mg420

whats the going rate for cathers these days? if barrett has another year in 07 like he did last year i can see him getting a pudge like 30/3 deal.

He's also thankful for the having the chance to play with the Cubs. I like Barrett but I'm not convinced the Cubs will pay him what he would command on the open market (and their obviously not working hard to extend him). I think he'll be gone. IMO, Blanco was signed for two years as insurance against losing him. The Cubs are probably waiting to see how Jake Fox develops this year and whether Wieters falls to them in the draft. IMO not extending Barrett yet is not a big indication of anything. He is a good player, but not really a "core" guy like Lee, ARam or Z that would need to be given an extension to keep him from reaching free agent status. doesnt fox have major defensive issues? chris robinson might be the her apparent if he can continue to hit as i understand he is an outstanding defensive catcher. if the cubs end up drafting wieters, is it a lock that they will keep him behind the plate?

Vizquel circa 2007 or Vizquel circa 1997? http://www.fangraphs.com/comparison.aspx?playerid=411&playerid2=656&playerid3=&position=SS&page=0&type=full either on would be fine. i was looking at omar's career ba of .276 & ops of .702 though. That would pretty much be a career year for Cesar, not an impossibility but not a probability either. looking at omar's stats, he didnt really come into his own offensively until he was 28 or 29. i'm hopeful izturis can do the same if he can stay healthy. there's no real reason to think that izturis will become anything like vizquel offensively. the only comparison that one could make revolves around defense, that and the fact that vizquel was a bad hitter early in his career and izturis is a bad hitter as well. i don't think that fact that both have been bad hitters in any way makes their careers comparable. “he’s Omar Vizquel with an arm,” one scout said http://www.celsius1414.com/node/557

i agree. he need a full year starting in iowa imo. he has never had a full season pitching in the minors so it is not reasonable to think he could make 30+ starts in the ML. Why does he need more minor league time when he's major league ready and better than a few of the potential starters already? Not the best of news on Gallagher. Not too surprising since it's his first major league invite. because last year was the 1st time he broke 100 ip and even then he only had around 120. to expect 200 quality ip after being injured his whole career is not reasonable. having better stuff doesnt mean he's a better pitcher btw. maybe he should get his 1st ML win before he is compared to pitchers who have actually had success in the majors.

i agree. he need a full year starting in iowa imo. he has never had a full season pitching in the minors so it is not reasonable to think he could make 30+ starts in the ML.

Vizquel circa 2007 or Vizquel circa 1997? http://www.fangraphs.com/comparison.aspx?playerid=411&playerid2=656&playerid3=&position=SS&page=0&type=full either on would be fine. i was looking at omar's career ba of .276 & ops of .702 though. That would pretty much be a career year for Cesar, not an impossibility but not a probability either. looking at omar's stats, he didnt really come into his own offensively until he was 28 or 29. i'm hopeful izturis can do the same if he can stay healthy.

Vizquel circa 2007 or Vizquel circa 1997? http://www.fangraphs.com/comparison.aspx?playerid=411&playerid2=656&playerid3=&position=SS&page=0&type=full either on would be fine. i was looking at omar's career ba of .276 & ops of .702 though.

izturis has a chance to be a vizquel type ss if he can stay healthy which is not a bad thing at all imo. a gold glove ss with a .700 ops would be very valuable to the cubs imo.

fontenot is a friend of mine from lsu. i'll admit he hasn't panned out in the bigs, but he's got more talent in his pinkie toe then you have in your whole body. he might've had one of the best seasons by a freshman in college baseball history...but you're probably right, his talent is limited who's talent isnt limited? many guys have gone on to have productive ML career's with limited talent but work that much harder to make up for it. i wonder how many 5 tool players who were drafted the year eckstein was are now selling insurance.

I know you weren't honestly comparing the talents of Carlos Delgado with Jason Marquis. Florida is well versed at spinning off talented players for prospects. The Cubs are not, even though they SHOULD be, considering the amount of times they finished in the bottom half of their division. I would have taken George Kottaras off of the Padres hands for Maddux. Ethier, Kemp, Loney, Guzman, Delwyn Young, Andy LaRoche, Scott Elbert, etc..... The Dodgers played hardball with Hendry one too many times, and Hendry let Colletti walk all over him again on the Maddux deal. Simply amazing. Let us count the ways: 1) Outbid Hendry on Furcal, the only player Hendry wanted that offseason. 2) Signed Nomar, who Hendry had basically kicked to the curb. Nomar went on to have a stud-like year. 3) Cubs need for an outfielder like Milton Bradley had Dusty flying out to LA to meet with Bradley personally. Colletti traded him to Oakland instead. 4) Maddux for Izturis. 5) Signed Kenny Lofton, who would have been better than Pierre at nearly half the price. And I'm sure Hendry would have taken any of those guys too. The problem is they weren't offered. As for signing Nomar, the Cubs didn't have a position for him contrary to everyone's opinion that he could have played RF. Can you imagine Nomar's sidearm throws from RF? couldnt be any worse than jones was last year. i hope his off season preparation has grealty improved his throwing arm. 1st base is one thing but i doubt nomar would have done very well at any of the OF postions.

Has anyone affiliated with the team indicated anything like this? Rightly or wrongly, it seems like the club itself is feeling pretty good about having Izturis there. agreed. despite the feelings on this board to the contrary, very few if any winning teams have all star players at all 8 positions. if izturis can stay healthy, hit .250 and play excellent defense i think the cubs will be very happy with his production. with 4 potential .900 ops guys (5 if you include murton), i highly doubt a light hitting ss will keep this team from contending. Why is it that when ever anybody brings up the idea that Izturis (or anybody) could be a blackhole, people say you can't have 8 all stars? It's not about having 8 all stars, it's about not employing black holes. The people involved with the team haven't indicated SS is a huge problem, but they also never indicated Prior's health was a huge problem until after it already was. They are a rose colored glasses organization that thinks every player is likely to produce his best possible numbers. Just because they don't think he could be a problem does not mean that Izturis is not a problem. SS is a huge problem until somebody proves otherwise. thank you for setting me straight. your wisdom has enlightened me.

Has anyone affiliated with the team indicated anything like this? Rightly or wrongly, it seems like the club itself is feeling pretty good about having Izturis there. agreed. despite the feelings on this board to the contrary, very few if any winning teams have all star players at all 8 positions. if izturis can stay healthy, hit .250 and play excellent defense i think the cubs will be very happy with his production. with 4 potential .900 ops guys (5 if you include murton), i highly doubt a light hitting ss will keep this team from contending. Building a team based on players who wont "keep this team from contending" is hardly a solid approach to take. of course not. the cubs should just trade izturis to the yankees for arod & mariano and then they would be set. somehow the cards managed to win last year with a light hitting short stop just like the sox won with one in 2005.

Has anyone affiliated with the team indicated anything like this? Rightly or wrongly, it seems like the club itself is feeling pretty good about having Izturis there. agreed. despite the feelings on this board to the contrary, very few if any winning teams have all star players at all 8 positions. if izturis can stay healthy, hit .250 and play excellent defense i think the cubs will be very happy with his production. with 4 potential .900 ops guys (5 if you include murton), i highly doubt a light hitting ss will keep this team from contending.

i think this would be a big mistake. if he can stay healthy in the pen, with his stuff he will be very successful. he has proven the last few years that he cannot handle starting and to move him back would quite likely threaten him with a career ending injury. with guys like guzman, veal & gahallager and perhaps mateo on the near horizon to go along with z, hill, lilly, marquis, miller and hopefully prior the rotation will be very solid without him and the pen will be that much stronger with him.

jones might be a big key to the offense this year. he is for the most part the only regular starter who hits left handed (assuming floyd doesnt some how take left field away from murton). if jones can throw at all in rf, and hit around .280 with 25-30 hr, i will be very happy with him in rf.

Yeah the Angels are going to trade two of their best prospects and a good young pitcher for one year of Big Z. That's a terrible article. if any trade like that were to be made, it would have to include a long term deal for z with the angels. i believe a simliar circumstance was discussed when the cubs were reportedly considering trading aram before the deadine last year (also to the angels if i'm not mistaken). that said, if the angels would give santana, wood & adenhart or mathis for z i would hope the cubs would consider doing so (especially if prior is healthy).

Remember this blast from the past? http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/krkhinrich/200px-Mussolini_hitler.jpg You just gotta love a pitcher who is supposedly a sinker baller yet leads the league in HR's allowed. He allowed 35 HR last year (last three seasons has brought an increase from 26 to 29 to 35). Just in case you think the homerun increase is fluky I would point out the decrease from 138 to 100 to 96 k's. Jason has no second pitch, he overthrows his sinker and he has a reputation of being hard to work with. actually he throws a good slider too.

While there's a likely chance that Marquis will improve over his '06 numbers, it makes no sense to include Carpenter as a point of reference. Marquis has been healthy his entire career unlike Carpenter and Marquis doesn't have the FB, curve, control, or command of Carpenter. check out cc's walk totals with toronto. And look where he's at now. Carpenter gets healthy and goes to one of the best pitching coaches in the game and finally gets to the point where his production matches his stuff and excels. Marquis doesn't have the stuff and has already been through 2 of the better pitching coaches over the last 20 years while healthy and producing flucuating results. Different styles of pitchers with different talent levels under different circumstances of trying to rebound. I don't see any similarity that has value. hindsight is a wonderful thing.

While there's a likely chance that Marquis will improve over his '06 numbers, it makes no sense to include Carpenter as a point of reference. Marquis has been healthy his entire career unlike Carpenter and Marquis doesn't have the FB, curve, control, or command of Carpenter. check out cc's walk totals with toronto.

perhaps you marquis bashers should look at what carpenter did in 5+ seasons with the jays before he became a card. jason certainly has the stuff to turn his career around too. quoting stats on why he has been a bad pitcher doesnt mean he wont be a good one in the future. http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/carpech01.shtml

Jason Marquis's sinkerball is carried to the plate by fairies 45% of the time. not that there is anything wrong with that.

you make him sound alot like chuck norris. i wonder what kind of roundhouse kick marquis has?

sincere thanks for the refreshing optimism. i have a feeling that jason will have a good year and be a vaulable part of the rotation. i hope he can have a year in 07 like he had in 04 and 05 with 200 ip and 15 wins.

He sure as hell would beat Mark Grace in the booth. big time. that goes for brenly too.

some article (Daily Herald?) said Prior was ahead of Miller, who is in the long-toss phase of his rehab. didnt say where prior was, though. how is miller rehabbing? he was pitching in the big leagues in september? But not at 100%. few pitchers pitch at 100%. as far as i know teams dont rehab players (especially pitchers) in the majors. Miller was nowhere near even 90% when he was pitching last year. And teams, although not officially, rehab pitchers in the majors all the time. What do you call Wood's 2000 season? Or any pitcher coming off a major surgery, like Tommy John, that needs that year to get fully healthy? John Smoltz's career as a closer essentially started as a way to rehab his arm, IIRC. call it what you will but it all depends on how you define "rehabilitation". he will still be recovering from his surgery in 2007 but i highly doubt the cubs or any other team would consider him as rehabing.