BigbadB

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.

Okay, I'm confused. I went to Roadkill this morning to set my line up and it basically is too late to set my line up for Monday. This was at 7:30am Pacific Time. When is the cutoff to set your line up for the week? Not that I really have many maneuvers I can make with everyone on the DL, but still.

As I recall, KC offered the same 3 year deal with the same $$$ (perhaps a few dollars more) and Jones chose to come to Chicago. Okay, maybe KC did make that same offer. However, signing a FREE AGENT which won't cost you any compensation to any other team is different than trading quality prospects or talent on your team to another team for basically a "bad contract". It's understandable that KC would make an offer for a not so good player like Jones, because they basically have to overpay to get players to come to KC. It made no sense for the Cubs to pay that. If Jones wanted to play for KC, more power to him. The problem was the Cubs spent most of the offseason addressing everything except the black hole in RF. A 1 year deal with Reggie Sanders solves all the RF problems for 2006. Finding a place for Pie now will be extremely difficult, IMO. I think the Cubs will want to bring Pierre back. If not, I really don't like that trade even more. 3 near ready pitching prospects for a 1 year rental is a poor business decision. If Hendry doesn't work out a deal with Pierre, I'd bet he'll at least offer arbitration to have him come back on a 1 year deal if for no other reasons than 1) They don't like the other lead off options 2) They want compensation for losing 3 pitching prospects to get him. I don't think the Cubs will be afraid to pay the arbitration figure if he does leave. If he does leave, we will all need to be very afraid that the Cubs turn to Pie in CF as they attempt to convert him into a lead off hitter.

In 4 AB today he raised his BA by 47 points (.214 to .261). :D The bigger issue is what craziness Dusty is doing with the 2-hole. Keep Todd Walker there. He's hitting like .450+ right now. Why are you switching him out? Stop fudging around with 2b, and just be happy with Walker. Don't fix what ain't broke. Jerry Hairston and Neifi are just disasters. Heck, Murton in the 2-hole wouldn't be that bad of an idea either. Hey, that looks like John Brockington that's about to get smushed by Mr. Dick Butkus. :D

I guess it will be my job to slow down them Diamond Jaxx. With a clown for a manager, that shouldn't be too difficult. :D

no marshall? I like Marshall. But, if those guys are all on their games, I believe that makes Marshall a back up plan in case one of them gets put on the shelf. Each of the guys listed above in that rotation are all better than Marshall, IMO. It does lack a lefty though. Not that not having a lefty ever bothered me.

I won't be disappointed. I'd love to see a rotation next year of: Zambrano, Prior, Wood, Miller, Guzman I'm not one that just assumes that just because someone is unhealthy now will always be unhealthy. We have all of the rest of this year to see if Guzman, Wood, Prior and Miller are back from their past problems. In the pen, Dempster and Williamson are guys who have been on the shelf, and I'm quite pleased at how they are doing.

Care to provide some teams that would be interested in Jones? My opinion is Jones is here for all of this year and probably all of 2007 as well.

If Maddux is resigned, it will be for less money and Wood's 10 mil will be off the books; that should free up enought money. Not to mention Pierre makes about 6 mil and may be relpaced by Pie, who will be making basically nothing. If they Cubs aren't players this offseason, it's gonna be a long year in 2007. Right now, there is no reason to believe we can just put Marshall, Guzman, Hill and/or Ryu in 3 of the rotation spots and expect to have a winning record. You aren't taking into account raises to many of the currently rostered players. Barrett, Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano and Prior. That gobbles up a lot of that money right there. Zambrano and Prior figure to lock down 2 spots, and I would venture to guess that one or maybe even two of Maddux, Wood, Miller and Williams would lock down a 3rd and/or 4th spot, with one of Marshall, Guzman, Brownlie or Ryu locking down the last spots. If Guzman is back to complete health, he's going to be a very dominant pitcher. The Cubs may want to bring Pierre back. Of the currently rostered players, none of them are deemed as lead off hitters per organizational philosophy. Pie isn't a lead off hitter either. If they don't bring back Pierre and Pie is penciled in to play CF, who leads off for the 2007 Cubs? Walker probably won't be back. Barrett, Lee, Cedeno, Ramirez, Murton, Pie and Jones. 2nd base is the only place they may fill next year, and there really aren't that many "lead off" hitters that play 2b. At least not true lead off hitters given the organizations definition of a lead off hitter. In 2008, Patterson might be ready, but I doubt he'd jump all the way to the bigs to start off next season.

The Cubs can't afford Zito. Zito will want a long term contract and at high dollars. Zambrano, Prior, Lee and Ramirez will be the high dollar contracts for next year. Along with medium range contracts to Jones and Dempster, and possibly even Pierre, there is just no way the Cubs can consider a long term commitment to a pitcher from outside the organization. There is also the possibility that Wood will be back next year as well, albeit at a discount rate compared to what he's making now. That's another reason I wasn't a big fan of the 3 year deal to Jones, the 2 year deal to Neifi and the 2 year deal to Rusch. That's over 10m committed to 1 mediocre starter and 2 bench players for next year.

These announcers are boring me to death. Who cares about Tip O'Neill?

Huston Street? He's the Oakland A's closer. He's very valuable.

I would at least file a complaint with the administrators of the league. They won't do much about the free leagues, and probably nothing at all, but at least you get this persons name in their system. You do have recourse. I don't know how many teams in the league there are, but I would contact each one (outside of the two teams in question) privately and inform them that they should all speak up on the message board about the unfairness with the league, and that if the trade isn't reversed and voting rights to decline trades isn't reactivated, that all teams will abandon their teams. See if you can get him to back down. I was never one to stay quiet when I saw something I didn't like. I hope this isn't the only fantasy team you joined. Keep a list of email addresses of people you enjoy competing against in fantasy leagues. When next season rolls around, they will be pleased that someone asked them to compete in a league. There are probably a lot more people like you that doesn't have a long list of friends that want to play fantasy baseball. Therefore, keep tabs on those that you do enjoy competing with.

This is a legitimate concern. I had these concerns when they traded for him. If he somehow reverts back to his .360+ OBP from 2004 and back, he's an asset. If he provides the .326 OBP he put up last year, we traded 3 prospects and paid 6m for Tom Goodwin's twin. But, I would agree that it is too early to tell how he'll be this year. Pierre is not a selective hitter. He rarely walks. But, he also rarely strikes out. But, a lot of his OBP is derived from infield hits, something he hasn't had much luck with so far this year.