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Look out for Millwalkee, they could be the 06 White Sox.

The part I bolded is exactly what is wrong with Jim Hendry and the Cubs. Why does the person have to be left handed? Hendry spent most of the off-season looking for a leadoff batter? What position does a leadoff batter play? ahhhhhh!

Do you say, "Q-tip" instead of cotton swab or "Kleenex" instead of tissue?

Disgruntled player that everyone knew wanted to be gone and the team trying to get the most out of the trade while at the same time trying not to seem desperate to get rid of him How about A-Rod? It is not hard to see, but whatever.

It sounds like Baltimore is doing what a lot of home owners here do when then are thinking of selling a house, put it on the market for way more than it is worth and see if anybody bites. Well, the housing market bubble is bursting with every 1/4 point uptick Greenspan makes. I expect the Tejada market bubble to burst soon too. Nobodody, and I mean nobody is going to give them an All-Star position player and a top pitchers. Does this remind anyone of the Sammy Sosa saga from last year? I think Tejada will be dealt, but it probably won't be until late January or early Febuary unless either Baltimore or the trading partner gets nervous.

There would be pandimonium in Mahopac, NY

The only thing in that line that is sub-par is slugging. IFthe Cubs could land either Abreu or Tejada they could very well get away with Murton's lack of power. I knew he doesn't project for much power but he does generate very good bat speed, if he can learn to seperate and elevate a little more I think he could become a 20-25 HR hitter. Not too shabby for the "stepchild"*. *I have nothing against stepchildren or redheads, it is a nickname. A .280 AVG would've placed Murton of 13th of 22 qualified LF'ers last year. A .340 OBP would've been 16th of 22. A .760 OPS would've been 18th of 22. I think "decidedly subpar" is a pretty good way of putting it. I was speaking in terms of a "rookie" season although I know he no longer qualifies as a rookie. I also think only using "qualified" LFers is a bit too narrow. In any event I don't think those numbers are sub par. LFers with at least 350 PA's, Murton would make 30: A .280 AVG would've been 18th. A .340 OBP would've been 22nd. A .760 OPS would've 23rd. His numbers would be about average for a CF, but at a corner he's pretty easily below. And for Rookies with 350 PAs that line would put him just behind Jonny Gomes and just ahead of Iguchi in 8th place. IF the Cubs could get more power production from either RF or SS I could live that line. Especially if he demonstrates a little more pop and cracks the .800 OPS mark. Something like .280/.340/.470 I don't think that is unrealistic at all.

The only thing in that line that is sub-par is slugging. IFthe Cubs could land either Abreu or Tejada they could very well get away with Murton's lack of power. I knew he doesn't project for much power but he does generate very good bat speed, if he can learn to seperate and elevate a little more I think he could become a 20-25 HR hitter. Not too shabby for the "stepchild"*. *I have nothing against stepchildren or redheads, it is a nickname. A .280 AVG would've placed Murton of 13th of 22 qualified LF'ers last year. A .340 OBP would've been 16th of 22. A .760 OPS would've been 18th of 22. I think "decidedly subpar" is a pretty good way of putting it. I was speaking in terms of a "rookie" season although I know he no longer qualifies as a rookie. I also think only using "qualified" LFers is a bit too narrow. In any event I don't think those numbers are sub par.

The only thing in that line that is sub-par is slugging. IFthe Cubs could land either Abreu or Tejada they could very well get away with Murton's lack of power. I knew he doesn't project for much power but he does generate very good bat speed, if he can learn to seperate and elevate a little more I think he could become a 20-25 HR hitter. Not too shabby for the "stepchild"*. *I have nothing against stepchildren or redheads, it is a nickname.

not nearly as much as your eyes do. "Who are you going to beleive, me or your lieing eyes?" -RIP, Richard Pryor

Although I don't think he has a lot of trade value with a big contract and NTC, but to say that Maddux is a 5th starter is a bit of a stretch. I looked at 3 different stats for last year to get a feel for where Maddux would fit on other staffs. Using ERA, he ranked 61st overall among qualifying pitchers. He would have been the 3rd or better starter on 17 teams. He wouldn't even have made # 5 for the Cards, but he would have been the 3rd best for Atlanta, and #2 for the Yankees and Red Sox (of course the Yankees only had 2 qualifying pitchers!!). He would have been the staff ace for 5 teams. Since we put so much emphasis on OBP for hitters around here, I also looked at OBA. There, he ranked 35th overall with a .308. (tied with new White Sox J. Vazquez). On only one team would he have been the 5th starter, that being your WS champs. He would have been 3rd or better on 25 teams. And finally, on innings pitched, he ranked 13th overall. The only rate stats that were worse than ERA related to the long ball, but even there only 11 teams had 3 or more pitchers with a better HR/IP. It's clear he would have been at least a #3 on over half the teams last year. I think that qualifies him as a legit #3 pitcher. I hope I can remember this post when people criticize Maddux. The only thing terrible about him is his contract, and I can hardly falut him for taking the money the Cubs offered.

Why is sign Brian Giles unrealistic? And why is the other one unrealistic? Becuse you don't think so? Who are you? Do you have some inside information that nobody else has?

You're right. I've never watched, or even played baseball. How did you guess? Me either, can't stand to watch. Oh, and I never lived in Miami nor have I ever seen Slappy play. One next to last thing, Slappy is not deragatory in any way, it describes his hitting approach. But I don't know that for sure as I've never seen him play. Last thing, Slappy is not Podsednic and the White Sox are not the Cubs, just for the record.

That is exactly the way I feel too. I get the impression that Hendry thinks it was just a spate of infuries that doomed the Cubs last year. So if the pitching staff is healthy all he really needed to do was upgrade the bullpen and CF b/c Perez saved the Cubs at SS. It is as if he believes he can plug another Burnitz type in RF and the Cubs will be just fine. I hope he is correct, but I am doubtful he is.

You mean like for Slappy Pierre?

If Hendry can somehow break Ugie out of stir in Venezuala trade for pudge and Kevin Brown then we could cheer on the Chicago Marlins

I would like to commend Jon and Gonny for showing how a debate on a message board should work Jon, I'm glad you are mixing it up with us.

They moved a couple of times, Milwalkee then Atlanta. Both

I really don't think that Giles was an option at all. It seemed like almost everyone knew he was going back to the Padres cause he didn't get barely any offers. That could be. In which case the Pierre trade makes even less sense. For a marginal upgrade the Cubs gave up three of their biggest trade assests. Please let us not rehash the Pierre signing here and stick to the topic of the thread.

Hoops, I wish I had as much confidence in Hendry as you. It appears to me that so far Hendry has gotten almost everything he has wanted. The difference is it is not the same things as we want. Hendry signed Perez and Rusch pretty quickly and above market value. He signed Howry and Eyre pretty quickly and set the market. He went out and got his "lead off hitter" after Furcal split for more dough. To me it appears as if Hendry hasn't really thought too much about RF at all. He passed on Giles and insisted he could get a RFer via a trade. No, so far Hendry seems to be on track. The track leads to nowhere though.

If you can point to one article written by any news source that Hendry has been interested in any Pacific Rim player since Hee Sop Choi and Jae Kuk Ryu I'd really like to see it/them. Untill then the absence of evidence does equal the evidence of absence no matter what Dick Cheney wants us to believe.

Conor, Carlos, Chad, Chris (the names of the D'Backs top Of prospects). I'll take Jackson please.

Abreu is only a possiblity if Philly lowers their trade expectations. Insisting on Prior or Zambrano is not reasonable. Except they're not, for the millionth time, insisting on Prior or Zambrano. In talks with other clubs, including National League clubs, they've been reported to have asked for Matt Clement, Barry Zito, Erik Bedard, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Jason Schmidt and Jason Marquis amongst others. None of those pitchers are anywhere near as valuable right now as Prior or Zambrano, though a healthy Schmidt and an on-form Zito aren't too far back, and Bedard in about eighteen months could be damn good. What's going on here is that the Phillies are making it known that they want a good starting pitcher for Abreu, they're trying their luck with a few names, and every single team they're talking to is saying no. The reason that the A's said no to Abreu was almost certainly the money and not, despite Beane's insisting otherwise, that he doesn't want to move Barry Zito. Beane's clever enough to know that in Zito he has a widely overvalued pitcher that's going to hit free agency in one year's time, and the A's aren't going to be able to re-sign him. And the pitching market this winter is making a lot of teams desperate, pushing Zito's value up even more. Beane saying he's not going to trade Zito only gives him an even better trading chip. So what Hendry needs to do here is get in the middle of things... Phillies get: Barry Zito, Rich Hill A's get: Jerome Williams, Ryan Madson, Adam Greenberg Cubs get: Bobby Abreu, $5m towards 2007 from Phillies Something like that. Obviously, if the Cubs hadn't made the awful trade with the Marlins for Pierre, and had instead traded for Bradley on the ridiculously cheap as it turned out (Ethier isn't even equivalent in prospect status to Renyel Pinto in my opinion, and the Dodgers threw in a decent backup middle infielder), they'd be much more able to afford the pitching they're giving up to net Abreu, and this would leave us skating on thin ice a bit come next year. But we need Abreu, and it's as simple as that. I vote Diffusion for GM

Cliff Floyd was a solution to last year's left field problem. Cliff is a left fielder and not a particularly adept one. If the Cubs get Cliff that will mean Murton goes to the bench. If they also get Ecanarcion/Jones that might not be a bad thing at least until Cliff goes on the DL.