Tuesday Trades

[karch34]

So
Cubs send out Feldman, Clevenger, Marmol, Torreas, and 1 international slot
Cubs receive Relievers Guerrier & Strop, starter Arietta, and 4 international slots

Did I miss anything? Should I be excited or apathetic?

[hermes]

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/ ... icago-cubs

i think you got it all

feldman was doing good for us, hopefully he can continue his success, and the big deal here i think is that they actually got something for marmol

don't know anything about the players we got back, are they any good?

is arietta going to take feldman's place in the rotation or is villanueva moving out of the pen?

[hermes]

nevermind on the rotation question, if i read my own link villanueva might start tonight

and so begins a likely busy trade season

[Badbeats]

So
Cubs send out Feldman, Clevenger, Marmol, Torreas, and 1 international slot
Cubs receive Relievers Guerrier & Strop, starter Arietta, and 4 international slots

Did I miss anything? Should I be excited or apathetic?

I was so excited when I heard we traded Feldman. We did not need to trade him, and it was so early on I figured the Orioles must have made a great offer.

A 28 and 29 year old players with bad track records? I just dont get it.

[karch34]

So
Cubs send out Feldman, Clevenger, Marmol, Torreas, and 1 international slot
Cubs receive Relievers Guerrier & Strop, starter Arietta, and 4 international slots

Did I miss anything? Should I be excited or apathetic?

I was so excited when I heard we traded Feldman. We did not need to trade him, and it was so early on I figured the Orioles must have made a great offer.

A 28 and 29 year old players with bad track records? I just dont get it.

That was what got me. Not even the sniff of a young prospect unless you count the international slots, which quite honestly I'd never heard of until today.

[hermes]

yeah i didn't know international slots even existed

[GYBE]

The Cubs have signed a bunch of international prospects.

RHP Jefferson Mejia for 850k
SS Gleybar Torres for 1.7 million
RHP Erling Moreno for 800k
OF Eloy Jimenez for 2.8 million

Torres and Jimenez are both considered top 3 international prospects by pretty much everyone, with Jimenez getting the biggest bonus this year. Mejia and Moreno are top 20 guys.

As far as the "talent" we got back, Arrieta and Strop both have much better stuff than their actual results so far. Guess they're hoping new coaches can turn their careers around.

[hermes]

how many years are on the international signings?

[GYBE]

They're treated like regular prospects. So they make hardly anything until they build up service time.

Having said that, they're only 16 years old. Much more raw than the high school kids in the draft. Even though Torres and Jimenez are probably the top two international prospects in this year, there's still a good chance neither of them ever does anything. It's not like signing Soler, who was 21 at the time. They'll need to show some production before people will consider them for top 10 prospect lists and such.

[karch34]

I didn't know the slots were $ amounts that counted toward the international player cap. So I can see where getting some extra cap space would be a good move. Sounds like the extra spots allowed us to sign 2 of the top 3 and 4 of the top 20 international players. I think this was the first year they did it where every team had a certain amount of spots with a fixed dollar amount.

[GYBE]

I didn't know the slots were $ amounts that counted toward the international player cap. So I can see where getting some extra cap space would be a good move. Sounds like the extra spots allowed us to sign 2 of the top 3 and 4 of the top 20 international players. I think this was the first year they did it where every team had a certain amount of spots with a fixed dollar amount.

Yeah, this was the first year this system has been used. The Cubs started with the 2nd most cap space, because it's correlated to the worst teams from the season before (same as draft order). Then they traded for even more, which explains why they were able to sign so much talent.

But the system is stupid. All it does is take away money from the kids being signed. Five years ago, I believe Michael Ynoa got a $5.5 million bonus. The highest this year was our guy Jimenez at less than half that.

[GYBE]

By the way, the International signings are still going on. Actually, the Cubs are rumoured to be closing in on another prospect:

23. Jen-Ho Tseng, rhp, Taiwan
Born: Oct. 3, 1994. Ht.: 6-1. Wt.: 200. B-T: L-R.

At the end of last year, Tseng looked like a surefire million-dollar prospect who could have ranked No. 1 overall on this list, and some scouts felt would have been a first-round pick had he been born in the United States. But Tseng has gone backward this spring in terms of his stuff, control and game performance.

Tseng has shown he could dominate his peers and foreign professionals while pitching for Taiwan’s national team. He appeared in six of Taiwan’s eight games at the 18U World Championship last September in South Korea, with a 22-2 K-BB mark in 21 innings and an ERA of 0.84. He saw brief action in the World Baseball Classic qualifier in November. Then he threw six shutout innings in a key 7-0 win over South Korea in the Asian Championship in Taiwan in December. He pitched in the WBC in March as an 18-year-old, where he understandably struggled in a pair of relief appearances, but his stuff and control weren’t sharp.

Tseng simply hasn’t been as electric this year. At his best last year, he pitched at 89-92 mph and touched 95, and at times earned plus grades for his curveball and changeup, with some scouts grading the changeup as a potential plus-plus pitch. He showed the ability to throw his curve for strikes consistently with tight spin and mixed in an average slider. At the WBC, his fastball parked in the high 80s, his breaking ball was loose and his control was erratic. Scouts who have watched him since then have said his stuff and command are still down. Some have expressed concern about Tseng’s durability due to his frame and mechanics, and others think his usage could be the culprit and that his stuff could bounce back after he signs.

Tseng is the biggest X-factor in the class, as any team that signs him is banking on what scouts saw from him last year rather than what he has shown recently.

His price tag is said to be around 1.5 million. MASSIVE risk, since he was absolutely terrible recently. But a year ago he would've been the #1 prospect in this international class.

If they sign Tseng, there's no way for them to stay under their cap number. You CAN go over that number, but you get penalties next year. Mainly that you can't sign anyone over 500k for a year. So from this development, I have two theories:

1. Jed and Theo have decided the best way to game the system is spend like crazy for one year and get as many elite prospects as possible. Then next year go for as much quantity as possible, just a bunch of cheap pitchers hoping one of them hits. This makes sense if they see next year as weak at the top.

2. They underestimated how much Jimenez would cost. After realizing they were going to be over the cap anyways, they just decided to roll with it and go nuts.

I just don't understand why they would trade for cap space only to go over anyways. If they don't sign Tseng and trade for more space, they could still get under this year and avoid penalties.

This system is stupid and confusing.

[karch34]

Very confusing. I do think they feel this is the year to go crazy on elite prospects.

In theory I understand what they're trying to do for competitive balance, but it does penalize the players. Talent does sound like an interesting gamble.