USSoccer

No. These are separate deals that have been in the works for some time before the Tejada thing came up. So Finley for Patterson or Walker for Mench?

Oakland Has Too Many OF's. Do We Want Any Of Them? Jay Payton, Mark Kotsay, Nick Swisher, Bobby Kielty and Milton Bradley all get to compete for playing time. Odds are that one of them is gong to get moved. So here are some possible deals: #1-Walker for Kotsay We take on about $6m in extra salary for a good value CF who likely plays RF for us in this scenario. He's left handed, and could fill a middle of the order batting slot. His last 3 seasons: .266 .343 .384 .727 .314 .370 .459 .829 .280 .325 .421 .746 Not bad. However, one minor problem: He's expensive relative for his production, and he has a full NTC through 2006. He's signed through 2008, so it's hard to imagine him accepting a trade here unless we redo his deal, or something. #2-Walker for Payton. Last 3 seasons: .260 .326 .367 .693 .263 .313 .429 .742 .269 .302 .451 .753 . He'es not super expensive, but he's not really a starter either. It's hard to see how that makes us better. #3-Someone for Milton Bradley. Bradley's merits and drawbacks have been debated ad infinitum here, but this seems unlikely only because Beane gave up a really nice prospect for Bradley and Antonio Perez, and therefore it wouldn't make sense for BEane to flip an undervalued player in Bradley for something we have. Walker for Bradley? Maybe, but then again why wouldn't Beane just have traded for Walker directly? Given the three choices, I suppose I would accept trading for Payton the most, if he were a 4th OF backing up the left handed RF we aquire elsewhere, and spot starting for Murton when necessary. Kotsay would have been a nice CF option last season, but it's hard to see where he'd fit in in 2006. Thoughts?

Pie isn't ready. He's got great raw ability, but he's going to make Corey look like an OBP machine if we throw him into the fire too soon.

I'm guessing one of them involves Arizona or Anaheim. Finley, Gonzo or Green in exchange for Corey and a pitcher, or Walker, or something like that. The other one might be an offer for Tejada, and if we use the Pierre trade as a measuring stick for what Hendry is willing to give up when he's desperate, god knows who we're losing.

In a very real way a lot of our team's success is going to depend on how good the RF is. Wilson is acceptable if we land Tejada, or barely acceptable if we hold onto Walker. Wilson is not acceptable on his own. Unfortunatly, those here that thought Wilson and Pierre would be the big additions this offseason might be proven correct.

Knowing you have a weakness is one thing. Properly addressing it is quite another. I don't have a lot of faith that Hendry can properly and effectively address the RF hole to the point where we don't need *everything* to break our way in order to contend. But we'll see.

Right field? They think the best way to encourage Corey to develop a concept of a strike zone would be to put him in a power position?

and where exactly will Erstad play? Not 1st, not CF. If they put him in RF it would be really stupid. That leaves LF. If they do that, they should be run out of town on a rail.

He won't trade Garland and McCarthy. That would leave them thin in the pitching department. it's probably one or the other.

Does the talking dog run the SABR department for the Cubs? :P Oh you mean the guy who sits in the broom closet with the Apple IIe run by hamsters? well played :D

Good summary, Ryno. My thoughts can be summed up in one sentence: If Darin Erstad is a Cub, we will suck royally next year. It's also nice to see the Cubs front office is waking up after sleepwalking through nearly 2 straight offseasons.

Does the talking dog run the SABR department for the Cubs? :P

looking forward to this... You're still optimistic...I like that! I saw the heading and was nervous that it might be a Jones signing. My sarcasm didn't come over well. I was really trying to say "I can't wait for Levine to explain to the lowest common denomonater fan how this move means McCarthy or Garland are now free to be dealt for Tejada". Oh Crap! I thought you were kidding. Jay Hood said that as I was reading your post verbatum. Really? That's kind of cool...but in another way, it's most unwelcome news that I'm actually right.

looking forward to this... You're still optimistic...I like that! I saw the heading and was nervous that it might be a Jones signing. My sarcasm didn't come over well. I was really trying to say "I can't wait for Levine to explain to the lowest common denomonater fan how this move means McCarthy or Garland are now free to be dealt for Tejada". After I reread it it did come over...I just couldn't see that well through the tears. Tears? Don't cry, 'Cuse!

That's because he a White Sox sniff.

looking forward to this... You're still optimistic...I like that! I saw the heading and was nervous that it might be a Jones signing. My sarcasm didn't come over well. I was really trying to say "I can't wait for Levine to explain to the lowest common denomonater fan how this move means McCarthy or Garland are now free to be dealt for Tejada".

looking forward to this...

So Williams got Vasquez for depth, and they trade the 6th year arb eligible Garland and others to Baltimore for Tejada.... That's a nice plan.

If we had 2 or 3 Pie's, and had already won a title, then yeah. Young is good, but the Sox have two or three real good OF prospects. Duque is crap anyway, too, and Vasquez could bounce back into form. Besides, my newfound respect for KW comes from a general view of his moves and decisions, not just this one move.

It's amazing how much my opinion of KW has changed in 2 years. I like the fact that he's aggressive, gets his guys, and isn't afraid to deal away unproven for proven.

Ditto, Especially Z. If Neifi gets hurt or something, oh well, but as long as Aramis, Prior, Z and Lee come through ok, I'll breathe easier.

Anyone else seriously wonder if anyone in the Cubs office does anything remotely scientific like this in trade evaluations? I know that Gary Hughes isn't the most enamored with metric evaluations of players. The Cubs front office is mostly made up of scouts, old school baseball guys. I'm sure there's someone who brings a statisctical background/viewpoint to the table, but I'm not sure how much of an influence they have.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/sports/baseball/11score.html Food for thought.

The sections on the draft were interesting.

It doesn't matter that he plays SS. Tejada would be the second best player on this team offensively behind Ramirez, if you look at 3 yr averages. Yes, defensively he's good, and he's very durable, but he's not a top 10 player in the league. He's barely top 25 if you factor in pitchers. He's very good, don't get me wrong, but he's not as good as his reputation would suggest.