BigbadB

I'd see what it would take to get Jhonny Peralta.

Surprisingly, he's only 34. But, 2006 was his last major league season, and he put up a mammoth -7 OPS+.

I'd rather see Cedeno at SS rather than Theriot, but that's just me.

Your linky no worky. Who did the Cardinals get?

We have a speedy lead off guy. Soriano. I don't think you'd be offering nearly enough for Teahen and Greinke.

Every crappy player that inexplicably became good when the joined the Cardinals 25 man roster. And someone beat me to it with Joe Morgan. Oh, and I don't need proof for Brady Anderson.

Watch out for my boy Max Scherzer at the back end of that rotation. Woot!

Uh oh. Sounds like Orlando Hudson is about to be moved. Wasn't Hendry interested in him? Maybe with the Roberts stuff going on, this is Hendry's new target?

Carlos Gonzalez is REAL good. Other than that, I don't know that much about those other guys.

This was posted at Rotoworld on December 6th: Agent Jaime Torres said he met with five teams with interest in Alexei Ramirez at the meetings and is likely to talk to two more. The Indians sent a scout to watch Ramirez in the Dominican Republic last week and could be one of the teams. It's unclear whether Ramirez, a Cuban defector, is yet eligible to field offers from MLB teams. As of last week, he still has residency issues to clear up.

Wow!

Say no to Cameron. He's suspended for the first 25 games of the season AND he would cost draft picks. The Padres offered him arbitration.

I'm in agreement with most everyone that they could "live" with what they have, but it would be nice to have an upgrade at SS or SP. With that said, I think the team also needs more lefty bench depth. As it stands, you're probably looking at Ward and one of Pagan or Fuld as your lefty bench depth. That's it. It would be nice if we had a bench guy with Floyd pop that can play some 3b. I don't know what's going on with Corie Koskie, but if he's able to play in 2008, he might make for a decent bench option. About the closest thing we have on the farm is Matt Craig. Do the Cubs want that much inexperience sitting on the bench though?

Well, what we really want to know is....... Do you dig the long ball? :D

I agree unless Hendry is determined to get another second baseman. I don't think Hendry is determined to get another second baseman. I think he's determined to get another lefty bat in the line up. If that lefty bat came from SS, C or 2b, it probably wouldn't matter that much to Hendry. Of course, by changing to this course, he makes himself look rather stupid. He's the one who gave long term deals to Lee, Ramirez, Soriano and DeRosa, all right handers and playing some positions that it is easier to find left handed hitters than say SS and C.

You guys are right and I'm wrong. What more is there to say? I want you, just once, to support your claim in some way other than some blanket statement about it being your opinion. Is that a lot to ask? Wait a minute. Opinions must be supported by facts or stats now? Wow, I'm totally out of the loop. yeah, good opinions usually are. Well, I'm glad you said that. Because I'd like to see some facts or stats to back up what I am assuming is your opinion that "good opinions usually are". :wink:

You guys are right and I'm wrong. What more is there to say? I want you, just once, to support your claim in some way other than some blanket statement about it being your opinion. Is that a lot to ask? Wait a minute. Opinions must be supported by facts or stats now? Wow, I'm totally out of the loop.

I think a lot of people are writing off Marshall because there's already 2 solid lefties in the rotation and a third is a bit redundant. It has sounded like Hendry would like to package Marshall all offseason for some offense, and I don't have a problem with that. If the season started tomorrow, I would hope that Gallagher won the 5th starter's job. I'd rather NOT see Dempster in there.

That's my most important requirement in any and all Cub acquisitions. Someone get Hendry on the phone. :D

Zambrano, Hill and Marshall are all products of the system. If we freaked out fans had our say, Tracshel would never have replaced Marshall in the rotation last year, even though he was also a product of the Cubs system many moons ago. Arizona was supposed to have Randy Johnson, Doug Davis and Livan Hernandez in their rotation last year. Bad example. They had more products of someone else's system for their rotation. Of all the guys Arizona put in their rotation last year, only 2 are products of their own system, Webb and Owings. Colorado ran Jeff Francis, Josh Fogg, Rodrigo Lopez, Aaron Cook and Jason Hirsch out there last year, and only Jeff Francis is a product of their own system. They did add Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales to the rotation later, and they are products of the system, but Elmer Dessens, Taylor Buccholz and Mark Redman got starts, and they are not products. Bad examples.

Why am I typing under what appears to be your sig line? Hmmm. Anyway, if Selig did that, he'd be in a ton of hot water with the player's union.

almost nobody is expecting him to be as good as last year. i'd even say that most aren't expecting an OPS above .800. but soto did have much more of a breakout year than theriot, who never put up outstanding numbers for even one year in the minors. so nobody really thought that theriot had a "just-figured-it-all-out" moment, whereas Soto seems as if he may have really taken off. plus soto is a very good defender and has also shown pretty good discipline, and he's at a position where the cubs have no other acceptable options. even a league-average catcher would be just fine considering the price. Exactly. Every player that gets to first base won't be automatically given the green light with Soto behind the dish, and our pitching staff is in love with walking people, therefore a lot of guys get to 1b. That's significant by itself. How many catchers are there that are really good on offense, defense and controlling a game? Very few. You pretty much have to take what you can get behind the dish. The reason guys like Henry Blanco keep jobs at the major league level is because of the importance of defense and holding runners. Any offense at all is a plus. I don't view SS as being nearly as significant as C in that realm. Theriot isn't really "good" at anything. He has decent range, a decent glove and a poor throwing arm. He's below average at the plate.

If Bonds and Clemens run around denying it like they already are, then I don't see it as a big surprise if the voters shun them from the HOF.

The Clemens stuff just broke yesterday. Can we give it a bit more time before we determine who has been more publicly caned? I'm almost certain that Clemens could be hated just as much as Barry Bonds before this is all over. But, to be hated as much as Barry Bonds is not such an easy task. Bonds crapped on fans long before the first steroid story broke. I didn't watch most of the Mitchell report stuff yesterday, but the one thing that I did hear and struck me as rather stupid was Clemens stating that this trainer is lying to avoid jail time. If I am to understand Clemens correctly, MacNamee made a bunch of stuff up to avoid prosecution? Wouldn't perjury and slander be a worse offense than buying some mail order steroids for someone else's use? If there is one thing I hate more than guys who used steroids, it's guys who lie about whether or not they took steroids. THAT is what will end up being Clemens undoing. I know, I know. Innocent until proven guilty. Not necessarily in the court of public opinion, however. Some of these guys should think about how lying cost Pete Rose a whole lot more than just telling the truth.

My feelings also, pretty much. It sucks, but what can you do? Hey, anyone want my Prior road jersey? What size is it? How funky is it? Alright, I see I'm creating a windstorm. I'll send it to Laura to use as a future prize on NSBB. It's an XL and probably only worn 3 times.