BigbadB

Yeah, you won't see my picks until a few days before opening day.

I could actually deal with Jones in LF if Abreu was in the other corner.

Miguel Cabrera will be due for a boost in salary next year. I'm sure Florida won't want to fork out the cash. :D

I'd be interested in what Williams could net in return. What position would Hendry upgrade? Seems like the only option is LF or SS. Would he really turn Jones and his newly signed 5m contract into a platoon? I don't see it. I know he should considering his splits against lefty hitters, but what you will likely see Dusty do when a lefty is on the mound is move Jones down in the order, not bench him. He can catch the ball, afterall. :roll: Murton or Cedeno will pay the price if Williams is traded. If Williams gets moved at this point, it's probably likely to happen at the trade deadline. But, he'll need some rotation starts and be effective to make it worth trading him.

They aren't "passionate to avoid arbitration". 90% of players don't go to arbitration regardless of the team, so it's not hard to be perfect. And like I said before, their poor moves don't reflect a lack of passion or effort, it's just misguided passion or effort. Well, I won't argue that point. I will agree that they appear to be misguided.

I interpreted what they author was attempting to say as "I wish this team had as much determination for building a winning team as they appear to give in avoiding arbitration." In other words, they are passionate to avoid arbitration. They don't appear to be as passionate to build a winning team when they give out 5m contracts to utility infielders when there are gaping holes in the offense.

\:D/

Why the Red Sox? I'm picking the Red Sox. I really like Crisp, Loretta, Manny, Oritz at the top of the order. Watch Loretta put up a .400+ OBP this year. His career high is only .391. But, he's never had guys like Manny and Ortiz hitting behind him. And he's moving from an extreme pitchers park to an extreme hitters park. I like Boston's pitching staff better too.

I suppose that depends on whether one is satisfied that the additions of Jacque Jones, Scott Eyre, Juan Pierre, John Mabry and Bob Howry was worthy enough of an improvement to be a playoff caliber team. I suppose it also depends on whether having more than 40m to spend this offseason, lots of trade commodity, and plenty of available players on the market to improve the team and the moves that were made met your satisfaction. I don't think any member of our community that isn't happy with the moves made this offseason really deserves the catch phrase "faulty logic". I don't think anyone who wishes to be optimistic about this offseason deserves it either. Since 2003, this team has taken a step backwards. They did win a game or two more in 2004, but the team was more poorly run than the team that took the field in 2003. They were clearly more talented, also. But, 2004 did not feature playoffs like 2003 did, so yes, 2004 was a step backwards. 2005 was a horrible year to be a Cub fan. Not all blame should be pointed at management. Injuries did factor in. As far as I was concerned, the stars were all in alignment this offseason. A big splash could have been made to improve this team. They had the resources to make a big impact improving this team. Instead, they went with a modest approach. Whether an argument could be made that players could have been attained or not is not what I am going to debate. We do know that many talented players were available this offseason and maybe no other team outside of the LA Dodgers had more money to spend this offseason than the Cubs. I think this offseason was filled with mistakes right out of the gate. Sending Nomar packing was not a good idea. He would have been fairly cheap to bring back and he seemed to have a chip on his shoulder to do Chicago right. I'd much rather have seen Nomar's bat in RF this coming season than Jacque Jones. Well, I'd rather have seen his bat at the plate behind Lee and Aramis anyway, but you get my point. I would have much rather seen him have a healthy season with the Cubs than with the Dodgers. That does remain to be seen, but it was a gamble worth taking. With Cedeno and Perez, SS had 3 capable players. Nomar could have moved to RF and he also would have been a nice replacement at 3b if Aramis got hurt. If he misses most of 2006 due to injury, then I deserve a heaping helping of crow. But, I think he's going to have a healthy season and many of us will regret that we didn't hang onto him. Especially when he's ouproducing Jacque Jones by a healthy margin. I do think this team is better than last year. But, I don't think it's enough. The whole season is riding on the starting staff. Based on past history, not a good idea. When I look at the list of players that could have been obtained this offseason, and then I see a line up that features Jacque Jones in it, it makes me ill. To see that he's probably the best option to hit 5th makes me very ill. I do like Juan Pierre. I would have much rather seen a guy like Coco Crisp, and I would have liked to seen less spent to acquire a guy in the final year of a contract, but lead off HAD to be addressed. I've been screaming for that for quite some time. All in all, I'm not happy with the offseason. I don't think this team is playoff caliber. I hope I'm wrong. I'll cheer for them anyway and hope I'm proven wrong. But, if I see Neifi Perez hitting 2nd in the order, I'm turning off the tv. I will not pour salt into the wound that was opened up last year when Dusty consistently gave Perez top of the order at bats. I don't trust him to not do it this year. My best remedy is to just not watch when that happens. I'm tired of watching mediocre baseball from an organization that has no excuse to field mediocre teams. I'm frustrated that what was once an organization with a strong farm system, with plenty of resources and a positive direction nose dived as quickly as they did.

It's sarcasm on the part of signing all of their players to guaranteed contracts. However, I happen to agree that if this ownership group had just as much desire to build a playoff caliber team as they do to avoid arbitration, this team would be more enjoyable to watch play.

Who cares about the World Series? First team to sign all their players to guaranteed contracts wins! I'm with ya, dude.

Where did Williams go? Did he get traded for a bat? Just curious where you see him when Miller takes his spot in the rotation.

When I saw that they put him on the 40 man roster, I went back and looked at his stats and couldn't understand it one bit. I don't recall whether it upset me or not, just thought it was weird. It did make me wonder what they saw in him that felt needed 40 man protection. It's starting to look more apparent that they made the right call on that one. Of course, at that time, I didn't really feel that much ill will towards Hendry either.

Until it is seen how much of a spike offensively it will be for AgoneII, Lowell and Snow moving to a hitter friendly park, I don't think accurate judgments can be made. At the same time, I think Coco Crisp, Mark Loretta, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz at the top of the line up is going to be an incredible combination.

He's in Florida when they traded Burkett and Lowell to Boston. I keep seeing Burkett. Did Beckett legally change his name?

Didn't Teixiera's value dip a bit due to a broken leg? Without the broken leg, Tex may have been the Cubs #1 pick. He was certainly being talked up as the Cubs #1 pick. Or did he break his leg the previous year and he elected to stay in school? Years start blending together as you get older I guess.

Walker also distracts the view of the catcher more than a righty hitter. If Pierre plans on taking off 70+ times, we need the extra distractions. I wonder what Pierre's SB success rates were with Castillo hitting right or left handed? I wouldn't mind Cedeno or Murton getting a 2 hole start against a left handed pitcher, but Walker is a proven commodity to put up respectable OBP at the top of the order.

Looks like he was basically in the 3 spot to stay in game 18. It almost coincides with Nomar's injury, which appears to have happened in game 16.

Amazing facts there, Diffusion. I had been under the impression that Dusty Baker probably screwed Derrek Lee out of an MVP award, now I don't think there's any question about it. Someone should really show this stuff to Lee. Getting the team's stars angry at Dusty would be the fastest way to get rid of him. Let me just quickly do this properly... All-Time (excluding Derrek Lee's 2005) 110 or more XBH, average of 173 RBI 105 or more XBH, average of 160 RBI 100 or more XBH, average of 155 RBI 95 or more XBH, average of 152 RBI 90 or more XBH, average of 145 RBI 85 or more XBH, average of 136 RBI 80 or more XBH, average of 128 RBI 75 or more XBH, average of 122 RBI Post-1945 (excluding Derrek Lee's 2005) 105 or more XBH, average of 142 RBI 100 or more XBH. average of 141 RBI 95 or more XBH, average of 139 RBI 90 or more XBH, average of 133 RBI 85 or more XBH, average of 130 RBI 80 or more XBH, average of 123 RBI 75 or more XBH, average of 119 RBI I think the post-1945 (an arbitrary cut-off point, but I think it serves its purpose) is more relevant. Relative to the post-1945 average, Lee fell about 33 RBI short. And let's just say that, given that he hit .331/.480/.653 with runners in scoring position, the falling short wasn't Lee's fault. Had Lee got those extra 33 RBI, he'd have easily led the league in RBI (as well as average), so he'd have been 6 home runs short of the Triple Crown. Outstanding work. Just further shows that this management team is clueless. Patterson, Neifi, Lawton and Macias combined for over 350 at bats in the lead off spot and sported .263, .263, .269 and .270 OBP's respectively. Perez, Patterson, Neifi and Enrique Wilson combined for over 360 at bats in the 2 hole, and sported .300, .220, .286 and .200 OBP's respectively. Murton and Cedeno both have done very well in their limited role at the top of the order, yet Hendry says they aren't ready to hit the top of the order yet. Apparently, you can't hit at the top of the order until you prove you can get your OBP to dip below .300. That might also explain why Walker and Hairston have been long time members of Dusty's doghouse. They were the two guys who could actually get on base at a decent clip, yet Hairston got more bench time than he deserved, and they can't wait to trade Walker. I don't get it.

The 2004 team was clearly the best team he put together. 04' & 05' the Cubs were decimated with injuries & teams like the Astros & Cards, had very healthy pitching staffs. Health/depth will be the main determining factor on how good the Cubs will be in 06'. Right now, there is no depth in the outfield. Maybe he still plans on addressing that before they head into Spring Training. If not, the outfield is going to be a major concern for the 2nd year in a row.

So you think that Ramirez will draw more walks than Lee? Whoops. I calculated that wrong, didn't I? Because Lee will have more walks, he'll show less at bats per plate appearance, so I did that backwards. Nevermind. But, the batting higher in the line up and durability argument I'll still argue. :P

Agreed. If you are going to make millions a year to play a game, the least you can do to earn those millions is to pretend to care about the game enough to be ready to play. It's a shame that less talented players who do stay in shape 12/365 never see a major league roster. But, if you are going to beat them out of a job and sign that big contract, you owe it to your employer, the fans and those less talented players to show up to camp ready to play.

Walks alone would probably account for a difference in close to 40-50 at bats. Lee batting 3rd and Ramirez hitting 4th is another 15+ at bats (guestimate) for Lee. Combine that with the fact Lee has been more durable throughout a full season and voila!

For players with 99 or more XBH in a single season, average of 147 RBI that same year; for players with exactly 99 XBH, 133 RBI; for players between 97 and 101 XBH, 149 RBI; for player with 88 or more XBH, 145 RBI. Now that really puts things into perspective. Nice work again, Diffusion. It's too bad we couldn't somehow figure out how poorly the top two spots had on the clean up hitter as well. I wonder how many of Ramirez' RBI's last year were just Derrek Lee. Lee had 680 (give or take a couple) plate appearances and 107 RBI's. Aramis had 500 (give or take) plate appearances and 92 RBI's. How many would he have had with a couple of .340+ OBP guys along with Lee's .418 hitting in front of him instead of mostly sub .300 guys?

I'd rather see Williams in there to start. Rusch is more familiar with long relief.