BigbadB

According to Rotoworld, the Mets offered to throw in Estrada into the deal as a freebie and the Nats didn't want him. Whose Cheerios did Estrada pee in? Wow.

What would Minnesota do with Jeff Clement? I don't understand the mention of him here. Play him at catcher. Yeah. Cause that Mauer dude sucks. :D

Or, will Jim sneak up on Cesar first? We need to follow this closely. Closely? I'm not sure this is something I would want to be anywhere near.

That's some serious money you're spending between Bonds, Tejada and Fukudome. 30m at least.

There's no room in the Cubs state of the art clubhouse for Bond's lounge chair.

I always thought it was strange how they blocked Milledge with guys like Shawn Green. And now they sell him, when his value is at the lowest, during an offseason where overpriced CF's are cashing in everywhere. I'm perplexed. I'm perplexed, but moreso with the Cubs for not creating more value for their own players. Pie, Murton and Cedeno just aren't getting a fair shake. Trading any of them now will not net the return they could or should. You could probably make that same argument for Marshall. The need to get the 3rd lefty arm out of the rotation in favor of a crappy RH veteran just doesn't generate much trade value.

Santana has an NTC. Ain't happenin'.

I always thought it was strange how they blocked Milledge with guys like Shawn Green.

Colby Rasmus for Chris Capuano! I'm all for it.

This deal does still pale in comparison to trading Greg Maddux for Izturis. But, I'll take it.

I'm curious what they plan to do with Dmitri Young next year. If Nick Johnson is back and healthy, I suppose he makes for a nice bat off the bench. But, you would think some AL team would be interested in Young as a DH.

They didn't give up much to get Kearns and Lopez, either.

Wow, right before the weekend. The outdoor barbecues will be abuzz of such an impact acquisition. I congratulate Cardinals fans everywhere.

Brian Schneider is talented? Talented might not be the correct word, but the Nats liked him enough to get rid of Barrett some years ago.

Wow! :shock: I've been hearing lots of teams are not impressed with Milledge and actually preferred Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez over Milledge, and the Nats are giving up quite a bit of talent for Milledge.

My guess would be that it has happened, and probably on more than one occasion. While '03 Florida did have Juan Pierre and Luis Castillo batting at the top of the order, the rest of their line up featured all RH hitters except for the platoon of Hollandsworth and Conine. That same year, the Cubs only had Lofton (who replaced Patterson) and Simon platooning with Karros. Here was the Cubs roster in 2003: Lofton, Grudz, Sosa, Alou, Ramirez, Karros, Miller, Gonzalez

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070526/ai_n19179908 Nice find. Needs to be kept in context, though. Lou would like a LH bat that can hit LH pitching. But having a lefty bat to keep the lefty pitcher from getting grooved is obviously not an overarching priority for Lou. If so, he wouldn't have been taking the lefty bats that he did have (Jones, Floyd, Fontenot) out of the lineup versus LHP. It's also clearly not *the* driving factor in Lou's quest for lefty swingers this offseason either. For example, it's clear that the interest in matsui was impacted by his swinging lefty. But not because he'd swing lefty vs LHP and disrupt them, since he bats righty versus lefty pitchers. This is a preference for Lou, not a decision maker. If he thought Jones could hit LHP as well as Craig Monroe, he'd have preferred to keep Jones in the lineup. But even in the final week he was replacing Jones with Monroe because the disrupt-the-pitcher preference was outweighed by the Jones-can't-hit-lefties factor. In the case of the lefty outfielder that they want, I'm sure they'd really like a guy who could be an every-day guy and didn't need to be removed every time a lefty pitched. But for the lefty infielder they want, I think somebody who can hold his own versus RHP while batting lefty will be hard enough to find, getting one who can hit lefties while swinging left-handed, those are rare and more expensive than Hendry is likely to afford. Aside from the fact it's a waste of roster space to have a bunch of outfielders that can only hit right or lefties.

I don't think so. I think we have in house candidates that might be better. Kroeger, Patterson and Fuld all hit lefty and should be slated for AAA.

The only impact bat that I see that meets the Cubs requirements outside of Fukudome is Milton Bradley. Geoff Jenkins is probably next in line, but I think I'd rather see them grab Jose Guillen over Jenkins, but they won't do that.

You mean like a lefty batting practice tosser? :D I'm not sure there is a SS upgrade over Ronny Cedeno. Just give the kid the job and have Theriot take the super utility spot. You could have him platoon with Pie in CF (if Cubs management REALLY MUST) and call it good. Murton will not get the starting gig in RF. Cubs management wants a lefty bat, and realistically, that's about the only roster spot they will be able to fill that need. All the talk this offseason has been Fukudome, Crawford and Jenkins, all lefty hitters. Others who might fill that spot are Shawn Green and Milton Bradley.

That would be pretty tough for Hendry to stay involved with Fukudome, I'd think. Getting a LH RFer has been his primary objective since the season ended. Most all teams are trying to shape their rosters and their budgets. Does Hendry really want to freeze that hunt and sit out the winter meetings and all of the roster resolutions that other clubs are making during December in order to wait for Fukudome? Unless he's really confident/sure that he's going to get Fukudome anyway, or that some desirable alternative will still be available in January, wouldn't stalling a Fukudome decision really paralyze absolutely everything else that hendry can do? So much so that Hendry might decide he can't wait any longer, and needs to get what he can here before it's too late? Agreed. Which really makes me despise the Jacque Jones trade even more. To me, you don't trade a commodity unless you have a replacement already locked up.

soxprospects.com Wasn't Sam Fuld rated higher than Ellsbury while in college? Maybe Fuld doesn't have Ellsbury's ceiling, but I find the two somewhat comparable. Granted, Fuld is 2 years older than Ellsbury, but..... Fuld's minor league career numbers: .296 .377 .417 794 Ellsbury's minor league career numbers: .313 .389 .425 814

The problem is that there aren't many upgrade options at SS.

Dave Roberts is also old enough to be Juan Pierre's father.

The Twins don't have to be in any hurry. If they keep pitting NYY vs. Boston, I wonder how high they can get the package upped. I think it would be hilarious if by February NYY was offering Chamberlain, Hughes, Cano and Cabrera and Boston was offering Ellsbury, Lester, Buchholz and Lowrie and Minnesota was still holding out.