nilodnayr

Umm, theres no way in Hell Angelos and his obsession to shun anything that smells like an injury will take Prior and his loose shoulder.

Can some one tell me why people have recently converted into the Piniella camp? What information has changed your mind?

Piniella was not my first choice. But I'll give him a chance. Of course if the Cubs pull a 180 next season the stat monkee's will be hard at work spinning the fact that Lou deserve's no credit whatsoever. Stat monkees? Are you trying to get banned? Misspelling aside, that's hardly the most offensive thing I've ever read about statheads on here. Its a no no to label groups of people. Might have been before your time, but a very active poster was banned for doing that (among many other no nos). Although at least he didn't call us stat macacas :) And seriously, I sing all my own songs.

Not really. Merchandise revenue is shared nearly equally among the teams, so there's little merchandising revenue to be gained. The only marginal revenue oppornunities are higher TV ratings or the notion that a high profile signing will support higher ticket prices. Would the Cubs get money from broadcasting games in Japan? International TV revenue is split equally among the teams like merchandise revenue is. So, the yanks and mariners only make money with Japanese billboard ads in the stadium? If thats it, then the cubs wouldn't get any appreciable extra revenue from Matsazuka.

i would argue that a salary floor would be more effective, but neither would be particularly good (or bad) for baseball. I've often thought the same, but I think you would see some ridiculous contracts. What if the salary floor was, say, $40 million. What would the Marlins have done this year? Be forced not to play promising youngsters? Give artificial raises to people? Sign some aging vet to a ludicrous contract? If the MLB just enforced the rules regarding allocating revenue sharing into the organization to improve it, the inequity probably would be much relieved. Basically, let the yankees pay the bonuses so you can draft high end players in the draft and/or create Latin American complexes to siphon that cheap talent. Thats the easiest and best way to build a competitive organization. Be specific and force teams who make money on revenue sharing to spend 75% on either of those options. AND HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.

Yes Vance, all part of the brillian Adam Dunn scheme. Dempters is and will be much better as a starter than as reliever. His biggest issues are walks, which are magnified when pitching single innings at a time. The starter market continues to go crazy. Case in point, the Twins just picked up Carlos Silva's option for 4M, and it was actually a decent move!!!! If you are a GM and you can sign a shlub for the standard 3/21 or trade for Dempster and his 2/10.5, you'll seriously consider Dempster. Usually, the third year of those deals are big losers, so the fact that Dempster is only under contract for 2 is a big deal that provides a lot of flexibility. Dempster and Murton for Dunn!!!

Has anyone ever rated his pitches on a 70/20 scale?

Its hard for me to tell too, but thats because I don't see color. Everyone is American to me. I only know I'm white because I can catch a cab and belong to an all white country club. Who's your NFL team then? It can't be the Bears. Nice * 2. TT, you are correct, the B.E.A.R.S. are not my favorite NFL team, I do not like the Bengals, Eagles, Atlanta, Ravens, or Saints. My favorite team is Chicago.

Its hard for me to tell too, but thats because I don't see color. Everyone is American to me. I only know I'm white because I can catch a cab and belong to an all white country club.

Isn't he black? Well, not really black, but african-american.

I'd rather he work on trying to un-screw up our future hitters in the minors. Edit: Assuming we ever have any.

As per your request nilodnayr: 2005: White Sox (9) vs Astros (11) 2004: Red Sox (1) vs Cardinals (1) 2003: Marlins (8) vs Yankees (3) 2002: Angels (4) vs Giants (3) 2001: DBacks (3) vs Yankees (5) My internet is currently shady at best, so I apologize for not taking initiative, but could some one provide this for all playoff teams, not just WS opponents? We all know that once you make it to the playoffs pitching is more important. However, looking at just the WS teams as a proxy, it looks like that save 05, hitting is just as important as pitching.

"Was" is the operative word. Over the past 3 years hes had a half a season of being a quality pitcher, yet is going to get like 10M a year. Signing a top tier starter should be priority #1 this offseason, and IMO there are really only 3 options, not 4.

I don't see how his slugging is trending downward. Obviously he had a horrendous two month span that caused his lower numbers this year, but the difference between '04 and '05 is made up in the difference in AVG, as evidenced by his IsoP(.303 in '04, .293 in '05) in those years. Is it possible he was or is injured? Dunn for Prior? Dunn and Kearns are EXTREMELY close, not tattoo your initials on his leg close, but supposedly they still talked every day on the phone after the trade. Just so happens that when they were separated, both had horrible months. I say bring them back together in cubbie blue and let them do what they do best, walk and smack the crap out of the ball.

C - Barrett - $4.00M (under contract) 1B - Lee - $13.00M (under contract) 2B - Vidro - $7.50M (under contract) 3B - Ramirez - $13.00M (4 yr/$52 mil extension $13 mil per) SS - Theriot - $.35M (less than 3 years of service) LF - Dunn - $10.50M (under contract) CF - Church - $.50M (less than 3 years of service) RF - Kearns - $4.00M (estimate $2.15M raise) C - Soto $.35M (less than 3 years of service) IF - Fontenot - $0.35M (less than 3 years of service) IF - Cedeno - $.50M (less than 3 years of service) OF - Pagan - $0.35M (less than 3 years of service) OF - Bynum - $0.35M (less than 3 years of service) SP - Zambrano - $13.0M (give him the Oswalt deal) SP - Matsuzaka - $10M (3 yr./$30 mil. with 3 years of options) SP - Hill - $0.50M (less than 3 years of service - under control) SP - Prior - $4.20M (estimate $0.55M raise) SP - Miller - $2.00M RP - Howry - $4.00M (under contract) RP - Wuertz - $0.50M ( less than 3 years of service) RP - Ohman - $1.00M (estimate $0.39M raise) RP - Eyre - $3.50M (under contract) RP - Wood $1m base plus up to $5 mil. in incentives 50,60,70,100,150 IP RP - Aardsma - $0.35M (less than 3 years of service) RP - Novoa - $0.35M (less than 3 years of service) ~$96M -Deal Jones and Marshall for Church, Kearns, Vidro -Sign Matsuzaka, posting 30M (not attributed to payroll contraints, trust me, we'll make it back in marketing) -Deal Dempster and Murton for Dunn -Trade Izturis to whomever for a bucket of balls (a medium sized bucket, but we have to return the bucket) -The bench is weak, but not horrible if used properly, and theres plenty of room left over to upgrade if desired. Lineup Theriot Church Lee Dunn ARam Barrett Kearns Vidro Thats a 350+ OBP from each position with just a teeny bit of power. And a Nasty top 3 rotation for the playoffs. Suck it Beane.

All of this Dunn isn't worth it/Murton is a God talk is all based off of 2 months worth of stats. Murton was insane in August and September and Dunn was horrible. Just wanted to point that out to everyone.

If he hits .260 is like saying if Murton hits 50 HRs it will be a monster season. Dunn has only hit .260 once as a full-time player. Dunn for Jones - great. Dunn for Jones plus a pitching prospect - maybe. Dunn for Hill or Prior - no way. No its not, Dunn has hit 260 in his career, Murton has not hit 17 HRs in a season, let alone 50. Don't be ridiculous. He's hit .260 only once as a regular. I don't think Murton will ever hit 50 HRs, but I doubt Dunn will hit .260 again either. There were many posts about ARam not hustling, but at least he doesn't look like a giant Sequoia out in LF. Dunn is a total mope with a lousy BA and lousy defense who gives you 3 possibilities at the plate: HR, BB, or K. That being said I stand by my statement that if the Cubs can get him cheaply okay, but I wouldn't offer much. Actually, I think the whole discussion is moot since Cincy wouldn't trade him to a division rival anymore than the Cubs would trade someone like Prior to a division rival. Facing Dunn or Prior could come back to haunt their original teams for the next decade. I said hes hit 260 in his career, not over the course of his career.

first off, i don't know why you wouldn't want wood back at a reasonable, incentive-laden deal. it's a virtual no risk/high reward situation. i'm all for those. i agree with adding zito, but there were two train wrecks on this team last season, pitching and offense. pitching is much more important than offense, so an appropriate amount more should be spent on it. Signing Wood = $20 million bullpen. No thanks. I also don't believe we'll contend without major upgrades to the offense. it's not wood's fault that hendry overspent last offseason. i think wood would be effective and cheap as a closer, personally. as far as offense, well, i guess you just won't listen to reason. i've made clear that it's pretty common for a below average offense to make the postseason when accompanied by a very good pitching staff. i see no reason why our aim should simply be to make both offense and pitching merely average when we could make our staff very above average and make the postseason. Actually, you've shown the ERA figures from the WS teams, but it would help your case if you showed all playoff teams rank in ERA and Runs Scored. I'm not saying its going to prove or disprove your point, but it would be more appropriate for the case you are trying to make.

The FA class is very weak for 3b, and there are no obvious trade candidates. The yanks need pitching, but they should be able to get pitching AND a 3b for ARod. They don't need a good offensive 3B. Sheffield likely won't be back and, if you trade ARod, you still have these players under contract for 2007: CF Damon SS Jeter RF Abreu 1B Giambi LF Matsui C Posada 2B Cano So realistically, all they would need are #8 and #9 hitters one of which would be a DH meaning they can get anybody to hit there. The Yankees need pitching. That should be their primary and secondary focus this offseason. Sure, the yanks don't NEED any more players that can hit the ball, but thats besides the point. We are talking about one of the top 3 offensive players in the league here, they will be able to ask for and get a 3B and a pitcher for him unless the pitcher's name is C. Zambrano, Santana, Oswalt, Carpenter or the like. ARod is a reasonably priced perennial MVP candidate, if its just going to take pitching, its going to have to be a reasonably priced Cy Young candidate. Which isn't going to happen. Couldn't the Yankees get a couple solid pitchers in return instead of one Cy Young pitcher? Maybe in a three-way deal? What team can afford to trade their #2 and #3 starters? And remember, the Yankees pitching is subpar, but its not because of depth, its because of top end talent. Consider who will be getting bumped from the rotation and if the guy they would be acquiring would be significantly better than him.

The FA class is very weak for 3b, and there are no obvious trade candidates. The yanks need pitching, but they should be able to get pitching AND a 3b for ARod. They don't need a good offensive 3B. Sheffield likely won't be back and, if you trade ARod, you still have these players under contract for 2007: CF Damon SS Jeter RF Abreu 1B Giambi LF Matsui C Posada 2B Cano So realistically, all they would need are #8 and #9 hitters one of which would be a DH meaning they can get anybody to hit there. The Yankees need pitching. That should be their primary and secondary focus this offseason. Sure, the yanks don't NEED any more players that can hit the ball, but thats besides the point. We are talking about one of the top 3 offensive players in the league here, they will be able to ask for and get a 3B and a pitcher for him unless the pitcher's name is C. Zambrano, Santana, Oswalt, Carpenter or the like. ARod is a reasonably priced perennial MVP candidate, if its just going to take pitching, its going to have to be a reasonably priced Cy Young candidate. Which isn't going to happen.

I have no idea what the giants should do, but I know it shouldnt be that. But thats what happens when you build a team full of AARP members. At somepoint you have to blow it up and completely rebuild.

I think the baseball team that employs him will be able to name their price rather than the other way around. He's a broken down player who is only continuing for his own personal goals. Anaheim seems like a decent fit. Oakland would to if it weren't for Thomas. I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas priced himself out of Oakland this season. I recall reading somewhere that Beane said Thomas was worth re-signing, even though he'd be more expensive... Plus its not like Bonds is going to be willing to sign for league minimum.

Who the manager is should have no bearing on whether or not the Cubs get ARod. I think he means regardnig ARods waiving of the no trade clause.

The FA class is very weak for 3b, and there are no obvious trade candidates. The yanks need pitching, but they should be able to get pitching AND a 3b for ARod.

That's a very good start to how the deal would go. IMO, the Rangers would have to give a little more to the Yankees to make it work. That deal all hinges on how much the Rangers value Prior at this point. Except Blalock can't hit his way out of a paper bag on the road, hell he couldnt even do it at home this year. The whitesox offer mentioned above is much more beneficial to the yanks and much more plausible. That'd be one hell of a middle of the order.