Alas, we have nothing new since last night. Here’s the “latest:”
Soler, according to one report, will be making $27.5 million with the Cubs for three or four years. He may have been courted by Cubs ownership and front-office officials while they were visiting their new Dominican academy earlier this month.
Like I said, I “may or may not” be excited. So far, Dave Van Dyke is the only one running with the story, but his report supposedly comes out of the Dominican Republic, so it appears to have more legs than just your run-of-the-mill-rumor-out-of-Wrigleyville “report.”
So who IS Jorge Soler? Here’s what ScoutingBook.com has to say:
A tall and lanky teenager who arrived in the DR in the winter of 2011, outfielder Jorge Soler is one of the most promising Cuban prospects in baseball today. He’s already shown off his tools in Dominica, and while he looks like a centerfielder right now, his size and young age make it quite possible he’ll be a corner fielder when he finishes growing, especially if his loopy power swing develops as expected. He’s already showing the signs of that potential plus power and his very strong arm is certainly real. His contact skills and lack of patience at the plate, though, are equally clear indicators that he’s still a very rough gem.
One bonus for his future MLB home: the youngster has an electric personality already in his toolbox, which means he could be a real poster boy come 2015 or so.
Oh Brett Jackson, you haven’t even gotten to the majors yet and the Cubs already have your replacement lined up. Tsk tsk.
Hey, the Cubs are going to try something new this year: Winning!
CHICAGO — Despite all the roster moves and changes at Wrigley Field this offseason, this isn’t a rebuilding year for the Cubs.
“The plan is to win right now,” new manager Dale Sveum said. “The long-term plan starts right now. We’re not rebuilding; we’re building.”
Sveum and staff will start sorting out the roster on Feb. 19, when pitchers and catchers have their first workout at Fitch Park in Mesa, Ariz., to open Spring Training. Position players report on Feb. 23.
(Pats Dale on the head). Sure it is, Buddy. Sure it is. Also, please buy tickets. But wait! There’s more:
The focus this offseason has been on new Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, whom the Ricketts family hopes can duplicate what he did with the Red Sox and put together a world championship team. When? There’s no time table.
“In baseball, anything can happen,” Epstein said. “We might not have the most talent in the division, but I know we’re going to play hard, I know we have young players with upside and players entering their prime years. When you have that, you can surprise a little bit.”
Epstein has said trying to change the direction of a baseball organization is like turning an ocean liner. It doesn’t pivot right away, and you might not see immediate progress, but you know that little by little, the ship will turn in the right direction.
And the Cubs are the biggest, slowest ocean liner out there. Just sayin’.
If you want to go see the Cubs “win-now,” you’ll want to know that the Cubs Starting 6-pack, which contains tix to Opening Day, goes on sale February 17 at 10:00 am.
Happy Valentine’s/Singles Awareness Day, everyone!
And yet we have this from Jon Heyman:
“cespedes II: #cubs, many mystery teams (#marlins?) in mix for 5-tool phenom jorge soler”
It must be legal to show off your tools in the Dominican Republic.
And the Cubs WERE the biggest, slowest ocean liner
/fixed
AS long as the Cubs don’t hit the rocks and tilt on their side like that Italian ship, they will be okay…
I think it’s too late for that.
I think we’ll have a good start at the beginning of the season, just on pure emotion.Now how long we can ride that is anybody’s guess. But for Theo,I’m hoping for a good ride. Let’s get to Arizona and get ready.
The more I read Van Dyke’s article, the more it reads like a “jump-the-gun-because-i-think-i’m-probaby-right” story.
And I hate to say that, because Dave was with me on CTL, and he was a really nice guy.
No one listens to me…
With that said, it seems like some other media types are thinking this might be legit.
Kevin Goldstein is going to be on the Score in a little while…he might have some hints about Soler and what to expect. Should be interesting.
And the $27.5 million number has been floating around for two or three days now.
I’m going to go out for a while, thus insuring something will happen with Soler while I’m gone.
If you disappeared for a year or so, I could pretty much guarantee the Cubs would win the world series.
I was going to say”Doc, you are quick”,but then I saw that took you a whole 6 minutes.A classic, never the less.
I like the “Parks and Rec” idea of “Gal”entine’s Day – single women getting together with their friends, exchanging gifts and getting hammered. Maybe there could be a “Pal”entine’s Day for single guys…
If I was still single, and one of my pals wanted to celebrate “Pal”entine’s Day with me, he would no longer be one of my pals.
Look who’s back in Chicago…
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/02/white-sox-to-sign-kosuke-fukudome.html
I can’t help but giggle.
Great deal for the Sox, they got him for peanuts. He wasn’t worth his contract in the last year or two but he’s certainly worth more than the Sox are paying him.
Holy crap…I didn’t see the money…$1 million? That’s a great deal for the Sox. They likely will still come out ahead if they pick up his option for next year too.
With all that savings the Sox will be able to purchase a machine that will automatically unscrew K-Fuk out of the ground every time he strikes out.
OK, grudgingly, post of the year so far.
Kevin Goldstein and Carrie Muskat have both said that statements about Soler agreeing with the Cubs rumors are not really accurate at this point.
Goldstein did say all signs are pointing to the Cubs signing him and that $25 to $28 million appears to be the range he’ll sign for.
If the Cespedes circus taught us anything, it’s that the Royals will hold a press conference this afternoon to announce the signing of Jorge Soler.
While that would be awesome just for the randomness, Soler can’t be announced by anyone until he gets all of his immigration issues cleared up.
Remember, the Cubs still haven’t been able to officially announce the Concepcion signing.
And now David Kaplan is on the “not close on Soler” train too.
If the Cubs have signed Soler, it’s official: Brett Jackson is the compensation.
Is it just me or does Soler kinda look like Soriano??? His smile in his picture reminds me of watching Fonsie shooting the shit with the fans between plays….
Let’s just say that Soler is Soriano…identical.
I’ll take a Soriano at 19 and is already playing in the outfield (instead of being a crappy 2nd baseman) any day of the week.
Not saying you are insinuating that, but I kinda hope he is more like Soriano than just his looks, as long as it isn’t the 32 year old Soriano.
(That probably made no sense.)
I can go for that, it made plenty of sense, I think? lol
This is what i’ve heard this morning: Soler’s agent has made “deals” with teams before his prospects are officially free agents before. My guess is that this is a deal in principal, not in fact.
Buster Onley is saying the Cubs aren’t close and the Yankees are making a big attempt to sign the kid.
I say we shouldn’t worry because the Yankees have never snatched a player out of Theo Epstein’s clutches.
Oh.
Wait.
Until I see the beautiful sentence that says “Sources have confirmed” I’m not doing anymore back flips. I keep landing on my head anyways…
This is the line that really caused the Van Dyke story to get the publicity that it did…
“The Cubs are expected to add 19-year-old outfielder Jorge Soler after acquiring 19-year-old pitcher Gerardo Concepcion, according to multiple reports from the Dominican Republic, where Soler is staying.”
It said reports…but never gave a source(s) for those reports. It insinuates that a deal is done and just waiting for immigration issues to be resolved, just like the Cubs are waiting with Concepcion.
Then Van Dyke wrote this:
“Soler, according to one report, will be making $27.5 million with the Cubs for three or four years”
He didn’t say “the Cubs have offered”. He said “will be making”…again misleading. And it was a misquote from the report. The report he is referring to said that the Cubs were prepared to offer up to $27.5 million for Soler.
It was a bad article. Almost as bad as the “Cubs will be playing in US Cellular in 2013″ thing.
I agree it was a very bad article, he even went as far as to say that even though Soler is not a free agent he can still sign with a team. BIG TYPO bad article. Normally I like Dave’s work. However his article was probably written while he was sipping shots of Jemeson. I’m going to join him next time…
He can make a gentlemen’s agreement with the Cubs, but that doesn’t stop someone else from swooping in and stealing him.
I know Julie like Dave van Dyke, but I’ve had a number of issues with stuff he’s written over the last year or so.
I suspect that the Tribune has been pushing some of these guys to be a bit more sensationalistic. It’s not just van Dyke, David Haugh has been horrible for a while now, Steve Rosenbloom is a complete boob and we all know about the work from Phil Rogers and the Hobbit.
David Haugh should stick to writing about football. He’s terrible when it comes to anything else.
I think the Trib is pushing them to “beat” the bloggers. Because, while we always strive to be right, we don’t have to wait for multiple sources to confirm, we just throw it out there. And if we’re right, we look like aces and if we’re wrong, we just go “Oh well, looks like I was wrong” and everyone else goes “You’re only a blogger, after all,” and that’s the end of it.
That still doesn’t explain Steve Rosenbloom’s boobiness.
There’s no explanation for that. I don’t even read him.
I just checked…I’m down to 57k on the season ticket waiting list. That’s down from 68k last year.
I’m 40K. Why are you on the season ticket wait list? You HAD season tickets!
Well, early after I got my season tickets (the year before the waiting list started), I figured if I ever decided to give them up and I had regrets, I’d have this to fall back on. At the rate the number has been falling the last 2 years, I figure I will be up again in about 7 or 8 years. I’m cool with that idea…and I might be able to get a set of 4 tickets for the whole family instead of the 2 tickets I had before.
What about the dogs?
Damn…I’ll need 6 tickets. This is starting to sound expensive.
Where’s Carl?
Good question. What is the weather like today in LOHOland?
Keep your panties on!
I’d never take my panties off.