Sarcastic

Is it too early to say that the game is over?

It doesn't have to be baseball's, it could be golfballs, softballs, tennisballs. I'll take hockey pucks. And I'll go as far as to take badmiton birdies. One shuttlecock shall do. I'd just take the bag.

We don't need him to be a savior. We need him to play good defense and provide average-above average offense for his position. As far as upgrade, he obviously isn't offensively. But as far as a use of the team's resources he may be. We would be upgrading by a decent amount defensively, paying less than $1M to fill both catcher spots and getting much younger. He won't have a 3-year stretch offensively like Barrett has had, but I think he's capable of putting up an .800 OPS in his best year(s) which combined with his defense and price tag, could make him a great value. It could, if that were realistic, but besides this season, in which he has under 200 ABs, he has never put up an OPS of .800 in the minors. In fact, before this year, his highest OPS was .756 in AA last year. I just hope he can put up a decent .700 OPS, which is more than any of our other catchers are likely to do. Now wait. He's been at Iowa since 2005. Did you not realize that or did you just forget to type the third A. On another note, his IsoD has been good to very good all three seasons that he has been at Iowa. He's had over a .350 OBP each year at Iowa, even the first when he hit just .253. Also, he had close to 300 ABs each season at Iowa, so it's safe to say he knows how to draw walks. Sorry, I meant to say two years ago. He had a somewhat lower OPS in the low .700's last year in AAA. And I don't care what his IsoD is if his overall numbers are still mediocre. He hasn't shown much power or ability to hit for average until this season (under 200 ABs). Walks are not the end all and be all of offensive production. If his IsoD was so good it made up for the rest of his offensive numbers great, but it hasn't been.

The ump is calling a pretty wide strike zone today.

1. Floyd not in lineup 2. Lee was scheduled to SH today Oops, meant Pagan over Floyd. As for the second thing, I know that he was scheduled to DH, the question is why?

That lineup is somewhat better, but there are still two things I don't understand. 1. Pagan over Floyd? 2. Lee at DH instead of 1B?

That doesn't sound right. There's no reason to put Floyd at first unless Lee is hurt or Lou is overreacting to last night's error. Lee was supposed to DH today with Ward at 1st. Maybe Ward is slightly hurt, and rather than change his plans for Lee DH'ing Piniella just stuck Floyd at 1st instead. But still, why? I;m sure Lee can handle the jarring message that he has to play the position he has played for the last several years instead of DHing like he thought.

That doesn't sound right. There's no reason to put Floyd at first unless Lee is hurt or Lou is overreacting to last night's error.

Pie finally out of the 2 spot, good. Jones not playing RF, also good. Ward still not playing, though? Why?

We need a hitting ANYTHING. It doesn't matter where the hitting comes from, although it was much more rare and difficult to replace when it came from the catcher's position. A good hitter playing a defensive position doesn't make him less valuable, it makes him more valuable. I mean from the perspective that we need to replace Barrett with a catcher who can hit. Well, no, we only have to do that if we can't fix RF and SS, which are much easier to improve offensively. In that case, perhaps we should have added a good bat and then traded away a good bat for nothing.

We need a hitting ANYTHING. It doesn't matter where the hitting comes from, although it was much more rare and difficult to replace when it came from the catcher's position. A good hitter playing a defensive position doesn't make him less valuable, it makes him more valuable.

We don't need him to be a savior. We need him to play good defense and provide average-above average offense for his position. As far as upgrade, he obviously isn't offensively. But as far as a use of the team's resources he may be. We would be upgrading by a decent amount defensively, paying less than $1M to fill both catcher spots and getting much younger. He won't have a 3-year stretch offensively like Barrett has had, but I think he's capable of putting up an .800 OPS in his best year(s) which combined with his defense and price tag, could make him a great value. It could, if that were realistic, but besides this season, in which he has under 200 ABs, he has never put up an OPS of .800 in the minors. In fact, before this year, his highest OPS was .756 in AA last year. I just hope he can put up a decent .700 OPS, which is more than any of our other catchers are likely to do.

I really don't think many people think he's an upgrade over Barrett, certainly not offensively. And I don't think anybody thinks of him as a savior. Hopefully he and Bowen fill the spot for a few years until Donaldson develops. I can live with slightly below NL average offense out of catcher out of a couple of $350,000 players who are good defensively, as long as the Cubs fix the SS and RF problems. The 8th ranked NL catching team is at .272/.299/.401 The 9th ranked NL catching team is at .254/.301/.392 A Bowen/Soto combo should be able to threaten those levels. They'd have a shot. I'd also like to see one of the offensive upgrades you mentioned, but I won't be holding my breath. Hendry hasn't made a good trade along those lines for years. I can't think of a good trade he made to bring in an impact bat since Nomar.

Jones for Young and cash?

You realize he's a catcher right? If somebody is thinking he'll match his 2007 AAA numbers, they will be sorely mistaken. But that's not the only time he's put up decent minor league numbers. Again, he's a catcher. The major leagues are littered with catchers who can't even sniff Soto's minor league numbers. I don't think anybody is thinking he's a lock for 10 year starter or a good bet for a future all star game. He's a cheap alternative to what they have who actually provides some upside that nobody else on the roster provides. Even if he fails to match his pre 2007 averages, he stands a good chance of providing offense that half the league isn't getting from catcher. 8 teams are getting sub 700 OPS production from the catcher spot. Thanks to the 600 OPS by Koyie Hill and 384 OPS by Henry Blanco, the Cubs are in that group, with a line of just .236/.288/.382. I would say it would actually be very difficult for Soto not to be an improvement over that. It would be. I guess what I'm really saying about Soto is that many people felt that trading Barrett for beans was worth it as long as they upgraded the position by bringing in Soto. I don't see Soto being an upgrade over Barrett. With luck, he may be able to be an average to above average catcher for a while, but he is, as you already said, not going to be a really long term solution at the catcher's position. It isn't so much that he doesn't belong in the majors as much as that he isn't a savior.

Absolutely.

Not being great starters does not mean they have no business being in the majors. That's an incredibly stupid post. Soto had a good 2004 in AA, a good 2006 in AAA and is having a very good 2007 in AAA. Catchers generally take a little longer to develop. It's conceivable Soto could put up numbers between his pre 2007 minor league average .262/.344/.371 and his current numbers .324/.397/.555. If he managed to put up even his pre 2007 minor league average, he'd be doing better than what 11 NL teams are getting from their catcher spot. At this point, the Cubs don't have any better options than Soto, but his only good offensive season has come in under 200 ABs. His overall minor league record is pretty so-so. While it is conceivable that this small sample size represents his talent, and I don't deny that he is still developing as a hitter, I think some here are being a bit optimistic about his possible performance based on his plate discipline and under 200 AAA ABs. He really hasn't been a very good hitter in the minors, and it is entirely possible that he won't even be able to repeat those numbers at the major league level.

He's better than Koyie Hill. That's all I got. I'll give you that. I can't believe I forgot to put Hill on my list of people not belonging in the big leagues, but I think somebody covered that already.

Geovany Soto, Ryan Theriot, Mike Fontenot, etc. No, their hotstreaks do not mean that they will make great starters. I still don't know what people like about Soto besides one good season in AAA.

Yes. I hope Hendry doesn't demand too much for Jacques. At this point, even though I think he will turn it around somewhat, I doubt he will come close to last season's production, or his career numbers. He needs to stop taking up playing time, and since Lou is too hard headed to bench him, he needs to go.

To get the supplemental pick the Cubs would have had to offer Barrett arbitration. I don't think they would have done that and risked him accepting. Why would he accept? Chances are that he would get a multi-year deal elsewhere unless he really tanks for the rest of the season. I wouldn't want to the Cubs to be the team that signed a 30 year old catcher to a multi-year deal, but it given the current state of the FA market, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see someone make the offer. Even if he did accept, I think he may end up being somewhat productive for one more year. His bat was heating up when they decided to trade him.

Why is everyone so excited about Soto? Besides being good in under 200 ABs in AAA this year, what has he done to make people consider him a likely candidate for starting catcher? He doesn't really have good minor league stats overall, I can't see anything in his stats that would suggest that he would make a great starting catcher. I very much doubt that he would replace Barrett's production.

See the poll in the polls section. The grand slam is definitely up there. Don't forget his game winning double against the A's in 2004 with Walker's superman slide for the game winning run.

The Cubs offense sucks. Yes it is.