BigbadB

Going back to my original plans for this offseason, 1. Resign Nomar 2. Sign Giles 3. Sign Lofton Between Lofton, Patterson, Hairston, Greenberg and Pie, someone should be able to provide decent production until Pie is completely ready. If it's: 1. Sign Furcal 2. Sign Giles 3. Can still be sign Lofton Lofton it is. He can probably be picked up for 1 year/2m

LA is a mess right now, but for how long? They have one of the best farm systems in baseball right now.

California fans ignored again this year. Well, there's always next year...... :D

How about in front of you, so that you can easily see over him?

Macias does not have an ideal role on a major league roster. his ideal spot is really with a runner on third, less than two outs, no one on first, and the infield back. Macias' ideal spot is sitting in the stands, watching the game.

Goony, where have you been? I can't tackle all these guys by myself. :D

Giles would have been my #1 offseason target from day 1. If Furcal costs 9m and Giles might be 11m, I'll take Giles. If Giles AND Furcal cost 20m and Giles and Cedeno cost 11m plus league minimum, I'll take Giles and Cedeno and spend the rest of the money saved upgrading center/lead off and pitching. I'm leary of Cedeno. I don't know what kind of player he may end up being. He could be a Furcal or he could be a Neifi or somewhere in between. The Cubs didn't help that situation by bringing Enrique Wilson when Nomar went down and leaving Neifi in there when the season was basically over. I wish we knew more about Cedeno. If Pierre can be had cheaply to lead off, Giles in RF and Furcal at CF would be a good team. If I had to pick one to eliminate of the 3, I'd probably eliminate Furcal because of the years and the money. I won't be heartbroken if we get Furcal. But, if Jacque Jones or Juan Encarnacion is in RF, I'm going to be mad.

Why is the Cedeno concern unreasonable? The Cubs saw something about him at age 20 that made them want to protect him on the 40 man roster. Last year, he hit: .355/.403/.518 at AAA .300/.356/.375 at Chicago Granted, the at bats in Chicago were a small sampling, but what if he really is a .300/.356 type hitter? With Nomar coming back for 1 more year, we have the opportunity to get a better look at Cedeno and find out. With Furcal signed for at least 4 years, Cedeno doesn't get that opportunity. Cedeno is a SS, not a 2b. Maybe he can make the transition, maybe he can't. Cedeno at SS leaves the door open for Giles. Furcal probably doesn't. RF is the biggest position of need, IMO, just ahead of the need for a lead off hitter. If the Cubs trade for Pierre, lead off is addressed, but RF is still a black hole. If Cedeno is the real deal, he's wasted as a back up if we do get Furcal.

I don't disagree with that. If I'm Cincy, I'd rather trade outside of the division. But, what teams can offer more than the Cubs? Would it be in their best interest to trade for lesser players outside of the division or for more within the division? The Cubs can do a lot of stuff for the Reds besides provide quality and quantity. The can also provide cash or help them move a bad contract. The Marlins recently helped Atlanta out with Hampton. The Pirates recently helped out the Cubs with Aramis, Lofton and Simon. The Phillies swapped Estrada for Millwood with Atlanta. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen.

Giles can play CF, but I think it would be nuts to expect him to play there everyday. I'm not so sure he would want to do it, either. Who knows? Money makes people do weird things.

The people calling for the Cubs to re-sign Nomar are most likely the same people that complained that Hendry relied to heavily on players with a history of injuries. I think if the Cubs do not sign Furcal, Cedeno will be the starting SS and Walker will remain a Cub and be the starting 2b with Neifi backing up both. The PEOPLE who say "the people calling for this or that" are people who are labeling other posters, and it is NOT WELCOME here! Please stop. I believe this is the second warning I've given you recently. I wanted Nomar resigned because he'll likely come fairly cheap, provides excellent production offensively (which offsets his defense) at a position that can be difficult to find good production. There is the matter of health, but with Cedeno backing up, we should be covered. I never said a word about Hendry relying to heavily on injured players. Settle down, No one was singling anyone out or labeling anyone. There has been much debate on this board about signing and relying on players with injuries that have limited their playing time in the past. Just stating facts, not being derogatory to anyone. Quit acting so holier than thou. This matter has been settled by PM. It was a case of mistaken identity and I have apologized to Badgercub in regards to the exchange between Badgercub and I. I also apologize to anyone who saw this exchange before it was deleted. Okay, back to baseball chatter.....

This is some of the worst reasoning I've ever heard. Resign Nomar because he has unfinished business in Chicago? Is this unfinished business going to hold his groin and hamstring together? And then don't sign Furcal because a couple of guys last year who signed big contracts got hurt. Also, assume we sign Nomar and he stays healthy. By reaching his incintives isn't he going to cost almost as much as Furcal? Is all of it the worst reasoning you've ever heard? Or just the part you singled out? I did say that I wasn't against signing Furcal. But, I do have reservations. The length of the contract, the cost (in comparison to what similar production might cost). Not every long term free agent signing last year was hurt. Beltre and Beltran come to mind. My personal opinion is that Nomar still has the capacity to play a healthy season. Furcal is no guarantee to come here. I think if we miss out on Furcal, we may come to regret not bringing Nomar back, especially if he has a good, healthy year somewhere else.

We just prefer people giving their own opinions here, not other people's opinions, especially when they are wrong. I've wanted Nomar back since the first day of the offseason, for many reasons. 1. He'd probably just be a 1 year deal. 2. He feels he has unfinished business in Chicago. 3. He's very productive for his position when healthy. 4. He's already a Cub, which makes bargaining with him easier. 5. He wanted to stay in Chicago, and would even change positions to do so. 6. Signing Nomar probably wouldn't remove the possibility of signing Giles. With signing Furcal, I'm not so sure they can still afford Giles. I'm not against signing Furcal, but I have these concerns: 1. Coming off a contract year which saw less "laziness". He was averaging a high number of errors and much lower SB's in previous years. 2. The recent trend of free agents who sign big, fat, long contracts is to either be hurt or not play up to your previous standard. I could go on and on with comparisons, but I won't.' 3. We may miss out on Giles. 4. Cedeno could end up being as good as or better than Furcal.

They seem to like this McCann kid. But, I really know nothing about him other than what he did offensively in 2005. Not bad for a 21 year old.

Haven't heard a thing about it, but I'd be thrilled to know that.

I'd be interested to know what the Padres are giving up for Cameron. I don't think they have much to offer. Burroughs is a 3b and the Mets have Wright.

The people calling for the Cubs to re-sign Nomar are most likely the same people that complained that Hendry relied to heavily on players with a history of injuries. I think if the Cubs do not sign Furcal, Cedeno will be the starting SS and Walker will remain a Cub and be the starting 2b with Neifi backing up both. The PEOPLE who say "the people calling for this or that" are people who are labeling other posters, and it is NOT WELCOME here! Please stop. I believe this is the second warning I've given you recently. I wanted Nomar resigned because he'll likely come fairly cheap, provides excellent production offensively (which offsets his defense) at a position that can be difficult to find good production. There is the matter of health, but with Cedeno backing up, we should be covered. I never said a word about Hendry relying to heavily on injured players.

Why don't you see a trade with Cincy? They need cheap, good pitching. We have cheap, good pitching. We can give them quality or quantity.

Which would also mean that the Cubs would have to be leaning towards giving in to Furcal's recent demands of a 50m contract. This won't be done anytime soon, unless the Cubs REALLY overpay.

The problem is that many of these guys don't have a .900 OPS when then face RHP's. It's only when they face a left handed pitcher. I understand what you are saying, and I can agree with it if all the guys you are signing hit just as well against right handers as they do lefties. What I want is better production against right handed pitchers. The Cubs as a team last year had 1 player with an OPS above .900 against right handed pitching (Lee). After that, here are the guys who hit well against right handed pitchers: Ramirez (859), Zambrano (845 :shock: ), Cedeno (840), Garciaparra (820), Murton (807) After Lee and Ramirez, you have a pitcher, a small sample size, a guy who was hurt most of the year and a small sample size. Against lefties, the Cubs have Lee, Ramirez, Barrett and Murton all above 1.000 OPS and Walker is almost there at .980. If you had that kind of production against right handed pitching, you'd win a lot more games. Since there are 3 right handers to every lefty, it's probably a good idea to focus on the guys who hit right handers better, since that's mostly what you'll face. Bullpens probably feature closer to 4 out of every 5 as righties.

For a number of reasons. Lefties tend to hit righties better than right handers. The league is dominated by right handed pitching. Aramis Ramirez vs. LHP 1.112 OPS Aramis Ramirez vs. RHP .859 OPS Barrett vs. LHP 1.039 OPS Barrett vs. RHP .732 OPS Murton vs. LHP 1.006 OPS Murton vs. RHP .807 OPS Lee vs. LHP 1.112 OPS Lee vs. RHP 1.069 OPS Kevin Mench vs LHP .980 OPS Kevin Mench vs RHP .743 OPS With Mench, it's more of the same against right handed pitching. Wouldn't it be better to have say: Cliff Floyd vs. LHP .710 OPS Cliff Floyd vs. RHP .915 OPS Brian Giles vs. LHP .843 OPS Brian Giles vs. RHP .933 OPS Luis Gonzalez vs. LHP .749 OPS Luis Gonzalez vs. RHP .857 OPS Shawn Green vs. LHP .669 OPS Shawn Green vs. RHP .887 OPS Considering how many more right handed pitcher there are in the league, you need a couple of decent lefty bats to counteract the offensive decrease you seen when your right handers face them. Not to mention the fact that a better balance doesn't make it nearly as easy on the opponents bullpen. I only threw Gonzalez and Green in there just to add a couple more lefties to the mix. I am in no way advocating any kind of arrangement to make them Cubs. If you pack your line up with right handers, the team will not score as well against right handed pitchers. If there are 3 right handers to every lefty, wouldn't the better idea be to have some lefty bats in the line up? Maybe you still don't agree. But, I'll take a nice balance of lefties, righties and/or switch hitters everyday. Note that everyone of those lefty hitters hits better than Aramis against right handed pitching. Guys you would never consider trading Aramis for hit right handers better than he does. Maybe that puts into perspective the importance of a couple of decent lefty bats in the line up.

Wal-Mart loss is Burger King's gain. speaking from experience? go blow yourself it's better use of your mouth. I believe the entire board can do without this kind of commentary. Don't ya think?

Poor bullpens is a better excuse than expecting Kerry Wood to go the distance in every game he pitches. There hasn't been a starter in either league go more than 9 complete games this century. With 33-35 starts the average, that's not a very high percentage for the HIGHEST complete gamers. Basically, they all turn it over to the bullpen. Wood should have won 20 in 2003, just like Roger Clemens should have won 20 this past year. The reason you can't compare Wood to Clemens or Ryan, is because Wood hasn't stayed healthy long enough to be able to compare them.

The Cubs already have Lee, Ramirez, Murton and Barrett hitting from the right side. Why is Mench a better fit than say, a lefty power bat?

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Steve Phillips the Cubs GM now?? Yes..... In fantasy world.