rawaction

We have two - Ced Bozeman and Regional MVP Ryan Hollins (those are the two guys in my sig). Well, Yahoo is wrong then. It has Bozeman as the only senior. And had LSU with none.

You've been listening to Skip Bayless? haven't you? He said the same thing about Morrison.I would never agree with Skip unless I felt very strongly about something, and I feel very strongly that Morrison's game won't translate well to the NBA. (I did not know that Skip said that) Bulls choke. Again. This is going to be a "who wants it least" race for the 8th seed. What's wrong with Morrison's game? I think he will do fine. He won't be a star, but I can see him having a long career and getting 12-15 a game pretty consistently. You don't spend a top 3 pick on the potential to be Keith Van Horn. LOL. I agree. I wouldn't pick him. I just don't think he's gonna be horrible.

OUCH:

You've been listening to Skip Bayless? haven't you? He said the same thing about Morrison.I would never agree with Skip unless I felt very strongly about something, and I feel very strongly that Morrison's game won't translate well to the NBA. (I did not know that Skip said that) Bulls choke. Again. This is going to be a "who wants it least" race for the 8th seed. What's wrong with Morrison's game? I think he will do fine. He won't be a star, but I can see him having a long career and getting 12-15 a game pretty consistently.

Incarcerated Scarfaces baby!

I'll take it with whatever. A side order of grilled onions? Grilled onions are good. Keilty would make a great 4th outfielder, but not at the cost of Ryu, Marshall, Guzman or Pie. I'd give them Sing or Dope though. I wouldn't give them Dopirak. Probably not Sing either. Both of those guys have a shot to be at least as good as Kielty.

Apparently, Pierre's camp is not interested in negotiating right now. Furcal's contract seems to have them believing the market for his services will be higher. I wonder how far apart they are with Lee, and what Lee's asking for? On Pierre, they're mistaken. Colletti is one of the biggest morons in the sport. He bid against himself for Furcal, but he shouldn't be in the market when/if Pierre his FA this winter. I don't think the other GMs are suddenly going to raise their willingness to pay for a leadoff man by 3-5 mil per year because one of them was an idiot the year before. I think it's obvious that Lee wants a 5/60 deal. The hold-up is likely how much increase he gets this season and what savings the Cubs get down the road. Those issues likely aren't insurmountable, but those are probably the factors that are holding things up. I'd probably do 5/60 right now. His WBC performance leads me to believe he's a different player now. I would expect a good 2-3 years of mid 900's to low 1000's OPS seasons from Lee.

1. Sosa 2. Jackie Robinson (never saw him play obviously) 3. Roberto Clemente (see Robinson) 4. Josh Gibson 5. Satchel Paige

Yes, a team fields 3 outs 9 times a game, or we'll just say, fields 27 outs in a game. One player does not. Your logic is a bit flawed in that comparison. Defense is an overrated quality and, for the most part, a quality that when graded, is graded poorly by those that are judging. Yeah, that's basically what I've been saying. In fact, you were arguing the opposite.

That's exactly how I feel, just better articulated.

I'm actually worried about Derrek starting off slow because of this. I'd like to see him get a few full games in before the season starts.

Enough with this crap already. It's not pessimism to suggest Matt Murton probably won't start 162 games in LF, and that whoever does replace him from time to time will be even worse. There's no way Ronny starts 162, or anywhere close to that number. It doesn't matter how often they play in the spring, these guys aren't playing everyday. And unless Ronny has a fabulous year in the OBP dept (something his pro career would seem to contradict), it wouldn't take many games for bad Neifi to drag the overall SS OBP down significantly. Why don't you try not telling me what I would write, and just read what I actually did write. 26 is the typical peak year. 26-28 is prime time. Barrett is 29, Lee is 30. Both are coming off career years. Typically, careers years in the late 20's aren't followed by repeat career years. Most everybody I've ever heard discuss Lee this year is expecting some sort of drop off. So instead of making up BS about my unbridled pessimism and supposed anti-Cubs sentiment, maybe you should take a freaking second to look at the facts with these guys. Lee's OBP was more than .050 points over his average last year, more than .060 points over his previous season, and about .045 above the previous three year average. If he falls to a .400 OBP, that would still be way over where anybody would have thought he'd be going into 2005. Predicting such a number would hardly be considered pessimistic. I think he's probably going to be around .390-.395. Although I'm a little concerned that with all the time off he's had this spring, the so-called extra early work bounce he got for 2005 will be missing. Regardless, if he's just down to .400 (and plays everyday), that's still a .017 point drop from the 2005 Cubs. In other words, it probably takes away a big chunk of what you could realistically hope Murton would improve upon. As for Barrett, I'm not predicting major decline or anything. I think that the guy is probably going to be a little worse in 2006, but probably still among the best hitting catchers in the NL, if not the best. ...yes it is. my entire post, and the post I was responding to, was about obp. if you want to get caught up in whether the guy gets on base via walk or basehit, that's your perogative. I don't particularly care as long as the obp's are at the level expected. as for weaknesses, show me a team with less than a $200M payrol that doesn't have offensive weaknesses. perhaps that statement is a reflection of your unrealistic high expectations of what a team should be. Finally, even if you are correct in that the only position the Cubs will see improvement in obp is center, that's still a huge improvement considering that the Cubs leadoff hitters obp was .299 last year. The post you responded to, or at least the part you quoted, didn't mention a thing about OBP. Whether you care or not, walks are a vital aspect of OBP. And OBP that relies heavily on AVG is much more susceptible to dropoffs than one that relies on a steady stream of bases on balls. And I never said CF was the only position that would improve. I said it's the only position that is almost a guarantee for significant improvement. Of course others could improve as well. But they aren't guarantees. Anyway, it's not about not having any weaknesses. It's about fielding the best team possible. And it's pretty clear that through several years of inefficent utilization of resources the Cubs are not fielding the best team possible. They have lots of weaknesses, and many problems that have been problems year after year. If you think expecting the Cubs to be a 90+ win team most every year is unrealistic expectations, then I don't see the point in discussing the issue. I think the Cubs should win a world series. I don't view back to back +.500 seasons as success. Why don't you spend less time trying to carry out your personal vendetta against me and more time having an actual discussion about these issues. I don't care who you are, you shouldn't care who I am. We're obviously both Cubs fans. We have different opinions about what guys are likely to do this year. Get over it. I think you went a little overboard here, Goony. I didn't take anything from the original post to believe there was something personal going on within it.

How in the world do you sacrifice bunt with your 5-hitter, with no outs, after back-to-back doubles, when your TRAILING in the game? I know this game doesn't count, but that's the worst call since choosing to face Mike Lowell over Lenny Harris.

I have 3 RF eligibles in Abreu, Tracy, and Gomes. I knew RF was hard to fill hence my draft. I don't know why I picked Abreu over Vlad though.

Just to be sure, wouldn't Anthony Reyes of the Cards be on that list with one year used? Or has he not used any of his years because his 13 IP were not sufficient to remove his rookie eligibility? Yeah, Reyes has used 1 year too.

Abreu could possibly be had from my team.

Hmmm, this might be the Cubs' regular season lineup against LHP. EDIT: with the exception of Neifi of course. :wink: With the exception of Neifi, Blanco, and Grissom hopefully.

Is he any better than Theriot? I doubt it. And Theriot's already on the 40-man.

How have our recent lottery picks fared? Curry? Brand? Chandler? I'd rather make it 2 playoff appearances in a row, take our top 3 pick from New York, and in the process become a more attractive destination for veteran players who can help us now. That 2nd pick will still be reasonably high in the 1st round. I wish that wasn't the case, but vets in this league seem to favor winning ballclubs over the also-rans, more so than in the other big sports. I guess it's because they know they are going to get paid anyway. I think it's time to start focusing on bringing in legitimate veteran talent. We have alot of young guys. Gordon, Hinrich, and Deng don't count? They were all lottery picks. And Brand's a pretty darn good player.

You might not have to look any further than cross-town. The Sox, despite winning the World Series last year, had pretty mediocre OPS's in their OF...and that was with Rowand instead of Anderson and Dye having his best year in a while. Ah yes, they are likely to be worse this year. The Dodgers have a chance to be worse if Drew misses as much time as he did last year. Cruz and Lofton aren't very productive. I'd say the Mets, Phillies, Brewers, and Reds (with Dunn back) clearly have better OFs. Florida, Colorado, and Atlanta are all relying on kids in at least 2 of their OF positions. SF, Houston, Washington, and LAD are counting on injury prone players for key parts of their OF offense. Pittsburgh, San Diego, Arizona, and St. Louis are counting on players over 35 years old in their OF.

Yeah...those outlooks look pretty damn optimistic to me. Honestly, I'm deathly afraid of the bottom of the rotation for Houston. I have no faith in Wandy. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if this team had a solid #3, bumping Backe and Rodriguez down a spot. Taylor Buchholz is impressing people but how many playoff teams have 4th and 5th starters without amazing arms and with little to no major league experience?? I can't stand Roger Clemens' antics but man would his return transform the rotation. The bullpen is going to get worked, especially since Backe is inconsistent. With that said, I'm pretty optimistic about the other areas of the club. The defense, bench and bullpen should all be very good. I'm also optimistic about the offense. This club should easily score more runs than last year's team. Is that enough to offset the end of the rotation??? I'm skeptical but a return of the Rocket would change things dramatically. I see a lot of HRs in Houston's lineup. Biggio and Wilson should hit over 20. Lane, Berkman, Ensberg all will hit 30+. The problem will come if they can't get on base enough. Houston's offense looks an awful lot like the 05 Cubs. They aren't likely to get over a .340 OBP from 6 players (all but Berkman and Ensberg). Everett and Ausmus have the potential to be as bad as Patterson and Neifi were last year (albeit at the bottom of the order instead of the top). Burnitz and Wilson are a wash at best for Houston. Lane and Biggio are Barrett and Walker with more power. But that is made up by Lee and Ramirez, who last year were a notch above anything Berk and Ensberg can possibly do this year. Their offense will be improved. I think they have a potentially great defense and bullpen. But their pitching carried them last year, and that will suffer without Clemens and with Pettitte likely not being as good as he was last year.

Neifi starts a min. of 50 games at SS. I guarantee it. He'll deserve that time if Cedeno doesn't get his stuff together. I have my doubts about Cedeno too. Hitting well for a few games before pitchers have had a chance to adjust does not mean it will turn into a career. What about hitting for 2 years against pretty good minor league competition? How do you explain NOT hitting well for any period of time turning into a career for Neifi. I don't have to. Neifi's career is a joke and everyone knows it. Hitting well against minor league pitching also does not translate into automatic success at the major league level. Nobody really said it does. It does translate into at least getting a chance. And hitting well at the major league level should at least get Cedeno the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.

Neifi starts a min. of 50 games at SS. I guarantee it. He'll deserve that time if Cedeno doesn't get his stuff together. I have my doubts about Cedeno too. Hitting well for a few games before pitchers have had a chance to adjust does not mean it will turn into a career. What about hitting for 2 years against pretty good minor league competition? How do you explain NOT hitting well for any period of time turning into a career for Neifi.

Erstad's already slated to play CF. Or at the least him and Chone will share CF with Erstad also sharing 1B with Kotchman.

Man, these are all pretty young teams too. At least the major schools are. LSU has 0 seniors. UCLA has 1 getting major PT, and he's their 5th leading scorer. Florida has 1 sr. who's 8th on the team in scoring. All these teams could conceivably come back and do it again next year.