BigbadB

Getting excited about a middle infield of Izturis and DeRosa defies logic, unless Hendry truly is attempting to get the attention of other GMs in the league or tempering the contract demands of other 2b FA's. But, I don't understand what talking these guys up really accomplishes. Unless it's in hopes that media can portray these as good signings. Izturis has played very little the last 2 years. The time off will likely drop his offensive production to something lower than his career average. Unfortunately, his career average was nothing to write home about. DeRosa has never held down a major league position in his life. Even last year, he was a super utility player that managed to get significant playing time due to his success in that role. DeRosa is valuable as a super utility player, IMO. But, more than likely a liability if he's counted on to play 2b all year.

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That's pretty cheap for the Yankees.

In 4 or 5 years, it will be interesting watching the D'Rays peddle off all this talent.

I don't think anything can explain whether a player can repeat what appears to be a flukish season. BABIP is just another one of those stats. I like this one a little bit, because it does show how far off their "luck" factor compared to their average really is. If a guy is consistently within a certain range, when they have a season that's WAY out of range, you can make a strong case that they'll never repeat that, but even that's not foolproof.

Bump

Don't you dare lose faith in Hendry. Who will I argue with?

Maybe we can get Bruce Miles to confirm with Hendry the Ramirez signing and whether it cost the team an A/B signing. As closely to the deadline as the announcement came that Ramirez had signed was, I'd say they could probably fudge it. Who was in the room for the agreement? Is a handshake agreement good enough before the midnight deadline? My guess is Ramirez doesn't count towards our A/B free agent signings.

I'm happy that they are looking at Lugo, Soriano, Westbrook, Igawa and Meche, but why on Earth would they be looking at Lugo in CF when we have a humungous hole at SS? Why not have JD Drew's name mentioned at every mention of Soriano? Hendry sold himself short listing Furcal as his main love last year. Drew needs to know the Cubs are very interested. Drew or Soriano, Lugo, Westbrook and Meche would be a nice haul this offseason. Trade for 2b Giles and this would be a very good offseason.

Not to Thread steal but I am impressed B. To own a home right now in San Diego is a major accomplishment. Congrats and I am tremedously jealous. My wife and I can't afford one here in the San Jacinto valley much less SD. My biggest desire in life right now is to own a home. Congrats on being an uncle too! Thanks and we are very excited.

It's probably way too early in the offseason to be making those predictions. Will the Cubs have Drew or Soriano. Will they have Tejada or Carl Crawford? Will they have A-Rod or Burrell? I don't even think you can really pencil DeRosa anywhere into the line up, let alone what spot in the batting order, until the offseason unfolds.

Thanks!

I won't argue with you there. I think it's going to be quite a big pay day for many of the FA's out there. I'm not really sure how the whole 2b thing is going down, though. There seems to be a lot of players looking for homes at that position, and not really all that many teams looking to fill those holes.

On a semi-related note, I'm happy to hear Patterson is progressing well. If management feels that Patterson could be ready as early as midseason, I could understand not blocking him entirely with a guy like Durham. This past year, they had no one to play SS outside of Cedeno and Neifi. DeRosa is a much better option than Neifi, IMO.

DeRosa was not on my 2b wishlist. Durham, Giles, Lugo, Iwamura, Soriano, Loretta, Belliard were on my list. It's too much money and it's too many years, but I'm not going to go ballistic about this signing until I see what happens with the rest of the offseason. I actually like DeRosa as a platoon with Jones. I like DeRosa as a super-utility player. I like DeRosa as an injury replacement. If Hendry gets the starting pitching and offense that is necessary to be a good team next year while paying DeRosa more than 4m a year, cool. I'm a bit nervous about that considering Rusch, Neifi and Blanco last year, but it's going to take a lot more than that for me to get worked up over this team. It's been way too frustrating for that. I just became an uncle today for the 3rd time and the wife and I officially became homeowners today, so Hendry isn't spoiling this day for me no matter what he does. Welcome to the Cubs, Mark DeRosa.

Is Adam Eaton a FA this offseason?

This is just going to be a year where teams will have to severely overpay to get what they want, whether it's through the free agent market or trade. It does make the Ramirez signing look really good at this point. But, adding key parts to improve the team will be a much more difficult task.

If the FA market was ripe with talent, he wouldn't get anything near that. Considering that it would take one of Schmidt, Matsuzaka, Zito, Soriano, Drew or Lee to get a marquee player in this market, and there are 30 teams vying for those few players, the bids will be much higher. Teams can probably even feel somewhat comfortable pushing the bids up with no intent to actually sign. With teams showing interest in Pavano and the Yankees already shedding Bernie Williams money, Sheffield money, Jaret Wright money, etc... even they don't have to worry about being thrifty. Not that they were ever thrifty to begin with.

Jacque Jones can play CF. I'd do that deal straight up today.

Agreed. But, I think Zito will get that much from someone. Since the Dodgers lost out on an opportunity to throw big money at Ramirez, they might throw it at Zito now. They had LaRoche to put at 3b anyway. With their ability to go super cheap with guys like Ethier, Martin, Kemp, Betemit, LaRoche, Billingsley, Broxton, etc...it would be easy for them to spend big money on Zito, which is their biggest need, IMO.

I haven't been including Zito on any of my wish lists, for the most part. I knew he would cost too much and someone will give him that money, and I'm not convinced he'll be better than Rich Hill next year. I'd go hard after Schmidt with a real short term contract for high dollars. Say 2/30m with a 3rd year vesting option that could make it 3/45. I'd then attempt to defer half of the contract in 2008 and the vesting year so that this big dollar contract doesn't interfere with locking up Zambrano. With the short deal, he could maybe get one more contract for 3 or 4 years after that.

Giles lifetime: Wrigley:.312/.483/.670/1.153 GAP: .309/.443/.509/.952 Busch: .337/.464/.705/1.169 Busch 2: .375/.500/.750/1.250 Miller: .283/.430/.517/.947 PNC: .325/.441/.606/1.047 Juicebox: .290/.418/.497/.914 Petco: .272/.377/.430/.807 AT&T: .306/.438/.437/.934 Dodger: .258/.335/.429/.764 Coors: .284/.412/.574/.986 BOB: .279/.350/.536/.885 Best OPS parks in 2006 in order: 1. New Busch Stadium 2. Angel Stadium 3. PNC 4. Turner 5. Ameriquest 6. Minutemaid 7. GAP 8. Chase 9. Wrigley 5 of the top 9 are NL Central Best OPS parks in 2005 in order: 1. GAP 2. Old Busch 3. Coors 4. Shea 5. Minutemaid 6. AT&T 7. Metrodome 8. Wrigley 9. Turner 4 of the top 9 are NL Central I think an argument can still be made that he would likely see a nice SLG increase if he played in the NL Central.

Because Giles is 35, a drop off in production is likely. However, I do believe the parks he plays in plays a huge role. I watch him play nearly everyday. He's a pull hitter that can't reach the seats in Petco Park. A lot of those long fly balls to RF are caught by the RFer. In many other parks, these would be home runs. 20 HR's worth? I'm not sure. But, there aren't many players who can reach the seats in RF consistently in that park. As was pointed out earlier in the thread, Giles SLG splits on the road were only .026 points higher, and his road OPS was still under .800, only .018 higher than home. The ballpark argument doesn't hold, at least for 2006. Actually, I think the argument does hold. LA, Arizona when the lid is closed and San Fran are other poor places to hit. Colorado is a very difficult place to hit a home run, though it is a very friendly hitting park. Though, even that park saw a significant decrease in runs scored this past year.

Because Giles is 35, a drop off in production is likely. However, I do believe the parks he plays in plays a huge role. I watch him play nearly everyday. He's a pull hitter that can't reach the seats in Petco Park. A lot of those long fly balls to RF are caught by the RFer. In many other parks, these would be home runs. 20 HR's worth? I'm not sure. But, there aren't many players who can reach the seats in RF consistently in that park. A move to the NL Central, a division I view as one of the most hitter friendly divisions in MLB, IMO, would provide a significant improvement in SLG. But, it's only my opinion. It's possible that age has truly caught up with him more than I'm willing to admit. I said it last year when he signed with San Diego. Going back to that park is going to kill his numbers. I can't tell you how many times he stood their in amazement when a crushed ball that would hit the upper deck in other parks landed in the RFers mitt at the warning track at Petco. The frustration that I saw on the faces of he and Klesko the first year they played in Petco was what convinced me that both couldn't wait to get out of Petco. It's not a favorable park for LH bats at all. If the Cubs signed Drew and maybe Ray Durham, I think the Cubs could get away with a platoon of Jones in RF. I'd rather see Brian Giles out there because of the massive improvement in OBP and in my opinion, an improvement in SLG. But, the Cubs do need to improve OBP somehow, significantly.

Is an OBP like the one Jacque Jones provides killing this team? No. However, having mediocre to below average OBP at several positions is killing this team. If you can improve OBP at 1 or more positions, you should. I also want to point out that I only picked the Phillies as a comparison because they led the league in scoring runs. I could use just about any other team in MLB to further illustrate my point. OBP is a good thing and it should be welcomed with open arms.