I like this, depending on the terms. After Sizemore and Murton, he was my next choice to upgrade the OF. Maybe indicates Byrd or Soriano will be moved?

Jamie Quirk was the Rockies bench coach for six years, including their World Series year of 2007.

My hopes and dreams crushed!
Only in Japan, red-heads
Are loved as should be.

Now, I'm not sure why any team wouldn't at least listen to offers on any player, but this seems to be a little bit more than posturing. They appear to be inviting offers. This offseason may be about to get real interesting.

With a promo video like that, we've gotta at least kick the tires on this guy, right?

And it's a beauty!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65516705@N00/6171663819/

I had been doing some wishful thinking this morning, wondering if the Marlins relationship with Morrison could have soured enough for them to trade him like the Cardinals traded Colby Rasmus. Then I saw this story (which we knew was coming, but the timing is impeccable!). Important part:

"It’s probably far more significant from a team/player relationship point of view. And that didn’t seem too hot to begin with."

I've seen nothing in Morrison's "behavioral issues" to suggest he's a bad teammate or won't give 100% every night. He should get bonus points for taking Hanley Ramirez to task, and missing the season ticket holder event doesn't appear to have been intentional (see Amy Nelson's original article linked inside). All that to say, if the Marlins can't live with his tweets, it would be nice if the Cubs could swing a deal for him. I'd move anyone not named Castro or possibly Brett Jackson for him.

Just do it. Eat 75% if you have to. His overall value can be replaced for league minimum. At that rate, you'd still come out saving some money overall. He's not getting any younger, this might be the last chance to move him and have a team take on any money.

Theriot explodes and gets tossed after a play that the umps totally... got right! What's funny is that none of his teammates bothered to hold him back from the ump before he got tossed (Pujols made a half hearted effort after the fact).

This was just retweeted by the Iowa Cubs twitter account, so I'm assuming it's legit. Otherwise I've never heard of this website. Good for him. Maybe he's with the big league club after the trade deadline.

Just read the second half of the article that said Flaherty was bumped up as well. Cool.

Won't save the world, but might save the back of our rotation. For a mid level prospect, I can't imagine us not being interested. Typical AL to NL improvement potential applies. I'd take him over Davis/Coleman/Russell.

Good luck with that!

If it helps him make the team, I'm all for it. Still, I can't help but think that very few players succeed as switch hitters. I wonder if anybody has done a good study on success rates of switch hitters, particularly ones who started switch hitting in pro ball.

With Brandon Guyer gone, I'm pulling for Perez to make the team in his stead.

I love photo day. The unis always look so bright and clean, and the team just looks to be brimming with optimism for the new season! OK, I made that last part up. But you gotta love the pics!

An interesting read, if for no other reason than Cricket is an interesting sport (with an interesting history). But what stood out to me is this part:

"Although cricket is a sport steeped in tradition and clings to its roots in order to preserve as much as possible, American sports fans might be surprised to know that cricket utilized video technology to aid umpires in making line decisions long before baseball decided to check the validity of home runs on replay. The Hawk-eye system currently used to challenge and dispute line calls in tennis was originally developed for cricket and is used as part of cricket's challenge and review system for overturning calls."

I've often wondered why an automated system like the one used in tennis couldn't be used in baseball. The fact that it is used in cricket only makes it seem that much more plausible.

For any of you who read Paul Lukas' Uniwatch blog, you might have seen this. It seems like a great idea, just needs more content. As far as I can tell, I'm the first commenter. Anyway, check it out, the owner has done a great job with it.

Maybe it's because I'm sleep deprived right now, but I just found this article really funny. Especially the line about Adam Dunn.

Well, this pretty much says it all, doesn't it? There's always next year!

On the bright side, this new WAR grid feature on Fangraphs is just absolutely tremendous!

Moving on to the future post Garza trade, here is Fangraphs' opinion of our farm system now (Ranked 18th). The rankings don't shed too much new light on the system, but the write ups on each player are nice.

One thing I do wonder about though is the peak WAR projections. I imagine they are best case scenarios if a prospect reaches his ceiling, but I'm not sure how likely it is for each guy to reach that projection. It sure would be nice to get 4.5 WAR each from Jackson and McNutt in their primes, as they seem the most likely prospects in the system at the moment to realize their potential.

I'm not sure I know what all the pretty pictures mean, but they are all kinds of exciting!

I love this move by the Jays, even though there is a risk that it backfires and they get stuck with 3 catchers. Worst case scenario, they can probably trade Olivo or Molina. Best case scenario, they end up with 8 draft picks in the top 50. This is exactly the kind of thing the Jays need to do to level the playing field and compete in the AL East. Not a sure fire path to success (draft can be a crap shoot), but given the talent in next year's draft class, it's a risk well worth taking.

Just in case you thought I'd written off my Hawaiian friend, Kila Ka'aihue sports a .275/.366/.550 triple slash line with 6 home runs for September. Sure, it's September baseball, but he's closing in on a 30 HR full season pace now that he has 185 PAs under his belt. Just sayin'.

I've noticed this clause several times and always dismissed it as highly unlikely to happen. But Craig makes a good point about the likelihood of a 4th place Cy Young finish in 2012... Just something to think about for both the Cubs and a potential trading partner.

Happy to see this news just now. As much as I wanted the Cubs to take a buy low flier on Kila Ka'aihue, I also really just want to see the kid succeed. This move appears to open up the playing time for him to get regular at bats in KC for the rest of the season. He may still be obtainable over the winter though, so I'll be keeping a close eye on him.

Kansas City is a team everyone loves to hate, and I've been in on that for the past two years or so, but I've always really liked the team (the unis, the stadium, the history), and I'm really happy to see them going forward with a full blown youth movement, and they actually have quite a few reasons to be optimistic about the future.

Edit: just so there's no confusion, he was DFA'd, and not simply put on waivers, presumably to just get him off the roster.