nilodnayr

There are some other pretty raw guys on that list...Franklin Morales comes to mind. Callis explains his position on Samardzija, acknowledging the rawness...

Ohh you think your so cool with your plural serpetine picks. :)

I completely agree. Floyd, Ward, and Jones are all similar. We really needed a right handed version of one of them. If we do sign Floyd and don't trade Jones then we don't have a spot on the roster for a righthanded platoon partner. While I like floyd has a 4th outfielder in theory, in practice its the final nail in the coffin for those of us who were hoping a decent platoon partner. And employing a platoon partner would be more valuable to the team than yet another lefthanded corner OF.

Sori made 23M in arbi, lets say Utley would have made 25. That means that they locked is first 4 FA years up at 15M a year. I guess they just went year to year with him and wanted to retain him when he was eligible to become a FA they probably would have to pay a lot more that 4/15 at least in terms of years. And those years would have been his decline years. I'm thinking its bad timing in terms of the market, but if you break it down like I did above (of course assuming Utley doesnt tank and the Phils would want him after he reaches FA), its actually probably a good deal.

Nice to hear Lou actually cares about his pitchers and won't over abuse them again like a certain someone... Prior and Wood aside, I still remember last season when there was barely any time left in the season and we were obviously out of any race, and Dusty left Zambrano out there for like 130-140 the game after he was skipped because his back wasn't feeling right (By the way, Zam was at the Bulls game yesterday sporting dreads, and was alot slimmed down and said he worked hard this offseason to make sure the back or anything else wouldn't be a problem in 07). Actually, he was sporting cornrows, not dreads. And he had a kids XL black t-shirt on...quite comical. When Dan Roan asked him if was staying away from the dessert tray, he (obviously brokenly) said something to the affect of "as long as I work it off tomorrow" :) He said that keeping the weight off makes his back not hurt and that hes feeling really good. And on a side note, the bulls couldnt buy a bucket.

A league average, Ted Lilly like season will interest some teams around the trading deadline. I have a feeling that Marquis's name will be mentioned anytime a starter gets hurt on a playoff caliber team. Let's hope that the value they get exceeds his contract. A) We don't know where the market is going to go. B) We could eat some of the contract C) He could actually pitch well D) We could give him away for nothing in return ...no one is untradeable Ask Houston how they felt about Bags last year. Did they actually even try? Ok, I will amend my statement to say that "no one who can actually play is untradeable"

Yowsers. I just read an article about a study that tracked the average % raise in relation to years the CBA is resigned. The year the CBA is resigned the increases are the largest, year after the second largest, and so on and so forth. Data shows the market to be very cyclical and Utley would have been due for FA at a perfect down time in the market.

Hopefully if everything goes well he will be skipping Iowa :) I know he said he wants to pitch in the majors in 08, but hes so raw that 09 may even be a little optimistic.

A league average, Ted Lilly like season will interest some teams around the trading deadline. I have a feeling that Marquis's name will be mentioned anytime a starter gets hurt on a playoff caliber team. Let's hope that the value they get exceeds his contract. A) We don't know where the market is going to go. B) We could eat some of the contract C) He could actually pitch well D) We could give him away for nothing in return ...no one is untradeable

Not until they get a platoon mate for Jones and assure me Murton will not be platooned.

Nice, Im assuming the cubs will add a third member to that list in June.

I think I was the only person who sorta quoted career numbers and I said "about 350/350". I actually was discounting his first few years of really bad slugging, his minor league careers 355/337. If you look at just the last 3 years its about 367/380. PECOTA projects 267/325/350 ZiPS projects 275/335/356

Maybe it's not best for Soriano or the team's defense, but it would almost certainly be best for the team. Even if Soriano is a subpar defensive CF, his value is maximized with his offense coming from that position. He's hardly guaranteed to be an above-average right fielder... offensively or defensively. At least this way we'd be sure to be getting at least one positive from him. Then maybe we can find a platoon partner for Jones in right and be set. Ward? Might make for a brutal defensive OF though. The only one who shouldnt want Soriano in CF is Pie. Ohh duh. I forgot about Ward. He'd be a much better platoon option with Jones than Theriot if he is going to be playing RF. Ward's a LH hitter, like Jones. Ahh right, so thats why I forgot about Ward :)

Sheez, how many ways can I disagree with this list? E-Patt is grossly underrated, but they put Shark (who has proved nothing yet) 4th? Over Gallagher and Pawelek? Dope, that is just a joke, non-prospect bust. Harvey too, though I could see him at the bottom of the list just for "tools" sake. :roll: Not that anyone cares, but my Top 10; and despite his marginal "graduation", I'm going to include the Gooz-- 1. Pie 2. Veal 3. Patterson 4. Guzman 5. Gallagher 6. Samardzija 7. Moore 8. Colvin 9. Rapada 10. Ceda You criticize putting Samardzija so high and over Paw and Gallagher, yet not counting Guzman, you rate him only one place lower than BA did...and you dont even have Paw on the list?

Maybe it's not best for Soriano or the team's defense, but it would almost certainly be best for the team. Even if Soriano is a subpar defensive CF, his value is maximized with his offense coming from that position. He's hardly guaranteed to be an above-average right fielder... offensively or defensively. At least this way we'd be sure to be getting at least one positive from him. Then maybe we can find a platoon partner for Jones in right and be set. Ward? Might make for a brutal defensive OF though. The only one who shouldnt want Soriano in CF is Pie. Ohh duh. I forgot about Ward. He'd be a much better platoon option with Jones than Theriot if he is going to be playing RF.

Yeah I was debating as well...the age old question, category scarcity vs position scaricty.

Bah, I hate early rounds of drafting...thats why I like keeper leagues. A player I do not care for that much in real life but is a 5x5 stud.... Carl Crawford

I think they only talked about Sori moving to CF, he never actually did.

Heh heh. True indeed. I can easily understand having an opinion strongly contrary to the Cubs' opinion when there is some information available. There is considerable info available on Gallagher; I can easily understand why somebody might think the Cubs or BA or whomever don't value him as highly as they should. There is considerable info available on Harvey; I can well understand why somebody might have an opinion on harvey that is much less enthusiastic than what Cubs or BA might hold. There is lots of history on Soriano and Lilly and one might have watched them quite a bit yourself, since they play on TV. So if a person has an opinion strongly contrary to the Cubs regarding known and viewable guys like that, it makes a lot of sense. I guess I don't see that for Sam and Huseby and Pawelek, though. There is negligible meaingful performance data on any of these three. I think it's fine to strongly disagree with the Cubs when we have reason for it. I just don't see this as one of those cases. Basically we're going on scouting gossip on all three. I don't see the logic in assuming that the Cubs are wrong. Other than on general principle that whatever the Cubs think must necessarily be stupid. I agree, I didn't mean my comment in a derogatory way at all. I just think, saying Samardzija (I'm so good at spelling his name now :) ) is our best pitching prospect because Wilken said he was his #1 of this draft is a regurgitation of cubs opinions. I personally have never seen any of the prospects and have to go off second hand opinions, scouting reports, and statistics. Obviously, the cubs viewpoint is a lot of the only information we have on younger guys, but I'm just saying, we can all have our own opinions.

Is position eligibility standard yahoo 5 games started or 10 played in during the year or previous year? Also is it a standard 5x5? And are the positions C, 1b, 2b, SS, 3b, CI, MI, OF, OF, OF, OF, Util, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P?

I would disagree on this. I agree on putting him behind Gallagher, who has shown that he has a major league fastball (speed/movement/command factored), has a shot at some good breaking pitch(es), and has already had success in AA. But I think a $10 guarantee and Wilken saying that he ranked Sam as the #1 guy tells you something about how the Cub scouts rank Sam for talent. Very high. They may be wrong, of course. But since we're basically projecting Sam, Huseby, and Pawelek on scouting opinions rather than on demonstrated results (Huseby has hardly any, and Pawelek showed neither exceptional velocity or command this past summer), I don't see why the default wouldn't be to go with the guy Wilken seems to strongly prefer. I think the Cubs have invested quite a bit of scouting time on Sam. It's at least possible that their high opinion of his potential is reasonably informed. [/i] I think there is a difference between having your own opinion and regurgitating the cub's opinion.

This doesn't make sense. If soriano is playing CF it's because were are not gonna play Pie yet and we will have Jones in right. It absolutely makes sense. Soriano has said he wants one position and to be left there. Putting him in CF now and moving him to RF when Pie arrives is silly. Making him learn two new positions is not best for Soriano or the team's defense. I guarantee you Jones plays a better CF right now than Soriano does. Pie leaves them both in the dust. I thought the "doesn't make sense" part was in reference to us not upgrading at the corner if Soriano is going to play CF.

Indeed I am. "Teenager with a credit card" to me means spending without realizing future consequences. The future consequence is that in 2009 if we give Z Zito money and remain at 110M budget, we will have $20M for 18 spots on the 25 man roster. However, you have to count Murton and Pie at about 4M, and Hill and one of our prospects should round out the rotation for about another $2M. So you can realistically call it $14M for a catcher, shortstop, bench and bullpen. Not a great position to be in, but the sky is not falling. It's a terrible position be in, even if you assume that everybody currently signed retains their health and recent productivity, which I don't. Pie looks pretty sketchy to me at this point, and will Jason Marquis even be in baseball in 2009? If you dont think Pie will ever amount to anything then we can have hope for Colvin and Fuld. Patterson is seeing time in the OF, and with DeRosa still on that team he or Patterson could take an OF spot. If Sori plays CF then that opens up a ton of options for a corner. Plus some decent trades/signings could net us some cheap serviceable players as well. I know it seems crazy that a team can compete with 90M locked up in 7 players and $20M (assuming constant budget) left for the rest , but the 2005 Astros were paying 4 players $57M out of a $77M budget...and they went to the World Series.

Indeed I am. "Teenager with a credit card" to me means spending without realizing future consequences. The future consequence is that in 2009 if we give Z Zito money and remain at 110M budget, we will have $20M for 18 spots on the 25 man roster. However, you have to count Murton and Pie at about 4M, and Hill and one of our prospects should round out the rotation for about another $2M. So you can realistically call it $14M for a catcher, shortstop, bench and bullpen. Not a great position to be in, but the sky is not falling. It's a terrible position be in, even if you assume that everybody currently signed retains their health and recent productivity, which I don't. Pie looks pretty sketchy to me at this point, and will Jason Marquis even be in baseball in 2009? That'd be fine...insurance $.

Huh? Our goal should be to maximize production at every position. I just used it as a point of reference to show that even if Theriot came close to repeating his last year (and best year) minor league #s against lefties it wouldn't be much more than CF average. The point of a platoon is to pair two players who are above average vs the opposite handed pitchers and below average vs the same handed pitchers. My point is that you can do that with Michaels and Frankie, not Theriot. Theriot vs lefties is going to be better than Jones, but not really ideal for a platoon. Utility man, yes. Frankie would probably cost a decent amount, but Michaels probably wouldnt cost much (maybe Cedeno).