BigbadB

I think this part indicates Huff's displeasure with Tampa (Devil Rays). The Tampa Tribune reports that Huff also claimed the organization hasn't improved this offseason, suggesting that the $10 million being used to refurbish Tropicana field should be thrown at a free agent. HA! They are a 30m team. How much improvement was he expecting? Actually, they will eventually be improved once they've lowered their demands for Baez, Lugo and Huff, and replaced those guys with good prospects and Delmon Young and BJ Upton. :D Boston will probably send Marte and a pitching prospect for Gathright and Lugo. Some team with a bit of cash and a hole in their pen will probably give Tampa a pitching prospect or two for Baez. The Cubs could give up a pitching prospect or two for Huff. Everyone is happy again!

Would it count for something if I said that Cincinnati is twice as bad as Detroit and KC combined? :D

Did someone mention Huff? Won't need to move Murton to get him. Tampa will want pitching. They have plenty of offense.

Last time I looked, 48th out of 50 states. But, it might be 49th. :shock: BigbadB went to school in Illinois. :D

I saw this coming. This organization sure seem to make a lot of players mad, even though "everyone wants to play for Dusty". I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

"What have you done for me lately" --Janet Jackson I loved 2003. I will always love 2003. It's 2006 now.

Do you really believe that Jones is going to digress that badly? No I believe Patterson isn't nearly as bad as some believe. Patterson's career numbers are worse than Neifi Perez's. I would say that qualifies as being pretty bad. Having seen Jones play at the Metrodome and being familiar with his attitude, I think he will suprise many on this board. Jones is definitely moving to a more friendly hitter's division. He could show a surge offensively. But, he seems to be more of a ground ball hitter than a line drive hitter. That isn't going to help him a whole lot.

He really should go to Colorado with the ole blank check routine like Andre did. Then Colorado can play him in home games only, or when the lid is open in Arizona. Absolutely no starts in the California parks. That's a pretty severe stance to take (and offbase). Sammy has the power to hit the ball out of any park. The size of the park isn't the issue and has no relevence to his homerun capability. The size of the park won't change his ability to make contact between the bat and the ball. Whatever the reason, Sammy is pretty much done at this point in his career. His home run numbers have dropped every year since 2001. His AVG has dropped every year since 2001. Colorado is the one park that would probably allow him to put up respectable numbers for another year or two. But, only at home. Colorado is good hitters park, but not necessarily a great home run park because of the deep dimensions. Balls will fly out of there, but it takes a pretty good shot to clear the fences. So, I really don't believe I'm offbase at all. Maybe you are reading more into what I said than what I actually meant. I just believe Sammy would be able to extend his career for another year or two with Colorado without another drop in production.

He really should go to Colorado with the ole blank check routine like Andre did. Then Colorado can play him in home games only, or when the lid is open in Arizona. Absolutely no starts in the California parks. That's a pretty severe stance to take (and offbase). Sammy has the power to hit the ball out of any park. The size of the park isn't the issue and has no relevence to his homerun capability. The size of the park won't change his ability to make contact between the bat and the ball. Playing at high altitude, on the other hand, does change your ability to make contact Thank you for expanding on my point, Careless. Sammy isn't making as much contact as he used to. Breaking balls don't break as well in Colorado. Fastballs don't break much at all.

He really should go to Colorado with the ole blank check routine like Andre did. Then Colorado can play him in home games only, or when the lid is open in Arizona. Absolutely no starts in the California parks. Gee if that happened, I don't think there would be any way to argue that Sosa wasn't a selfish player. I didn't say Sammy would make that decision, but rather Colorado.

Of course, if you had Floyd or Huff, you could slide Jones down in the order to where he belongs, also. I think it would work better for Dusty anyway, because I just don't see Dusty starting Murton AND Cedeno everyday over veterans. If Murton is guaranteed an opening day spot, Cedeno might be the one who sits in favor of Neifi.

That's pretty much the way I'd handle it also, UK. Murton would become the 4th outfielder/platoon with Jones. Also getting starts for Floyd so he can rest his weary bones. He seems to perform better when he's not playing day in and day out, or at least gets occasional rests. Right now, the outfield is really in trouble if any of our 3 starters gets hurt. I'd rather have a good 4th outfielder like Murton who can step in everyday for an injury than throw Mabry or Hairston out there.

Actually, he did say publicly that he always wanted to stay in San Diego. AFTER HE SIGNED HIS NEW CONTRACT!! What a shocker that is, huh? I thought for sure he would say "I hate San Diego so much, I would have played anywhere else, but no one offered me more than San Diego was willing to up their offer to, so I stayed". Giles said the typical feel good stuff every player says when they sign a contract. He was being honest, however. He did always want to stay in San Diego, but he would have signed elsewhere: 1) If someone really wowed him with a contract. 2) If San Diego didn't up their offer. Those of us that hang on to a hopeless battle of whether Giles would sign with the Cubs haven't been given any sort of news that the Cubs even attempted to try to sign him. Until that happens, I'm not buying into it. The things we do know are: Mr. Miles claimed that Hendry never really was all that interested in Giles due to age, the amount it would cost to sign him, and the fact he isn't the lead off hitter type that Hendry seemed to be targeting. We have a quote in print that circulated all over the country that said "I'm not going to get into a bidding war for Brian Giles", which is a Hendry quote. There were several teams talking to Giles, not just one or two. Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals just off the top of my head. The Yankees wanted him to play CF, which wasn't wise for either the Yankees or Giles. The other teams didn't commit any more money (or of no signficance) than the Padres finally caved in and offered. We know all about St. Louis' money issues this offseason. Instead of Giles, look who they got. If the Cubs would have offered Giles 15m a year for the next 3 years, I'm not so sure he wouldn't have taken it. Until there is written proof prior to Giles signing that states he had no interest in playing for the Cubs, I'm not buying it. Sorry if that upsets anyone. Call me stubborn. I will say that Brian Giles would have been one of the most foolish baseball players in the history of the game if he told the Cubs before the bidding process began that he had zero interest in playing for them. Because whether he had any interest in them whatsoever, it would have been foolish to send what most likely would have been one of the best bidding teams in baseball this offseason packing if his true intent for being on the market in the first place was to get San Diego to up their offer. The Cubs had over 40m to spend when this offseason began. Did Brian Giles tell Jim "I have 40m to spend" Hendry not to bother, or did Jim just accidentally not call him? I think Jim was too busy chasing Rafael Furcal to notice one way or the other. What I really don't understand is what is up with the insults of those people who don't believe the Cubs ever had interest in Giles? Everyone is free to believe what they want to believe? Why attack us for believing something different than you? We are fighting a lost cause. He isn't coming here. We know he isn't coming here. Some of us just aren't satisfied with a "I never wanted to leave San Diego" quote AFTER he signed. Name one single player that would say the opposite after a signing. Just one. Please.

With so many Corey threads, wasn't sure which one to post this in and not sure whether anyone touched base on this yet, but... Did Corey's ability to hit for a decent average deteriorate because of organizational philosophy, by chance? I mean, Dusty's been quoted as saying that walks clog bases and that the team needed to be more aggressive at the plate, etc... Could it be that Corey just got more aggressive than he already was, which in turn made him swing and miss more than he already did? I'm not looking to pass blame, but rather attempt to find some sort of reasoning as to why he struggled so badly last year. If the teams organizational philosophy is that they want you up there hacking away rather than drawing walks, and you have a guy who is already more aggressive than he should be, wouldn't that just push Corey even further in the wrong direction?

Are there any updates? All I heard was that he had a heart attack. And stay, Jeff. I heard that and that all of his upcoming appointments were being rescheduled for later dates.

I'm with Vance. If you're going to overpay for someone (which the Cubs did quite well at this year when they overpaid for Neifi, Rusch, Eyre, Howry, Jones and Pierre in trade), overpay for Giles. I know that the basic thought process is that Giles had no intention of leaving, but as a San Diegan who witnessed how frustrated he got day after day with Petco Park, coupled with the losses of Hernandez, Loretta and Eaton(because of Giles), and the near loss of Hoffman is a telling sign that there is no reason to be so loyal to an organization who has no problem sticking a knife in your back. I'm going to continue latching on to my belief that Giles wanted to be wowed by someone this offseason, and when none of the other offers were any better than what San Diego was offering, he elected to stay. His last contract was a good contract, but relatively low considering his production and what other players of his ability were making. I mean, Richard Hidalgo was making 12m to Giles' 8m just a few years ago. Giles signed a long term contract with the Pirates, which is a small market team attempting to hold on to Giles through his prime years. He lost a lot of money on that deal. An argument could be made that Giles honestly just tested the market to drive up the price on San Diego and force them to match the higher offers. They did lowball him pretty good in opening negotiations. But, time was running on on whether he would be able to return to San Diego and the offers just weren't to his liking. We do know that Hendry really wasn't all that interested in Giles, as Bruce Miles has mentioned numerous times on this site. Age, amount it would take to sign him, importance of a lead off hitter rather than a bopper were some of the possible reasons that Hendry didn't pursue him. Hendry claimed that he wouldn't get into a bidding war for him as well, which just furthers my own cause that it wasn't that Giles wasn't interested, but rather Hendry wasn't interested. Giles is the guy the Cubs should have targeted and overpaid to play for this team. An argument could be made that he could fall off a cliff offensively as he ages, like many players do, but I don't think Giles will be one of those guys. Well, maybe he will be one of those guys afterall, since he's finishing his career in one of the least friendly hitter's parks in all of baseball. To answer A or B, I don't like either choice. This team needed a big boost offensively, and neither Furcal, Jones or Patterson was enough, IMO.

He really should go to Colorado with the ole blank check routine like Andre did. Then Colorado can play him in home games only, or when the lid is open in Arizona. Absolutely no starts in the California parks.

Dr. James Andrews won't be seeing Bagwell before January 31. Bank on it. He has his own medical issues to deal with. I don't see a thing wrong with Bagwell trying to play another season. Houston shouldn't have given him that big contract if they aren't willing to honor it.

You're the GM, so you wouldn't have a bad relationship with Coletti, therefore you were able to work a deal. :wink:

Yeah, it's Dusty proof. But, I'm not sure these moves would fit within the budget. If it does, I give your offseason a very big :cheers: Of course, going over budget a bit when you feel like you have a World Series caliber team assembled shouldn't be completely tossed out the window. :wink:

Saying guys are "potential 100 RBI guys" makes it sound like driving in an RBI is some sort of skill he's working on. Anybody who doesn't suck that hits 4th or 5th for a full season on a decent team should be able to flirt with 100 RBI. It's not any sort of accomplishment to drive in 90 from the 5 hole if you're playing all, or the vast majority of the season. Jones could have a bad year and still drive in 80+ from the 5 hole, and hurt the team due to their relative underperformance against the league. I don't disagree with you. My main point was that his low seasonal RBI totals appear to be low moreso because of where he hit in the line up, which was lead off nearly half of his time in the bigs. A #5 hitter on a Cubs team should have well over 100 RBI's if they are hitting behind Lee and his .400+ OBP and Ramirez's .360+ OBP. That's a lot of RBI opportunities. Burnitz had 87 with a .258 AVG.

Good call on the Ogunleye jersey, I've got my Vasher saved for the big game. I thought the better call was taking him up on that bet. :wink: :D And I actually wanted an Alex Brown jersey, but he couldn't find one. Carolina sure knows who Alex Brown is. That was arguably Alex's best game of the season.

Not that I'm overly excited about supporting Jacque Jones in any capacity, but nearly half of his at bats over his career have come as a lead off hitter. Therefore, his RBI totals aren't as bad as they appear. He's had 357 career at bats as a #5 hitter, and he has 52 RBI's. As a #6 hitter, he's basically on the same pace with 93 RBI's in 692 at bats over his career. It appears as though he has the potential to be a 100 RBI guy in the 5 or 6 spot if he can hit somewhere around .300. I'd much rather see him hitting 5th or 6th than 2nd.

Bill Madlock came up through the minor league system of the Washington Senators (Now the Rangers). He was part of the trade for Ferguson Jenkins after the 1973 season. As Tim pointed out above, there was Grace and Palmeiro in the 80's. You could possibly add Shawon Dunston from that same time period, although many would question him. Going back before that, you have Brock, Hubbs, Williams & Santo from the early 60's..... and that about sums it up for the last 45 years. [sigh] And Joe Carter. Too bad we cut bait, but at least we got Sutt in that deal. I love The Red Baron. Yeah, can't really complain about that trade. Without Sutcliffe on that team, they don't make the playoffs.

I'm not sure why Rusch was so quick to sign with the Cubs, honestly. He should fire his agent. My reasoning for not signing Rusch as the "fake GM", is that with a healthy Wood, I felt the Cubs had enough protection in the rotation with guys like Pinto, Nolasco, Guzman, Hill, Mitre. It would be blocking all of these guys completely to have Rusch. One or some might have been gone in a deal that brought relievers or an outfielder in trade, but if this Hill guy is so good that he can't be included in trades, let's see what he's got. Let him do that spot start, long relief role. It will keep his innings to a minimum in 2006 while preparing him for a potential starting role in 2007. If Guzman is healthy, he'd be a guy I want getting major league service in 2006 to see if he's worth hanging onto. Let me also add that I like Rusch. Goony and I have argued about Rusch plenty of times. I don't like what he's making and I don't like that he's blocking the prospects. Of course, some of those prospects are gone now, so Rusch is more needed now anyway. But, I am more in agreement these day with Goony that this probably wasn't one of the better moves this offseason. My apologies if I'm mis-speaking (sp?) on Goony's behalf.