TB_11

Carlos Quentin please.

I'm not sure Blaylock is marginally better with the bat than Walker. His OPS away from Arlington over the past three years has been: .736 .783, .611 ( :shock: ) . His OPS+ during that time has been 118, 111, 94 while Walker's has been 95, 105, 115. From what I've heard his defense is average, which would be an upgrade from Walker.

Would you be willing to take Beckett if there was a chance Lowell became a very expensive backup 1B/3B bench player? I don't see a whole lot of teams that are going to want him on their own. Beckett is too good of a talent to pass on lightly. Minnesota is interested in Lowell. Yankees want Torii Hunter. If I'm Hendry, I work out a 4-team deal a la the Nomar deal from 2004. Marlins trade Beckett and Lowell to the Cubs for Glendon Rusch, Adam Greenberg and a marginal pitching prospect, but with the Cubs picking up Lowell's entire contract. The Cubs turn around and deal Lowell, Walker, Patterson, a young pitching prospect and some cash (maybe $2M for Lowell) to Minnesota for Torii Hunter, and JC Romero. The Cubs then trade Hunter to the Yankees for Gary Sheffield. Net: Cubs get Beckett and Sheffield That would work out great for the Cubs, but I would think the Marlins would want more than that, given that the current rumored deal gives them Blaylock + a prospect from Texas.

Two issues with Sheff: 1) He has stated very clearly that he does not want to play anywhere else but New York. Maybe his feelings have changed since he vocalized his opinion last season, but there isn't anything to suggest that it has. 2) Age. He turned 37 yesterday. His road OPS's over the last four years: .985, 1.034, .859, .867 (Peter Gammons mentioned this in his latest article). Unless we could convince him to come to Chicago for just a year - which seems unlikely given what he said about playing in New York - I don't see Sheff in Wrigley next year.

Hopefully the deals for Rusch, Neifi, and Eyre have something to do with this.

Agreed - if he could stay on the floor longer he'd be a nice replacement for the size we lost with Curry and Davis gone.

Exactly. The dropoff from Giles to the next best available option for RF is larger than the dropoff from Furcal to the next best option. Hendry should be devoting more resources to acquiring Giles than any other free agent.

Boras screws over teams, but gets his players very nice contracts. Rosenhaus screws over teams and his players. Rosenhaus wins easily.

FWIW the Rollins contract was widely seen as dumb (I honestly can't think of a better word for what Ed Wade did). Link to some NSBBers reactions

Why not let Ronny start at SS and spend the money on a difference maker? There's also guys like Lugo out there who is a small step down from Furcal, but much less expensive. I love how you don't even consider Furcal a difference maker. I'm sure there are some people in Atlanta that might disagree with you. He's not a difference maker. He's an above average shortstop offensively (he was 8th in the majors in both OBP and SLG from the shortstop position), with good defense and solid speed. I'd want Furcal on my team, but not at $50M for 5 years.

The best post in this thread =D> As far as JP's ability to steal bases - stolen bases only begin to help a team score runs when the runner is successful ~70% of the time (some of the more devoted statheads here can probably provide the exact percentage), as the out is more valuable than the extra base in most situations . JP's stolen base percentage the past three years has been 76%, 65%, and 77%. His career rate is 74%. That stolen base rate suggests only a marginal benefit to his team from stealing bases.

and guys who can steal 50+ bases with a potential .370+ obp. but more importantly, guys who can catch the ball. Just like dem White Sox. See, the Sox showed Hendry that if you score less runs but appear to be "scrappy", you'll win the whole shebang. I hate to say it but I think the Sox winning the World Series pushed Hendry to acquire speed this offseason, so he can 'Southside' the offense. #-o

Interesting that Rothschild doesn't want to hear excuses about Wood's injury problems considering some of the blame for those injuries falls on Rothschild.

Wanna back that up? Let's look at the numbers: Runs Created Arod: 138 Papi: 136 RC/9 Arod: 9.1 Papi: 8.7 OPS: Arod: 1.031 Papi: 1.001 RBI: Arod: 130 Papi: 148 BA Arod: 321 Papi: 300 HR Arod: 48 Papi: 47 Win Shares Arod: 37 Papi: 31 I think it looks like the voters got this one right. (It's about time!) You forgot one thing though: Is a self-centered, egotistical jerk who cares first and foremost about his own image? ARod: Yes Papi: No Didn't know that was a measureable factor in the MVP voting. Joking. My brain knows A-Rod was the more-deserving choice. My hatred of him often time causes my fingers to type otherwise.

I guess the word is Mench from the Royals for CP and a Pitching pross. It'll kill me seeing Andy Sisco and Corey celabrating their WS championship in Kansas. How are we going to get Mench from the Royals when he plays for the Rangers?

Wanna back that up? Let's look at the numbers: Runs Created Arod: 138 Papi: 136 RC/9 Arod: 9.1 Papi: 8.7 OPS: Arod: 1.031 Papi: 1.001 RBI: Arod: 130 Papi: 148 BA Arod: 321 Papi: 300 HR Arod: 48 Papi: 47 Win Shares Arod: 37 Papi: 31 I think it looks like the voters got this one right. (It's about time!) You forgot one thing though: Is a self-centered, egotistical jerk who cares first and foremost about his own image? ARod: Yes Papi: No

More evidence that his best option might be to head to Japan.

How many 35 HR guys do you need in the lineup? The Sox had two, and it seemed to work for them. You can get away with having two 35 HR guys in your lineup when you have the pitching the Sox had in 2005.

You should care what his SLG is. SLG isn't just driving runners in, it's the ability to get around the bases without the help of your teammates. The more you can do that, the more likely you are to score. That's why Walker with a .350/.450 OBP/SLG is more valuable than Pierre putting up .365/.390. Sure Pierre steals more bases, but if we include that(which is unfair to begin with because a double is more valuable than a single and a steal) then his OBP should be deducted for his CS%. In addition to all of this, Pierre is coming off of the worst season of his career. Even at his best Pierre isn't great. He'll put up a decent OBP, but some of that is mitigated with his average to mediocre SB%; he is terrible at hitting for extra bases. He's not a good defender. I can probably name a half dozen players off the top of my head that could be or are available that would be as good or better options(Bradley, Michaels, Crisp, GMJ, Cameron, Giles). He shouldn't be a top priority. An average player doesn't put up 200 hits a year. I'm not saying Pierre is the best option out there. I'm saying he would help this team. I wouldn't say he isn't a good defender, yeah he has a weak arm. But he pretty good range in CF. a 74% SB% is mediocre? He still gets 50+ a year. Take your example about getting to second base, scoring position. Pierre had 19 doubles and 57 SB last year, in his down year. So he was responsible for gettin into scoring position 76 times. Walker had 25 doubles and 1 SB. Do the math, Pierre gets in to position to score a lot, I didn't even include his triples. I'm not trying to compare Walker to Pierre because they are totally different players, just used him as a refrence point. I think Pierre would be a good addition because of the reasons stated above. The Cubs have been terrible at scoring runs unless it comes form a HR. Getting Pierre, or guys like him would improve this offense. The problem is he was also thrown out 17 times stealing. Losing those 17 outs is barely worth the 57 stolen bases.

Fair enough - I think a difference in ERA of .10 could be explained by pitchers having to pitch in different "pressure" situations. But Santana's ERA was 2.87 (vs a park-adjusted league average ERA of 4.40) while Colon's ERA was 3.48 (vs a park-adjusted league average ERA of 4.19). That discrepancy, plus Santana's advantage in K/9 (9.25 vs 6.35 for Colon), I think give Santana the edge in the Cy Young voting. FWIW, the two pitcher's BB/9, HR/9, and IP were basically even.

But it does take a good manager to recognize talent that hasn't performed at the major league level and be patient enough to allow it to develop.

He didn't deserve his last Cy Young, so that evens that out.

Thanks Bruce. No Giles + Interest in Pierre = Bad offseason.

Born into it.

Has there been a lot of talk of moving Walker to left field? His defense is below average (to be nice) at second, I don't think it would be anything better than poor in left.