BigbadB

What does that have to do with my post? I listed those players and stated that the alarmist reaction is justified. Could Tomas Perez end up being more than just a spring training invite? Oh yes, he most definitely could. By the way, that list of players accumulated well over 3000 at bats as Chicago Cubs during the Hendry/Dusty era. We, as fans, are supposed to support Hendry for making the same mistakes that other GM's have already made? A strange pattern I see is that Hendry makes these same mistakes once these bad players were well past their prime. Many of those players on my list were out of baseball completely after their stint with the Cubs.

Matt Peterson. What are your feelings about Pittsburgh this year, Jake? Bay, Bautista, Nady would make for a pretty good outfield. If they can get LaRoche somehow, the offense should be pretty good this year.

Jose Macias, Neifi Perez, Damian Jackson, Enrique Wilson, Rey Ordonez, Tony Womack, Jerry Hairston Jr., Cesar Izturis, Freddie Bynum, Ramon Martinez, Alex Gonzalez, Lenny Harris, Jose Hernandez and Augie Ojeda is a quick list of guys who got major league at bats during the Hendry/Dusty era and should never have been anything more than spring training invites. Shall I list the outfielders next or has a point been made that the alarmist responses are justified?

Who do you have starting at Iowa? Cedeno?

I remember when Wade Miller and Kerry Wood were 2 of the most feared pitchers in the league. 2 of the absolute best young pitchers climbing through the ranks. They reminded me a lot of each other. Big Texas guys that could really bring it. High K rates. If each of the Cub starting pitchers were as good as they have been in past years, 1) this rotation would be unaffordable and 2) they would challenge the best rotation of any team, ever. Zambrano, Prior, Wood, Miller, Lilly/Marquis/Hill etc... But, they can still be a good rotation, but there are a lot of ifs that need to be answered.

Can we really be sure his OPS has bottomed out? I think it's reasonable that it could get worse.

I would like to make a few corrections regarding Dempster. He got plenty of work last year. The problem was it was sporadic and rarely was it ever to actually protect a lead. I'm pulling for him to do well this year. The pen should be a strength with a better starting rotation.

Wasn't Joe Garragiola Jr. one of the primary cash cows during the Colangelo days?

I recall that the Cubs did have interest, but I also believe that was before Washington changed their tune about wanting to trade him so badly. Washington was ready to move him at one point for a pack of trading cards. Then, when teams showed interest, they were asking for all the actual players inside that pack of trading cards. This market has been really ridiculous. What happened to the good old days of fair trades?

I think steroids impacted the game. But, the time frame also coincides with "juiced" baseballs, smaller and offensive oriented parks opening up, expansion in each league, which drained the quality of pitching, etc... I also think there was more focus on "beefing up". Advancements in physical conditioning, dietary supplements (legal or illegal) and the demand of power hitting in the game probably also contributed to the increase.

Product of the ridiculous market price this offseason? I agree that a lot of work obviously still needs to be done. If Tampa goes into the season with all those outfielders and that crappy starting rotation, I will not feel sorry for them. LA and Phily have too many starters. And it makes absolutely ZERO sense to be looking for someone to replace Jones in CF, unless the replacement is BETTER than Jones.

Mike Fontenot never had a future as a utilityman, because he doesn't do any of the things you'd want a utility guy to do. He can't really play anywhere other than 2B (ruling out the utility part), his defense is average at best (ruling him out as a late-innings defensive replacement), he doesn't run particularly well (scratch pinch-running). If he can't hit enough to stick in MLB as an everyday 2B (or at least a platoon 2B), then he's out of luck. It would appear that with the Cubs anyway, he's out of luck. I don't see why you think defensive replacement and pinch running are the only uses for a bench player. If he can hit enough to be a quality pinch hitter, then a player is worth keeping around. A bench player's greatest asset is his bat. There's practically an unlimited supply of all glove no stick guys that can be brought in, there aren't many that can hit. I have no idea if Fontenot could, but his minor league numbers suggest he at least stands a chance. If he came close to replicating his minor league numbers in the majors (obviously not a guarantee), he'd be a perfectly suitable bench option. But I'm interested in this Kinkade guy on the bench. Career .350 OBP in the majors, 102 OPS+, and solid minor league numbers. With minimal compensation, a guy like this has a chance to provide some help from the bench. Yeah, I agree with Kinkade. Sounds like a good bench guy. I don't see any reason at all to keep Cedeno on the big league roster. He either needs to work on his development in AAA at SS or get cut loose. If he can't hit his weight at the major league level playing everyday, I see no hope of any kind of improvement playing sporadically as a bench guy. McGehee intrigues me as well. That could end up being the battle for that last roster spot in ST, McGehee vs. Kinkade.

If you would have made me guess, I probably would have said Ken Holtzman.

Not to change the subject from talentless midgets, but why is Jason Alexander in your avatar? :D

But Lou likes midgets. But, what kind of midgets does Lou like? I'd be shocked if he liked limited talent midgets.

Yeah, I get XM in my wife's van, but that's it. I might have to call XM and see what I can do to get it on a portable, because I'm not going to sit in the wife's van when I want to hear a game. :D

I think a lot of these guys vote from their heart rather than facts. I just can't care about the HOF. People like Ron Santo, who not only have HOF credentials as a baseball player, but has dedicated his entire life to the sport, aren't in the Hall, therefore it loses a lot of its meaning, IMO. Horrible sentence structure. My apologies in advance because I'm not going to go back and fix it. :D

Fair enough. But, I get EI for all MLB games, not just the Cubs. With Fantasy baseball as popular as ever, MLB should be capitalizing on the opportunity for EI to be seen regardless of what cable provider subscribers have. If they are stupid enough to sign an exclusivity contract with one provider, then I might have to agree with you and not feel sorry for them or myself.

I believe Comcast is Regional. I can't get Comcast in my market, but then again I'm way out here in California. With EI, I get all the Cubs games except the Saturday black out games and the occasional game that airs on WCIU or whatever that channel is. It's possible I don't get Cubs games when they air on WGN, but I get WGN and usually watch the game on that channel if they are on.

And that's the attitude everyone should have about this. It should not be exclusive to any provider. What if DirectTV gets exclusivity, and then doesn't get the amount of new memberships they hoped for? The price will go through the roof for the EI package. I live in SoCal. The East coast 7pm games start at 4pm here. A lot of people don't buy the EI package out west because a large percentage of the games start so early. They aren't even home from work yet when the 6th inning of an east coast game rolls around. It would not be a smart business decision by MLB to go exclusive with any provider, period. I don't need it so bad that I'd be willing to give up my home and business phone number, my high speed internet service and all the email addresses that I have and give up my current DVR boxes and all the channels offered by my cable company. The less access I have to baseball games would also have an affect on my interest in the game.

Is Vladmir Guerrero eligible? :D If not, I'll take Carlos Quentin.

If Aramis looks like he might be out for a few days, I'd imagine they'll bring Moore up from AAA, so I'm not too concerned with the lack of middle infielders. At any rate, I'm just happy we don't have 8 second basemen on the roster (yet) i forgot about moore. i would still like to see mike f in a utility/ph role this year though. Hopefully, he gets the chance. Izturis and DeRosa with Theriot and Fontenot backing them up. Cedeno in AAA.

They will certainly lose me as a customer if they do that. I have zero interest in DirectTV. I usually just get auto-renewed each year through my cable company. They give me all the discounts that comes with it. Those discounts are "early bird" and "repeat customer". I'd have to do some digging to find out how much I paid last year, but it was probably $139.99. I'd pay for it if it was $339.99, but don't tell them that. What I won't pay for is a completely different cable package like DirectTV. I think it would be somewhat stupid to go exclusive with a single cable provider, but who am I? Just some dumb ole consumer.

You would have to be good at one point to get to the bigs. That's the difference. I don't think anyone can say Estes was never good. A 19-5 record with a 3.18 ERA (ERA+ of 130) in 1997 is pretty good in over 200 IP.

He was with San Diego last year, but he was out most of the year with an injury. Yeah, he'll put up decent numbers at Petco.