BigbadB

Neifi's way behind on his GIDP quota. Hitting behind Murton against a sinkerballer will help him keep up with the torrid pace he set last season. WHAT, Walker cant hit sinkerballers? Seriously what does Walker have to do to be the full time starter. My god. LQEOHGOQENGO(QHEG(EW*YT QWERT^Y&U*(@W%^&*() Walker is starting. Neifi is at short. Oh, then i retact my statement... and submit this one.... What has Cedeno done to justify this? He's batting .364 so far. LQEOHGOQENGO(QHEG(EW*YT QWERT^Y&U*(@W%^&*() The way I see it, Neifi can be starting once a week or everyday. I like the once a week choice much better. :wink:

Oh, and thank you Dusty for batting Neifi at the bottom of the order. I know he needs a game here and there to stay sharp defensively. Just keep him down there and you and I will be cool!

It should be tough for Neifi to lift one tonight. Lowe induces a lot of grounders.

Is this ESPN then? I recognize Jon Miller, but who is the other voice? I'm waiting for the WGN feed now. For unknown reasons, the MLB EI package shares its channels with NHL. If I liked hockey, it would be a pretty good deal, because they are basically just starting playoffs when the baseball season kicks into gear. But, I don't. That might be the reason that the Cubs aren't on MLB EI tonight.

Darn. No LA feed tonight. I was kinda hoping to listen to Vin again tonight. Oh well.

ha ha Don't laugh too loud, the wife will hear you. She kinda likes the Dodgers, but not as much as she likes the Cubs. Honestly, I think she just likes 'em because they had Steve Sax.

Kill the Dodgers! A friend (if you can actually call a dodger fan that) and I have a yearly bet on runs scored between the Dodgers and Cubs. A dollar a run. I'm up 3 so far this year. Woo hoo! Let's win this one 54-2 or something!

I think there are too many things up in the air right now to go and spend a lot to acquire a big dollar starter. Heck, Hendry was toying with the idea of throwing a bunch of money at Millwood this past offseason, but I'd venture to guess one of the reasons he thought against it is because of the size and length of the contract. At that time, they didn't know what Lee was going to be making when they got him locked down. Zambrano and Prior are nowhere near what they will eventually be making. Maddux and Wood aren't guaranteed roster evacuees next year. The same could be said about Pierre. I don't know Barrett's contract status, but given his new nickname "best catcher in the NL", his next contract won't be anything like the one he's finishing up. Jones, Dempster, Eyre and Howry are locked down. How much money will the team have to spend? And not just this year, but for the life of the contract Zito would sign. Just as it didn't appear to be realistic to go after Millwood this past offseason, I don't think they'll go after Zito either. He's not going to be cheap.

I might also point out that I wasn't really giving a negative spin in this thread, unless that's the way you wish to to view it. I gave my honest assessment of the situation. While some people think it will be easy to just trade Jones in the middle of this year or even at the end of this year, I don't see it that way. I could be wrong, but it is my opinion that Jones will be here the next 2 years, at least. Now, I wasn't a fan of the Pierre trade, either. But, he's here. If Hendry lets Pierre walk without offering arbitration at the end of the year, it was clearly a bad trade considering how much was spent for a 1 year rental. That said, if Murton locks down LF like he is showing he can do, there creates a problem of what to do with Pie, Jones and Pierre next year. I don't think I was ranting at all. It's all speculation on my part, but I think the Cubs will offer Pierre arbitration or sign him to a long term deal. The Cubs don't have many positions they can fill going into next year with a lead off hitter. Unless the plan is to make Pie a lead off hitter, which I hope is not the plan. My bringing up the Jones deal as a bad idea is just further speculation on my part that I don't think it will be easy to move him in the offseason, therefore finding a 1 year rental in RF (whoever that may be) made more sense.

Please explain how it's considered hindsight to be against the signings of Neifi Perez, Glendon Rusch and Jacque Jones from the first day the contract is signed? I believe that would actually be considered foresight. If by some fluke, these 3 players carry the team to the promised land, then I suppose a better fitting description of my opinion would be shortsighted. As far as the Wilkerson/Pierre signings, I apologize, but you'll have to refresh my memory. I wish I could remember every discussion I've had on this message board, but frankly, I can't.

Okay, now I recall where Goony's signature came from. I may have to borrow it.

Wow! I almost forgot that this isn't a message board for discussing baseball. Silly me. I forgot that if I don't have the insight to know what motivates Reggie Sanders when it comes to when, where and for how long to sign, then I should probably say nothing. Oh wait, this is a message board. Silly you. For the record, I didn't want Jacque Jones, Reggie Sanders, Juan Encarnacion or Jose Cruz. And if I want to criticize Hendry for his failures in landing the player that would help this team the most, I'll just go ahead and do that. If you wish to defend him as if he has never made a bad move in his life, it's your right. But, please don't tell me or anyone else how we should or shouldn't make posts. You are right. I have no idea whether Reggie Sanders would have signed a 1 year deal. But, if it came down to 2 years with a bottom feeding, going nowhere team or playing on a team that has a chance to go somewhere, I don't think it's completely unreasonable to think he'd take a 1 year deal. If you do, so be it. And I absolutely DO NOT frame every transaction in the light most unfavorable to Hendry. I think you have me confused with someone else. So, feel free to quit exaggerating about what I do or don't do. I will say that I have been 100% against a signing of Jacque Jones from the very first day it was mentioned. If it was a 1 year deal, I wouldn't have made such a big deal of it. It's not a 1 year deal. It's 3 years. I hope Jacque Jones hits .500 and hits 80 HR's this year. But, there is no way I'm just going to sit back and pretend like I have been in favor of his signing just because he's signed. If he proves me wrong for the next 3 years, I'll eat crow and be happy to do so. But, I've been a Cub fan since 1971 and I want to see a World Series championship before I die. I'm sure Hendry wants this Cub team to win just as much as I do. Unfortunately, I'm not sure he's the guy who will get them there. Each year they overspend in cash and years for guys like Neifi Perez, Glendon Rusch and Jacque Jones is just that many more years he handcuffs the team from adding players who can make this team a perennial division champion.

Sanders has been signing 1 year deals for the last umpteen years. Sanders on a 1 year deal>>>>>>>>>>>Jacque Jones on a 3 year deal. The other plus about Sanders being injury prone, is it gives you the option of bringing up Pie if he is tearing it up. Sanders is a riskier than Jones, but weighing the pros and cons, Sanders is the better bet.

Well, if you have that many teams, it's really a non issue. Send an email to the other teams in the league apologizing for abandoning your team, and kindly ask that they do the same. If you have all those other teams, it's really not worth the headache to mess with it any further, though.

Can a new Yahoo league start now if you put one together? Here's what I would do. Create a league (assuming you can) and invite all the "victims" in your league to play in your league. Fill the remaining spots with anyone who would be interested. Once you get the new league set up, have everyone dump their players in this other league so that the "commish" can't have any more fun at the expense of others. Beat him at his own game. How fun will it be for him to beat up on an abandoned league?

I think you are forgetting the fact that if the Cubs offer Pierre arbitration and he leaves (cuz he wants to sign for more than a year), he would likely be considered a class A free agent and the Cubs would probably get a first round and maybe a sandwich pick for losing him. Those would likely be two pretty good prospects in return right there. And if the Cubs go the college route for them, they likely wouldn't be that far away either. Actually, no. I didn't forget. See #2 up above. Pierre wouldn't be all that risky to offer arbitration, since he'd likely prefer a long term deal.

What inning did Howry give up that bomb?

Scully was masterful last night, just like Maddux.

What are you talking about? Barrett was catching last night. Everybody knows that Barrett is such a terrible catcher that none of our pitchers can pitch to him. What exactly are you trying to pull here? It was the 8th inning. Maddux totally schooled the rookie on 3 pitches. None of them were hittable. The first pitch was a curve that struck the center of the plate. The 2nd one was on the inside corner. Navarro was leaning on that pitch, making it unhittable. The 3rd pitch looked like it was originally going to hit Navarro, but it cut back over the strike zone leaving Navarro hapless. Navarro didn't swing at any of them. I am so glad I taped last night's game. It was Maddux at his finest.

Wow! Maddux was awesome last night. I just finished watching the game and he was just filthy last night.

The biggest problem with Jones is that he can't hit left handers. We'd be better off with Neifi in RF with a lefty on the mound. If that isn't bad enough, nearly half the starters in the NL Central are lefties. St. Louis: Mark Mulder Milwaukee: Chris Capuano, Doug Davis Cincinnati: Dave Wilson, Eric Milton, Brandon Claussen Houston: Andy Pettitte, Wandy Rodriguez Pittsburgh: Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Oliver Perez So, of the 25 starters in the NL Central (not Cubs), 11 of them are lefties. This is not the only reason people were against a Jacque Jones signing, but the fact the Cubs will likely NOT platoon him because of the amount of money he makes is another legitimate reason.

If 9 HR's isn't enough, he also leads the league in Triples with 3, and he's among the lead leaders in doubles as well with 5. 17 XBH's already this year. To put that into perspective, only 13 players in either league have more regular any kind of hits than Shelton has XBH's. Shelton does lead the league in regular any kind of hits, however with 24. 7 singles 5 doubles 3 triples 9 HR's Nice! Why does Detroit still have this guy hitting 6th?

You might have to wait until Wily Mo Pena is an everyday player to see the strike out record broken again. :D

I won't be going to any of the Dodger/Cub games. And I won't be able to watch tonights game. Wish they had this one on WGN, because I could then watch it. The bar I'll be at has WGN, but not a baseball package. Sounds like the Dodgers will be running a make shift line up out there with no Nomar, no Kent, no Gagne, no Brazoban and no Izturis.

Yeah, after I posted that, I went in and looked at the schedule, and I now see that there was a game that started at 8am. I'm sure the Mariners love that.