CP_414

For the right price I would love to have them both next year. I would offer Sheff 1 year at 8 or 9 Million. I would offer Mussina 2 years at $12 per or 3 years at 10-11 per. A rotation of Z, Mussina, Hill, Padilla, Prior with a 3-4-5 of Lee, Aramis, Sheffield is a good start. Then try to upgrade a middle infiled spot and/or CF.

He has a big head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Bochy Please no Kevin Mench in LF.

I'm no expert on Bochy, but wasn't it reported he wants to hit Giles leadoff next year? I guess he at least recognizes the importance of OBP in the top spots in the lineup and that you don't have to be fast to hit first, if I am right about that report.

In 2001, when the Mariners won a league record 116 games, Piniella was without Griffey (traded to Cincy in the winter of '99), ARod (signed with Texas the winter of 2000), and Johnson (signed in Arizona in '99). He did have Edgar and a washed up Jay Buhner (played in 19 games that season). I'm not a Piniella fan, but lets make sure the facts are straight. He managed one of the best regular season teams of all time and didn't have the big weapons any more. I was clearly talking about the late 90's team. You want to talk 2001, lets do that. We have nowhere near the talent of that team either. His original point was that Piniella has proven he can win with a mix of vets and youth. The obvious point of my sarcastic comment was only when he has great players. In reality anyone is going to win with those teams. If we assemble a team that has the same level of talent as the Griffey, Unit, A-Rod, Buhner, Martinez Mariners or the Ichiro, Edgar, (Juiced up) Boone, Garcia/Moyer/Sele 2001 Mariners we will win if anyone manages, Piniella and Dusty Baker included. In 2001 Ichiro hit .350/.381/.457 Boone hit .331/.372/.578 Edgar hit .306/.423/..543 Olerud had an OBP over .400 Cameron added 25 HR's 3 starters went over 200 IP with sub 4 ERA's in the AL in the "juiced ball era." The Bullpen was one of the best in baseball. How's that for facts? Does anyone think Sweet Lou was the reason why they won 116 games? I don't. I love how when teams win managers are genuises and when they lose they are worthless. MLB managers for the most part are interchangable. Their job is to manage a bullpen and to know how to fill out a lineup card. Amazingly some of them can't do that. If you give any manager great talent, he will win. If you give any manager poor talent, he will lose. Jim Leyland is a sub .500 career manager (another fact), yet this season he is the second coming. Why? Because he has a really talented team. So the bottom line is this: Can Piniella win if we give him a really talented team? Sure. Is he going to be the reason why they win? No way. Do we have a really talented team? Absolutly not. So do I want to spend big money on Piniella who has a reputation of working pitchers like Dusty, has freely admitted on Fox Broadcasts to not being a fan of OBP and not knowing what WHIP is? Heck no!

I don't think Piniella has much support here. My theory on Piniella. He was an awful fit in TB with that kind fo team. Low-payroll and very young, and a terrible team. I know he took the job because he is from the TB area and wanted to be close to his parents I believe. In Seatlle, with a mix of some young guys and established players he was pretty good. The payroll was larger, therefore leading to more opportunity for development and player acquisition. If he got the Cubs job, and the Cubs went out and improved this ballclub I don't think he would do a bad job at all. He proved in Seattle that he can win with this type of team. I don't think you would see terrible results like his TB tenure if he took the Cubs job. It goes back to Hendry getting the players to make this happen though. We have late 90's Griffey, A-Rod, Big Unit, Buhner, and Edgar Martinez? Sweet.

Dusty Baker is a passive Lou Piniella. That's what is wrong with Lou. He freely admitted a few weeks ago to not caring about OBP and not even knowing what WHIP is. He's too old school for the Saber minds here, including myself. He would be the worst possible choice.

I think Brett Favre, Ahmad Carroll, and Vernand Morency decided that game as much as McNabb. Especially Carroll, who was so bad the Packers cut the former 1st round pick the next day.

How did it go?

I'll give it a shot... I’m of the belief payroll will be in the vicinity of 105 Million. We have all seen the rumors that payroll is going to go up. The Cubs have added a variety of revenue streams recently. They saved a bunch of money with midseason trades this year. The new president has said Hendry will get all the financial resources to get it turned around. Hendry himself has said he was told money was no issue when choosing a manager. Here is my $105M Cubs… ___________________ Trade Sean Marshall, Mateo, Will Ohman to Blue Jays for Vernon Wells. The Blue Jays reportedly lost $25M this year. In any trade of Wells I suspect they will want all young pitchers in return. Pitchers who don’t make anything yet. Trade Jacque Jones and $2M (over 2 years) to LA for JD Drew. Take Drew’s whole contract. Add a “B” prospect of needed. Theriot (SS) – 400,000 Murton (LF) – 400,000 Lee (1B) – 13,000,000 Aramis (3B) – 13,500,000 (4@54M) Vernon Wells – (CF) - 5,600,000 Barrett © – 4,500,000 JD Drew (RF) – 11,000,000 (3@ 33M remaining) Mark Loretta (2B) – 4,000,000 (2@8M) Total: $52,400,000 Bench: Cedeno – 400,000 Soto – 400,000 Frank Catalanatto --- $3,500,000 (2 @ 7M) Pagan – 400,000 Moore – 400,000 Fontenot – 400,000 Total: 5,500,000 Rotation: Zambrano –11,000,000 (5@70M--- 11, 13, 15, 15, 16) Schmidt or Mussina 11,000,000 (3@35 --- 11, 12, 12) Vacinte Padilla – 7,000,000 (3@21) Hill – 400,000 Prior – 4,000,000 Total: 32,400,000 Bullpen: Wood (closer) – 2,000,000 base Howry – 4,000,000 Eyre – 3,500,000 Wuertz – 400,000 Aardsma – 400,000 Guzman (long relief) – 400,000 Eat $2M to move Dempster for a decent prospect* Eat $1M to move Izturis for anything Eat #2M to move Jones ($1M in 2007) Insurance covers Rusch Total Bullpen and contracts eaten: 14,700,000 (in 2006) ($1M in 2007) Total Team: $105,000,000 Lineup: 2B Loretta --- Northwestern buddy for new manager Girardi RF Drew 1B D.Lee 3B Ramirez CF Wells LF Murton C Barrett SS Theriot Rotation: Zambrano, Schmidt/Moose, Padilla, Hill, Prior Marmol, Gallagher, Veal, O’Malley could also have an impact as they year progresses.

WOOOO. Just got free tickets. Prediction changes from 27-0 to 73 to negative 6. BEARS.

Bears 27 - Bills 0 Thats right 0.

They had a shutout and the D has allowed 16 points in 3 games. What are your expectations? GAMEDAY!!! Final prediction time. BEARS 23 - HAWKS 13 Rex 22-36, 250, 2TD/1 INT TJ - 18 - 79 yds Ced - 7 - 38 yds They tackled very, very poorly against Detroit and Minnesota. You can't get away with that against better teams. They have had a great game. They shut out a Packer team that scored 26 and 31 the next two weeks. The defense has allowed 1 TD all season. When you go for big plays and takeaways you will not make every tackle. It's the nature of the way they play. The way to judge a defense in the end is points allowed, and the Bears have been great.

They had a shutout and the D has allowed 16 points in 3 games. What are your expectations? GAMEDAY!!! Final prediction time. BEARS 23 - HAWKS 13 Rex 22-36, 250, 2TD/1 INT TJ - 18 - 79 yds Ced - 7 - 38 yds

Piniella in the last 30 seconds on Fox. "There are too many stats now." The Daron Sutton asked what his favorite state was, is it OPS? Piniella seemed like he didn't know what OPS was. Then Piniella said "what's WHIP?" Ken Rosenthal on the pregame show said the Cubs are the best fit for Piniella. This could be worse than Dusty.

I think the Seattle 4 receiver set plays right into the Bears defense. The front four are good at getting pressure on the Qb and with the 4 receivers there is one less blocker for Seattle. I think the Bears will get Hasselback at least 3 times on sacks. Hasselback should have to release the ball very quickly. Since he will be throwing quick passes the Bears linebackers will come into play quite a bit on the passing game. With the ability of Urlacher and Briggs to get sideline-to-sideline I predict an interception by one of those two guys. That said, Seattle will probably get a couple of big plays by the nature of their offense.

This is the perfect time to get Dunn. The guy has had a "down year" and he has a OBP of nearly .370 and 40 HR's! If you can get Dunn on the cheap, you gotta do it. I would offer Jones and 1 or 2 of the young pitchers we saw this year who aren't near the top of our list. I'm in the minority, in that I think Murton can hold his own in RF. Put Dunn in Left, get a stopgap in CF like Lofton or Roberts, and Murton in RF. Upgrade a middle infild spot and the rotation and we're in business. I was also wondering, is Aaron Harang a free agent? I read he was, and if that is true he is a guy I would love to see the Cubs make a run at. Lots of HR's allowed, but solid ERA and steady improvement nearly every season so far.

All rookies have to go through a learning process. There are ups and downs. He has big play potential and removing him from that job now would be a huge error in my mind. He has a chance of scoring every time he touches the ball. We can't replace that. I would let him try to work out the kinks.

We have to run better this week. I want to see Benson get a chance. Give him 15 carries. I know the biggest problem has been the line, but it just isn't working with TJ. Shaun Alexander hasn't done much this year. I think we can keep him in check. Early prediction: Bears 24 - Seahwks 17. Seattle has so many offenseive weapons, it will be hard to hold them under 17 points. I think Rex can pass on Seattle. Rex Grossman - 23/35, 257 yards, 2 TDs/1 INT

You could say the same thing about the Vikings. Both defenses buckled down in the red zone and I think both offenses got a little conservative. No, you can't. Umm, why not? Neither team executed in the red zone offensively. Both teams made big plays defensively in the red zone. Both coaches played it very close to the vest in the red zone. I think the Vikings are a good team. I said early in this thread they are a possible playoff team. That said, the Bears defense has been doing this on a weekly basis for over a year now. Until the Vikings have the same level of red zone success over a long period of time, they will not (and should not) get that same respect. The game was about as close as I expected. I'm concerned the Bears failed to run for the 3rd straight week. I hope Benson gets 15 carries next week. I was impressed by Rex. He had his problems, but under pressure against a good team, in a tough place to play he won. He made big plays all day, and got the winning TD late. The penalties were an abberation, back to normal next week. Seattle will be a lot of fun. This is the toughest home game of the year, if not toughest game of the year. It may have home-field implications in the playoffs.

GAMEDAY!!!! Final Prediction time. BEARS 20 VIKINGS 16 Grossman - 18/31, 208 yards, 1TD/1 INT TJ - 22 carries - 80 yards, TD Ced - 12 carries - 53 yards

Half the contract AND only a B prospect? Sign me up. Jones and Marshall? Done and done.

I would love to have Wells on the Cubs. He will be 28 next season, entering his prime. If he repeats his '06 numbers he would provide Aramis Ramirez-like production out of CF, and would be pretty cheap in 07. Trade for Wells, Sign Durham for 2b, Sign or trade for a front of the rotation starter, and a back of the rotation starter, get a new manager. That team can win big in 07. 2b Durham LF Murton 1B Lee 3B A-RAM CF Wells C Barrett RF Jones SS Theriot Zambrano, New frontline starter (i.e. Schmidt), Hill, New back-end starter, Prior/Guzman/Mateo/Gallagher... BP - Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Wuertz, Ohman, Wood Bench - Moore (1B/3B, maybe LF/RF), Pagan (outfield), Soto ©, Cedeno (ss/2b), power hitting FA (LF/RF), FA Hopefully Pie can contribute to the Cubs in 07 at some point as well.

Cubs.com backs up that Murphy did actually say this... http://www.forums.mlb.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=ml-cubs&msg=247294.1&ctx=0 I heard this yesterday. Murphy said it was a rumor. He said he had talked with 4 Cubs sources about this and 3 said MacPhail might get the boot, the other said "no way." In order of confidence in the source he ranked them as follows: 1. He might get fired. 2. No way! 3. He might get fired. 4. He might get fired. It was far from Murphy reporting this "will happen." He did speculate that if MacPhail is fired, the Cubs will promote from within.

If the Yankees don't win it all and if A-Rod fails in the playoffs, I fully expect him to be on another team in 07. Hopefully that team is the Cubs. It's amazing how much heat the CURRENT AL MVP gets.

Much easier to say that this week for Williams. They get the Packers in Detroit on Sunday.