Nobody youd want to know

Two things so far: Our highly touted leadoff guy has just hacked at the first pitch TWO at-bats in a row. Our allegedly reformed CFer looked a lot like the circa-June whiffer in that last at-bat. He swung at another pitch over his head... Edit: bad english

Wow again. Sorry, Officer. Wasn't meant to be rude or degrading to RynoRules, and is he (she?) took it that way, my apologies. But there's not a GM in any league, major leagues to fantasy leagues, who would make that trade. Just you, indeed.

Question: is there enough money to sign both Burnett and Millwood next year? Not trying to be a smart@ss, I really don't know what next years' finances look like. If so, I highly endorse their signing (tho I'd rather see Penny instead of Burnett). Now, doing so means we're admitting our highly touted minor-league arms aren't as good as advertised, but I'm willing to do that. In fact, I'd go so far as to say a staff of Prior/Z/Penny/Millwood/Maddux almost guarantees us at least a Wild Card berth next year. One need look no further than those yahoos on Chicago's south side to see the value of a strong, stable rotation.

Wow. If Hendry ever pants'd another GM that bad, they'd immediately start work on his plaque in the GM wing of the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, he'd have to retire, since no other team would ever make a trade with him again.

What all the love for Kearns on this board is based on I'll never know. Take away Kearns' first season, where his astronomical BABIP has already been noted ad nauseum, and you have a line of: .247/.330/.432 That's positively... Pattersonian! Murton is already much better, and his salary is less than a third of Kearns'.

Maybe I wasn't really clear--my point was you either get power from the traditional spot, i.e. the outfield corners, or you get it from non-traditional places, in this case 2nd base, with Soriano. That then allows you the luxury of having a LF or RF without huge power, but in our case excellent OBP, which the Cubs need desperately. Also, we'd probably save a little money, over what we'd have to pay for a FA LF with appropriate power. And I think I mentioned also that I believe Murton has much more upside power-wise than Walker. I figure him to be a 25-homer guy in the future, based on his frame and hitting style. Let's not forget that the two least important defensive spots in baseball are LF and 1B, and that the defensive letdown from Lee to Sing, for example, is most likely minuscule from a runs-allowed perspective. As for him being solid offensively, yes, but I have a feeling that this may be his career year, and trading him now, while wildly unpopular, would be a very smart move. Buy low, sell high. My problem with this whole thread is that in most scenarios, next years' team looks amazingly like this years', and frankly I have no patience for that. Let's figure out our problems, namely getting on base and keeping other teams from killing us late in games, and make big moves to fix them. Trading DLee, who is my favorite Cub, would most likely net us at least 2 players who would help fix the OBP problem.

This is getting close to perfect for me--but I'd go further. Like a lot of posters here, I really like Todd Walker, but I think Matt Murton has more upside, power- and baserunning-wise, and this lineup can't really afford two of the same kind of hitters. So we trade for Soriano, which from the sound of things won't take too much. The only other trade I'd make is with Tampa, for an outfielder. Not the usual suspect, tho--I'd rather have Gomes, with Crawford a close second, followed by Gathright. I think Gomes can lead off, even though he has great power. His minor league career OBP is .393, plus he can steal the occasional base. The lineup: Gomes RF Murton LF Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Soriano 2B Barrett C Pie CF Cedeno SS That is one hellishly young lineup, tho, so I think you'd need to get lots of bench experience. I like other posters' idea of John Mabry, and (gulp) I've actually done a 180 with respect to Jose Macias, who, if used correctly, actually has a lot of value. I'd also like to see Jose Cruz Jr. in pinstripes. And what about Larry Walker? The starting pitching will have one big change: Prior Zambrano Penny--only big FA signing Maddux Whoever impresses in ST from Hill, Mitre, Welly, Rusch, Pinto Closer: Wood I know, it's tough to swallow $12 mill at the closer position, but this is a good move for 2 reasons: 1) The Cubs haven't had a dominant closer in years, and Woody would definitely be that, and 2) we're not getting our money's worth out of him as a starter anyway, and since his injuries reportedly are triggered at the 50-60 pitch mark, he should be able to stay healthier throwing only one inning every couple of days. Setup: Williamson LOOGY: Ohman Long men: Wuertz (if he can recover from this year's overuse) and Welly Novoa Someone with an arm--Guzman? Missing in action: Williams (moved to Texas in Soriano deal), CPatt (moved somewhere for someone), Dempster (not resigned), Neifi (good riddance), Hollandsworth (ditto), Burnitz (not resigned), Nomar (sorry, but I don't throw good money after bad). Manager: Jack McKeon or Grady Little Hitting coach: Von Joshua Pitching coach: Mike Maddux GM: Me, of course Dark horse deal: Three-way trade with Cincinnati and another team (San Diego?) to net us Dunn and someone (Loretta?) for Derrek Lee. Brandon Sing steps in at 1B for us, Dunn plays LF, Murton RF (and leads off). Forget Gomes.

He'd be nice batting leadoff for the Cubs in 2006: 366 lifetime OBP, and he can play every infield position--sort of the bizarro world Jose Macias And he only makes $2.75 mill. Problem is, his 2006 option vests in ~35 more PAs. How do we get him out of the Padres lineup?[/img]

I don't think bringing in A-Rod would require much of a sales job.

Now THERE's an idea I can sink my teeth into. Still doesn't get you a leadoff hitter, but getting power from SS means you can get your leadoff guy from a traditional power spot.

I love D. Lee, but looking at a 2006 Cubs roster that resembles this years' in any way makes me ill. Other threads are questioning trading Prior or Woody, but good starting pitching is MUCH more valuable than a good position player. Plus if you want to get maximum payback you have to trade the guy having a career year. That's Lee. And we have a replacement for him in-house: Brandon Sing. Sing's having another big year at West Tenn. His line: 289/400/575--yep, that's a .400 OBP. His defense won't touch Lee's, but 1B is one of the least important positions defensively anyway. The question is, what do we get for Lee? Or, put more succinctly, what would the Yanks or Red Sox give us for him? Would the Sox give us Hanley Ramirez? (Plus something else, of course)

. . . they both need a miracle. Was reading in another thread some foolhardy Cubs fans still think we have a shot at the playoffs, so I says to myself, self, what's it gonna take? Let's assume for the sake of this exercise we're not going to overtake the Cards--probably a safe assumption. Thus the teams we need to beat are the 'Stros, the Nats, the Phils, and the Marlins. While this is by no means a comprehensive list of possibilities--the Mets also have a better record than the Cubs, and the D-Backs and BrewCrew aren't far behind--I'll assume these 4 will be the teams to beat come season's end. So, there are 53 games left on the schedule, plus a rainout makeup in Atlanta, and the Cubs are 5.5 games behind in the WC standings. Assuming Houston plays at the same .551 clip they've played at up to this point, they'll finish with 89 wins. For the Cubs to win 90 games--the absolute minimum to beat the 'Stros--they'll have to go 36-18, a robust .667 winning percentage. Hmmm.... let's have a look at that schedule. Our remaining series are: 3 @ NY 3 vs. Cin 4 vs. StL 3 @ Houston 3 @ Colorado 3 vs. Atlanta 3 vs. Florida 3 vs. Dodgers 3 @ Pittsburgh 3 @ StL 4 @ SF 3 vs. Cin 3 vs. StL 3 @ Milwaukee 3 vs. Houston 2 vs. Pittsburgh 4 @ Houston plus 1 @ Atlanta somewhere in there 27 home, 27 away. Let's get optimistic and say we take the Cards 6 games to 4. That gives us 60 wins, with 44 left. Have to go 30-14 (.682). Our only other home games against contenders are the Atlanta, Florida and Houston series. Of those 9 games, lets say we take each series 2-1, for a total of 6-3. Now we're 66-61, and need to go 24-11 (.686) the rest of the way. Tell you what--let's sweep our remaining home series, spanking Cincinnati, LA and Pittsburgh. 11-0! Woo hoo! We rock! Hmmm... not enough. We're 77-61 (.558), but we only need to go 13-11 on the road to get to 90 wins. Certainly possible, since we're almost .500 on the road to date. Problem is, 7 of those 23 games are in Houston, so if they continue winning at a .551 clip they get 4 of 'em. Now we need to go 9-8 against: Milwaukee, San Fran, Pittsburgh, Colorado, the Mutts and Atlanta. Good news is, we're 4-1 in Pittsburgh, so we get 2 of the 3. Atlanta gets the rainout. Unfortunately, we're 1-5 in Beer City, and they seem to have our number late in the season. But this is my fantasy, so let's say we win 2 of the 3. We're now 85-67 (.559). We need to go 5-5, and SF, NYM and Colo are a combined .500 at home. Looks good, right? Problem is, knowing the Cubs, they'll be playing tight, and will be mightily susceptible to spoilers, especially the 4-game swing in PacBell Sept. 8-11 (which follows a 3-game series in Saint Looie). Bottom line: It's possible, but I predict by mid-September we're be singing that old, sad song again: Wait 'til next year.

yeah, but would we really stoop to that level, after all, look at the last 2B we got from them (sarcasm) Who plays CF for them? Luis Matos Ooh, that .312 lifetime OBP is lookin' good. Isn't that a little high for a Cubs CF, tho?

Let's be careful with the Ozzie Smith knocks--you can use the same arguments against Sandberg. Sure, he was a much better hitter relative to the league than Smith, but he wasn't by any stretch as good a defensive player vs. his contemporaries. Phil Rogers did a column a few days ago that subtly questioned Ryno's qualifications. In fact, among non-HoF 2Bmen, Sandberg's adjusted OPS (career: +114) isn't as impressive as my memory led me to believe: Now, granted, Ryno wasn't much of a walker, and comparisons using slugging pct. only would probably place him higher. But the point is, defense, baserunning and all-around baseball smarts played a big role in Ryno's induction; why shouldn't it also for Ozzie?

I'd much rather have medium power--20+ HRs--from 6 to 8 positions than big power from a couple. I mean, Sammy used to carry the team for weeks at a time, but once he cooled off, or got injured, there was nothing. Spread the risk out a little. In fact, my perfect team would have 1 to 8 high OBP, .450 sluggers. Murton has a lot more value to me than sitting him and spending a lot for a banger.

http://images.sportsline.com/images/baseball/mlb/players/60x80/8196.jpg Nah, while his 10 Ks in 27 ABs would be right at home on this team, I don't think we need a 3rd catcher. You did mean Dan Wilson, right?

Hmmm.... As I recall, neither was Carlos Zambrano a Carlos Zambrano. It wasn't until he his first full season at AAA that his numbers started to make people notice. 2000: 2-5, 3.97 ERA, 7.3 K/9 2001: 10-5, 3.88 ERA, 9.3 K/9 Baseball, like life, is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're going to get.

Looks to me like Johnny Gomes is Jason Dubois, with some speed. Don't know how his fielding is, but look at them strikeouts: MINOR LEAGUE BATTING STATS Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RB IBB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG 2001 R-PRINCETON 62 206 58 60 11 2 16 44 33 73 15 4 .442 .597 .291 2002 A-BAKERSFIELD 134 446 102 124 24 9 30 72 91 173 15 3 .432 .574 .278 2003 AAA-DURHAM 5 19 2 6 2 1 0 1 2 5 0 0 .435 .526 .316 2003 AA-ORLANDO 120 442 68 110 28 3 17 56 53 148 23 2 .348 .441 .249 2004 AAA-DURHAM 114 390 73 100 27 1 26 78 51 136 8 5 .368 .531 .256 TOTALS: 435 1503 303 400 92 16 89 251 230 535 61 14 .393 .526 .266 Given that Chuck LaMarr will ask for a king's ransom for him, how will this improve the Cubs?

I think any discussion with the Reds is going to start and end with pitching. There's no reason they'd want Patterson OR Dopirak; if I'm them I ask for Williams, Hill and another pitching prospect, probably Welly or Mitre, or possibly a guy like Pinto. If I'm Hendry I give them Williams, Mitre and Pinto.

Actually, from the neck down she appears rather... cold :lol:

What the heck has Dubois done to Dusty? I haven't seen his name in the starting lineup in what seems like weeks. And when Dusty trotted Macias out to pinch-hit with the bases loaded yesterday, I nearly popped a blood vessel. Is the Creature hurt? Or just in the doghouse?

What's the famous definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.