Rob

to play devil's advocate...didn't we all say that about chris carpenter in '04 and '05? Carp didn't exactly have an established level of performance... at least not while healthy. 05 is the first year I can think of where he spent the entire year healthy and pain-free. I can understand making allowances for injury in regression, but there are plenty of cases where the higher level of performance has nothing to do with lack of an injury, and it's natural to be more skeptical about those performances.

It's times like these we could really use Tom Goodwin, Troy O'Leary, and Doug Glanville... Now repeat after me, "it's not as bad as it could be."

True, but players will regress towards their established levels of performance. Brandon Phillips and Bronson Arroyo wont help keep the Reds on top all year long to the degree that they're doing now.

Is that like saying I'd rather be kicked in the head than punched in the nuts. It's more like kicked in the shin or punched in the kidneys. It's not like we're pursuing Tuffy Rhodes.

I'd much, much rather have Millar than Conine.

umm, where are these evaluations coming from? i'm going to have a really hard time trusting anything you say about hill if, apparently, the only two potential outcomes of his career are ace and complete bust. The evaluations come from what I've seen from them personally and what the numbers bear out. I don't think you could find more than a handful of people on these boards that truly believe Hill would be anything less than magnificent if he finally gets some control of his pitches, which it looks like he's getting closer to doing. At the same time, I just don't think Marshall will end up being quite that good. His middling strikeout rates don't bode well for an overpowering presence. He's going to rely a lot on his defense because of that. That's not to say he can't be a very effective pitcher, by any means, I just don't think we'll be mentioning him in the same sentence as somebody such as the Big Unit, unless we're talking physical appearance alone. At the same time, I do realize there's a very good chance that Hill wont even approach his ceiling. So perhaps I exaggerated a bit to say that he's got a 95% bust rate, and no chance for a career in between. I simply used that to illustrate a point, and I think you probably had a pretty good idea of that before you called me out on it. But let me just say how happy I am that which pitcher is going to be better is the argument, and that we're using these two pitchers. I don't know what I'd do if I were a Cardinals fan, with a grand total of 2 decent pitching prospects.

I don't quite agree with you on that point. Marshall has plenty of potential, that's for sure... but Hill is just oozing with it. Unfortunately for Hill, it's all unrealized at the moment... but if he reaches the top of his game, I don't see any way that Marshall isn't left in the dust. At the same time, Marshall has a much better chance of reaching his ceiling than Hill does, even though it is lower. I see Marshall as having a 50% chance of being a "good" major league pitcher. Hill has a 5% chance to be an ace and a 95% bust rate.

That's a good thing. It's kinda nice for the cubs to have a guy who comes out of nowhere and suceeds. I know it's a good thing for the club, but I had been dying to see Wade Miller in cubbie blue for years... :(

With all the effort the front office has gone to to rid the clubhouse of malcontents, I don't see any way that they bring in Guillen.

he used to be. he's not anymore -- he's had a significant drop in power since he left atlanta. ~.040 drop in IsoP. Don't get me wrong, that's a lot... but he's still up in the .225 range. It's not like he's suddenly going to be in any danger of becoming Neifi. Besides, he'd do well with in Wrigley.

I'm not ready to commit yet, but I should be good for 25 a day once finals are over in a couple weeks. Edit: Will doing this result in getting more spam email coming in? I'm working off a fresh email address, and I'd rather not get it killed too quickly.

Len >>>>> Chip Stoney >>>>> Bob Bob is getting better though... at least everything isn't an opening for him to tell a story about his time with the D'backs, like it was his first year. Now it's only an opening every other time. In 2-3 years, this could be one of the best announcing teams around.

I don't think I could bring myself to do it just because of the age factor. Yeah, Sheff is better now, but he simply wont be playing as long. If we tried to trade Wood off, there'd be almost zero chance of re-signing him in the offseason. And with the chance he still has to be something really special, I can't trade away his future for a hired gun like Sheff.

If we're gonna bring up Pie, I'd rather see us trade off Pierre for a first baseman. Moving Murton over would be kinda messy to start with in-season.

I was just thinking that we don't have enough guys who could play 2B in a pinch... Cuddyer would solve that! :lol:

I hate to say it, but I keep thinking Marshall is turning Wade Miller into trade-bait come the trade deadline...

Actually, I think the Unit has a couple of inches on him. Maybe little unit would be more appropriate? uh....nevermind... Wow, I feel like I'm in a locker room right now...

'' Letting him have kids with a woman springs immediately to mind...

No rush to trade Rusch. Perhaps he can recapture his mojo in the bullpen. If he's traded, Florida might be a nice destination - a team with little to lose that might benefit from advice from a veteran. I wouldn't wish exile in KC on anybody. Stairs right now is worth a heck of a lot more than Glendon is potentially ever worth again. I'd pull the trigger on that trade in a second. Only problem is that the Royals wouldn't... I get the impression they're grooming Stairs for a front office job because he (inexplicably) loves it there.

Like most of you, on a production/inning basis I prefer Wuertz to Rusch. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep Rusch in the pen. We are in dire need of mop-up guy that can throw 85 pitches every once in a while and stay (relatively) effective. Our bullpen has been thrown into disarray whenever we need somebody to come in and go 3 innings, as nobody was capable of it before. This is definately the right move to be made, in this situation.

There had better not end up being a rainout. I'm leaving in 10 minutes to drive the three hours to Chicago for the game.

I think there is somebody from this board that went to one of the Cubs-Cardinals games in Wrigley and said they saw Walker hanging out with the Cardinals. I'm not sure though. Yup, I was one of those people. We actually asked him to come to the Cubs and he said "You don't want my ___ on the team" Sweet, I love MadLibs! "You don't want my banana on the team" :shock: How ruthlessly absurd! :lol:

Part of what's huring these guys so much is the lack of a real long-man in the pen, too. I think Aardsma threw 60 pitches today... that's not what he's used to. Not many pitchers are going to do well being stretched into a long role when they haven't been groomed for one.

Given the choice between a great young position player and a great young pitcher, I'll take the position player each and every time. The pitchers are just too much of an injury risk, if any of us haven't realized that yet...

His average is up to .275 now, but as someone else mentioned, he only has the one walk and isn't getting a whole lot of extra base hits or anything. that sounds awfully similar to another cf ive seen a lot of this year At least Corey has a cannon for an arm and the "potential" to have a hell of a year...