nilodnayr

Right on the money... Except of course for the part about not duplicating his MVP numbers...infact the past two seasons Miggy has had better OPS than his MVP season.

no thanks. Arod would be a difference make at SS. Arod in 2005: 321/421/610 Tejada in 2005: 304/349/515 Not even close! And to think, Arod is younger than Tejada. If you could get Arod (and he's willing to play SS) for Prior and another player...I'd jump at that deal. And to get specific about AROD's contract, this is how much he is owed by the yanks from here on out 06: 10.43 07: 12.43 08: 12.43 09: 12.43 10: 12.43 11: 4.88 12: 4.88 13: 4.88 14: 4.88 15: 4.88 16: 4.88 17: 4.88 18: 4.88 19: 4.88 20: 4.88 11-20 are deferred payments, no longer under contract. Deferred payments were originally to be paid at 3% interest but were later reduced to an undisclosed rate, I assumed 2%.

But you also have to consider this: Tejada- 12 million. Prior- 3.5 million. Even if Tejada is a more valuable player, which I would debate, the price tag makes Prior a better value for ability. I've been away for a while, but how do we know Prior will make 3.5 in arbi? And would we be responsible for Tejadas signing bonus? Ignorning the signing bonus, I would have to believe that Prior wont be significantly cheaper than Miggy over the life of miggys contract (due to the fact that prior is a FA the year before miggy becomes one again). I assume that if healthy, prior will break Sori's arbi record and get boku bucks in free agency. I rarely stray from the general thinking of many vets on this board, but I think with the right prospects thrown in, this could be a good deal for the cubs. I mainly attribute that to the fact that I think I like Erik Bedard about a million times more than anyone else here. And the fact that I've resigned that we have "solved" our OF problem. I think Bedard can be a pretty good pitcher, under a non-Larry Rothschild pitching coach. Which is a problem if we were to acquire him. I would absolutely require Hayden Penn and would throw in Hill to get Markakis (who is at least one level higher IMO prospect-wise).

Bring back Sosa to platoon w/ Jones. ;) Sosa's 2005 vs lefties - .288 .370 .471 2004 - .253 .393 .442 2002-2004 - .293 .402 .497 (probably irrelevent since he's fallen off the cliff). Jones at $5m and Sosa at $1m could give you 825-875 OPS at relatively fair cost. But of course, that couldn't happen given the messy divorce and baggage. There are good options out there...craig monroe, Xavier Nady, Ro White if he cant find a starting job, etc.

ehh, im not sure how much i buy into day/night splits. However, save 2003, hes had some nice grass/turf splits.

On the plus side, if properly used in a platoon, JJ can produce significantly better than his overall numbers suggest. Here are his career OPS vs righties: 1999:814 2000:817 2001:794 2002:952 2003:834 2004:775 2005:814 We currently don't have anyone for him to platoon with, but there are plenty of 4th OF righties out there who can mash lefties that we could pick up. That platoon would improve our production in RF by about 50 OPS, which is still nowhere near enough. Accepting the rockies offer of Bigbie for Welly and platooning him would have been a much better option.

As opposed to the great shortstops weve had. And what a horrible reason to not want to improve your team. Trading ARam for Tejada would not improve the team noticeably. Their offensive numbers are similar enough that it would be a wash, and the same problems would remain. Acquiring Tejada is only an impact move if Lee and Aramis are still on the team. Not if you get back Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis with Tejada. I'd rather keep Tejada than trade him for Manny. Ramirez is still owed 20 million per, is a lot older than Tejada or ARam, and I'm not convinced he'd be any less of a malcontent in Chicago. You might get Boston to send some cash if it were a straight up Manny-Tejada swap, but not if they include Youkilis. Read the first post in the thread.

As opposed to the great shortstops weve had. And what a horrible reason to not want to improve your team. Trading ARam for Tejada would not improve the team noticeably. Their offensive numbers are similar enough that it would be a wash, and the same problems would remain. Acquiring Tejada is only an impact move if Lee and Aramis are still on the team. Not if you get back Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis with Tejada. That be a genius move!!!

As opposed to the great shortstops weve had. And what a horrible reason to not want to improve your team.

Absolutely, there were many threads on this a few months ago. Look at what the brewers did with Sexson. That has to be one of the top 5 worst fleecings ever. Especially when you consider that Sexson played about a month with Arizona. Even if you dont consider that and have sexson put up his usual mashing, its still an organization changing move.

Absolutely, there were many threads on this a few months ago. Look at what the brewers did with Sexson.

Meh, Mora will be 34 next year, and Aram > Tejada, so I don't think that's terrible for them. Aram > Tejada Based on? Please factor defense, attitude and durability into your criteria. Better offensive production that isn't made up by defense, similar contract, and most importantly Ramirez is several years younger. Tejada career - .338/.477/.815 ARam career - .329/.481/.810 Offensive production similar. That said I not sure I'd rank a 27 year old 3B who averages 142 games played a year over a 30 year old SS who average 162 games played a year with a MVP trophy on his mantle and who by all accounts I've read is considered a "gamer and team leader." Not a slam at ARam (I hope his conditioning "program" pays off) just kudos to Mr. Tejada. Those career numbers are very misleading since Tejada has 2 more prime seasons under his belt. Ramirez is the better offensive player. And if we are considering attitude and what not, wouldn't Tejada's attempts to be traded cast a negative against his character? No, I would never consider wanting to win a character flaw. Would you consider greed? Do you think he realistically saw the O's winning when he signed with them? Do you think any player who signs with an AL east team not from Boston or NY really thinks they are going to win? The last three years from ages 25-27 Ramirez has put up the following lines 272/324/465 318/373/578 302/358/568 The last three years from ages 27-29 Tejada has put up the following lines 278/336/472 311/360/534 304/349/515 Heck, ARAM has had 3 (of his 5 full years) where hes outproduced Tejadas MVP season. Two of which he significantly outproduced it (the last two years). To be fair, Miggy has outproduced his MVP season the last two years as well, but nowhere near the margin ARAM has. Considering that ARAM is locked up through his prime for less money than tejada after his prime, I dont think anyone can say that Tejada for ARAM is a lopsided deal. Plus, Mora is about to become extremely more expensive, whereas Cedeno will be extremely cheap for many years.

Not even God can get Dusty to take Neifi out of the lineup? I'll be damned. God wants JHJR to play second base.

Why do you think the Rangers get screwed? Ohh, and I had no clue what to title the thread...I think the God reference might have derailed my point just a bit. Walker~Wilkerson (as a corner OF/1b) when taking into consideration salaries and relative production from the position Mench is a sub 800 road OPS LF, if anything Williams, Patterson, Welly >> than Mench. The Rangers have a surplus of OF and lack of pitching and MI (I think the Derosa signing means that they don't have 100% confidence in Kinsler just yet).

I'm normally not an outlandish trade idea person, but for some reaosn this popped into my head and in my opinion looks pretty darn good for all teams involved. Just wanted to throw it out there for reactions... Cubs get: Manny, Miggy, Youkilis Cubs give up: Aram, Pie, Cedeno, Walker, Williams, Patterson, Welly, Novoa Rangers get: Williams, Walker, Welly, Patterson Rangers give up: Wilkerson, Mench Os get: Aram, Cedeno, Novoa, decent pitching prospect from the Bosox Os give up: Miggy, Mora Bosox get: Mora, Wilkerson, Mench, Pie Bosox give up: Manny, Youkilis

Maybe it's just me but that blurb reads like it's Houston that might go after Tejada/Abreu, not the Rangers. Yes, you are correct.

Ehh, 2005 is the only year he was impressive on the road, I'd be weary of his splits. Plus, hes basically a secondbaseman playing shortstop. Aren't their plans right now to move Young to second and slot Kinsler in at short?

I think there are two main reasons for pitchers to give mazzone a bad wrap. First of all, mazzone's biggest strength is pitch selection. He gets the most out of his pitchers by focusing them on certain pitches and having them use those pitches in the correct situations. In essence, he calls a great game. Basically think of how dusty uses his players and then think the opposite. Pitchers have egos and don't like being told to scap a pitch that they want to develope or throw a curve in this situation, when they want to throw a splitter, etc. Secondly, to expand on the ego part, pitchers want THEMSELVES to be the reason they are good. They don't want to attribute their success only to mazzone. I'm sure there are some legitimate reasons why a pitcher might not like mazzone, but the numbers don't lie, he makes pitchers better.

Shhhh, your blowing the cover!!!

I would doubt Daniels would refuse to have a conversation about Wilk, with that crowded OF he has. He saw a great opportunity and jumped at it, but that doesn't mean he won't turn around an deal him for a lot more than Sori was worth.

I think he's done a good job so far this offseason, but he did an even better job last year. He went against the grain and traded Lee for Podsednik and Vizcaino, then used the money saved in that trade to acquire AJ Pierzynski, Dustin Hermanson and Tadahito Iguchi. He chose not to re-sign Magglio Ordonez. He signed the World Series MVP Jermaine Dye, made a midseason trade for Jeff Blum who hit the game-winning home run in game 3 of the World Series, and most overlooked, picked up Bobby Jenks and turned him into a reliever. He also gave a chance in ST to nobodies like Pablo Ozuna and Chris Widger who contributed much yet accounted for very little payroll. And he won without having to trade his best pitching prospect, Brandon McCarthy, or his best position playing prospect, Brian Anderson. All on a $75 million payroll. You watching Hendry? Ohh how hindsight is twenty-twenty

this is not new news

I'll see you bid and raise two bad contracts unfortunately for those scenarios the Os don't have any bad contracts. They might want to get out of Lopez now, but thats only 8.5M for one year. Which isnt a bad deal at all anymore, since he will be used properly.

The problem is they would want Prior or Zambrano. And that is for starters Tejada is the real deal and has a decent contract. The ironc thing is that LA has the prospects and with Lowe perhaps the starting pitching to maybe swing the deal. But now they have the 13 million dollar man at SS. I completely agree with everything you have said, the conversation begins and ends at prior/z.

Ohh, I couldnt disagree more. Just because Renteria was one of last years hottest free agents doesnt mean hes good. Id rather take last years hottest player than hottest free agent. Now don't get me wrong, Renteria isn't a bad player. Hes is a bad player for 10M, but hes a good player for 6M. However, that is completely wiped out by giving up Marte. Yes, he was the top prospect going into 2005. And what did Renteria do? Continued to slide. Now some of that can be attributed to playing in the AL East, but still, he is not going to replicate his miracle 2003 season, and now that hes another year away from it, those thinking so are foolish. Outside of 2003, he only has one season with OPS over 803. His last two years hitting in the low to mid 700s is right about where you can project him to be at. Now thats not bad, but he most likely wont crack the top 10 shortstops (he hasnt for the last two years). Hes alright defensively, despite the gold glove, not gold glove material. Not bad, but just alright. To call Renteria a "great SS" is a complete mis-statement. He is an alright shortstop. Now to call Marte a great prospect is right on, I wouldn't consider him the best, but among the greats. He moved up to AAA in 2005 and repeated his numbers from 2004. He just turned 22 and is nearly ML ready. There have been rumblings that Marte was less than enthused to move off of 3b, but if Chipper is so selfless, as evidenced by him reworking his contract, then why couldn't he move off 3b.