umpunk

Why? Because they're both black? You're not aware that Jones had to endure racial slurs from some of the idiots at Wrigley on a daily basis for most of his stay with the Cubs? It's a terrible thing that Jones had to endure racial slurs. But the sad truth is there are going to be racist idiot fans in every city. My point is that it was (as far as I know) an isolated incident with one player. I've never heard Lee say anything about having to deal with bigot fans on a daily basis. A couple of things need to be pointed out here. To my knowledge, only Jones has made these claims. I have no idea if they are true or not, but coming from a player who was being booed on daily basis, struggling with the bat, and seemed to take little blame for his problems, I'm going to take them with a grain of salt. Two, I'm almost positive they weren't on a "daily" basis. I would imagine in today's world that there would be a lot written if the bleacher people were screaming the N-word at outfielders constantly. At the end of the day, nobody really knows what was screamed at Jones except Jones himself. Maybe he is telling the truth, and if (that's a huge if) I certainly feel sorry for him - nobody should have to endure that. Now as for Bradley, I'm not sure how the two are connected - we have had numerous black outfielders since who have never mentioned a word about it.

Peavy has Towers by the sac, not Towers by Hendry's sac. If we wait 2 months and give up less, while in the process signing/trading for a quality LF is that really a bad thing. I have seen two people use LF now. Did I miss something in the last hour? Is Soriano going to be playing somewhere else? Haha - one of those guys was me. I keep forgetting we are actually going to put Bradley or Ibanez in right field.

It's all in how you ask the question would you rather have Peavy, limited flexibility to sign a LF, a giant question mark at second base, and deplete an already depleted farm system or Josh Vitters, Mark DeRosa, Sean Marshall, Felix Pie, and Milton Bradley with enough cash left over for some moves down the road.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-10-cubs-winter-meetings-chicdec10,0,4553272.story Jake Peavy deal waits on Cubs decision Sources say DeRosa, Marquis included in proposed 3-team trade By Paul Sullivan | Tribune reporter December 10, 2008 LAS VEGAS — While general manager Jim Hendry said he spoke to representatives of three or four free agents Tuesday on the second day of baseball's winter meetings, the Jake Peavy rumors continue to take center stage. Hendry declined to comment on talk that Mark DeRosa was headed to Philadelphia for pitching prospects that would be sent to San Diego to complete a potential Peavy deal, but Phillies sources insisted a deal was in place and ready to go if the Cubs decide to pull the trigger with the Padres. Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney said the team can afford to add a lucrative long-term contract even without knowing exactly who the new owner will be, which suggests Peavy's $63 million contract is within the projected budgets that already have been presented to the bidders. "We think within the budget we have, we have enough room to do most of the things we need to do," Kenney said. While nothing appears imminent, the Cubs have done enough groundwork on the Peavy deal to pull it off quickly. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Jason Marquis would replace Sean Marshall in the package going to the Padres, with the Cubs eating more than half of his $9.8 million salary. The Phillies would send two pitching prospects to the Padres while acquiring DeRosa from the Cubs. DeRosa is considered expendable because he's in the final year of his contract and doesn't have a no-trade clause. Asked about trading the popular second baseman, Hendry replied: "I don't talk about our guys." If DeRosa were traded, Mike Fontenot would move to second base, and the Cubs would sign a veteran backup. Manager Lou Piniella said Monday that Fontenot also would be given playing time at short in spring training. But first, the Cubs are focusing on finding a left-handed, middle-of-the-order hitter, and may be closing in on switch-hitter Milton Bradley. The Cubs also have interest in free-agent outfielder Bobby Abreu, but there had been no formal talks as of Tuesday evening. Abreu's agent, Peter Greenberg, said the Yankees outfielder is interested in the Cubs. But Bradley is a less-expensive option who has played 468 career games in center field and 151 in right, meaning Piniella could play Kosuke Fukudome in right against right-handers and use Reed Johnson in center against lefties, with Bradley moving to right. Bradley, 31 in April, led the American League in on-base percentage (.436) while hitting a career-high 22 home runs with 77 RBIs in 126 games, mostly as a designated hitter, with Texas. The Cubs and Tampa Bay are the two teams showing the most interest in Bradley, a proven hitter with a history of health problems and occasional on-field explosions. That raises the question of whether Piniella's increased patience is enough to allow him to co-exist with Bradley, whom one scout says was protected by manager Ron Washington in Texas. Another scout believes Bradley would be the ideal addition to the Cubs because of his talent and his personality, saying "he'd make that team a lot of fun." Health is another question, as Bradley has played more than 101 games only twice in his nine-year career. Tribune baseball reporter Phil Rogers contributed. psullivan@tribune.com

To make sure I'm caught up to date here: - We have numerous posters listening to a San Diego radio station who fired a DJ today. - There are a few posters who enjoy, pardon my language, "slutty" bar women (well, who doesn't really) - Jim Hendry is being interviewed by some random comcast reporter and that interview is not on tv nor the radio Am I correct in this? Yeash.....

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/030070.php http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/023929.php Perfect example of why defensive metrics are worthless. I knew somebody was going to post something like that. You can make pretty much anybody look good if you dig hard enough through that stuff. So you think Theriot is average defensively? Come on. I'm trying to avoid the dreaded "don't you watch the games?" line, but it's almost necessary. No way you could have watched him plau for more than 15 games and say that he is anything but below average defesnively. "Hey, there's a ball hit 2 feet to my right. I think I'm going to unneccessarily drop to my knees and field it because I have plenty of time with my rocket arm. Wait, he was safe? How is that possible?" Ok, so let me get this straight - I can either trust hard, empirical evidence or dextermorgan's clearly unbiased memory? Hum.... Defensive metrics are far from "hard, empirical evidence". They are extremely unreliable and jump all over the place from year to year. There are simply too many variables to accurately put defense into numbers. So you're saying you think Theriot is average defenisvely? And why do you imply that I'm biased? I have nothing against Theriot. I'm not saying you hate Theriot, I'm suggesting that you think he is a bad defensive player and refuse to let any evidence that suggests otherwise in to your thinking (even though there is a more than a little to suggest he is at least average). If you want to claim defensive stats are unreliable, that's fine - to an extent they are. At the end of the day though are you are doing is saying, "I will be the judge a player is bad playing defense, not any unbiased estimator, stat, or anything else." If you take that approach, you can never argue with anybody on defense then - I could make insane claims like Ward is a solid right fielder and say, "just watch the game."

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/030070.php http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/023929.php Perfect example of why defensive metrics are worthless. I knew somebody was going to post something like that. You can make pretty much anybody look good if you dig hard enough through that stuff. So you think Theriot is average defensively? Come on. I'm trying to avoid the dreaded "don't you watch the games?" line, but it's almost necessary. No way you could have watched him plau for more than 15 games and say that he is anything but below average defesnively. "Hey, there's a ball hit 2 feet to my right. I think I'm going to unneccessarily drop to my knees and field it because I have plenty of time with my rocket arm. Wait, he was safe? How is that possible?" Ok, so let me get this straight - I can either trust hard, empirical evidence or dextermorgan's clearly unbiased memory? Hum....

Not that I want to disagree with the group think going on here that DeJesus is better than Teahen, but it should be pointed out that DeJesus is not younger. In fact, he is actually almost 2 years older than Teahen.

I remember this Stone rumor. Now whether or not he actually said it, I cannot say but I do remember reading on here (and cubs.com) that Stone said we should trade ARam for Izturis (sp?).

Regardless if he comes here or not, I personally believe NSB should rename this board the "Brian Roberts' Transactions Message Board" in honor of this thread - which is equal parts informative, mind numbing, and laughable.

So, what are everybody's thoughts on potentially acquiring Roberts? I'm wondering what so of "upgrade" he is from Derosa - big, marginal, small?

Did anybody else click on the link about the scorned wife interupting the Olympic press conference?

It's unrealistic all right....

Figgins for Ramirez? Man we would be robbing them - at least throw in Pie and Colvin to make it even. If I read that idea on an Angel's message board I would find it a joke - let a lone when a "expert" is saying it....

Where in that blurb does any member of the cubs organization "deny" anything?

What would Jim and the Cubs have to do to get a, "good job" from this board? I wonder how people would have reacted if Soriano had gone to the Angles. I'm guessing it would have been a lot of, "once again, Hendry misses the boat...." Enjoy the moment - we got a top tier free agent and still have 15-20 million to spend on pitching.

I read the first page discussing 2 very interesting trade ideas. I go to page 9 to find that the thread has turned into a (and I'm sure you aren't going to believe this) bash on Dusty and how the Cubs organization is run. To be fair, I skipped 2-8, so I'm sure there are some interesting posts in there, but it is so tiring to read thread after thread that turn into a rant on Dusty and/or Hendry....

:roll: Here we go. Seriously, the post could be about trading for Jose Vidro and it would turn into, "Dusty doesn't play young players, he sucks...."

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I actually like Hairston. In video game land I would probably go with this line-up as of today (well sort of "today" anyway): CF - Pierre 2nd - Hairston 1st - Lee 3rd - Ramirez RF - Who ever we get LF - Walker/Murton C - Barrett SS - Cedeno P - It take a great RF to put us in contention and Walker in LF would be shakey, but that's what I'd do.

At the end of the day, I just don't see Baltimore making any deal. They cannot possibly get fair value back. A disgruntled Tejada is still night and day better than 95% of all other SS out there. Who could the Cubs offer?

I wouldn't mind seeing a platoon of Gerut/Murton.

Many people just don't like Dusty for whatever reason. Some criticism he deserves, he makes mistakes the same as any other manager. Mostly though, it is just complete nonsense. There will never be a "stat" people who hate Dusty can point to because there isn't one. In the bottom line business of winning, the bottom line is that he has won.

What would you like him to say, "Neifi is bad, I mean just bad, if I had anybody but a rookie or Macias to choose from, Perez would be gone..." What slays me even more is that if Dusty said something about Nomar starting from day 1, this board would be going crazy that Dusty is undermining Neifi's confidence and is willing to start an a player coming back from a serious injury over a capable stopgap before Nomar proves anything. Look, until Dusty actually plays Neifi over a healthy and hitting Nomar, relax.

Macias isn't going anywhere - can play to many positions (none well, but still....).

I'm sure this has been discussed, but he seems to be the same type of player Grieve is. It's not that I'm against the deal, Dubois is better off in the American League and Gerut, at worst, is a decent bench player. Still, if the team was looking to find a left handed bat to challenge Hollandsworth, why not give Grieve the shot first?