Jake

And $20 million? Is that a bit too greedy? And, why no Wily Mo?

Will it matter? I wonder if this owner is going to be another Steinbrenner but without the cash flow. He's going to [expletive] up anything his GM will try to do, and do it all in the name of winning.

Ho Hum. I wish we got him instead of Casey. Of course, we'd have given up something more than Dave Williams.... Actually, I wanted Pena. :-)

He'd be at least the 3rd best pitcher on this team next year. Depending on who we place in the fifth spot, Our whole starting rotation could cost us less than $7 million! :-)

You guyz are advocating $6-$7 million for a # 5 pitcher????

I could pitch over 200 innings. That doesn't mean the Cubs need me. Well, to state the obvious, no, you can't. Physically, you might be able to, but you'd get knocked out of the game in the first. Which is where the value of an innings eater comes in. An innings eater mangages to stay in most games he pitches until the late innings. Which is where the value is. The thing is Weaver's agent is Scott Boras, and Boras will manage to find someone to pay him $10 million per season. He's good like that. Except, it seems, no one wants to spend that money on Weaver right now. Sooner or later someone will get desperate enough to do this. Maybe in late February, someone's starter will get hurt the first week or so of camp, and, in desperation, they'll find the money to sign him. Or something like that. Is he worth $10million? Was AJ Burnett worth what the Jays gave him? How do you define this? Boras is smart, and ultimately, someone will give him the money. My bet? Look for the Tigers to shell out the money. Just a wild guess.

Wow. We don't have the worst outfield in the division. Based on this, we'er 4th at worst! :shock:

Orlando Hudson - I'd rather have Walker Brad Wilkerson - You're right about him X Nady - Where would he play? Bradley - Right on. Javier Vazquez - We couldn't have given up what the Sox did to get him. Edgar Renteria - Would've taken Pie and then some. Adam Eaton - Good point Josh Beckett - Not enough to trade for him if it took Hanley. Luis Castillo - Maayyyybe. For the cost I'd still rather see Walker. The Fonz - No thanks. Mark Loretta - Walker. Those names were just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more. I also mentioned that there were many others that were mentioned in trade rumors (Abreu, Tejada, Manny, Floyd, Lugo, Huff, etc....) The point is that there were plenty of moves that could have been made this offseason to improve the team. My only concession is that the offseason is not over yet, so an improvement could still be forthcoming. I would be shocked if Hendry didn't add another outfield bat. As Dave Littlefield is fond of saying, It takes two to make a trade. It may not be from lack of trying. Everyone in the burgh was hoping Blalock would have been our thirdbaseman this year, but not at the cost of Ollie. It's easy to play armchair GM and talk about trades.

This is so true, and not just for Hendry. It seems that anyone who doesn't spend like the Yanks or the BoSox had a bad offseason. How were the ChiSox graded last offseason? Articles like this are no win situations for the GMs.

The writer does sound bitter, doesn't he.

Not to nitpick, but I think you've reversed them. Dr. Henry Jekyll was the scientist, while Edward Hyde was his deranged alter-ego. but i bet hyde had a better fastball. He was a clubhouse cancer. Alas, I did have them reversed. :oops: Hyde did have the better fastball. But, it was all over the place and he kept walking people. Whereas the Dr. was spot on everytime. :-)

Hmmm... is he worth it, of course is the major question. Kip as been a Pirate for four seasons now. in his first two seasons, his ERA was under 4.00. In the second season, his record is scewed a bit as the bullpen blew seven saves for him that year. He had the 6th best ERA that year, too. His third year, he was hurt. Pitched through it. Last year was Jeckyll and Hyde, with way too much Jeckyll. The Arbitration process will look at the whole career (including his time in your town playing for that other team on the south side). They'll discount last year as an aberation... I wonder what you'd all be saying if Ollie got this contract? Keep in mind, he's only had one good season. And, coming out of spring training that year, he was lucky to have made the team. I think this contract is market correct, and I think that Kip has the potential and the ability to win 15 games this year. He's one of the biggest wild cards as to our team's success.

Kind of tough to judge, seeing as how he's only had one full year to judge him on. If he puts up another season like last year, even if it's slightly worse, he'll be fine as a 3rd starter behind Davis and Sheets. If he puts up another season like last year, Based on this line, the Pirates will win the division. If Duke puts together a full season like his partial. If Malholom does the same thing. If Ollie pitches like he did two years ago. If Kip pitches like he did three years ago. If Jack Wilson hits like he did two years ago. If Duffy hits 340 over a full season. And, I could go on.... Then, we'll win the division. How many people are picking the Pirates to win the division (Besides the Dallas Morning News?)

Ya know what? On some level I agree with you. I was a little surprised to see Bobby Hill let go. He's everything Jim Tracy said he wants - a guy who can put the ball into play. Mack-O-Whack: It hurt to trade him, but a couple things come up. First, he's too streaky. He does much better as a spot starter (or even a few starts in a row) than being an everyday player. And, he strikes out too much. Not that I'd want to trade him, per se. But, I thought we got good value from him in Marte. Left Handed relievers don't come cheap. And my soon to be 5 year old loves saying his name (I've been taking her to games since she was 3 month old!) As for Sanchez - on the last Friday night home game, one of our local talking heads, Paul Alexander (who was fired last month as part of a station overhaul) had his booth set up out side of PNC Park. I asked him if he thought Freddy could compete with Jose for the everyday starting position for the upcoming season. He said to me: Two things come to mind here: Castillo hasn't been very healthy his first two seasons; and he has to hit both more HRs and for higher average. I'd bet Freddy is going to get at least 40 starts at second, 20 each at short and third. Caveat about third: Jose Bautista lights it up in Indy and plays his way onto the team. I think Getting rid of Bobby Hill was a bit shortsighted. No, he'll never be a star, but he can hit off of the bench and play 2nd & third. He'd have been behind Sanchez, to be sure. We have this guy who played 6 positions at Indy, Yuerendall DeCaster. It might his play that prompted the trade of Hill? Does the talking head know that Jason Bay is still on Pittsburgh? Thats what I was gonna say, maybe he was talking about the Penguins Mr. Bay came up in this conversation. He said Bay is better right now, but that Castillo is only 22 and is going to be better than Bay. Yeah, I'm skeptical too.

I believe that's former Pirate Mackowiack. Indeed it is! I need to get around to putting Zack Duke's face there in place of Mack-O-Whack.

When you look at our team from last year, which lost 95 games, then, yeah, these guys are improvements. Don't forget about Sean Cassey, either. Question: How many Cubbie relievers had a better ERA than Hernandez last year?

Ya know what? On some level I agree with you. I was a little surprised to see Bobby Hill let go. He's everything Jim Tracy said he wants - a guy who can put the ball into play. Mack-O-Whack: It hurt to trade him, but a couple things come up. First, he's too streaky. He does much better as a spot starter (or even a few starts in a row) than being an everyday player. And, he strikes out too much. Not that I'd want to trade him, per se. But, I thought we got good value from him in Marte. Left Handed relievers don't come cheap. And my soon to be 5 year old loves saying his name (I've been taking her to games since she was 3 month old!) As for Sanchez - on the last Friday night home game, one of our local talking heads, Paul Alexander (who was fired last month as part of a station overhaul) had his booth set up out side of PNC Park. I asked him if he thought Freddy could compete with Jose for the everyday starting position for the upcoming season. He said to me: Two things come to mind here: Castillo hasn't been very healthy his first two seasons; and he has to hit both more HRs and for higher average. I'd bet Freddy is going to get at least 40 starts at second, 20 each at short and third. Caveat about third: Jose Bautista lights it up in Indy and plays his way onto the team. I think Getting rid of Bobby Hill was a bit shortsighted. No, he'll never be a star, but he can hit off of the bench and play 2nd & third. He'd have been behind Sanchez, to be sure. We have this guy who played 6 positions at Indy, Yuerendall DeCaster. It might his play that prompted the trade of Hill?

Ouch.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AnadXhmW2.jC8N7zBYp3D6QRvLYF?slug=cnnsi-busybucs&prov=cnnsi&type=lgns A reasonable assessment of the team. Three people who's performance I think can alter the team's standing this year: Kip Wells, Oliver Perez and Jose Castillo. All three did not live up to expectations last year. I'm talking reasonable expectations. Kip & Ollie should win at least 10 games each. Castillo, while playing good defense needs to stay on the field, hit .280 and have at leat 20HRs. If everyone else on the team does as well as expected, we could win more than we lose this year. Which, of course, is NOT the goal.

Really, all three trades are uner a seperate context. Aramis - No one is saying anything exactly what went on. From what I can gleam from articles over the past couple of years, there was a financial need to reduce salary to lower overall team expenses. Some have suggested that MLB ohas ordered this, that the payroll to debt ratio was unacceptable to MLB. With all of the bailing out Baseball did with the DBacks, this doesn't have much credibility. So, this is not Littlefield's fault. Giles: Salary reduction, yes. But, look at what he got back. I'd say this one has worked out well for both teams. We were not going to win during his contract. We got a lot for him, all things considered. Kendall: Littelfield inherited a bad contract. $10mil? How many HRs did Kendall hit last year? If he was so valuable, why weren't more teams lining up to take him off of our hands? Also, keep in mind, Kendall was becoming a cancer in the locker room. Let's look at the money saved from the Kendall & Giles trade. (We'll assume what was saved from Aramis kept the team out of bankruptcy. :-) ) Bay hit 30 HRS last season. He has effectivly replaced Giles. Randa, Burnitz & Casey will EACH hit more HRs than Kendall. The obvious followup questions is, why not take all of the money given to these three and pay one bopper? Well, we'd have to find one who'd take our money. Players who command these salaries don't have to take them from the teams that have 13 consecutive losing seasons. So, what we need to do to start attracting players like this is win. Which, hopefully, these three players will help us do. Look, Littelfield is not the best GM, per se. But, considering what he's had to work with, he's done fairly well.

Ooops. :oops:

Maybe we'll be a .500 club this year? I need a new avatar, too.

For Marte. He'll only terrorize you guys for interleague play now. :lol: I need to pick a new avatar! Maybe I'll go with Zach.

Should I dig up a photo of Aramis in a Bucs uniform?

I like this one. But here would be my favorite. . . Pierre CF Lugo SS Lee 1B Abreu, Dunn, Wilkerson, or Huff RF Ramirez 3B Murton LF Barret C Cedeno 2B And another starting pitcher if we get a more affordable productive RF like Huff or Wilkerson. And not if we get an Abreu or Dunn. Playing First base for the Cincy Reds: Adam Dunn. Is there no love for Burnitz around here?