Amazing_Grace

You have to wonder how teams like the Nats, DRays, Royals, and Pirates even get any fans at all to show up? If MLB doesn't do something to even out the small and large market teams, the league is going to get to a point where you have ML teams basically acting like AAAA squads with no chance to have good seasons and constantly breaking in young players just so the large market teams can scoop them up once they get too expensive. That's how the Cubs ended up with Ramirez, DLee, and now Soriano.

Didn't Bruce say his defense looked wonderful so far this spring? Let's say Cedeno struggles and Theriot can't handle SS, what options do the Cubs actually have to replace Izturis if he is hitting 220? Tomas Perez!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. I hope Perez doesn't make the team. I'd like to be able to have one season without having a Neifi/Macias/Ojeda/Bynum type on the team.

In an article on 2/7/07 it was reported that Mr Zell approached the Tribune about acquiring its assets. The concern I have for Zell is, in addition to be a wealthy real estate magnate, he's also a friend and partner of Jerry Reinsdorf. Specifically, he has an ownership stake in the Chicago White Sox (among other things). On a related note, the "Cubune.com" is a scary place full of conspiracy theories about the Tribune and it's relationship with the Cubs. It's also where I learned of the relationship of Zell and the White Sox. Here's an interesting cubune quote: Let's just hope the Tribune follows through on its plans to restructure the company internally. Doesn't the commissioner of MLB have to approve all sales of ML teams, and wouldn't someone having an ownership stake in multiple teams be against the rules? If a Sox partner bought the Tribune, couldn't Selig then force him to sell his interest in either one team or the other?

wow I'm sorry but you can't say "so and so is going to be healthy" one week and then say "we're going to hold so and so out of his regular starts" another week, and not expect to be questioned about it. I want to know why if so and so was healthy last week they need to miss starts this week. If it's precautionary, what are they worried about the guy reinjuring. If he is in danger of reinjury, why is he not rehabbing still and why aren't we being told that instead of "he'll be ready". The way this organization handles these things is a pet peeve of mine. They either don't know what they're talking about when they make these announcements, they're not listening to their coaches as they should be, they're deliberately misleading the fans to boost ticket sales, or some combination of the above. My guess is that they say things like "Prior is ahead of schedule" when a reporter asks so they don't have to tell the truth, which is "we have no earthly idea when, if ever, Prior is going to pitch in another ballgame." The only answer is that they said they were going to take it slow with him at the beginning. Also, its Prior that has assured everyone that he will be ready by Opening Day. Rothschild is merely echoing the sentiment based on what he knows/has seen. Only Prior knows for sure if he is healthy. I think its a big leap from "their taking precautions" to "Expect an announcement about Prior going throwing a simulated game rather than a ST game about 2 days before he's scheduled to start." Well, that particular statement was hyperbole on my part, but things like that have happened before. Thanks for pointing out that it was Prior who is inisting he'll be ready by Opening Day. The player is probably the last guy the press should listen to when discussing returns from injury. I wish the organization had the courage to say "we just don't know yet, we'll have to wait and see", rather than making optimistic predictions, or, in this case, reinforcing Prior's optimistic predictions.

Certainly this makes it seem like Miller's career may be over. There aren't many players that can get by with a mid-80's fastball. I can't think of any that are even average that don't at least get up to the upper 80's (excluding knuckleballers).

He'll be going somewhere, namely the Cubs' bullpen. :D I agree. The Cubs won't be able to trade him, but I think that when the time comes they'll have to bench him. I'm sure they won't like it particularly, but the rhetoric this offseason has been WS or bust, and I expect them to do whatever it takes to win.

wow I'm sorry but you can't say "so and so is going to be healthy" one week and then say "we're going to hold so and so out of his regular starts" another week, and not expect to be questioned about it. I want to know why if so and so was healthy last week they need to miss starts this week. If it's precautionary, what are they worried about the guy reinjuring. If he is in danger of reinjury, why is he not rehabbing still and why aren't we being told that instead of "he'll be ready". The way this organization handles these things is a pet peeve of mine. They either don't know what they're talking about when they make these announcements, they're not listening to their coaches as they should be, they're deliberately misleading the fans to boost ticket sales, or some combination of the above. My guess is that they say things like "Prior is ahead of schedule" when a reporter asks so they don't have to tell the truth, which is "we have no earthly idea when, if ever, Prior is going to pitch in another ballgame."

I think there's about zero chance of trading Marquis anywhere unless he puts up good numbers this season. Nobody is gonna pay 21M over 3 years to a guy with an ERA in the mid 5's. If he repeats last season, the Cubs only hope to trade him will be to pick up most of his contract, which the fans grinding on Jason would likely force them to do, and the Cubs will be paying around 9 or 10 of the remaining 15M in 2008-2009. EDIT: And it's good to hear that Guzman is looking good since the bad news about Miller and the uncertainty with Prior. It could very well be the case that we need Guzman to be the 5th starter for this season.

So once again the Cubs tell us that Prior is healthy and once again we find out shortly after that he's being "held out of starts to regain arm strength", which indicates the team still has concerns about whether he's actually healthy or not, and/or his arm strength is not "ahead of schedule", but rather "behind schedule". Expect an announcement about Prior going throwing a simulated game rather than a ST game about 2 days before he's scheduled to start.

They haven't begun to think in those terms yet. That's disturbing that they haven't at least thought of it. We're talking about a guy with a 6.02 ERA last year. I can't believe that he'll be allowed to post those type of numbers for very long after all the "World Series or bust" talk this offseason. It would make those words ring hollow if they were willing to keep a player starting for no reason other than contract. Why in the world would they talk about that issue publicly to the media? No team signs a guy for three years and $21 million and then says, "What do we do if he sucks?" No team. You're right, there's no way a team will talk about that publicly. Why plant a negative seed in a player's mind? The Cubs fully anticipate Marquis being in their rotation and being effective. If that doesn't happen, they'll cross that bridge when they come to it. That's a good point. At least they don't do it publicly. I'm still curious as to why the Cubs felt the need to sign Marquis to three years when they could have had cheaper options on one year deals like Trachsel, Chan-Ho, etc. I guess Hendry must really believe he's worth it. The Marquis contract is likely to be the worst contract since Todd Hundley. Unless this team wins a WS this season, I hope it's Hendry's last as GM.

I'm glad this speculation can finally end.

They haven't begun to think in those terms yet. That's disturbing that they haven't at least thought of it. We're talking about a guy with a 6.02 ERA last year. I can't believe that he'll be allowed to post those type of numbers for very long after all the "World Series or bust" talk this offseason. It would make those words ring hollow if they were willing to keep a player starting for no reason other than contract.

Cue the Mark Cuban rumors again... Hence my reference to a rich guy looking for a legacy.

This seems like a good rule to protect kids from overzealous managers. Little League Baseball should be competitive, but it should also be safe and friendly. If a manager deliberately asks his kids to take pitches to get the pitcher out of the game early, the Cubs should consider hiring him maybe? We could use some of that mentality in the organization.

Also, a very good article Bruce. OBP is still not a conventional stat in baseball? That's incredibly sad. They probably think K/BB, P/PA, and WHIP are complete gibberish. I'm more and more impressed by Lou Piniella's awareness of different aspects of the game, and respect for different approaches. Perhaps we've all been too conditioned by Dusty Baker and Don Baylor to think that all "old-school" baseball guys are ignorant bafoons incapable of rational thought.

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season? Dusty and Clines didn't kill our OBP by ruining individual hitter's plate discipline. They killed it with their input on personnel selection. Well, it can't have helped. A lot of times the 'take' sign is called from the dugout, as is the 'green light' to swing at whatever. Which do we suspect Dusty called more often. OK, now which did he call with Neifi Perez at the plate, and is that appropriate? I agree that even the best coaches can't turn free swingers into walk machines, but they can influence the overall approach that a team takes at the plate through things like that, and through simply asking players to do the 'little things' like raising their P/PA by a few points or showing them what situations they're likely to see a pitcher's pitch and try to get them to not swing at it. With young, unestablished players that are still developing, I think a coach even at the ML level can have some influence. Even older players occasionally change their approach. Sosa improved his approach at the plate a lot when he had his first monster season in 1998.

Delgado is a stud, Marquis? Not so much. True. I'm just advancing a general strategy. You think that the Royals wouldn't trade a lesser prospect for Marquis instead of paying Gil Meche 5/$55? I'm not asking for Gordon, Butler or Hochevar. I feel that Izturis is Cedeno is a glove and a longer resume. At least Izzy isn't Christian Guzman. Actually, Christian Guzman's career numbers are better. He has about the same BA and OBP but about 50 points more SLG. There are only a handful of guys that are good enough to start on defense alone. Cesar Izturis is not one of them. He should not be a starter on a ML team at this point.

Well they paid Marquis 21M over 3 seasons. The absolute worst case scenario with offering Maddux arbritration is having him awarded around 15M for one year, and it likely wouldn't be quite that bad. We could, and did, do worse than keeping Maddux for this season in our rotation baseball wise, and it's hard for me to believe one year of Maddux at 15M isn't still better than three years of Marquis at 21M from a financial perspective.

I don't think this is very good news because it still puts the Cubs in the hands of a corporate board who will care more about bottom lines than baseball. Furthermore, it will be a smaller corporation with, presumably, more limited finances. The best case scenario for our championship hopes would be an outright sale of the team to some rich guy who wants the legacy of being the guy that brought the Cubs a title.

He could have gotten more by not trading Maddux and getting a draft choice.

I'm really shocked at how much optimism there is regarding Prior. I mean how is this year really different than any other year? They've said before every ST for the past 3 years he'll be ready to start the season and he hasn't been. There are always stories about "Prior throws off the mound", "Prior throws simulated game" and such. Even if he does come back, odds are good we'll get 2006 Prior or 2004 Prior instead of 2003 Prior.

Chase Utley makes a heck of a lot more than the minimum. Anyways, that just goes to show you how easy it's been for teams to find cheap 2B talent. No need to pay big for such modest production. Which makes the time Neifi spent at second base even more incomprehensible. Well, I guess the only thing I can say is that they didn't expect Neifi to be playing 2B very much-they thought they had their starter there, and they didn't anticipate their starter at second moving to first in the middle of the season when second base help is not nearly as easy to find. From a production standpoint, Neifi has no buisiness on a ML club. He's hung around becuase he has a good glove and can play more than one position. He's also really likable. He talks to everyone fans, scouts, players from other teams, his own teammates. He always has a smile on his face and he hustles. I don't mean that in a bad way either. He's good guy. He talked to me for about 20 minutes in Pittsburgh after I approached him and scout during batting practice. In Chicago, I've seen him play with young children before the game on several occasions. He's very likeable. In baseball once you're in you're in unless you have a reputation as difficult to get along with. Which brings me to Todd Walker. Walker has bounced around a lot and is the mirror image of Neifi. He's moderately productive but doesn't seem to get along well with others. I haven't personally met Walker so I am basing this on what I've read. I would agree with all of that-I was just saying that the abundance of 2B talent and signing Neifi had little to with each other, since Neifi was primarily signed to cover short if they needed him again like they did in 05. Earlier in his career, Neifi belonged on a major league roster-now, he might have the talent to be on the very end of some roster, but certainly not at the money he's making. Neifi had some value as a 25th guy on the bench that would be brought in as a late inning defensive replacement. There are worse players on ML rosters than Neifi Perez (Macias and Ojeda come to mind). There were players on the Cubs roster worse than Neifi last season (Mabry, Bynum). Neifi shouldn't start at any position ever, unless it's a dire dire emergency, since his offense is woeful and his defense is good but not spectacular. Putting him in the lineup day after day and getting him all those at-bats just racks up outs and makes the rest of the lineup that much less effective. As long as Neifi isn't getting regular AB's and is used mostly as a defensive replacement in blowout games to rest other guys, he's an adequate 25th man. That said, the Cubs aren't the Devil Rays and have enough money they shouldn't have to sign players like Perez. It should never even be an option. The Cubs have plenty of money to spend and should have been able to do better than Perez for a utility IF and first guy off the bench. That they didn't is a testament to our ex-manager's and current GM's collective stupidity.

I never really doubted that Hill would be in the rotation, but this is still good to hear.

We've all been down this road before. I'll continue to believe Prior won't be healthy until he pitches in an actual game.

Possibly, but it sounds like Schilling wants to leave-I think Boston would have to knock his socks off with an offer after the season in order to stay: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2774965 I don't see the Cubs being in a position to knock Schilling's socks off. Boston is pretty famous for knocking people's socks off. Assuming Zambrano gets his long term deal, that pretty much puts Zambrano, Lilly, Marquis, Prior in the rotation with guys like Guzman, Gallagher, Veal, Samardzija, Pawelek, Marshall and few choice others vying for the last spot. The Cubs will already be very close to 100m in committed dollars to only about 12 roster spots (Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano, Lilly, DeRosa, Marquis, Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Jones and Blanco). That still leaves Wood, Prior, Barrett and Izturis as players that will expect raises from their 2007 salary if they are kept around. No Rich Hill in your rotation? Good thing RichHillisabeast hasn't been to this thread yet.