Tracer Bullet

I like the idea, but don't think McDonough is really "interim." If your reasoning above is accurate, I could support DD for Pres/GM.

No, bad taste is signing your failed GM to an extension and then leaving town. Nice.

Play Soriano (in CF). Play Pie (in CF) and Soriano (at 2B). DING DING DING DING...we have a winner!

They booed Santa Clause, that's all you need to know It wasn't that great of a movie, to be fair. You stole my joke (see page 2 of this thread)!

.311/.421/.732 according to Baseball Reference. They also have his RBI total as 102.

Where did it say that? My bad, I misread the original quote from Fanball as we offered Izturis last year, rather than "could offer" him this year.

We were trying to get Tejada with Prior, Hill and Izturis last year? How did the Dodgers feel about us trying to trade one of their players to Baltimore? No wonder talks broke down.

I think the suggestion in the other thread of JJ and prospect(s) for Burrell is realistic enough. Though I don't think giving Theriot a shot to win the job in ST is terrible. If he can get on base about .370, that's great. Theriot Murton Lee Burrell Soriano ARam Barrett Izturis P But I think Soriano will want to hit leadoff and Lou will probably allow that. If his OBP is at .350, ok. If it's .325 - yikes.

I don't believe in "too right handed". I think too many managers get caught up in L/R lineups, instead of the best hitters. Besides, the Cubs are actually middle of the pack in the NL for OPS against righties, and at the bottom against lefties. I agree with you that as long as a guy can hit both L/R it doesn't matter whether he is a lefty or righty batter. It seems like Hendry believes that having a mix is important though. I think he would do Jones for Burrell though. So Murton and Burrell manning the corner OF positions. That might be ugly but probably no worse than watching Jones and Murton out there. After watching JJ and JP take curious routes to balls and lob them back in from the OF, I don't really care about OF defense anymore. The more I think about Burrell & Murton in the corners, the more I like it. If you sign Soriano for 2B/CF, you could construct a pretty good lineup out of this lot.

They booed Santa Clause, that's all you need to know In their defense, that was a terrible movie.

$12m for a career OPS under .850 isn't "cheap" if you ask me. Give me Murton. BTW - post ASG: Lee OPS = .870, Murton = .911 (.925 Aug, .969 Sep). I'll take my chances with Matty, thank you.

Agreed. Seems like he always crushes us, especially at Wrigley. Might be my imagination, but I would have liked to see him sign outside the NLC.

I'd settle for 2/5 (Schmidt & Soriano) and the trade for ARod.

Will someone please explain to me why people still think of Soriano as a leadoff hitter? It's where he's most comfortable and his OBP of .368 at the number 1 slot last year ain't all that bad. Its not bad at all, but his SLG is much more beneficially a bit farther down in the order. That's true, but when courting a free agent one has to be amenable to some things they may want, and letting Soriano bat leadoff would be a fine concession to make to him. His OBP last year was .351, which isn't great for a leadoff hitter. His career .325 OBP would look pretty bad in the top spot.

Are you fine with your starting rotation of Z/Marshall/Miller/Guzman/Marmol? Cause that's probably all we can get after picking up the tabs for ARod and Soriano and Aramis. I agree. If we get ARod w/o giving up ARam, I let Soriano go to the highest bidder and get a cheap 2B that can lead off (Theriot?). Spend the money that someone will overspend on Soriano for a top SP (Schmidt?). I'd much rather have Z, Schmidt, Prior, Marshall, X (Miller, Guzman, etc) and no Soriano than a great lineup and rely on Prior to be the 2nd best SP on the team.

Really? b/c the story on ESPN made it sound like the players HATED Macha and some even told Beane they didn't want to come back next year if Macha was still the manager.

I don't think so. He seems confident that he'll be with a big league club next year. Maybe it's something Hendry told him in the interview, maybe he's just self-assured. But I didn't think it sounded presumptuous.

Agreed.

That's my feeling to. My other big issue would be having a manager that doesn't let his young ace throw 128 pitches during the final weekend of the season when the team is in last place (not to mention all the other times he's thrown 120+ pitches this year). I think Girardi is most likely to allow that to happen. I don't know much of Lou's pitcher-abuse history, if any, but I don't want him for other reasons. Bob wins by process of elimination, which is fitting for this club.

I think I'd prefer Bob over the other two. But none of them really excites me.

You could play the "How many times does he mention Aaron" drinking game too. Sure, if you want alcohol poisoning.

I want Matt Murton to bat 2nd. I never want him to bunt. Ever. Never ever. seconded

There probably are any number of managers that would manage exactly the way Baker has. After all Baker played The Game and is a baseball lifer, that seems to be a prerequisit for the position. But truely, I don't think a manager matters that much, maybe a handfull of wins over the course of the season. If a team is close it matter much more. I think Girardi managed the Marlins out of the playoffs, for example. Baker is/was bad, but I don't think he could have got much more out that assembled team then he got. It was bad at the end of 05 and was worse at the start of Spring Training. From what I've ssen of Girardi, I don't want him managing the Cubs next year. Nevertheless, until the front office decides that their philosophy de jour is not the right one it could be a while until the Cubs are in contention. As always I hope for the best. Sometimes things just break right. I agree that managers have less effect than they are given credit for (both postively/negatively). However, when you're a fan suffering through an already frustrating season, you hate to see a manager run a young pitcher out for 120+ pitches several times (after all hope for the playoffs has been lost). And it's just frustrating to watch him hit Neifi in the top spots in the order, and mishandle the bullpen etc. I guess I'm saying managers may not have a huge effect on a team, but Dusty has certainly had a huge effect on my enjoyment in watching the team. I'm just happy that my son is still too young to watch the Cubs and understand what's going on. I don't want him learning baseball by watching Dusty.

Watching Jim Leyland bat Neifi in the top 2 spots in the order several times this year (among other things) makes me think he'd be just as bad as Dusty, even though he's probably going to win the MOY. Right place, right time, if you ask me.

They gave up 37 points to the 5th best team in the Big 10. I'm tempering my enthusiasm a bit. May be the fifth best team in the big ten, but it's one of the most potent offenses (maybe in the country). Now MSU can go on it's annual slide and it won't ruin ND's strength of schedule.