marc_foust

If you want a guy like Ryan Church playing OF, you may as well keep Sing. Here are their respective lines, Sing's from this year, Church's from 2003, when he was in AA: Church: 261/325/429 Sing: 284/396/556 Now granted, Church is producing in the Bigs this year (294/352/480) while Sing's still a prospect. But for all the overhype some spout about Cub prospects, Sing seems like the real deal. He's quietly put up some excellent numbers that seem almost sure to land him in Chicago in the near future. If I were Hendry he'd be untouchable. If it were just for Church I would agree. But Church is major league proven and the proposed deal would also land us a pretty solid major league proven arm in Armas Jr. A Rotation of Prior, Z, Wood, Armas Jr, and Maddux would be pretty tough to beat and relativly realistic to aquire. Plus Church is pretty young and so is Armas Jr I believe.

I understand that we will have some 35 million to spend but keep in mind we have to keep some cash availible to resign certain players, lee comes to mind. Also I really do not think it is realistic that we can sign both Giles and a top tier pitcher like Burnett or even Millwood. I really see the market for free agents becoming insane this year. I think if we want Giles we will have to offer at least 9 mil/3 years to net him. With Burnett it may take 10 mil/4 years. Ryan and Wagner will both get somewhere around 8 mil/3-4years. I dont know if 1) they are worth the money and 2) if the cubs are going to open the pocket books enough to get even one of them. I think that we will almost have to resign dempster, nomar, and lawton because to find that many players this offseason may be impossible unless we want an outfield of murton/cpatt/wilson. I think the best way to find a fifth starter and a corner OF are going to be through a package deal with some like the reds, twins, or nats who have excess OF's and could use some arms. With Hairston, Mitre, Rusch, etc we may be able to net a deal to fill a couple of holes. If we trade for a starter and corner OF, (i have mentioned Armas Jr and church from the nats before) we may then be able to make one major signing of a milwood or burnett type and probably have to fill in the bullpen from within. Although if we find two starters we may just be able to leave Wood in the pen.

Last year there were some ridiculous contracts handed out to subexceptional(my new word) FAs. What players this offseason will the cubs realistically want to get into bidding wars over and which players do you all think will command the insane offers(See Beltran, Drew, Beltre, etc.)? As much talk as there is about how nice it would be to get Burnett, Giles, Damon, Wagner, etc. will they really be smart targets for the cubs? Who would be the best bargain, talent and money wise? And who will we probably end up with?

I think that Patterson if worked with this summer and used properly next season could be a solid centerfielder. No more wasted time trying to make him a leadoff guy though. Let him stay at a 6-7 hole hitter and he will be fine. His defense is definantly needed. With the poor FA class it looks like we will need to keep Lawton if possible and hope to add another corner OF, Giles would be nice but I think he will command to much money and years for us to try. So we may have to find someone through trade. I dont know if we can get a top tier player Like Dunn or perhaps Huff could be considered top tier. So I wouldnt mind finding a guy like Kearns or Church from Wash. and maybe package together for a 3-4 pitcher like Armas Jr. That way we could fill two holes. Burnett, Giles, Matsui, Damon, etc are not in my opinion realistic options for us. I see all of those players recieving ridiculous contracts. So look for an outfield of Lawton, Patterson, and hopefully a steal from another team.

I agree with every move you listed. I just dont think it is realistic to think that we will get both Giles and Wagner. With such a weak FA class those two will command alot of interest and big money. I am not willing to throw that much money to aging above average players. Unfortunatly I see both of them getting superstar money this offseason. Giles will get an offer for a 4 year deal worth at least 10 million per year. Wagner will also get a nice chunk of change. Im not exactly sure who we can trade for to plug into a corner OF position. Maybe Ryan Church and Tony Armas Jr for Hairston, Mitre, Welly, and Sing.

Surely Maddux told dusty to take him out for some reason.

I was sure that a hit run was coming. Dusty is tricky tricky. :lol:

Corey with a clutch hit to add a little extra insurance for Mad dog.

Three walks tonight for the cubs. Not too bad. And the obligatory veteran for rookie substitution. But Neifi remains in the game over the .300 hitter Walker.

Maddux has a chance to catch Pettite in the win column tonight as long as the staff takes care of buisiness.

He was estimation, since 130 and 114 are like the same thing. And Maddux is rolling through their lineup at an amazing rate. 70 thru 7 isnt to shabby for the old guy.

Did anyone catch him looking back though??

He's only got 2-3 games that he can ND or lose, so he has to be on and his offense has to be consistent. What is this consistent offense that you speak of?? That term does not compute for this simple cubs fan.

Do you guys think that Maddux can keep pitching like this down the stretch to get his 15 wins? If these last two starts are any indication then he may have a shot. With the additions of Williamson and Wood to the pen his chances of holding a lead also increase.

How many innings does Mad dog go tonight? And is anyone else not very comfortable with a two run lead?

Well Pettite is really concerned with Murton's ability to steal second. There were like 4 pickoff attempts.

you are he has two doubles. Aw shoot, why does he have to be so greedy on the base paths. darn his hustling :wink:

I may be mistaken but I believe all ARam needs is a triple for the cycle. Single when they loaded the bases, double to score Lee, and now a HR. Good thing his bat is going tonight.

Yes I would judge Corey on one PA. He has made some real strides since coming back. I agree he has made some strides since coming back. But my question is how much does he need to improve so he can become acceptable as of our center fielder of the future? How high does his BA have to be? How many strikeouts are acceptable? Or how many walks does he need to take?

Meanwhile Nomar, ARam, Lee, and Maddux all add hits to get us some runs as well as Blanco taking a walk. All 9 players cant always have a perfect game. ARam is having a nice game though.

I here ya. I am at a point in this season where I am on the fence of packing it up for the season or making the playoff push. Every pitch has me with mixed feelings. I keep thinking how much this team sucks but then we put together a couple hits which gets my hopes up but of course then we give up a run to give the momentum away. I wouldnt mind losing for Busty but I also want to make that push for the postseason. Ah the life of a cubs fan. :roll:

Im here but I am also doing laundry. Lets get Mad dog back up so we can score some more runs!! :wink:

As much as I love the idea of signing Burnett and Giles in the offseason, I really dont see either happening. There are always teams that offer ungodly amounts to marginal FA's in a weak class. With this years weak class I really see those two getting a huge contract somewhere and I would really prefer not to be that team. Like last year with Drew and Beltran. I really think we need to resign Lawton and Nomar because of the weak market. We will probably have to find a corner OF through trades. With so many teams coming close to the playoffs this year there may not be a lot of firesales this winter. Having so many holes to fill could make this offseason very difficult. We may have to give up alot to fill our needs. We may have to go with the bullpen as is. If we decide to keep Wood in the pen we should be ok going with a pen of Wood, Demp, Williamson, Wuertz, Novoa, Ohman. The main need is a corner OF followed closely by a starting pitcher. The big decisions that need to made are what to do with Nomar, Dempster, Wood, and Lawton. Do we resign the three then we need to decide what to do with Wood, pen/starter. That leaves the starters as Prior, Z, Maddux, Williams, and maybe Wood. If not Wood then we fill in house with Rusch, Mitre, Hill, Welly etc or try to trade for a number 3/4 starter. Will a rotation of Prior, Z, Williams, Hill, Maddux get the job done? Is Nomar worth bringing back next year? Do we feel comfortable with Lawton in the OF? What do we do with Wood? That makes for a lot of questions in the offseason. And unfortunatly I dont see a lot of outside answers unless we are looking at a Preston Wilson type player. The market for players like Giles and Matsui should be very high with such a weak class. Checklist for the Offseason: Resign Dempster Decide on Nomar Decide on Lawton Make a choice on Wood Deal for a corner OF Find a 3/4 starter depending on Wood Sure up Pen Hendry has to make some moves this winter because this team as constructed right now is not a playoff team. I feel it is close but there a few missing pieces.

I wouldnt mind seeing: Lawton Walker Lee Aramis Giles Nomar Patterson Barrett Hairston Cedeno Blanco Hollandsworth Murton Blum Prior Z Burnett Wood Maddux Aardsma Williamson Dempster Wuertz Novoa Ohman All that has to happen is to sign Burnett and Giles and resign Lawton and Nomar. If we can use Rusch, Neifi, Williams, Macias, Mitre, Grieve, etc to add either a starter if(when) we dont get Burnett or an outfielder if(when) we dont get Giles. I really think that we should be able to get at least one of the two to come to chicago. Also if we add an experienced arm to the pen that could help to. But we should be able to add either a starter, OF, or bullpen guy to help out through FA. I really think we may have to trade to find a number 3/4 starter. Prior and Z number one and two, Maddux five, and Wood either at 3 or Williams/Hill at 4. Blum would be a nice bench guy but with all the other needs we will probably need to settle with the bench because we have to fill other needs.

I agree we can find a corner outfielder. Question is can we find two? Unless Lawton is kept or Murton starts we are stuck having to find two corner outfielders for next year. In a weak FA class and not wanting to sell the farm I really think that an outfield of Nomar/Patterson/Giles or Nomar/Patterson/(Kearns or Huff etc.) could put up some acceptable power numbers. While maybe not perfect it will be far better than what we have now. I think that Nomar can easily put up better numbers than Lawton and Murton in Left. But then we have to overpay for a SS who probably won't produce as much as a healthy Nomar. Nomars prodution would be average for a LF'er, plus you're asking him to play a position he's never played before. He could take to it quite well, but the chances are equal that he could be absolutely brutal, too. I'd rather have Nomars numbers at short and abover-average production in left than average to below average production for a LF'er and below average at short. you're not going to find anyone in this offseason better than Nomar at short. Lawton BA OBP SLG .269 .370 .421 Nomar BA OBP SLG .320 .368 .544 If Lawton is considered average than Nomar would be above average for OF. Plus Lawton isnt exactly a GG caliber OF either.