Rob

Fox is one of the top catching prospects in the minors.

He's gotten progressively worse in the field each of the last three seasons... with this season coming in at eight runs below average. Added to the fact that his only offensive advantage over Blanco is about 15 points of OBP, and you have a no-offense/no-defense waste of a roster spot and about 8 million bucks. And let's not forget the aging curve for catchers on the wrong side of thirty. Precipitous declines are the norm, not the exception. Bengie Molina is not a good baseball player, will not become one soon, and should not be treated like one. If you want to say Wells and Soto is a better option than Barrett and Pierre, that could be defensible. But bringing Molina into the discussion is not.

I've got him as being 12 runs above average last year and six so far this year... and Barrett at -11 and -17 in that same span. :sick:

Are you serial? Buffet Boy has already got the contract extension drawn up! Sadly, I don't doubt he has. Thankfully, I think the pressure will be too much on him to offer it to Captain Toothpick. And I suppose you should know... I am super-dooper serial.

he does have a world series ring. while that does not necessarily make him a good manager, it does mean he's not a bad one imo. Dusty got very very close to a couple, and he's absolutely horrid. Brenly made some really stupid decisions in that series, too. They won despite his managing... not because of it.

The word that I've heard is that Toronto is going to up their payroll in 2007. $100 million is the current rumour. And don't get me wrong, I love Wells... but he's not worth Barrett. Especially considering the fact we could probably get him for Izturis, Pie, and a live arm. Why give up one of the top players at his position for Wells when you can divest yourself of Izturis for the mere cost of an exceptionally talented, but far from sure thing prospect?

I guess an interesting question I haven't seen anybody ask yet is this... "Is Soriano going to demand to play 2B when he signs his contract?" If you'll recall, he threw a huge tantrum when told he was being moved to the outfield. He was a second baseman, and he'd have nothing to do with becoming an outfielder, and so on and so forth. His production has increased since moving to the outfield, though I'm convinced the mitigating factor was the contract year and not the position switch. I guess if he still sees himself as a misplaced second baseman, we could see him demanding to whichever team he signs with that they use him as a second baseman and not an outfielder, if he still feels so strongly. Have there been any indications he's truly happy now that he's made the switch? If not, I'd be a lot more excited about him coming to Chicago.

Even with his defense progressing as much as it has, nobody in baseball seems him ending up as anything other than a DH within a couple years. This improvement might just buy them 1-2 years as a LF'er while they let Sweeney's contract run out. At any rate though, his bat projects to be upper-tier if not elite for a DH. So yeah, he's doing pretty well for himself.

I don't really want Soriano near this team unless he's playing 2B. Otherwise, he's not even remotely worth the money he'll be receiving. But it shouldn't be an issue at any rate. If anybody's expecting Hendry to do anything other than drink too much, wait too long, and make a move at that coyote ugly last call... you're in for as rude an awakening as he is.

The one positive to take away from this is that, barring a horrible miracle, Dusty will not win enough games to keep his job. We did have a nice stretch about a month ago where people were still cooking up half-baked ways to get to the playoffs, or at least a .500 record. Aint none of that happening now.

That approach is every bit as old as Rob Deer.

And Goodbye to the fantasy league championship... :cry:

I'd love to get him, but I think we can all agree there's a 98% chance he ends up in Seattle or in pinstripes.

Nowhere did I question Zito's previous showings as being lucky or anything of the sort. I just question his ability to keep it up indefinately. Once again, Zito's high walk and flyball tendencies work much better in a park that doesn't increase homerun expectancy. I'd expect about a 3.70 ERA out of him as a starter throwing half his games at Wrigley. While that's certainly not bad, a big part of Z's success has been his ability to keep the ball down in such a cozy ballpark. And health wise I do realize I'm probably being unneccesarily suspicious, but those Mulder and Hudson injuries scare the jeepers out of me. I don't doubt the A's would have no problem with chewing up a pitcher's arm while he's cheap and useful and then spitting him back out just as his arm starts to go. Maybe Zito would be fine this year. Maybe he'd be fine through 2009. The problem is, we'd have to sign him to a longer contract than that, and I don't feel comfortable for whatever reason. And lastly, PECOTA has Zito being worth approximately 18 million total from 2007 through 2010. While those numbers certainly seem low, I'm more inclined to believe they're closer to the truth than the 70 million or so he'll actually make.

Not only do I think Zito wont sign here, I don't really want him here. I can't see the high walk rates and flyball tendencies working out well in Wrigley; it hasn't for any of the guys already on our staff. Besides, watching the relatively healthy Hudson and Mulder break down after leaving Oakland and looking at Zito's IP counts, I worry about his ability to stay healthy. Considering how similar Oswalt's and Zito's age and numbers are (after adjusting for the league)... I'd bet Zito grabs something similar to the five year, 73 million dollar contract. It may even get higher, considering the open bidding by certainly the Mets and probably one of either the Yankees or Red Sox. So based on performance, health, and financial issues, I want nothing to do with Zito. Schmidt is scary too. But his scary is the kind of scary worth taking a risk on. His arm troubles from 2005 will scare off a lot of teams, which should plummet his price on the free agent market (then again, people said that about burnett too). I can see a lot of teams offering three years and 40 million dollars. I'd be willing to go 4/50... heavily backloaded. If we can't pull off something in the weak NL Central next season, ship him off a la Carlos Delgado's heavily backloaded deal for a major league ready B+ prospect. Let some other team deal with his final breakdown. I'm really not convinced Padilla is any better than any of the youngin's we've got on the staff already. Signing him would be an expensive waste. And like I've mentioned before, I think we should just hand Guzman the spot, reassure him it's his, and let him pitch through the pressures. I honestly believe the way he's been manhandled this season is what's hurting him most. A rotation of Zambrano Schmidt Hill Prior Guzman should be more than enough to keep us in most games. I wouldn't even think of signing Schmidt unless we had a complete offensive overhaul though. Otherwise, he'd be just as much of a waste as Padilla.

Well, I have my new preferred pick then.

Considering they both bat left handed, I find that idea implausible.

Durham will be a FA. I was about to mention that in my post above, but I'm not sure the Cubs would be willing to shell out the cash for all those OF's and Durham.

I saw they DFA'd him last night... That was quick on the release.

Fontenot is a 2b, and a better one for next season than any of those guys you just mentioned. I get the impression Moore's defense just wouldn't even be Todd Walker level... and EPatt's still a year away, IMHO. But yeah, he'd be a safe bet to outperform Theriot, Bynum, and Cedeno as a 2b.

Agreed. And I'd like to just hand one to Angel Guzman. Tell him before the season he's got it, and he can't lose it no matter how badly he pitches... he'll be running out there every five days. I bet he could surprise a few people under those circumstances.

I'd say those of us clamoring to replace Murton are realists, and nothing more. I love Matt Murton. But the fact of the matter is that Hendry is going to be GM next season, and there's no way he outright gets rid of Jacque Jones. He might, however, be open to setting up a platoon for him. In that case, Murton makes a logical platoon partner. I'd take it one step further and create another platoon in left. Trot Nixon and Craig Wilson together will cost probably a bit less than a guy like Carlos Lee... and they should provide better numbers from LF. Not to mention, that gives us two guys in any game who can come off the bench and be productive. Having Wilson and Murton or Nixon and Jones sitting on the bench during any one game can be absolutely huge. Just to finish the thought, Toronto would probably be open to Izturis, Pie, and a guy like Ryu for Vernon Wells. Izturis would actually be a significant upgrade to their middle infield, and Pie is the kind of cheap talent they like, while Ryu is a solid arm. And I know that's semi crazy of me to trade Pie away, but with an outfield of Nixon/Wilson Wells Jones/Murton I think we'd be in contention next year... which, to me, makes it worthwhile.

I am loving Hill, but if he can be the cheap centerpiece to net us a proven player like that, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It really wouldn't hurt to shop around to teams like the Reds/Yanks/Mets/Marlins/Red Sox/etc.. I'd certainly do that trade too. As a matter of fact, I think you can only find one group of people that wouldn't do that trade. The Marlins.

I had read the entire thread, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out if he was considered elite level or another "work in progress" type of hitter. I got the impression he could hit for power and average, but they said those same things about Ryan Harvey and he's nowhere close to getting it down. Forgive me if I wasn't able to discern raw tools from approach in 11 pages. It is quite a bit to read and not miss a single detail. But then again, perhaps I should have made that more clear before I blurted out a question. At any rate, is his bat considered to be advanced in the way of guys like Hafner, Manny, and Ortiz... or is it just considered to be a bat that plays as an advanced bat at catcher a la Barrett or Victor Martinez?

Is there looking to be any elite level positional talents that are near major-league ready?