mg420

if dempster saves 40 games next year i wonder how many people (BA included) will be saying what a wonderful bargin he was for 5 mil.

trade walker & put dj at 2b maybe? how do they compare on d?

what about lee for choi? i would have to rate that #1 (or at least a close 2nd to your #1) myself.

yup. seems to be the trend recently. gange, nathan and the cards izzy have all turned into great closers after failing as starters. eck is the 1st one i can remember doing this except he actually had success as a starter early in his career.

why? Because he will be lousy or hurt and the Cubs will be stuck with the contract (see Remlinger, Mike). remlinger was lousy for the cubs due to injuries & baker not being able to understand that even though remmy throws lefty, he is much more effective against right handed hitters. everyone else in baseball (and most fans too) except baker seemed to be aware of that fact. Well, given the cost of any OTHER closer, it might be a decent deal. I can't seen him regressing into a HORRID reliever, and $5MM per is a bargain for a closer. So I think this will wind up being the steal of hte off-season, or he'll get hurt and we'll b!tch about it for a decade. i agree. with his stuff, unless he gets hurt i am not worried about dempster not doing the job.

why? Because he will be lousy or hurt and the Cubs will be stuck with the contract (see Remlinger, Mike). remlinger was lousy for the cubs due to injuries & baker not being able to understand that even though remmy throws lefty, he is much more effective against right handed hitters. everyone else in baseball (and most fans too) except baker seemed to be aware of that fact.

What about a lack of sample size? 5 innings? with how many walks? i'm sorry, my opinion may be tainted by memories of watching him throw the ball in the general direction of the plate, every time he got in the game, without having any success in the strike zone. Yep. Every time I've seen him pitch, he can't get near the plate. He can't be allowed to pitch in close games because he walks so often. No way I'm blaming Dusty for this one. As far as I'm concerned, Dusty's handling it correctly. lets look at the facts. jvb was called up from iowa on 8/31/05 where he had a 1.98 era, 25 saves and had 65 k's & 22 bb in 54.67 innings. he worked 2 inninings on 8/31, walked 1 & k'd 2. on 9/3 he worked 1 inning & gave up 1 hit no k's or bb's. he then sat on the bench for 9 days and walked 5 in 2 innings the next 2 appearences. back to the bench for 7 days & walked 2 in .33 innings. to me this indicates that his lack of control was directly linked to not being used for up to 9 days due to bakers gross mishandling of the bullpen.

wins and era also. what other #'s indicate a pitcher's effectivness better? A pitcher could pitch a whole year with an ERA of 0.00 and not win 14 games. If the OFFENSE doesn't score any runs in any of those games, the pitcher gets a no decision. In 2003, Kerry should have been a 20 game winner. The blown saves and the lack of run support in games he pitched that year cost him a lot of wins. ERA is definitely a good measure. WHIP is a good measure. K/BB is a good measure. There are many others, but wins should never be taken into consideration. Kerry Wood was 12-11 in 2002 with a 3.67 ERA Matt Clement was 9-13 last year with a 3.68 ERA Brandon Webb was 7-16 last year with a 3.59 ERA Brandon Webb was 10-9 in 2003 with a 2.84 ERA. Russ Ortiz was 21-7 in 2003 with a 3.81 ERA Last year, Russ was 15-9 with a 4.31 ERA I could go on. a pitcher could also have an era of 6.00 and win 15 games but how likely is that? if wins & losses shouldnt be taken into consideration then clemens should win the cy young this year instead of carpenter or wills but he wont. i agree they dont tell the whole story but i would rather have a guy with a 4.00 era who wins 15 games year after year than a guy with a 2.50 era who only wins 10 every year.

He didn't "imply Wood is hurt a lot". He said he gets hurt every year, comparing him to Angel Guzman. I fully admit Wood has been hurt a lot. But he hasn't been hurt every year, and he cannot be compared to Guzman. Angel is 23 now and we don't know anything more about him and his future now than we did when he was 19. Wood is an established major league starter. Sure he's been hurt a lot. But he still blows away Guzman in the reliability department. The talk of Wood to the pen has been dead for a month now. He's going to start next year. Guzman, who has less than 150 IP, combined, the past three years is nearing cut bait time. We know Wood can give you 30+ starts and 200+ IP with fantastic numbers, while on the other hand we don't even know if Guzman can throw 100 innings in back to back starts. my actual intention was to imply that perhaps wood (like guzman) does not have the mechanics or body to remain a healthy 200 inning/year starter in the major leauges. i wouldn't call any of wood's seasons "fantastic" btw. he has never won more than 14 games or had an era under 3.20. so? he's never had a 4+ era in a season in which he threw at least 140 innings, either. his career OPS against is .673, his career BAA is .214, k's per 9 innings? 10.44. and for you "win" guys, in his first 5 years in the league, he won at least 12 games 4 times. kerry wood is a starter, what's more, he's a very good starter. i agree he is a good starter (very good when he's healthy which isnt often) but i would never use the term "fantastic" when describing wood's career to this point.

wins and era also. what other #'s indicate a pitcher's effectivness better?

He didn't "imply Wood is hurt a lot". He said he gets hurt every year, comparing him to Angel Guzman. I fully admit Wood has been hurt a lot. But he hasn't been hurt every year, and he cannot be compared to Guzman. Angel is 23 now and we don't know anything more about him and his future now than we did when he was 19. Wood is an established major league starter. Sure he's been hurt a lot. But he still blows away Guzman in the reliability department. The talk of Wood to the pen has been dead for a month now. He's going to start next year. Guzman, who has less than 150 IP, combined, the past three years is nearing cut bait time. We know Wood can give you 30+ starts and 200+ IP with fantastic numbers, while on the other hand we don't even know if Guzman can throw 100 innings in back to back starts. my actual intention was to imply that perhaps wood (like guzman) does not have the mechanics or body to remain a healthy 200 inning/year starter in the major leauges. i wouldn't call any of wood's seasons "fantastic" btw. he has never won more than 14 games or had an era under 3.20.

thanks Bruce. too bad about the cubs not liking jvb. i guess 2 seasons of sub 2.00 era's doesnt mean as much as it used to.

Have the Cubs discussed moving Angel Guzman to the bullpen, since he can't seem to stay healthy as a starter? if they wont move wood to the pen after watching him get hurt year after year why would it be any different guzman? Because Wood doesn't get hurt year after year. He's got 2 200+ inning seasons, he's got 6 20+ start seasons. Guzman has never been healthy for a full year. maybe you should check his dl history. many people including myself and the author of this article would tend to disagree with your statement. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/3835962

Have the Cubs discussed moving Angel Guzman to the bullpen, since he can't seem to stay healthy as a starter? if they wont move wood to the pen after watching him get hurt year after year why would it be any different guzman?

bruce, can we assume if the cubs are looking at a veteran righty righty for the pen that they are not very high on jvb? i would think that another solid lefty like villone or sauerbeck would be higher on the list than another righty. is this also a clue that wood will not be back in the pen in 06?

dont forget starting hollandsworth over dubois for the majority of the 1st half of the season. bay was traded 4 times before he got a shot with the pirates & look how he turned out.

Kent isn't even a guaranteed 100 point OPS improvement. He's old, and just getting older. Walker isn't much less of a player. They absolutely positively have to get impact bats in the OF. There's no debate. It's not about waiting around for big names to come their way, and hoping they succeed. They have to get enormous improvements in the OF, or they will not contend. 2B is not a position that needs an upgrade, and minimal upgrade for maximum cost is about as foolish a strategy as a GM could employ. Hendry's been around 3 1/2 years now. You've seen what he hasn't done. Hendry needed to sign either Drew or Beltran last year and he didn't. The Cubs most likely won't offer up enough money for Giles or Damon and won't offer up enough prospects for Abreu, Sheffield, Griffey or Dunn. They don't have the money for Manny.. Vlad, Ichiro, Cabrera, A. Jones, Berkman,Edmonds, Matsui aren't going anywhere. After that about the only impact OF bats who may be available are Pat Burrell and Cliff Floyd. Not sure if they can even be considered impact. Altogether, the Cubs better take whatever upgrade's are out there that are Trib friendly. i think 34 hr's & 98 rbi's by floyd (.358 ob .505 slug) and 32 hr's & 117 rbi (.389 ob .504 slug) by burrell qualify as "impact" bats. i would take floyd because he hits lefthanded btw.

I totally agree and I have posted often that I think Baker's managing and stubborness cost this team about 10 wins. That's not competing with the Cards, but it puts us in the playoffs as the WC. Also, don't forget batting Neifi, Corey, and Macias at the top of the lineup for much of the season. what gets me is that baker did the opposite of what hendry implied was going to happen before the season started. i certainly hope that if baker does stay around next year he is not making all the decisions he was allowed to make going into 05.

lets see them get kent to play 2nd & then trade for milton bradley to play center. that would make for an interesting club house next year. seriously, i say keep walker for 06 & forget about kent (& bradley too btw).

i have nothing against him personally but often question his poor on field strategy, misuse of the bullpen & mental block when it comes to starting young players. if the cubs do win under baker, imo it will be in spite of him and not because of him.

in the minors he had 29 bb in 62 ip in 04 and 22 bb in 54 ip in 2005. both years he had an era under 2.00. with those #'s, 9 bb in 5 ip points to misuse by baker as opposed to a major control issue. wuertz had a good year but historically is much more effective with a day or two of rest instead of getting sent out every day while jvb watches from the pen.

September play from young guys can be overblown. What if Murton hits .210 with a .285 OBP in spring? I don't expect that to happen but there is a possibility, although slight, just as none of us expected the poor season from Patterson. I still would be fine if Murton is the 4th outfielder next year because that would mean (or at least I hope) we have some high OPS in the corner outfield positions. When Hendry brings up our farm system products, I hope he hasn't forgotten that Murton isn't a Cub farm product. You can tell from his plate discipline. I'll be glad when we can produce position players from our farm like we have in our pitching like Zambrano, Wood, Ohman and Wuertz. spring training play can also be overblown. i think murton still gets a shot if he hits .210 in ST. he has all the tools to be a .300 25 hr outfielder imo.

a young bench like theriot, greenburg & fontenot? i would love to see that myself but i'm not holding my breath either.

"Dude, gimme another Shiner Bock." as long as he wasnt thinking "2 year extention". if a miracle happens & the cubs can unload baker & maddux doesnt come back next year, i'll be ecstatic.

It's funny you say that. I'm sure Baker has suggested to Hendry that he sign Tommy John to be that lefty starter for 2006. Why get a cheap immatation? I'd be willing to take a risk on Willaimson and I think Hendry would as well. Frankly, it doesn't make much sense to pickup a guy who the team figured wouldn't be effective in 2005 unless they had future aspirations... i hope the cubs take a pass on williamson & give jvb a real shot next year. somehow dusty seemed to have forgotten about him the last 3 weeks of the season along with rich hill. imagine that.. jvb walks everyone he faces. until he can get a little control at the ML level, dusty is justified in sitting him. how do you have good control when you pitch ever 3 weeks? baker did the same thing to wellemeyer last year when he was pitching great & he hasnt been the same since.