BigbadB

Want Blanton for Smoltz? Blanton only gave me a complete game shut out last night. :D Well, it was KC.

Warpticon is correct. Jason Michaels, Milton Bradley and Julio Lugo come to mind as other potential lead off candidates that received mention here. I'm sure there's more. Lugo would have been just as expensive as Pierre, however.

There aren't many players that the Cubs could have traded for that would have hushed the critics. Nevin isn't one of them. Although I do find it odd that Hendry traded for a guy who doesn't fall anywhere near the "guys who can catch the ball" description.

I just did some random box score hunting on Hal Lanier and I didn't see one instance where he batted higher than 8th in the line up.

You often jump on people for generalizing (and rightfully so), so I must ask, to whom are you referring? Not me. My 2005 offseason saw Lofton, Hairston and Patterson as the CF options for 2006. :P

He may be more giving now, considering how much his circumstances have changed. He was San Diego's franchise player at one time. However, he's not good anywhere defensively. He's better than Adam Dunn, but that's not saying much.

It's not how much you spend. It's how you spend it. The Yankees haven't won a World Series since Steinbrenner started attempting to buy World Series. 95m is more than enough to win a World Series. There haven't been many teams that have won a World Series with a higher payroll than that. White Sox in 2005? 74m

<-------resident Nevin expert Look out, Chicago. The intensity level just doubled in the windy city. If there is a player in MLB more intense than Nevin, I haven't seen him. And that includes Carlos Zambrano. Absolute butcher in the outfield. He has no speed to track down fly balls and he takes horrible routes, but he's got a cannon in his right arm. He can spell Ramirez for a game or two at 3rd, but anything regular can be tough for the pitching staff. 1st is where he can do the least amount of damage with a baseball glove, but DH suits him the best. He may have had a change of heart about catching a few games, but he told San Diego to (expletive) themselves regarding catching games in San Diego. He came through the minors as a catcher, got shifted to 3rd until Shawn Burroughs came up, moved to the outfield reluctantly (and as Tim stated early in this thread), got hurt, moved him to 1st which pushed Klesko back to the outfield. He's basically a DH. Umpires must tread lightly around Nevin. Every pitch that he doesn't swing at should be called a ball, or they shall feel his wrath. I watched Nevin get thrown out of many a game in San Diego arguing balls and strikes. But, I love the guy and his intensity. The player? Don't tell Dusty, but he just traded Jerry Hairston for Jason Dubois. Personally, I'd rather have some pop than the Punch and Judy's, anyway. Nevin is as streaky as they come. He was a clubhouse cancer in San Diego, but his cancer is basically "Todd Walker Disease". He wants to win. He wants to play. Of course, when he was with San Diego, he and Klesko felt they had some say so with the Padres management team. That's not the role Nevin will have in Chicago. Basically, he is stubborn about what position he has wanted to play, but the cancer anyone brings up is basically no different than the cancer that they relate to Todd Walker. He tells it like it is. I'm dusting off my Nevin bobblehead and displaying him proudly on my desk. Early in the season, I was watching a Rangers game, I saw my Nevin bobblehead hanging out in storage, I displayed him on my desk during one of his at bats, and BOOM! He crushed one out of the park. My employee hates Nevin, so I can use the Nevin bobblehead for many various joys. Welcome aboard, Phil. May you help make the Cubs not suck nearly as bad.

In 1968, Bob Gibson was the Cy Young and MVP in the NL, and Denny McClain was the Cy Young and MVP in the AL. Vida Blue was both in '71. In '81, Rollie Fingers was both as a closer. In '84, Willie Hernandez was both as a closer. Clemens was both in '86. Eckersley as a closer in '92. Koufax did it in '63. Don Newcombe in '56.

Fernando Valuenzuela: 1981 ROY 1981 Cy Young 1981 5th in votes for MVP

What don't you like about Tracy? I've always liked him. He sure is giving Freddy Sanchez an opportunity. Something no one else did.

That depends on whether there is a cap. If you could spend as much as you wanted, Pujols and A-Rod would be ahead of Cabrera. But, have we seen the best of Cabrera yet?

Interesting thread. I'm sure there's a lot of truth in this.

That may be true, but the point is that the wins have to go somewhere, so if one team is well below .500 that means their opponents are picking up extra wins. It doesn't really help us for a team to completely tank the 2nd half of the season. I meant that the Cardinals and Astros (or whoever is atop the NL Central standings down the stretch) may have easier opponents than they may have now. My point was that while the Cubs aren't mathematically eliminated at this time, they might as well be. The team isn't good enough to get back in this race.

There's no way to calculate what teams will fall out of the race and trade off their veteran players to contending teams, either. Some teams down the stretch won't be much better than the Royals.

The big question. Can Kerry Wood catch Pierre in the RBI race?

Sure seemed to me that Baker was very supportive Hendry and his focus for players who can catch the ball, guys with speed and guys who are aggressive at the plate. He doesn't get a free pass with me.

Thanks for the congrats. I stated in another thread that my team isn't nearly as bad as the standings reflect. Dustyism as it may sound. It's not a good team. But, I think it's an average team. In the first 5 weeks, Quakers, Harry's Budcrew, Danger Bees and the Leon Trotsky's all had weeks against my team that they have yet to match in any other week in the season. The 5th week out of 5 weeks was against NSBB, which was only a typical week for his team. The lowest point total in those first 5 weeks that any team scored against my team was 299. Wow! No, I don't expect to be there at the end of the season, but I am willing to shop players for prospects.

What do you think JC stands for? :wink:

Just about every grocery store in the immediate vicinity of where I live will deliver groceries. I don't do it because I'm not lazy or a millionaire baseball player, but the option is there if wanted to.

Agreed. Look up Joe Torre's managerial record before he came to the Yankees. It was all about timing with Joe. Managing a good team that stays healthy makes managing pretty easy.

I'd say that would be a pretty good start.

Par for the course, my friend. Par for the course. More like an expected triple bogie. Well played. =D>

What's Jim Bowden doing these days? Yeah, he's horrible too, but how many games has Neifi batted #2 on a Bowden assembled roster? :D

Obvious sarcasm, so you admit that acquiring and playing Bynum is a horrible decision. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me repeatedly in agony, shame on Hendry and Dusty. Actually, no. I don't read that as sarcasm. I read that as a subtle little slam on anyone who likes how Billy Beane does business. It's not sarcasm, it's trolling. We've tried to tell CubfaninCA over and over again that the walk was invented long before Billy Beane was ever born and that Billy Beane did not invent OBP. But, it doesn't seem to sink in. That's okay. I only wish it would sink in with Hendry and Dusty. Today was a perfect example of what a walk can do. Atlanta got 9 of them. The Cubs got one. The Cubs only walk was an intentional walk to get to the pitcher. Atlanta scored 3 runs off of walks. The walks didn't drive in the runs, but they were on base when someone else drove them in. The more runners you get on base, the chances increase of driving in a runner. The Cubs are dead last in OBP, and their dead last in runs scored. It's actually pretty elementary. The Royals have scored more runs than the Cubs, and they've played 2 less games than the Cubs. Hudson threw 70 pitches in 6 innings. Zambrano threw 120 in 6.2 innings. This particular line in the box score pretty much looks the same everyday.