nilodnayr

Isn't that bad? It would be one of the best offensive OFs in baseball assuming Sheffield's production doesn't drop off the face of the earth and those guys don't get injured anymore than their average. Can Soriano play RF? Why not put him at 2nd? He'd probably be happier there. Second base is a harder hole to fill than the OF. Keep Murton in left, move Soriano to 2nd, and get another bat for the OF (Lee?). good idea, let's sign every top free agent Ok, smartasses aside..... We can afford it. It probably won't happen, seeing as this is the Cubs, and Jim Hendry is in charge, but it's fun to talk about. Besides, say Pie has a phenomenal spring and Murton is hitting. Then you have a logjam in the OF with Pie, Murt, Drew, Jones, and Soriano. If you move Soriano to 2nd, you can throw Pie in there and ditch Jones or trade Murton for pitching. i was just giving you a hard time. how expensive would soriano, drew, lee AND ramirez be? i honestly don't know. sign those four, and maybe we'll just take our chances pitching-wise. About 58M (half of our projected payroll)

A quote from that NY Post article: Interesting...so Sheff was ARods only friend on the team. Bring them both in, sign Drew, win the Matsuzaka bid, trade for Heilman and M. Giles!

Jacque can be traded to a team who misses out on a corner OF on the FA market later in the offseason. As I stated in the other thread, compared to other RFs, he was surpisingly very productive and is signed to a very cheap short term contract. He has some value. Trade him to Oakland. I meant he has some value to stupid GMs who don't have a hope of winning. Sorry for being unclear. A's should go with Swisher, Kotsay, Bradley in the OF, using Johnson at first.

Now we need to trade for Heilman

At slightly over 1% of our payroll and only for one year, its hard to argue against it. Especially when guys like Silva and his 75 ERA+ get 4M options picked up.

Jacque can be traded to a team who misses out on a corner OF on the FA market later in the offseason. As I stated in the other thread, compared to other RFs, he was surpisingly very productive and is signed to a very cheap short term contract. He has some value.

Soriano Zito Schmidt Lee Mats :pukel:

Yep I'm guessing that deal took weeks for Hendry to put together - probably wasn't answering Aram's phone calls that whole time either. Aren't the GM meetings after our exclusive negotiating rights end?

Thats some good radio signals if they can get ESPN 1000 in...I think they said they got it on whatever their ESPN station is.

He had the 3rd best OPS for NL RFs. Hit .285 with 27 homeruns and is under contract for 9M for the next two years. Not to say that I like him or anything, but thats the sale I make to anyone interested. I'd love to send him to the Nats and get Kearns, Church, and Vidro in return. Not really sure if theres any other teams out there that would be interested. Possibly the Dodgers, Giants, Rangers.

The guy who runs this website is a Yankee fan who lives in Japan. I've been monitoring that site and have to say, I'm disappointed to point out that Matsuzaka is not going to be a FA in the winter of 2007. He will still be under the Lion's control. So, they could retract him from the market and post him again next year (not "allow him to walk in the winter of 2007 for nothing") if they feel that they do not have a satisfactory offer. Which, if the reports that the highest bid is in the 15M range are true (which I do not believe), they could send a message to MLB that if they really want Matsuzaka they can bid next year for 30M. Its a risky move especially because if Matsuzaka gets hurt they will be SOL. Also, the team is in poor financial shape, but I have to believe if its worth 15M more, they might just hold out a year. Couldn't that also backfire on them though. If they retract him this year, he pitches in Japan in 2007, and then they try to post him next year, the teams might just say "screw it, we'll wait until he's a free agent after 2008" or make even lower offers. Not saying this would happen, but it's something to consider. Yeah, just like there is a MLB wide conspiracy and no other teams besides the Giants are going to talk to Bonds' agent (Jon Daniels has already said hes considering Bonds). GMs job is to make their team better. This isn't fantasy baseball. This is a billion dollar industry, and guys jobs are on the line.

He's actually performed at a high level before, none of those guys have. Career ERA+ of 112. You might be lucky to get 100 innings of 90 ERA+ out of any of those other options. Miller might be able to give you 150 inning at 100-110, and it wouldn't be ridiculous if he gave you 190 innings at 120 ERA+. A 120 ERA+ is the equivalent of about a top 20 starter. Think of some one a bit better than the likes of Glavine (113) , Zito (116), Schilling (116), Willis (112), Rogers (118), and Myers (118) in 2006. I would say a 120 ERA+ is optimistic. Miller had a 4.57 ERA last year but that was only in 21.2 innings. Looking at his WHIP, he should have had an ERA over 5.

HA!!! it would be even better if the sketch had a channel 7 pin on it too.

Id much prefer Murton LF Drew CF Dunn RF (or more realistically Kearns RF)

Which likely makes Scott Hairston available. But, I'm not really sure he's anymore than a utility player at this point. I think Scott Hairston will hit well. The question is, where can he play defensively. He's awful at second, and I don't know how well he plays the outfield. I'd imagine he could be quite an excellent 4th OF in 2007 while continuing to learn how to transition to the OF from 2b (if indeed defense is an issue). Seems as though the DBacks have soured on him combined with the fact that they have amazing young OF talent that makes him quite expendable. Good news is that hes destroyed the minors in his entire career, bad news is that the last three of those have been AAA. We should be able to get him for one of our stalled arms.

Wasn't there a controversy a couple years ago because Drew wanted to play CF because he said there was less cutting involved and it was easier on his knees than RF? The Dodgers put Milton Bradley in CF instead. Yes, that is correct. Plus in Wrigley, I'd have to imagine its actually easier on the body to play CF than RF. Plus, I dont really understand how playing RF would be easier on one's body (legs). Didn't Sammy say something to that effect when he played center for a few games too? Just thinking logically with Wrigley and the deep wells actually less running is involved in CF compared to RF. I don't remember if Sammy said anything about it though and it would have had to have been a long time ago so it would be difficult to find.

that was the rumor from the yankees version of cubs.com from two posters. It wasn't exactly debunked as a troll, but revised to say that the report didnt say who won, just quoted what teams bid what. Not that its confirmed by anyone, but just wanted to point that out. http://www.forums.mlb.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=ml-yankees&msg=2%2060332.1&ctx=0 Im sure its bunk though.

The guy who runs this website is a Yankee fan who lives in Japan. I've been monitoring that site and have to say, I'm disappointed to point out that Matsuzaka is not going to be a FA in the winter of 2007. He will still be under the Lion's control. So, they could retract him from the market and post him again next year (not "allow him to walk in the winter of 2007 for nothing") if they feel that they do not have a satisfactory offer. Which, if the reports that the highest bid is in the 15M range are true (which I do not believe), they could send a message to MLB that if they really want Matsuzaka they can bid next year for 30M. Its a risky move especially because if Matsuzaka gets hurt they will be SOL. Also, the team is in poor financial shape, but I have to believe if its worth 15M more, they might just hold out a year.

Bonafide, dude.......bonafide. :D it's the rare player who can lead the league in hits but bat under .300 All you have to do is refuse to walk...its just that easy! Helps when you play every inning and lead off. Ohh it definitely helps, he was 5th in the game in PAs...but first in ABs because he is allergic to the walk. Other than Francoeur and Jose Lopez, Pierre has the lowest # of walks in the top 40 players in AB

Here's THT's projection http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/putting-a-price-on-matsuzaka/ And the Matsuzaka watch blog projection http://matsuzaka.blogspot.com/2006/08/mlb-projections.html

Actually the rumor is Cubs 28M Yanks 27M Rangers 25M BoSox 18M The rumor would not come out of Japan, it would have to come out of the MLB offices in NYC. The Lions initially would only know what the highest bid is, then upon accepting the bid, they would be told who the team was. Only MLB knows all the teams that bid and how much.

Wasn't there a controversy a couple years ago because Drew wanted to play CF because he said there was less cutting involved and it was easier on his knees than RF? The Dodgers put Milton Bradley in CF instead. Yes, that is correct. Plus in Wrigley, I'd have to imagine its actually easier on the body to play CF than RF. Plus, I dont really understand how playing RF would be easier on one's body (legs).

Bonafide, dude.......bonafide. :D it's the rare player who can lead the league in hits but bat under .300 All you have to do is refuse to walk...its just that easy!

I feel like Cartman waiting for the Wii

Wasn't Ichiro's posting fee 13M, not 11M? That site just reeks of credibility.