nilodnayr

You can say that again, Im crying from laughing so hard. Its as if it were written by Baby Kangaroo Tribiani.

Hairstons hurt too, he hasnt played in over a week.

Way too much money. I would offer him 2.5 to 4 mil with incentives. He has a lot to prove, and this brief stint from the DL doesn't do it for me. I will go on record as saying there's no way he signs that cheap. The only question about him is health. He's shown since he's come back from the DL that he can perform. Somebody, whether its the Cubs or not, will guarantee him five million. That I am sure of, and I'd probably put the figure closer to seven million. I think the Cubs have a better chance of getting him at five than any other team would. It's not a question of whether he still has the skills; it's a question of whether he can stay healthy. The history of FA signings indicate there's no way that Nomar signs for less than five. Look at the contracts that have been handed out to players over the years. No way Nomar signs for less than five. If the Cubs get him for five, fine. If somebody wants to guarantee him 7, God bless em. I hope it's not the Cubs. He still has yet to play a full season in a Cub uniform. If you think about what you can get for seven million, hes still not a bad deal at all. The higher the guaranteed salary just means the more he has to produce to get to his incentives. And frankly, the difference between a 5M nomar and a 7M Nomar is replacing neifi with cedeno and macias with fontenot. We would hope that he would stay healthy and reach his incentives and could really be the difference maker (he could have been this year). And if he does reach the incentives then his bas guaranteed salary really doesnt matter. If he gets injured and doesnt play, then that extra 2M we would lose would not be the difference maker.

I think Don Baylor (ok maybe not Baylor, but some one on the cubs before Dusty) thought Corey could lead off, as evidenced by those 2002 splits. About half of his 2001 ABs were in the 1 or 2 hole.

You do not have to show that link. If a corporation repeatedly misses earnings estimates, but each time they do so there is a seemingly innocent reason why, do we say it's a healthy company. The trend is your friend. Anybody who was genuinely surprised that Nomar suffered a serious injury in 2005 should be ashamed of themselves. Then you cannot exclude Prior from your analysis. You can't call Prior's elbow "flukish" because he has a history as well. Tearing your muscle running is a bit different than a foreign object hitting and breaking your arm. Does Nomar have a history of groin problems? Muscle problems? Conditioning problems? If his achillies was the problem, Id say fine, that is somewhat expected. Anybody who genuinely expected Nomar to suffer a serious injury in 2005 not related to his achilies is ridiculous.

Was there a decree brought down by this website to soften any criticism of Hendry in an attempt to get him to appear in an Q&A forum? If so, I apologize. If not, can we stop giving the guy a free pass? Was there a decree brought down by this webite that youre the only one who can have an opinon? If you want to have a discussion about this dont start your post off by being a jerk. By "really the only bad thing hes done" I meant the only significant bad thing hes done. This year I was not happy with getting rid of farns (although this was his walk year, and it looks like novoa could be promising in middle relief) and a fwe other moves but nothing anywhere near the significance of Baker. Wins are not a useless to stat to judge a GM, but to ONLY judge a GM on wins is ignorant. Injuries are something that in most cases the GM does not have control over. A GM does his best to prepare his team in case of injuries but you cant have 6 Aces and allstars as backups. Even with wood out this team is much different with Nomar. I would argue that if generally healthy (and without baker) this IS a team that can win 90+ games not only now but in the forseeable future. I would agree with most of that. However, for every Preston Wilson talk, there are the aquisitions of DLee, Murton, JHJR. I would agree, resigning Alfonseca regardless of the raise, was a bad idea (although I dont know how huge a raise of less than 1M can be). But then again in 2004 he had an excellent year, you never know with the pen. Exactly the type of insignificant beef that I am talking about. This also brings baker into play because Macias is a fine 25th man if used properly. Same thing, and Neifi isnt a bad backup, late inning defensive replacement. It just so happened that he was forced into the role of starter for which he is not adequate. It was bad, but with Pie, Murton, Dubois knocking on the door, it was an ok, lets bite the bullet on OF this year and rely on our amazing infield offense to get us through this year. Unfortunately Nomar got hurt. Seemed like more of a nostalgic/jersey selling move at the time...still does. I'd bet there was a good amount of influence from above on that decision. Plus that was "extra money" that the trib gave him. Partly a Hendry, partly a Baker problem. As stated above, although its the general feeling that Hendry doesnt value a walk, his recent acquisitions prove otherwise.

Well, Corey Patterson was rushed and look what it did for him. Having two managers who were complete morons in Baylor and Baker didn't do him any favors either, though. i dont think corey was rushed. he did better a few years ago when he first came up than he has done the past few years. his unwillingness to learn the strike zone, not swing at unittable pitches (especially high fastballs) and not try to hit a home run every ab has been his downfall imo. i agree about baker & baylor not helping matters. i wonder what he could have been (will be) for a team like the braves or the nationals. it amazes me that guys like the farns are head cases in chicago and go on to dominate for other teams. i guess there is a reason why the braves have won the division 14 years in a row but i wish the cubs could find some of that mojo with their young players. You can't just simply look at one half of 2003 and say "well, he's done ok since he's been up." No. He hasn't. Take away half of 2003 and he's been a dissapointment no matter how you look at it. He should have learned that strike zone in the minors. He should have had that "you can hit 40 home runs" mentality taken from him in the minors. He should have stood for hours at the plate taking BP, getting a fine every time he swung at an eye-high fastball. He didn't. He was simply not ready for the majors and they brought him up anyway. I agree with you when you say Murton and Cedeno are ready. They are. Pie isn't and we dont want him to turn into Corey 2.0. i agree that corey has been a dissapointment but his 03 & 04 seasons were decent. the talent is there but either he is too stubborn or he hasn't gotten the coaching he needed in the majors. looking at his minor leage stats i guess he was rushed to the majors. i didnt remember he only had 2 full seasons before getting called up. i also agree that pie isnt ready yet but if he tears up AA next year why not give him a shot in 07? same with with ep. Well numbers really only tell part of the story. We know from Coreys and Pies approach that they werent/arent ready, despite production. Corey was groomed as a power hitter in the minors and then expected to lead off in the majors that was the big blunder by the cubs. Felix has the same walk rate as corey, he definitely needs some more development

There is one major thing wrong with this team. Let's call him "Johnny B". Not only has Hendry not considered throwing Johnny B out on his ample posterior, he has actually given him the players HE likes, to the detriment of the team. A very good factor to judge Hendry by is if Neifi and/or Macias are back on this team next year. That should tell you who is in charge, or at the very least what his philosophy is. Hendry is responsible for Baker. Yes, he's not responsible for the day to day decisions Baker makes, but he IS responsble for the players that he gives Dusty, and he is responsible if Dusty keeps failing and costing this team wins. To me, it would make Hendry look stronger, not weaker, if he fired Baker even though Hendry was the guy who brought him in. It would mean he's willing to admit his mistake and cut his losses while he still can. Now thats a good argument against Hendry, and IMO really the only bad thing hes done (unfortunately its quite significant). Using wins is pretty useless either way because we know that if this team was healthy in 2004/5 they would have won the wildcard. Make up of the team, as well as the rest of the organization and current and future budget management have all improved under Hendry.

Chipper was the first selection in the 1990 draft, spent rookie ball plus three years of excelling in the minors and put up over 900 OPS in his AAA year. He had the talent and production. Andruw was a 17 year old in rookie ball, did well, put up 900 OPS the next year in low A, and the next year started in high A, absolutely destroyed the leauge, moved up to AA, destroyed the league even more, spent a few weeks in AAA and destroyed the league even more and was then called up where he didnt do well but showed some power. Spent the whole next year in the majors and put up probably about average numbers for a CF. IMO, the braves could have had him spend another year in the minors they could have had him another year for cheap, but in the minors he showed he could hit in the majors. Marcus Giles destroyed rookie ball, the next year destroyed low A, the next year destroyed high A, the next year nearly destroyed AA, put up similar numbers the next year in AAA and was brought up midseason and played extremely well (at age 23). As mentioned before Furcal didnt have as great of offensive production in the minors, although thats really a result of having no power. He had very good averaqe and was stealing nearly a base a game. And well, his defense speaks for itself and thats all you can ask for in a shortstop. IMO, he too was rushed and they could have kept him in the minors for another year and kept him cheaply. Of the braves you mentioned, 2 were signed out of HS, and 2 were international players signed at 16. Matt Murton was signed from G-tech. Started low A in Boston at 21 and struggled a bit. The next year at high A he was doing pretty well until he was traded in the Nomar deal where he struggled at Daytona. And, well we all know about his year this year. If anything hes been moved along quickly. Cedeno, well he moved along at basically a level a year and just plain sucked offensively until Hendry added him to the 40 man and he broke out in west tenn. Next year he will be on the ML team. They didnt rush him because frankly he showed little promise until last year. Pie has constantly been the youngest player in his league while being moved a level a year. There was talk that he most likely would have come up this year (although he wasnt ready, look at his k/bb) to replace patterson. EPatt was signed as a 22 yr old out of G-tech as well. In his first year of professional baseball he destroyed low A and was called up for the last few weeks of the diamondjaxx run. No way hes close to ready after only one year in low A. Of the cubs you mentioned 2 were signed out of college and both have skipped levels, 2 were international players signed at 17, neither produced until last year and both were supposed to spend (and cedeno did) half a year in the majors this year. Basically the players you mentioned considering circumstances have been treated about the same by the two clubs. Maybe the cubs have been a bit slow on Pie, but we all know that he is not ready. We all love him and hes done well, but look at his minor league numbers and compare them to Andruws. I whole-heartedly disagree with your statment that basically says young guys care about playing the game and older players dont. If you have young talent its better to develope it so it can reach its potential and not fizzle out. Baseball experience is not just baseball experience. There are certain things you learn in the minors and need to gradually experience better competition rather than just being thrown into the fire as you stated.

I think the sox will stick with Uribe. Although hes struggled most of the year (not like everyone else hasnt sucked offensively), hes been absolutely on fire recently, combine that with his monster 2004 year and hes not a bad option for 2.5ish million. Even for this year hes had average offensive production for AL Shortstops. And in 2004 the only better AL shortstops than him were Miggy, Guillen, and Young. I wouldnt get rid of him just yet.

"Well, we sit Barrett -- even though he's healthy -- along with Murton and Nomar and we play Patterson, Blanco, Hairston and Macias!" Hairston - LF Perez - SS Lee - 1B Burnitz - RF Walker - 2B Macias - 3B Patterson - CF Blanco - C I think Baker has already used that lineup. :x Last week when I was at the game it was the same players, but Neifi and Macias were at the top of the order! :pukel:

That article tells me that that having a great arm in the OF is way overrated.

I didn't even realize Michaels was that good. UK has been all over Michaels for a while (it has been you, right? I know someone here has). He has put up some surprising numbers vs lefties, but I dont see why the Phils would let him go. I guess 1.2M or so that hed make next year would be a decent chunk for a 4th OF, but if they are keeping Lofton he will be very useful to platoon. Victorino is a switch hitter, but has been used exclusively as a LHB this year and the majority of his stint with SD in 2003, so he probably wont be a good platoon partner with Lofton. But if they could get some one decent for Michaels, theyd listen. I dont know if theyd be interested in Rusch and his tendency to give up the long ball. Plus who would they drop from the rotation? Not that they have a ton of great starters, but they have enough to fill a rotation. But with Wolf, Leiber, Lidle signed and Padilla, Myers arbi eligible and Tejada looking to have secured himself a good chance at being in the 2006 rotation, they are one man up, rather than one man short. IMO Padilla gets released.

Add another team that's probably ahead of the Cubs in the Giles sweepstakes. I got SD, LA, Anaheim, Houston, St. Louis, Boston and Atlanta for starters. Yeah, will all the tons of money the braves will have available next year they will most likely want to bench Francouer and sign Giles just to make him happy. :roll: And thats no news that Brian wants to play with Marcus, its been reported since the beginning of the year and probably before then.

I might have a few extra, if anyone is interested in meeting me at Wrigley, let me know.

Ouch for Atlanta: right as Hampton's contract bumps up, he might be slated for Tommy John surgery. insurance covers most of it This is very interesting. Will they use that money and now spend it on Furcal. Im iffy on Hunter especially at 10-12M. We can talk about his production not living up to his salary but isnt corey making $2.8 this year and slanted for more next year. He aint a bargain either. The one black hole is that we dont know the insurance policies but it is my understanding that in general, insurance companies will not insure pitchers contracts for over 3 (sometimes 4) years. Thats why most of the contracts for pitchers (especially last offseason) were 3 year contracts. Anything past that is uninsurable as it becomes impossible to assess the injury risk as well as usually backloaded contracts, so more liability. More likely than not, 2006 being the 6th year of his contract, the braves are eating it all should be have to have TJS.

The braves would have to pick up an extremely significant portion of his salary. Hes owed 17M with a 5M buyout. Thats a ton of money. Hes having a great season and all but for an injury risk thats way too much. If Chippers going to be playing left why dont the braves just put him in left, Andruw in center, francouer in right with langerhans as the all purpose OF backup and use and infield of marte, betemit, giles and laroache/franco.

Wouldn't he need manager class? Baby steps, UB, baby steps

Yay, a link to a rare thread started by nilo! Sword, I think you hit in on the head that the reason this board (and site :D ) has proliferated is because it is a haven for those fed up with the garbage out there on the web. The mods really are to thank for keeping it that way (they are our pooper scoopers :P ). However, I think this site can (and has) withstood an influx of newbies throughout its existence, for good and bad. I was a late arrival here from ESPN and cant imagine my life without it. Since then its only grown exponentially. Really the sky is the limit and the more the better! If a poster joins to just sell us cubs ear radios....he gone! Jeez, I need to stop watching the sox.

Whats the link for the TV deals. Itd be interesting to compare the cubsa nd the sox. I remember reading something a year or so ago that said on the books the sox make significantly more than the cubs through WGN. Of course tahts funny money that the cubs are keeping to not have to pay as much in revenue sharing, but still itd be interesting to see. As well as the Mariners/Yankees TV deals in Japan.

Tony Clark deserves honorable mention.

Heck, the diamond backs are one of the teams that Neifi COULD start for. Although we really wouldnt be trading him would we, unless we sign him in our exclusive period and then trade him.

Agreed Even the Suns announcers agreed.

Is it sucking for anyone else? I'm on cable, it's great! Runner on 3rd, 2 outs. Come on Renyel! I am too, Ill switch computers this one magically lost the bottom windows bar. Well I got to watch that game ending double play in great video :x

Is it sucking for anyone else? I'm on cable, it's great! Runner on 3rd, 2 outs. Come on Renyel! I am too, Ill switch computers this one magically lost the bottom windows bar.