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biittner77

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Everything posted by biittner77

  1. 1. If his going down for an extended period of time is likely, wouldn't you expect that Hendry has thought of that and has a contingency plan in place? 2. Ryan Dempster said Bradley has a great reputation as a teammate. Who's right? 3. Hendry tried the "get a bunch of guys that like eachother" approach in 2005. I'm kinda glad he's at least trying the "Get guys that can hit" approach.
  2. In defense of Fukudome, Japanese players have an adjustment period and historically have fared better the 2nd year. We'll see what happens there. Most of the other moves (Wood, Derosa, Marquis) are driven by money and the uncertain ownership status.
  3. "you look like a bunch of old men from the Spanish American War. A war that hasn't even been fought yet."
  4. I would go and heckle him if he signed there. Good idea. Here's a couple suggestions: "Hey Prior, way to have your career tragically cut short because Dusty Baker drove you into the ground." "Hey Prior "
  5. It may not seem important as it doesn't affect their seed or bie week but The Ginats do need to beat the Vikings. They have struggled down the stretch ever since the Buress fiasco. They need to show that they're still the best team in the NFC even if its only to themselves. They can also knock the Vikings out of the playoffs with a win. If I were the Giants I'd much rather see the Bears win the NFC North as far as potential playoff matchups are concerned.
  6. They still have to field a team. I'm not sure what you mean by non tenders with 2010 options. If a player gets non tendered, doesn't that mean they have to be signed to a contract? Won't those contracts be in the same 2-3 million/ year that Izturis got? Also if these guys got non tendered it was because they were either too expensive or not very good. If they were too expensive they cost more than Izturis. If they were bad no one will give up much for them at the trade deadline. Anyway, the point is that they tried to catch lightning in a bottle at SS last year and it didn't work. Signing Izturis is never a good option but I understand why they did it.
  7. I both agree with this, and am scared by it. If by most you mean Derosa, Dempster and Theriot then I agree.
  8. I can't see how they'll ever be able to come up with a useful defensive measure since there are so many variables. Whose pitching and hitting, weather, field conditions, those substle nuances between parks. Not all fly balls are equal. Not all errors are equal. Errors themselves are judgement calls that often are dictated by circumstances and favor the home team.
  9. Sad as it may be, Izturis is actually an upgrade from what they've had. The reality is that the other options were go after Furcal or accept whatever they get from SS and go after Texiera who is from MD and therefore a possibility. Angelos has money and is willing to spend it but the last few years no one seems to want it.
  10. So this morning they are saying that the deal is not done and that the Dodgers have gotten back into talks with Furcal. (heard it on MLB radio so no link)
  11. I'm not a big fan of trading Vitters for anything short of a perennial allstar. Vitters is probably the most overrated Cub prospect since Bobby Hill. Why? Because he is. He had good high school stats with the caveat of Mono (or whatever) his senior year, so that makes 3 good years @ high school. He had a good cape league and viola the "scouts" love his tools. He's not done anything in high school or elsewhere to justify an elite draft status. Then somebody here says they wouldn't trade him for anything less than a perennial all-star. So far the only thing going for him is that he's from SoCal and he'll still only be 19 next year. At least Hill was a great college player. Vitters tied the NWL hit streak record last year, at the meager age of 18. Maybe its a bit early to be writing him off simply because being contrary makes you look cool. I don't see where he wrote him off, just that he was overrated. Those are 2 different things. Vitters did a lot to justify his draft status this year but he is still young and years away. I'd feel better about him as a prospect if he had made it to Peoria this season and had success there.
  12. Kevin Cash might be a decent backup for Soto if they cut ties with Hank White.
  13. Have there been many great players that became great coaches?Maddux can talk startegy but does he know how fix mechanics? The Maddux effect probably helps guys that have the ability to locate pitches but not power pitchers.
  14. Didn't they run on first down and get 2 yards? If they complete a 3 yard pass they have a chance to run for a first down. If they get that first down they can then run the clock down to nothing. If they had run on 2nd down and wind up in 3rd & long, the Saints use their last timeout and get the ball back with plenty of time. I really believe that the Bears staff didn't believe that the defense could stop the Saints again. In fact I'm fairly certain that if the Bears had lost the coin toss they would have lost the game. As for the fake punt, are they not allowed to call illegal contact or pass interference on that play? Speaking of penalties, How could they not call interference on the guy that was all over Olsen? He was on him like a tattoo on a Sox fan.
  15. The disadvatange dome teams have is that they inevitably have to play in bad weather when it counts the most. Also, it seems like most dome teams are offense first, pass first. St. Louis proved that a dome team could win the superbowl but they could run the ball when they had to.
  16. I'd much rather play him and see what he can do. If he can show anything his value increases perhaps even enough to be worth keeping. The other option is trading him and getting virtually nothing. against RH pitching against LH pitching Soriano Soriano Fukudome Theriot Lee Lee Ramirez Ramirez Soto Soto Pie Derosa Derosa guy that platoons with Fukudome Theriot Johnson If Pie shows some power slide him between Ramirez and Soto
  17. Is there really a difference between Bako and Hill?
  18. Derosa, Theriot, Fontenot and Cedeno can play 2nd base. Whose the 5th? Soriano? I don't really believe anyone sees him as a 2nd baseman anymore. Since one of the above has to play SS, that leaves 2 guys (Cedeno & Fontenot) if Derosa gets traded. That's not exactly a glut of MIs.
  19. What do you make of Fox catching the last 2 days? Is that just trying to beef up the offense? Would this be on orders from the Cubs? If Fox could handle back up catching responsibilities he'd be an asset. Though that would contradict everything I've ever heard about Fox the defensive catcher. At the same time, the Cubs had Casey Mcgahee spend some time catching last year after they had given up on him behind the plate.
  20. There's always a chance that, if the Cubs do nothing, that the Pie/ Johnson platoon in CF works out and that Fukudome improves. If they don't get the LH bat now, they can probably still be competitive through the 1st half of the season and then add someone at the trade deadline if they feel they need to. What they probably do need to do though is get a RH OF bat to complement Fukudome against LH pitching.
  21. Did anyone really think that this trade would happen before the winter meetings? There's really no advantage to either side to make a deal before then. The Cubs are waiting for the price to come down. The Padres are hoping that another team jumps into the discussions. The time to look elsewhere is after the winter meetings since if they can't get a deal done by then it's not likely to happen.
  22. I agree that Hendry, like most GMs, undervalues his skill set. Kind of a shame as his skill set balances out Soriano's shortcoming with similar power. We're talking about a Cubs franchise that has run Keith Moreland, Sammy Sosa and more recently Cliff Floyd out to RF. Why would they suddenly think Dunn wasn't good enough to play RF? I'd rather have Dunn take his bad defense to RF than try to move Soriano there. Soriano despite his adventures is not terrible but merely below avg in LF. I'll take below avg- avg/decent- horrific left to right over horrific- avg/decent- bad. Not that it matters since Hendry won't sign Dunn. He has a "not clutch" reputation which would eliminate him for the perceived need of LH bat for the playoffs.
  23. Good luck on that if they trade for Peavy. Peavy, Harden, Z, Demp, Lilly -- not much room in there for a rookie. If they trade for Peavy they probably have to give up Marshall which means they'll need someone in the swing role to make the starts that Harden and Zambrano can't due to injuries.
  24. I don't really see all that many "middle range FA starters" as being available. Even guys like Oliver Perez and Jon Garland are going to command dollars that small market teams can't afford. I suppose there could be a few nontenders out there, but it would be a real shocker that teams are so fruitful with starting pitchers that they can afford to nontender one. A guy like Randy Johnson isn't going to sign with KC. He'll get a deal with a team that has a reasonable chance to make the playoffs, or he will take his toys and go home. A couple weeks ago I heard someone on MLB radio talking about FA pitchers. That person (Buck Martinez I think) said that a FA pitcher usually costs $1 million per win. Based on what starters are getting lately this seems pretty accurate. If a team could get Marquis for 5 million on a one year deal they'd probably consider that a bargain. We all hate Marquis but he could help a lot of teams by eating innings to protect their younger pitchers. There's also the walk year factor.
  25. I wonder if they left St Clair in there for this game so as not to run Williams out there against a good D-line. I can't see how they can run him out there again. Turner is one stubborn SOB. He was determined to prove that they could run up the middle no matter how many times it failed. They couldn't try to pass it at least once on the goal stand. Had they tried and failed to pass on 2nd down, then get stopped on 3rd down they kick the field goal. I can't see the Bears doing better than 3-1 the rest of the way. 9-7 misses the playoffs.
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