rawaction

I like this news. And it's not like I don't want Pierre by any means. I think he would be an obvious upgrade, I just don't want to give up 3 players (including Pinto) for him. If Florida is gonna wait, or trade him to the Sox and Damon is off the board, hopefully Hendry will then go after Milton Bradley. The only way I see Bradley as a Cub is if every other plan falls through, and LA releases him. I agree, but the only problem with that though is that Bradley will probably get picked up by someone else before that happens though. I don't know. If he's available for nothing as has been suggested, then why hasn't anyone traded for him already? I think the Dodgers will non-tender Bradley, making him a free agent. Hopefully, the Yanks have a CF in place by then. I don't know what other teams would go after him that are in a better situation than the Cubs (i.e. close to winning, allow him to play CF).

I like this news. And it's not like I don't want Pierre by any means. I think he would be an obvious upgrade, I just don't want to give up 3 players (including Pinto) for him. If Florida is gonna wait, or trade him to the Sox and Damon is off the board, hopefully Hendry will then go after Milton Bradley. The only way I see Bradley as a Cub is if every other plan falls through, and LA releases him.

I thought it was them who said that about Brownlie. But I didn't want to put it out there and falsely accuse them.

BEST TOOLS Best Hitter for Average Eric Patterson Best Power Hitter Ryan Harvey Best Strike-Zone Discipline Brandon Sing Fastest Baserunner Chris Walker Best Athlete Felix Pie Best Fastball Mark Pawelek Best Curveball Rich Hill Best Slider Renyel Pinto Best Changeup Jon Connolly Best Control Ricky Nolasco Best Defensive Catcher Jose Reyes Best Defensive Infielder Casey McGehee Best Infield Arm Ronny Cedeno Best Defensive Outfielder Felix Pie Best Outfield Arm Ryan Harvey

dangit, I was going to put Veal in the bottom of my list but I forgot. It seems that BA really has a thing for recent high round draftees and with the numbers he put up I think it would be no surpise to see him between 8-10 I was gonna put Veal 10th. He was ranked 2nd in the NWL in terms of best prospects.

I believe he took it pretty well actually. He really wanted to be in CF, because that's where he felt the most comfortable. But I believe he said he would have gladly played RF. Yep, here it is: Interesting, thanks Raw. Was Drew in CF when Bradley went balistic? I thought that was in 04, with Finley in CF.

I've heard this Bears team naturally compared to the 85 Bears team, but this team looks a lot like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. They did it with a young team defense, led by 3 mid-20s LBs, including a great MLB. Their passing game was as shaky as the 05 Bears, but they finished 5th in the NFL in rushing yards. The thing the Ravens and the 85 Bears would do is give an inexperienced QB the worst game of his life. The recently, sack-happy, Bears will send all kinds of heat at Chris Simms, and see if he can beat them. Like last week, gotta watch out for the big play from the WR (Galloway). And beware of the quick RB. If the Bears can bottle up Caddy, they have a good shot in this one. I think the Bears will have a little trouble running on the offensive side, but TB is really starting to weaken in the passing game. After giving up 140/game in the air thru the first 5 games, TB has given up well over 200/game in the last 5. With Gage's emergence, Orton has a couple options now in the passing game. If there are no drops, watch out for Orton's best game, especially with Rex breathing down his neck.

I believe he took it pretty well actually. He really wanted to be in CF, because that's where he felt the most comfortable. But I believe he said he would have gladly played RF. Yep, here it is:

Wow. That cannot be true. For the sake of my sanity. As have been mentioned on this board, the bad things about that article: 1. Doubling any offer Furcal has even been realistically seeking. 2. Trading 5 players for 2 minor upgrades (Soriano over Walker, Mench over Burnitz) 3. Giving Soriano a long-term deal 4. Trading a starting pitcher 5. Blowing all your budget and still having a hole in CF and SP. 6. Blowing all your budget on long term deals with Lee, Prior, and Zambrano nearing bigger paydays. 7. Jim Hendry giving out 2 6-year deals in a week, when he hasn't offered more than 4 to anyone in his GM career. Jim Hendry would be ripped to shreds if this article came true, and rightfully so.

Kevin Brown? Yeah, that's a good idea.

Topic already exists. Please refer to that thread. Hey! My first one! http://www.northsidebaseball.com/PremiumForum/viewtopic.php?t=26799

because our organization steers clear of guys who get on base, as a rule. hendry won't sign him because we might win with him, which would make his previous philosophy look worthless. GM's like hendry don't all of the sudden change their "conventional" ways for ways that are proven better, they just go out after guys who "can catch the ball", pitch one inning of relief, bunt, and/or steal bases and call it a day. if we make any trades, they won't be for abreu, who actually steals bases well. Seriously though, how do they not see him as "toolsy"? He's kinda fast, right? Good at defense. I just don't get it. He can't field. He does have at least 3 of the 5 tools, with decent speed (possibly being 4), although I don't think that is enough to qualify him as "speedy." I've actually thought the Cubs organization as a whole has greatly admired Giles for years. I just never understood why they didn't seem to get in on the talks when Pittsburgh was looking to move him despite having about the most team friendly post-arbitration contract in the league. And I can't understand why they wouldn't be interested now. Talks of a 5/$50-60 are legitimate reasons to stay away from Giles. But he is much better than Alou was when Moises signed and a 3/30 is completely rational. I've had the same thoughts. How can JH & the Cubs be interested in the injury prone Moises Alou(@ the time of his signing) & not be interested in B.Giles? Maybe Hendry & the Cubs are interested in Giles. JH tends to fly under the radar & is good keeping the media off-guard on his goals & expectations on his off-season. But he's not flying under the radar with his interest in improving pitching and defense, and more specifically in Furcal and Pierre.

Yeah, Novoa's not that bad. He has the potential to be a solid setup man. It wasn't a bad trade for Farns, especially considering the Tigers only had him for like 4 months.

He had a complete meltdown performance wise. 14 Appearances, 6.1 IP, 23 ER, 4 K, 30 BB at Boise That's not a typo. Thats not horrible he only avg. 5 BB's per inning. :lol: In his defense, I hear he was really getting squeezed by the umps.

1. Felix Pie +10 +10 2. Rich Hill +10 +6 3. Ronny Cedeno +10 +10 4. Mark Pawelek +10 +7 5. Ryan Harvey +10 +6 6. Sean Gallagher 7. Eric Patterson +10 +6 8. Brian Dopirak +10 +7 9. Renyel Pinto 10. Ricky Nolasco +10 +6 138

Unless Hill is moved for a big bat ( Dunn, Abreu) I figure he'll compete with Rusch for the fifth starter's role in ST and then be shipped to AAA to wait for another opportunity. What about Williams? He'll be the 4th starter when Wood starts the season on the DL. Then he will stay there when Wood returns, because Prior will be out after a line drive will bounce off of Marcus Giles head and hit him in the pitching hand as he's running to 2nd base, breaking 3 fingers.

I told this board that the Dodgers would be in on the Furcal sweepstakes. Do you guys realize how bad Izturis was after May? .216/.257/.288 after the All-Star break, including the worst June I have ever seen. .105/.154/.116. For you sample size lovers, that was in 86 ABs. 1 double, 4 walks and a HBP from the leadoff spot in a month! And it's not like he has a great career history to reference. He's going into his 5th full season, isn't getting any better, and has minimal upside. IF the Dodgers were wise, they'd be right in the thick of the Furcal deal.

Yeah, I heard about that deal. I don't like it for the Brewers. Clement's a solid starter, but they should be able to get more than a 30+ year old #3 starter for one of the best values in baseball. They could just as soon sign a comparable starter thru freeagency (Weaver, Byrd, etc) and get a couple players with huge upsides for Overbay.

Do you think the Delgado trade or Thome trade can give us any new insight as to what it might take to land Abreu in terms of players and money? Hoops, you have to ask yourself how the Phillies are going to 'look at' the 25M they sent to Chicago. What percentage of that counts towards the 06 payroll that they're budgeting for? Secondly, it's pretty obvious that either Abreu or Lofton will be traded, and that brings up the second question of timing. Assuming neither have signed by the beginning of the winter meetings in early December, do you forget Furcal and go all out for Abreu assuming he's made available? What would it take to acquire Abreu? Obviously not another outfielder, so Corey is out of that equation, which brings up question number 3 - Corey hasn't been rumored in the Marlins trade, and if he doesn't have a spot in Philly in a possible Abreu trade.......what are we going to do with him? I think the trades do give us insight as to what it is going to take to get Abreu. The question is whether or not the Cubs are willing to give that up. Of course, I don't see Philly eating any of Abreu's contract (they ate too much of Thome's and had an ample replacement in the wings), so I don't think it will take an established ML'er and 2 top prospects. I think we're looking close to the Delgado deal of 2 top 10 prospects and 1 midlevel prospect. Personally, I think it would take Pie, Hill, and probably a throw in arm they can put in the pen (Wellemeyer). But I still think the best deal for Philly and the Cubs would be to get a 3rd team involved. My proposed deal: Cubs get: Abreu Phillies get: Jerome Williams, Hank Blalock Texas gets: David Bell, Padilla, Pie (cash from Phillies)

Hopefully this means they're wrong about the Pierre deal. Pinto may be our best pitching commodity in the minors, as he's got great stuff, isn't constantly injured (a la Guzman), and is relatively close to the bigs. To give him AND two other prospects up for an overpriced, potentially awful Juan Pierre coming off of a bad season for 1 year is absolutely ridiculous. It still depends on who they are. I'd hate to give Pinto up, because he is close and healthy, but I still rate Hill and Marshall higher from the left side. But if the Cubs give up a couple of players with no future, it's a decent deal, depending on Pierre getting back to 2004 numbers.

Yep. Terrible. And I agree, just Rowand was shaky consider he is a year removed from a .900 OPS season, and Thome is old and DL-prone. I can almost guarantee Rowand never posts that again. All around decent defender, not a very good hitter. Considering the surplus of CF's in the organization (Anderson, Young) this deal is fine by me. Not even in a great hitter's park, surrounded by Utley, Howard, Abreu and Burrell (albeit probably behind all 5 at this point)?

I knew Petit, but I could've sworn Sanchez was a lefty. I was wrong.

no we won't.

Dang, Florida lovin the lefties? Sanchez, Petit, Pinto, to go along with their top arms: Olson and Vargas, not to mention Dontrelle. I'm indifferent on this deal, depending on who the other 2 are.

Yep. Terrible. And I agree, just Rowand was shaky consider he is a year removed from a .900 OPS season, and Thome is old and DL-prone.