mg420

i think the OF for next year is pretty much set if they can resign pierre with murton in lf & jones in rf.

he only has a one year contract so they would have to resign him for next year if they are interested. as far as his velocity goes, i was at the game in kane county but they dont have a radar gun so i'm not sure what he was throwing at. with his curve though, i think he could be quite effective at 88-90 on the fb. if he's healthy i can see a 2007 rotation on z, prior, miller, hill, marshall with guzman, mateo & marmol in iowa if needed.

fontenot should be playing 2b along with cedeno for the rest of the season. isnt dusty gone yet?

His OBP is a must have on this team. I wouldn't have been so hot after him if this team wasn't so pathetically lacking in the vital stat. I was a big Giles fan back in the day, but cooled as he aged. It wasn't until Hendry passed on all options and left this team with inevitable failure that I once again picked up the Giles bandwagon. This team is desperate for OBP, but they don't have a ton of talent to trade. The only thing they have is money. is a .744 ops worth 10 mil a year? imo, the teams failure had more to do with them counting on wood & prior yet again and lee's freak injury.

They are in first place, in their division. They aren't a contender by any stretch. The AL west is weak and they are on pace to win it with just 85 wins. The Cubs better not do anything with the hopes of winning just 85. You act as if the low OPS is the reason they are in first. The Cubs need to try and build a potential 100 win team. Their payroll demands it, and allows for such a goal. They should try and build the best team possible, not accept crap just because it's there. guys like barrett, jones and dempster were called "crap" by many people here when they were signed or traded for. i even recall that many people were lamenting trading choi for lee. look at what a bust furcal has been in La and has anyone looked what bradley & giles are doing btw? not all that glitters is gold. giles is not a glittering player, he is valuable under the radar. he was certainly made out to be a must have at any cost by several people on this board along with bradley.

There is talent in the pitching department, but you still need hitting... agreed but there is some talent there for next year too. they have a core of aram, lee, barrett & jones. it looks like pierre might be re-signed soon due to his extended offensive surge and i hope they haven't given up on murton yet. if izzy can hit .280 + with a .750 ops and cedeno & fontenot can handle 2b. what in the world would lead you to believe that he'll be anywhere near .750 when his career high is .711 and every other year he's been under .700? i might also add that he has had back-to-back seasons posting a sub-.600 OPS. i reiterate, 3 players with sub-.700 OPS's in any lineup will kill said lineup. a batting order consists of 9 hitters, you cannot put 4 dead bats out there and expect to score any runs. i'd be interested to find out if it's ever been done before, you know, 3 players with sub-.700 OPS's on a playoff team. the pitching would definitely have to be superb, which i won't hold my breath on. EDIT: the astros made the world series last year with 3: taveras, burke, and everett. you know, the astros of the 3.51 team era.

i would much rather have pierre back.

They are in first place, in their division. They aren't a contender by any stretch. The AL west is weak and they are on pace to win it with just 85 wins. The Cubs better not do anything with the hopes of winning just 85. You act as if the low OPS is the reason they are in first. The Cubs need to try and build a potential 100 win team. Their payroll demands it, and allows for such a goal. They should try and build the best team possible, not accept crap just because it's there. guys like barrett, jones and dempster were called "crap" by many people here when they were signed or traded for. i even recall that many people were lamenting trading choi for lee. look at what a bust furcal has been in La and has anyone looked what bradley & giles are doing btw? not all that glitters is gold.

There is talent in the pitching department, but you still need hitting... agreed but there is some talent there for next year too. they have a core of aram, lee, barrett & jones. it looks like pierre might be re-signed soon due to his extended offensive surge and i hope they haven't given up on murton yet. if izzy can hit .280 + with a .750 ops and cedeno & fontenot can handle 2b. what in the world would lead you to believe that he'll be anywhere near .750 when his career high is .711 and every other year he's been under .700? i might also add that he has had back-to-back seasons posting a sub-.600 OPS. i reiterate, 3 players with sub-.700 OPS's in any lineup will kill said lineup. a batting order consists of 9 hitters, you cannot put 4 dead bats out there and expect to score any runs. i'd be interested to find out if it's ever been done before, you know, 3 players with sub-.700 OPS's on a playoff team. the pitching would definitely have to be superb, which i won't hold my breath on. EDIT: the astros made the world series last year with 3: taveras, burke, and everett. you know, the astros of the 3.51 team era. oakland hasnt won anything yet this year but i think you should look at some of their ops's & are in 1st place. they have at least 5 starters with ops's less than .740 and several have less than .700.

Miller is topping out in the low 80's during his rehab stints. He's not going to be an option next year. actually his velocity is getting better: "Miller allowed three hits and no walks, striking out five in the no-decision Monday. He threw 37 of 53 pitches for strikes and reached a top velocity of 88 mph. He pitched mostly in the mid-80s." http://www.pjstar.com/stories/080106/CHI_BAI09OC6.076.shtml

There is talent in the pitching department, but you still need hitting... agreed but there is some talent there for next year too. they have a core of aram, lee, barrett & jones. it looks like pierre might be re-signed soon due to his extended offensive surge and i hope they haven't given up on murton yet. if izzy can hit .280 + with a .750 ops and cedeno & fontenot can handle 2b.

With who; Webb or Thom? both at the same time.

i hope the cubs forget about free agents & go young next year ala detroit. with guys like marmol, marshall, hill, mateo & maybe guzman to go along with z & hope fully prior & miller, there is plenty of talent on the roster already.

I still have Guzman ahead of the other three and I know I'm not the only one (heck Mateo is pretty far back). Let Guzman do what's best fo him, especially given the injuries he's coming off of. Ron's right. perhaps switching to closer might be what is better for guzman. i dont look at making him a closer as giving up on him but instead it would be filling a need & maybe putting him in a better position to succeed.

not every player hits his prime at the same time. back to the visquel comparison again, omar didnt hit his prime offensively until 1996 when he was 29. Not every, but the vast majority. Hoping for a diamond in the rough, and paying a small fortune for the right to rely on nothing but hope doesn't seem very wise to me. it probably isnt the smartest thing to do but maddux wasnt worth a whole lot anyway. whatever happens with izturis, the most disturbing thing about this whole situation to me is that there is already talk of signing maddux back for 2007! unless he comes back as a pitching coach, the cubs would be nuts to have him back on the team imo.

not every player hits his prime at the same time. back to the visquel comparison again, omar didnt hit his prime offensively until 1996 when he was 29.

Will Carroll appears to be right on. Why would you want a guy who's sporting a line of 410/493/672 at AAA when you can have Izturis? I surely hope he was not one of the prospects. sounds to me like hendry tried to go the prospect route with the dodgers but they wouldnt bite. it was also stated that kemp was probably considered one of the three untouchables by the dodgers. http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_4118344 http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/pros/article_1221206.php

with veal, sean & now mateo ahead of him, it might be time to give him a try at closing games.

yeah, his career minor leauge obp of .362 is atrocious.

santanna & aybar??

so hendry wont trade maddux because some fans might get mad at him? that is a very silly assumption imo.

aram to the padres for manny alexander, bobby hill & ricky gutierrez.

he did help to get the cubs aram though.

i was checking on how kottaras is doing at aaa and saw a few familiar names on the padre's aaa team if anyone is interested. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/stats/team.php?id=248&bsort=avg_sort&psort=era_sort&bord=desc&pord=asc

colvin was 5-5 last night. any chance he goes to peoria this year?