Cubs pick up options for Walker, Williamson

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-051028cubs,1,1825971.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

 

 

The Cubs still can talk to Burnitz about returning, but there was never any thought of picking up his $7 million option. The Cubs are likely to trade for a right fielder with more speed than power.

 

:x :x UGH, do not like the sound of that at all.. (the bolded part)

 

Jacque Jones or Juan Encarnacion, here we come.. bleh

 

Then again, it's Paul Sullivan, so take it for what it's worth.

 

Why not sign Brian Giles instead of making a trade...:evil:

[Bull]

it's funny that we hear all this talk about improving defensively and our GG caliber RFer is the first one shown the door. :lol:

 

 

edit: of course we could always resign Burnitz at a lower price. :x

 

Don't you know? Defence is only important up the middle. :roll:

[jtownie]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-051028cubs,1,1825971.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

 

 

The Cubs still can talk to Burnitz about returning, but there was never any thought of picking up his $7 million option. The Cubs are likely to trade for a right fielder with more speed than power.

 

:x :x UGH, do not like the sound of that at all.. (the bolded part)

 

Jacque Jones or Juan Encarnacion, here we come.. bleh

 

Then again, it's Paul Sullivan, so take it for what it's worth.

 

Why not sign Brian Giles instead of making a trade...:evil:

 

 

I guess Abreu fits this mold. I mean, he stole more bases than he hit HRs. But it is Paul Sullivan so I guess it doesn't really mean anything. Probably an under-the-radar shot at Dusty for putting speed over On-base skills.

[Warpticon]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-051028cubs,1,1825971.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

 

 

The Cubs still can talk to Burnitz about returning, but there was never any thought of picking up his $7 million option. The Cubs are likely to trade for a right fielder with more speed than power.

 

:x :x UGH, do not like the sound of that at all.. (the bolded part)

 

Jacque Jones or Juan Encarnacion, here we come.. bleh

 

Then again, it's Paul Sullivan, so take it for what it's worth.

 

Why not sign Brian Giles instead of making a trade...:evil:

 

 

I guess Abreu fits this mold. I mean, he stole more bases than he hit HRs. But it is Paul Sullivan so I guess it doesn't really mean anything. Probably an under-the-radar shot at Dusty for putting speed over On-base skills.

 

Man, if the Cubs got Abreu, I'd probably explode into a pile of goo.

[Diffusion]

Am I missing the boat on Williamson?

5.65 ERA

14 IP 15 H 9 ER

3 HR

23 K 6 BB

 

The boat left a few days ago.

 

You're talking about a guy that when fully healthy has a mid- to high-nineties fastball, a hard-breaking slider and very reasonable command of both pitches, plus considerable closing experience.

 

Williamson though has had terrible injury problems with his right elbow. In light of that, it's remarkable that his numbers are so good. For his career, Williamson has allowed just 6.4 H/9 and 0.7 HR/9 while striking out 10.5 K/9 with a 3.08 ERA. Those are superb numbers by themselves, they are simply sensational when you consider what he's gone through. There's no doubt that the injuries have hurt him though, most noticeably in terms of his control.

 

Williamson has had completely healthy periods where he's walked just 30 in 81.2 IP (pre-injury in 1999) and 14 in 42.1 IP (second half of 2002 after recovering from TJS), and he preceeded his major league career with just 78 walks in 207 minor league innings, albeit them as a starter. There's reason then to believe then that his career 5+ BB/9 rate does him a huge injustice. 2000 aside, when Williamson just went crazily wild, a lot of his control problems seem to have been linked to periods when he's either pitched through injury (the end of 1999, 13 BB in last 11.2 IP when he had elbow tendinitis, 2003/04 when he knew that his elbow wasn't right, 52 BB in 91.1 IP) or been recovering from surgery (first half of 2002, for instance, when he walked 22 in 31.2 IP, 6 BB in 14 IP this year).

 

Talking of this year, 2005, the Williamson we saw was not the same Williamson - he was clearly a different pitcher. His fastball topped out in the low-nineties, and his slider wasn't quite as sharp. And obviously he couldn't be used as regularly as might be desired, simply because you don't want to rush him back. All the same, quite remarkably, Williamson managed to whiff 23 in 14 innings. If his velocity returns, if the sharpness to his pitches returns, if the control comes back, if Williamson gets fully healthy and stays fully healthy, Cub fans have every reason to get extremely excited.

 

Now there's no guarantee that any of that will happen. Recoverees from Tommy John do tend to find that velocity, control and sharpness take their time to come back. But Williamson may not fully recover, the five six mph of velocity that he's missing may not come back, the control may not come back, the bite to his slider the movement on his fastball may never be seen again. Even if Williamson does fully recover, there's no knowning how his elbow will hold up in future. All the same, in spite of all that, for $2.3m and a roster spot, it's worth the gamble. The risk is that it all goes wrong again. The upside is that you end up with a reliever that is somewhere up there with the likes of Brad Lidge.

[HoopsCubs]

Cubs.com confirms that Walker's option was picked up, as well as Williamson's.

 

Walker in Shea? Think about it. If the Mets make a move to get Carlos Delgado, they might be willing to trade Cliff Floyd. Trading Floyd's $6.5M for Walker's $2.5M makes sense for both clubs on several levels.

[CardsFanInChiTown]

Cubs.com confirms that Walker's option was picked up, as well as Williamson's.

 

Walker in Shea? Think about it. If the Mets make a move to get Carlos Delgado, they might be willing to trade Cliff Floyd. Trading Floyd's $6.5M for Walker's $2.5M makes sense for both clubs on several levels.

 

Floyd plays LF not 1B.

[HoopsCubs]

Cubs.com confirms that Walker's option was picked up, as well as Williamson's.

 

Walker in Shea? Think about it. If the Mets make a move to get Carlos Delgado, they might be willing to trade Cliff Floyd. Trading Floyd's $6.5M for Walker's $2.5M makes sense for both clubs on several levels.

 

Floyd plays LF not 1B.

 

My point is that they might feel the need to dump a salary to bring on Delgado.

[CardsFanInChiTown]

Cubs.com confirms that Walker's option was picked up, as well as Williamson's.

 

Walker in Shea? Think about it. If the Mets make a move to get Carlos Delgado, they might be willing to trade Cliff Floyd. Trading Floyd's $6.5M for Walker's $2.5M makes sense for both clubs on several levels.

 

Floyd plays LF not 1B.

 

My point is that they might feel the need to dump a salary to bring on Delgado.

 

Well then who do they put in LF on the cheap?

[AAApittsburgh]

Cubs.com confirms that Walker's option was picked up, as well as Williamson's.

 

Walker in Shea? Think about it. If the Mets make a move to get Carlos Delgado, they might be willing to trade Cliff Floyd. Trading Floyd's $6.5M for Walker's $2.5M makes sense for both clubs on several levels.

 

Floyd plays LF not 1B.

 

My point is that they might feel the need to dump a salary to bring on Delgado.

 

Well then who do they put in LF on the cheap?

Diaz?

[CubfaninCA]

That article metions trading for a RF'er with speed. How many current RF'ers have speed and no power beyond Ichiro?

 

Poor writing again from Sullivan.

 

Craig Monroe has decent speed and some power. Hendry might be liking that .825 ops from 2004.

 

Brace yourselves for I~Rod & Monroe. DeFence! *clap* *clap*

[XZero771679666304]

That article metions trading for a RF'er with speed. How many current RF'ers have speed and no power beyond Ichiro?

 

Poor writing again from Sullivan.

 

Craig Monroe has decent speed and some power. Hendry might be liking that .825 ops from 2004.

 

Brace yourselves for I~Rod & Monroe. DeFence! *clap* *clap*

 

I seem to remember hearing a while back that the Cubs may be interested in Monroe this offseason. Not sure of where, though.

 

 

Edit: LINK

[Larry Horse]

That article metions trading for a RF'er with speed. How many current RF'ers have speed and no power beyond Ichiro?

 

Poor writing again from Sullivan.

 

Craig Monroe has decent speed and some power. Hendry might be liking that .825 ops from 2004.

 

Brace yourselves for I~Rod & Monroe. DeFence! *clap* *clap*

 

I seem to remember hearing a while back that the Cubs may be interested in Monroe this offseason. Not sure of where, though.

 

 

Edit: LINK

 

I saw Soto's name mentioned. Anyone seen him play and who would he be comparable to at this point?

[Magnetic Curses]

Why is Dempster not a good move. All he did last year was be a fantastic closer. Damn we should have let him walk.

 

it's called overpaying based on save percentage rather than stuff. not a smart move if you want consistent numbers...especially from an important piece like your closer.

 

even a good player is a bad deal based on the money and years you give them.

Dempster could have gotten much more than a 3/15 on the open market. Watch the contracts a lot of relivers get that had much worse seasons than Dempster and you will see what I mean.

 

i guess it's not bad if you rate a pitcher based on save percentage. look at the man's WHIP and K/BB, not his ERA. his success won't last. wait till next season and you will see what I mean. :(

 

g/f and k/9 are pretty good for a closer. his g/f was especially wicked out of the bullpen last year. nearly 3 ground balls for every fly ball. THAT is great stuff.......and why his era was so low.