BigbadB

Maybe I'm just confusing Texas with Kansas City.

Yes

Where's Jerry Rice??????? :D

I thought they moved the fences back at Arlington, which neutralized the hitting advantage. Soriano had 92 XBH's for the Yankees a few years back, and it's not one of the more friendly parks for right handed hitters. Your reference to Soriano's defense is duly noted.

The problem is that we have lots of candidates for #4 and #5 (Maddux, Rusch, Williams, etc.) and most of the people you mentioned aren't much better than what we have. Valid point. I, for one, though have been wondering why we haven't heard Washburn rumblings considering JH's apparent love affair with a left handed starter any way he can get one. His name is Glendon Rusch.

And honestly, I wouldn't trade Mike freakin' Wuertz for Alfonso Soriano. Soriano sucks (for reasons that have already been documented on this website which I will not take the time to rehash). Wood's trade value is probably at the lowest it has ever been. I, for one, still think he has some mileage in left in his arm and am still optimistic that he can be effective. If you are going to trade him, at least wait until he gets back on track and his trade value rises commensurably (at which point any suggestion of a trade will probably met with howls of protest). Even I (Mr. OBP) don't think Soriano sucks. I'd gladly take him at 2nd base if I had very good to excellent OBP in the other 7 spots in the order. Not many 2b's give you 81 XBH's in a season. Heck, I'd take that kind of production out of Patterson. But, once again if the other spots in the order had very good to excellent OBP's.

I thought he just had a suspect arm. I thought he still got to a lot of balls that a not so speedy outfielder couldn't. I meant you can sign Lofton for 1.5-2m. Note the previous sentence where I stated we could trade him (Lofton) at the deadline like every other team in baseball has already done. Lofton only took 1m to play for the Yankees the year we traded for him. He might come cheaper than 2m

I'd feel okay with Encarnacion in RF if we got a power hitter in LF (e.g. Dunn) or at 2B (e.g. Kent). Encarnacion batting 6th is fine; if he's batting 3-4-5, we're in trouble. I don't like the looks of the offense with right handed hitters if you get Kent and Encarnacion. Now you have: Aramis, Lee, Encarnacion, Kent, Murton, Barrett all hitting right handed. The only lefties are likely the two guys that hit 1/2 in Dusty's world. No thanks. I'd rather have Burnitz back than sign Encarnacion.

Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds, Isringhausen, Eckstein, Carpenter, King and Mulder account for $63M. Add another $4M if they pick up Suppan's option. The Cards payroll last year was around $90M. I haven't read all the reports, but I did see a few that suggested an increase to $95-96M range was probable going into their new park. Therefore, many think they can easily give Giles $10M a season, and still have money to address their other needs. Assuming they pick up Suppan's option.... 9 guys, 67 mil, best case scenario, 30 million left for 16 players. Workable Signing Giles 10 guys, 77 mil, best case scenario, 20 million left for 15 players. Very difficult. They could get Giles, but that would make the rest of their offseason pretty tight. I actually see them going after a Encarnacion or Jacque Jones type. What makes you think this? Not that I doubt it, I'm just wondering why. Cause I WISH they'd go after one of those, but I have little reason to think that they will. 1)They are both good defensive OF's 2)The Card are already set @ the 1-5 holes. Eckstein,Grudz,Pujols,Edmonds,Rolen. JE or JJ would fit well in one of the 6-8 holes for them. 3) spending 10 mil per year on Giles won't allow them much room at all to improve in other areas like BP & adding another SP. I totally agree with this. They have no reason to out and spend that kind of money on Giles when defensive oriented guys like the two you mentioned works perfectly. Bring back Sanders and maybe look for a lefty hitting corner outfielder for bottom of the order balance. They will still have a good offense. If they sign Giles, they may handtie their budget next year or another year down the road. No reason to.

Pierre was quite unlucky BABIP wise, especially for a guy with his speed. However, even at his best he's not that great, and he'll be overpriced in cash and players. Lofton, on the other hand, is the poster child for BABIP good fortune. I don't want either. I'll take your word for it, but at the same time, why clog up centerfield anymore than you have to. You can use Lofton and Hairston in a platoon, you can use Lofton as a defensive replacement in any of the outfield spots late in a game. You can use him off the bench in a pinch hit role. You can use him as speed on the bases late in a game. You can hang on to Patterson and see if he gets things straightened out. You can trade him at the deadline like every other team in baseball has done. He won't cost anymore than 1.5-2m at the most. At that cost, he's nothing but value for the production he provides. If you get him as a free agent, you have a lot of possibilities in center with Lofton, Patterson, Hairston, Greenberg and Pie. Pierre would need to be traded for. Strike one. Pierre isn't a guy that would be used like Lofton could. Strike two. Lofton is coming off a season of .392 OBP compared to Pierre's .326. Strike three. If I'm the GM of this team, I sign Lofton and Giles, retain Nomar and Hairston and sign one more guy to the bench and then focus anything else on pitching. OF Giles, Murton, Lofton, Patterson, Hairston IF Aramis, Nomar, Walker, Cedeno, Lee, corner IF bat C Barrett, Blanco Of the guys listed above, only Patterson and Blanco are risks to have OBP's below .340. If Patterson gets things straightened out, it would be great to have a bench of Lofton, Hairston, Cedeno and a guy like Hansen or Branyan. Offense is done. How much did it cost? Giles, Nomar, Lofton and the back up infielder would cost less than 20m. Still plenty left over to make a push for Millwood or Burnett and Ryan or Howry.

If Pierre is guaranteed to give you a .360+ OBP, I might agree with you. But, his .326 OBP last year along with his 17 caught stealings makes him quite a risk. It was his worst batting average since he came into the league, so it could be considered an off year. Kenny Lofton is cheaper, provides a better OBP and doesn't get caught stealing very often. Lofton hit nearly as many doubles as Pierre in half the at bats. Pierre would cost us prospects. I'll take Lofton.

'Nuff Said. That's all you are planning on saying this entire offseason, isn't it? :D

Yeah, I picked up on it. I was just adding fuel to the fire.

Wait, I'm not done having fun with this topic: Macias as a pinch hitter this year 54 at bats, .185 AVG/.207 OBP/.241 SLG/.448 OPS 13 Total Bases, 5 RBI's Good thing he got more than double the pinch hit at bats of any other Cub player this year.

How does a guy end up being the all time pinch hit leader? By sitting on the bench, regularly. That means he wasn't good enough to be an everyday player. I can only see back to 1987, so I'm probably missing about the first 15 years of Harris' career as a utility player, but as a career pinch hitter he is: .265/.318/.656 Who do those numbers resemble? They are a lot like Neifi Perez. Todd Hollandsworth has a career .287/.360/.835 PH record. If guys like Dusty didn't attempt to give a good pinch hitter like Hollandsworth an everyday job, maybe a GOOD pinch hitter would have broken Lenny Harris' record by now. But, what do I know? I was dumb enough to want Hollandsworth back as a key bat off the bench. Little did I know that this was going to be the last thing Dusty would attempt to use him for.

yes there are probabilities, but that just tells you what you would expect to happen if that exact scenario happened 100 times, it does not tell you what would happen this time. stat heads would NEVER have brought up Gibson v. Eck in game 1 or Perez to hit a grand slam or Lee to have the year he did or Patterson to have the year he did etc. Stats are a tool but some of you use it like an end all be all, this isn't a computer program, there are too many human variables to use it that way. no, it doesn't tell you what will happen "this time." it tells you the likelihood that something will happen. a gut feeling doesn't tell you what will happen either (dusty's style of managing). no method is clairvoyant. no, stat hounds wouldn't have predicted the things you say (the odds were against them, not that they were impossible)...and no one else did either, so your point is... at least in two of those situations someone predicted something good would happen or they wouldn't have been in those situations. I'm not arguing against the use of stats as a tool, but I think in sports the correllation between past and current performance isn't as accurate as many give it credit for. Too many human variables, including variables like how hard a player will try. I do think a player tries harder when the game is on the line, (the reason closers are a hard role to fill), I think players play better for different teams, not just because of what statistical data surrounds them in the lineup but because they are where they want to be. I would submit that gut feeling plays just as large a role as statistics and it should. If not, you could hire a computer program as your next GM and forget the whole human interaction thing...and save yourself some money A computer programmer wouldn't be a good GM. A guy who can read computer generated stats would likely be a better manager than a guy who relies on gut instinct. Dusty Baker time and again last year brought in Remlinger on gut instinct (or just plain stupidity) to face left handers. The computer generated stats says "DON'T DO IT, DUSTY", yet he did it anyway. What happened when he did it? Bad things. In the last 3 years, Remlinger has a .215 BAA against right handers and a .284 BAA against lefties. Lefties have nearly as many hits, XBH's and RBI's as righties do, except in less than 2/3's of the at bats. Looks like poop, smells like poop, it's probably poop. But, Dusty tastes it anyway.

Would you trade Adam Dunn for Kerry Wood? Would you trade Ichiro for Kerry Wood? Not only is Wood not cheap, but he's injury prone as well. I would laugh at the team that called and asked if we would take Kerry Wood for Adam Dunn. Wood costs more money, will likely be a free agent sooner and is a question mark regarding health. Now, if you want to discuss Prior or Zambrano, I'd be all ears. Trading a guy like Wood when his value is its lowest is not a good idea. You won't get what you are expecting in return. Why would a team offer up a good player like that for an injury risk?

Is it really fair to compare Podsednik's runs scored to others, when Podsednik only played in 129 games? Podsednik's runs scored would have been much higher if he played in more games. His runs scored would have been much higher if he had better production hitting behind him (after Konerko, there wasn't much else). That's what a .350+ OBP will get you. I don't like the caught stealings, which hurt the RBI chances behind him, but even with the caught stealing, he's far and away better than what the Cubs were throwing out there everyday. The White Sox had a much better all around offense in 2004, therefore didn't need a key top of the order hitter like they did this year. Without Podsednik, they probably lose the division to Cleveland. Here's why the 2004 offense was much better than the 2005 offense: 2005: guys with a better OBP than .335 (3) 2004: guys with a better OBP than .335 (7) 2005: guys with a better OBP than .350 (2) 2004: guys with a better OBP than .350 (6) If you'd like to see a direct correlation between the White Sox poor offense and the Cubs poor offense, look no further than the OBP of guys who played everyday: Pierzinski .308 Crede .303 Uribe .301 Everett .311 Patterson .254 Perez .298 Hollandsworth .301 Macias/Lawton/Burnitz/Blanco (combine these guys together for a below .300 OBP You can't have a good offense when 1/2 of your offense hits like this. At least the White Sox maximized their line up for best overall production. The Cubs second best OBP guy last year (Murton) was getting on base regularly in the 6 hole for who? The two and three guys who SHOULD be the worst hitters on the team. Worst place to put a guy with a good OBP. It's the same thing Dusty did with Bellhorn. One of the best OBP guys on the team, and instead of expecting them to get on base like they are good at, Dusty wants them to drive in runs. Podsednik's value would be about as wasted as it could get hitting in front of Pierzinski and Crede rather than Iguchi, Konerko and Dye. Of course, offense isn't what got the Sox to the playoffs in the first place. But, with the little offense they had, they scored the necessary runs to win more than they lost. Bottom line, make the best use of the players you have. Anything less will only hurt the teams chances. Dusty's thought process? Let's hide the worst hitter on the team right in front of the best hitter on the team. How anyone in their right mind would even remotely consider this as a viable option for run scoring efficiency is beyond me. How many times would Lee have driven in Murton if he was hitting at the top of the order? How many times did Murton get stranded on base hitting 6th? If you don't maximize your offense, you deserve the fate you receive. Like staying home come playoff time.

Oh my god, would love that macias, Perez and Harris, what a bench. I heard that those three make the best cup of coffe in the league. I'm not sure any of the three should have ever been up to the major leagues for longer than a cup of coffee.

Bobcats? Boy am I out of touch with NBA.

There you go. this is amazing. if you cant see the difference in between "the sox's success was due to scott" and "that having scott lead off in 2005 didnt make a huge difference in the white sox's success" then i guess you win. That's nice. I didn't say that. Whatever. Enjoy ignorance. "Enjoy ignorance" does not support your argument. If that's the best you can do, maybe you should refrain from arguing.

And if they do, they will most certainly be looking to dump the remainder of Kaz's contract. There was quite a bit of talk on this board about going after Kaz around the trade deadline. Is that interest still around? Could he be what the Cubs are looking for if the Mets eat a good bit of the remainder of his deal? This sound just like something Hendry might gamble on. So, now we would rather give up prospects for an injured SS, pay out more cash than Nomar might cost, meanwhile freeing up cash for the Mets to go out and covet the free agents WE should be talking to. Nomar would cost us nothing in prospects and could be cheaper than Matsui, besides more productive. I give up. I need a break from this place. [-(

Corey Patterson could put up 20 HR's and 80-85 RBI's if you stuck him in right and batted him 6th all year. Just say no on Encarnacion.

No bowling for Kerry!

You're right, anyone with a stats system for defense is SABRiffic. I'm walking away rather than being patronized by somebody who thinks reading a little BA makes him a statistician. I believe it is you that is patronizing others.