BigbadB

I don't like it either, but I think Cubs management does.

Anyone else able to sign in to ESPN today? I need to make a roster change for today but I can't get in.

As much as I'd love to see Izturis get cut, I seriously do not see it happening anytime soon. Marquis is an extreme ground ball pitcher, and I think Lou likes using Izturis at SS to get to more grounders than DeRosa, Fontenot or Theriot might get to. If somewhere down the line Lou finds that Fontenot's bat can make up for a few grounders that might get past him is worth cutting Izturis, only then will he be sent packing. Too small of a sample size at this point. Jones probably isn't going anywhere at this point. What team will take on his contract? Only a deal that sends a bad contract back will get the job done, and I wouldn't expect to see a deal like that right now, since most teams would rather shed contract rather than swap it. By deduction, Theriot will be sent to AAA. Unfortunately, this won't be a good move for him, since Cedeno and Patterson will likely gobble up most of the playing time.

Ehh, I didn't bother. No way I was gonna beat Tim's offer anyways. go ahead and offer. My deal was rejected and I was asked to include Upton. My deal is off the table as a result. Holy crap.

I may be out of the loop here, so forgive me if I'm offending anyone, but is Vance not playing any longer? No, Juan made a change. I've had the same problem w/ trade requests with that team as well. Who has the Severe Tooterstorms? Haven't heard back anything from him either. That's Matt and he's active. Trade offer must have sucked. :D

One less team to trade Jacque Jones to.

Hope he does it again tomorrow.

It wasn't even celebration. He was hopping sideways hoping to see it leave the park. It was pre-celebratory excitement that he may have just hit a walk off home run.

so he'll pry be thrown at tomorrow, correct? Aramis wasn't showboating. He was hopping and hoping, it least that's how I viewed it. Considering how many balls the wind has knocked down today, I don't think Aramis was 100% sure it was leaving the park.

Yeah, the OBP correlation to runs scored has been discussed ad nauseum around here, but I still think Hendry still doesn't get it. From 2003 to the end of 2004, he didn't know what OBP stood for. From the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2005, he learned what it stood for, but wrote it off as a fluke that OBP and runs scored are directly related. From the beginning of 2006 to the end of 2006, he purposely went out of his way to disprove the theory that OBP translates to run production. From the start of 2007 to present, he now understands what OBP is, how it translates to run production, and knows that his previous ignorance on such an important topic will likely shorten his GM career significantly. How did he finally learn in 2006 that OBP is directly related to run production? It was staring him right in the face. It was impossible to miss it. His pitching staff walked people, and those people scored. Over and over and over and over. Too bad the light went on way too late. They couldn't fire him quick enough to satisfy me, even in the midst of a 6 game winning streak.

And if the Cubs had money laying around to throw at Ramon Hernandez, couldn't we just throw it at Zambrano instead?

I've seen plenty of posts where someone announces that someone is available. This is the first time I noticed an actual player auction. If everyone's cool with public auctions, I'll keep quiet. no need to keep quiet - I think we do better with new opinions and a few heated debates. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Yeah, I'm opinionated. Hell, I poop opinions. And I rarely back out of a debate, even if it means taking the opposite side of my own beliefs. :D I like to stir things up. And I better get my way or there will be hell to pay. :P

I've seen plenty of posts where someone announces that someone is available. This is the first time I noticed an actual player auction. If everyone's cool with public auctions, I'll keep quiet.

I may be out of the loop here, so forgive me if I'm offending anyone, but is Vance not playing any longer? Fishbulb is in charge of that team from what I understand. He's made roster moves this week. The day he took over, I recall him setting up his "on the block" page. Has the trade proposal thingy been moved? It's always been in the upper right corner of the home page. Every time I read someone say "why isn't anyone responding to trade offers, I get paranoid that I might have missed one because it got moved.

I don't mean to criticize anyone. I just don't want to come to NSBB and open up the Roadkill forum and see 2 pages of So and So will go to the highest bidder. And not so much because I don't want to see 2 pages of it, but because it's more like a player auction than working a trade. And I suppose I'm not really bothered by making it known to everyone in the league that you would like to move players on your team, but.... "There is a hell of an offer out there right now for Maggs.. Anyone else that is willing to give up something of worth for him (future worth), make me an offer. Only 2 days remaining... " this is what bothered me. And I'd probably be even more bothered by it if I actually had an offer on the table that was very lopsided in favor of the guy trading Maggs, yet wouldn't be good enough if more could be swindled out of someone else.

I'd love to have Maggs on my team, but I'm not going to get into a bidding war for him. And I hope I don't have to get into a bidding war in the future for every other player who becomes available.

How is it different from what major league teams do at the deadline? It's too difficult for me to spell it all out on why I don't like it. Obviously, everyone wants a better return via trade than the player they are offering. To me, using NSBB and pimping the player and auctioning them off to the highest bidder just makes it seem unethical. I guess I'm just more old school with making a trade proposal or having someone else offer a trade proposal and accepting or rejecting based on whether you are getting enough to trade a player. Pimping them on NSBB and stating that the offers will need to be extremely impressive to beat other offers just doesn't sit right with me. If I'm the only one who sees it this way, I'll just shut up.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't say I'm fond of people auctioning off players like this. Maybe I'm in the minority on this, but to me it just doesn't seem right.

I really like this trait in Lou, but I have to admit I was a bit nervous considering what I saw in Tampa. Lou was running broken down veterans out there everyday instead of the kids, even though the broken down vets were putting up broken down production. I think a lot of the old school baseball minds tend to go with a veteran for an array of different reasons. One being to show respect to a guy who has managed to hold down a major league job for an extended period of time. Two, because they view a veteran as someone who is more likely to come up with a key hit because the veteran player has seen the pitcher on the mound before where the rookie hasn't. I have been pretty happy with Lou to this point. He's made a few boneheaded decisions, but I'm sure any manager would be guilty of that over the course of a long season. All one really has to do is to look around at the rest of the league and see that the kids are making contributions at a record pace. Cleveland is loaded with youth and battling Detroit for 1st in the AL Central. Arizona is young and battling for the NL West. Florida has a bunch of guys who are closer to their teenage years rather than their 30's, and while they aren't doing great in the standings, they have performed admirably considering. Jason Marquis is probably directly responsible for Cesar Izturis still wearing a Cub uniform. Lou runs Izturis out there when Marquis is on the mound, and this is a move I actually agree with. At least until Cedeno gets the call. I can tell that Lou values offensive production. I love Murton, but Floyd has produced much better than Murton. As Theriot's offensive struggles continue, Lou is finding more playing time for guys who are more productive. Yet, when Theriot was on fire, Lou was getting him out there very frequently. He rides out the hot streaks. If Murton put together a hot streak at any given time, I'm pretty certain Lou would ride it out with Murton in the starting line up. This is a breath of fresh air.

What to do with Cedeno. It is imperative that the Iowa Cubs win the World Series, so he must be kept in Iowa all year. All sarcasm aside...... If a guy looks like he can help the parent club now, by all means, promote him. Especially if he's replacing someone whose production is a drag on the parent team (ahem, Izturis, ahem). To me, this is a no brainer.

Fair enough. But, I view things a bit differently in regards to team chemistry. Team chemistry is directly related to winning. The Brewers are winning games and the Cubs haven't been. When you are losing games nearly everday, fingers start getting pointed looking for excuses for why the team is losing. When a team is winning, everything seems to run much smoother and everyone is happy and not looking for excuses for why they are winning. Earlier in the year, I heard the rumblings of the Jenkins/Mench playing time. If Cordero was blowing save chances frequently, I'm sure there would be some Cordero/Turnbull heated discussions. The Brewers model for growth is a good one. Develop your own talent and fill in where the weaknesses are. It's not a new model. It's a tried and true model. The Cubs haven't been successful at this. But, I am starting to see sort of an opposite model forming. The Cubs have recruited players to fill the weaknesses and are now filling in the holes with developed talent. Not talent to the Brewers level, but talent that can at least be decent role players. The Brewers have the leg up on winning the division because of the current record. I think it would take an injury or two for them to lose it. But, the Cubs are in a position to continue this turnaround. It might be too late, but it could get exciting in the coming months. Or, it might just be time to pack up the season. This series coming up is rather important. It might just dictate how the season plays out.

What does having only one starting position player that isn't home grown have anything to do with one team being more complete than another? The Brewers are a Ben Sheets injury away from falling back to the world of mediocrity. I'll honestly be very surprised if the Brewers end up running away with this division. The Cubs are a much better team than how they have actually played to this point. The Brewers are a good team, but I think they've played over their heads a bit to this point. Therefore, it's easy to state that it's quite feasible for the Brewers to regress a bit while the Cubs bring it all together. Doesn't mean it will happen, but that's what many Cub fans are hoping. Or do you believe all Cub fans should hope for the opposite?

How did I know that you would further elaborate on your point from earlier in this discussion? :D

Loretta is a better player than Biggio. I'm fine with this. Bonds might have a tough time getting 756 at home. I can see it now. He's sitting at 755 with a 7 game road trip. He sits out all 7 games, then comes back to San Fran, where the opposing pitchers walk him each time he comes to the plate in fear that they might be the guy who served up the home run that broke a legendary record held by a man of class. Who wants to be that pitcher?

Agreed on the last part. The Yankees have moved many players and picked up most if not all of the contract. Javier Vasquez to Arizona is one that comes to mind.