TB_11

His poor-decision making was only matched by his poor throwing. Passes were consistently over or under-thrown. He needs significant time in the video room and on the field to work on his mechanics.

Picking Culpepper in both of my leagues, along with adding Chris Chambers to the mix in one of those leagues. I dropped him in both leagues when he struggled against the Houston Texan's defense last week.

With the Yankees out, the World Series just gained another viewer. Now we just have to put up with all those "What's wrong with the Yankees?" and "How to fix the Yankees" stories. Actually, I'm quite looking forward to the rants Steinbrenner will be tossing out left and right. And players.

As per Ken Rosenthal on the Yankees-Detroit pre-game. First time I've heard his name mentioned in the press.

I don't agree with this, but if it's hard to accept it's because: - He supposedly has perfect mechanics - His 2006 injuries had nothing to do with freak accidents like taking a line drive off his arm - He's supposedly a perfectionist, and feels uncomfortable pitching through pain

IMO it would be surprising if Cashman moves A-Rod this offseason, unless he feels he can get Cabrera. Cashman knows that A-Rod is still the best 3B in the game and that he gets an unfair amount of heat from the NYC press and fans.

There may not be reasons for optimism, but there are reasons for less pessimism. With Dusty and Macphail gone, the Cubs have achieved addition by subtraction. Reasons for optimism will come when this team shows significant improvement in what characteristics they value in players this offseason.

Those moves as they relate to how our bullpen would change look great - Dempster and his contract moved, Wuertz moved as a closer, and Kerry with a short-term incentive-laden deal would all be smart plays by Hendry. Those moves as they relate to our offense are questionable if they are made with the intention of having either Sanders or Brown get significant playing time. If Jones must stay with the team (and I still don't think Hendry moves him this early since it would be a public indication that he shouldn't have been signed in the first place), then a platoon partner makes sense, but neither an Sanders or Brown look to be the best choice. Sanders is clearly aging, and Brown's number against lefties have been all over the place since 2005 to make any conclusions about how well he'll hit against them next year.

Bonds also broke one of the most hallowed of all baseball records when he hit 73 home runs, and is on his way to breaking another one of baseball's hallowed records. Clemens, for all his greatness and accomplishments, won't hold any single-season or career records that gets as much attention as the home run records.

The Yankees don't make decisions based on finances, they base it on the level of Yankeeness and/or championships. It would be stupid, but I could easily see them dealing him, especially if they bomb out in the playoffs. I agree with the first part in general, although it appears that they may be hitting their upper limit in their payroll. I completely agree with the second point about how the Yankees make decisions. Where we disagree is whether Cashman really believes A-Rod doesn't help them win games. My opinion is he sees through all the negative media hype and figures that unless he gets Cabrera away from the Marlins, A-Rod is the best choice at 3B for his or any team.

. (I didn't see this anywhere, and if it was, then I apologize) This was in Sullivan's latest "Q-n-A". Notice the bold part? No wonder Baker and Hendry are a match made in heaven. So, I expect the Cubs won't be addressing the "lack of OBP" anytime soon. We didn't need a Sullivan Q&A to tell us that Hendry completely undervalues OBP. It's been obvious from the teams he's put together.

Seriously, let Theriot play 2B and leadoff for all I care. Theriot Murton Arod Lee Ramirez Barrett Jones/Platoon Pie (or a stopgap CF) Quick question, who exactly are we trading to get ARod? You have give up something to get him. Exactly. I'm sure they would take Carlos Zambrano for him. Meanwhile, the Cubs would be trading away their best pitcher and getting a guy who would consume a quarter of the team's payroll. Thanks, but no thanks. The Cubs wouldn't be taking on $25m per yer, Texas has already eaten a huge chunk of that, and NYY would eat another chunk. And I'd bet you could get him for less than Zambrano, if he became available at all. All the more reason that, barring a complete mental breakdown on his part, he's staying with the Yankees. They're getting the best 3B in the league for a decent price, and replacing that level of production would be difficult, even with Steinbrenner's pocketbook.

Come on man, that's some flawed analysis. Washington and Carolina are a big step up from Detroit and Green Bay. You're comparing teams who went 10-6 and 11-5 last year to teams who went 5-11 and 4-12. Most analysts felt that both Washington and Carolina improved themselves in the offseason. Detroit may have improved themselves slightly but are at best a 7-9 team while Green Bay is one of the worst few teams in the league. We also played Washington in a tough Monday Night road game where Portis made an impact. Carolina didn't have Smith, but that defense is still nasty and it's not like Delhomme, Keyshawn, Foster and DeAngelo Williams aren't chopped liver. We're on the same page regarding Detroit (the mediocre) and Green Bay (the bad) teams the Bears have faced. Regardless of its offseason acquisitions and its coaching changes on offense, the team is actually worse than last year due mainly to an aging Brunell, an injured Portis, and an offensive coordinator who isn't using his remaining talent well enough. They had a terrible pre-season and have been pretty weak in their first two games. As good as its defense is, Carolina's passing game suffers immensely without Smith. They're right now not the team that everybody picked to go to the Super Bowl. I'd agree that Carolina and Washington are better than Detroit or Green Bay, but in the first two weeks they haven't been division contenders. Minnesota struggled against both of them and now faces an even tougher Bears team.

In week 1 Minnesota struggled to beat a Washington team that was pretty weak during preseason and against Dallas in week 2. In week 2 they eked out a win against a Carolina team that hasn't shown much of anything without Steve Smith. The Bears have faced two mediocre to bad teams, and crushed them both.

I worked for a company that kept free beer & wine in the fridge. Too bad the work culture was such that people would spend 12-14 hours a day there and not even think about opening one up. I interviewed for an office job where during the interview they claimed to have beer readily available in the fridge... although I ended up turning it down. My company's offices keeps beer and wine available in just about every office location. It's not a bad thing to have a couple when you're working late.

The Cy Young discussion should boil down to Webb vs Carpenter vs Oswalt vs Arroyo. As much as I'd love for Zambrano to get serious consideration, he doesn't deserve it.

I don't know the answer; however football has a lot less history to overcome compared to baseball. Another thing. In big time football almost every player is graded each game. Coaches have stats for everyone related to their position. In the "business" of football they've embraced quantitave analysis much more so that baseball. IMO the other way that baseball and football statheads is how they quantify wins. Through WARP, VORP, or the classic Win Shares, baseball statheads will often quantify or estimate how many wins a player is worth, and to the 'traditionalists' this might cross the lines, or take away the 'intangibles' factor, or overlook something else. Football doesn't have this characteristic with any of its stats that I know of, which makes its statistics more acceptable.

Sad that this has happened to someone who is one of the best guys to have put on a Cubs uniform.

Cubs aside, the Indians have to be the biggest disappointment. After their end-of-year run they had in 2005 they were expected to go head-to-head with the White Sox for the AL Central crown. The Red Sox should also get some recognition for being a big disappointment.

I don't see how Carlos saying he wants to pitch more this year is a reflection of the organization. I love that Carlos has that attitude, but I hope management sits him for the rest of the year.

Thomas really labors when he runs the bases now. Saying he has zero speed is being nice.

Beltran is a difference maker, instead we ended up with Burnitz. Hendry and his lack of foresight. I so wanted Beltran when he was on the market. Here was a player who is entering his prime and would likely produce throuhout the length of his contract. Going into 2005 Patterson was no sure thing, as we found out. Besides think about the defense.... Patterson in RF and Beltran in CF. Oh well, now we have JJ and will likely have Pierre for another two years. The Jones and Pierre signings aside, after 2004 was Beltran worth $17M/year when he had a career high OPS+ of 136? As great as his 2006 season has been, he and Boras were leveraging his incredible 2004 postseason to get completely overpaid, at the time, by the Mets.

I'd imagine it would be a one-year deal with a low base ($2-3M) that could carry up to the $6-7M mentioned with incentives. My favorite 2006 Frank Thomas stat (aside from his IsoD): 32 HRs, 8 doubles.

Pax is also a former player and former assistant coach. I agree with keeping Len in the booth; he's a solid play-by-play guy.

Which is a low level and a perfectly legitimate reason to not like them. If you are going to be a low level performer, you better be a dirt cheap fill-in and/or 24 or younger. It's more of a reason to not like Hendry, which is what I put later in the post. If a GM with a $100M payroll brings in players with mediocre talent levels and they play at a mediocre level, the fault lies mainly with the GM.