BigbadB

If Jeff Kent, Todd Walker and Nomar end up in the LA infield, LA may want to get rid of a ground ball pitcher like Lowe. :D

I really like the idea of getting Bradley. I'd sacrifice Walker to do it. With Hairston and Cedeno and Perez 3rd on the depth chart to cover 2nd, a speedy, good OBP, decent power guy in CF makes just one more hole to fill (assuming Furcal does sign with the Cubs). Heck, I wouldn't care if Neifi got half the starts at 2nd base as long as he was hitting 8th. Assuming of course the Cubs find a decent lefty power bat to play RF. There are plenty to consider..... Cliff Floyd Aubrey Huff Abreu Giles Shawn Green Ryan Klesko David Delucci Carl Everett (with Bradley, probably not a good idea) Geoff Jenkins Luis Gonzalez

Byrd is rumored to want to return to Anaheim, and would take less money to do so.

A lot of the other teams have stadiums in close proximity to HoHoKam. Check out the Cubs at one of the other venues while you are down there. I don't believe I'll be going this coming year. I spent too much time traveling this year and I'm ready for a break.

And given the roster crunch, what would have made much more sense to me would have been to sign Giles, sign Lofton, sign Furcal and then trade your 40 man roster surplus for pitching and bench help. The way it looks now, we overpaid in free agent relievers, and will overpay in trade to fill glaring holes that need to be filled.

Quite the roster crunch. If it's at 43 and doesn't include Eyre, and assuming that Furcal will be signed, you almost have to assume that trades will be coming to fill CF and RF. Oh, and Macias being cut should be a given at this point. \:D/

You're telling me that if we had a lineup of Lee/Walker/Neifi/Ramirez/Barrett/Murton/Bradley/Abreu, we are in trouble? No, I could deal with Neifi batting 8th on this team. He's actually not a bad option to hit 8th. Can Dusty be trusted to bat him 8th is my concern. Of course, I'd rather see Cedeno play over Neifi, and I don't see Cedeno going to Phily in any deal since they seem pretty set up the middle.

If they can pay Jeter 19m to be an average SS and Mussina 17m to be an average starter, then they should at least pay Giles 21m to be a great oufielder. Offensively Jeter is an outstanding shortstop, easily among the best in the game. His extremely poor defense mitigates that somewhat, but I'd still rate him as a very, very good middle infielder. Getting to my actual point, the Yankees overpay for everyone they sign. It's a pipe dream if they think they can sign Giles, and underpay to get him. If the Yankees really wanted Giles, I would think that the bidding would start at 15m a year.

How many endorsements did Giles have in SD? Locally, in SD, he got quite a few. Akinori Otsuka does a Corky's Pest Control commercial, for cryin' out loud.

Those people are probably looking at his K rate. I think he would be a fine placeholder for Pie for the next couple of years. Believe it or not there are people who don't eat, sleep, and breath OBP as the final bastion of baseball batting glory. Wilkerson is a very respectable player but not a difference maker. He's a glorified Bellhorn who puts up 60 XBH, .350 OBP, and 150 Ks. Wouldn't we just be in heaven in Corey Patterson put up 60 XBH's, .350 OBP and 150 K's?

There is no guarantee of playing for a winner in the AL East, unless you are on Boston or NYY. Toronto is not just the other side of the country, it's in another country. What kind of endorsement deals would Giles miss out on playing in such a small tv market? This contract is really not different than what seems to be getting offered, just a few extra years tacked on. It is a big deal, but I don't see it being enough to make Giles want to go there.

Most definitely. They have one of the higher ticket prices in baseball and they were in the top 10 in attendance last year. Hoffman is basically gone, Ramon Hernandez is basically gone, Klesko and Chan Ho Park will be off the books next year and then there was the money already set aside for Giles. Other than the addition of Mike Cameron and Vinny Castilla, they have all kinds of money to throw around. I just noticed that Bobby Hill was traded from the Pirates to San Diego. He's got no shot in SD behind Loretta. And Josh Barfield will probably be in San Diego in 2007. I would have liked to have seen Hill get more of a chance with someone other than utility.

Wow, now that's what I call overpaying. Though I have no idea what Philadelphia would do with Walker.

If they can pay Jeter 19m to be an average SS and Mussina 17m to be an average starter, then they should at least pay Giles 21m to be a great oufielder.

Kind of hard to do that considering we never had Tex. This goes back to when there was still a belief that Kelton could play 3rd. Does that make me old?

Wow, I didn't realize Soriano would be getting 10m next year. Nevermind. You're right. I'd rather have Walker. And at 10m, why not just sign Giles? :wink:

Orton was horrible in Sunday's game. But, so was the play calling. It seemed to me that they were running when they should have been passing and passing when they should have been running. The whole game seemed that way. Except for that fancy 1 yard drive, there wasn't much offense to speak of. I was screaming for a pass down field early in the game and when I finally got one, I quit screaming for passes downfield. Wow, what a horrible pass that was. If Orton can't complete passes downfield, this team is not going to win playoff games. If he can't complete passes downfield, they need to find someone who can. A good team is going to expose the run/run/pass series of downs the Bears run almost exclusively. It's a good thing for the Bears that Tampa missed that easy field goal, because I'm not sure they were scoring again in that game. The defense will eventually tire of trying to save the offense. Another great game by the defense. Very few defenses can stop Alstott from scoring at the 3 yard line. Glad to see Bobby Wade NOT on the field in the 2nd half for punt returns. The running game looks great, the offensive line seems pretty solid and the kicking game was good. We just need a quarterback that can spread out the defense better to make better use of the running game. I know I'm being hard on the rookie, but come on. Throw a pass beyond the yard sticks a couple times a game, will ya?

Dohhhhh. I still remember thinking we could see an infield of Kelton at 3b, Montanez at SS, Hill at 2b and Choi at 1st. 3 out of 4 are gone now, and the 4th went backwards through the system and plays the outfield now. 8-[

Where's the love for Aubrey Huff? If Giles, Abreu and Dunn are not options, why not send some pitching Tampa's way? I know they ask for the moon, but they have a horrible glut of outfielders, and sooner or later their demands will come down. Huff has a 3b arm, so that shouldn't be a problem in RF. I really don't know much about him defensively. He's a lefty bat that would fit nicely in the heart of the order. Furcal Bradley Lee Huff Ramirez Soriano Murton Barrett Walker and pitching for Soriano. We have tons of relievers and a few decent starters. Pitching and more pitching for Huff. Both teams need pitching. We have it. Would Texas want Cedeno or is Kinsler still projected at SS? Soriano isn't one of my textbook guys, but in the right spot in the order, he can do some damage. Respectable AVG (career .280), good SLG, excellent speed, scores runs in droves, drives in runs well for a 2b. Bat him 6th and Murton and Barrett would have wonderful RBI opportunities. I could see a Mench/Delucci platoon working as well, but as someone else stated above, I doubt Texas would want to move that many guys. Huff, on the other hand, is getting too expensive for Tampa and they need pitching as bad as Texas does. Does Huff cost you more or less than Mench/Delucci would cost?

Yes. It is insulting to the person it was directed towards. But, since you have retracted the statement and since the person it was directed at has agreed with me that it was insulting, I'll discontinue this discussion. If you would like to discuss it further, please feel free to PM me.

Macias ? Come on, Brian, you're overstating the case here. Through 127 games, Macias had exactly 16 ABs hitting ahead of Ramirez in the lineup. First off, how did you know my name was Brian? Not only are you an incredible stats man, but do you have ESP as well? Okay, adding Macias in there is a bit of a stretch, but I also left out Enrique Wilson, Ryan Theriot and Jody Gerut. Those are small sample sizes as well, but they do start adding up. My point was that we got a team OBP of .299 from the lead off spot and a .314 from the #2 spot all season long. For Aramis to have as many RBI's as he did in just 123 games with such poor performance from the 2 lead off spots makes me believe he could produce even better with decent to excellent OBP from those spots.

Thanks for clarifying. From where I come from, New England is near London, England. :D

Personally, I think it was absolutely unnecessary. Personal insults are never harmless. More than anything, they reduce the value of your own argument. Personal insults drive down the value of this community. I can't seem to read through a single thread these days without finding a personal insult somewhere. Considering the ever increasing list of moderators being added to this site, I can't imagine that my findings are that far off. It's called policing yourselves, folks. Why must it always take a moderator to remind someone when they are acting out of line? By the way, other than the "maybe your making stuff up" comment, I thought the rest of your argument was quite good. You used facts to show why you believe Nolasco is more overpowering than Piggy.

I'd also prefer Bradley as the back up plan to getting Giles in RF. To me, that makes Bradley a necessity rather than a "back up plan". If the Cubs ended up with Pierre, Giles AND Bradley, then they have some really nice depth in the outfield. Bradley can platoon with Pierre and/or Murton. If one of Giles or Pierre doesn't come here, then Bradley can play either position.