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I figured he was deserving enough of his own thread as he seems like a fairly significant signing for anyone that gets him this off-season. The latest, per Rotoworld:



Count me in as a fan of this idea. Since he arrived, Theo has preached the idea that the Cubs system needs more concrete assets and this seems to be a chance to grab one. I'm curious as to where he would fall were he hypothetically to be in an MLB draft.

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10/21/11 - In Logic We Trust

We're talking about him a little in the IFA thread over in the minor league forums. No idea where he'd fall into the draft, but he played some games against a Bryce Harper led US squad when they were both 15 and they were evidently the 2 best players on the field by far. He' a big guy, good athlete, good looking swing, with lots of power potential. He's definitely the type of guy we need in the minors. One article I read said he'd probably need 800 at bats or so in the minors, before he's ready. Give him a major league deal, spread the money out some and hope we hit the jackpot. Hell, if we get both him and Cespedes, I'd be happy as hell.

I'd be ecstatic if we got them both. Those two, Fielder and a SP would be an outstanding off-season in my book.

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10/21/11 - In Logic We Trust

Can we still sign this guy before the new CBA's international cap goes into effect?

Nah, the league calendar year has already changed. This guy just got boned bigtime.

So under the new CBA would Soler (and others like him) be better served playing in Japan until he is 23 and then signing with a MLB team?

Yeah, he'd be much better off staying in Cuba until he's 23. But since he's already in the Dominican, I'm not sure he can stop the process at this point. My guess is we'll be hearing quite a bit more on his situation over the next couple of days.

If Soler is screwed and is definitely coming over, here's how I hope the Cubs look at this opportunity: If Soler is this talented, to where he was going to get 15 mill or so, now he's only going to get 2.9 mill max under the new rules. I'd give him all of our IFA money, maybe even an extra 100,000 or so, since there is no penalty for that. Then, I'd take the penalty and STILL spend the 2.9 mill on other guys as well. Yeah, you're going to pay double, because of the tax. But, if you were going to do it anyway just on Soler anyway, why not take the penalty so you can add more talent as well? If you spend 6 mill total, you'll get taxed an extra 6 as well, so you're spending 12 altogether. Which is still less than you may have given Soler by himself. The only real downside here is you'd be penalized by not being able to spend more than 250,000 on any player for the following season. That said, you could take the quantity over quality approach for that year, while spending big on a few impact guys this year. If this kid is the real deal, I hope this is the way the Cubs look at it.

Worth noting from Bleacher Nation:



Is that true about the international spending?

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10/21/11 - In Logic We Trust

Goldstein says Yanks, Rangers, and Phils in that order, as the 3 favorites to sign him. Mike Rizzo said he expects Soler to receive a contract larger than Leonys Martin. Which obviously confuses me, since he's 19. Does this IFA limited spending thing start immediately or not?

Kevin Goldstein answered a tweet of mine about Soler. I asked whether he has immunity from new IFA rules until January 1st and he said he does. Until July actually. So, he's not screwed and I hope we give him whatever it takes.

On a side note, I guess this rule appilies to other IFA as well. For what it's worth, there are still some high profile Dominicans from last July 2nd signing period yet to be signed as well. Could be our last shot at beefing the system up before the new rules take affect. I hope we make a couple of splashes, if this includes those guys as well, and I see no reason why it wouldn't.

I know this was posted in the Cespedes thread but given the Goldstein post and signifigance of Soler, I figure I'd give it a bump.

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10/21/11 - In Logic We Trust

SQUEEEEE

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"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game."
- Jacques Barzun

Delightful.

I truly think our FO plan this offseason has been to get all 3 of these guys. At this point, I'll be very surprised if we don't get at least 2 of them. If we get Cespedes though, I could see a team go crazy and give Soler crazy as hell money, partly to block us from totally dominating this market.

Given how Goldstein phrased it, it sounds like the Cubs might already be there.

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10/21/11 - In Logic We Trust

Haha, I thought this was a new thread and became disheartened when I skimmed through and saw this.

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YES , really wanted to get Soler this offseason

Any time you can get a guy who would probably be the consensus top prospect in our system (if him ranking in the 10-20 top 100 range is true), without giving up a draft pick, then you have to go all out for it. Let's hope.

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No other team with competent management is going to change their offer to Soler based upon where two other guys signed.

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This really applies to both threads:

http://joefrisaro.mlblogs.com/2012/02/1 ... ontrunner/

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Strategy makes sense to me. On another note, you think MLB could spring for blogs that don't look like they came from the 90s.

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10/21/11 - In Logic We Trust

True. The problem with that is the "competent management". That only applies to probably half of baseball.

Does the whole not yet ruled a free agent business mean that it could be quite some time before Soler signs with anyone?

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