
If Jim Hendry was from Canada, the choice would be pretty easy.
And it’s the contending team that is furthest away from his wife.
oops…ex-wife.
soon-to-be-ex-wife.
Are you her lawyer?
He could play in Japan.
What I wouldn’t give to be a Ham Fighter.
The Fukishima Cock Blockers seem like a might fine fit for our pal Ryan.
Actually, it’s just the “Fighters”, they’re sponsored by “Nippon Ham”.
I’ve heard this, but I find it hard to believe that a grown man who has repeatedly told us how competitive he is will only go to the team that his friend is on.
LeBron James much?
Well, it’s official now. Shane Victorino is a Dodger…which means any chance of Soriano going to LA is pretty much gone now.
Dodgers ownership has told Ned Colletti, “Damn the money. Just make the team better.”
So with that I will predict that the Dodgers will finish dead last in the NL West in 2014.
Via Ken Rosenthal:
#Dodgers remain focused on Dempster and want him even if they add another pitcher. Also looking at hitters, too. One rival official says…
Jim Bowden is saying that the Dodgers/Dempster blah blah blah is getting close.
Please please please please be true!
I’m cold. It’s freezing in my office.
in mine too, but i like it. and if my whore of an office mate turns the a/c off again i’m going to give her a severe paper cut.
I usually like it, too, but today I’m wearing short sleeves, and I DO NOT.
From Jim Bowden:
“Cubs and Dodgers finally closing in on the Dempster deal according to a source close to the negotiations”
I just said that.
So . . the Ham Fighters are out?
Damn.
Yeah, but I wonder what–if any–leverage the Cubs have. I suppose at this point, you take what you can get, but it’s really a shame that it’s really just “Dodgers or nothing” at this point because the Cubs have absolutely zero leverage to negotiate for anything.
I just came across this headline on the Googles:
“Trade Deadline Odds: Phillies, Cubs Could Be Sellers”
REALLY?! The Cubs could be a seller? Stop the presses!
Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM reports that the Dodgers are getting Ryan Dempster from the Cubs.
The Dempster deal with the Dodgers is supposedly done.
Now someone from the Cubs front office, go wake up Dempster and tell him before he is blindsided and sees it on Twitter.
And Soriano? Are they taking him, too?
from rotoworld:
It’s not a done deal quite yet, as the two sides are working on the finishing touches, but an agreement is expected before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline. It’s not clear who the Cubs will get in return. Dempster, an impending free agent, has a 2.25 ERA through 16 starts this year.
Guess he’s going to have to work on a hammy Vin Scully impersonation now?
Kevin Goldstein has mentioned that James Russell may be on his way out…possibly part of the Dempster trade I suppose.
I need a hug
It looks like the Cubs are really pushing for Webster from the Dodgers.
Apparently the Rangers and two other teams are still in on Garza, too.
Show us what you got, TheoJed!
Supposedly, Dempster is currently working on his impression of Will Ferrell’s impression of Vin Scully.
I feel like we need an overflow thread.
youre an overflow thread
i mean… yes, sounds like a good idea
Kevin Goldstein is staying that Webster is not likely in most scenarios for the Cubs right now.
Still awaiting details.
He can suck it.
come join us in the overflow thread!
you’re an overflow thread.