nilodnayr

Molina wouldn't be bad. I'm not a big fan of his, but he is very Barrett-esque except with a lot more contact. Unfortunately, Molina is signed through 09 so we probably couldnt take on the future liability. Plus, hes 32. Vizquel I would worry about. Hes 40 and sucking offensively. Even when hes not sucking hes probably around a 700 OPS. I don't think hes really an upgrade over Theriot. And I'm not a big fan of Theriot. Its hard to see that either of these guys would be that significantly better than what we currently have or what Cedeno/Soto could give us.

the production from SS isn't anything to write home about either How about bringing back Brendan Harris? Its not like hes the SS of the future in TB with Brignac about ready to come up. They are probably looking to selll high on guys like Harris and Pena. That would solve the whole not being able to take on money thing. He does have a high BABIP, but he also has a ridiculous LD%. Hendry always was a fan of his and said that he was the toughest piece to give away in the Nomar trade. His potential and minor league #s haven't transfered over to the majors until this year, but hes always been a pretty good prospect. We've seen a bunch of SS prospects take a bit longer to mature than those at less defensive demanding positions lately. Hes the only SS whos probably available with any potential to help in the majors.

Exactly...doing the same exercise last year. Jacque Jones 306/336/528 How well is that working out for us?

And I would argue that FLA is a team that realizes it will not be able to hold onto both of its best players for much longer and sees Jones as the extra piece that might get them over the hump to the playoffs for this year. I'd be pissed if I were them too.

The brewers do have the 2nd best offense in the NL so far. And that includes more games w/o Braun than with him. That has nothing to do with my point. This game has been about bad Cubs pitching. Where was all their good offense after the first inning yesterday? Good pitching stiffles good hitting. So then would bad pitching stiffle bad hitting? Obviously the pitching has sucked today, but we've seen many games where the cubs have been blanked by less than par pitching. You claim this "isn't the amazing Brewers offense", and my point is that hell yes it is (partially). Not 100%, but its got something to do with it.

The brewers do have the 2nd best offense in the NL so far. And that includes more games w/o Braun than with him.

Right, if you really believe that guys like Estrada, Hardy, Jenkins, Hart will continue to way outpeform their career numbers. I think they come back to the pack in the second half big time. Hell even Prince Fielder is having a career year. Estrada is actually having a below average year right now, other than his injury plagued 2005 he's been a .770+ OPS catcher. Hart projected as a .900ish OPS player so he could keep it up. Jenkins is doing exactly what would be expected of his 3 year average against righties. Hardy I'll give you though. This team is not playing over its head for the season. Who in the hell predicted a 900OPS for Hart? Find me one publication that did. His PECOTA 75th percentile is 904. His weighted mean is 870, so yeah, the most accurate projection system predicted it. He did OPS over 800 in the majors and over 900 MLE in the minors last year. Ok, I guess I will have to concede some thought he would be pretty good. Just curious what did they project Murton as? Probably right around where his BABIP normalized MLE is for this year since hes playing more than once a week in Iowa. PECOTAs weakness is it doesnt do a great job of factoring in incompetent management. And obvioiusly its not going to be exactly correct about everyone, thats a ridiculous thought. I was just curious, but I am glad the NSBB poster once again has to be an ass. This place is unreal anymore. Seemed as though you were trying to make a statement by pointing out a player who obviously has worse numbers this year than he should. But I guess you werent. FYI, PECOTA predicted a weighted mean of 304/365/478 for Matty Mur.

Just think where theyd be if they had Braun up the whole time.

Right, if you really believe that guys like Estrada, Hardy, Jenkins, Hart will continue to way outpeform their career numbers. I think they come back to the pack in the second half big time. Hell even Prince Fielder is having a career year. Estrada is actually having a below average year right now, other than his injury plagued 2005 he's been a .770+ OPS catcher. Hart projected as a .900ish OPS player so he could keep it up. Jenkins is doing exactly what would be expected of his 3 year average against righties. Hardy I'll give you though. This team is not playing over its head for the season. Who in the hell predicted a 900OPS for Hart? Find me one publication that did. His PECOTA 75th percentile is 904. His weighted mean is 870, so yeah, the most accurate projection system predicted it. He did OPS over 800 in the majors and over 900 MLE in the minors last year. Ok, I guess I will have to concede some thought he would be pretty good. Just curious what did they project Murton as? Probably right around where his BABIP normalized MLE is for this year since hes playing more than once a week in Iowa. PECOTAs weakness is it doesnt do a great job of factoring in incompetent management. And obvioiusly its not going to be exactly correct about everyone, thats a ridiculous thought.

Right, if you really believe that guys like Estrada, Hardy, Jenkins, Hart will continue to way outpeform their career numbers. I think they come back to the pack in the second half big time. Hell even Prince Fielder is having a career year. Estrada is actually having a below average year right now, other than his injury plagued 2005 he's been a .770+ OPS catcher. Hart projected as a .900ish OPS player so he could keep it up. Jenkins is doing exactly what would be expected of his 3 year average against righties. Hardy I'll give you though. This team is not playing over its head for the season. Who in the hell predicted a 900OPS for Hart? Find me one publication that did. His PECOTA 75th percentile is 904. His weighted mean is 870, so yeah, the most accurate projection system predicted it. He did OPS over 800 in the majors and over 900 MLE in the minors last year.

He's headed to Iowa so it's not all bad from his perspective. I think he'll be back this season as long as he pitches well in AAA. Meh, guess he won't be starting this season then. :( This is the biggest issue IMO. Taking quality starting pitching prospects and turning them into relievers because we went out and signed unspectacular veterans is no way to run an organization. At the very least let them continue to progress as starters to keep their value high.

Does Elias penalize FAs in their rankings who basically only played 1 of the last two years? In other words, is he going to be a Type A FA?

oh for crying out loud....did you even read the article. Yes, absolutely. He makes a point to note that the Cubs waited until Barret's value was at his lowest to trade him, which is completely a hindsight argument. In the offseason, when his value was high, there was no need or desire to trade him. Trading him at his highest value wasn't in anyone's thoughts. So its a nonsensical argument. The other notable names in his article (aside from Sosa) are people who have bounced around baseball, playing for numerous teams, and not sticking with any of them for more than 2 years. How much value do these career journeyman have anyway? Has any team received real value in trading for guys like Walker or Bellhorn? There were threads on this very board during the offseason about trading Barrett at his peak value. So, yeah it was in people's thoughts, just not the right people's thoughts.

Would be nice if the Brewers were scheduled to play actual major league teams every once in awhile. Ozzie tossed 8-) 8-) 8-) White Sox are only 2.5 games up on them going into today.

Hill had periods of total shakiness and periods of total dominance. Marshall was consisently spotting well. overall, I think Hill probably has to get the nod as the defense did alot to bail Marshall out today. but overall a really tough comparison. I agree. It seemed there were a few balls hit by both sides that would have been homers on another day, too. Only Soriano's monster shot made it out of the ballpark. Good defense definitely helped Sean today. But hey -- he's here to give us innings and gut out some victories where & when he can, so he's doing a good job IMO. Who was providing good defense? Just based on the hitting charts, it looked like Pagan had to travel pretty far for a few.

I watched yesterdays game, but I'm following on gamecast today. Can anyone tell me who they thought looked better, Hill or Marshall? To me, Hill didn't look that great yesterday and his curve was hanging up in the zone a ton and getting hit hard. Is Marshall doing better?

I'm watching on gamecast and they had all 4 of those pitches in the strikezone...

Guzman has begun to throw again in Ariz. I am guessing that the Cubs would get Marmol into the rotation and put Guzman back in the pen when he is healthy enough. Hmm, I wonder if this is where all the "Dempster to the rotation" talk has stemmed from. My guess is that if either were dealt, Dempster would go into the rotation and Marmol might get a chance to close. I'm not saying thats what I would do, but based on comments, that might be the plan.

And Rosenthal backed it up in an article today. ARG. I don't know what more frustrating, incompetent management or this pending sale. I think they could get Bradley without taking on salary. I agree, and I'd prefer him to Griffey (based on not having to give up Marshall).

Evidently Buster Olney on ESPN Insider mentioned that the cubs were one of the teams interested in Bradley in addition to the Yanks and Pads.

And Rosenthal backed it up in an article today. ARG. I don't know what more frustrating, incompetent management or this pending sale.

Why aren't you watching comcast?

Bradley definitely will be traded in the next 9 days. I wonder if Beane would take Jacque in a trade. His "moneyball" theory for this year was that guys with injury concerns are undervalued, but I have to imagine its driving Geren insane. Jacque is a pretty good buy low candidate. Hes sucking this year but at the end of last year we all ate crow given his production for his contract. I'd much rather do that then give up a package including Marshall for Griffey.

Hes right around his MLEs of his last couple years in the minors. Don't hold your breath.

I know, getting outs is such a favor to the offense. so podsednik is back and all the sox fans pry think their season is turned around....dammit hill Well at least for them hes an upgrade over Erstad.