Rob

I'm certainly not rallying to have Barrett sent away, but I can see where the idea comes from. There are real concerns about his performance going forward which will most likely keep us from signing him to an extension. With that in mind, trading him away if he's not going to be part of a championship team this season makes sense. The only issue I really have comes with availability. The people advocating a Barrett for Wells trade are being ridiculous. That's essentially a lateral move in any event, and that's compounded by the fact that there is a perfect option availabe for CF in JD Drew, while the market for catchers is extremely weak. For me to be willing to trade Barrett away, I better be getting a very young player that will be under club control for a few years, or an older but excellent player signed to a contract for a few more years. Otherwise, I have trouble accepting the massive downgrade from Barrett to whatever crap is available on the FA market. (Bengie Molina? Washed-up versions of Mike Piazza, Javy Lopez, and Mike Lieberthal? Puh-lease...)

All of this stocking up on (s)crappy role players damn well better be leading to some mega-blockbuster trade... otherwise, I'm super-pissed.

Baltimore's GM, Flanigan is pretty weak. What he actually pulls off is pretty weak, but he's been rebuffed when he's the highest offer quite a few times now. He's trying to make some decent moves, but they never quite happen. I'm not convinced yet that the dartboard Hendry throws at isn't the real GM of this team.

Well, the writing is certainly on the wall for Cedeno. DeRosa, Izturis, and Theriot can all man short passably well. DeRosa and Theriot can swing the bat a little... whereas Izturis is probably our starting SS right now. I don't see the Cubs carrying Cedeno on the roster over Theriot at this point, as his only real skill at this point is an ability to play SS... which Theriot and DeRosa now both have. So yeah, Cedeno's out. As for how I feel about the signing itself... It could be a great thing if used properly... It could just as easily explode in our faces. Use DeRosa to platoon with Jacque, pinch hit, and fill in on the diamond when people really need a day off, that's fine. Even giving him a chance to win a role at 2B when a righty is on the mound would be fine... But if they hand him the starting 2B job and don't give Theriot or EPatt a chance to win it in Spring Training... and if they refuse to get Jacque out of the lineup against lefties... this would be nothing more than a waste of money. All in all, I want to know what the new skipper plans on using DeRosa for... but until I find out, I'm pissed.

That never happens. They just re-signed Valentine, who had a darn good year. Feasible... but Jacque actually does have some trade value after an above average year, with only 2/10 left on the contract. Might as well try to get something for him. Absolutely not. Barrett is worth a lot more than Burrell right now. Besides, Burrell doesn't fill a hole we cant do just as well filling by signing a free agent. Drew is a great signing but there's no way he signs for that little (years or money). Lugo would certainly be an upgrade, and I could handle that contract... but I'd rather look at a huge upgrade than a moderate one. ARod and Tejada both are available. Lugo should only be a fallback option. And Bengie Molina I wouldn't ever consider. He has no bat and he's hardly much of a defender anymore. If you absolutely must trade Barrett, Piazza is a better bet for next season than anyone else out there. Erstad shouldn't even be given a major league deal this year... he hasn't been anywhere near decent even since 2000... especially for a LF or 1B. There's no way on earth the Cubs brass bring back Walker.... but there are better options out there anyway like Durham and Loretta. Everyday lineup contstruction looks fine though, if that's your options... Unfortunately, it wouldn't be much of an offensive upgrade. The gain from Jones to Burrell is completely lost by the dropoff from Barrett to Molina... and that drop also covers part of the gain from Izturis/Cedeno to Lugo. We'd still probably score more runs... but that'd be merely a factor of DLee's health, Drew over Pierre and Lugo outperforming the crap we got from SS last year. No offense of course, but I'm not at all a fan of this idea.

Now would be a great one of those times for Hendry to stop working at a level over his ability like he has for the last three weeks. I could really go for his patented "token run" at the top free agent and instead going harder after what he feels is the #2 option.

Elijah Dukes is a hell of a ballplayer, but he makes Ty Cobb look like Santa Claus.

Goodness gracious. Do you realize how bad Pagan is? Obviously not. That said, I'd be quite pleased with either Drew or Soriano. If The Awful Hendry hadn't taken on Izturis' money, we might be able to squeeze them both in. Actually, that was part of my point.

If a team is going to give him one they might as well give it for the length, those last two years will be difficult to trade him with the money he is making. You can always eat some of the contract and get prospects. An NTC makes that a lot more difficult. Of course Sheffield brought in a haul, didn't he? And got an extension... Shef wasn't even packing a NTC, though. But he did have a legitimate threat to retire, which functioned about the same way.

Yeah, it would suck to add another 30 HR 100 RBI hitter in our lineup... There are actual holes to fill on this team. LF isn't one of them... especially when for a marginal cost of near 15 million bucks for a hitter that isn't much better than a 70% bet to outproduce Murton.

Pierre played a ton of games this year. Didn't make him any more valuable than Drew. Heck, Drew in 72 games in 2005 was more valuable than Pierre in 162 that year. I'm not saying injuries aren't a concern at all. But one broken bone from a beanball the last three years has been Drew's only serious injury. So while it's not a great bet that he's going to play in excess of 150 games, I have a hard time betting against him to play in less than 120 either. But let's assume Drew plays in 120 games. Drew for 120 plus Pagan for 42 is a darn good bet to outproduce Soriano, especially when you consider Soriano's numbers are most likely going to start to collape back to his career norms.

Does Izturis have a degenerative knee condition? I had heard that his elbow problems were degenerative, but I hadn't heard about his knee. Egads. I think the elbow is degenerative, and not the knee. The only thing I've heard with his leg is his hamstring issues (a little bit in 2005, and of course it flared up with the Cubs). I don't think he actually has an actual condition in his legs though. Yeah, you're right. I had a minor brain fart. I knew he had a degenerative condition, and all I could remember were the leg injuries from the last 2 years. But yeah, it's his elbow. Either way, it adversely affects his fielding, so my point stands.

I think Zimmerman will be a very good player for his career. I just don't see him being a "special" or great one. Either way, I'd take him in a heartbeat if we didn't have Aramis.

I've got no problems with picking up Marcus Giles. Most of his peripherals were in line with the last few years, but his BABIP just took a huge dip below what could be expected. He should rebound very nicely.

For his career, yeah. But he's not quite the spry youngster he used to be. Somehow I have a hard time believing he's gonna be a good basestealer again.

That's right, nobody likes 40 40 guys. we need walks. LOL I'm so sick and tired of Soriano getting credit for being a 40/40 guy. He got caught stealing 17 times! That's a net detriment to his team everytime he started running. Why some people want to praise him for running often even when he was not very successful at it is beyond me. The 40+ HR's? Yeah, he did great there. The 40+ steals? Those weren't worth jack. Edit: I kind of like guys who play most of the time. Drew is still the most overrated guy out there. One significant injury in the past 3 years, and it was from a beanball. I'm not too overly concerned.

Wow. That's pretty ridiculous. Matt Murton<<<< Carlos Lee Post All Star Break: .312/.358/.512 .870 OPS Murton: .319/.390/.522 .912 OPS Edit: Ummm... SS is probably our biggest hole of all. I have much more faith in Pie, Pagan, and Theriot to hit like league average CF, RF, and 2B men... respectively, than I have in Izturis to hit like a league average SS. Izturis isn't on this team to hit. He's there to prevent runs, which he is phenomenal at. No. He was phenomenal at it before all the injuries. When you couple that with a degenerative knee condition he will not ever be anywhere near phenomenal again... Perhaps he gets back to solidly above average, but he's not even shown us that he's that good right now. He's a drain on this team offensively, and his glove doesn't even begin to make up for his shortcomings. He needs to go.

That's pretty much exactly the way I feel. Ah, to be the Yankees and not ever have to worry about a few crappy 75 million dollar contracts...

Ummm... SS is probably our biggest hole of all. I have much more faith in Pie, Pagan, and Theriot to hit like league average CF, RF, and 2B men... respectively, than I have in Izturis to hit like a league average SS.

Soriano is the 2nd best position player left on the market. That being said, his real value is nowhere near his market value. Drew is the best position player left on the market. His real value is much closer to his market value, which happens to be lower than that of Soriano. They are, in fact, about the same age (with Drew being 2 months older). I want nothing to do with Soriano until the point where Drew is no longer on the market. At that point, I explore trade options to improve SS or CF. If that fails, then and only then would I be willing to put Soriano as a priority.

I have absolutely zero interest in Coco Crisp. They can have Dempster if they'll just take his salary on... but I'd rather save the cash and the roster spot than pick up Crisp.

I don't think we'll see much action at the GM Meetings. Marcus Giles very well may be traded, and a few mid-tier free agents may sign pretty small deals... but the real action will be laying down the groundwork for the Winter Meetings.

I'm wondering if this stuff transfers over to the new CBA, though.

Very true. I would love to have a 3, 4, 5 of Drew, Lee, and Ramirez locked up for about 4 years. Drew and his HUGE OBP infront of Lee and Ram. That would be really nice. Really? I think if you're batting Drew in front of Lee and Aram, you might as well bat him second. Murton, Drew, Lee, Aramis would look nice. Though I'm still somewhat predisposed to using Drew to break up Lee and Aramis...

I'm also looking at the fact it's Monday morning right now in Japan. Maybe get some good news about Matsuzaka...?