erik316wttn

Pfft. Just a knee bruise? He's fine. But send him home anyway. Give him an early vacation from the disaster known as the 2005 season. He deserves it.

With as horrid as the Tigers were, though, they had to overpay if they wanted some talent to come there.

You'd think he would have pointed the finger at Sammy. He'd have been the easier target in the public's eye. Not wanting to open up the "Did or didn't Sammy juice" argument for the 9,000th time.

Cubs won 5-4, DLee went 3-3 with an RBI. Seriously, what's wrong with Walker? Anything serious? I hope this doesn't affect whether his option is picked up or not.

Wait. What happened to Walker?

I hope you're right, at least to the extent of the Yankees getting shut out of the playoffs. I really don't care who wins the Central. I just want the WC to come out of that division and the Red Sox to win the East.

There is one major thing wrong with this team. Let's call him "Johnny B". Not only has Hendry not considered throwing Johnny B out on his ample posterior, he has actually given him the players HE likes, to the detriment of the team. A very good factor to judge Hendry by is if Neifi and/or Macias are back on this team next year. That should tell you who is in charge, or at the very least what his philosophy is. Hendry is responsible for Baker. Yes, he's not responsible for the day to day decisions Baker makes, but he IS responsble for the players that he gives Dusty, and he is responsible if Dusty keeps failing and costing this team wins. To me, it would make Hendry look stronger, not weaker, if he fired Baker even though Hendry was the guy who brought him in. It would mean he's willing to admit his mistake and cut his losses while he still can.

I'm not sure what kind of support you could possibly have for such a statement. The team went from 88 to 89 to desperate for 80 wins. I don't know how a GM can do more good than bad and have his team get worse. If I look at the structure of the team today and compare it to the structure of the team at the beginning of 2003, I'd say he's improved the overall talent level and condition of the team (including age of core, etc.). Talent is worthless without production. The team has gotten worse under his watch. But Hendry didn't take over an 88 win team. He inherited a 67 win team at the end of 2002, didn't he? 80 is still greater than 67, isn't it? Yes, however it's less than 89. The team keeps getting worse under Hendry's watch, and yet he seems reluctant or just plain unwilling to do anything to fix it. They must have changed math since I went to school. 67 - 88 - 89 - ~79 == "keeps getting worse"? I count two increases in record and one decrease. How is that, "keeps getting worse"? Hyperbole is not your friend when putting together a convincing argument. Don't take this the wrong way, but simply only looking at wins is not helping your argument much. Yes. The team improved from 2002 to 2003 no matter how you look at it. I'll give you that. However, we went from 5 outs away from the World Series to choking away the WC in the last two weeks of the season. We sat home and watched the playoffs last year. This year we never even had a sniff. That's two years of getting worse, despite the talent being better than it was in 2003. Doing less with more talent is not an indicator of success. It is quite the opposite, in fact.

Well, Corey Patterson was rushed and look what it did for him. Having two managers who were complete morons in Baylor and Baker didn't do him any favors either, though. i dont think corey was rushed. he did better a few years ago when he first came up than he has done the past few years. his unwillingness to learn the strike zone, not swing at unittable pitches (especially high fastballs) and not try to hit a home run every ab has been his downfall imo. i agree about baker & baylor not helping matters. i wonder what he could have been (will be) for a team like the braves or the nationals. it amazes me that guys like the farns are head cases in chicago and go on to dominate for other teams. i guess there is a reason why the braves have won the division 14 years in a row but i wish the cubs could find some of that mojo with their young players. You can't just simply look at one half of 2003 and say "well, he's done ok since he's been up." No. He hasn't. Take away half of 2003 and he's been a dissapointment no matter how you look at it. He should have learned that strike zone in the minors. He should have had that "you can hit 40 home runs" mentality taken from him in the minors. He should have stood for hours at the plate taking BP, getting a fine every time he swung at an eye-high fastball. He didn't. He was simply not ready for the majors and they brought him up anyway. I agree with you when you say Murton and Cedeno are ready. They are. Pie isn't and we dont want him to turn into Corey 2.0.

I'm not sure what kind of support you could possibly have for such a statement. The team went from 88 to 89 to desperate for 80 wins. I don't know how a GM can do more good than bad and have his team get worse. If I look at the structure of the team today and compare it to the structure of the team at the beginning of 2003, I'd say he's improved the overall talent level and condition of the team (including age of core, etc.). Talent is worthless without production. The team has gotten worse under his watch. But Hendry didn't take over an 88 win team. He inherited a 67 win team at the end of 2002, didn't he? 80 is still greater than 67, isn't it? Yes, however it's less than 89. The team keeps getting worse under Hendry's watch, and yet he seems reluctant or just plain unwilling to do anything to fix it.

I agree. That injury could have happened to anyone. It was a fluke. It didn't happen because Nomar is fragile. He just slipped. No amount of conditioning can avoid freak injuries like that. The injury caused the slip, the slip did not cause the injury. The injury was caused in part by Nomar being susceptible to "freak" injuries. He's going to be an enormous risk next year. If he comes back, you have to have Ronny available to back him up. You can't afford another $2.5m .300 OBP in the lineup. And I'm totally in favor of sending Perez packing and having Cedeno as the SS/3B/2B backup.

I agree. That injury could have happened to anyone. It was a fluke. It didn't happen because Nomar is fragile. He just slipped. No amount of conditioning can avoid freak injuries like that.

Lowell to LF maybe. Delgado in LF. :shock: Yeah, I thought Lowell would be the most likely candidate. And if we got them, we coud turn around and swing Delgado somewhere for prospects or bullpen help. Are the Marlins looking to deal both in a single deal, or will they take seperate deals?

What about moving one to left field? (ducks flying objects)

Well, Corey Patterson was rushed and look what it did for him. Having two managers who were complete morons in Baylor and Baker didn't do him any favors either, though.

If you're going to get rid of Nomar, make it Cedeno/Walker. Walker can lead off, and we wont overpay for a leadoff hitter like we would with Furcal.

1 game up. You're right. My bad.

Yanks a game and a half up in the East. I was hoping they'd fade and not even make the playoffs. Damn, that Yankee magic. I wish we could get some of that.

That's the perfect plan. I think insteead of an all-or-nothing "x amount of money if he reaches x amount of PAs by the end of the season", the million per 100 would be better, IMO. I think he'd be much more open to that.

For the price he'll cost to resign him, he'll probably be worth the risk. But, you keep Cedeno around in the event he does miss significant time. If Nomar plays all year, you get very good production for the cost. You can also put Cedeno at 3B in spring hoping he can replace Aram for a day or two if his groin/hamstring acts up again. He could be a very valuable piece of the 2006 team. Between spelling Aram, Nomar, and Walker for stretches at a time, I think he could get 100 starts or so.

You rock, Len. Drop by every now and then! Talk baseball with us in the offseason.

No response to the boston / ny question? I'm disappointed. i edited it into a post a few back... BTW my plan includes keeping Neifi for a late inning defensive replacement and spot starter for Nomar, or Walker if you are in love with his 2.5 million option or whatever it is. This will be an improvement defensively, and also cheap by utilizing Cedeno. It also will not be any worse offensively than what we've had the majority of this year. Thennn improve the offense in the outfield. I should be GM i swear Not if your idea is to dump Todd Walker for Neifi Perez. If it was all about defense, guys like Jeff Kent and Alfonso Soriano wouldn't have jobs. They are horrible defensively. But, what they provide with the bat more than makes up what they give up defensively. The same can be said for Walker. The offense Walker provides more than makes up for his defensive weakness. This team isn't horrible because of their defense. They are horrible because they keep putting guys like Neifi Perez at the top of the batting order. If you give Dusty Baker someone like Neifi Perez, he'll put him at the top of the batting order. To defend this (which is a defensive move in it's own right and quite possibly a web gem) is to not put players like Neifi Perez on the roster. I agree. Neifi will find a job somewhere as a utility infielder. But on a Dusty Baker managed team, he WILL be misused. You can't have him as a temptation on this team next year. You have to ditch him in favor of Cedeno. People have to get this thought out of thier heads that we should replace pretty much everyone we have now (at an offensive hit) in order to upgrade defense. D is not our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is batters who cannot consistently get on base (and a dumbass manager, but that's another post). If we have batters who can get on base, we'll win. At NO time should offense EVER be sacrificed for defense, unless you have such a fantastic offense that you can replace a defensive butcher in the field with an offensive downgrade.

Seems we open against the Reds every other year or so.

There isn't a significant difference in Wilkerson's home/road splits this season. Home: .234/.362/.391 Away: .264/.342/.421 But the NL East is filled with pitcher's parks (with the exception of Philly), so I do think a move to the NL Central would improve his numbers to last season's form. Especially at Wrigley. With the new influx of "hitters parks" all over baseball, Wrigley has been moved from a "hitters park" to somewhat neutral when compared to the other stadiums. But the fences are still the same distance they were 15 years ago. He could hit here.

Actually, this team could thrive with Walker at leadoff. Depending on who they get in the OF, they could also live with Hairston in that role. The only true need they have is one good bat in the OF. After that they have lots of options to mix and match. I never understood why Walker wasn't leading off more. He can walk, he can hit for average. He won't steal 30 bases, but the steal is a lost art anyway. But he can get on base. Murton should be batting 2nd. And Walkers D IS NOT THAT BAD!!! (from a few posts upthread) People talk about him like he's the absolute worst defensive 2Bman the game has ever known. Get over it, people. He's adequate enough to hold it down. He's not going to be the 2nd coming of Sandberg out there. Get that straight.