BigbadB

Oh, that's perfect. Since Colorado's AAA affiliate plays in even more hitter friendly atmosphere than Colorado itself, Neifi should be able to put up good enough numbers to get Dusty all hot and bothered to trade for him at the deadline. It's a thing of beauty!

Bonds would only be about 150 more HGH injections away from owning the Japanese HR record. I think he should go for it! Then he can have another record with an asterisk next to it.

This isn't about what YOU would do. It's about what Lou will do. He may or he may not put Roberts in the lead off spot, but if he does, then you can basically pencil in Theriot to hit 2nd. One of the least likely scenarios I would think Lou would construct his line up would be Roberts, Fukudome, Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Soto, Pie, Theriot. However much Cubs management has said they want a true lead off hitter (which I really haven't heard all that much), they have been much more pronounced in stating they want the left bats to break up the righty bats. As far as your "dream" line up, I'd be all for it because it still puts all the best bats in the line up at the top end of the order, but I have to believe..... Roberts, Fukudome, Soriano, Lee, Ramirez is less likely to happen than Soriano, Roberts, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome

I can respect other people's opinions, but it doesn't mean I have to buy into their opinion. I think that's what we are seeing in this thread. Some people are just a little more wound up in their responses. Wrigley23 has called our opinions on Soriano just as ridiculous as we find his posts, and that's where the infighting generates. Fact: Soriano produces more runs from the lead off spot than Roberts does. Both scoring and driving them in. It doesn't matter that Roberts produces a much higher OBP than Soriano, because even with last year's difference in OBP, Soriano still scored more runs per at bat than Roberts did, and does so every year he plays. Couple in the fact that Soriano produced more runs as a lead off hitter than Roberts last year with a bum leg for the back half of the season. It is my belief that if Soriano is taken out of the top of the order, he will be moved all the way down to the 6th spot. If he was batting 3rd or 4th, that might be one thing, but personally, I would hate to see Soriano bat 3rd or 4th over Lee or Ramirez. And if Lou wants Fukudome to break up the lefties, that puts Soriano in the 6 spot in the order, which takes about 100 PA away from Soriano. Soriano with 600 PA>>>>>>>>>>Soriano with 500 PA By moving Soriano to 6th in the order opens the door for Theriot to bat 2nd. Soriano provides a better OBP than Theriot. So now you are sacrificing OBP and OPS, not to mention giving Theriot 100-150 more PA over the course of a season than he should have if he were batting 8th rather than 2nd. The perfectly logical answer to all of this is to bat Soriano first followed by Roberts. With those two guys at the top of the order, you get the best of both worlds, as well as arguably one of the best 1/2 punches in MLB. I do appreciate at that Wrigley23 values OBP. It's rather apparent that Lou likes it a lot more than Dusty did. The guys who can make it in the big leagues with a not so stellar OBP are guys like Soriano, who can make up for their lack of OBP with SLG. While the lack of OBP is the one thing keeping someone like Soriano from being a true superstar in this game, I don't think the answer to a Brian Roberts acquisition is moving Soriano down umpteen places in the batting order to accommodate Roberts. There is room to share some top of the order love. And with that, I'm done talking about this subject, because right now Roberts anywhere in the batting order is simply a wet dream since he is currently a Baltimore Oriole.

Link. :grin: I'm a bit disappointed he didn't say "one or the other or BOTH". :(

Somebody posted recently that he was playing in South Korea.

I think we should steal early and steal often when Jason Kendall is behind the plate. He owes us a lot of extra bases from last season.

Fair enough. However, I haven't deemed him worthless. He'd make for a decent 5th outfielder. He's 26 years old and doesn't bring enough to the table to be a solid starting CF candidate.

What's quite fascinating is that under Lou Piniella last year, the Cubs increased their walk totals offensively by 105 walks from '06, and only improved in that category from 16th to 15th in walks. But, even with that improvement, they went from 15th in the league in runs scored to 8th. The Cubs pitching staff reduced their walk totals by 100 walks from '06, and went from 16th in the league in walks surrendered in '06 to 13th in '07, and went from 14th in runs allowed to 2nd in the league in runs allowed. All in all, this was a tremendous improvement over the previous year and helped catapult a team from worst to first in the division standings. Granted, there were personnel changes that helped make that happen, but there is also a noticeable difference between the coaching stylings of Dusty and Lou, which also contributed to the improvement. Walks do not clog bases. Walks create more run scoring opportunities, whether they be running scoring opportunities for your own team if you draw more walks, or run scoring opportunities for your opponents if you issue more walks. For a major league manager to ignore the value of a walk is absolutely assinine, and provides further convincing proof that not everyone who actually has a major league management job possesses more knowledge than random posters on a message board simply because they have played the game.

Dusty knows what he speaks. Because in that awesome 2006 season, the Cubs finished 6th in the league in total hits in the NL, and finished 15th in total runs scored because the bases were always clogged by walks. Let's ignore for a moment that Philadelphia (top run scoring team of 2007) had a lower batting average than the Cubs in 2007. The 149 run differential between Philly and the Cubs couldn't have ANYTHING to do with drawing walks, since Philly only drew 231 more walks than the Cubs did in 2007. And to further prove Dusty knows what he speaks, let's look at the 2006 Cubs pitching staff, which clogged bases better than anyone with walks. The Cubs pitching staff only walked 687 guys. Only the Padres allowed less hits per game than the Cubs staff. So, the Cubs gave up less hits than any other team in the NL except for the Padres, yet allowed more runs than any other team in the NL except Washington. Hmmmm. Are you sure you got all of this walk stuff figured out, Dusty? 2006 Cubs pitching staff issued 687 walks while giving up the second least amount of hits and finished 15th in runs given up. 2006 Cubs hitters walked 395 times while accumulating the 6th highest hit total, yet finished 15th in runs scored. Keep telling yourself that clogging bases is a bad thing, Dusty. Because I'm very glad you can apply your outrageously thought provoking theories to the enemy now!

The problem is that the Cubs have always treated him like a 5th wheel, so his trade value is minimal. There probably isn't a team in the game that views Murton as anything more than a possible platoon or 4th outfielder. Teams just don't give up much for a corner outfielder with little to show at the major league level. Unless he helps net a quality player like Brian Roberts, I'd rather not trade him. Even if he goes to Baltimore, he's battling for playing time with Luke Scott and Jay Gibbons (assuming Adam Jones is in CF). Even if he's traded to Texas, he's battling for playing time with Botts, Catallonotto and Nelson Cruz.

And we have one of those guys already in Theriot when Cedeno beats him out of a job.

I don't see a reason to add another bullpen arm. Especially if it means spending a portion of what is left in the budget that needs to be used to make upgrades elsewhere. Also, would Wickman be satisfied with a 6th inning role? Right now, you have Marmol, Wood, Howry in the mix for the back 1/3 of a baseball game. Couple that with Eyre, Wuertz a long reliever and possibly trying to hide Lahey as a mop up reliever and there just isn't room for Wickman. I didn't even mention Dempster, who could find his way back to the pen if he doesn't lock down a rotation spot. Since we are listing ERA+, here is what the Cubs have from last year: Wood- 140 Howry- 140 Marmol- 326 Wuertz- 134 Eyre- 113 Hart- 569 Guzman- 131 Cotts- 96 Piggy- 103 Lahey- ?? Also competing for spots in some form of relief are Ascanio, Petrick, Gallagher, Campusano, Mateo and Marshall. The one thing this team has plenty of depth in is the bullpen. If I add Dempster back to the bullpen (Zambrano, Lilly, Lieber, Hill, Marquis), that's a lot of depth. Wickman's addition only complicates things further.

:shock: Dang, where's that Pie emoticon when you need it?

Even with consistent playing time, he might still struggle for awhile. But, you just have to stick it out because the reward could pay huge dividends later. To borrow another poster's example from earlier in the offseason, Boston put Pedroia at 2b last year and he did this in March and April: .182 .308 .236 Pedroia did this in May: .415 .472 .600 Should Boston have sent Pedroia back down to AAA at the first sign of a struggle? Nope. Just let him get his licks in and sooner or later the truth will be unveiled. No two prospects are alike. Alex Gordon struggled his way through his entire rookie campaign. But, he will eventually show people why he was so highly touted at one point or another. Look what BJ Upton did in his first two stints in the majors in '04 and '06. He was downright horrible. In 2007, he started showing folks what he is capable of. I think the Albert Pujol's and the Miguel Cabrera's cloud a lot of people's judgment of what to expect from a young up and comer. If they just stick Pie out there and let him play, I think he'll prove his value sooner rather than later, and with solid bats like Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, DeRosa and more than likely Fukudome as well, I think the Cubs can afford to be a bit patient with Pie.

My post was somewhat tongue in cheek.

Votto career minor leagues: .289 .385 .476 Choi career minor leagues: .275 .379 .511 Votto=Choi Hatteberg=Karros Only significant difference is Hatteberg hits lefty handed, making it less likely for a platoon. Of course, we could always add Randall Simon to the equation. :wink:

It's only preseason. Dusty obviously still has a lot of work to do to get into game shape. I trust he'll get their soon enough.

Fuld was 25 years old in AA last year. Fuld did this in AA: .290 .372 .388 760 Pie was 20 in AA. Pie did this in AA: .304 .349 .554 903 Career minor league numbers for Fuld: .296 .377 .417 794 Career minor league numbers for Pie: .300 .358 .468 826 Pie did better in AA at 5 years younger.

February 28 @ 2:05 PM against San Francisco. Cubs.com has this wonderful thing called a schedule. :wink: Reminds me back on espn.com when people would post a question asking for a stat that was easily found by clicking on the stats button just to the left of where they were posting. How do people obsessed enough with the Cubs not have knowledge of, and ready access to, their website, schedule, stats, etc? Why should I click the links if I can get you to do it? :D

Not only is flu season in full swing, but a lot of these guys are making the trip to Phoenix from some extremely cold weather areas and the climate change causes all kinds of havoc this time of year. Not saying anyone that's missing any time is sick, but I'd tend to lean towards that being more likely to happen than guessing a trade is going down each time someone misses practice.

Exactly..Also the Jason Kidd trade..These trades happen out of nowhere and get done right away..Why do we have to wait so freakin long and hear rumors for like 4 months None of these other teams have fans that are made to suffer like Cub fans. :bye:

Something has to be happening. I think the Cubs have too many pieces they value but nowhere to put them. Murton, Marshall, Cedeno, Patterson and a handful of other guys who could net value in trade. I'd be on board with getting Roberts and Burnett or Harden, although Harden seems like a stretch considering Oakland really has no reason to move him at this point.

I seriously doubt it. Bonds doesn't let anyone sit in his lounge chair.

Has Ward ever been in good shape? I have to admit, I have been eyeballing Ward as a possible recruit to line up on the left side of the Bears offensive line. :wink: