RealGM

Adison Russell, Billy McKinney and PTBNL for the prospect return. Dan Straily as the MLB ready pitcher. Straily, 25, with a career 4.11 ERA.

This is a bigger theft then what he did to the Rangers for Garza. I won't be surprised when Straily is better than Samardzija over the next year and half much less going forward.

This also opens up some interesting trade options going forward to fill other holes. Adding Russell, a top 15 prospect playing in AA, to an already crowded group of infield prospects. McKinney is another solid OF prospect, but he is 19 and in A ball so he's got a ways to go. This could set up a trade for the ace they need either later this month or this off-season.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:Adison Russell, Billy McKinney and PTBNL for the prospect return. Dan Straily as the MLB ready pitcher. Straily, 25, with a career 4.11 ERA.

This is a bigger theft then what he did to the Rangers for Garza. I won't be surprised when Straily is better than Samardzija over the next year and half much less going forward.

This also opens up some interesting trade options going forward to fill other holes. Adding Russell, a top 15 prospect playing in AA, to an already crowded group of infield prospects. McKinney is another solid OF prospect, but he is 19 and in A ball so he's got a ways to go. This could set up a trade for the ace they need either later this month or this off-season.

I realize it's 4th of July and the Cubs are really bad, but good god is this place dead...

We get the A's top 2 prospects, and a young MLB pitcher who could end up being pretty good (as well as PTBNL)

Getting their top 2 is nice, but jesus, we're going to need some pitching at some point. How many more infielders do we need??

The Cubs can buy pitching. They could add Scherzer and Lester this off-season and still not have a $95M payroll next off-season. Another option, after this, is trading for Price without giving up any of the core four. Russell, Vogelbach and Amaya for Price? Might have to include Pierce Johnson. Vogelbach has no where to play, Amaya is probably going to be blocked at 2B by Baez, Bruno or Alcantara, depending on where Bryant playes, 3B or RF, and if Alcantara goes to CF full time.

Love this deal, really ecstatic. We get a top 10 prospect in baseball (it's pretty ridiculous when you consider that one of these guys is third in the cubs farm system: bryant, baez and russell) a young and intriguing outfield with some promise, and a reclamation project (a la Arrieta last year). Oh and we get to suck the entire month of July instead of waiting til the trade deadline and being competent for a month.

thedarkstark wrote:Getting their top 2 is nice, but good god, we're going to need some pitching at some point. How many more infielders do we need??

The Cubs have essentially traded their 40% of their starting pitching the past 3 years and each year they manage to find these replacements pitchers. Yeah, at some point if the Cubs want a world series we will need that top of the line ace, but in today's game that appears to be easier to obtain competent pitching then above average everyday players. Also have to imagine the Cubs go all in on Lester this off-season too

Holy crap this team is gonna be fun to follow.

wow. Did not expect a deal this early.

Can't say I'm an expert on other teams minor leagues, but getting their top draft pick the last two years is huge and made me feel much better when I initially saw only one pitcher that we got.

Crap just at the top tier of prospects we have:
OF: McKinney, Soler, Schwarber, Alomora
IF: Bryant, Baez, Alcantra, Russell (and we only have two spots open)

Be interesting to see what we get out of Strailey and assuming Beeler takes the othe spot. We need to get some more arms though. Assuming a lot of this sets us up for future moves for pitching.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:Another option, after this, is trading for Price without giving up any of the core four. Russell, Vogelbach and Amaya for Price? Might have to include Pierce Johnson. Vogelbach has no where to play, Amaya is probably going to be blocked at 2B by Baez, Bruno or Alcantara, depending on where Bryant playes, 3B or RF, and if Alcantara goes to CF full time.

Didn't think about a trade for Price, but love the idea.

holy smokes, i wasn't expecting moving them both in the same deal - looks like we made out pretty well though

how many middle infielders can we play at one time again?

hermes wrote:holy smokes, i wasn't expecting moving them both in the same deal - looks like we made out pretty well though

how many middle infielders can we play at one time again?

Well let's see. You can play Alcantara, started as a SS until he had to move for Baez, at CF. You can play Baez at 2B. You can play Castro at 3B. You can play Russell at SS. So I'm up to four. Throw Bryant in LF with Soler in RF and you have a pretty good group of position players on offense and defense.

Things will really get interesting if Russell gets promoted to AAA before Baez gets promoted. That will give us an idea about what they have planned for long-term positions. Until we see them on the same team together they will keep them at the most premium position they can play. This is also assuming they aren't working on trading someone for either a top pitching prospect or a legitimate top of the rotation pitcher.

Very rare to see a prospect as good as Russell get moved. Theo continues to do amazing in trades.

There isn't any other franchise remotely close to us in terms of offensive potential. These bad years are going to pay off in a big way, fairly soon.

I'm in Washington on vacation and I just saw Hammel pitch on July 4th. Didn't really consider that it could be his last start.

i haven't been following but are they moving the prospects around to different positions in the minors to see where they can all play? or are we all just guessing to see how they would do at a particular position?

I haven't heard anything on different positions outside of Baez doing a little bit at second before season started.

Defensively Russell probably does make the most sense at SS.

Sounds like one hell of a haul on paper. The thing that makes me a tad weary is that Billy Beane never loses in a trade. Hopefully this will be the first

hermes wrote:i haven't been following but are they moving the prospects around to different positions in the minors to see where they can all play? or are we all just guessing to see how they would do at a particular position?

Theo addressed that today when they officially announced this deal.
[tweet]https://twitter.com/PWSullivan/status/485463955410677760[/tweet]

that's good they all seem to have a lot of flexibility

alright so russell is great and the centerpiece but what's the story on billy mickinney and dan straily?

hermes wrote:alright so russell is great and the centerpiece but what's the story on billy mickinney and dan straily?

McKinney was the Athletic's 2013 1st round pick and second overall prospect in their farm system behind Russell (he's probably around 9-12 in the Cubs farm system fwiw). He's probably only a top 150 or so prospect in baseball right now, but still projects to be an above average outfielder. Probably will be more known for his offense, but defense isn't a negative or anything. He's young (only 19) and like Almora one of youngest players in A+ league. Like Almora we probably won't see him in Chicago until 2017 or so. He's young though so who knows exactly how he'll pan out in 2-3 years.

Straily finished 4th in the AL rookie of the year voting last year. He's young (25) and has 4 more years of control. The biggest problem with him is his command issues. Best case scenario is Bosio and co turn him around like they did Arrieta. I don't think he has the stuff like Arrieta has to be a top of the rotation type guy (best case of course), but could be a middle of the rotation type guy if he gets his command sorted out. I think I read he's starting out in AAA but Theo expects him back up with the Cubs this year.

The Cubs also will get either PTBNL or cash. Some are speculating that the PTBNL is Raul Alcantara, he's one of the top pitchers in the Athletics farm system but just recently under went Tommy John surgery. Probably won't know who the PTBNL is until the end of the season though.

All in all, the Cubs did quite well in this trade. Though I can't fault the Athletic's either, if they can win a world series who cares what you give up....

Dominater wrote:Sounds like one hell of a haul on paper. The thing that makes me a tad weary is that Billy Beane never loses in a trade. Hopefully this will be the first

Beane doesn't have to "lose" for the Cubs to "win". In a trade like this both teams can win. If Russell becomes the player he is capable of the Cubs win. If Oakland wins the World Series then Oakland wins. If Oakland falls short and Russell reaches his potential and McKinney becomes a great left-handed power bat and Straily gets sorted out and becomes a top of the rotation guy then history might look back on this as a bad trade. Oakland is going for it and they have a short window due to their financial restraints. Even if Oakland comes up short in the playoffs Beane won't lose sleep over this one. He had a chance to go for it and took his shot.

Theo said it today but Straily is in the same spot Jake Arrieta was in last year before the Cubs acquired him. Granted Arrieta was a much bigger name than Straily. Straily will start in AAA and hopefully be up with the team soon and hopefully Chris Bosio can work some of his magic on him. Straily is a big strikeout guy that has nasty stuff.