BigbadB

Why? You'd give up a minimum of 10 guaranteed runs for 18 (approx.) more appearances on base? Even if you only scored half the time (which is very high... 25% is more like it), that would still be less than those extra 10 homers. Makes no sense. That's why I think some folks overrate OBP. Not because OBP is a bad stat... it's a great one. But some people are so in love with it that they don't stop to even think about what they're saying. a MINIMUM of 10 guaranteed runs for approximately 4-5? NO thanks. Give me 20 and .320 over 10 and .350. Boston had 19 more XBH's than the Cubs last year. Boston scored 207 more runs than the Cubs last year. Think about that for a second. Since it's impossible to drive in 207 more runs with 19 XBH's, what would have gotten the Cubs there? AVG? Could the 69 more hits that Boston had on the Cubs last year have driven in 207 more runs? Partially. Could the real reason that the Cubs scored 207 less runs have a lot to do with the 234 walk differential? Cubs walked 419 times, Boston walked 653 times. SLG, AVG and timely hitting all factor in as well, but if you don't get guys on base, they aren't going to score. OBP isn't the be all end all, but construct an 8 man team with .350 OBP throughout, and your team will score a lot of runs. Boston had a team OBP of .357 last year in scoring 910 runs. The Cubs had a team OBP of .324 last year in scoring 703. Without Dusty's help, a couple of more respectable OBP guys at the top of the order could have definitely improved run generation. But, I'll take the guy with the .350 OBP. Those 18 extra times on base are 18 more tries for Derrek Lee or Aramis Ramirez to drive him in. That's 18 more times the defense has to avoid throwing a ball away, etc..... 6 players x 18 extra times on base per year is 108 more times on base. There are a lot of other good things that come from drawing walks and using patience at the plate. Middle relievers get involved earlier, which allows the offense to tee off on guys who aren't good enough to secure a job in the starting rotation. The more pitches you take, the better the chance you get better pitches to hit. It's not just OBP. It's pitch recognition, patience and persistence to find a way to get on base. If you don't do these things, you end up with a station to station offense like the offense the Cubs have been fielding for years.

That would have looked real good in a Cub uniform in 2004.

I agree, throw Rothschild under the bus with those two. I don't want to see Prior or Zambrano traded for anyone in MLB. Yep, blow up the management team, not the roster. Make a transaction I can be proud of this offseason, for once.

How many seasons did it take for him to get these stats? If you were put in for a slow power hitter after his last at bat during any close game you could get those numbers in ony one season, as long as you had some other sporadic pinch running. Over 2 seasons, but just barely. He was released in May of his second season. Not a very good stolen base ratio. I want to say he was a former sprinter in track and one of the fastest runners of that era. But, I have nothing to back that up.

no, that's boras talking. if you're adding this, then you're also adding beltran's 10/200 request from last year. I'd be fine with adding that one too. It most certainly falls under ridiculous contract demands, which sorta classifies. Randy Myers had some ridiculous contract. He made 14m in the final two years of that deal and never pitched an inning in 1999 or 2000 with the Padres. Denny Neagle pitched 170 innings in 2001, 164 innings in 2002, 35 innings in 2003 and none in 2004, and received an average of 8m a year each of those 4 years to do so. Oh, and he never posted an ERA lower than 5.26. Looks like Albert Belle was signed by Baltimore in 1998 to a 5/60m deal, and Albert gave Baltimore 302 games over 2 seasons. The Mo Vaughn deal was pretty horrible. Especially when the Mets got ahold of him.

Thats crazy that someone could completely avoid the battersbox or the field... (althought, he could have played in the field, but never made a play). That I can't answer. I don't know whether he ever played an inning in the field, but it doesn't appear as though baseball-reference can answer it either. They have him listed as a DH for his fielding position. :D I do remember him with the World Series Oakland A's though. I always thought he was Claudell's little brother. Not only was Herb older than Claudell, but there is very little evidence that would give one the impression they were related.

Herb Washington played in 105 major league regular season games, 2 playoff games and 3 World Series games. He never had a single major league at bat, never set foot on the mound and never made a single put out defensively. Baseball reference doesn't even list player comparisons by age for good ole Herb. He has 3 offensive stats to his name. Runs scored (51), stolen bases (31) and caught stealing (17). He was a career pinch runner.

Eric Milton :D Wait, can I have do overs? I'd rather have Jeff Fassero. Oh, okay. Jake Peavy would look pretty good right behind Zambrano and Prior.

Uh, .415 SLG? Giles last year in a pitchers paradise had a line of: .301/.423/.483 His OBP is better than the SLG of the guy you prefer at 7m. And, it only takes 1 Brian Giles to fill that hole rather than 2 guys to do the work of 1. Put Giles back in the hitter friendly NL Central and watch his SLG go back over .500 easily. He's been over .600 SLG twice in his career and in the NL Central.

Why don't we just get rid of the real problem? Dusty and Hendry.

Minnesota never has been much of a hitter's paradise. But, Jacque's daytime splits are nothing to make you write home about either. The only solice one can take in that is Minnesota only plays Sunday afternoon games and maybe a travel day game every other week all season long.

Anyone have the numbers to crunch to show how much more the Cubs paid for their group in comparison to the Cardinals? I'd be interested to see how much more our group is getting. Oh, and add Junior Spivey to the Cardinals list.

Agreed. However, I thought he and St. Louis might make a good fit as I mentioned in another thread this morning.

Thanks! Of course, I'm also not so blind that I can't recognize the good moves Hendry has made. But, then again, even the worst GM's in the history of the game must have made a good move or two at one point or another. This offseason isn't going to define Hendry's place on the best or worst list, but the 2006 season sure will. There were no excuses this offseason. A weak free agent class doesn't cut it.

Not arguing with you in anyway, but thought I'd point this out: Tejada had 150 RBI's his first year in Baltimore. He posted a .311/.360/.534 AVG/OBP/SLG. He had 76 XBH's. Derrek Lee had 107 RBI's last year. He posted a .335/.418/.662 AVG/OBP/SLG. He had 99 XBH's. Baltimore had a .341 OBP in the lead off spot the year Tejada got 150 RBI's. They had a .370 OBP in the 2 hole. 48 stolen bases between those two spots in the order. Cubs last year had a .299 OBP in the lead off spot. They had a .314 OBP in the 2 hole. 27 stolen bases between those two spots. The reason I bring up the top of the order is because the Cubs OBP at the top of the order cost them a lot of runs and a lot of games. The bad OBP outside of Lee, Ramirez, Walker and Barrett is why the team stunk so bad. Not defense, not speed. GETTING ON BASE is what they were bad at, and are still bad at. How much you wanna bet Neifi Perez or Jacque Jones and their well below average OBP's hits 2nd for this team because Hendry and Baker are emphasizing speed rather than OBP? Between Neifi and Jacque Jones, the two of them grounded into 39 double plays last year. That wretchedly horrible Todd Walker guy hit into half has many as Jones, and nearly 1/3 the amount Neifi hit into. He makes the same amount of money as Neifi, gets on base much more often, doesn't create nearly as many outs and this is the guy they want to trade. :D Fix the line up by removing bad OBP guys with good OBP guys and you create enough offense to get you by. Fix the bullpen, beef up the bench and get the starting staff healthy and you are a well rounded baseball team. You don't need to add a superstar. Subtracting here to strengthen there (Prior for Tejada) doesn't do a thing to help this team.

Not that I really care, but wouldn't the Cardinals have been much better off keeping Sanders and signing the non-tendered Junior Spivey to play 2nd base?

An alternative that would have been better would have been someone that would have signed a 1 year deal, not 3. Reggie Sanders would have been just fine. I wouldn't have liked that deal much either, but to know it would have been for 1 year would have been 10x better than the ridiculous 3 years Jones received. Another alternative would have been Nomar. If the Cubs would have locked him down for 1 year with an incentive laced deal, they could have stuck him out in RF. With Nomar, you wouldn't have needed a platoon. He can hit both righties and lefties. If the Cubs just reupped Nomar, they wouldn't have been in such a predicament to have to overpay for someone like Jones. It's interesting to see all these teams out there that were willing to stick Nomar in their outfield, yet he wasn't even a remote option with our team. I could find all kinds of options or alternatives over Jones. Heck, I would have taken a flyer on Matt Diaz or Michael Restovich out there on a minor league deal before I would have done a 3 year deal for Jones. I would have invited Juan Gonzalez as an NRI before I would have given Jones a 3 year deal. Hendry has made a lot of bad decisions over the last 2 offseasons. This is just another in a long line. Leaving Jose Macias on the 40 man roster when he basically had no room to protect up and coming prospects is just another in a long line of bone headed moves. Hendry gave away Jermaine Van Buren. A team like Tampa might have benefitted from a guy like that. I'm not saying Van Buren is the be all-end all of prospects. But, they gave him away. They gave away Sisco. They've given away a lot of guys lately, and it's going to hurt this team in the long run. When Miguel Tejada was available as a free agent, the Cubs owed Alex Gonzalez 5.5m for the 2004 season. Did the Cubs shop elsewhere because they didn't want to pay Tejada AND Gonzalez at the SS position? Vlad was available too that year. Did they shop elsewhere because Sosa was already in RF for another 2 years and Alou for 1? Alou could have been moved to San Fran pretty easily. 2 years later, Hendry is going to give away his top prospect AND the franchise player for Tejada when he could have had him for nothing via free agency. Will Hendry now ignore some other blue chip free agent for RF because Jones has a year or two to go on his contract? It sure looks like he would to me. He did it with Tejada, Vlad and Beltran in the last 2 years. Money obviously wasn't the thing blocking a deal from happening either. A raise of hands on who would have rather seen Hendry sign Tejada instead of Maddux? I'd have done that deal all day long and dealt with Rusch/Cruz or whoever in the 5th spot in the rotation. There is a domino effect going on here right now that is getting uglier by the day. Someone needs to go in and stop the dominoes from falling. If Hendry has a plan, it's not a very good one. Plain and simple. Fantasy GM or no.

There are only 2 players that I would trade Prior for right now, and neither of them are available anyway, so it's a bit pointless to bring them up, but I'll do it anyway. Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols. If neither of these guys are being offered for Prior, Prior should not be on the trade block. What really irritates me right now is not necessarily the trade (since it hasn't been made yet), but the rumors of Prior being traded. Bad PR. If Prior ends up staying, what does it do to his loyalty to the Cubs when he hears all these trade offers that include his name?

So let me get this straight. The Cardinals offered basically the same money to Jones as the Cubs, and he took the Cubs offer? Chalk one up for Dusty? What other absurd reason would a guy pick a team that is regressing over a team that consistently finishes in the top half of the standings if the money is the same?

And if it isn't bad enough, about six months after the Cubs traded their franchise player (Prior), some unnamed SS (Tejada 8-[ ) that plays for the Cubs demands a trade because he wants to play on a team with a commitment to winning. After Hendry destroys any value Tejada might have ever had after the trade demands, he finds a team to dump the remainder of his contract on. Of course, Hendry had to pay nearly all of Tejada's contract to move him, AND had to add a top prospect for Wilson Alvarez.

Jones, Encarnacion, Rondell White or Reggie Sanders? Sanders>White>Jones>Encarnacion Where do you put Burnitz and P Wilson in that continuum? Sanders>Burnitz>White>Jones>Wilson>Encarnacion I certainly was not happy about Jones, but I would have blown a couple of gaskets if we got Encarnacion. He would have been horrible as a Cub. He'll be awesome in St. Louis. :roll:

Can we add Johnny Damon's 7/84m request, which no team came anywhere near?

I agree about Reggie. I'm not sure who I'd "want" more. Juan is younger and was better last year but Jones has a "better" track record. Funny part is, arguing about who is better between Juan Encarnacion and Jacque Jones is like arguing whether milk that has been sitting out in the sun all day or milk that is a month past its due date tastes better.

Jones, Encarnacion, Rondell White or Reggie Sanders? Sanders>White>Jones>Encarnacion

It amazes me that the Cardinals didn't just work something out with Reggie Sanders. He made for a very nice role player with that team. Jacque Jones or Juan Encarnacion? I'd rather have Jones, but not by much.