AlwaysaCub

If we're being radical, why not just abolish the divisions, give everyone a set & equal amount of games against every other team in the league, say 108 (2/3 of the games), and make the last 1/3 of a team's games discretionary. The league or the scheduling office would pick the remaining 1/3 of the schedule for each team, adding games to maintain rivalries and promote competitive balance (both of these things would lead to the Yanks playing the Sawx more). The top 4 teams in each league would make the playoffs in a seeded format.

The last thing I expected to hear during this game was a reference to Burt Hooton's knuckle-curve.

Why would the team defense be worse than last year? Kosuke is a better defender in right than Bradley. Byrd is a better defender in CF than Kosuke. Everyone else is the same. Good try, but can't see it. While I agree that we probably won't regress as much as that projection of our defense, I can see where it's coming from. Everyone got a year older, which means a year further from everyone's prime. The cubs are going to start one position player next year (Soto) under 30. Soriano has had huge regressions on defense each of the past two years. Byrd rates at below average, though above replacement, in center. Defensive metrics say that Lee has been declining with the glove for years. I'm not saying I agree, but a bad defense is a very real factor in that RA projection.

I think the large number of runs allowed is as much a function of a terrible team defensive projection as regression/suck from the pitchers (and we "added" Carlos Silva).

Honestly I would take Byrnes over Fuld, but I'm way more down on Fuld than other people on this board I think.

It probably won't matter to us, because his elbow should hold up through the 1-2 seasons he'll end up playing for the Cubs, but you gotta wonder why a position player would need TJ surgery. He must have the worst throwing motion in the world.

The best number in the contract is 1, the number of years. This price is completely reasonable, especially when you consider how much we need a decent 4th outfielder given the injury risk to Soriano, the possibility that Byrd sucks, and need to platoon Fukudome. He's a little light on on-base skills but has always posted decent averages. We could certainly use the power off the bench. This is the first undoubtedly good move Hendry has made in a while IMO. Hopefully it doesn't end up being a figurative leak patching when the entire dam is about to burst.

Over/under 19 wins for Rich Hill next year under Dave Duncan? *\ducks*

At the end of the article he points out that while all our young talent is still not that close to the bigs, but overall this year was a huge step forward for the Cubs system and would be much higher on his organizational rankings. Goldstein's list was pretty much what I'd expect.

Dye will probably end up making more than he should given his expected production. However, and let's be serious, between PT due to the injury risks in DLee, Soriano, Byrd, and Fukudome coupled with the 1-2 starts a week and pinch-hitting opportunities he'll naturally receive as a bench player, Dye would get something in the neighborhood of 400 PA for the Cubs in 2010. I'm saying that we have to look at him signing as a quasi-regular LF/RF/1B/DH and otherwise the first bat off the bench. We could do much worse filling that role.

So he's for sure going in as an Expo? 2 Expos from their drug years? Would he possibly request to go in as a Cub?

I don't know about Coomer, but I think Stynes was considered a jerk by many, and was the guy who threw a ball toward a media members head (missing) . Ooooo good call, I definitely confused the two players. Stynes has a case for making the team, hitting .241/.314/.374 in 100 games at third. He should at least be on the bench.

Ron Coomer over Shane Andrews at 3b? Willie Greene is ahead of Andrews on the anti-depth chart (look at their rate stats), but I picked Coomer because wanted to honor a guy who managed to be a huge sinkhole on an otherwise above average team while also being regarded as a complete Jerk, IIRC. While I'm at it, let me note that Coomer had 23 GIDP in only 389 PA in 2001.

I see your Ron Coomer and raise you a Willie Greene. Did not consider Greene. You are probably correct, though Coomer was pretty crappy. I should have made Roosevelt Brown, Bobby Hill, Neifi, and 2005 Todd Hollandsworth honorable mentions as well As far as PT considerations, I think an AB or games minimum works better than opening day roster inclusion. For instance Damon Buford may have started on opening day, but he only had 89 PA for the year.

The Anti team: C: Hundley 1b: Hee Sop Choi 2b: Jose "The Gremlin" Macias SS: Ronny Cedeno 3b: Ron Coomer LF: Jason "The Creature" Dubois CF: CPat RF: Jeromy Burnitz SP: Sean Estes SP: Wade Miller SP: Jerome Williams SP: Juan Mateo Cl: Kevin Gregg Rp: Jeff Fassero Rp: Les Walrond Rp: Aaron Heilmann

The Yankees have such a short memory...after 2004 they ran Vazquez out of there on a stick. Now, the ballpark they play in is even more homer-friendly, and they bring back Vasquez anyway. Good luck with that.

Is this actually going down still? We've heard nothing.

Halladay is going to absolutely dominate the NL. ERA under 2.10 is not out of the realm of possibilities.

This is not that good for the Brewers. Comparable situation to Jeff Suppan, though Wolf has had better numbers.

Anyone with a .323 career OPB is not a statistical slam dunk, especially not a right fielder. I like the guy, but no. I'll agree that Blyleven is though

So all of you would vote for 6-7 people. I agree with the consensus, but the BBWAA will only let in 2, 3 tops in my opinion. In regards to that I can't see more than Dawson and one of Robert Alomar and Barry Larkin, but I doubt both. It's kind of odd that everyone would vote for many people but none of them except maybe Raines are statistical slam dunks.

I don't think Edgar Martinez gets in for a while. Voters will look at him, see that he was perhaps the third best player on the Mariners for much of his time there, overshadowed at times by Griffey, the Unit, and Arod. Add in that he was a DH and those teams underacchieved their front line talent, and there are too many black marks. Hell of a hitter though, he should get in eventually.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4693591 The following players are on the ballot: 15 New faces, including Edgar DH Martinez, Barry Larkin, "Spittin" Roberto Alomar, Kevin Appier, Todd Zeile, our good buddy Eric Karros, and the great Shane Reynolds. The First three will be seriously considered, but maybe one will get in. Tim Raines would be nice to see in the Hall, but he'll need several years to build momentum. David Segui is out of place on this list.

if every sports arena in the nation save one has it, I wouldn't deem it obnoxious. I'm all for keeping the ivy, grandstand, marquee and scoreboard intact but the rest of the park is a dump. Just because the team sells out every home game doesn't mean the park shouldn't be modernized. You modernize the park by making the seats, sight lines, concourses, food and bathrooms better. A jumbotron does not modernize a stadium. It adds absolutely nothing to a stadium except for a distraction. This is correct. If every team packed every stadium over the years, there really is no reason to have jumbotrons or any other non baseball activities to attract the fans. You already have them if you are sold out every day. That's probably how jumbotrons came into existence in the first place. As a way to draw the casual fan to be more than just a casual fan for teams who have been losing revenue on a yearly basis. But, if the fans stop buying up the season tickets, I could see ownership looking at these same avenues for attracting people to a game. Ownership might also do it with the though process that it DOES improve the overall experience. Well, let's be honest, for certain fans it would improve the overall experience. The Tribune company may want to attract that group and so will see this as worthwhile. Would people here honestly stop going to Cubs games if they put in a Jumbotron? I doubt it. So there is no downside from the Tribune's perspective.

32 year old center fielders are generally a bad idea. When he's 35 I don't think he'll be playing a credible center field any more. Pass.