There is now official one calender day until the 2007 Winter Baseball Meetings will take place in Nashville. If you happen to be a Cubs fan, then you just might happen to be very excited about what these meetings could hold for the Cubs. The Cubs are heading into the Winter Meetings ready for roster changes via trades. Lou Pinella told Bruce Levine of ESPN 1000, that the Cubs have laid the groundwork with several teams, and are looking at about 5 players they are interested in trading for. The Cubs may be looking at Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis of the Orioles, Carl Crawford, and possible a player such as Chone Figgins, if the Angels make a move for Miguel Cabrera. The Cubs have reportedly recieved a lot of interested in their young prospects, and while saying they will not ship them off for old veterans, will listen if the deal is in the Cubs best interest.
Hendry has also expressed his confidence in the Cubs in-house options in centerfield, saying that if the Cubs dont aquire a centerfielder during the winter meetings, the competition between Felix Pie and Sam Fuld will begin for a spot in the starting lineup on Opening Day. Angel Pagan is also in the mix, which I think is good news, and a better option than Sam Fuld is at the moment. Hendry has said he is extremely excited with Pie's progress this winter, and is the favorite for the job. I really hope Pie steps up and takes this job. He is really the best option right now.
And as for Mark Prior, the Padres seem to be very interest, probably more so than any other team in the league at this point, and are the front-runners for Prior. Prior has expressed interest in playing in San Diego and the Cubs have expressed interest in several of San Diego's prospects. I expect a deal to go down this week during the meetings, unfortunately. My stance on the subject is, why waste all of this time waiting on Prior, then trade him when he is finally going to be healthy enough to pitch? This makes no sense to me unless we get a guy like Khalil Greene, not a few low-A prospects who probably wont pan out.
Thats all for now. Much more to come from a hopefully busy Winter Meetings!
2 comments:
I think Brian Roberts is possible, but not Nick Markakis the Orioles would be foolish to trade him with the talent he has.
Roberts would be a great fit for the Cubs with his speed and defense; the question would be who the Orioles want back in return.
I heard the same interview with Lou Piniella yestrday as well.
Rumor floating around Nashville had Ed Wade mistakenly overbidding for the services of spanish guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana...
Ted Lilly Fan Club (TLFC) loves any blog dedicated to Hot Stove rumblings...Jayson Stark would be proud.
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