RealGM

From WSCR and MLB TR.

I'm not sure I understand this signing. He could be a solid 5th outfielder as a pinch-runner and defensive sub, but that's it. He is terrible.

But he can jump over a car. This means Pie is on the way out probably.

He's useful to have on the bench for his pinch-running and defense. As long as he's not expected to do more than that, I like it.

SportsWorld wrote:But he can jump over a car. This means Pie is on the way out probably.

well thats great, but if he can jump over prince fielder then i'll be impressed

Here's the video of Gathright jumping over the car if you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cySfw8f0beg

you can never have enough speed, he cant hit water if he fell off a boat.....but whatever

I'm going to go ahead and say Pie is done, and Bradley's stick is on the way. However, come the 6-8th innings, Bradley's legs can't run like they use to and his defense isn't what it use to be, so its Gathright time.

So Alfonso in left, Fuku in center (never played there), and Milton in RF? One of the worst defensive OF's in the league perhaps??

i'm sure it will be fine, that "defense wins championships" thing, only applies to the infield

To a certain extent yes.. Maybe Fuku will be a great CF with range good enough to make up for those other guys but I like to compare the idea that Noce is a good defender bc he takes charges to Soriano is a good defender bc he throws out a lot of people. In reality they both stink at Defense.

Never heard of Joey Gathright

like the signing...gives the Cubs a great late inning rotation in the outfield

Soriano in LF, Gathright in CF (covering a ton of ground), Kosuke in right

Probably means Pie has numbered days here or he has to beat out JG in spring training...signing him likely means a bat is one the way in the next few days

good point. gathright as a late inning d replacement is quite nice actually. im a fan of the deal now. i dont know why i didnt think of that sooner

Unless we trade pie.. there's really no point in signing this guy

ChronicKerr wrote:Unless we trade pie.. there's really no point in signing this guy

Why else would we sign him? Pie will go in the rule 5 draft next yr if we dont trade him now. The writing is on the wall, he is done here, he will never get a chance here.

Perhaps we use him to convince a team to take Marquis.

Can you explain how the rule 5 draft works? If we sign him we can't keep him? He has never been given more than a small opportunity to play. I'd rather sign him to a 1 year deal than Joey Gathright.

We don't need to sign Pie, he's still under team control for multiple years. Anyone over a certain amount of time in the system who isn't on the 40-man roster is available to be picked by other teams in the annual Rule 5 draft. That player has to stay on his new team's 25-man roster all season or he's sent back to his original team.

I don't see Pie ever being left off the 40-man though so I wouldn't worry about it.

Ya I forgot about the 40-man thing.

Regardless I say we be fair to Pie and trade him to a team that will give him a shot.

quick note on Felix: he is out of options. Which means if he doesn't make the 25 man out of Spring Training, he is on waivers and any team can claim him (and his salary).

Is there any scenario where you see us letting Pie get away for absolutely nothing? That would be quite a disapointment.