BigbadB

Who would be the extra bat brought back? Murton? Hoffpauir can't be brought back yet, right? What's up with Daryle Ward? Is he close to returning? I would think Hoffpauir is the most deserving guy to bring back up. How much longer before they can recall him?

Griffey doesn't make any sense at this point. Edmonds might have more left in the tank than Griffey does.

Happy to see that I didn't mind the DeRosa signing. I have to laugh at the guys who were on my wish list now, though. DeRosa has outperformed all the 2b's I had listed. I do still believe at the time the contract was too long and was too much money. But, he has definitely earned it. I have to like DeRosa since he was signed the day I bought my house and the day my nephew was born. All in all, that was a pretty great day.

If Edmonds' numbers are based on Padres and Cubs, most of his negative points probably comes from Petco. He was horrible defensively in his short stint there, which probably helped make San Diego's decision to cut him that much easier.

Wow, do I ever have a banged up team right now. Rickie Weeks just went on the DL.

I see where you are coming from, Adam. Your pitchers don't exactly have easy assignments this week. I don't have the best of match ups either, but I think I like mine better than the opponents your pitchers are facing.

Dishman's Dishmans (3-7) at Draconian Empire (4-6) Buddiga (4-6) at Alamo Stealth (6-4) Lynx (5-5) at Voo Doo Bayou Bashers (4-6) The Eyes of Texas (6-4) at NC Cubs (6-4) Quakers (5-5) at Raw Dawgs (8-2) Galesburg Hand Sanitizers (4-6) at Fuzzy Logistics (6-4) Severe Tooterstorms (3-7) at Tootielicious (6-4) Northside Baseball (5-5) at Harrys Budcrew (5-5) Game of the Week: Eyes Of Texas vs. NC Cubs NC Cubs and Tootielicious need wins to keep Raw Dawgs from running up a commanding lead in the East. Realistically, any team in the West still has a shot to make the playoffs.

Whoops. I missed the dripping sarcasm. I just read your post for week 11. It should be a good battle.

Don't get too excited. I get my entire outfield back this week (Holliday, Wells, Ellsbury) and Braun gets moved back to 3rd. My pitching staff is due to have a good week sooner rather than later, hopefully it's this week. I have 8 starts to choose the best 7. The only player I'm missing this week is Pena, and he hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire with his bat this season.

It was one of my worst weeks this week in a big game. I'm definitely disappointed. I'm still the top scoring team in the league, but my team has been outscored by my opponents. That's absolutely amazing.

I hope not to lose for a while. I have a problem this week though, I'll be on a cruise and Matt refuses to set my pitchers for me since I'm playing him. Anyone willing to assist? I can provide exactly what I'd want to have happen, but I need someone willing to do it for me. Thanks! I can take care of it for you. Just email me with your roster moves.

I don't see a need for it. There are going to be lopsided trades in the kind of league we play in. There are lopsided trades in the major leagues, also. The reason we have lopsided trades is exemption status, point differentials, point cap, etc...... The lopsided trades that require league approval are in free leagues where bottom feeder teams trade off all of their best players to a team in first place to better help that team win the league. I don't think you'll see that here. Most trades will be made to improve one's own team and who cares about the team you are trading with. Let's look at a trade Tim and I made this past offseason. Granted, it's not during the regular season, but it's still a lopsided trade if you don't look at it in hindsight. I traded Josh Hamilton and BJ Upton for Brandon Webb, Matt Hollliday and Rickie Weeks. I could afford to take on all those points towards the cap, and Tim had to make room in his cap. This is a very lopsided trade, but I expect to get the better end of a deal since I have the cap space to work with while other teams don't. The same thing can happen during the regular season. We have an on the block section to let everyone know that you are willing to make deals, what kinds of players you are willing to part with and what players you would like to trade for. I don't recall any deals where people "blew up". The A-Rod deal was a bit of a shocker since no one was aware that he was available, but I think that actually hurts the team that has him if they don't make it public knowledge. If you made it public knowledge, you might be able to get a better deal from another team. My guess on A-Rod is that he wasn't really on the market until a team offered up a deal that made him available. Any one of the teams in this league could have done the same thing as Tim in that scenario. Tim was the one who pulled it off. Good for Tim. Other than the A-Rod deal, I have no idea what trades people blew up over. What I like least about waiting for approval on trades is how it can hurt your team right now. Let's say I have an injury that happens today. I can offer up a player or two to someone who I know is looking to upgrade and fill my injury opening on my roster on that same day. How long will I go without a player in my daily line up while we wait for approval from other league members? Trade approval is needed whenever you are looking at possible collusion within the league. Do we have that here? I haven't seen it. I'd trade with anyone, anyday if the trade works for me. I don't have any special need for anyone in this league to win if I don't win. And I haven't seen it from anyone else.

I was particularly impressed with Manny's elbow to the head move. I named it "Manny just being Manny". \:D/

I was in total agreement with Bob on the Pierre at bat. Toss a fastball up there, let Pierre hit one to Soriano and we can all go home. Oh, and I'll bet Kemp didn't sleep very well last night knowing he had 3 fastballs right down the heart of the plate with the bases loaded, only to strike out on 3 straight pitches.

You're right. Sorry to have hijacked the thread. Back to "sham closer" and "we won't win with Wood" discussion. :D

Schilling and Johnson were a combined 9-1 in the playoffs that year, also. They pitched in a total of 12 of their 17 playoff games. They lost 6 games in the playoffs in '01, so you can see just how bad the rest of their rotation was.

2 straight fastballs to Kemp to make it 0-2, and Kemp is known as a fastball hitter who hasn't figured out how to hit a major league slider yet, and Kerry throws a lazy (only 93 MPH) fastball right on by Kemp for strike 3. And here I thought the whole time he'd strike him out on a slider.

Arizona won 52 of their 92 games when either Schilling or Johnson started the game. Johnson actually had really good control in 2001.

Brenly won a World Series because he had Schilling and Randy Johnson on his staff. Not including Spring Training, here are Schilling and Johnson's IP for 2001, the year they won the World Series: Schilling: 305 IP Big Unit: 291 IP

I guess the reason I hated that quote was because Stone gave the advice as if he was immune to any of the mistakes the guys on the field made, like he was better than all those guys and would never make those types of mistakes.

Will he get hurt? The difference between playoffs and Spring Training is only a few months. Kerry has been getting very regular work in the pen lately, going more than an inning, back to back days, and sometimes more than that with no real setbacks or pain that we are aware of. I'm not talking about making the move now, but more towards the end of the season if the Cubs manage to capture the division early. As much of a competitor as Kerry is, wouldn't he want to be part of what could be Chicago history? Pitching game #2 of the World Series or being a late inning reliever? I think it's a very legitimate discussion.

I have to say I prefer Brenly. I always liked Stone, especially partnered up with Harry, but nothing irked me more than Stone's "here's a lesson at home for all you youngsters watching the game" crap.

Could Kerry Wood be that starting pitcher the Cubs are hoping to find at the trade deadline? Assuming the Cubs stretch out their division lead, what are the chances that they could slide Marmol into the closer role, trade for a set up man (much cheaper than a Burnett or a Sabathia in terms of talent and cost), and allow Kerry to get stretched back out in the last month or so of the season, and let Kerry be that #2 we seek? It will have been nearly 2 years since Kerry started, and it was assumed that relief would only be a temporary thing to allow further healing of his surgically repaired parts. He's been going on short rest, back to back to back days, etc... Is it possible that he might be ready to make the move back into the rotation? Or does he prefer his bullpen role?

My latest injury move was to cut Percival, move Encarnacion from Utility to 3b, move Braun from 3b to OF, promote Ian Stewart from the minors to Utility and bump the injured Jacoby Ellsbury to my reserve squad. My current line up is no longer the offensive powerhouse it started off to be. But, I am pretty pleased that Milton Bradley is leading the AL in OPS. But, a line up that features Aubrey Huff, Wladimir Balentien, Edwin Encarnacion and Ian Stewart shouldn't make anyone shudder with fear.

Falling apart at the seems. Not only do my opponents like to set scoring records when they play against my team, but now my team seems to want to all be hurt all at the same time. Ironically, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Milton Bradley are NOT the guys currently on my DL. My DL: Matt Holliday (hammy), Vernon Wells (wrist), Carlos Pena (hand), Troy Percival (hammy), Kelvim Escobar (shoulder) and now Jacoby Ellsbury (wrist) could be joining them. James Shields is about to get a lengthy suspension for beaning Coco Crisp.