ThePenguin11

I like every word of that, especially the part about Soriano in CF. Prepare to be bombarded by the "Soriano is overrated and sucks" faction. Last year the guy was a bum who didn't get on enough and was going to stink now that he's not in a hitters park and low and behold...40/40. Seriously, what is your problem with posters on this board? Soriano is overrated. But he's still good. Most everybody on this board would be happy with him being here next year, especially when you consider the limited options. And, if he's in CF, all the better. If I recall correctly you were one of the guys saying Soriano sucks last year. A year ago people were saying you can't trade (name a worthless pitching prospect who we've waited for to pan out and still hasn't) for established players who's OBP is below .375 and people were lambasted at the suggestion. And for the record you're usually the only poster I tend to disagree because of your "I'm always right" attitude. So because Soriano exceeded everybody's wildest expectations and the pitchers on our staff didn't come close to their talent, suddenly we were all stupid? If you tell me that before the season you honestly believed Soriano would do anything near what he has done this year, I would be forced to call you a liar. There was nothing in his track record to suggest he'd go from being merely a good or very good player to being a great one... and there's nothing to suggest he's established a new baseline level of performance for himself at the age of 30. (BTW, he got caught stealing 17 times stealing, so his 41 steals mean jack squat. I'll give him credit for hitting the ball well enough to get 46 HR, but he wasn't stealing well enough to get 41 steals... he was simply attempting to steal often enough) You can call me anything you want, but I may be forced to call you ignorant. I did believe that Soriano was capable of matching his best numbers, if not exceeding them, because he's still young and improving and I don't believe in park factor.

I like every word of that, especially the part about Soriano in CF. Prepare to be bombarded by the "Soriano is overrated and sucks" faction. Last year the guy was a bum who didn't get on enough and was going to stink now that he's not in a hitters park and low and behold...40/40. Seriously, what is your problem with posters on this board? Soriano is overrated. But he's still good. Most everybody on this board would be happy with him being here next year, especially when you consider the limited options. And, if he's in CF, all the better. If I recall correctly you were one of the guys saying Soriano sucks last year. A year ago people were saying you can't trade (name a worthless pitching prospect who we've waited for to pan out and still hasn't) for established players who's OBP is below .375 and people were lambasted at the suggestion. And for the record you're usually the only poster I tend to disagree because of your "I'm always right" attitude. So because Soriano exceeded everybody's wildest expectations and the pitchers on our staff didn't come close to their talent, suddenly we were all stupid? If you tell me that before the season you honestly believed Soriano would do anything near what he has done this year, I would be forced to call you a liar. There was nothing in his track record to suggest he'd go from being merely a good or very good player to being a great one... and there's nothing to suggest he's established a new baseline level of performance for himself at the age of 30. (BTW, he got caught stealing 17 times stealing, so his 41 steals mean jack squat. I'll give him credit for hitting the ball well enough to get 46 HR, but he wasn't stealing well enough to get 41 steals... he was simply attempting to steal often enough) I'm not saying anyone is stupid. My point last year was that he's a proven run-producer and difference maker and people (many people) had the nerve to say he wasn't because of ball park factor. I was also told that his because he was in an inferior lineup he wasn't going to hit as well or score as many runs. oops.

I like every word of that, especially the part about Soriano in CF. Prepare to be bombarded by the "Soriano is overrated and sucks" faction. Last year the guy was a bum who didn't get on enough and was going to stink now that he's not in a hitters park and low and behold...40/40. Seriously, what is your problem with posters on this board? Soriano is overrated. But he's still good. Most everybody on this board would be happy with him being here next year, especially when you consider the limited options. And, if he's in CF, all the better. If I recall correctly you were one of the guys saying Soriano sucks last year. A year ago people were saying you can't trade (name a worthless pitching prospect who we've waited for to pan out and still hasn't) for established players who's OBP is below .375 and people were lambasted at the suggestion. And for the record you're usually the only poster I tend to disagree because of your "I'm always right" attitude.

I like every word of that, especially the part about Soriano in CF. Prepare to be bombarded by the "Soriano is overrated and sucks" faction. Last year the guy was a bum who didn't get on enough and was going to stink now that he's not in a hitters park and lo and behold...40/40.

I've heard opposite personality, but I've seen nothing to indicated opposite in the other things. Maybe you're just not listening as hard as I am then. Possibly, but then again, maybe I'm just not hearing things that aren't really there. Yeah, you obviously hear everything, so I must have imagined it. Never said I did hear everything. I've just yet to hear anything to suggest Lou is the opposite of Baker, other than his fire and brimstone approach. I think it's pretty obvious as to what you were insinuating.

I like Rothschild as a person, I don't know whether or not our pitching problems are his fault. But I tend to think that Dusty's track record for burning out arms has more to do with our problems than Larry's work.

I've heard opposite personality, but I've seen nothing to indicated opposite in the other things. Maybe you're just not listening as hard as I am then. Possibly, but then again, maybe I'm just not hearing things that aren't really there. Yeah, you obviously hear everything, so I must have imagined it.

I've heard opposite personality, but I've seen nothing to indicated opposite in the other things. Maybe you're just not listening as hard as I am then.

Awesome! Now let's start constructing the team. Lou is as good as any of them and comes with an expectation of winning. I'm back to being excited about Cubs baseball. dusty had the same thing "expectation of winning" I am still a cubs fan and until the team is wearing a ring I won't believe an slightly above 500, AL manager is right for us. Hope you are right Are you aware that the "AL manager" does have a World Series ring from the NL. And by all accounts that I've been hearing this past week, Piniella is the "exact opposite" of Dusty Baker in pretty much every facet of coaching, philosophy and personality.

It might have something to do with the fact that Piniella is (I think I just read this last week) still getting paid by TB next year. I think they still owe him $4.85-ish Million IIRC, meaning that he's still going to make the difference of 1.85 from TB next year. I wouldn't be surprised if his salary was more like 2 million, 3 million, 4 million so that he gets more toward the back end of the contract. The Cubs could have negotiated a lower front-end and backloaded it because of his contractual circumstances. We'll see.

Yeah, shame on them for talking about the best football team the city has had in twenty years - and the best baseball team in nearly a century (not to mention one that makes them millions of dollars for airing their games.) Does it still hurt them to mention the Cubs, here and there? Hub Arkush talked about the Cubs for more than half of his first hour. All the Score reported was that a source is saying that the Cubs are going to begin negotiations with Piniella. That doesn't mean that either side has made a decision. The Cubs could still open negotiations with Girardi if they don't like the direction Lou is heading with his demands.

Yeah, shame on them for talking about the best football team the city has had in twenty years - and the best baseball team in nearly a century (not to mention one that makes them millions of dollars for airing their games.)

Hey guys can someone refresh my memory on what the website is that shows all of baseball's team and individual salary figures are? I remember a site showing asterisks with every contract caveat and buyout scenario and can't for the life of me remember the website...Thanks in advance.

Can we have a moratorium on nicknaming Samardjiza 'Sammy'? It was never his nickname at ND as far as I know and I think there are plenty of reasons why we don't have to have another Sammy on this team. Sorry if I get bent about this kind of thing but every time a player joins the Cubs there has to be a nickname waiting for him and Sammy is the worst possible one for a new Cub. My opinion. I'd rather you called him Hundley or LaTroy. His name isn't even pronounced that way. SUH-MAR-JUH. If anything can we call him Summy? Otherwise lets let him play a game in the Cubs system before we dub him with a Dusty-esque nickname. /rant

I've been offered either for Zambrano or Glavine. I can only start 3 pitchers each week and the closer's pretty important. Dempster's killing me right now. It's a 13-team points league that rewards highly for wins and saves. My starters are as follows: Zambrano Glavine Felix Hernandez Cole Hamels John Patterson Noah Lowry Zach Duke Casey Janssen Steve Trachsel Dave Bush Billingsley and Soler are still available free agents who could fill in at SP. What is the ideal trade here, if any?

You've gotta be feeling pretty good about that trade now!

I've been offered Jhonny Peralta, Jeff Kent and Cliff Lee for Carlos Zambrano, Michael Young and Curtis Granderson. (One factor to know is that hitting for power and producing runs is heavily weighted in our league.) My current 2B is Todd Walker and Granderson is my 4th outfielder. Is this enough of an upgrade to my middle infield to sacrifice Zambrano for Lee? And all things considered, is Lee that much worse than Zambrano for the rest of the year? If they were a wash for the remainder of the year I'd do the deal in a second. Any insight?

Yup. Same guys who said Prior was having TJS back in 04'. Actually, I think that was a guy writing for the Newark Star Ledger. EDIT: This isn't the article, however it does mention the previous article from the Newark Star Ledger. The NSL article was pulled from the site eventually if I recall correctly. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2001901744_nlbeat13.html

I had Utley and M. Young as my middle infield and couldn't crack 5th place. Traded Utley for Beckett and Duke and seem to be doing slightly worse. I don't get it.

Can I propose a moratorium on adding players like Aardsma and Jerome Williams to trades involving top ten hitters in major league baseball? No offense to the original poster, but it seems like every time someone proposes a trade in the Transactions threads we throw in guys like Aardsma who have almost no impact on a trade for all-star players. To get a Miguel Cabrera or a Bobby Abreu you have to overpay because there will be 5-10 other teams bidding against you. When teams trade these top players they let it be known to other GM's that a guy is available to maximize their returns. To get Cabrera you'd have to expect to give up Sean Marshall, Rich Hill and Felix Pie for starters. You might even have to throw Murton in there. I know it would suck to have to give up all those guys, but that's what it takes to pry a gamebreaker from his team - especially when said team is not desperate to trade him.

Yesterday I traded Chase Utley (very difficult) and his teammate Tom Gordon for Josh Beckett and Zach Duke. As I stated in the thread about trading for John Patterson, I have Dempster, so Gordon was expendable. My new starting 2B is Todd Walker. Backing him up is Ryan Freel who, if he can ever become an every day starter, can be a very, very nice addition to my regular lineup. My starting rotation (start 3 /wk) now stands as: C. Zambrano Josh Beckett Greg Maddux John Patterson Tom Glavine Felix Hernandez Zach Duke Noah Lowry Scott Baker Steve Trachsel Dave Bush My goal has been to deepen the rotation to the point where on just about any given week I have three 2-start pitchers with at least one ace. Wins are at a definite premium being worth 22 points. Complete games are an additional 5 points with 10 more for a shut-out. For reference, there are small deductions for walks, -3 for losses and a point for K's. Hitters are awarded 1 point per base on a hit, 1.5 for a run, 2 for an RBI, 2 for a steal, etc... Does this seem like a strong strategy to load up the starters at the expense of the lineup, or were the losses to hitting worth the additions to the staff?

The saves will be coming from Dempster.

I think there is somebody from this board that went to one of the Cubs-Cardinals games in Wrigley and said they saw Walker hanging out with the Cardinals. I'm not sure though. Yup, I was one of those people. We actually asked him to come to the Cubs and he said "You don't want my ___ on the team" Sweet, I love MadLibs! "You don't want my banana on the team"

There are plenty of things Rusch is good at eating. However, none of them happen to be inning's right now.

I would take it a step further. Rusch looks like a homerun contest pitcher. He's on pace to allow 81 homeruns in 162 innings. He has as many homeruns as he does walks (11).