nilodnayr

How many Zitos are they going to sign? I'm sure the 5M they will save on paying Jones instead of Drew is going to solve all of their problems. It makes no sense whatsoever on the Dodgers part.

Not a free agent. He's being posted. I never said he was a FA. The quote said he'd be 1M posting fee and salary. Obviously he has no control over how much hes posted for, but the combination of his talent, the lack of quality 3B on the market and the # of teams that desperately need 3B, he definitely has all the chips in the negoatiations with the highest bidding team. I hope he cashes in.He has one chip: Refuse to sign with the high bidder and play back in Japan. That's something he doesn't want to do. I do think his salary will be a lot higher than that quote. But he won't be negotiating from a position of strength, and I think he'd play MLB ball for the league minimum. He's been waiting for this chance for 5 years. Yes, not signing is his only negotiating chip and yes he wants to play in the MLB moreso than 99.99% of major leaguers, but it would seem like pretty poor relations for the team who wins the bid to not compensate him appropriately. I think the union would severly frown upon that and may even get involved.

I definitely understand the Drew love around here, but what I don't get is why everyone thinks hes available, especially for so little as Jones and pitching prospects (if infact thats what you can call our minor league pitchers in comparison to the Dodgers'). The Dodgers have abou 30M to spend this offseason and have more of a wishlist than any huge need outside of probably another starter.

While this is true, even taking this into consideration their values are still light years apart. Talent, age, salary, years under control...Crawford not only has him beat, but has him demolished in all areas. Plus, its not like the DRays are known to give guys away on the cheap.

Not a free agent. He's being posted. I never said he was a FA. The quote said he'd be 1M posting fee and salary. Obviously he has no control over how much hes posted for, but the combination of his talent, the lack of quality 3B on the market and the # of teams that desperately need 3B, he definitely has all the chips in the negoatiations with the highest bidding team. I hope he cashes in.

Maybe I'm wrong, but to me that sounds like a very weak offer for an established MLB star with a good contract. If the Cubs were shopping Crawford we'd all want something more. I'm not saying that will get it done. But, Tampa needs pitching. They are well stocked with cheap young talent offensively. How many teams have a good, cheap and young front line starter to just give away for an outfielder that is a dime a dozen. At least a dime a dozen in comparison to studly front line starters that make league minimum. How is Pierre's value last offseason the same as Crawford's value this offseason?!?!?

not according to mlb.com. His only action in the majors came with the marlins this year. maybe your thinking of someone else. Your this year=my last year...since we were talking about a deal for Crawford this offseason, I thought we were talking about Nolascos 2006 performance...sorry for the confusion

Holy smokes! Is this guy any good? $1 million is a bargin if he can play. The Cubs could pick him up as a bench guy. That is insane. I hope for Iwamura's sake he holds out for just a bit more...considering if the cubs lock up ARam hes the #1 3B on the market by a lot.

he was repeating at double A and when brought up to triple A for a handfull of starts he stunk. I could be wrong but thats how I remember it at least. He also threw a few balls in the majors.

I don't think they wan't Pie as they have no room for him when he does eventually come up. A Prior, Eyre, Izturis, and Marshall for A-Rod. I wouldn't mind taking a bad contract like Pavano along with it to help the deal. Damon is getting old, Bernie is old, Shefield will be gone and Matsui only has a few years left. I think they'd want Pie in a big way. They might even want Patterson to ship off Cano for more pitching. They need middle relief and starters of course. I would trade Hill/Marshall, Howry and Pie for A-Rod. I don't think they'll want Prior. They probalby want Big Z but they'd have to throw in Tabathia before I would consider it, and I wouldn't give anything else. Every team in the major leagues not named the Devil Rays has room for Pie (there probably are a couple more).

http://www.gothambaseball.com/news/1161579748.php Haven't seen this posted anywhere. I'm assuming by ARod for Prior they mean Prior, Pie, Eyre, Izturis, and some pitching prospects.

Is there a specific date that players are posted, or is it just at the whim of his controlling team?

Nice :o This makes me think that the cubs are not going to go full throttle for Matsuzaka. I think they see Kuroda as the better bet for the money. Typical cubs, being able to acquire the player that will get them over the top, but instead getting the guy that is good but not good enough. At least given my understanding of the FA pitching market which is.... Matsuzaka Zito Schmidt Kuroda We need one of the top 3 to compliment Z, but Hendry will probably go after 4.

I thought he was a FA Bah, I think you're right.

I think the strongest argument against retaining Miller is his health and stuff. He's clearly not the same guy he was with Houston. I really worry that his drop in velocity and recent shoulder surgery are not good omens for his near future. I have more faith in some one like Marshall than Miller. It's my personal preference, but I'd rather not see Wade Miller, Kerry Wood, and Mark Prior getting cumulatively paid more than $10m to build pillow forts in the clubhouse for the entire season. At least guys like Marshall, Guzman, and Ryu are getting paid the major league minimum. If they actually were building pillow forts, it might be worth it. If they are getting haircuts, then no, but pillow forts, yes. Seriously though, I agree with your assessment of Miller. Hes definitely not going to be the guy in Houston. However, he still can be an effective back of the rotation starter. He showed a little Maddux in him towards the end of the season, and assuming he wasn't fully recovered, he can get even better. Marshall definitely has the bigger upside and definitely showed it at times early in the season, but he also showed his inexperience. For 2007, I just don't think hes ready to be in the rotation of a WS hopeful. Marshall is going to win and lose games all by himself, Miller isn't going to win many by himself, but hes probably not going to get blown out much. If they do upgrade the offense significantly, someone like Miller will be more valuable than Marshall.

Anyone know what Godzilla's posting price was?

I would argue that even though a position players play in more number of games, they have less influence on the outcome of those games as a starting pitcher which in total calculates out to a middle of the order hitter equaling the value of a starting pitcher.

What a wasted draft pick. That must have been a pretty weak draft though First round http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/2000/draft/news/2000/06/05/round_1/ All rounds http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/2000/draft/index.html In that draft the Cubs drafted a SS in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th round. they also drafted Dontrell Willis in the 8th round. Was the draft really that bad? There are some pretty good players in the first few rounds. Maybe not the quantity that you would like, but some good quality. First round was weak, but it picks up.

This seems kinda odd to me. If he just lost some arm strength from the time off you would think he could get that back by simply pitching again for a while. If its a mechanicle issue maybe he's been working with the wrong people. I sure hope he can get it back, but Ive never heard of someone losing thier stuff simply from not pitching for a while. Even sitting out a year, Tommy John surgery patients do this all the time and usually regain thier velocity. Then its not a good thing he signed with a team that recently had in its stable probably the largest and best pool of minor league pitching talent the league will see and is currently looking for 3 starters to fill out their ML rotation.

I think this is how the cubs see their rotation currently... 1. Zambrano 2. 3. Hill 4. 5. Miller 6. Prior

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20061017TDY23002.htm Guess they will let him go.

To get back to the thread subject, I don't mean to be too Japan crazy, but the best ARAM replacement would be Akinori Iwamura. I hope to God ARAM re-ups and think he will, but of all other options Iwamura is definitely the best. Anyone have any idea how much his posting fee is going to be? Or even if the Swallows are definitely going to follow through on their promise to post him?

I just wanted to point out that the Brewers shouldn't look at add ANY outfielders even assuming they get rid of Jenkins. With Clark, Hart, Gross, Mench, and Nix they have a very capable, cheap, and developing OF. Heck, Bill Hall may be a full time OF next year. With Sheets, Capuano, Bush, Ohka, Davis, and Villanueva (if needed), they have a very capable rotation. They could use some more BP help, and I know its unpopular for a 4th place team, but I pretty much leave this team alone. With another year of maturation and some full healthy seasons, this team has a chance to compete now and in the future (Gallardo) without many changes.

VORP doesn't do a very good job of distinguishing between durability and hitting at the top of the order. Yeah, it just measures value. The point is that Ichiro gets more value in VORP for reasons that are simply due to the spot in the order he's in. Which do you think is more likely? He's 33 on Sunday and his game is largely tied into footspeed. Get him out of that park and I think .320-.330 is a very safe bet. How do you figure? 2003-2005 there wasn't any difference, and he was significantly better at Safeco last year. He doesn't hit a lot of long shots, so theoretically speaking he would stand to lose some hits moving to a smaller park. However, doesn't VORP take defensive position into consideration? If so then he logged the majority of his time in RF, so if he would have been playing CF all year, wouldn't his VORP have been significantly better?

I was thinking this same thing... Sheets and Willis are probably the only two guys the Cubs could build a 3-way package around to get ARod. Maybe: Brewers get: Veal, Dempster, Izturis and a couple of million $ (for taking Dempster and Izturis off our hands) Yanks get: Sheets and Jones Cubs get: ARod That only saves the Brewers 5M. I see if we have any deal with the yanks, Izturis will be heading there. They are one of the few teams that can (and will) spend 4M on an all defense bench player. The Brewers probably aren't getting enough in that deal. Although Veal is a stud prospect, hes still pretty far away from the majors and a lot can happen in that time. They'll need an additional "sure thing" pitcher (Marshall). Everyone forgets that the Yanks have had just as bad of a recent string of injured pitchers as the cubs have.