TruffleShuffle

so your argument is that he was not one of the worst defensive SS in the major leagues last year? he'll probably improve, but he may not be better than average, and if that happens then i'd like to have a very good defensive SS like lee in the pipeline. You realize you can say the same thing about Lee's performance in Peoria, right? He has 61 errors in 179 career games. i'll take the scouts' word for it. since you're of the opinion that dealing lee is no big deal because SS is the cubs' greatest strength, let's look at this from the rays' perspective. what is their greatest strength? starting pitching. they have shields (under contract at bargain prices through 2014), price (under contract through 2012), davis (just completed his rookie year), sonnanstine (cheap but probably not in their long term plans), hellickson (future #2), niemann (just completed second year), matt moore and others. perhaps their greatest weakness as an organization is their capacity to spend money. they lose almost nothing by shuffling garza out of the rotation and plugging in hellickson. instead they don't have to worry about paying garza $5-10M a year during the next three years, which should help them keep some of their talented young players as they move through their arbitration years. so why on earth was it necessary to give them three of our top 10 prospects for a pitcher they didn't really need to get an upgrade of a win or two at several million dollars over the next three years?

so your argument is that he was not one of the worst defensive SS in the major leagues last year? he'll probably improve, but he may not be better than average, and if that happens then i'd like to have a very good defensive SS like lee in the pipeline. barney is the only one there who could play above average SS defensively, and he can't hit. the rest would vary from below average to horrific with the glove there, and they all have significant questions about their ability to hit at the major league level.

plus it's all well and good that he's a 3 win pitcher, but what's gorzelanny on average, maybe a 1.5 win pitcher? nobody really knows what cashner, jackson, carpenter, archer would be. so we're upgrading by probably a win or two by acquiring garza, but then again for that extra win or two you're also paying significantly more money. i'm fine with garza but not fine with trading three of our top 10 prospects to a small market team for what will probably amount to a small upgrade for an average team.

we are long on SS? we have starlin castro, who was one of the worst defensive SS in baseball last year, darwin barney, who is in no way a starting SS, and then what? junior lake probably can't play SS now and definitely won't be able to when he fills out. logan watkins could play marginal SS but he can't hit much.

besides oklahoma st, and i guess oklahoma (who beat a team that would have been lucky to win the i-aa playoffs), the big xii has been pretty lousy this bowl season.

i hope jim hendry gets run over by a dump truck. what a dolt.

in that case someone needs to find matt garza and bash him in the elbow with a tire iron.

please tell me this is a joke.

samardzija is a bum and coleman is AAAA. diamond is the only one of those who might possibly make a decent 5th starter but i don't think his command is good enough.

so to sum up the jim harbaugh rumors, he is going to coach miami, san francisco, denver, stanford and michigan? he is going to be a busy man.

I'm 24, so I'm playing the "it doesn't really matter if I wasn't around and aware of it" card. I've been rooting for the Panthers longer than the Cubs. and they've won 3 division championships, 4 playoff appearances and 1 conference championship, and played around .500 ball, which is reasonably good for a team that has only existed for 15 years. the jaguars have more playoff appearances but fewer division championships and no conference championships, and the texans haven't made the playoffs in 9 years of existence.

yeah that long and snakebitten 15 year history has been brutal.

two outta three ain't bad

if you had told me a few months ago that dustin byfuglien would be a norris trophy candidate this season, i would have thought you were an idiot.

I wish Bud would make a decision on Fisher. the decision should be don't fire your coach unless you can bring in someone better. in the case of the titans, that's very unlikely.

ugh not les miles. the "les miles to michigan" story was beaten to death so badly after carr retired.

Didn't Bama fire him? no, he left even though he said he was staying there.

holy cross is 1-13 and has lost their last 3 games by 4 points. also the starting forwards and center are injured. awesome.

that's too bad. i was envisioning bringing in a homeless bum a la eddie murphy in trading places.

my dad had an old baseball card book and i remember reading about tom tresh. he was a highly regarded young player who actually was good early in his career - based on the BR numbers he was in the top 10 WAR of AL position players in 4 out of his first 5 seasons. then he just completely fell apart and was out of baseball after his age 30 season.

And another awful day for the Carolina Panthers. Somebody check on Andy Poor Andy. Of course, Carolina's in good shape to get the top pick again next year too. There's your silver lining. assuming they don't trade their 2012 first round pick next year to move up and grab a I-AA quarterback in the 2011 second round.

my favorite was several years ago against the cowboys when akers made a poor onside kick to start the game, the dallas player grabbed it and ran it in for a touchdown. three seconds into the game and we were down 7-0.

so if the dolphins interview, say, a black janitor for the head coach position, can they then hire harbaugh?

i like franchione's career arc: new mexico to tcu to alabama to aTm to texas st. probably should've stayed at 'bama, big guy.

last year's bullpen was a nice illustration of how producing effective middle relievers is important, even if they don't have high ceilings or very bright futures.