AramisRamirez

yeah i just want to trade prospects for milton bradley, offer a huge contract to millwood, and call it a day. keep todd walker because him, bradley, and D-Lee would be 3 high OBP guys in the lineup. finally!! and if pierre gets a .350 OBP we're looking pretty good.

wow yeah without question, juan pierre is an upgrade at leadoff for us. to me, walker is the perfect 2-hole hitter because he has such high OBP. he's not speedy like a leadoff hitter and he has better power than true leadoff hitters like posednik, pierre, etc so to me he's an ideal 2-hole hitter. who better to put in front of derrek lee than a guy who is likely to be on-base? you got pierre threatening second dictating the pitches to walker, who is a tough at-bat. im sold with those two guys hitting 1-2. looking at pierre's stats. he has had pretty incredible numbers. his one down year was still pretty good. yes, numbers dont show how crappy his defense is...yadadada. meanwhile, he has a world series ring. ill take one single world series ring at any point. you cant argue with juan pierre's ring. his defense somehow didnt manage to stop the marlins from winning it all. some people on this board think all the prospects in our farm system are the best and completely untouchable and if anybody gets traded hendry blows. well, im in the hendry blows department but bringing in pierre is good to me. no pie, no hill, all the top top ones stay. im looking forward to this season, as opposed to watching neifi perez bat leadoff. now if we can bring in bradley so burnitz can stay as far away from illinois as possible ill truely be at ease. man, im getting hyped for this year already.

i hear alot of hate about pierre and true his fielding is far from great, but he was a key piece to a world series. in a down year for him he still had 40+ SB and hit .276 or something. he has put together some great years, inluding his amazing .371 OBP year. he also stole 60+ SB at one point. anyways i think he's a HUGE upgrade on patterson. pierre is a legit leadoff hitter. i think he's taken too bad a rap on this board. im happy about adding him to the top of the order. i think one more decent OF like milton bradley away from being able to compete. it appears like it will be done in such a manner where our payroll wont be affected. maybe we can redirect some of the furcal money towards Millwood. i think once we bring in bradley we're set on offense. im content with cedeno and murton getting the starting nob opening day. i like us 1-6 with pierre, walker, lee, aramis, bradley, and barrett. that takes pressure off cedeno and murton in the 7th and 8th hole. i hope walker isnt included in the bradley trade because the dodgers are set with middle infielders. but we need to think about rotation in the upcoming years and Wood isnt likely to be here after another season pitching 140 innings. So why not throw money at Millwood to join zambrano and prior? maddux will come off the books after this year too. i might take $50M/4-years to get Millwood, but whats the problem? we pay wood nearly that much to pitch 140 innings... my 2006 cubbies: CF pierre 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez RF bradley LF murton SS cedeno SP1 zambrano SP2 prior SP3 millwood SP4 maddux SP5 rusch Injured: Woody

well im pleased with this trade. mitre is probably going to be a good starting pitcher but we were desperate for a leadoff guy. in a down year pierre still had 50+ SBs and hit .276. i think he'll fit fine at the top of the order. like others said, if we can manage bradley now our lineup will be looking pretty good. certainly good enough to compete.

its almost like we shape our team with the wildcard in mind. our roster has been trumped by STL recently by a pretty significant measure. lets assume to two likely trades for juan pierre and milton bradley unfold. under the best case scenario in which we bring in them both and manage to hold on to todd walker, how would we stack up against STL then?? i know alot depends on injuries and other factors, but a simple on-paper comparison will do. here is how i would position our batting order: CF pierre 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez OF bradley C barrett OF murton SS cedeno i like that batting order alot. if pierre can get his 40+ SBs and get high BA up to around .275, we'll be in pretty good shape. speed with pierre, OBP with walker, power with lee, power with aramis, high OBP with bradley...i like that 1-5 quite a bit. but as far as stacking up against STL, how do we compare? i personally am not sure, but i think alot of it depends on cedeno, murton, and pierre. if pierre his 247 with a 293 OBP and murton and/or cedeno struggle mightly we're in serious trouble. pierre benching would result in hairston or neifi assuming the leadoff role....gasp.

i got a few good laughs reading this thread. yeah, its completely unrealistic to talk about the marlins trading cabrera AND willis to us. we'd need to send them our top 8 prospects, literally. it just wouldnt go down. atleast with one guy we can narrow it down a little. we can talk somewhat possibilities. with cabrera i think it would take hill, cedeno, and pie. that is 3 guys who could be great. but cabrera is great, and only getting better. i would do it....

i cant wait for the press conference announcing the re-signing of jeremy burnitz to bat .258 as our 5th hole hitter. yes folks, we're looking at burnitz as the only thing hendry will do to wrap up the off-season.

first of all, look at my sig. we got 2 cornerstone players, not to mention zambrano and prior. you dont punt the season away. infact, you work your ass to get us in the playoffs THIS YEAR or you get fired. if we dont make the playoffs this year, both hendry and dusty should be fired and banned from the city of chicago. actually dusty should just be beaten. we lost furcal so hendry better get cracking and find us some help. if its pierre and milton bradley, fine. but get us what we need because chicago is way way too big to blow of a year. id take lugo and jacque jones, just get some [expletive] help!! what would be blowing off a year accomplish? we'd be less attractive to FA's than we already are. blowing off the year would mean no more moves accept the re-signing of burnitz. if thats the case i will organize a boycott of the cubs.

sweet, so you add a re-signed burnitz and we're done. :shock: one more year of burnzy in the 5th hole batting .258.

so its settled --cedeno, pie, zambrano, and prior will get traded for juan pierre and his great D and tremendously high OBP. :wink: here's to a .250 BA and a .300 OBP....oh wait, we already that with corey patterson.

this is the ghost of AramisRamirez from the heavens above here to tell you are few other contributing factors to my spiral downward: -Jeremy Burnitz in the 5th hole for the majority of the 2005 season. -Watching Burnitz bat cleanup when Aramis went down. -Anything mentioning Neifi, Dusty or the almighty Macias. -Watching CPatt hit .220 with a .287 OBP before getting sent down. -Watching Stoney get fired/quit. -Suffering through little league base running of Moises Alou and Corey Patterson. -Waiting 6 decades for Angel Guzman to get called up. -A-Gon and Bartman anyone?? -The annual combined 200 IP from woody and prior. -Watching smaller markets like Boston trump our payroll by $20-30M. -Watching Boston and the South Side win the World Series. -Do I need to mention Sammy Sosa? -How about Wavin' Wendall? -Does the Todd Hundley era ring a bell? -Am I getting anywhere with Latroy Hawkins? do I really I need to keep going. I think the question here is how am I the only Cubs fan to threaten suicide? You guys must be on 100mg of Prozac and about 200 other med's a day just to keep from going crazy. I shoulda gotten professional therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after watching the Cubs play. Now im in a better place, where the lineup looks like this: OF johnny damon SS derick jeter 1B derrek lee 3B aramis ramirez OF manny ramirez OF milton bradley 2B marcus giles C pudge rodriquez Bench: cedeno, murton, barrett, todd walker, mabry SP1 carlos zambrano SP2 mark prior SP3 barry zito SP4 AJ burnett SP5 kerry wood/greg maddux RP: dempster, howe, erye, mariano rivera, trevor hoffman Managers: La Russa, Torre, Piniella, and of course Sarge!! :P GM: John Paxson (j/k).

im officially suicidal. we're in a lose-lose situation. either we give up too much for somebody like furcal (even that didnt work), pierre, damon, burnett, etc or we do nothing at all. if we do nothing we'll finish 20-30 games below .500 and last in the division. i guess im still for bringing in pierre and bradley like everybody else even though both are pipe dreams 2006 cubbies: SS cedeno 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez RF burnitz (re-signed) C barrett LF murton CF patterson SP1 zambrano SP2 rusch SP3 maddux SP4 williams SP5 mitre Injured: Kerry Wood, Mark Prior other notable likely outcomes: burnitz hitting .260 in the 5th hole. cedeno going 1-4 on opening day and getting benched by dusty for neifi until the last week of the season. jerome williams, rusch, maddux, and mitre averaging a 5.50 ERA. and finally poor zambrano producing a 1.50 ERA and finishing the season with 5 wins despite pitching 220 innings.

we're running out of options here. im not upset we lost out on furcal because 5-years/$50M would certainly be a dent in payroll. panic is still starting to set in because at this point our two gaping holes are leadoff hitter and 5th hole hitter. burnitz is not a 5th hole hitter on a world series team and neifi is CERTAINLY not a leadoff hitter on a WS winner. furcal is gone and the asking price for pierre may be too great. pierre in the leadoff spot would be an upgrade from what we got currently but his terrible defense and low OBP makes him not that necessary. if the prospects we'd need to part with are too good, you need to back out on the deal. i stated in a different post that since our two gaping holes are so signficant, our window of opportunity isnt this year but the following years when zambrano, prior, lee, and aramis are peaking (i would say wood but he's good for 150 IP and no more). so this long intro brings me to one of our last options, Jacque Jones. i will not continue to get my hopes up about adding milton bradley. his high OBP would be great, but i cant really imagine clicking on ESPN.com and reading "Jones signs with Cubs." It may happen, but i guess im a pessimist in regards to cubs FA signings because we get spurned like 90% of the time. Jacque Jones is coming off a year when he batted .247 so he really is attainable. i dont know much about him despite him being in the league for a good while. i do know he is a career hitter in the .270's and has been a consistent starter for a team that is usually in the playoffs. murton played RF this past year but we would need to switch him to LF to replace burnitz and make room for jones. so here is my question, if jones is the lone FA addition were would he bat in the lineup and what type of impact would you expect? are we talking jeremy burnitz-type production or something more? with the liimited knowledge i have here is how i'd plug him into the lineup should no other additions be made. SS cedeno 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez RF jones C barrett LF murton CF patterson/pie that team would still get crushed by STL in my opinion. unless cedeno goes .280 with 30-40 SB, aramis stays healthy, and jones somehow musters up an All-Star we're going to be hurting. please somebody tell me jones will hit .300/.375/35 HR/100 RBI and sign for cheap!

yikes aramis opting out is a scary thought. i would need to change my NSBB.com handle. hmmm, how about NeifiPerez intead of AramisRamirez? Or maybe JoseMacias or JeremyBurnitz? my new handle will be Jeremy Burnitz will hit .259 in 2006. anyways yeah Aramis could be in for a real nice payout depending on his year. the past 2 years he's been close to turning the corner and just throwing down a monster year. if he stays healthy he could put up huge numbers, as i posted in the general forum not too long ago. we could be looking at: .318 BA .361 OBP 42 HR 119 RBI if he throws down that, he could be looking at 5-years and $65M. konerko money.... i dont think the furcal negotiations will ruin hendrys relationship with Kinzer though. Hendry may be bitter but Kinzer appreciates his interest. 5-years/$50M is more money than furcal is worth. for much of the first half of the season furcal was hitting .230. he had a monster second half, but he slumped for a long time. the cubs played a key role in bumping up furcal's price tag. without us, atlanta's offer would be the only thing to bid against.

see i just dont get this thinking. for 6-years yeah damon isnt a good option, but thats not what we're looking at right now. if we dont get damon, our only other CF option is pierre. pierre is a terrible defender with low OBP. i would still take him as an upgrade on CPatt but not if we need to send a few good prospects to FL. right now we're looking at an OF of murton, patterson, and a re-signed burnitz or jacque jones (who hit .247 last year). calling up pie immediately is a risky move. i would like to see pie take the CF spot at some point during the year but not on opening day. if damon is looking at a 3-year deal, i pounce no matter the price. 3-years at $12M a pop and id still do it. when you get into a 5-year deal with damon, it starts to get risky due to his age. but at this point with how we're positioned i wouldnt spend too much for furcal, pierre, damon, or anybody else. we're not one player away but as far as 3-year deals are concerned, i would pony up alot of money annually because we need to stay competitive while we wait for pie, cedeno, and/or murton to break out. with the youth of zambrano and prior, our window of opportunity to win the WS isnt this season. its in 2-3 seasons so we need to prepare for that. aramis and lee will be peaking at that point, if they arent already. we need a third horse to bat 5th and adding damon wont fill that role. if you add damon that fills one big hole on offense. filling that 5th hole would probably put us in the thick of things if damon were on board. 3-years/$36M for damon and 3-years/$20M for jones. he's a career .275 hitter and will probably rebound from last years poor hitting.

at this point im not optomistic about bringing in some good talent through either FA or trades. i think we might get only 1 signing and no trading. i think pierre is unlikely despite all the talk. the marlins have traded so many guys already, i dont think they depleate the entire team. all they got left is cabrera and pierre. i think we'll get one guy and that is paying too much for jaqcue jones. i doubt we get bradley after the furcal deal. we'd need to give up too much for pierre or bradley. so here we are after our lone FA signing for 2006: SS cedeno 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez OF jones C barrett OF murton OF patterson/pie SP1 zambrano SP2 prior SP3 wood SP4 rusch SP5 maddux its not a world series team. its really as simple as that. the 3-4-5 of lee, ramirez, and jones is good but not good enough. we'd need monster years from cedeno in the leadoff role and aramis would need to stay healthy. he hasnt shown that he can stay healthy for an entire season and play All-star quality. perhaps the most important thing would be 200 IP from wood. i think zambrano we know will produce 200+ IP with his usual 3.25-3.50 ERA. prior is a shoe-in for 175 IP, i cant see him going 210 IP any year after his past couple years. so the odds of this team winning the pennant are slim to none. cedeno would need .280/.340/35 SB, wood would need 200 IP, 15 wins, and a 3.50 ERA, and aramis would need .300/40/120. all three of those things wont happen.... its the usual cubbie way. just competitive enough but not a world series contender. i honestly think to win a world series we would need a leadoff speedster like either furcal or pierre, milton bradley or jacque jones, and a solid starter ideally a lefty like zito. then we'd be looking more like a winner with this lineup: OF pierre 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez OF jones C barrett SS cedeno OF murton SP1 zambrano SP2 prior SP3 zito SP4 wood SP5 maddux/Rusch atleast in my opinion that team is a contender. its well-rounded with speed and power. when pierre would be on-base, the pitcher would probably press his pitches more staring at lee, ramirez, and jones.

AramisRamirez, 25-year old chicago native and loyal Northsidebaseball.com poster died last night apparently of heartbreak. In recent weeks he had been unable to sleep due to persistent nightmares of Neifi Perez starting at SS for the Cubs in the upcoming season. The Dodgers signing of Furcal apparently was the straw that broke the camels back. Three weeks ago he was hositalized with a rare heart condition that Doctors said was triggered by debilitating anxiety as a result of Dusty Baker's managerial style. After his initial treatment, Doctors were forced to sub-due him after he kept repeating"Dude put in Macias" and other detached statements. Its a sad ending to a tortured existence as a Cubs fan. One can only what would have happened if the Cubs ran the organization like a city with 3 million people should run a team.

yeah to me this isnt the worst case scenario. adding bradley and jones would be fine by me. here is the worst case scenario in my opinon: SS perez 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez RF burnitz C barrett RF murton CF patterson

at this point id be tempted to pull out of the furcal race. anything more than 3-years/$40M is just insane. he's good, an anchor at the top of the order, but ponying up 6-years/$60M is just way too much for him. i cant imagine hendry adding a 6th year. a 5th year was a stretch as it is, but but i would just pull out at this point. can cedeno bat leadoff?? my new focus would be juan pierre and milton bradley. if we can bring those two in without trading todd walker, we'd be in pretty good shape. i would keep todd walker, especially if furcal ends up in elsewhere. if we add pierre and milton, id still consider this a sucessful season. i would slide either walker or milton into the 5th hole, which isnt ideal because neither has 5th hole power but both bring high OBP to the table. OF pierre OF bradley 1B lee 3B ramirez 2B walker C barrett OF murton SS cedeno that lineup is much more well rounded than the 05 cubs. good speed with pierre, high OBP with walker, bradley, and lee, and power with lee and aramis. we could still use another quality starter like zito, but at this point im just asking for any type of impact trade at all.

forget finley,bradley is like 27 years old with a career .350 OBP. i want him pretty bad. i would put corey patterson in any deal for bradley. that way he can bat 2nd and walker can bat 5th. murton can switch to OF spots.

i hate to spend more the necessary as much as anybody else but in this case, we really need furcal. i think furcal is a signficant upgrade compared to juan pierre. pierre's only asset is base-stealing and his terrible defense and low OBP made his value plummet. furcal at the top of the order and anchoring SS would really be a boost for the team. if it reaches 5-years/$50M, i wouldnt be as upset as the entire board would be. i would still keep walker and rotate cedeno in at both 2B and SS. i think our 1-4 would be basically ideal. SS furcal 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez thats basically perfect. speed with furcal. high OBP with walker so lee and ramirez can get RBIs.

i hate to spend more the necessary as much as anybody else but in this case, we really need furcal. i think furcal is a signficant upgrade compared to juan pierre. pierre's only asset is base-stealing and his terrible defense and low OBP made his value plummet. furcal at the top of the order and anchoring SS would really be a boost for the team. if it reaches 5-years/$50M, i wouldnt be as upset as the entire board would be. i would still keep walker and rotate cedeno in at both 2B and SS. i think our 1-4 would be basically ideal. SS furcal 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez thats basically perfect. speed with furcal. high OBP with walker so lee and ramirez can get RBIs.

manny isnt coming here but we'd crush teams if we got him for something reasonable. 3 good prospects maybe with boston paying $6M-7M a year of manny's $20M-25M or whatever it is annually. then we switch murton to RF and continue with adding either pierre or furcal. lets take a pierre trade. after both deals the farm would be close to sold, so we better win the world series if it goes down. CF pierre 2B walker 1B lee LF manny 3B aramis SS cedeno C barrett RF murton that team is pretty ridiculous. if pierre can steal 40 bases and get his BA up to .270-.275 our 3-4-5 hitters would destroy any pitching staff. and with walker and his high OBP in front of them.... thats such a sick lineup. plus we'd get solid production at a good cost with cedeno and murton. if we could get manny's salary down to $15M a year he would be an absolute steal. plus imagine Lee, manny, and then aramis hitting. nobody could beat them.

manny isnt coming here but we'd crush teams if we got him for something reasonable. 3 good prospects maybe with boston paying $6M-7M a year of manny's $20M-25M or whatever it is annually. then we switch murton to RF and continue with adding either pierre or furcal. lets take a pierre trade. after both deals the farm would be close to sold, so we better win the world series if it goes down. CF pierre 2B walker 1B lee RF manny 3B aramis SS cedeno C barrett RF murton that team is pretty ridiculous. if pierre can steal 40 bases and get his BA up to .270-.275 our 3-4-5 hitters would destroy any pitching staff. and with walker and his high OBP in front of them.... thats such a sick lineup. plus we'd get solid production at a good cost with cedeno and murton. if we could get manny's salary down to $15M a year he would be an absolute steal. plus imagine Lee, manny, and then aramis hitting. nobody could beat them.

hmmm interesting feedback. some honestly brutal, but i wouldnt want it any other way. hey if anybody has earned the right to be jaded, its cubs fans. i do agree that soriano would be best in the 6th hole and he's not ideal at the top of the order. todd walker is a high OBP guy something we could use in front of lee and aramis. but to me if we coulld soriano i would maybe look into adding kenny lofton or somebody with speed. anyways its food for thought. so many possible scenarios this summer its tough to know whats going to go down. in my opinion i dont think we'll nab anybody we talk about (furcal, giles, pierre, mench, soriano) i just dont think it would happen because the Trib is down with 3-year deals only. i think we could be looking at this lineup: SS cedeno 2B walker 1B lee 3B ramirez RF burnitz C barrett LF murton CF patterson (pie call-up 2 months into the season) sweet. burnitz representing the 5th hole again with his mighty .268 BA.