maandig

Well, Joey G. seems to have drunk the kool-aid: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/baseball/13252956.htm

Remarkable. The Score says the Cubs have completed a deal for Pierre a full week after Levine reports that the deal was close to done -- and Levine's report was disproved shortly thereafter -- and Levine seems to have recanted. Rotoworld hears of the report on the Score, notes, as it always does, that some media outlet is reporting a deal, specifically citing the Score. The mlbtraderumor blog picks up the piece off of Rotoworld and now, voila, two sources: the Score and Rotoworld. By this logic, there are now three sources reporting it, the Score, Rotoworld and mlbtraderumor. Wait, four sources, the Score, Rotoworld, mlbtraderumor, and me. Actually more, since many more here have commented on it and, by repeating what the Score has said (w/o confirmation from anyone) we become sources. So the operator of mlbtraderumor says that Rich Hill will not be made available, identifies "some top hurlers from the Cubs minor league system who may be available" (naming Jae-kuk Ryu, Ricky Nolasco, Sean Marshall, Renyel Pinto and Angel Guzman) and then asserts that Bruce Levine identified these players as possibly being made available to the Marlins -- the same Levine who reported that the trade had been made on November 14. I'll take all of this with a bit more than just a grain of salt until something useful is ever reported.

Maybe someone can explain why the Dodgers would want to hand Furcal a multiyear contract. The only way it makes any sense is if the Dodgers believe that Cesar Izturis is never going to be the same after surgery and won't be able to work his way back to the team by August of next year. Last year DePodesta was claiming that they were going to move Joel Guzman to a corner infield spot because they would not have a need at shortstop with Izturis signed to a long-term contract.

From today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, noting that the Cubs might be changing focus: http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/1105/24braves.html If this is the case, why not try to resign Nomar? How can anyone justify Alex Gonzalez as Plan B and Neifi Perez as Plan C? At that point, why bother, let Cedeno play and let me enjoy the rest of the Bears season without the illusion that this team might be competitive next season.

Marlins might get even less back for Beckett than has been reported: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/13247113.htm

The Sun-Times carried an article today reporting on Baker's comments regarding Howry last night: http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-spt-cub23.html#

Even after the firesale, it's still probably better than coaching the Devil Rays. Joe's likely still happy with his choice.

Fair enough. The OPS point is well taken. The k vs. non-k out arguments is certainly subject to a number of caveats, as there a number of successful middle-relievers who have less than impressive k/ip numbers. Ray King, Mike Timlin, Jesse Crain, Chad Cordero, Bob Wickman, and Jason Isringhausen jump most immediately to mind as successful pitchers who have averaged less than a strikeout per inning. Had the Cubs acquired Cordero (obviously Chad's much younger than Eyre and Howry) or Izzy or, heaven forbid, King, I'm not sure that there would be the same level of outrage attendant shelling out four or four and a half mil per year as there has been over these moves. Nevertheless, there is certainly nothing wrong with being able to strike guys out, and B.J. has proved that he can do that.

OK, so Ryan is younger and will strike out significantly more batters than Eyre and Howry. But they appear to be able to get batters out at roughly the same rate and, perhaps lacking vital information, I do not believe that getting batters out via the strikeout is that much more effective than getting batters out by having control in the strike zone and having the batter swing at your pitch. In any event, I understand a little better the affinity for Ryan, though watching him over the years -- admittedly without paying the O's that much attention -- I do not share it (btw Eyre's walk numbers are slightly better than Ryan's). Nevertheless, say that 32 pages of commentary on speculation is not, in the end, entirely futile. While most here seem to be incredibly down on Hendry and the current direction of the team, I will take solace in the Newark Star-Ledger article today that others have probably commented on. http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1132641043208490.xml&coll=1 In particular, I enjoyed the following: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner expressed some concern at last week's organization meetings in Tampa, Fla., about the team's inability (so far) to secure its top free- agent targets. The meetings were held just after the Yankees found out that left-handed reliever Scott Eyre was signing with the Cubs. The Yankees wanted Eyre so badly that they had manager Joe Torre place a recruiting call to him, but they didn't even make Eyre's final four list of teams. The Yankees are pessimistic about their chances of signing top relief-pitching targets such as B.J. Ryan, Bob Howry, Kyle Farnsworth and Tom Gordon, and they're moving down the list to lesser names. When the Yankees aren't able to land players they covet (let alone the fact that the players they covet are Eyre and Howry), times are a'changing.

After running through a lot of the posts here, can anyone provide a quick explanation of why B.J. Ryan is appreciably better than Bobby Howry? Their career numbers are similar, Ryan strikes more guys out than Howry, but also walks more batters than Howry (BJ averages a walk every two innings, Howry is about one every three). There was not a lot of confidence in BJ in Baltimore as a closer and the fact that he was being compared to Jorge Julio helped him a great deal. Moreover, Eyre's numbers since started to get significant work in the pen since 2002 compare favorably with Ryan's since 2002. On the face of it, the signings of Eyre and Howry (if this is true) for 11 or 12 million over three years appear to be good additions for the team and it is difficult to imagine that paying more for Ryan would gain the Cubs anything more than they are already getting from Eyre and Howry. While the Hawkins/Remlinger debacle give some pause, I just don't see how Ryan is more of a sure thing than Eyre or Howry.