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BigbadB

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Everything posted by BigbadB

  1. BigbadB
    It would be even nicer if Harvey did something significant to deserve a top 10 rating.
  2. BigbadB
    Not to mention the fact he could get another long contract after his 6 year contract is up.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. BigbadB
    I'd say Wood is a better prospect than Ramirez. Wood has incredible power potential at a position that has so few guys with that kind of power potential. If I made a deal with Anaheim, Wood would need to be one of the guys in the deal. Period. Maybe they couldn't get Adenhart as well, but I'd want at least one other prospect. Maybe Mathis or Saunders?
  15. BigbadB
    I consider Z a better pitcher than Beckett, what did the Marlins get for him? It's impossible to determine. Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota were included in the Beckett deal and netted Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Harvey Garcia and Jesus Delgado. Garcia and Delgado probably aren't enough for Lowell and Mota, though Florida is a bit of a different team when it comes to dumping contracts. The same Florida Marlins traded Derrek Lee for Hee Seop Choi and Mike Nannini. Lowell and Mota were probably a similar dump. Beckett should have netted Ramirez and Sanchez by himself, but there is no way to really determine that from the trade.
  16. BigbadB
    It will be interesting to see how hard they abuse Carlos in 2007 given the risk of losing him to free agency, too.
  17. BigbadB
    The Angels seem like the perfect trade partner. Arte Moreno and Carlos Zambrano is like a match made in heaven. Brandon Wood is exactly what the Cubs need more than anything. Wood will be 22 in a few weeks and hasn't played above AA ball yet, but in 2005, the guy had 98 XBH's in 130 games. Last year, he had 71 XBH's in 118 games. The guy can mash. He's got A-Rod type production at SS. If the Cubs could get Wood and a top flight pitching prospect as well, someone like Adenhart, I'd do it in a heartbeat. This is assuming Prior is going to be healthy. If the Cubs had a guy like Brandon Wood at SS, which pushes Izturis into a bench role, this offense would have the capability to make bad pitchers look good.
  18. BigbadB
    To be fair, Pierre was not a worthless ballplayer in 2003. As a lead off man, he got on base at a very respectable clip. He has trended downwards since then. His walk rate has plummeted and he won't always hit .300, which really drags on the production he provides.
  19. BigbadB
    I'm torn on this one. I wanted Z locked up. I think it's absolutely silly that Hendry finds himself in this position after spending 300+ million dollars this offseason and Zambrano doesn't have a contract past 2007. That's on Jim. Jim is probably in a no-win situation now because of it. If Arte Moreno approached Hendry and offered up Brandon Wood and Adenhart or Weaver, I'd have a tough time not making that deal. You stick Brandon Wood at SS with the rest of this line up and you may not need a Zambrano pitching every 5th game to win more games than you lose. Realistically, I don't see Hendry pulling the trigger on a deal like that. I think he's made his bed and now he has to lie in it. Zambrano will play out the season and he'll leave as a free agent. The Yankees WILL give Zambrano what he wants. They gave Mike Mussina 17-19m a year many years ago, they'll do it again for someone of Z's caliber. The Cubs will not be out of contention at the trade deadline, so deadline trades for Zambrano aren't going to be an option. I like Z a lot. But, given a choice at this point, I would definitely explore a trade. I don't see Hendry doing it though. His job is on the line this season. His career as a GM is on the line this season. He can't afford another losing season, especially after spending 300+ million.
  20. BigbadB
    I was the under the impression that "affording" Zambrano isn't the problem, but rather worries about injuries (ala the last two long contracts we gave to pitchers). Santana is consistently the best pitcher in baseball. And he's 27. Why wouldn't one worry about an injury to Santana, but at the same time worry about an injury to Zambrano? I don't get it. In the last 3 years, Santana has averaged over 230 innings. The most innings Zambrano has thrown in a season is 223. The next highest is 214. Granted, Zambrano gets left in too long in many games, but there is no way to no whether Santana or Zambrano can or can't handle the extra abuse they each have been put through. Not all pitchers have the same threshold.
  21. BigbadB
    So, Cabrera does his best imitation of a Marlin fan, which is to not attend Marlins baseball games, and someone is upset with him? Cool.
  22. BigbadB
    There is never a reason for the opposing pitcher to waste so many pitches attempting to strike out Juan Pierre. He will rarely hurt you with a bat, so you're better off throwing fastballs right down broadway and let him bounce out to the 2b.
  23. BigbadB
    If we can't afford Zambrano, how do we afford Santana?
  24. BigbadB
    Something went very wrong with those quotes. :D
  25. BigbadB
    Statistical evidence isn't needed. I watched the 2006 season. I watched Juan Pierre play. I am so thankful that Pierre is no longer the Cubs problem, that I can't stop thanking someone, anyone, for kicking him to the curb this offseason. A guy who hits .300 that can't get on base any better than .330 has no business batting anywhere but the bottom of a batting order. Period.
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