USSoccer

That's very questionable. Are you kidding me? Soriano is a terrible defensive player no matter where you put him. Soriano's thrown more runners out in a month in LF than Murton has his whole big league career. Soriano's "terrible" in LF? Give me a break. Hater. A strong arm does not mean he's a good LF. He takes really bad routes, and positions himself pretty poorly. Sincerely, The Hater http://www.out-of-kilter.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/silky_johnson1.jpg When the games on the line who would you rather have in LF. A guy that can gun down that lead guy or a guy that occasionally takes better routes to fly balls? I'd rather have the guy who has the better chance of catching the ball in the first place than the guy who takes a stupid route and lets the ball go flying over his head. Maybe when his hammy improves Soriano will improve defensively, but so far I'm just not impressed. He looks clueless at times.

I'm not necessarily against trading him, but he's worth a heck of a lot more than just some random middle reliever. He's an important trading chip that can be used to get someone actually worth getting.

That's very questionable. Are you kidding me? Soriano is a terrible defensive player no matter where you put him. Soriano's thrown more runners out in a month in LF than Murton has his whole big league career. Soriano's "terrible" in LF? Give me a break. Hater. A strong arm does not mean he's a good LF. He takes really bad routes, and positions himself pretty poorly. Sincerely, The Hater http://www.out-of-kilter.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/silky_johnson1.jpg

That's very questionable. Are you kidding me? Soriano is a terrible defensive player no matter where you put him. I think Soriano are about equal defensively-Soriano has superior range and the much better arm, while Murton takes much better routes to balls. Soriano's range doesn't mean crap if he can't figure out the right route to take. His poor play in the OF has probably negated the OF assists he's had. He's an absolute butcher. Now, add to that the fact that Murton will get on base at a better clip, and costs a fraction of what Soriano costs, and tell me that Murton is merely an average player in our OF.

That's very questionable. Are you kidding me? Soriano is a terrible defensive player no matter where you put him.

nice, where from? New from some place in England via Ebay. It's the same jersey you could buy stateside for like $120. Plus it's in the blue, which is like impossible to find. I want one. He doesn't have any active auctions for USA jerseys right now, but I'll have my guy keep an eye out for the next time he's got them up. Needless to say, it's going to make it's debut at the Gold Cup final. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g63/boom_sport/USAawaydempsey.jpg It's the old one, but whatever. I like these better anyway. Also, he sent #2 (which is his regular #) instead of #8.

I was starting to think that I was the only rational person left on NSBB. I am amazed how some posters overreact to anything that happens to be whispered by someone. I have supported Hendry in the past, but I can't believe he would give up Murton for a relief pitcher especially since we seem to lead the league in quantity (not quality) of relief pitchers. As some posters have pointed out, Murton is the kind of player that you package with pitching prospects to get a big name player. I don't believe this rumor unless it is really an outstanding relief pitcher. I was thinking the same thing. First, the over-reaction to a rumor. Second, that trading Murton would not be even close to the worst thing Hendry has done. If the Cubs were playing fantasy baseball, then Muton has has good value, but when you actually have to put a 9 man team on the field, mixing defense with offense, Murton has avg. value. False. Murton would be just fine in an OF with a slugging RF and a decent CF. He's a better LF than Soriano. He gets on base better than Soriano and Jones. He runs better than Floyd. His skillset is a better fit for our team than Jones or Floyd. Soriano can outslug and outsteal him, but Murton's other numbers make up for that. Basically I'm saying if you think Murton is average based on our OF, then Soriano, Jones and Floyd are also average to below average, because he does something better than all of them do.

Who is shocked? Well, the "!?" at the end of the thread title made me think mdwilla was surprised. Good point. I've feared Murton has been on the block for a while, and not because the Cubs can't live without him, but because the Cubs motivation for trading Murton, and target for using him as bait, was most likely going to be all wrong. If you put him in a package for Miguel Cabrera, I'd pack his bags and fly the plane. If you give him spotty playing time and his numbers suffer, then try and "shore up the bullpen" by trading him like some extra piece, well, that's just so Cubs like. Exactly. He's not the kind of player you trade for bullpen help. He's a piece to be used in a bigger deal, if you're not going to keep him.

I disagree. No one thinks Murton is a superstar. What they think is that he's a low cost option to produce at a decent clip, with a good chance of improving.

I'm not shocked. It seems like every day there's just one more thing to point to and say "They have no idea what they're doing".

Wade Miller isn't a major league pitcher anymore.

This is what happens when you hire a "win now" manager. You bag on low cost, perfectly capable players in exchange for players like Jones and Floyd, and then you trade said low cost players to try and address a need that's better addressed through the minor league system. The Cubs are seriously a rudderless ship, a team without any discernable plan. They deserve to lose.

nice, where from? New from some place in England via Ebay. It's the same jersey you could buy stateside for like $120. Plus it's in the blue, which is like impossible to find.

One thing is for certain: If the Cubs build a Greg Maddux statue it had better have Barry Rozner cast alongside it, bowing down or talking to the Maddux statue on the phone or something.

My USA dark blue Dempsey jersey arrived today. It's bloody awesome. And it only cost $40.

I ran the ESPN lottery dealie, and the second time I ran it we won the lottery and drafted Oden. Here's hoping.

If Aramis continues to perform like he has over the length of his contract, he'll be just as deserving as Santo is now. I think it would take a little longer than Aramis's current contract to be just as deserving as Santo. Here are Santo's best 10 OPS+ years: Santo: 164, 161, 153, 146, 138, 131, 129, 126, 121, 115 Here is Aramis's 5 best: Aramis: 138, 137, 136, 126, 125 (only one other year above 100) If Aramis has a 130 OPS+ for the next 5 years, he'll be getting somewhat close to Santo-but those 3 great years of Santo's are still going to give Santo the edge. If Aramis plays about 8 years more and has 5 years 130 or more and the other 3 110 or more though, I think he could catch Santo. Aramis is still young enough to play 8 more years, and I have a feeling he's going to maintain a consistent level of performance. That's awesome, Mr. Rozner :D

If Aramis continues to perform like he has over the length of his contract, he'll be just as deserving as Santo is now.

That's the part that makes me chuckle. 8 freaking RBI's? That's terrible! His defense hasn't been all that bad. How many assist's does he have 5-6 already? His arm has been fine. His glove and his routes are terrible. I'm willing to bet that his defensive play has negated the OF assists as far as runs scored go. And 8 RBI on May 22 is pretty lousy.

Of course he has. When you're dealing with this organization expect anything possible..anything. Yes. Closer though -- this is no middle relief role. As closer, Guzman's talents could benefit us as much or more than as a 5th starter who only makes it on the field 2, 3 times a month. The big problem is, I don't think we've got a good 5th starter option right now. I guess the plan is to hope Marshall will be good enough for a couple starts, then Dempster will be ready. That sounds pretty flaky to me, but then again my job's not on the line Lou's is. A 5th starter would probably have 5-6 starts per month. That's 35 or so IP. There's no way a closer throws more than 20 IP in a month. I'll take his talent over more innings any day.

I'm not impressed with Soriano so far. At all. I'm not going to get on him for not going all out when he's got a sore hammy, but for $136 million I'd expect better than I'm getting. 4 HR's and like 8 RBI is terrible. His defense has been poor. His patience isn't very good (although everyone saw that coming). The best thing you can say is that he's been willing to change positions and spots in the batting order, but he should be willing to do that anyway.

The biggest problem with trading Z is the guy who would be trading him. I've no confidence that Hendry would know what players from which systems to target. That said, assuming Hendry is a replacement level GM, even a struggling Z would bring in a good amount of talent. There's always the "change of scenery" argument to be had. And if Z has a strong June, and the team is still 7 out, that just makes replacement level Hendry's job negotiating for a good deal easier. The odds of the Cubs being out of it to the point where Hendry is willing to concede at the end of June aren't too high. But even if Jim were to try to move Zambrano, what team would be willing to part with the big league talent under contract that he'd be looking for? I agree that the Cubs probably won't be in a position for Hendry to be able to move him. However, teams in contention would be willing to give up quite a bit despite Z's contract status. Randy Johnson got moved for some talent despite impending FA status. If a team thinks Z is the difference between making the postseason and falling short, they'll give something up.

This team deserves to suck.

Unbelievable.

The biggest problem with trading Z is the guy who would be trading him. I've no confidence that Hendry would know what players from which systems to target. That said, assuming Hendry is a replacement level GM, even a struggling Z would bring in a good amount of talent. There's always the "change of scenery" argument to be had. And if Z has a strong June, and the team is still 7 out, that just makes replacement level Hendry's job negotiating for a good deal easier.