BigbadB

If Jones signs today, will Patterson be non-tendered afterall?

Corey might want to consider switching agents at this point in his career. If he's having no luck finding a taker while he's still under contract, how much interest will he garner when teams find out Boras is his agent when he's on the market?

It's his right to argue. As long as it doesn't become personal.

Klesko is moving to 1b. Klesko is absolutely horrible in the outfield. If the Padres want to give up an outfielder, the only one I'm interested in is Giles. If the Cubs traded for Klesko, they'd be better off sticking Lee in the outfield.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Innocent mistake, but the listed standings for wild card are for 2004, not 2005. :D

Eduardo.

So...... Pierre, Neifi, Lee, Jacque, Ramirez, Walker, Murton, Barrett How's that look? Gotta break up them righties in the heart of the order, dude! I'm ready. Let's play some ball.

The Cubs were 54-55 on 8/5/05

You're right. I'm beyond surprises at this point.

:x :x :x :x :x :x Heh, thanks for that........NOT! :pukel:

When was that? April- 1 start May- 2 starts June- 3 starts July- 6 starts August- 3 starts Sept.- 4 starts (in 9 games before getting hurt) So, yes, he did start him more in September, but still only half the time. But, he also went to the minors to make room for Enrique Wilson, too.

The Padres are a 3rd place team next year at best with the moves they've made this offseason. My opinion of course, but I follow them pretty closely since I live here. The Giants and Dodgers will fly right on by them.

By the way, the Padres seemed like they were pretty high on Ben Johnson in the outfield, but Sledge likely bounces him back to the minors.

How doesn't it make them better? Young is better than Eaton. I don't exactly know the OF and 1B situation out there, but Gonzalez and Sledge is getting more talent in return for Otsuka and a prospect. The Padres are hurting badly in the pitching department. They have Peavy and basically nothing else. They traded Lawrence and Eaton, and now have Woody Williams, Chan Ho Park as sure bets to be in the rotation. Add Chris Young, Dewon Brazelton and Tim Stauffer as questionable arms after that group. They might still have a shot at bringing Pedro Astacio back, but I haven't been paying much attention to what they are doing with that. Klesko is moving to 1b. Gonzalez is blocked there. The Padres outfield consists of Giles, Cameron and Dave Roberts in LF. Yes, ugh regarding Roberts in LF, but he's their only lead off hitter. They traded Mark Loretta, so they don't have a decent #2 hitter anymore, either. Roberts, Greene?, Giles, Cameron, Klesko, Castilla, Barfield?, Olivo Oh, and the bullpen. :shock: They let Otsuka go in that trade, Seanez is gone and so is Tim Hammond. After Linebrink and Hoffman, it gets real thin. Sledge and Gonzalez probably won't play much.

Because Hendry dropped the ball on Giles. :D Doesn't seem like Hendry is interested in Abreu, either, so it's pretty much a moot point.

Eaton was very disgruntled with the Padres this offseason. He wanted a long term contract and didn't get it. He was also upset to see the trade rumors. This trade does not make the Padres better. They are definitely going to dip in the standings this year.

The ranting is because I felt he overspent for Pierre, and might now overspend for Huff. Guzman and Wellemeyer is way too much. Tampa doesn't want to pay Huff 7.5m next year. Not only do they have guys who can fill his spot with + production (based on Huff's 2005 season), but they are a small market team that saw him have an off year. 1. 7.5m is a horrible small market contract if you can get equal production from Delmon Young at league minimum or whatever his major league contract pays him when he makes the team. 2. Delmon Young is disgruntled that he hasn't been called up yet. Not a good thing for Tampa, IMO. 3. Huff isn't the last available option. 4. How many other teams (honestly) have the money available to afford to trade for a corner outfielder coming off a bad year? 5. Will Huff make or break the Cubs offseason? I like Huff and think that his 2005 season was an aberration (I know, exact opposite that I think about Pierre's 2005 season), but is he enough to call it an offseason? Personally, I don't think so. Depth will be a big problem for this team. If one of Pierre, Murton or Huff got hurt, it's Pie or Hairston or Patterson. Ughh. Huff with Floyd works. But, what will it cost? Can the Cubs afford both? Yes, it will definitely take away a lot of Murton at bats, but if Cedeno is playing everyday, I don't think Dusty will be in favor of BOTH Cedeno and Murton playing everyday anyway. It's honestly a shame that we have to think like this, but Dusty is Dusty and we've seen how he operates. Yes, the current line up IS close to what I hoped for. But, I don't think it will be enough. Oh, and if Murton is playing everyday, I would fully expect Neifi to get more at bats at SS than Cedeno. It will likely be one way or the other. Murton sits more while Cedeno plays, or Cedeno sits more while Murton plays. Call me a pessimist, but I really don't like our chances of Dusty playing Cedeno and Murton over Neifi and some veteran outfielder that the Cubs add that isn't named Mabry. Murton WILL start over Mabry. But, will he start over any 4th outfielder the Cubs pick up when Cedeno is playing over Neifi? That being the case, a combination of Bradley and Huff, Floyd and Huff, Bradley and Wilkerson, etc... gives Dusty a line up he can use that doesn't hurt the team.

No one is going to deny that picking up Ramirez and Lee ended up to be pure brilliance on Hendry's part. But, they were pretty easy trades to make. Pittsburgh wanted to be rid of Aramis when his contract his 6m a year. The Marlins couldn't trade Lee the previous year. NO ONE wanted him. If Lee didn't have the 2005 season he had, he'd still just be mediocre offensive production for a 1b. I hope he continues to dominate. Regardless of how easy or difficult it was for Hendry to get these players, he did it and deserves credit for it. But, I can't just sit there and say "Jacque Jones will be a good addition because of how well the Lee deal worked out". He's made other good moves as well. I was a big fan of the Nomar deal. That one didn't work out. But, I wouldn't classify it as a failure because Nomar got hurt. It was the right deal to make. It just didn't work out. I admit originally liking the signing of Baker. I was wrong about that in a big way. Now that I have first hand knowledge of how Baker manages, I should be able to change my view. I liked the Williamson pick up. If he can closely resemble his better years, he'll be an awesome reliever for us for dirt cheap. I liked the trade for Lawton. It didn't work out, but it was a move I do not deny that I was in favor of. However, I would have liked to have seen that move much earlier than when it actually happened. Why he was so bad with the Cubs is still a head scratcher. There were a lot of moves that Hendry made that I really liked. Unfortunately, the bad moves or non moves at this point outweigh the good. I'm a big Kerry Wood fan. Always have been. I hope he will be fully healthy for 2006 and beyond. I wish management would not have gambled on him in the bullpen so that we could have just gotten him healthy for the start of 2006.

Even his best year was below average for a corner outfielder. If it was 1 year and we had Tejada at SS or Abreu in the other corner, I'd be fine with Jones for that 1 year. Though, I'd definitely prefer Murton over Jones.

Will Cedeno be a regular. Zips projections also show Neifi Perez with 450 at bats. If that's the case, we're down to 6 guys with OBP's at .345+. If the right fielder is Jacque Jones, we're down to 5. The line up I would have liked to have seen (assuming that Giles was unattainable and using career OBP's) is: Bradley-.350 Wilkerson- .365 Lee-.363 Ramirez-.358 (using last year's since it's likely a closer projection) Walker-.348 Murton-.350 (assuming a lower one for him, but still respectable) Barrett-.340 (using something closer to last year as a closer projection) Cedeno-.330 Furcal as a replacement at SS-.348 Cliff Floyd platooning with Wilkerson and Murton-.361 Could be regression from any of the players listed above. Could be progression (see Derrek Lee's 2005) from the numbers listed. But, it's a solid line up that was most certainly attainable, except maybe Furcal and the ridiculous contract LA gave him. Using the 8 players in that line up, the Cubs still have enough money left over to sign Millwood, which bulks up the pitching staff and likely replaces Jerome Williams, who was probably involved in the Wilkerson deal. That line up isn't that far off from what we have now, honestly. Pierre could match that OBP next year, though he does give up quite a bit in SLG. Finding someone to provide what Wilkerson could in RF will be the tricky part. Of course, Wilkerson is still available in trade, but what will it take to get him?

Was he hurt in 2004? His numbers in 2004 are basically identical or worse than his 2005 season.

Not true. You and I have butted heads all offseason, so while you are under the impression I am all gloom and doom while I'm under the impression you believe Hendry can do no wrong, there is a middle point most likely for both of us. ....I said right after the offseason ended to give me a line up with .350+ OBP throughout and this team will win more games than it loses. so would any team, but that's simply not realistic. name five teams that had 8 .350 OBP regulars in the history of baseball. the 2004 RedSox only had seven, and that includes having the DH instead of a pitcher. the bolded part is exactly what you constantly do to make your point. pluck out the worst case scenerio stat to rip on the player you are talking about. nevermind the three and a half seasons of OBP over .361, and his career .355. we'll focus on the year his OBP was .326 and the year it was .332. unless of course we are talking about a player you want, then we ignore the worst stats (ie. noone ever mentions Abreu's 100 point plummet in OPS last year). you have great baseball accumen, why not use it to give a balanced, objective opinion about players instead of cherry picking stats? You are correct. I cherry picked last year's OBP. Honestly, it will likely be better, if for no other reason he's in his contract year. I don't know why it dipped to .326, but it makes me nervous whatever the reason. If Neifi Perez is batting 2nd, I won't be happy. For whatever reason, I'm not a real big fan of Pierre. As far as the .350+ OBP thing, it might be something rare, but it was an achievable goal nonetheless if Hendry really wanted to put emphasis on improving the offense. We already had Walker, Lee, Ramirez, Barrett. If they signed Giles, they wouldn't have needed .350+ from all the positions. But, trading for Bradley and Wilkerson while signing Furcal (unrealistic now, but the potential was there at the time) with Murton putting up close to .350+ gives you 8 guys with the potential to provide .350+.

I'm not a stat guy, but those projections don't look bad. Am I wrong? Oh yeah, they're bad. 2 guys even remotely close to 100 RBI's is not good. That's 569 runs scored by your starting 8. Somewhere, you would need another 134 runs from the rest of your team just to equal the run production as the horrible 2005 team. Ughh. You have to take into considereing the number of games played in these predictions. That is why the runs are low. Just by looking at the OBP I don't think it is that bad. True, but who will be getting the other at bats? Neifi (-.300 OBP), Blanco (-.300 OBP), Mabry (-.300 OBP last year), Hairston (.336 OBP last year), Jacque Jones (.319 OBP last year), etc...

I think an argument could also be made that we aren't medical staff, we don't have the x-rays or the experience to make these decisions. I think an argument can be made that WE trusted management to make the decisions that wouldn't hurt the team in the long run. I don't think anyone can be upset at any Cub fan that Kerry Wood might not be ready for the start of opening day, however, regardless of what their opinion was back in August.

I'm not a stat guy, but those projections don't look bad. Am I wrong? Oh yeah, they're bad. 2 guys even remotely close to 100 RBI's is not good. That's 569 runs scored by your starting 8. Somewhere, you would need another 134 runs from the rest of your team just to equal the run production as the horrible 2005 team. Ughh.