Sheets to Cubs? Not so fast
Happy New Year. The winter meetings were almost a month ago, but all it takes is for one prediction, sourced or unscourced, to hit the Internet for a frenzy to begin. Ken Rosenthal of foxsports.com "predicts" pitcher Ben Sheets will wind up with the Cubs:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/010410-Rosenthal-plenty-still-availab...
That's a far cry from it actually happening, though. For the record, the Cubs like Sheets and always have like him. However, Sheets hasn't pitched since 2008, when elbow problems led to surgery for a flexor-tendon problem. For any team to sign Sheets, they'll want to see him throw. Even then, they'll want to see him "fire a pitch in anger," so to speak, meaning game action. In other words, spring-training games.
If Sheets' agent is looking for mega-millions, he won't find it with the Cubs, who are scraping together the dough to afford a veteran right-handed reliever and maybe a veteran backup outfielder.
If Sheets hasn't signed with somebody, say, by Valentine's Day, I can see the Cubs offering some sort of a deal with a low base plus incentives. But nothing's imminent, based on the talk I've had with people today and throughout the winter.
It should be a busy couple of weeks coming up. We've got the Hall of Fame announcement Wednesday. You can check out my blog of last week on that. Next week, the Cubs caravan kicks off with an event at Harry Caray's in Chicago. At the end of next week, the ever-popular Cubs convention takes place downtown.
Hey, spring training is just six weeks away.
Sheets ended up missing the entire 2009 season after undergoing surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his elbow -- that is, an elbow operation considered less serious than Tommy John surgery, with a 6-12 month recovery time.
On Feb 12th 2009, Dr. James Andrews performed the successful surgery in Birmingham, Ala., repairing a partial tear in the pitcher's flexor tendon. The surgery is identical to the one Andrews performed on left-hander Andy Pettitte in 2004. Pettitte has logged 200-plus innings in every season since.
Sheets is right handed, Pettitte is left handed.
I only allowed myself one smart-ass comment in 2010 and I decided to use it on that.
Hopefully in another hour or so, Bruce will be starting new blog celebrating Dawson's election to the Hall of Fame.
I think the Cubs vs Cards offense in 2010 is a topic that needs to be discussed. I can repost later if the topic is lost. Obviously, the Cards have the best offensive player in baseball. But previously the Cubs big 3 averaged out greater than the Cards big 3. With the addition of Holliday, the Cubs will be outgunned going into 2010 (see career avg below). The Cubs need another run producer. I suggest Tejada as a shortstop (one year deal use Beltre contract as model) and move Theriot to second. Then in 2011, infield will be set for Castro's arrival.
Cards BA HR RBI R
Pujols 334 42 128 124
Holliday 318 29 112 109
Ludwig 271 27 96 78
3 Cum Avg 308 33 112 104
Cubs BA HR RBI R
Ramirez 286 30 109 84
Lee 284 28 91 91
Soriano 278 36 93 106
3Cum Avg 283 31 98 94
What is with all this waiting around to take care of a FOURTH or FIFTH outfield spot?? What is going on with Reed Johnson? I don't want to hear that he is not a good outfielder. I agree maybe not a 140-150 games a year player BUT would he be a good 4 or 5 outfielder, absolutely.
Bruce - For future reference, do you remember the process the Cubs took when signing Ryan Dempster after he came off of TJ surgery? Did he 'fire a pitch in anger' before the Cubs signed him?
The Cubs were not counting on him at all the year they signed him. They had 2005, the following year, in mind. He had surgery on Aug. 4, 2003, and even as recently as that, you were looking at a full year of recovery time. Dempster recovered quickly, and the 23 games the Cubs got out of him in 2004 was bonus time.
my stout research group only could come up with him throwing in late 2004 and that seemed odd. Certainly not the same program as Sheets would be on although......like you said, if he isn't signed by V-Day then put a carrot in front of him and see what happens.
Haha! For every Ryan Dempster success story, I can give you five Wade Miller-type bust outs. Cubs shouldn't overextend themselves on Sheets. They can't afford to be wrong!
I believe those guys were throwing at least side sessions at the time they were signed to small contracts.
It's my understanding that the Cubs had a 'plan' for Dempster and I'm guessing that they'd like to take the same route with Sheets, if possible. I assume Dempster hadn't thrown yet when the Cubs signed him but I could be wrong, thus my question to Bruce.
I believe that Miller was signed on the same program and premise that Dempster was. My point is that the Cubs can't afford to shell out a ton of bank on Sheets and then have him wash out and I'm not sure he's willing to sign a minor-league type deal like those other two did.
I don't believe that Miller and Dempster were given similar contracts at the time they were injured.
Are you telling me that there is no one on the system that hits RH, plays OF, and hits lefties well? That describes about half the minors league right? Why not just play Jason Dubois out there? He is already in the system(or at least he was last I heard). If not, you can pick up a dozen guys in spring training. How about Marcus Thames or Johnny Gomes? Guys like this are always available.
I don't get signing Church. We have Fuld in house who can do the same job for a fraction of the money. 5th OF and pinch hitter. I don't see Church performing well in that role, or even signing to play that role.
talking about a fill in or bench role. We are talking about a platoon partner for Fukudome so he won't have to flail away against any LHP. This will be a guy that will get 200+ AB's in a platoon and pinch hit role. Dubois has hit pretty well in the minors but has always been a guy who strikes out a third of the time, and you'd expect that he'd whiff more frequently in the bigs. He's on the wrong side of 30 and hasn't made it to the majors yet so I wouldn't want to rely on him if I'm trying to win the WS. I'd want a guy who has proven he can mash LHP at the major league level.
Fuld's a nice late inning defensive replacement, but he doesn't hit like Church does. Church has some pop, Fuld doesn't. Church is a proven MLB bat, Fuld isn't. Would you be comfortable if one of the starters went down and you had to start Fuld over an extended period of time? I wouldn't. And Jason Dubois? Are you serious?
"Would you be comfortable if one of the starters went down and you had to start Fuld over an extended period of time?"
Seriously, what's the difference between Fuld and Church? If EITHER of them are starters for a prolonged period of time, its not good.
The difference is that Ryan Church has proven to be an above average hitter on the major league level, over the course of his career. Fuld has not. I'd be as comfortable trotting Ryan Church out to CF or RF everyday, as I would Marlon Byrd or Fukudome.
If he weren't, he wouldn't have gotten released.
ask the Cub pitchers.
Bruce, are the Cubs interested in Kiko Calero, I know he's going on 35, but 1 year as
a middle reliever could be possible. How about Tejada for 1 year if he would accept, until Castro is ready, I read his fielding is not as good anymore, but watching him last year I thought he was OK. Could the Cubs have interest in Pedro Martinez for a year, since we don't know if Sheets is healthy and would Martinez or Sheets consider 1 year contracts, and could the Cubs afford to pay them.
If the Cubs are scared off by Sheets' contract demands (I've read $10M+), why not shoot for Yankee cast-off Chien-Ming Wang on a cheap one-year? Any chance of that, Bruce?
The name I saw out there for a late inning RP was Kiki Calero. Sounds reasonable. I think the veteran OF will probably be a LH bat. Hey Bruce, what do you think of Ryan Church? I think Atlanta let him go, and I hadn't noticed that he'd been picked up yet. Solid LH bat, above average glove and can play all three OF spots.
I haven't heard his name much this winter with the Cubs. A few years ago, they seemed interested. I'd keep an eye on him, though, primarily because he bats left-handed. His line was .273/.338/.384 for an OPS of .722. His OPS-plus was 92, which was down for him. James projects a slight uptick. And like you say, he's above-average defensively. I might do it.
You'd also have to believe that Church would fit into the Cubs' budget. I like him, because if another one of the OF's went down, you'd have a guy who you'd be comfortable playing everyday.
Why not Randy Winn...He could probably cover all OF and is a switch hitter?
You had to shoot down one of the better items of speculation all winter. :( Sheets would be a nice addition, if healthy. I just can't imagine that Hendry would make a risky gamble or spend a majority of the remaining payroll on an injury risk.
It has been a very disappointing season so far for us Cub fans.
Hadn't considered another outfielder. That would mean they are set with their infield and it's going to be Baker/Fontenot with Hoffpauir and Blanco as the back up infielders.
I'd assume they like Fuld as the 5th outfielder, so they're probably thinking RH pinch hitter type....Xavier Nady?
RP name I saw was Jason Frasor from Toronto...
The plan all along has been to go with Baker/Fontenot at second with Blanco as a backup in the middle. Frasor is a nice name. He's arb-eligible and coming off a good year. The Blue Jays will be asking a lot, if they're interested in trading him. There is nothing close on this one.
Though I'm not really a fan of having a platoon in the middle infield, the Cubs should be able to get about an .800 OPS from that duo provided they don't play Baker much against RHP. Defense will be below average but it will be easy on the old budget.
Bruce
What kind of names have you heard bounce around for the backup veteran OFer? I would assume Reed Johnson is still in the mix, but are guys like Kearns and Gomes guys that might fit the budget as well?
All those names are potential good ones. The biggest factor will be how much each will want. I'm sure they'd prefer a left-handed hitter if they aren't sold on Sam Fuld as a backup.
You are talking about a 5th outfielder right? They are still planning on getting a RH bat to platoon with Fukudome in RF correct?