Interesting Quote from Hendry re Lefty Bat

[BigbadB]

We already have an upgrade for Izzy at SS, his name is Ryan Theriot.

 

Unfortunately, Hendry doesn't seem to see it that way. I doubt Lou will either.

[Abe Frohman]

If Crawford could learn how to take a walk, he would be twice the player. Just what the Cubs need.

[Guest]

The only position left is CF. How many guys are available who would be an offensive upgrade over Jones and are left-handed? Anyone? Potentially Baldelli or Crawford.

 

There are actually two positions left.

 

CF and SS.

Don't forget 2B...

 

Mark DeRosa?

Yeah, 2B is still a hole.

[VanceJergins]

If Crawford could learn how to take a walk, he would be twice the player. Just what the Cubs need.

 

I'd love to have Crawford, but I cant see how anyone would want him over Church.

 

Church: Makes at or near league minimum, put up an .892 OPS, 128 OPS+, and it would take like Marmol and Cedeno to get him; maybe just Marmol.

 

Crawford: Makes a very reasonable $4 million, but thats 3.5 more than church, put up an .830 OPS, 111 OPS+, and it would take probably Veal, Gallagher, Patterson, or something like that to get him.

 

Crawford has more speed and would probably play better defense, but Church is easily the better option.

[VanceJergins]

The only position left is CF. How many guys are available who would be an offensive upgrade over Jones and are left-handed? Anyone? Potentially Baldelli or Crawford.

 

There are actually two positions left.

 

CF and SS.

Don't forget 2B...

 

Mark DeRosa?

Yeah, 2B is still a hole.

 

DeRosa isnt the greatest, but there arent many better options. I would have rather traded for Giles or something, but I wouldnt call 2B a hole, I'd say its more....meh.

[KatJ]

The only position left is CF. How many guys are available who would be an offensive upgrade over Jones and are left-handed? Anyone? Potentially Baldelli or Crawford.

 

There are actually two positions left.

 

CF and SS.

Don't forget 2B...

 

Mark DeRosa?

Yeah, 2B is still a hole.

 

Well, Soriano once played 2B, OTOH, he was a butcher at 2B, iirc.

[Guest]

The only position left is CF. How many guys are available who would be an offensive upgrade over Jones and are left-handed? Anyone? Potentially Baldelli or Crawford.

 

There are actually two positions left.

 

CF and SS.

Don't forget 2B...

 

Mark DeRosa?

Yeah, 2B is still a hole.

 

DeRosa isnt the greatest, but there arent many better options. I would have rather traded for Giles or something, but I wouldnt call 2B a hole, I'd say its more....meh.

He's had over 300 AB twice in his career. Once he had an OBP of .293 and the other time was .357. I'd like to think he figured something out last year, but his second half was right around his rather pathetic career averages. I think he's being very overvalued based upon a fluke first half last year.

 

I hope I'm wrong.

[Guest]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

[Post Count Padder]

The only position left is CF. How many guys are available who would be an offensive upgrade over Jones and are left-handed? Anyone? Potentially Baldelli or Crawford.

 

There are actually two positions left.

 

CF and SS.

Don't forget 2B...

 

Mark DeRosa?

Yeah, 2B is still a hole.

 

DeRosa isnt the greatest, but there arent many better options. I would have rather traded for Giles or something, but I wouldnt call 2B a hole, I'd say its more....meh.

He's had over 300 AB twice in his career. Once he had an OBP of .293 and the other time was .357. I'd like to think he figured something out last year, but his second half was right around his rather pathetic career averages. I think he's being very overvalued based upon a fluke first half last year.

 

I hope I'm wrong.

Supposedly he worked with Michael Young last year and changed his batting stance and plate approach. I assume he can partially attribute his year to that.

[Guest]

The only position left is CF. How many guys are available who would be an offensive upgrade over Jones and are left-handed? Anyone? Potentially Baldelli or Crawford.

 

There are actually two positions left.

 

CF and SS.

Don't forget 2B...

 

Mark DeRosa?

Yeah, 2B is still a hole.

 

DeRosa isnt the greatest, but there arent many better options. I would have rather traded for Giles or something, but I wouldnt call 2B a hole, I'd say its more....meh.

He's had over 300 AB twice in his career. Once he had an OBP of .293 and the other time was .357. I'd like to think he figured something out last year, but his second half was right around his rather pathetic career averages. I think he's being very overvalued based upon a fluke first half last year.

 

I hope I'm wrong.

Supposedly he worked with Michael Young last year and changed his batting stance and plate approach. I assume he can partially attribute his year to that.

Then why was his second half so bad?

[VanceJergins]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

 

I would have rather had Durham or Loretta or tried to trade for Giles. Who else was there other than that?

[Guest]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

 

I would have rather had Durham or Loretta or tried to trade for Giles. Who else was there other than that?

My favorite was Durham, but I would have also liked the Japanese 3B whose name is escaping me at the moment.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Iwamura

[Guest]

Iwamura

Gracias.

[jjgman21]

Then why was his second half so bad?

 

I suppose that's one way to frame it. another is to say that his OPS at the ASB was .878 and his OPS on August 31 was .871.

[Guest]

Then why was his second half so bad?

 

I suppose that's one way to frame it. another is to say that his OPS at the ASB was .878 and his OPS on August 31 was .871.

And at the end of the year?

[VanceJergins]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

 

I would have rather had Durham or Loretta or tried to trade for Giles. Who else was there other than that?

My favorite was Durham, but I would have also liked the Japanese 3B whose name is escaping me at the moment.

 

Iwamura or something like that. Yeah, if he really can play 2B I'd add him to the list. I guess what I'm saying is that 2B may be a hole, but not a hole on near the same level as SS.

[Guest]

Look at it in another way...

 

The guy Hendry tabbed as our everyday 2B had a career high in total bases of 102 coming into last year.

 

And he only had 237 last year.

 

huzzah

[Guest]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

 

I would have rather had Durham or Loretta or tried to trade for Giles. Who else was there other than that?

My favorite was Durham, but I would have also liked the Japanese 3B whose name is escaping me at the moment.

 

Iwamura or something like that. Yeah, if he really can play 2B I'd add him to the list. I guess what I'm saying is that 2B may be a hole, but not a hole on near the same level as SS.

Okay...DeRosa's OPS's going backwards:

 

2006: .803 (pretty good, but a heck of a dropoff after his good first half)

2005: .764 (not bad, but in arlington and in 148 ab's)

2004: .613 (his previous career high in AB's)

2003: .699 (ick)

 

As I said, it's still a hole.

[VanceJergins]

Look at it in another way...

 

The guy Hendry tabbed as our everyday 2B had a career high in total bases of 102 coming into last year.

 

And he only had 237 last year.

 

huzzah

 

If he matched his career averages at .273/.331/.404, that seems like it would be at or a little above league average for 2B. I might be completely wrong cause I have no real idea what average is.

Edited December 8, 2006 by VanceJergins

[VanceJergins]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

 

I would have rather had Durham or Loretta or tried to trade for Giles. Who else was there other than that?

My favorite was Durham, but I would have also liked the Japanese 3B whose name is escaping me at the moment.

 

Iwamura or something like that. Yeah, if he really can play 2B I'd add him to the list. I guess what I'm saying is that 2B may be a hole, but not a hole on near the same level as SS.

Okay...DeRosa's OPS's going backwards:

 

2006: .803 (pretty good, but a heck of a dropoff after his good first half)

2005: .764 (not bad, but in arlington and in 148 ab's)

2004: .613 (his previous career high in AB's)

2003: .699 (ick)

 

As I said, it's still a hole.

 

Probably a typo, but it was .813. But your point still stands. But refer back to my post about his career average.

[jjgman21]

Then why was his second half so bad?

 

I suppose that's one way to frame it. another is to say that his OPS at the ASB was .878 and his OPS on August 31 was .871.

And at the end of the year?

 

he slumped at the end. no doubt about it. not surprising for a guy who played 40% more that during any other season of his career.

 

but you keep trying to talk about a 'terrible second half' like it was three sustained months of crappitude. it was not. it was one month of total crapitude. guys have slumps. I try not to use that as a basis to sum up what a player is or can be at a given point of time.

[Guest]

There were a lot of good 2B options on the table this season. We let them all go and signed DeRosa instead.

 

I would have rather had Durham or Loretta or tried to trade for Giles. Who else was there other than that?

My favorite was Durham, but I would have also liked the Japanese 3B whose name is escaping me at the moment.

 

Iwamura or something like that. Yeah, if he really can play 2B I'd add him to the list. I guess what I'm saying is that 2B may be a hole, but not a hole on near the same level as SS.

Okay...DeRosa's OPS's going backwards:

 

2006: .803 (pretty good, but a heck of a dropoff after his good first half)

2005: .764 (not bad, but in arlington and in 148 ab's)

2004: .613 (his previous career high in AB's)

2003: .699 (ick)

 

As I said, it's still a hole.

 

Probably a typo, but it was .813. But your point still stands. But refer back to my post about his career average.

My bad on the math.

 

Yeah, his career average looks to be about league ave for a 2B. But I think he's as likely to post an OPS below .700 as above.

 

So, to your point, he may not be as big of a hole as SS, but he's still a hole. And a much bigger one than CF at the moment.

[Guest]

Then why was his second half so bad?

 

I suppose that's one way to frame it. another is to say that his OPS at the ASB was .878 and his OPS on August 31 was .871.

And at the end of the year?

 

he slumped at the end. no doubt about it. not surprising for a guy who played 40% more that during any other season of his career.

 

but you keep trying to talk about a 'terrible second half' like it was three sustained months of crappitude. it was not. it was one month of total crapitude. guys have slumps. I try not to use that as a basis to sum up what a player is or can be at a given point of time.

Okay, "terrible" second half is an overstatement. But his OPS dropped by 122 points in the second half. His overall numbers were clearly a creation of his first half, not his second half.

[jjgman21]

Then why was his second half so bad?

 

I suppose that's one way to frame it. another is to say that his OPS at the ASB was .878 and his OPS on August 31 was .871.

And at the end of the year?

 

he slumped at the end. no doubt about it. not surprising for a guy who played 40% more that during any other season of his career.

 

but you keep trying to talk about a 'terrible second half' like it was three sustained months of crappitude. it was not. it was one month of total crapitude. guys have slumps. I try not to use that as a basis to sum up what a player is or can be at a given point of time.

Okay, "terrible" second half is an overstatement. But his OPS dropped by 122 points in the second half. His overall numbers were clearly a creation of his first half, not his second half.

 

see my post above. his numbers were clearly a creation of four months of solid production. he had an OPS of 920 for the month of August.