ThePenguin11

The real knock on him is that he's completely one-dimensional. If he suffers even a minor injury that reduces his speed he instantly becomes one of the worst players in baseball. Well, then he should be fine considering he hasn't missed a game in three years. He's as much an Iron Man as DLee.

In 2004 Pierre hit .380 in (non-sacrifice) bunt attempts. In 2005 he hit .431 when bunting for a hit. This is interesting stat: We know Dusty likes guys who can excute a bunt. The tall grass in the Wrigley field IF will only help Pierre. If by "help" you mean "hurt", I agree. Pierre hits ground balls. On the ground. In the grass. they will go slowly. Fielders will get them. they will not go through holes to the OF. He will be thrown out Cut the friggin' grass. You have to talk to the Grass Cutters Union Local 123 and they are harder to deal with than the previous Tampa Bay GM. Couldn't you say that if the grass was shorter his grounders would get to the fielder faster and help the fielder to get the ball to first before he could reach? I never understood the grass length argument. If Pierre rolls one halfway to a fielder and past the pitcher, he has the edge because of his speed - and in most cases the fielder would have to put the ball in his pocket to save from throwing past the first baseman off-balanced.

George Ofman just pointed out that he broke this Pierre trade earliest, nearly a month ago, with Pinto being the key player of the deal. And he's right. Score one for The Score. A lot of people seem to forget the times that The Score first breaks news. Most people only remember the times that the local media gets it wrong. George Ofman: 1 - Len Kasper: 0

If the A's are offering Zito for Bradley, what should Hendry offer? The A's were offering Kirk Sarloos, not Zito, for Bradley but are said to be out of the discussions at this time.

Nolasco by a good margin. I'm not so sure. Nolasco is already 23. Gallagher is 2+ years younger and has been very impressive in A ball. I'm not ready to say that Nolasco is leaps and bounds over Sean Gallagher. Personally, I'm not sure either is major league talent yet either.

If I was a betting man, I'd bet a lot that JH would be looking for a youngster with some upside to come back with Pierre in the deal. He's tricky like that. I'd be willing to part with Nolasco and Pinto, but we could probably weasel out a decent young player in return as well.

No, Ismael Valdes.

Welcome to the forum! Pierre is simply not a good ballplayer. He is completely one-dimensional. He's not a good defender. He hits for no power. He doesn't even have a good stolen base ratio. Keep him far away from the Cubs. Pie is already a better player than Pierre. He is simply an outstanding defender. You will see Pie win a gold glove in the future. Nor is he the second coming of Patterson at the plate. Pie continues to improve at every level in all facets of his game. He will be an impact player in the Bigs, and it would competely foolish of the Cubs to trade him away. I like the potential of Pie as much as the next guy and know a lot of posters here hate Pierre but saying a guy that's in AA is already better than an established major league player of Pierre's caliber is ridiculous. I'd take Pierre over Bradley based simply on attitude and work ethic alone. Throw out 2005 (like everyone does with Wilkerson) and use Pierre's career average stats - they're respectable. OK, Pierre haters >>> ATTACK. "Of Pierre's caliber": you make it sound like Pierre is a good player. He's completly one-dimensional. He's takes bad routes to the ball in the outfield. He has no arm strength for throws. He hits for no power. He doesn't even steal bases all that well. Pie is most certainly a better defender than Pierre right now. Pie would hit for more power than Pierre right now. While Pierre's OBP would be higher, I would wager that by the second half of the season, Pie would hit for a similar average as Pierre. I have that much faith in Pie's development as a player. I have that little regard for the worth of Pierre as a ballplayer. Then you must know Pie can't hit flies in the winter league. I'm not advocating trading him, but you need to know all the facts. Pierre is a good stopgap for this year - and probably next. There is no guarantee that the lately oft-injured Pie will even be ready for the majors next year. Pie will need time to master AAA and become ready for the majors. Until then, I wouldn't mind seeing him traded for guys like Abreu, Dunn, Cabrera or the like.

Welcome to the forum! Pierre is simply not a good ballplayer. He is completely one-dimensional. He's not a good defender. He hits for no power. He doesn't even have a good stolen base ratio. Keep him far away from the Cubs. Pie is already a better player than Pierre. He is simply an outstanding defender. You will see Pie win a gold glove in the future. Nor is he the second coming of Patterson at the plate. Pie continues to improve at every level in all facets of his game. He will be an impact player in the Bigs, and it would competely foolish of the Cubs to trade him away. He's actually more than one-dimensional. He's not a bad fielder except for the fact that he's got a weak arm. He's very good at getting to balls and he plays in an enormous park. He also has been a pretty good hitter for average. The fact that he doesn't hit for power is irrelevant because one of a few positions in baseball where you can afford to have no power.

Relationship building? That's all? Whatever.

The A's haven't made the playoffs in the past two years, just like another team some of us follow. I wouldn't say "just like", they won more games and did so with little more than half the payroll. Is that their GM or their Manager? I have a strong feeling that we would have made the playoffs in 3 straight years (who knows how we would have done IN them) if Cox was our manager and not Dusty. (Yes I do realize Hendry can fire him, but since he's making 4 mil a year maybe his higher ups said, no you can't.) This is the key. Hendry has brought in great players and Dusty's managed to screw it up. It's pretty simple actually. He would have fired him before this year, but that's another $4 million for a new manager and that money has to come from his budget to get new talent. He was being patient, letting the chips fall where they may. That's a term some Cubs fans should be a little familiar with. We're not even 40% of the way through the winter mettings and people want to crucify Hendry. I've seen idiots on this site say that they'd 'blow their brains out on JH's doorstep if he traded for _______" Come on. That's taking it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far. That's criminally stupid.

Entirely different and pointless comparison. Being a Hall of Fame pitcher takes an extremely rare god given ability. Being a decent GM does not. How could you begin to even know that? Do you work in major sports? Have you researched it? Is it your best guess based on 'a lot of stuff you've heard over the years'?

I think any reasonably intelligent person with a firm grasp of logic, reasoning, economics and the game of baseball could be turned into at least an average GM given 5 good years working in a front office. Nobody is going to come off the street with no background and be great, just like you couldn't find somebody with no experience in the field to successfully manage a restaurant right off the street. But managing a restaurant isn't surgery, neither is running a baseball team. Your biggest obstacle would probably be all the jealous lifers who think they are somehow entitled to the position because they put in the time with the good ole boys and no the ins and outs of the conventional wisdom of baseball. Being field manager would be much different, of course, and I wouldn't even think about trying it. But if I didn't need my current paycheck, I'd be very confident that after taking a job with a well run front office for the next half decade, working 15 hours a day, being exposed to all aspects of the organization, I could take on a GM role somewhere with an above average team and as good a job as many GMs who have been in the game in recent years. Unfortunately, baseball prides itself on its ability to pay new guys crap, and I'm not in a position to accept that. Gee, that sounds easy enough. Anyone can do that.

Yes, I'm sure that people are coming to these conclusions entirely based off of video games and fantasy sports. If you don't acknowledge that part of that is the problem, then you aren't paying attention. Some of you are just not old enough to remember what sports were like before video games and fantasy sports. That's not a knock, it's just the way it is. I'm only in my thirties, but things just weren't scrutinized 15-20 years ago to the level they are today. Of course there was second-guessing, but the internet, video games, fantasy sports, talk sports radio and constant access through television have made everyone an expert. Every coach or GM is an idiot today and every high school/college kid, or joe schmoe could do much better. It doesn't matter if they never played the game or have never had to deal with any of these people. Amen.

You do realize you sound like Latroy Hawkins when you say "I can do your job better than you can." Don't you? It's no less ignorant when you say it.

You really must think it's like it is in the video games. As for the bold part - I don't even know what that means. If that's an attack on my job - then you really are ignorant. My job's pretty nice - not that you'd even know. I'd have a hard time believing you've reached college yet - other than you're reference to an obscure baseball name from the 70's/80's in your moniker. Take it easy. I'm pretty sure he just left the k off of thank you on accidentally. I just caught that and edited my remarks.

You've really convinced yourself that you'd make a better GM, haven't you? I would make a better GM. And I am absolutely sure of it. I hope you're kidding. There's more to being a GM than the trades and free agent pickups. That is like saying, "I could run Ford Motor Co. better than Bill Ford because I know alot about how car's work." That's so ignorant, it's ridiculous. And if you're that sure you could do it better, you'd better start sending you're resume out to some minor league teams. That's where you have to start. Then qualified applicants with real experience in professional sports get a sniff. I have no interest in working for peanuts for a decade so that I *might* someday have the opportunity to run a big league club. And I'm quite content in my current job, than you. In any case, whether I actually seek to become Cub GM is irrelevant to whether I could do a better job that Hendry. It isn't rocket science. You really must think it's like it is in the video games. As for the bold part - I don't even know what that means. I see - "thank you". Didn't catch that at first. I 'll take back one of my comments then.

As opposed to "as early as yesterday" or "as late eternity"?

You've really convinced yourself that you'd make a better GM, haven't you? I would make a better GM. And I am absolutely sure of it. I hope you're kidding. There's more to being a GM than the trades and free agent pickups. That is like saying, "I could run Ford Motor Co. better than Bill Ford because I know alot about how car's work." That's so ignorant, it's ridiculous. And if you're that sure you could do it better, you'd better start sending you're resume out to some minor league teams. That's where you have to start. Then qualified applicants with real experience in professional sports get a sniff.

I hope he gets better and stays healthy. But the problem is he can't stay healthy. He needs to build up the arm strength to put up 200 IP and stay healthy long enough to earn a spot on the big club. It could be a while.

I was using him as a comparison to someone whose MLB career is highly in question due to skills diminishing from arm problems.

If the search wasn't disabled I would find you the thread where we discussed Guzman's velocity. He was clocked at 97 late in his rehab this year. From BA's 2005 AFL preview (last year): BOUNCING BACK: Angel Guzman, rhp, Cubs Guzman was pushing for a big league job in 2003, but his balky shoulder has stalled his progress. He had arthroscopic surgery to repair a slight labrum tear, and the Cubs handled him cautiously in 2004, shutting him down in July because he tired after working nonstop during his rehab. Guzman didn't make his 2005 debut until early August due to forearm stiffness, and he pitched just 18 innings overall. While his durability is in question, so is Guzman’s stuff, and the Cubs will want to see if his 91-96 mph fastball will ever come back to its 2003 form.

He must have seen him pitch 90's heat in one of his 6 innings pitched in 2005. Or maybe he saw the gun in 2004 when he threw all of 17.2 innings in 2004.

D-Train #2? That's probably jumping the gun a bit. He maybe more closely headed toward Brownlie #2. Are you kidding? His only problem is he cannot stay healthy. That is a big problem to be sure but his velocity is still in the high 90's and his breaking balls are still biting. Guzman is still the Cubs best pitching prospect. And to some it is not even close. He's thrown 53 innings since 2003 and he's only reached 100 innings in a season once. He's a very tradeable commodity that really doesn't have all that much value to the Cubs. Hill, Pinto, Nolasco and others remain in front of him as SP's for the future. He may never play a full season again.

D-Train #2? That's probably jumping the gun a bit. He maybe more closely headed toward Brownlie #2.