BigbadB

Hmm. You haven't studied how Odalis does in even years, I see. :wink: He very well could be worth every penny of his 9m if he pitches this year like he has in all of his previous "even" years. Odalis has only had 1 bad outing out of 3 so far. In his last 12+ innings, he's given up 2 runs. .071 WHIP in his last outing.

Winner!

I agree and disagree. Derek Lowe lives and dies by his sinker. When it's on, he's very tough to hit. When it's on, most of the contact will be ground balls, just like we all saw last night. Even if Ramirez made contact, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't have grounded into a double play. That's how good Lowe's sinker was working last night. It was working so well, he basically relied on it most of the night. When his sinker is not working as well as it was last night, he has to rely more heavily on his other pitches, which in turn get crushed. The same argument can be made for just about any other pitcher in the league. The better pitchers just have their good stuff working better more often. Maddux is no stranger to this. Of course, some of his blow ups come at the expense of the umpire not giving him the close ones, but when he doesn't have his "good" stuff, he can get hit pretty hard. Now, with that said..... When a pitcher clearly has their good stuff working, you have to make adjustments. One of those adjustments is showing more patience at the plate. Watching Neifi hit in his last at bat of the game, I felt he actually did make an adjustment. He ended up grounding out, but he took some pitches to work the count in hopes of drawing a walk. The one thing about Lowe when his good stuff is working, most of those pitches aren't going to be strikes by the time they hit the catcher's mitt. Cub hitters could not lay off his sinker, which allowed Lowe to continue using it. If they laid off, Lowe likely would have been behind in counts and forced to throw something other than his sinker. But, as Goony says, the Cubs do preach an aggressive approach at the plate. And those sinkers do look like they are coming down broadway at the exact moment you have to make the decision of whether to swing at the pitch or not. I don't know. It was a tough game to watch offensively. But, I can't single out any particular hitter. Aramis typically doesn't strike out all that much. Murton looked more foolish in his at bat against Saito than any other Cub hitter on this particular evening.

You are correct. He has hit some balls hard, just right at people. Wow, I just defended Jones. :shock:

Those sinking pitches aren't so easy to recognize. Derek Lowe has made a career out of those sinking pitches. Is it possible that Aramis was guessing one of those pitches would be a 4 seem fastball that wouldn't sink? Is it possible he was making such bad swings because he was trying to get some lift on his swing on those sinkers, nnowing that if he couldn't get the ball in the air he was looking at a double play grounder? I don't know. I'm just asking. He did look bad, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Lowe had his good sinker working last night.

If his business decision would mean she gets half of his estate in a divorce settlement, he may just want to think about that a little harder. :D

Is this one of those "I told you so threads"? Thanks, but no thanks!

I'm not going to get into another Giles argument. It's really not worth it and I don't think there is anything that hasn't been covered already. I think Giles will end up really regretting staying in San Diego. In order to keep him, they traded the guts of the team, which is going to end up biting them badly.

At what point did it become 17-18m to convince Giles to leave San Diego? We don't know how much it would have taken. I just wanted Hendry to act like he was interested in knowing what it would take Giles to leave San Diego. If it was too much for Hendry at that point, so be it.

Gotta sweet talk Cuban's wife. He said in an earlier interview that if he bought a baseball team, his wife would divorce him.

I heard him mention Pittsburgh once before, but never the Cubs. Cool!

Tomorrow's an off day? :-k

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.