BigbadB

He sure was rather respectful of Joe Morgan in that article. Much nicer than I would have been. Oh, and I really like Jon Miller, also. How has he not reached both hands around Joe Morgan's throat and squeezed all the way to the funeral parlor by now is beyond me. You have to admire Jon Miller's patience as well.

Good news for me. I picked the Giants to finish 4th. Bad for the idiots at ESPN. They all picked San Fran to win the division. And I'll call 'em idiots if I want. I pay for Premium and haven't had access to Rumor Central since I got home from my last trip. Fix the stupid link already. [-( Nevermind.....It's fixed now.

Have you given up on this season? Todd Walker alone, in my eyes is worth Hanley Ramirez and Jon Lester. So, no dice.

Where in the Admin/Mod explanation (earlier in the thread) did it say that he was banned for posting a rumor? Unless I missed a post the explanation was that he's a troll but they can't tell us why? Sure his post looked fishy but the rumor he heard from his source was pretty much on considering Reds Announcers picked it up in Cinci. If he was trolling he would have pulled it out it of thin air. I noticed a lot of rolling of the eyes of because he has a source , not to call out Hoops but he has some sources and is well respected on the board. Didn't Vance have a source in Houston. To say SE wasn't banned for posting a rumor only hours after posting it seems a little bit of a stretch. Will it be necessary to clear it through you from this day forward each time we decide someone needs to be banned from this community? I didn't think so. People get banned for many reasons, but the overall intent of removing someone is to protect this community from people who do not have the best of intentions in mind. Honestly, what's with dragging this out? The decision has been made and none of us feel it is necessary to explain ourselves. If you want to get technical, he clearly stated in his very first post that if he was wrong, to go ahead and ban him. We did. The discussion is still here if you wish to discuss a potential trade of Adam Dunn. But, the discussion of why this guy was banned is no longer up for discussion. Period.

The thread was not locked up because the Cubs are currently playing the Reds, and we are approaching the trade deadline. Whether it's Adam Dunn or Austin Kearns, there has been news of a potential trade between the two teams. If this thread were locked, there would certainly be a new one regarding Adam Dunn. To answer the question of why Adam Dunn? He's exactly what this team needs. If Dunn would or could be traded, then it would stand to make sense that Hendry get involved and see what it would take to land him. As far as strike outs. The Cubs led the league in strike outs (pitching and hitting) in 2003. The Cubs went to the playoffs that year. While not all outs are created equal, a strike out is just another way to make an out. Many HOF caliber players led their respective leagues in strike outs. It's what those players do with the bat when they aren't striking out that makes them valuable. Adam Dunn is (in my mind) comparable to Jim Thome. A guy with good plate patience, tremendous power and a high K rate. While Thome hit for higher average in his prime, Dunn can play other positions other than 1b, and also appears to have a bit better speed than Thome. The Cubs worst offensive stat is still OBP. Dunn addresses that. Leaving Hairston and Walker at the top of the order will also address that. Overall, the addition of Adam Dunn gives the team improvement in OBP, OPS, left/right balance in the heart of the order, more youth. The sacrifice appears to be defense, but I don't recall the last good defender we had in left field anyway. By trading for Adam Dunn, the Cubs end up with 6 guys at the top of the order that all can produce .350+ OBP. While OBP isn't the be all, end all of offensive statistics, I certainly like what it does for teams that also have good SLG's, something the Cubs already have. Combine that with a solid pitching staff, and I just see a trade for Adam Dunn as the one piece to the puzzle that fits and lifts this team into the playoffs. Add Nomar and Williamson to the mix, and I don't see how this team can miss the playoffs. Probably won't catch the Cardinals, but the wild card seems to be the lucky spot to be in these days anyway.

Let's just say that SweetEmotion had his 15 minutes of fame. Hope he enjoyed it. I'm really going to miss him. In the meantime, how can we get Mr. Bruce Miles to subliminally inspire Hendry to work a deal for Adam Dunn? As you can see by this threads popularity, WE WANT ADAM!!

Bruce Levine. Not Bruce Miles. Yeah, I believe it was Bruce Levine. Definitely not Bruce Miles.

Give me a couple of months to lighten up. Diets take time from what I hear!!! One word my friend, one word: Atkins :P How does the Rockies 3rd baseman help you lose weight? Well, he's my fantasy 3b, and he's ruined my appetite on occasion. :wink:

There have been 50+ Dunn threads since the start of the season. This one more doesn't really hurt anything. Even if his "rumor" was a falsehood, someone else would have started one asking why we aren't pursuing Dunn, since we really should be. Why wouldn't we be? It's only a long week to the trade deadline. Many more new threads will be started in the next week asking about this guy and that guy until the deadline has passed. Let's focus the energy towards the topic rather than who started the topic. As we mods have shown in the past, we don't tolerate trolling here and those that do troll here don't simply come back under a new screen name. They are gone for good. Let's just give benefit of the doubt and get back on topic.

Give me a couple of months to lighten up. Diets take time from what I hear!!! One word my friend, one word: Atkins :P

I think we just have a lot of new traffic here due to all the extra exposure NSBB is creating these days. I think we should give the benefit of the doubt until there is reason to pull the plug on our newbies. All of us were new here at one time.

Alright, everyone lighten up!

Don't the Cubs have another game with the Reds tomorrow? Why is there so much speculation that a trade would happen in the middle of a series? Are the Reds supposed to help us out even more by trading us Dunn, yet having him sit in the last two games of the series as well? If a deal is made, I wouldn't expect to hear an announcement until the press conference following Thursday's game.

It's fun to speculate, which is why this thread has grown to the size it has. It's also a no brainer in my mind that you offer the world for Dunn. Cincy needs pitching and we have that. A guy like Dunn could mean an opportunity to make the playoffs, THIS YEAR!

My point is that Pierre has never scored more than 108 runs in a season, even though he's had over 700 plate appearances in a season, and he's had tremendous hitter's following him in the line up (Helton, Cabrera). His inability to draw walks hurts his value. His 24 caught stealings last year hurt his value. Adam Dunn scored 105 last year in 50 less plate appearances than Pierre. Last year, Todd Walker scored 45 times in just over 250 plate appearances as a lead off hitter. Florida had 3 guys hitting directly behind Pierre last year with OBP's over .360, 4 if you include Choi. I just can't see the speed translating into anything all that special. I think if you deduct the 0-24 from Pierre's OBP for all those caught stealings (24), I don't think you are looking at anything all that special with Pierre. And that was one of his better seasons.

That's a rather superficial example. Might that quite obviously be because the Redsox lineup was much much better than the Marlins? As a team they outscored the Marlins by 24% (949 to 718) Of course their players are going to have more Runs. How can Pierre effect the rate at which people drive him in? Are you implying it's his fault that he doesn't have Ortiz and Manny hitting behind him? Bellhorn was a Cub in 2002. He had an average Moises Alou and a slightly above average Sammy Sosa hitting behind him that year.

Those are the basics. There are numerous threads and a strategy article from months ago on the subject (which isn't all that popular among the regulars here). It also includes high percentage of balls put in play, the ability to foul off close pitches that aren't the right pitches to hit, and placing the ball in play where you want in the field. Just as some more examples. Since you have a pretty firm grasp of Pierre's abilities, can you explain why a guy who hit over .320 last year (.376 OBP) and stole over 40 bases only managed to score 100 runs last year in over 720 plate appearances? Mark Bellhorn (not a speed threat) batted lead off about 2/3 of the 2002 season with the Cubs, had a .270ish AVG and an identical OBP to Pierre's season last year, yet scored 86 times in 200 less plate appearances. The league is full of guys who score 100 runs a season. Pierre's speed doesn't seem to translate out to anything all that special to me. I'd rate Adam Dunn as twice the player Pierre is. Hairston might be a slight downgrade to Pierre, but certainly not enough to warrant spending much to get him. My focus would be on Adam Dunn, as he scored the same amount of runs last year as Pierre in 100 less plate appearances, and drove in more than twice as many.

The better idea in my opinion would be to trade for Nixon or Dunn without having to give up Hairston or Walker. Then you still have the top of the order guys AND a good OBP/SLG guy added to the heart of the order.

I like our chances of a wild card still. However, I would like to see someone other than a drunk guy put together next year's MLB schedule. Last year we were practically done with these two teams at the all star break. This year, we've hardly played them at all so far. Next year, a little better balance would be nice. I suppose it is a bonus to still have all these games with these teams and be at nearly full strength.

I wouldn't label Rusch as crap either. He's been nothing but stellar as a starter for the Cubs in 2004 and 2005.

Scott Williamson will be here soon enough.

If there was a way to send Rusch and Hollandsworth to Boston for Nixon, I'd be all over it. But, Boston will probably want more than that and I'm quite fond of Hairston's lead off abilities. In other words, I wouldn't want to see the Cubs sacrifice the top of the order OBP to upgrade outfield power production. The Cubs have lots of pop, they need to continue providing baserunners in front of them. If Hairston was traded, wouldn't it stand to reason that Neifi would once again be hitting at the top of the order?

As Goony has basically already pointed out, Neifi is Neifi, not Rod Carew. His hot start this season should not have been expected to be maintained over the course of a full season. He's merely playing like his career averages now, which kind of explains why he was originally signed to be Nomar's back up. I will admit that I was thrilled to get what we got from Neifi in Nomar's absence. Unfortunately, Dusty felt he should be batting at the top of the order as he progressed back to career levels, which meant suffering a terrible regression to get back to those norms. The entire team ended up suffering as Dusty didn't quickly enough make the adjustment of putting Neifi at the bottom of the order where he always belonged.

Nope. :wink: Thanks, another lefty. Weird, Corey, Pie, Greenberg, Fuld all lefties. Isn't Bacon a lefty as well?

Thats right, bbb. Come join vance and I in our evil plan involving dunn becomeing a cub.... :lol: I think we can offer an extremely impressive package for one, Mr. Adam Dunn. I think a trade for Dunn and the return of Nomar gives us the firepower to make the playoffs. What an impressive line up this would be: Hairston Walker Lee Dunn Ramirez Nomar Burnitz Barrett I'll continue to hold out hope that Hendry is lining up an attractive offer for Dunn.