BigbadB

And Tony Gwynn became fat and still hit a ton of singles. At age 37, Gwynn had 220 hits while batting .362.

I've been in San Diego for about 10 years and I've come to understand the way they do things here. Not well! Ramon Hernandez is leaving and Giles is waiting at the terminal for his ride out as well. The player the Padres seem the most interested in is Kenji Jojima. That's all well and good, but I'd be really nervous having a catcher who can't communicate with the pitching staff. It also seems as though they are going to court Jacque Jones. To put this into perspective, here is what this team might look like next year: Dave Roberts Mark Loretta Ryan Klesko Jacque Jones X Nady Vinny Castilla Khalil Greene Kenji Jojima/Miguel Olivo Peavy, Eaton, Park, Williams, Wells? Trevor Hoffman emptied his locker when the Padres lowballed him as well. John Moores is spending all the money he is making off the Padres baseball team on developing condominiums and shopping around the stadium rather than on improving the team. They were 6th in attendance with extremely healthy ticket prices last year. i'll believe that a team run by sandy alderson will go after jacque jones when i see it. Keeping up with Jones Nov 9 - The Padres are exploring Jacque Jones as an option in the outfield if they can't re-sign Brian Giles, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. "They've got quite a bit of interest," said Jones' agent, Rick Thurman, told the newspaper. "A lot of it depends on Giles. Jacque is interested. San Diego is his home base."

I can't believe how much people are over valuing Felix Pie. The guy hasn't even played a year at AA and already he is the second coming. A majority of the posters on this board are clamoring for guys with high OBP, yet you want to pin all your hopes on an uber prospect whose plate discipline thus far is lacking. While Pie may end up being a great player, he is not there yet, and may never get there, while a player like Dunn is there and has been there for an extended period of time. If it costs Pie, I'd still do it. But, I'm with the crowd that thinks that Cincinnati would want pitching in return. If you put Williams (major league ready), Mitre (sinker baller would fit well in Cincy) and Nolasco or Pinto or Novoa, I don't know why Cincy would be all that hesitant. They still have 3 outfielders and have improved the pitching staff.

Right :roll: . The man is 32 and keeps himself in excellent condition. Very few people have sharp declines at 32, and those that do aren't nearly as talented as Ichiro. I wonder how many people said Kenny Lofton was due for a sharp decline 6 years ago, or Finley 8 years ago, etc. And those guys aren't as talented as Ichiro. If Ichiro bats .280 next season, then you essentially have Neifi Perez. I'm just saying it's due. It might not happen, but I wouldn't be shocked. You can apply this to every major league player. Barry Bonds might only walk 20 times. ARod might only hit 15 HR's. Pierre might only steal 10 bases. Manny might only drive in 60 runs. Randy Johnson might only strike out 40 guys. I wouldn't bet on any of them happening though.

They didn't. They traded for Vinny Castilla! :D

Why would he even remotely consider Kearns? Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Murton, Cedeno are the only current locks for the batting order. All right handers. If they get Pierre and Furcal, the only bats that hit lefty are top of the order guys. By the way, if they "did" get Kearns, you can forget about Cedeno over Perez at 2nd. Dusty will want to get another lefty in the batting order. Not good.

May be a foolish question, but would the Cubs have the $ to take on Abreu's salary? If they give Furcal $9-10MM, possibly then take on Pierre @$6MM, would they have $15MM to give Abreu? (he's owed $31MM for the next two years correct?). Realizing that Hendry has @$30MM to spend, would that leave him with enough $ to shore up the other area's? The key would be to offer enough to Philadelphia that they would be willing to eat part of Abreu's contract.

If Ichiro wanted to play CF, wouldn't he be doing it?

I'm pretty sure he costs us a 2nd round pick. Yep. ATL would most definitely offer Furcal arbitration, which would cost the Cubs 2nd rounder (since our first rounder is protected). So, once ATL offers arbitration, we quickly move for a trade with Tampa for Lugo and let ATL pay Furcal a mountain of money. Lugo has a year left before free agency and will make 4.5m next year. Pierre, Lugo, Lee, Giles, Ramirez, Murton, Cedeno, Barrett. :twisted: By the way, the plan works perfectly if Neifi is the trade chip to Tampa.

Geoff Jenkins could possibly be available. The Brewers want to promote Corey Hart.

Wow. Wow. Wow! Why would the Phillies want Cano? They have Rollins and Utley. What would the Phillies like for Mr. Abreu?

I think Milton could be spun to San Diego (Peavy, Eaton, Park, Williams, Astacio, Stauffer) are all righties. The Padres want to improve pitching as well. They might bring Wells back.

I'll take that bet.

I don't see all that much negativity about Pierre. But, I understand the frustration of anyone who is. We aren't as "groupthink" as some might think. I happen to like the idea of Pierre and Furcal at the top of the line up, IF Pierre doesn't cost too much in trade. But, RF still needs to be addressed. I prefer Giles, but would settle for Bradley. I just want to see .350 or better OBP throughout the line up. With the payroll that Hendry has to work with, there should be no reason to not have that in your line up. I'm not so worried about power. Power is good. But, getting people on base to drive in is even better. Leading the league in home runs the last several years hasn't produced anything of note. Having lousy lead off hitters has pushed us even further away from anything of note.

It would be a great move by the Yankees. Sign Furcal to play center, Nomar to play 2b and they'll have 4 SS playing everyday.

Good points B, but with regard to the Cubs' interest: is it possible that Hendry is trying to not tip his hand (or rather, what he wants his hand to be)? I mean, if we went all gung-ho about how we wanted him, wouldn't he have even more bargaining power than he already has? I'm not terribly optimistic about us landing him, but from what I've read, that's something that Beane does. How much of an impact can Hendry make in boosting Giles value if the Yankees are knocking on his door? To me, staying silent is showing him how uninterested you are.

I predicted about a month ago that Giles would land in one of these three teams for 2006: Braves (to be with his brother AND a perennial division winner) Cardinals (in a position to continue dominating) Cubs (mostly because of money) I think his desire is to be on a winning team. I also think he would prefer to stay in the NL. The NL Central is closer to his roots, but his brother is in Atlanta. I don't think there is any chance he goes to the Yankees. At least I would hope not. But, then again, it would certainly be better if he went to the Yankees than the Cardinals. I'm feeling less than spectacular about the chances of going to the Cubs, since the Cubs don't seem to be all that enthused about him. How unfortunate.

I've been in San Diego for about 10 years and I've come to understand the way they do things here. Not well! Ramon Hernandez is leaving and Giles is waiting at the terminal for his ride out as well. The player the Padres seem the most interested in is Kenji Jojima. That's all well and good, but I'd be really nervous having a catcher who can't communicate with the pitching staff. It also seems as though they are going to court Jacque Jones. To put this into perspective, here is what this team might look like next year: Dave Roberts Mark Loretta Ryan Klesko Jacque Jones X Nady Vinny Castilla Khalil Greene Kenji Jojima/Miguel Olivo Peavy, Eaton, Park, Williams, Wells? Trevor Hoffman emptied his locker when the Padres lowballed him as well. John Moores is spending all the money he is making off the Padres baseball team on developing condominiums and shopping around the stadium rather than on improving the team. They were 6th in attendance with extremely healthy ticket prices last year.

A career 268/325 guy who went 286/340 with back problems!?!?!? I think so. Karros only had decent numbers when Dusty could match him up vs. lefties and crappy righties. When Karros had to play every day his utter inability any semi-competent RH pitching was exposed and his numbers plummeted. The Karros we saw was a slow runner, a below average defender, could only play 1B, had well below average power for his position, and could only hit LH pitching. If that was his career year that's a pretty sad commentary on his career. How dare you forget that Karros hit into 14 double plays in a half a season's worth of at bats. Didn't mean to hijack the thread, just wanted to point out that Karros did not have a career year in 2003. It also wasn't a career year based on how he did in the 2 previous years. He was injured those years, playing with a Bagwell-like bad shoulder.

Career year? I think not. Karros didn't have anything close to resembling a career year.

Stone also said one more thing, which was obvious, but encouraging: Jim Hendry wants to have a good offseason. He is motivated and positioned well for 4 reasons: (1) has more than $30M to spend (2) has decent young talent in the minors, which he can trade (3) he was 4 games below .500 (4) he finished behind the Brewers I think the better 4 reasons are these: 1. Has more than $30m to spend 2. Has decent young talent in the minors, which he can trade 3. Has trade commodity on the major league level (Walker, Patterson, Hairston, Williams, Cedeno, Murton, Mitre, Novoa, Ohman, Wellemeyer and Wuertz) 4. The team was horrible last year

Just for fun...... Florida receives Josh Barfield, Todd Walker, Shawn Burroughs and Corey Patterson San Diego receives Luis Castillo and Jerome Williams Cubs receive Mark Loretta and Juan Pierre

Not true. There isn't enough regular work to keep 7 guys sharp. Especially if Prior and Zambrano get back to regular 8 inning outings.

I'm a subscriber to ESPN Insider. Insider is where Rumor Central is housed. Rumor Central gets its "rumors" from quotes by major league ballplayers, teams and agents. I know I'm right. It was there for several weeks after the season ended. It's just buried now with all the latest rumors. The article I'm referring to said Nomar wanted to come back and that he would be willing to a position change to do so. An official with the Cubs was quoted as saying that it was very unlikely that the Cubs would bring Nomar back.

I like the guys suggested, but I'd take McClain over Macias all day long. In fact, that is a no brainer.