bmkhawk

Good Lord, some of you are paranoid.

Aardsma is nice to have as well.

Please tell me you are not referring to Murton/Grissom in the same light.

I would agree that they both could be nice assets on the bench. However, I'm not sure how much of an "actual future" they have. They both have career utility/bench guys written all over them.

Yeah, ESPN's scouting isn't worth and doesn't mean anything. It's nothing worth getting up in arms about.

It's the first spring training game. Do you think that Bryan Corey is going to be a long relief man on the major league team too?

Wasn't it a Wild Pitch 2nd rbi for Aram I'm not real sure if it is going to be a steal or indifference. It sounded to me like Hairston was going and the catcher couldn't handle to ball and just didn't make an attempt at him. Then that is a steal. Especially in the second inning.

Which to me says you don't trade anyone out of the current bullpen. With Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Williamson, Wuertz, Ohman and Novoa, you should be able to put a strong bullpen together. Removing any of them (at least prior to the all star break, ie Williamson rumors), IMO, could turn a strong pen into a weak one. At the trade deadline, Williamson would have much more value than the value he has entering ST. Honestly, I don't see the rumors of a Williamson trade as anything other than just rumors. Maybe someone in the media is reporting something just to report something. It seems rather baseless to me. I'll believe it when I see it. Especially when Williamson might end up being the best arm in what appears to be a talented bullpen. And I agree...no moves should be made from the bullpen at this time...aside from maybe moving Welly.

Yeah, but as far as stability goes, there are probably only 10-15 relievers in the whole game from whom you know exactly what you are going to get. What Howry and Eyre give the Cubs isn't guaranteed, no. But they do give the Cubs a higher liklihood of better bullpen production than what the team had last year.

The fact that they are not right fielders is irrelevant.

How can you not like them as players? You might not like their price tag, but they certainly help the bullpen.

edit--misread UK's post. I'm still with Gooney on this one though. I don't see how pitching Z in a simulated game vs. another start in those first 2-3 weeks (on normal rest) really helps the team.

viewtopic.php?t=28740 That link is not working for me for some reason Works for me. The 4-man rotation at this point is an awful awful awful awful idea. very much agreed-we will be wanting that rest down the stretch- It's only two-three weeks or so...and a max of one "extra" start for each pitcher during that time frame...still on normal four days rest. It's not *that* bad of an idea.

It's still a leap of faith at this point in time to say that Upton will be a better major leaguer than Young...especially considering Upton has absolutely no college or minor league experience that has (at this point) lent us an indication of his performance past high school. That's my point.

I agree, Dusty has no choice in the matter. If Mabry or Grissom play more than once every two weeks, the Cubs will be a 4th place team. I'll be surprised if Murton plays more than 3 times a week unless he is on fire and then it'll be 5 out of 7 games tops. Then you will be surprised.