TruffleShuffle

bradley can't really play CF any more, but then again, the same can be said about edmonds.

pretty basic info; probably more analysis tomorrow.

whoops

which, in hindsight, really shouldn't have been a good day at all

meh, zambrano, harden, lilly and dempster is a perfectly fine 1-4 for the playoffs. imagine that if rich hill becomes good again, he'd be the #5. that's boneriffic.

i'm not sure how much more the cubs need. when healthy, the lineup is: LF soriano RF fukudome 1B lee 3B ARam C Soto 2B derosa CF edmonds/johnson ss theriot bench: ward johnson/edmonds fontenot blanco cedeno rotation: zambrano harden lilly dempster marquis bullpen: gaudin lieber wuertz marmol wood howry eyre with the possibility that marshall or hill replaces marquis in the rotation, or one of the bullpen arms if someone is on the DL. i don't see the cubs upgrading at SS right now, and CF has been fine with edmonds and johnson - plus possibly pie as a defensive replacement in september. i guess if some good LOOGY guys hit the market i could see hendry dabbling for one, but aside from that, the cubs don't need much.

marty brennaman is a bitter loser. shut up, marty.

i'm not surprised. murton can give you league-average offense at a cheap price in the corner outfield, and patterson is a major-league ready player who will give you good offense from 2B if you're willing to accept some defensive deficiencies. gallagher is a potential #3/4 guy who will eat a lot of innings at a cheap price. there aren't any real high-ceiling players here, but there are a bunch of guys who can give solid performances at low dollar figure - if you have enough of those, you can bring in a couple of big-dollar, big-production guys to supplement the lineup or rotation.

i will agree with the sentiment that this is a good deal for the cubs... one you have to make given the way the roster is assembled. obviously harden's health is the great risk in the deal, but even if he gets hurt, you're not giving up much that was going to contribute to the future of the team. kudos to jim for making this happen; he has had a solid year or two after a bevy of piss-poor moves during the dusty era.

that's like saying "other than invading russia, napoleon had a wonderful military career"

my instant analysis: -donaldson is having a tough year. i still think he's got a good bat, but his defense reportedly needs work, and he is at least a couple of years from the majors. with soto set at catcher and welington castillo turning into a good player at tennessee, his loss isn't a very significant one. -murton is a good 4th outfielder or decent starting outfielder. his game will play pretty well in oakland, i think, since it's a pitcher's park and not friendly to fly ball hitters - which murton most certainly is not. i like him, but he really doesn't have a place with the cubs when soriano's healthy. derosa can adequately back up LF and ward can (gulp) play out there in a pinch. -patterson, as everyone knows, i'm a fan of, but he didn't really have a place either. his glove was struggling at 2B and i think the cubs had given up on that idea. i still think he can be a solid offensive 2B, and he's in the right organization to get that plate discipline back on track, but he was really just a spare part as far as the cubs were set up. -gallagher is the biggest loss. he was pretty impressive for his age this year, and while he doesn't have an ace ceiling, he does have a future as a #3 starter. he could be as good as lilly if all goes well, and he's been healthy and durable, so i think he's got a good shot to have a solid major league career. they're heading to a great organization and i wish all of them the best of luck. -rich harden - everyone knows the upside and downside here. he's got wonderful stuff but health is always a problem. i suppose the upside is just too tempting, and if he's healthy when the playoffs roll around, you've got an outstanding #2 behind zambrano. be prepared to hold your breath every time out though; the chances making every start the rest of the year are quite slim. i'm just hoping that whatever injury he suffers isn't major and he can be around come october. that $7M option next year is a no-brainer - again, assuming health. -gaudin - not a bad "throw in" here. he's not as good as his ERA was in 2006, but he's a solid back of the rotation option or a long man out of the pen. in the past his control hasn't been good enough for a guy with average stuff, but he's shown better command so far this year. he offers more ability than marquis, and a rotation of zambrano, harden, lilly, dempster and gaudin would be the cubs' best option right now.

Its been official for liek 5 minutes or so. ssssh new pants aren't on yet

i better change into a new pair of pants before this deal becomes official

i'm still expecting this thread to end up being about nothing, and we'll make a joke like "hendry traded the healthy lunch his wife packed him for the supersize #5 that one of the summer interns got at mcdonald's"

same answer as just about everyone - theriot if you're including salary; jeter if you're not. if jeter were making about $10-12M a year i'd go with him. but the $21M/year is an albatross with his declining production.

no, if i want to go to a movie i will usually just ask a few people until someone wants to go. i think "the kite runner" was the last movie i did this with.

it's making me harden

wait who is that for the cardinals, mark mulder?

=D> the brewers are more likely than not to make the playoffs, but it's far from a guarantee. the closest things to a guarantee right now are the cubs and devil rays.

i'm stickin with ankiel as long as he's healthy

wait so who'd we trade for rich harden?

weeks' EqA was 16 points higher than derosa's last year. of course derosa looks like the far better offensive player when he's having a career year and weeks is having his worst year in the majors.

If they go into fire sale mode, I'm sure Tex will be shopped. I'm just not sure the Braves are ready to throw in the towel. Buster Olney mentioned (this morning on Mike & Mike) that he believes that if the Braves continue their slide that they will part with Teixiera. He mentioned how the Cubs would be interested. Surprisingly he didn't mention the Red Sox or anyone else for that matter. i didn't hear that at all. i heard that the cubs would be interested in a pitcher (forget who) but he mentioned the red sox as a team who WOULD be interested in tex. there's no reason for the cubs to have any interest in tex; there's nowhere for him to play.

no, my phone call with him went over so he bumped WGN radio until tomorrow.

Sig. i'll play your game, you rogue! Wow, I'm feeling pretty burnt here. My error of predicting the future was way worse than your error of accurately assessing the downright obvious. Must have taken you a while to find that one. Maybe if you spent less time on this sort of stuff you'd be able to get laid. not really, it was about the first thing i saw when i used the search function.