Rob

I'm worried about Schmidt's arm too... but I'd give him a three year deal before I'd give one to Zito. The A's just ravaged Zito's arm this year.

Have I not been paying attention? When did Carlos Lee become a star? Hell, when did he even become a very good hitter?

Overrated Yeah, probably. But he's still more productive than any of our current outfielders by quite a bit. Hardly a ringing endosement, sure... but take it for what it's worth.

I'd do Zambrano and Pie for ARod, Hughes, and Tabata... though I sincerely doubt the Yankees would bite on that one.

I'm assuming you're using the swear filter to fix this stuff? If so, it's doubly hilarious.

Pin.ella. HA!! Piniella Now that's a "HA!"

He's right here. Remember? :lol: Awww, you're sweet. But your disturbing avatar says otherwise now...

In related news, I kinda miss Dusty Baker now.

I like every word of that, especially the part about Soriano in CF. Prepare to be bombarded by the "Soriano is overrated and sucks" faction. Last year the guy was a bum who didn't get on enough and was going to stink now that he's not in a hitters park and low and behold...40/40. Seriously, what is your problem with posters on this board? Soriano is overrated. But he's still good. Most everybody on this board would be happy with him being here next year, especially when you consider the limited options. And, if he's in CF, all the better. If I recall correctly you were one of the guys saying Soriano sucks last year. A year ago people were saying you can't trade (name a worthless pitching prospect who we've waited for to pan out and still hasn't) for established players who's OBP is below .375 and people were lambasted at the suggestion. And for the record you're usually the only poster I tend to disagree because of your "I'm always right" attitude. So because Soriano exceeded everybody's wildest expectations and the pitchers on our staff didn't come close to their talent, suddenly we were all stupid? If you tell me that before the season you honestly believed Soriano would do anything near what he has done this year, I would be forced to call you a liar. There was nothing in his track record to suggest he'd go from being merely a good or very good player to being a great one... and there's nothing to suggest he's established a new baseline level of performance for himself at the age of 30. (BTW, he got caught stealing 17 times stealing, so his 41 steals mean jack squat. I'll give him credit for hitting the ball well enough to get 46 HR, but he wasn't stealing well enough to get 41 steals... he was simply attempting to steal often enough) I'm not saying anyone is stupid. My point last year was that he's a proven run-producer and difference maker and people (many people) had the nerve to say he wasn't because of ball park factor. I was also told that his because he was in an inferior lineup he wasn't going to hit as well or score as many runs. oops. A proven run-producer and difference maker? Soriano's 2005 is pretty much the same as Murton's 2006, in terms of actual run producing (minus defensive woes). And Murton's 2006 is better than Soriano's 2004. Are you saying that Murton, in his current state, is a true difference maker? The kind of guy that it's smart to trade a good chunk of the farm away for? Cause that's why so many of us were against it last offseason. Soriano simply hadn't shown he was still worth it (until this late career year)

I like every word of that, especially the part about Soriano in CF. Prepare to be bombarded by the "Soriano is overrated and sucks" faction. Last year the guy was a bum who didn't get on enough and was going to stink now that he's not in a hitters park and low and behold...40/40. Seriously, what is your problem with posters on this board? Soriano is overrated. But he's still good. Most everybody on this board would be happy with him being here next year, especially when you consider the limited options. And, if he's in CF, all the better. If I recall correctly you were one of the guys saying Soriano sucks last year. A year ago people were saying you can't trade (name a worthless pitching prospect who we've waited for to pan out and still hasn't) for established players who's OBP is below .375 and people were lambasted at the suggestion. And for the record you're usually the only poster I tend to disagree because of your "I'm always right" attitude. So because Soriano exceeded everybody's wildest expectations and the pitchers on our staff didn't come close to their talent, suddenly we were all stupid? If you tell me that before the season you honestly believed Soriano would do anything near what he has done this year, I would be forced to call you a liar. There was nothing in his track record to suggest he'd go from being merely a good or very good player to being a great one... and there's nothing to suggest he's established a new baseline level of performance for himself at the age of 30. (BTW, he got caught stealing 17 times stealing, so his 41 steals mean jack squat. I'll give him credit for hitting the ball well enough to get 46 HR, but he wasn't stealing well enough to get 41 steals... he was simply attempting to steal often enough)

Incidentally, one of the local liquor store owners just bought a Porsche.

WHAT?! My thoughts as well. Now if it were Marshall, Veal, Jones for Andruw and Hudson...that's a good deal. I'm just trying to make a trade that seems plausible. Don't forget last year the Red Sox traded both Anibal Sanchez and Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett and the Red Sox took on Mike Lowell's contract. I think you guys may be a bit unrealistic on what you can obtain. If you switch in Cesar Izturis for Jacque Jones would the trade become more palatable? ONe more thing if you are willing to overpay for guys like Soriano and Lee in free agency why is not acceptable to overpay to get guys through a trade? If you want to build a winner immediately you are going ot have to overpay. but you're trading for a guy who is probably on the back end of productivity in his career, and has an albatross contract that might be the difference between us being able to sign our core players to extensions. Every free agent we can sign is on the backend of his career. Carlos Lee is gonna be 32. Soriano is gonna be 31. Schmidt will be 33. I would rather pay Hudson 30 million over three years than Schmidt 48 million over 4. Matsuzaka

Yeah! David Bell is twenty times the player Aramis will ever be! We can just sign him instead! :roll:

He knows what ERA stands for. But does he recognize that RA+ is more stable than ERA or even ERA+ from year to year?

I guess I can take a stab at this... Re-sign Aramis (5/$65m) and Zambrano (5/$75m) Re-sing Wood (1/$2m) with incentives going up to $5m [we will assume he earns all of it for the sake of the exercise] Jones, Dempster, and Veal to Dodgers for J.D. Drew Izturis, Pie, Aardsma, and Ryu to Toronto for Vernon Wells Prior, Eyre, and Moore to New York for ARod and cash ($4m per year) Sign Craig Wilson (2/$9m) Sign Russell Branyan (1/$1m) Grab Daisuke Matsuzaka (4/$35m) [for the purposes of this exercise, the posting fee would be offset as a marketing cost, as it should be adequately covered by the increased share of the japanese market] Sign Jason Schmidt (4/$50) C - Barrett ($4m) 1B - Lee ($13m) 2B - Theriot ($0.4m) SS - ARod ($12m) 3B - Ramirez ($13m) LF - Murton ($0.4m) CF - Vernon Wells ($5.6m) RF - J.D. Drew ($11m) Bench: 1B/OF/C - Wilson ($4.5m) CI - Branyan ($1m) OF - Pagan ($0.4m) IF - Cedeno ($0.4m) C - Soto ($0.4m) Rotation: SP1 - Zambrano ($15m) SP2 - Matsuzaka ($8.75m) SP3 - Schmidt ($12.5m) SP4 - Hill ($0.4m) SP5 - Guzman ($0.4m) Bullpen: CL - Howry ($4m) SU - Wood ($5m) SU - Wuertz ($0.4m) MRP - Ohman ($1m) MRP - Marmol ($0.4m) LRP - Marshall ($0.4m) Junk time - Novoa ($0.4m) Total: $114.75m I'm not thoroughly sold on this being my best solution; it's just my first thoughts. Also, are those trades too far off the mark?

UGH. Is Bochy any better? Everything I've read about Bochy hasn't been rosey either. Baker is running neck and neck with Sweet Lou. Bochy looks like Earl Weaver compared to those guys.

Evidence that a player's production goes up 20-30% during their contract year? I guess I don't have any hard evidence, but observation seems to point to much better production during a player's contract year. All of a sudden .260 hitters turn into .300 hitters, guys who average 25 HRs hit 35 HRs, and pitchers who win 12 games suddenly become 18 game winners. That's because it sticks in your memoery a lot harder when a guy has an amazing year in his contract year than when a guy does the same as always or disappoints in his contract year. I wanna say there was a study done that showed no real improvement in contract years. I don't doubt that it's possible that a guy knowing it's his contract year takes the time to get himself in peak physical condition, realizing what's at stake (HI MOISES!!), but I don't find it to be the norm. I vaguely remember the study as well, though I believe it did show marginal improvement. 5 points of avg or so... The one thing I do remember seeing is that guys in contract years tend to play more often than they had in previous years. So I guess they're trying to stay in the lineup more, but it doesn't mean they're doing much better. And just cause I have to mention it... This is a contract year for Marquis.

Beltre's pre-career year career is nowhere close to Soriano's. He was also a free agent after age 25. At that age Soriano was playing his first big league season, .268/.304/.432 It's revisionist history, but hasn't time shown that wasn't simply Beltre breaking out? Maybe so, but the fact remains is that he had a much better chance to improve upon or sustain his numbers than Soriano does. I hesitate to hand out 5 year deals to guys on the wrong side of 30 already.

(Incorrect answer buzzard) Soriano will be a bust, but the situations between Soriano and Beltre are FAR different. Beltre had one ONE great season, after several FAILED seasons, and his one career yr, came in on his walk year. Soriano has had atleast some decent productive yrs---with the Yankees at least---in his past. Maybe 2006 is a career yr, but he is a better bet to be worth his next contract then Beltre is on his contract. How old was Beltre when he signed his big contract?

They've always wanted to win, and they've already opened the wallets. The problem is Hendry's ability to use money to acquire quality players. Exactly. Hendry wastes about $10-15m in budget per season on players whose roles could be filled for far less. He's spent his budget poorly. Baker helped Hendry waste that money by reccomending certain players. The question is, will Piniella help Hendry waste that money on crappy "role players". Or will he pressure Jim to go out and get guys like Soriano for a change. I eagerly await the outcome of that answer. That Travis Lee, man, that guy is a ballplayer.

I just want to say that if Sweet Lou does really end up being the next Cubs manager, I wont be happy that Dusty was let go either.

I disagree. I'd be happy to send them Izturis for Bochy. :D

i would argue that a salary floor would be more effective, but neither would be particularly good (or bad) for baseball. I've often thought the same, but I think you would see some ridiculous contracts. What if the salary floor was, say, $40 million. What would the Marlins have done this year? Be forced not to play promising youngsters? Give artificial raises to people? Sign some aging vet to a ludicrous contract? I'm sure JoBo wouldn't have minded a $25 million dollar one year contract.

On Mike and Mike they were also talking about whether they would trade Zambrano for ARod. Greeny said yes, Golic said no. Forgive me for not trusting in Golic's baseball knowledge. The Yanks would jump on Zambrano for ARod in a heartbeat... not that I'd want to do that, of course.

General consensus is that he's the best pitching prospect to ever come out of Japan. Take that as you will. Personally, I'd throw money at him like there's no tomorrow. Hideki Irabu came with the same description and accolades. I think its a risky proposition. "Best ever" tends to mean more the larger the sample size.