mg420

it does when you have howry, wuertz & wood.

but lilly will only cost $ while jennings will cost $ and prospects.

i agree. no way pie gets traded for jennings. i doubt very highly he will be traded at all.

I'd prefer to keep Ohman and trade Eyre. Simple economics. me too. if they trade eyre, they can use ohman & rapada as the lefties out of the pen.

he just has to be added to the 40 man. my guess is that he will be. i would like to see them dump guys like novoa, omalley & ryu and add both rapada & pignatello to the roster.

of course starting pitching is the key to getting to the playoffs but i think the idea that you have to trot out 4 or 5 studs to get to the playoffs is completely untrue. look at the starting staffs of the teams that made the playoffs this year. they for the most part had 2 stud pitchers and 3 inning eaters so their bullpens didnt get overused. who would have thought that the tigers rotation would be so effective with a 42 year old and 4 rookies? the cards had a rotation of carpenter, suppan, reyes, weaver & marquis. the twins won with santana, liriano, an often injured radke, bonser & silva. oakland, whose strength was supposed to be their starting staff, won with zito & 3 guys with era's over 4. as long as they can stay healthy and add 1 more starter like lilly or iwaga (or perhaps both of them), the starting staff should be quite effective (especially considering what division the cubs are in).

having ryno on the staff would be a good idea too. i'm sure he could help ep defensively.

Wow, that is absolutely ridiculous. I just cannot fathom paying that much for one unproven player in the MLB. they'll make it back and then some in t-shirt sales alone. They've only spent that much if they actually end up signing him. Could have just been a ploy to keep the Yankees from getting him. i was under the impression that mlb wasn't going to allow this kind of thing to happen.

i dont think the cubs or anyone else will be paying the bidding fee plus his contract for a utility player.

i dont really get the cedneo theriot comparisions. cedeno had 80 ab's in 2005 and ended up with a .731 ops. ryan had 134 ab's in 2006 and ended up with a .934 ops. theriot is 27 and has had some success in the minors hitting .304 twice and has had 3 season with obp above .360. he doesnt strike out, is above average on defense, steals bases and runs well, gets the bunt down and moves guys over. the instincts and fundamentals that theroit showed in his short time in the bigs far surpass anything i've seen from cedeno. i know it's human nature not to want to get burned again by getting our hopes too high and that ryan most likely wont see a .900+ ops in the majors but i dont think .280 with a .750 ops and 40 sb's is out of the question. that is a vast improvement over the .610 ronny put up last year. They aren't great comparisons for players. But there is a comparison for how the Cubs need to handle the situation. That is, there is nothing wrong with going with either player to start the season, but you have to build a team that can withstand them not doing anything at the plate. You don't know what Theriot will be able to do, and we didn't know what Cedeno was able to do. You can take a risk with such a cheap player, but you have to use the money saved to buy some guaranteed production elsewhere. You can't go into a season with a mediocre OF and risk getting nothing out of a middle infielder. I agree with that, and I know Theriot had more ABs than Cedeno, but it's still only 130-ish ABs. But I also agree we just might not be able to make that choice. It might be our best option to shore up the lineup elsewhere, or get solid bench help who could come in if necessary, and then just give Theriot the shot. I have no problems letting Cedeno and Theriot compete for a starting role if it means we end up with Drew or another difference maker. I also really would hate to see Izturis in a starting role with this team. To me, he is useless and should be traded. my guess is that ronny gets traded or sent back to iowa. his pathetic .184 ba in winter ball hasnt done much to increase his chances imo.

if the cubs can sign iwaga would they really need lilly or padilla? with z, hill, iwaga & miller, they would only need one more from prior, marshall, mateo, or guzman. it has been said many time before but once again prior is the key to 2007 imo. having 2 guys like z & prior healthy is like having 2 #1 starters on your staff and from what hill showed last year he might not be too far behind.

i dont really get the cedneo theriot comparisions. cedeno had 80 ab's in 2005 and ended up with a .731 ops. ryan had 134 ab's in 2006 and ended up with a .934 ops. theriot is 27 and has had some success in the minors hitting .304 twice and has had 3 season with obp above .360. he doesnt strike out, is above average on defense, steals bases and runs well, gets the bunt down and moves guys over. the instincts and fundamentals that theroit showed in his short time in the bigs far surpass anything i've seen from cedeno. i know it's human nature not to want to get burned again by getting our hopes too high and that ryan most likely wont see a .900+ ops in the majors but i dont think .280 with a .750 ops and 40 sb's is out of the question. that is a vast improvement over the .610 ronny put up last year. They aren't great comparisons for players. But there is a comparison for how the Cubs need to handle the situation. That is, there is nothing wrong with going with either player to start the season, but you have to build a team that can withstand them not doing anything at the plate. You don't know what Theriot will be able to do, and we didn't know what Cedeno was able to do. You can take a risk with such a cheap player, but you have to use the money saved to buy some guaranteed production elsewhere. You can't go into a season with a mediocre OF and risk getting nothing out of a middle infielder. agreed. the cubs seem to be more interested in improving the OF with guys like soriano, drew & roberts so that the questionable middle IF wont be as much of an issue. i even think that keeping jones wouldn't be a bad option if lou platoon's him. if theriot can handle ss (and i dont see any reason he could not having played 189 games there in the minors) i think the big question is what to d owith 2b. epat's bat is ready imo but his d is a big question. if they can sign a guy like frank catalenatto, they can use him as a stop gap unti lthey decide what to do with ep.

I'd rather Barrett hit higher than that, though. Maybe swap him & Jones. All this talk about Theriot starting smacks of Cedeno part deux. I would make him work for the job, not give it to him by default. But then again, we might not really have the option since we need to fill holes in the starting rotation first (accoring to Lou, that's first on the docket). i dont really get the cedneo theriot comparisions. cedeno had 80 ab's in 2005 and ended up with a .731 ops. ryan had 134 ab's in 2006 and ended up with a .934 ops. theriot is 27 and has had some success in the minors hitting .304 twice and has had 3 season with obp above .360. he doesnt strike out, is above average on defense, steals bases and runs well, gets the bunt down and moves guys over. the instincts and fundamentals that theroit showed in his short time in the bigs far surpass anything i've seen from cedeno. i know it's human nature not to want to get burned again by getting our hopes too high and that ryan most likely wont see a .900+ ops in the majors but i dont think .280 with a .750 ops and 40 sb's is out of the question. that is a vast improvement over the .610 ronny put up last year.

if they are going to move theriot to ss i would like to see them go after catalanotto to play 2b (unless they think epat is ready to start of course).

sign roberts to play cf and lead off.

as were the cards this year. it shouldnt take too much more to win the central in 2007. Just land a couple really good FA or trades and we will be BETTER. just having lee back healthy (hopefully!) for a full season will be a huge boost offensively. that gives the cubs 3 potential .900 + ops guys in the lineup. Who is the third? Barrett's never done it. Jones hasn't come close. he had an .885 last year which is why i said "potential .900". if jones were platooned he might even have a shot at it too.

as were the cards this year. it shouldnt take too much more to win the central in 2007. Just land a couple really good FA or trades and we will be BETTER. just having lee back healthy (hopefully!) for a full season will be a huge boost offensively. that gives the cubs 3 potential .900 + ops guys in the lineup.

as were the cards this year. it shouldnt take too much more to win the central in 2007. The Cobs need to aim for average and sign Jeff Weaver. perhaps you are correct but what should the chicago national leauge ball club do?

i dont see why they would risk it. if he can be effective as a reliever, they are risking alot putting him back in the rotation where he proved he cannot stay healthy. besdies if he can be as dominate as he was in his short stint this year, they can get something for either howry or dempster.

as were the cards this year. it shouldnt take too much more to win the central in 2007.

roberts cf drew rf igawa sp lilly sp catalanotto 2b/lf

Iwamura for 3b.

the cubs would have to be stark raving mad to give up pie for hudson & giles. you must be a braves fan.

if it's true, good for the sox. we will know about aram tomorrow and the cubs can focus their efforts on iwaga, roberts & iwamura.

so was hideki arabu before he started pitching for the yankes. i have seen clips of him on youtube and his fastball is much straighter than z's.