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BigbadB

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Everything posted by BigbadB

  1. BigbadB
    Couldn't they at least go with a soft green lettering with the dark green background? Ugh.
  2. BigbadB
    It would look better with a big #21 painted on the side of it.
  3. BigbadB
    Enough with the personal stuff. Hey, I made a rhyme.
  4. BigbadB
    A little bit more? Haha. Hendry has spent over 300m this offseason already. Signing Z to his demands will push it over 400m. As far as a little bit more money than the payroll, the Cubs are WAY over the amount that was allotted for payroll last year. Kind of makes the Jason Marquis deal seem a bit foolish now, eh? And the Cliff Floyd incentive laden deal? Yikes.
  5. BigbadB
    Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez, Ryan Wagner to Washington for Bill Bray, Gary Majewski, Brendon Harris, Royce Clayton and Daryl Thompson. Do you have any idea what I would have given up for Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns? Bill Bray seems like a decent bullpen arm. Nothing more, nothing less. Gary Majewski is damaged goods. Brendon Harris is now a Tampa Bay Devil Ray, Royce Clayton is now a Toronto Blue Jay. I've never even heard of Daryl Thompson. That trade will rank as one of the worst ever when all is said and done.
  6. BigbadB
    You know Nomar was kicking himself for not taking that big deal with Boston. He lost a lot of money by not signing that deal.
  7. BigbadB
    I wasn't comparing the deals, I was comparing the attitudes people have of Wood and Zambrano. Also, I'm not entirely opposed to giving Zambrano Zito money, the man deserves it. He's what, 26? Jesus guys. I'd give it to him too. The question is, does Hendry have it to give to Zambrano? After giving the big money out to all these other guys, I'm not so sure he has the money to offer Z. He had an opportunity to lock up Zambrano before he paid out money to Lilly, Floyd and Marquis. He didn't do it. Now he risks losing him to someone WHO WILL give Zambrano Zito money next year, maybe more. If that happens, should Hendry lose his job? Absolutely. My desire to trade Zambrano now is only to attempt to get more than a couple of draft picks when Zambrano leaves. I believe Zambrano won't be back if he isn't signed before this season starts. No way will the Cubs be able to outbid the Yankees.
  8. BigbadB
    What are Hester's chances of being a starting corner someday?
  9. BigbadB
    I think you're stretching things a bit. Derrek Lee was his same old self his first year with the Cubs. He truly had a great year in 2005. There is no way of knowing if that one year was an aberration or not. There is also no way of knowing if there will be lasting effects from the wrist injury. Aramis was good before he became a Cub. The .300/.350/.536 season he put up in 2001 was right on par with his last 2 seasons in Chicago. Jacque Jones did nothing more in Chicago last year than he has done in Minnesota. Barrett has been a better player as a Cub, but he has always been advertised to be that player. He was a #1 pick in the draft. What you failed to mention was the list of players who have not performed as expected. Moises Alou, Corey Patterson, Jeromy Burnitz, Jerry Hairston, Juan Pierre, etc..... I think this team will be pretty good. I just hope Piniella has a different philosophy from Dusty on how to make a team win.
  10. BigbadB
    I'm one that voted no. I don't see it happening. I won't be happy about it either. Who would be? Lilly and Marquis or Zambrano? The choice is pretty simple.
  11. BigbadB
    From everything I've gathered so far, DeRosa and Izturis are the top two candidates to bat 2nd. Since Izturis would be the absolute worst option there of anyone on the roster, I'm hoping for DeRosa. I would be thrilled to see Murton there and I hope that the real choice ends up being between Murton and DeRosa. I'd probably prefer Murton bat ahead of Barrett if Murton is not batting 2nd, but I'm not sure that will happen. You have to figure on days that Blanco plays, you definitely don't want Blanco hitting ahead of Murton. In other words, a set line up of: Soriano DeRosa Lee Ramirez Jones Floyd/Murton Barrett Izturis would keep things somewhat consistent from day to day.
  12. BigbadB
    I've always been under the impression that Jones wanted out, and Hendry tried to accommodate him. I'm glad he's coming back, and I'm equally glad he's withdrawn his request to leave. But, Jones should sit vs. LHP. That may not sit well with Jones, but I really don't think he has any clout in the matter.
  13. BigbadB
    It would be even nicer if Harvey did something significant to deserve a top 10 rating.
  14. BigbadB
    Not to mention the fact he could get another long contract after his 6 year contract is up.
  15. BigbadB
    To me, that's way too risky for a pitcher like Z. It should be all about years and cash, because you never know when your arm is going to fall off.
  16. BigbadB
    Way to take well thgouht out and nuanced opinions and reduce them to their lowest common denominator. its what i do. Seriously though it does seem strange how fast you guys are abandoning Zambrano. It doesn't seem like that to you? Nobody is abandoning Zambrano. The reality is that he's about to become a free agent, and it's doubtful, IMO, that the Cubs will pony up the money to keep him. That being the case, if I could get 2 or more major league ready prospects that could help this team now and into the future or a couple of draft picks that won't be able to help until 2010, I'll take what I can get now. Can the Cubs outbid the Yankees next year? I'm thinking not.
  17. BigbadB
    And likewise on the case of beer. Cleveland will be scoring runs this year like they are going out of style. Marte will definitely want to share in the fun. But, he really doesn't have to be much better than Boone was for this team to win the division. They just need Sowers to continue to be red hot and Byrd to be better than he was last year, and Westbrook and Lee to keep them in games.
  18. BigbadB
    By the way, guess what team finished dead last in runs scored from the lead off spot? Juan Pierre and the Chicago Cubs. Only 4 teams had a worse OBP from the lead off spot than the Cubs. Juan Pierre (Cubs) had the 8th best AVG in MLB. It's not the hits that hurt Pierre, it's the inability to draw a walk that hurts him. The Cleveland Indians lead off hitters scored 51 more times than the Cubs lead off hitters in 2006. Batting average comparison between the 2? .290 and .294. Hit comparison? 204 to 197. Not much difference. The big difference? .378 OBP to .329. 80 walks for Cleveland and 33 for the Cubs (Pierre). That's almost the whole difference in runs scored. It's all about OBP at the top of the order. Pierre doesn't have it anymore.
  19. BigbadB
    What about his 2006 can he not repeat? The Cubs 2007 offense is a much stronger offense than the 2006 Nats. The Cubs play in the friendliest hitting division in the NL. In other words, playing more regularly in Wrigley, GAP, Minutemaid, the New Busch, PNC and Miller is a huge difference over playing half your games in Washington and some of the other tough hitter's parks in the NL East. While he did draw more intentional walks last year than all of his previous years combined, what might he have done with those "non at bats" that might have improved his numbers even more? His OPS+ of 132 isn't all that much better than the OPS+ of 131 and 128 he's put up in previous seasons. While I would expect his OBP to drop a little bit, I expect his AVG to go up. A .295/.345 season would be pretty good for a lead off hitter. Especially when you consider the .295 AVG comes with a really good SLG. Of course, it's also possible that he'll continue improving his eye at the plate and provide an even better OBP than he did last year. He scored 119 runs last year compared to Pierre's 87. That's 32 runs difference. Pierre can keep leading the league in hits and outs made. I'll take Soriano's production in the lead off spot all day and try to forget Juan Pierre was ever a Cub.
  20. BigbadB
    I think he'll have more than 20 HR's this year, but I suppose we'll just have to wait until the season plays out. He's never hit more than 23 in any minor league season, but minor league seasons are approximately 2/3 of a major league season. He's projected to hit 19, but I still think he'll hit 25 at the least. He's going to get a lot of at bats in that Cleveland line up, which will probably have a team OBP somewhere around .355-.360. The opportunities will be there. If Peralta figures out what caused his drop off last year and corrects it, there may not be a single easy out in that line up.
  21. BigbadB
    You don't expect Marte to do much? He won't need to do much to outproduce Aaron Boone. .251/.314/.370 isn't hard to match. Marte has 30 HR power. Can you name the 10-15 teams that will have better rotations? Sabathia 3.22 ERA, 139 ERA+ Sowers 3.57 ERA, 125 ERA+ Westbrook 4.17, 107 ERA+ Lee 4.40 ERA, 102 ERA+ Byrd 4.48 ERA, 92 ERA+ Last year was Byrd's worst showing in several years. Maybe he's really falling off a cliff. If not, you have a very solid rotation right there.
  22. BigbadB
    Can you name a better lead off hitter than Soriano was last year? I don't think I can. While the lead off hitter definitely doesn't get any RBI chances outside of hitting a home run in his very first at bat, the same can't be said of all the rest of his at bats, unless he's leading off an inning. I would probably argue that Jacque Jones is probably a better CFer than Lofton at this point. Lofton is one of my all time favorite players in this league, but he's not even close to being an everyday player anymore. He has Juan Pierre arm strength. Jones has a decent arm, he just has to work on his release point. Soriano has the capability of starting a game off 1-0 with 1 swing of the bat. His line drive power can also put him on 2nd or 3rd base with one swing of the bat. His speed allows him to steal a base. I have some reservations about his OBP in general, but if it's anywhere close to what he did last year, the production guys in the middle of the order are going to be very happy with Mr. Soriano hitting in the lead off spot. If DeRosa puts up an OBP and SLG like he did last year, the Cubs are going to score a lot of runs this year.
  23. BigbadB
    Anyone poking fun at Cleveland is in for quite a surprise. Their rotation is just about as good as any other team in baseball with Sabathia Lee Westbrook Byrd Sowers They beefed up the bullpen in the offseason to protect leads, and it's arguably the best bullpen in the AL Central. The offense will score a lot of runs. Marte, Peralta, Barfield and Garko is as young and talented as it gets. The outfield with Jason Michaels, Trot Nixon, Grady Sizemore, David Delucci and Casey Blake makes for a lot of mix and match for quality results. And I have yet to mention Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez. They scored a lot of runs last year and only replaced the non-productive guys like Aaron Boone, Ronnie Belliard and Ben Broussard. This team will be very good this year. No one will run away with the division. Even the Royals are much better than they were last year.
  24. BigbadB
    I don't mind this deal. I'd be upset if it was anyone any better than Ryu. Ryu was probably destined for the bullpen at Iowa. The Iowa rotation could be quite crowded.
  25. BigbadB
    I'd give him mediocre status with his .330 OBP if he had something of value to offer other than speed. He doesn't, therefore he's horrible. Poor routes to fly balls, weenie arm, no power and gets caught stealing way too much for my liking. All told, horrible is a pretty good definition. He wasn't always horrible. He was serviceable in 2003 and 2004. Mediocre would be another good terminology. LA can have him and he won't be missed. If he wore #43, it would be a thing of beauty.
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