Swisher over Hoff

[PackLandVA]

Don't know if this has been discussed, but is could Nick Swisher have a place on the Cubs' roster?

 

I know he'd come with a bit of a hefty price tag, but I think the Yankees would unload him for next to nothing, and they might even eat some of his contract. They've already got Tex at first, Matsui as the DH and Nady, Cabrera and Damon in the outfield.

 

Not looking at his salary, he'd be an upgrade over Hoffpauir. He's a better first baseman and can play all three outfield positions. So he'd be able to fill in for Soriano and Bradley (if/when necessary) as well as be more insurance for CF and first base. He's a switch hitter so he wouldn't be limited to PH-ing only against right handed relievers. He'd make a pretty dismal bench much better, IMO. And quite honestly, I think he will rebound from last season's statistical disaster.

 

The biggest issue with him is his price tag as I don't see the Cubs wanting to add too much to their payroll.

 

Thoughts?

[haubrich91]

It'd be nice.

[Guest]

Don't know if this has been discussed, but is could Nick Swisher have a place on the Cubs' roster?

 

I know he'd come with a bit of a hefty price tag, but I think the Yankees would unload him for next to nothing, and they might even eat some of his contract. They've already got Tex at first, Matsui as the DH and Nady, Cabrera and Damon in the outfield.

 

Not looking at his salary, he'd be an upgrade over Hoffpauir. He's a better first baseman and can play all three outfield positions. So he'd be able to fill in for Soriano and Bradley (if/when necessary) as well as be more insurance for CF and first base. He's a switch hitter so he wouldn't be limited to PH-ing only against right handed relievers. He'd make a pretty dismal bench much better, IMO. And quite honestly, I think he will rebound from last season's statistical disaster.

 

The biggest issue with him is his price tag as I don't see the Cubs wanting to add too much to their payroll.

 

Thoughts?

I can't see any team acquiring Swisher to sit on the bench.

[rocket]

It'd also be nice if Manny would sign to become our 4th outfielder

[Jehrico]

Swisher makes alot of sense to us with some of our health/performance concerns in the OF. The Yanks won't eat enough of our payroll to make it fit. From Swisher's perspective, we don't exactly make alot of sense for him either, not that he has a vote as he's already under contract though...

[SouthSideRyan]

I wanted Swisher over Bradley.

[Gingerballs Lives]

He pouted about being the odd man out for the Sox last year. He'd fit great but I don't think he would like being brought in without a position to play.

 

We have a big problem with our depth. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much of Miles, Gaithright, kfuk and Johnson.

[forbez18]

Why would you want Swisher over Bradley? The Sox could not wait to unload Swisher after the season was over, and it is not like they had huge stars to replace him with. What do you see in Swisher that makes you want him over Bradley? Swisher hit what .218 last year and isn't that close to his avg. of .244. He doesn't have a great OBP something around .350 compared to Bradley who has a BA last year around .320 and and avg. BA of .280 and a OBP of .370.

 

Swisher has a little more power, but last year he only had 2 more HR's then Bradley. Both K a good amount, and neither one of them steal bases well.

 

So why would you want Swisher over Bradley?

[SouthSideRyan]

Why would you want Swisher over Bradley? The Sox could not wait to unload Swisher after the season was over, and it is not like they had huge stars to replace him with. What do you see in Swisher that makes you want him over Bradley? Swisher hit what .218 last year and isn't that close to his avg. of .244. He doesn't have a great OBP something around .350 compared to Bradley who has a BA last year around .320 and and avg. BA of .280 and a OBP of .370.

 

Swisher has a little more power, but last year he only had 2 more HR's then Bradley. Both K a good amount, and neither one of them steal bases well.

 

So why would you want Swisher over Bradley?

 

Cause he wouldn't have cost much in terms of prospects, has a nice contract, and isn't an injury risk. You save 5M by getting him, and you don't have to face the prospect of Aaron Miles getting 400 PAs a year when Bradley and Soriano get their yearly injuries.

[imb]

you don't have to face the prospect of Aaron Miles getting 400 PAs a year when Bradley and Soriano get their yearly injuries.

 

that made my turtle go back in his shell, what a disaster that would be

[Hairyducked Idiot]

you don't have to face the prospect of Aaron Miles getting 400 PAs a year when Bradley and Soriano get their yearly injuries.

 

that made my turtle go back in his shell, what a disaster that would be

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

[SweetZombieJesus]

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

 

We already did that by depending on a injury prone pitchers like rich harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly and trading for Kevin Gregg and Aaron Heilman.

 

Meanwhile the Cards traded for the greatest SS ever.

[CubinNY]

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

 

We already did that by depending on a injury prone pitchers like rich harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly and trading for Kevin Gregg and Aaron Heilman.

 

Meanwhile the Cards traded for the greatest SS ever.

You don't know how close to true you are.

 

Things could go very bad very quickly for the Cubs

 

Harden pulls a Prior

Z is a shell of himself after all the Dusty innings pile up

Dempster becomes Dempster

Lilly stays the same

 

Kevin Gregg couldn't throw strikes last year and Lou hates relief pitchers who cannot throw strikes

Marmol had a terrible winter in the Caribbean

 

If Bradley goes down Fukudome moves back to RF and we have The Car Hopper and Facial Hair manning CF

 

It's a worst case but it's not that far outside of the realm of possiblility

[Transmogrified Tiger]

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

 

We already did that by depending on a injury prone pitchers like rich harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly and trading for Kevin Gregg and Aaron Heilman.

 

Meanwhile the Cards traded for the greatest SS ever.

You don't know how close to true you are.

 

Things could go very bad very quickly for the Cubs

 

Harden pulls a Prior

Z is a shell of himself after all the Dusty innings pile up

Dempster becomes Dempster

Lilly stays the same

 

Kevin Gregg couldn't throw strikes last year and Lou hates relief pitchers who cannot throw strikes

Marmol had a terrible winter in the Caribbean

 

If Bradley goes down Fukudome moves back to RF and we have The Car Hopper and Facial Hair manning CF

 

It's a worst case but it's not that far outside of the realm of possiblility

 

Now do that for other teams too.

[Jehrico]

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

 

We already did that by depending on a injury prone pitchers like rich harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly and trading for Kevin Gregg and Aaron Heilman.

 

Meanwhile the Cards traded for the greatest SS ever.

You don't know how close to true you are.

 

Things could go very bad very quickly for the Cubs

 

Harden pulls a Prior

Z is a shell of himself after all the Dusty innings pile up

Dempster becomes Dempster

Lilly stays the same

 

Kevin Gregg couldn't throw strikes last year and Lou hates relief pitchers who cannot throw strikes

Marmol had a terrible winter in the Caribbean

 

If Bradley goes down Fukudome moves back to RF and we have The Car Hopper and Facial Hair manning CF

 

It's a worst case but it's not that far outside of the realm of possiblility

 

Now do that for other teams too.

Sure he could...but the problem is, that's not the worst case scenario. He forgot about Fontenot proving he is a platoon-guy (I'm not betting on him recreating a .900 OPS again), Aramis missing 30-40 games, and DLee continuing to show he's a #6 or 7 hitter instead of a #3 hitter. The only bad thing that could happen that I'm not really worried about happening is Z punching out his catcher again.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

That was most definitely a worst case scenario. All things told, the Cubs took a half step back this offseason. Partially due to crummy decisions, and partially due to circumstance(Wood being a no-win situation, payroll restrictions). The thing is, the rest of the division(that we won by 8 games last year, 11 in Pythagorean) either treaded water or got worse. The Cubs are still in great position to win the division and the NL. It's fine to be upset with how the offseason has gone, it wasn't a very good one, but to extrapolate that to think the Cubs have significantly damaged their playoff chances because of it is not looking at things in perspective.

[PackLandVA]

You don't have to be the best team during the season to reach/win the WS. You just have to be the best team in October. Edited February 2, 2009 by PackLandVA

[Tyrant]

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

 

We already did that by depending on a injury prone pitchers like rich harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly and trading for Kevin Gregg and Aaron Heilman.

 

Meanwhile the Cards traded for the greatest SS ever.

You don't know how close to true you are.

 

Things could go very bad very quickly for the Cubs

 

Harden pulls a Prior

Z is a shell of himself after all the Dusty innings pile up

Dempster becomes Dempster

Lilly stays the same

 

Kevin Gregg couldn't throw strikes last year and Lou hates relief pitchers who cannot throw strikes

Marmol had a terrible winter in the Caribbean

 

If Bradley goes down Fukudome moves back to RF and we have The Car Hopper and Facial Hair manning CF

 

It's a worst case but it's not that far outside of the realm of possiblility

 

If the entire Cubs' locker room contracts bacterial meningitis and the Iowa Cubs have to come up the replace everyone except Paul Bako, the Cubs will not be very good.

[The Other 15]

 

It's like a roadmap of how to give the Cardinals the 2009 NL Central title.

 

We already did that by depending on a injury prone pitchers like rich harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly and trading for Kevin Gregg and Aaron Heilman.

 

Meanwhile the Cards traded for the greatest SS ever.

You don't know how close to true you are.

 

Things could go very bad very quickly for the Cubs

 

Harden pulls a Prior

Z is a shell of himself after all the Dusty innings pile up

Dempster becomes Dempster

Lilly stays the same

 

Kevin Gregg couldn't throw strikes last year and Lou hates relief pitchers who cannot throw strikes

Marmol had a terrible winter in the Caribbean

 

If Bradley goes down Fukudome moves back to RF and we have The Car Hopper and Facial Hair manning CF

 

It's a worst case but it's not that far outside of the realm of possiblility

Fair enough. Now use that worst case scenario reasoning and use the Cardinals as an example. I was also wondering what would be worst case about Lilly staying the same?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Fair enough. Now use that worst case scenario reasoning and use the Cardinals as an example. I was also wondering what would be worst case about Lilly staying the same?

 

The Cardinals' is easy.

 

Pujols' elbow gives out.

 

Otherwise, they have a ton of depth, especially position players. They might be better off if a few guys get hurt and give some prospects a chance.

[Gmoney08]

Fair enough. Now use that worst case scenario reasoning and use the Cardinals as an example. I was also wondering what would be worst case about Lilly staying the same?

 

The Cardinals' is easy.

 

Pujols' elbow gives out.

 

Otherwise, they have a ton of depth, especially position players. They might be better off if a few guys get hurt and give some prospects a chance.

 

LOL, some fans are hilarious about the Cardinals. Cubs are doomed to hell, and the Cards well they will just win the division by more if they have injuries.

 

Also why is everyone calling Zambrano injury prone. The guy missed a few games last year for the 1st time in his career. He has been one of the most durable pitchers in baseball throughout his career. If he is injury prone, everyone is injury prone.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

LOL, some fans are hilarious about the Cardinals. Cubs are doomed to hell, and the Cards well they will just win the division by more if they have injuries.

 

Whatever. I didn't say the Cardinals would win the division in that scenario. They are an inferior team to the Cubs, but there's very little outside of a Pujols injury that could really hurt them.

 

 

Also why is everyone calling Zambrano injury prone. The guy missed a few games last year for the 1st time in his career. He has been one of the most durable pitchers in baseball throughout his career. If he is injury prone, everyone is injury prone.

 

Not injury-prone. Injury-risky. Remember Jon Lieber, and how everyone said he was a horse and all those innings were no big deal?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Fair enough. Now use that worst case scenario reasoning and use the Cardinals as an example. I was also wondering what would be worst case about Lilly staying the same?

 

The Cardinals' is easy.

 

Pujols' elbow gives out.

 

Otherwise, they have a ton of depth, especially position players. They might be better off if a few guys get hurt and give some prospects a chance.

 

If Wainwright gets hurt(he had arm troubles in the minors and missed 10 starts last year with a finger problem), their rotation is Carpenter(< 25 IP the last 2 years combined), Lohse, Wellemeyer, Piniero, and I don't know, Brad Thompson? They have Wallace and his 200 professional at bats I guess, and Skip Schumaker is a decent 4th OF I guess, but they aren't going to be better off with injuries or even closer to that.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Fair enough. Now use that worst case scenario reasoning and use the Cardinals as an example. I was also wondering what would be worst case about Lilly staying the same?

 

The Cardinals' is easy.

 

Pujols' elbow gives out.

 

Otherwise, they have a ton of depth, especially position players. They might be better off if a few guys get hurt and give some prospects a chance.

 

If Wainwright gets hurt(he had arm troubles in the minors and missed 10 starts last year with a finger problem), their rotation is Carpenter(< 25 IP the last 2 years combined), Lohse, Wellemeyer, Piniero, and I don't know, Brad Thompson? They have Wallace and his 200 professional at bats I guess, and Skip Schumaker is a decent 4th OF I guess, but they aren't going to be better off with injuries or even closer to that.

 

 

Is Braden Looper not still a starter for them (Honest question?) ZIPS seems to think they have a bunch of guys who could fill in with adequate numbers: Jaime Garcia, Jesse Todd, PJ Walters are all names it lists.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Looper left for Free Agency, and Garcia is missing all of '09 with TJS. Walters was pretty subpar in AAA last year. Todd is a good prospect, but they may not rush him and would likely choose someone like Thompson or a FA retread they think Duncan can fix over him. Still, the point was mainly that their ace would be someone who's probably not going to be on the mound, and their 2-3-4 is Lohse, Wellemeyer, and Piniero, not good. They're using the '06 Cubs model of "I really hope everything goes right" for the rotation.