BigbadB

A bunch of those guys will get looks in ST. Happens every year. Every team invites a long list of veteran's who aren't good enough to be on anyone's 40 man roster, but could make the team because of an injury or specific need.

While I was stuck in 1930, I decided to check out the worst team in the NL that year, which also happened to have Chuck Klein on the roster. There's a lot of cool stuff to check out. Baseball-Reference is fun! Philadelphia finished 1930 with a 52-102 record. Team Batting: .315 .365 .458 Team Pitching: 6.71 ERA 11 of the 14 pitchers who took the mound in 1930 had an ERA of 6.72 or worse. Errors by position: Catcher- 20 1b- 22 2b- 45 SS- 58 3b- 20 OF- 54 P- 20 That's a total of 239 errors. :shock:

While I was checking out Hack's 1930 season, I thought I would make sure there weren't any pitchers that were deserving to be mentioned with Wilson and Klein in the MVP voting, and I found this: Losses French-PIT 18 Frey-CIN 18 Willoughby-PHI 17 Lucas-CIN 16 Seibold-BSN 16 Kind of goofy, but French/Frey were the biggest losers in 1930.

Wonder why there wasn't an MVP in 1930. It was a two way race between Wilson and Chuck Klein.

He does have a newborn he probably prefers to spend as much time as possible with.

Are you referring to the Mike Ditka that has a Super Bowl ring?

This would be true. Sammy Sosa not only led the Cubs in strike outs, he's #2 behind only Reggie Jackson in career strike outs. Who really cares how someone makes an out? It's what you do when bat and meets ball. If Theriot never struck out and Peralta struck out 200 times per year, I'd take Peralta over Theriot all day long.

And what manager's job could he realistically find that would or could outdo taking a team with a 100 year WS drought and winning a World Series? That's a dream job, right there. But, can he pull it off?

I don't necessarily think anyone has to be moved at this point. Marlon Byrd making Murton expendable would be a downgrade to our #4 outfield position. Adding Byrd as a 5th outfielder would be an upgrade. I don't believe in making moves just to make moves to satisfy the fans who are bored with the offseason and just want to see something happen. The moves being proposed (Robers for Marshall, Gallagher and Cedeno) aren't moves that I'd be willing to make. A move like that would be lateral at best and could really damage the health of the organization at SS and in the rotation. I only support moves that improve the team or are complete non factors like a fringe prospect for a fringe prospect.

Kotsay has been a walking nagging injury for years now.

Disagree on Monroe. While the production might be the same or comparable, Monroe was likely going to win big in arbitration and that wasn't a gamble worth risking. The Cubs made a good move in getting rid of Monroe.

Has Stewart ever really been considered a CF? I've always seen him patrolling LF. If it came down to Byrd or Stewart, I'd rather have Byrd. I'd probably rather have Jay Payton over those 2 as well. But, then again, I'd rather just let Pie play. If a really tough lefty is scheduled to pitch, move Soriano to CF and let Murton play LF. When the tough lefty is done for the day, move Soriano back to LF and stick Pie in there. Free Pie and Cedeno!

I don't think you'll get anyone to disagree with you that Boston's offense is better than the Cubs offense. Boston's offense is MUCH better than the Cubs. But, that's a management problem. Boston recognizes you should spend 130m on OUTSTANDING players rather than GOOD players. I do like Soriano more than a lot of other people, but I know he's not worth the kind of money he makes. But, I wouldn't really call the Cubs line up nothing but a bunch of free swingers. Soriano is a free swinger. Jacque Jones was a free swinger, but he's gone and replaced by Fukudome, who appears to be nothing close to resembling a free swinger. I'd call Pie and Cedeno a couple of free swingers, but both have shown improvements in that area, and they both have time to develop a better approach at the plate. After those guys, I wouldn't call anyone else on the roster a "free swinger". We have to live with the fact the Cubs spent all that money on a free swinger. But, I think you can work around a free swinger like Soriano and still put together a good offensive team. Brian Roberts would improve the team, no doubt (depending on the value given up to get him). But, if you gave Piniella some Brian Roberts action, I most certainly wouldn't be surprised if Piniella's opening day line up looked like this: Soriano, Roberts, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome, Soto, Pie, Theriot Not only does Soriano have the ability to score just as much as a guy like Roberts, he'd have lots of opportunities to drive guys in and he'd drive in more than Brian Roberts would. If you switched Theriot out for Cedeno or DeRosa, I think Soriano would drive in more than 100 RBI with that line up. That's plenty valuable for a lead off hitter. No, you don't have to be qualified to post here. You have to be able to stand behind what you say, however. If you are going to call Soriano extremely overrated as a lead off hitter, you have to defend that stance, because many will disagree with you. I have respect for Stone. However, I can't stand behind everything he says. Heck, I can't necessarily stand behind everything I've said over the years. But, just because someone is very knowledgeable about baseball doesn't necessarily make them an expert on line up construction. And the first person I'd point a finger at is Dusty. Dusty is very knowledgeable about baseball. He's been in the game for years and years. But, that doesn't make him an expert nor does that knowledge translate to filling out a line up card. How many times did Neifi Perez bat at the top of the order again? Oh yeah. Too many times. I think you are right that teams should be adding players that have a good plate presence that improves the likelihood of scoring more runs. Robert is one of those guys. I'm just pointing out that Soriano is not extremely overrated in any aspect of the game, whether that's leading off, playing LF, running bases or throwing the ball. Sure, he's a free swinger. But, he's a free swinger with the capability of reaching 100 XBH's over the course of a season. Any team would find value in that no matter how much of a free swinger he is. Basically, it comes down to what happens to the baseball when that free swinger makes contact. In Soriano's case, good things happen.

I brought this post to your attention in another thread and you have completed ignored responding. So, I'll point it out again. Please show me how in the numbers above Soriano is an extremely overrated lead off hitter.

Cool. A Smokey and the Bandit reference.

Interesting. Not the big name I would have expected. Outside of the NL Central, does anyone even know who Jose Bautista is?

Wow you guys amaze me, its not a 5 year contract, its a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. He's been a decent bulpen arm in the past, I remember some games that year he blew his arm out when he looked real good. He's worth a look, and thats all this really is. Why do people have to get negative and talk down about a guy this way I dont really understand. Probably because Jim is making a bunch of moves like this instead of ones that could improve the team. I have nothing wrong with this signing, but I wonder if Fukudome is gonna be the only big move we make. I just hate to see Chad Fox blasted because of Hendry's ineptness, is ineptness a word?. Well you get my point. The word would be ineptitudeness. :wink:

Miller has some red flags to worry about. He got shut down last year because of some problems with his elbow. But, what do I care. I hope someone else gets him at this point, because I don't want Roberts if the cost is Marshall, Gallagher and Cedeno.

With limited bench options, it's difficult to hang on to a guy who can't play many positions. A team would really be doing a disservice by hanging onto a guy who can only play 2b and isn't good enough to be a starter. Daryle Ward can play either corner OF spot and 1b. Theriot can at least play 2b and SS, and Cedeno can play those two and 3b. Murton can play the corners and Blanco is behind the plate. One of Cedeno or Theriot will likely start at SS, which leaves you with a bench so far that can cover every position on the field except CF and only 1 opening if the team carries 11 pitchers. Fuld has the upper hand for that spot, but I'd guess they'll get someone outside the organization to fill it since it sounds like they want a RH complement to Pie. Fontenot will likely be playing 2b at Iowa unless Cedeno is involved in a trade, and even then I'm not so sure he has a spot on the team if he can't play SS.

He's got to be kidding. That would be a horrible deal. Yeah, it would be a horrible deal. But, I'd also like to point out that in a deal for Roberts, Pie would be a principle asset in a deal, not someone that you would include or throw in to get a deal done. So, I think this is a bit bogus as well.

And boy did Sammy make a big stink about moving down 2 places in the batting order. Imagine how much of a stink Soriano might make being asked to move down 5 places.

Is it possible that Cedeno was playing some outfield because some veteran guy who has a bit better MLB track record was gobbling up all the SS time and Cedeno would have to shift to the outfield to get more PT?

When did it go from Rosenthal to Levine? Nevermind, I have no idea who the author of this trade rumor is. I thought this was a Rosenthal rumor.

Now that they have Maybin, wouldn't it be less likely that Ramirez would move to CF. They had nobody to play there prior to nabbing Maybin. Oh and Ping, was Lugo battling injuries all of last year? What's his deal? And isn't he still due about 3/24m?

And since I'm on a bit of a roll right now, I'll add one more thing that I've touched on once before. Soriano is the highest paid player on the team for a reason. Now, maybe a lot of us aren't all that fond that he's the highest paid player on the team, but it is a fact that he has the biggest contract of anyone on the roster. With that said, you do not treat your star athlete like garbage. If he isn't producing like Sosa wasn't producing at the tail end of his term with the Cubs, that's one thing. If Soriano wants to bat first, it really may not matter what Piniella, Hendry and Stone (not sure why Stone is even listed let alone cares) think or want, you work around what your star player wants to do. Managers have lost their jobs over less. If you think back to Soriano's year in Washington, he was threatening to boycott the team if they moved him to the outfield. And while Soriano has been willing to move around in the outfield so far for the Cubs, that doesn't necessarily mean he'd be just as willing to slide all the way down to the 6th slot in the line up. That might be quite a slap in the face to Soriano. I could be off base, but if someone moved me from the top half of the batting order to the bottom half, I don't think I'd like that too much if I was the highest paid player on the team.