Cubs/Rays talking Bradley/Burell deal?

[Guest]

Cubs & Rays Talking Bradley

By Ben Nicholson-Smith [October 8 at 2:54pm CST]

The Cubs are focused on one particular trading partner, as they look to move Milton Bradley. Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times hears that the Cubs are pushing the Rays to make a quick deal.

 

De Luca suggests the Rays could send Pat Burrell to the Cubs for Bradley. Burrell has $7MM remaining on his contract and Bradley has $21MM remaining on his, so the Rays would likely want the Cubs to cover a considerable amount of Bradley's contract in any deal.

 

The Blue Jays and Padres are possible destinations for Bradley, but the Blue Jays have a new GM (Alex Anthopoulos) and the Padres haven't yet named a permanent GM. As De Luca points out, it's doubtful that either club would want to acquire Bradley to kick off a new regime given the outfielder's volatility.

 

I know there are already countless threads regarding Bradleys future, but this is the first Ive heard of actual talks going down, so I thought Id start yet another thread.

 

Burrell could be Lous lefty RBI man, but along with Soriano, it could be one of the more sickeningly bad defensive outfields in recent memory, in fact it would rank up there with the Great Khali and Sloth from Goonies.

 

Burrell is right handed

 

Most of us know that, but does Hendry know that?

[Little Slide Rooter]

Cubs & Rays Talking Bradley

By Ben Nicholson-Smith [October 8 at 2:54pm CST]

The Cubs are focused on one particular trading partner, as they look to move Milton Bradley. Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times hears that the Cubs are pushing the Rays to make a quick deal.

 

De Luca suggests the Rays could send Pat Burrell to the Cubs for Bradley. Burrell has $7MM remaining on his contract and Bradley has $21MM remaining on his, so the Rays would likely want the Cubs to cover a considerable amount of Bradley's contract in any deal.

 

The Blue Jays and Padres are possible destinations for Bradley, but the Blue Jays have a new GM (Alex Anthopoulos) and the Padres haven't yet named a permanent GM. As De Luca points out, it's doubtful that either club would want to acquire Bradley to kick off a new regime given the outfielder's volatility.

 

I know there are already countless threads regarding Bradleys future, but this is the first Ive heard of actual talks going down, so I thought Id start yet another thread.

 

Burrell could be Lous lefty RBI man, but along with Soriano, it could be one of the more sickeningly bad defensive outfields in recent memory, in fact it would rank up there with the Great Khali and Sloth from Goonies.

 

Burrell is right handed

 

Most of us know that, but does Hendry know that?

 

I think I was confusing him with Jeremy Hermida for some reason.

[Bull]

 

wouldn't the high number strikeouts by Cubs pitchers account for much of that discrepancy? ie fewer balls in play doesn't affect efficiency, but does affect UZR.

 

How would strikeouts affect UZR?

 

More strikeouts = less opportunity to make outs in the field. Outs/9 innings is the basis of UZR.

 

Maybe? I'm not pretending to be an expert, just throwing it out there.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Perhaps they think they can flip Burrell somewhere else easier than they can move Bradley.

 

If the intent is to keep Burrell they probably have to find a LH hitting 2nd baseman to bat at the top of the order- again with the disclaimer that Piniella believes this is important. That likely also means more Theriot at the top of the order and Fukudome batting 5th to break up the RH hitters. Making the lineup:

 

Theriot

2nd baseman

Lee

Ramirez

Fukudome

Soriano

Burrell

Soto

Pitcher

 

On the plus side, Lee, Ramirez and Fukudome should get on base a lot in front of a pretty solid group of 6-8 hitters.

 

I'd really enjoy having our 2 worst hitters hitting 1-2

 

It has Soriano and Soto at 6 and 8.

[SouthSideRyan]

 

wouldn't the high number strikeouts by Cubs pitchers account for much of that discrepancy? ie fewer balls in play doesn't affect efficiency, but does affect UZR.

 

How would strikeouts affect UZR?

 

More strikeouts = less opportunity to make outs in the field. Outs/9 innings is the basis of UZR.

 

Maybe? I'm not pretending to be an expert, just throwing it out there.

 

That's not how UZR works. Otherwise, all it would serve as is a ranking of strikeout teams.

[Jehrico]

If the Cubs make the move for Burrell, I can't help but think he's gotta be destined to getting flipped back to another team in the AL. There has to be alot more potential takers for Burrell than Bradley. I think that's the best way to get max return for Bradley at this point. Who knows if Hendry realizes this.

[dew1679666265]

If the Cubs make the move for Burrell, I can't help but think he's gotta be destined to getting flipped back to another team in the AL. There has to be alot more potential takers for Burrell than Bradley. I think that's the best way to get max return for Bradley at this point. Who knows if Hendry realizes this.

 

If Hendry made the trade for Burrell and then he rebounded and we were out of it at the deadline, he'd be a great trading chip to an AL team. Of course, Bradley probably would too . . .

[Halman]

If the Cubs make the move for Burrell, I can't help but think he's gotta be destined to getting flipped back to another team in the AL. There has to be alot more potential takers for Burrell than Bradley. I think that's the best way to get max return for Bradley at this point. Who knows if Hendry realizes this.

 

If Hendry made the trade for Burrell and then he rebounded and we were out of it at the deadline, he'd be a great trading chip to an AL team. Of course, Bradley probably would too . . .

 

If Hendry is the GM at time of the deadline and we are currently out of it. I will do everything in my power to bankrupt ameritrade.

[TruffleShuffle]

The Cubs defense ranked 4th in the majors this year in defensive efficiency, behind on the Giants, Dodgers, and Mariners.

 

And 25th in UZR.

 

No kidding? Ouch.

 

I wonder what on earth could cause that large of a disconnect.

 

flawed defensive statistics... there's no way to logically explain it otherwise.

[Guest]

For a team-wide stat, I trust DE more - it's very straightforward and hard to misinterpret.

[Eric Clipperton]

For a team-wide stat, I trust DE more - it's very straightforward and hard to misinterpret.

 

Agree- I'm not sure how they do the Team UZRs, but my guess is that each player's rating is summed to calculate the aggregate. The sum of multiple "estimators" (such as UZR) in statistics leads to the Variances of each player's UZR also being summed, so that when the Team UZR contains the sum of all players, the Team stat has greater variance compared to its' size. Therefore it is not really very accurate- summing estimators is generally unreliable in statistics, provided I have not completely misremembered Theoretical Stats from a couple years ago.

 

Also I may be off in how they come up with team UZR, but I can't imagine they would do all the balls fielded by a team combined into one bucket? Doesn't make sense considering the UZR methodology as I understand it. Hope that made any sense at all...if not, I apologize.