Rob

I think I would prefer ARods next 5 yrs to Z's, but that is just me. I think it is more likely that Z will break down and not be worth the money he is likely to command. I agree, especially if the other pitchers do well. Same here. Nobody should be "untouchable" on this team right now. Carlos Zambrano is an "untouchable" in my books. Just like how Johan Santana should be considered an "untouchable". You dont trade a staff ace. So if you were Terry Ryan, and got offered Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, Jhonny Peralta, and Adam Miller for Santana, you wouldn't do it? Declaring anybody untouchable is just bad business. If you can get more value in a trade, you make the trade. It's that simple. To say you wont make the trade because a player is "untouchable" for some archaic reason is asinine.

What will happen? LF - Floyd CF - Soriano RF - Jones Murton getting in against lefties and the occassional spot start for Floyd or Jones (Floyd in right on those days). Most productive usage for this season? LF - Floyd/Murton platoon CF - Soriano RF - Jones/DeRosa platoon Pie called up when ready, Soriano moves to RF, Jones dealt... DeRosa takes over SS because Eric Patterson is the 2nd baseman. Most productive with an eye on the future? LF - Murton CF - Pie RF - Soriano Floyd gets AB's versus tough righties and is a big bat off the bench. Jones nets us a B- level pitching prospect, and DeRosa and Izturis fight to the death, each being slayed by the other at a simultaneous moment... violating the "fight to the death" clauses in their contracts and letting us get by with not paying the rest of their contracts. ARod feels bad for the city of Chicago and demands a trade post-haste.

Almost. Kerry did have a nice year, but only threw 176 innings. Miller threw 212. If the Big Unit and Curt Schilling hadn't gone loco that season, Miller would have been just as deserving as anyone else.

Hopefully at the expense of Lilly. Zambrano Hill Prior Veal Gallagher would be an insane rotation.

When was Miller a Cy Young candidate? I'd have to say 2001 was a pretty good year.

2007 AL central champions. People (including myself) have been saying that the last couple years. I'm starting to wonder if it will ever ring true. Though I don't think you can ever count a team with Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, and Victor Martinez out of it before the season even begins.

What about those of us who took him in the 14th round? I'm sorry... I still love the fact I pulled that off, though.

I'd agree to the fact that Prior's health is intergral to our chances (yet again), but I'd also like to point out that we are rather heavily relying on Hill to perform like he did after his last callup.

Well, Wuertz posted the best ERA at 2.66 of any reliever on the team last year and the best ERA period for anyone who saw substantial time (Ryan O'Malley had a 2.13 ERA in only 12.2 IP). He also posted the second best WHIP for a Cubs reliever last year (behind Howry) and third on the team (behind hill as well). There was no reason he should have been in AAA for a couple months last year. Wuertz had good peripherals, Eyre's were bad...Wuertz is the right side of 30 and under control for another 3 years at arbi prices vs Eyre who will turn 35 and is owed 7.3M for the next 2 years. I haven't heard anyone say to not trade him for the next best hitter in baseball history, just that he is a valuable reliever at a cheap price and we have others that should be traded ahead of him. I understand some of the stats points, but how often has he performed that well? Trust me, I hope last year wasn't a fluke, but I still get nervous every time he takes the mound... How often has Scott Eyre performed that well? If we look at something even as crude as ERA, Eyre has topped that 2.66 mark twice in 10 seasons... one of those times being in a season where he only threw eleven and a third innings. His other mark that topped Wuertz was his 2005 season, where he posted a 2.63 ERA, in a better park for pitchers. And then we have to consider that Wuertz is much younger and much cheaper... while being just as effective as Eyre, but without the higher perceived market value. Actually, that was just a partial year (2002). He put up a 4.46 for that season on a whole. And the other year he topped that mark (2005) his BABIP was a lucky 261. Thanks for the correction. My research is bound to be on the sloppy side when I'm sloppy drunk.

Well, Wuertz posted the best ERA at 2.66 of any reliever on the team last year and the best ERA period for anyone who saw substantial time (Ryan O'Malley had a 2.13 ERA in only 12.2 IP). He also posted the second best WHIP for a Cubs reliever last year (behind Howry) and third on the team (behind hill as well). There was no reason he should have been in AAA for a couple months last year. Wuertz had good peripherals, Eyre's were bad...Wuertz is the right side of 30 and under control for another 3 years at arbi prices vs Eyre who will turn 35 and is owed 7.3M for the next 2 years. I haven't heard anyone say to not trade him for the next best hitter in baseball history, just that he is a valuable reliever at a cheap price and we have others that should be traded ahead of him. I understand some of the stats points, but how often has he performed that well? Trust me, I hope last year wasn't a fluke, but I still get nervous every time he takes the mound... How often has Scott Eyre performed that well? If we look at something even as crude as ERA, Eyre has topped that 2.66 mark twice in 10 seasons... one of those times being in a season where he only threw eleven and a third innings. His other mark that topped Wuertz was his 2005 season, where he posted a 2.63 ERA, in a better park for pitchers. And then we have to consider that Wuertz is much younger and much cheaper... while being just as effective as Eyre, but without the higher perceived market value.

Murton was a product of the Red Sox, not the Cubs. I hope Wilken turns things around, but the Cubs farm system is currently below average. I don't understand. 10 yrs from now hopefully no one will remember where Murton was drafted. They'll remember where he made his name. Is Ryne Sandberg a Phillie? I agree with your posts most of the time but Hendry picked Murton out of a million. He does deserve a little credit on that trade. I wish someone would come out and say he seen a little something in Murton. Where's Bruce Miles when you need him? If I remember correctly, Murton was originally taken from the Red Sox in order to be sent to the Expos, but at the last minute they changed their mind on Murton and asked for Brendan Harris. Matt Murton fell into the Cubs lap. I'm a big Hendry supporter, but I don't believe he deserves all the credit! You don't remember correctly. Baseball America's 2005 Prospect Handbook says "The Expos weren't interested in getting Murton from the Red Sox in the trade, so Hendry offered to give up Harris and take Murton at the last moment." Perhaps the Expos didn't explicitly ask for Harris instead of Murton, but the situation did still kind of fall into Hendry's lap. I will grant him the credit for capitalizing on it, but it's still partially due to sheer dumb luck.

If everybody is actually healthy and ready to go, I think Prior gets traded. If memory serves, Wade Miller signed his deal after becoming a free agent, so that means that we can't trade him, Marquis, or Lilly until June 15th. Zambrano isn't going anywhere, and Hill is cheap and has great upside. Meanwhile, Prior has a questionable track record, but with another year and a half of club control and some upside. If Prior is healthy and throwing well for the first month, I wouldn't be surprised to see him shipped off with Jacque and maybe a couple relievers for some help at SS.

Here's to Mark being the most underpaid pitcher in baseball in 07'. (Due to his overwhelming success of course) Another thought - We better lock up Big Z before this season, because if Prior does return to form, locking up both of them next offseason would be close to impossible. On the plus side of things, I am very confident that he will not be the most overpaid pitcher for us next season.

But you can't forget that there's significant statistical proof of a Coors Field "hangover" effect. You can make the point that his numbers have been dropping, yes... but his away numbers certainly aren't reflective of his actual talent level right now.

Because Helton's OPS has decreased by 100 points each of the last two years, going from uber-elite to really really good. However, his OPS is still going to be about 150 points higher than Lowell. Thats about the difference between Izturis and Tejada. If the cubs ended up adding Tejada and subtracting Izturis, what do you think the appropriate reaction would be. Actual differences in OPS between Izturis and Tejada from 2001 through 2006: 2001 - .135 2002 - .306 2003 - .211 2004 - .183 2005 - .240 2006 - .264 Only once since they broke into the league has Izturis been within 150 points of OPS to Tejada, and that was in a season where Izturis only had 140 PA. As much as I would love to think Izturis could pull within 150 points of OPS to Tejada, the only way he does that is if he puts up better than normal-numbers before getting badly injured and limiting his playing time (which I would like as well)... while hoping Tejada has a down year. (Sorry, couldn't pass up an opportunity to stress again how utterly inept Izturis is with the bat.)

It was made abundantly clear to me last weekend that all of those guys have options, so they aren't worried about the logjam. Are you sure? I thought Gooz was out of options.

Yeah, it figures. I was deadset against the Lou signing, and the one game I have tickets for right now is his bobblehead night.

Awful question by Robert. But it's even worse for Carrie to pick that question and respond to it in an article. I don't know... there are a lot of stupid people out there who think the players are owned by the individual minor league teams and not the parent ballclub.

I've always been of the mind that it's extremely hard for a manager to win a ballgame, but very easy for him to lose one. That being said, while Lou may not actively win any games for us... just so long as he loses less for us than Dusty did, there should be a profound impact.

While he is certainly a defensive liability, the problem is minimized by the fact this is a high strikeout flyball staff... a circumstance that also hampers the defensive value of Izturis. The likely value of Lopez's bat, on the other hand, is worth a lot more than the difference in defense is likely to be. If our staff were composed differently, or our offense was likely to be strong enough to carry such a liability at the plate as Izturis, I might not be so strongly opposed to his starting job. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that his strengths are diminished in this setting, and his failures as a hitter are put even more strongly under the spotlight. The reality simply is that Lopez fits this team better than Izturis does.

The way I see it, we have some nice assets for trading in Jones, Eyre, and Dempster. I'd be interested in seeing if Washington will take all three of them, plus Izturis and Novoa, for Ryan Church and Felipe Lopez. That would leave us with this. C - Barrett 1B - Lee 2B - DeRosa SS - Lopez 3B - Aramis LF - Murton CF - Soriano RF - Floyd Bench: Blanco © Ward (1B, LF) Theriot (IF) Church (OF) Pagan (OF) Rotation: SP1 - Zambrano SP2 - Lilly SP3 - Prior SP4 - Hill SP5 - Marquis Bullpen: Swingman - Miller LRP - Guzman MRP - Cotts MRP - Ohman SU - Howry SU - Wuertz CP - Wood Seems to me that would work out pretty well for both Washington and us. It'd relieve us of our logjam while upgrading SS and the OF, while not being such a huge downgrade for Washington at either position and also filling in their completely vacant bullpen.

I just want to see somebody come in here and argue it's a good signing for the Sox. :lol:

Fantastic news. Not only would that mean he's not going to be a Cub, but he'd actively be hurting one of our rivals. I wonder if we have to pay him for that?

What would it take to get Coco Crisp at this point? I don't think he'll be any better than Pie would be in CF, but he's certainly better than a chump like Erstad.

The best chance we have to be league average of better at SS is Cedeno. I'm not trying to say it is much of a chance, but there you go. I'm not convinced our best chance isn't Trammell.