CubinNY

... I'm saying I could be way, way off on the Reds, hence "dark-horse". ...

According to the box score, Gooden only threw 73 pitches in the 10 innings. That's probably why nobody complained. Not saying this disproves your point, just that in that specific case it's not a big deal. the opposing pitcher threw 9 innings and Gooden threw 250 innings with 12 CG's at age 21 It's more about pitches/inning than innings pitched.

It's like looking into the sun.

Brewers 85-90 wins Reds 82-88 wins Cubs 81-87 wins Cards 76-81 wins Astros 72- 77 wins Pirates 65-70 wins The Brewers are not in the 85-90 win range. Yeah, for all of the "Cubs are worse than last year" discussion, what are the Brewers after losing Sabathia and Sheets? They haven't technically lost Sheets yet. Cubs are around the 85-90 win range. Yea and putting the Reds as being better than the Cubs is just silly. Not having Yost will make up for the 1/2 of a season they got out of CC. Sheets is a wash as they are getting back Gallardo. They have a very potent offense. The Reds are my dark horse, Dusty's gotten lucky before and Walt is a very good GM, but they are just as likely to finish below .500 as they are above it. As it stands right now I think the Cubs are anywhere from 10 to 15 games worse than they were last year, maybe worse if the bullpen is as bad as I think it is going to be.

Brewers 85-90 wins Reds 82-88 wins Cubs 81-87 wins Cards 76-81 wins Astros 72- 77 wins Pirates 65-70 wins

Hendry doesn't get it. The problem wasn't Marquis, it was Marquis contract. He was a very good 4th or 5th starter but he was payed like #1 or #2. Sabathia 7 years, 161 million Burnett 5 years, 82.5 million Lowe 4 years, 60 million Dempster 4 years, 52 million Moyer 2 years, 13 million Silva 4 years, 48 million Eaton 3 years, 24.5 million Hernandez (Orlando) 2 years, 12 million Igawa 5 years, 46 million (including posting fee) Lilly 4 years, 40 million Marquis 3 years, 21 million Matsuzaka 6 years, 103 million (including posting fee) Meche 5 years, 55 million Mulder 2 years, 13 million Mussina 2 years, 23 million Padilla 3 years, 33.75 million Schmidt 3 years, 47.5 million Suppan 4 years, 42 million Williams (Woody) 2 years 12 million Zito 7 years, 126 million There is every multi-year starting pitching deal given in the past 3 years. Every player who was considered a possible #1 or #2 at the time he was signed (Sabathia, Burnett, Matzuzaka, Schmidt, Zito, and possibly Lilly) got a contract that was much different from the one of Marquis. Just think about that. The best comparable contracts to the ones of Marquis on the market today? Jamie Moyer, Adam Eaton, Mark Mulder, and Woody Williams. Is Marquis worse than that group? Absolutely not. Does spending money on average starting pitchers not make sense instead of dipping into the minor leagues? That argument has some merit as starting pitching gets a premium on the free agent market and the money might be able to be better spent in other areas. But as far as value on the market, Marquis was not overpaid. In fact, of the 20 contracts listed above, the one for Marquis will probably be ranked 6th or 7th when all is said and done for effectiveness. At the time of the contract Marquis was severely overpaid. He's still overpaid (he'll make over 10 Million dollars) and now the Cubs will be paying him to pitch for someone else.

Actually, Lou IS stupid. Or at least he manages the team like he is. LEFTIES VETERANS VERSATILITY To Lou, these three qualities serve as Viagra fueling his old, wrinkly, managerial boner. I agree. Lou is a slightly better white version of Dusty. The 2004 team could have won 97 games if everyone was healthy all season as well. The one thing Lou does better is deal with the media/meatball fan group and stick with younger players if they are doing well. The actual in game management is pretty much the same. I think Lou is a much better in-game manager than Dusty. I can't see anyone this side of Ned Yost who is worse. IMO, Lou's biggest strong suit is that he doesn't tolerate relief pitchers who cannot through strikes. On the other hand, this leads to severe overuse of some relievers while others sit on the bench and rot until they are traded. He does have all those bad qualities that Clipperton pointed out though. He's pretty old school, but he doesn't tend to over-manage like LaRussa. All and all, he's mostly good.

Hendry doesn't get it. The problem wasn't Marquis, it was Marquis contract. He was a very good 4th or 5th starter but he was payed like #1 or #2.

why are the fans dumb, because they don't want their franchise to be a laughingstock? steinbrenner paid off a small-time bookie to dig up dirt on dave winfield; he was behaving like an idiot and if i were a yankee fan i would've wanted him gone too. he was acting like an ass, sure, but he was also putting the pieces together for what the Yankees became. The Yankees didn't become anything because of Steinbrenner. They were already the Yankees. The money his group payed for them was a pretty big sum in 1973.

Bagwell came up in 1991. Some people think the era started in 1988, some say 1992, however, "the steroid era" probably will be bracketed to just after the players strike in 1994 to 2006 (50 game suspension). We could unreasonably stretch that to 1998 and you would have a point. However, he was a remarkably consistent player with no evidence to suggest he was juiced, and was one of my favorites. He should be a no brainer but he's still tainted like everyone else.

Anyone: What organization had the best farm system? Does the "class" of the system correlate strongly with draft position? What I mean is if the Rays had the best system could it be because they've always picked so high?

Alomar and Larkin should be the last of the pre-steroid era players to get serious consideration. Alomar is a sure fire HOFer, Larkin is borderline. If they don't let in Big Mac I could see one of those years as not having anyone elected.

How do you get to the conclusion that DeRosa playing multiple positions showed that they weren't comfortable with him at 2nd? DeRosa playing multiple positions was purely a function of how the Cubs built their bench over the last two years. They had 5 bench players. 1) A hitting 1st baseman who is incredibly poor at any other position (Ward/Hoffpauir) 2) A platoon CF that hits left-handers (Pagan/Johnson) 3) A backup SS (Izturis and Cedeno) 4) A backup C (Blanco/Hill/Soto/everyone else in 07) 5) A backup second baseman (Fontenot) As you can see, the Cubs had no options on the bench to legitimately backup either corner OF or 3B. They moved DeRosa to other positions because that got one of their best bench hitters into the lineup and their only other legitimate hitter on the bench couldn't play defense. I also don't see how it cost the Cubs runs. Are you saying that having Cedeno play 3B when Ramirez goes down, Johnson/Pie playing LF or RF last year, and DeRosa playing 2nd would have been better than DeRosa playing those positions and Fontenot playing 2nd? It cost them runs by having him play out of position. DeRosa is not an outfielder. But I really have no idea how Hendry or Lou think. It makes little sense to me to value "versatility" I also don't think that Fontenot is going to hit enough to be an every day player and by June Miles will be starting and they'll be in the market for a 2nd baseman, but that remains to be seen.

Which goes without saying - I would be willing to bet a good sum of money that most people (if given a choice) would prefer DeRosa as their opening 2nd baseman this year over Miles/Fontenot. Of course, that's not really the question - the main question is do you like DeRosa at 2nd, Johnson in CF, Marquis as a 5th starter, and Fukudome in RF a "helluva lot more" than a Miles/Fontenot platoon at 2nd, Fukudome/Johnson platoon in CF, Bradley in RF, 3 decent minor league prospects, Marshall as your 5ths starter, and 2 million (give or take) in extra cash. That question makes Hendry almost appear to know what he is doing, big "no no" around these parts. So yeah, let's all just assume this babble that Hendry decided he wanted Miles, who could hit left handed, over the right hand hitting DeRosa. Yes. Edit: You are providing a false choice, but I still say yes.

I believe Nate Spears is in the Cubs system because they value a guy who went .299/.394/.438/.832 at AA. They even sent Spears to the AFL. His glove is much better than average.

They're looking for another caddie for Fukudome.

I agree with Goony. Hendry does what his manager asks him to do. Lou wants to get younger and more "athletic" and of course more left handed. They never much cared for DeRosa at second or they wouldn't have played him all over the field. Playing him all over the field also probably cost more runs over the long haul. I can't say I was a strong DeRosa fan, but I like him a helluva lot more than the Miles/Fontenot platoon.

Parts of North Dakota are stunningly beautiful.

Gregg will become the invisible man if he doesn't throw more strikes.

[puts on tin-foil hat] The powers that be in MLB and the govt. made sure that Cuban wouldn't own a baseball team.[takes off tin-foil hat] But seriously, the timing of the decision to move forward with his insider trading allegation is really suspicious. I don't think you're in "tin foil hat" territory with that one. That seems to be exactly what happened, and I don't think they would be apologetic about it. And they forced Cuban to write a long blog entry about how he voluntarily pulled out because of credit concerns? I might consider believing it if Cuban hadn't come right out and told us why he is no longer in the bidding, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the Cubs or anybody else forcing him out. Both could be related. An creditor isn't likely to give the benefit of the doubt to a guy who is under investigation for insider trading. But anyway, I don't think that's what's going here.

I gave him a gentleman's C.

It only takes a few to hamstring a roster. He's consistently overpaid (either in years or dollars) for middle relief pitching and redundant backups. If the Cubs are paying a guy 2.5 million when they could be paying him 1 million it's still a poor use of recourses.

[puts on tin-foil hat] The powers that be in MLB and the govt. made sure that Cuban wouldn't own a baseball team.[takes off tin-foil hat] But seriously, the timing of the decision to move forward with his insider trading allegation is really suspicious.

My thoughts as well. which means they have nothing to do with Hendry, thus weakening your original argument Not really. Hendry is the one who built the inefficencies into the roster. He's the one who built a team that needed to overpay Soriano and Marquis just so they could have an outfield with some semblence of production and a rotation that could pitch. Hendry has been given the luxury of much greater resources than most other GMs. It's not like this team is cutting payroll. They are adjusting how much they will raise it. Hendry is hamstrung by his own previous decisions, not ownership. I'm not sure about other GMs but Hendry also seems to give out no-trade clauses pretty liberally. It could be that I don't know how often they are given out by other GMs, but the Samardijza one kills me. It seems to me when he wants a player he gives them an overwhelming offer so as not to get into a bidding war, meaning his MO is to overpay for the things he wants. That's not a good policy unless you're the Yankees or Red Sox.

College football is like dry humping, sure it's fun but in the end all you're left with is a mess and nothing really got accomplished.