Cubs sign Reed Johnson

[CUBZ99]

Nothing against Johnson, I like hime a lot, but would an outfield of Soriano, Fukudome/Pie, Bradley have sufficed? I know it's a lot of leftys in there, but we have enough right handed bats througout the lineup. I guess the main problem there would be that we wouldnt have a quality righty bat off the bench, with Hoffpauir, Fontenot and Fukudome/Pie as the first lines of defense. Had we non tendered Johnson and Cotts, that would likely have freed up enough money to go ahead with Bradley.

 

Pie/Fuku in CF? Boy, I'd love to see that combined batting line against lefties.

 

Fukudome actually hit lefties better than rhp last year. Overall, I think the Cubs could live with Fukudome's .359 OBP in CF. Now if Fukudome had crazy splits depending on what hand the pitcher is pitching with I can see a platoon, but he doesn't. And we seriously don't know what the Cubs have in Pie.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I want to find a reason to dislike this move, but I can't.

[CUBZ99]

Had we non tendered Johnson and Cotts, that would likely have freed up enough money to go ahead with Bradley.

 

 

 

](*,) ](*,) Why do you keep saying this? What makes you believe they need to clear salary to sign Milton Bradley? Don't tell me you believe Muskat article. If her information was actually correct DeRosa would be off the table in trade talks for Peavy(which he wasn't), and Kerry Wood would had been offered arbitration. The payroll currently is at 134m, before agreeing to contracts with Gregg, Wuertz and Cedeno. If we keep all those guys(Wuertz might be gone), the payroll will probably be just above 140m.(possibly 139m if Wuertz is traded) The payroll this year IMO is gonna go beyond 145m, and probably closer to 147m. So that gives us more then enough money to sign Milton Bradley, and backload it to 5-7m the first year. Trading Marquis will just go to a contract we offer Randy Johnson or another pitcher.

 

Just what the Cubs need more backloaded contracts. How about not overpaying for a 3rd CF and a reliever that put up worse numbers than Howry last year? Then the Cubs would have enough money to fill an actual need.

 

 

Bradley making 2-3m extra in 2010 isn't going to kill us. Overpaying 3rd CF are you kidding me? Please just stop with that junk. I guess you feel comfortable with a career 223 hitter in Pie(who doesn't hit LH pitching well) and Fukudome who hit 217 in the second half as our options in CF and off the bench. First of all Johnson is our 2nd CF right now, and if Fukudome doesn't get it together, he will be our first CF next year. I'm sure Pie will get a chance to take Fukudome job if he's not traded, but I'm not counting on him coming through in this situation.

 

 

 

I hate when fans don't realize how important having good depth is. During a 162 game season, guys get hurt, or guys don't perform like their suppose to. When those things happen(they do almost every season), it's nice to have other options to go to. Think back from 04-06, when that happen, and what kinda options we had. It makes no sense to want a guy like Milton Bradley, without good depth on this team. Odds are the guy will start in 100 games, and in games he's playing it's gonna be really nice to have a guy who hits LH pitching really well in his place. As for Cotts, I can understand you're point there. But the guy has a good stuff, he just has been able to put it together besides 2005. I guess the Cubs thought it was worth giving him a 300,000 raise to see if he could have a good season in a free agent year.

 

Fans are well aware of what depth means to a team. Just look at 2006 when D-Lee went down. The problem is that you don't waste $3MM on a guy when you already have 2 CF's on the team and you need to shell out for a RF. I guess the only good thing about this deal is that Hendry didn't go crazy and offer him more than 1 year.

 

BTW I wasn't talking about Cotts in regard to having a worse season than Howry. I was talking about the $2MM they paid to Gaudin. For some reason, some fans have an irrational love for a guy that has been terrible throughout his career. Its funny that some people will argue potential with Gaudin, but in the same breath say that Pie is worthless.

[CubColtPacer]

Nothing against Johnson, I like hime a lot, but would an outfield of Soriano, Fukudome/Pie, Bradley have sufficed? I know it's a lot of leftys in there, but we have enough right handed bats througout the lineup. I guess the main problem there would be that we wouldnt have a quality righty bat off the bench, with Hoffpauir, Fontenot and Fukudome/Pie as the first lines of defense. Had we non tendered Johnson and Cotts, that would likely have freed up enough money to go ahead with Bradley.

 

Pie/Fuku in CF? Boy, I'd love to see that combined batting line against lefties.

 

Fukudome actually hit lefties better than rhp last year. Overall, I think the Cubs could live with Fukudome's .359 OBP in CF. Now if Fukudome had crazy splits depending on what hand the pitcher is pitching with I can see a platoon, but he doesn't. And we seriously don't know what the Cubs have in Pie.

 

Fukudome was only slightly worse against left-handers last year (although it's close due to the better OBP against left-handers). That though was purely a function of how he was used. First, he got benched against most of the tough left-handers all year long which propped up his numbers against LHP. Second, and this is even a bigger one, the Cubs stopped playing him against LHP when he started slumping. So the majority of his at-bats against LHP came when he was hot and so is not a representative sample.

 

For example, 16 of his 29 starts against left-handers came in April or May (55.2%) even though only 38.7% of his total at-bats came in those 2 months.

 

BTW, his BABIP against left-handers was .347. Luck was definitely part of the factor as well.

 

As for Pie, we don't have to look at just his major league at-bats against left-handers to know his struggles. We also have minor league splits and winter ball reports to go off of, and it shows that he is likely going to be absolutely terrible in the major leagues against left-handers.

 

Johnson is a good bet to be 100+ points better than Fukudome against left-handers (and that's even allowing for Johnson to regress a bit) and 200+ points better than Pie. That's a big difference even over 150-200 at-bats. Then when you look at the Cubs bench, you see the need even more for Johnson. The two biggest bats on the bench are left-handed, and 1 of those has already proven it can't hit left-handed pitching. The 2 other bats are your backup catcher and a right-handed shortstop that cannot hit left-handed pitching. Johnson is the Cubs big threat against left-handers in the late innings. Those two things together are worth 3 million dollars.

[cubsfan26]

The problem is that you don't waste $3MM on a guy when you already have 2 CF's on the team and you need to shell out for a RF. I guess the only good thing about this deal is that Hendry didn't go crazy and offer him more than 1 year.

 

Just because they have two CF already, doesn't mean they have two good CF, or ones that can hit against LH pitching.

 

 

BTW I wasn't talking about Cotts in regard to having a worse season than Howry. I was talking about the $2MM they paid to Gaudin. For some reason, some fans have an irrational love for a guy that has been terrible throughout his career. Its funny that some people will argue potential with Gaudin, but in the same breath say that Pie is worthless.

 

I wouldn't call Gaudin terrible in throughout his career. He did have a 3.09 era in 06 in 64 innings. In 2007 he pretty much had Jason Marquis type numbers out of the rotation with a 4.42 era in 199 IP. Last season he had a 3.12 era in 46.1 IP(3.39 era on season including 6 starts in total of 82.1 IP) out of the bullpen on August 21st. Then on August 22nd he got bombed with the wind blowing out and raised his era to 4.11 out of the pen(3.95 era overall). He then pitched a scoreless 1.2 IP, to bring his era back down to 3.96(3.87 overall).

 

 

Then of course Gaudin got hurt, and when he came back he got bombed and gave up 7 runs in 4 IP, because he wasn't 100 percent and trying to rush back to make it on the playoff roster. So really Gaudin had a 3.09 era in 46.1 IP(3.39 in 82.1), but gave up 13 runs in his last 7.2 IP. So Gaudin wasn't terrible last year, he was only terrible in his last 7.2 innings, and for at least 4 of those he wasn't 100 percent. I know the guy has high WHIPs, but 25 year olds who can have low to mid 3 era's out of the pen, and who can be bottom of the rotation starters, with good stuff is worth 2m. Many teams would like to have a pitcher like Gaudin, and I think Rotoworld said it best.

 

 

You can be sure there were more than a few teams hoping Gaudin would be non-tendered, and it likely would have happened if he didn't agree to a contract today. He did struggle after joining the Cubs in the Rich Harden deal last season, but that's because he was hurt. He was a fine reliever for the A's in the first half, and he can start if needed.