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USSoccer

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Everything posted by USSoccer

  1. USSoccer
    Also true. There aren't many 23 year old starters who have been in a World Series and a have a career ERA below 4.00. I would actually be okay keeping Williams, but I know he is a very good trading chip. I would rather keep him and maximize a strength then rely on Hill and Rusch to be the 5th starter (assuming Wood is back and healthy). Which is why the Rusch signing is so blowgus. He's crappy out of the pen, where we have 2 lefties already. I'm sure it's based in the thought that Wood might not be ready for Opening Day, which, if Hendry had managed the roster properly last August, would never have happened. There was no reason to jeapordize Wood's 2006 for the sake of having him pitch out of the pen for 3 weeks.
  2. USSoccer
    We're probably looking at: - trading Walker for Bradley - trading Corey and a prospect for Mench - signing Lofton or trading for Roberts as 4th OF insurance - signing Bill Mueller to play 2B - signing another starting pitcher (Weaver, Byrd) knowing Kerry and Maddux are gone after 2006 The wild cards here could be expanding the Bradley deal to include Lowe, or making a big deal with Arizona for an OF (Shawn Green or Luis Gonzalez) and Javier Vazquez, or the Giants for Pedro Feliz and Jason Schmidt. The Cubs would then have the option of moving Lowe, Vazquez or Schmidt to Philly for Bobby Abreu, if he his actually being shopped by Pat Gillick for a front-line starter. -I like Walker for Bradley -Corey and a Prospect for Mench is fine, depending on the prospect -Lofton or Roberts are fine, although Dusty might find too many AB's for Roberts. -Can Mueller play 2B? -I'd rather have Weaver than Byrd.
  3. USSoccer
    Also true. There aren't many 23 year old starters who have been in a World Series and a have a career ERA below 4.00. I would actually be okay keeping Williams, but I know he is a very good trading chip. I would rather keep him and maximize a strength then rely on Hill and Rusch to be the 5th starter (assuming Wood is back and healthy).
  4. USSoccer
    Soriano and Mench, used properly batting 5th and 6th, is fine, but it almost necessitates Murton batting 2nd (which if Dusty does I'll be stunned) and a leadoff hitter with OBP to then come from either SS or CF. We're likely not getting Furcal, so that leaves Neifi or Cedeno for SS (neither of whom are leadoff hitters) and so we'd probably bring back Kenny Lofton. I'm not sure how I would feel about that: Lofton Murton Lee Ramirez Mench Soriano Barrett Perez/Cedeno
  5. USSoccer
    Quality is in the eye of the beholder. And, I'm pretty sure most here won't like Hendry's plans, which probably consist of toolsy players and speed guys on offense, and better pitching. Very true. I think I'd be happy as long as Opening Day rolls around and we have decent OBP guys batting 1-2 ahead of Lee and Ramirez. I've lowered my expectations of this winter greatly the last few days.
  6. USSoccer
    I'll give you Wellemeyer, Mitre and Hill, but Williams has real value.
  7. USSoccer
    One of my trusted sources told me yesterday he has great confidence that Hendry has contingency plans in place if Furcal and Pierre fall through. I have confidence that he has contingency plans as well. What I don't have confidence in is the quality of said plans. :P
  8. USSoccer
    Hendry is talking about an extension for DLee, so I don't even know why this topic keeps being brought up. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell of Lee being traded this offseason. people talk about the cubs winning the world series, and we all know that's never going to happen. Not if our General Manager continues his recent performance we're not.
  9. USSoccer
    First of all, Murton has very good speed. Second of all, why is speed all that critical? Wallker isn't Aramis-slow, and it's not like Dusty is big on using the hit and run anyway, so why not put Walker/Murton 1-2? It's the best possible OBP combo we have.
  10. USSoccer
    It physically impossible to present evidence that something didn't happen. It is only possible to present evidence that something did happen. You know, last year people were critical of the Cubs being relatively inactive, and people said the exact same thing as TBCF. How did that work out? A pattern is a pattern. I'll remain skeptical until Hendry ACTUALLY addresses the single biggest need on this team, and with all respect to Eyre and Hwory, they weren't it.
  11. USSoccer
    it would be nice if you would tell us why you think this would be such a bad decision. Because when you have the payroll flexibility that the Cubs do, something like this should be inexcuseable and totally unnecessary! If you move Lee and get a great OF and a serviceable 1B, then you think about doing it. I said it earlier in the thread, but you could probably offer Lee to Boston for Manny and others and they might do it. There's nothing in Lee's history to suggest that 2005 is anything but an aberration. If he regresses to his career norms, that contract extension he's likely to want/get will look terrible. You have to at least explore the idea.
  12. USSoccer
    What Hendry sees as value is the same thing that smells like Meryl Streep. (To anyone who gets that reference: I salute your nerdiness.) I get it. I guess I'm a nerd.
  13. USSoccer
    Oh absolutely it has been, and i think it comes down to Hendry's love of toolsy players, and thusly protecting undeserving, high potential players too early at the risk of losing more polished prospects. That leaves out the whole issue of wasting roster space on redundant players like we did last season. IIRC at one point we had 5 middle IF on the 25 man roster. Five! That should never, ever happen on a "contending" ballclubs unless you're the yankees and you have ARod and Jeter as 2 of them.
  14. USSoccer
    Me too.
  15. USSoccer
    Well, obviously those deals would be enticing, but show me a team that will offer us all that for a guy with only one great year on his resume and I'll show you a team that's not liable to be sniffing the postseason. I guarantee you if you offered Lee and Williams to Boston for Manny Ramirez, cash and Youkilis, they'd think long and hard about making that deal.
  16. USSoccer
    I would argue that Z, Prior and Ramirez are better qualified to be franchise players due to their age, contract stati, and career production.
  17. USSoccer
    Which is why you absolutely consider moving him in the right deal. Like a deal similar to: Manny/Youkilis/$6m/yr of Manny's deal ARod and cash I think any Lee extension will be vastly overpriced until he proves that 2005 was not a fluke.
  18. USSoccer
    Agreed (other than Pawelek isn't off limits to me, but hard to figure anyone giving return on that deal). Either trade the pets or blow up the team. In the right deal, at this point I agree with you. If the Cubs won't properly deveop their minor league talent, then you need to spend it like an asset, and not waste it like we did with Cruz, for example.
  19. USSoccer
    Not so much. Is it a situation where you may have to archive old posts?
  20. USSoccer
    The trick is, after you press submit and get the funny screen, to just use the back button on your browser to go to the thread page and refresh. That prevents the multiple posts.
  21. USSoccer
    Erstad. Sucks. I want no part of him. If you want a CF that can put up a .330 OBP, Hairston can do that for you at less cost, and with more overall value. There are better ways to ditch Corey than by taking on some crap contract for a old, bad baseball player.
  22. USSoccer
    As far as Dusty thinks, yeah, probably. I think Murton gets more rope than the Choi's and Dubois's got when they were here, given how well he performed in his 150AB's, but Dusty is still Dusty, so I see a scenario where Murton sits against tough RHP unless he's absolutely tearing it up. I see no reason why Murton can't put up a .280/15/65 line while putting up a .350+ OBP.
  23. USSoccer
    Nice effort, but in my opinion this issue has nothing to do with bandwidth. maybe not, as I said in my post, but it wouldn't hurt
  24. USSoccer
    Why don't we all try and turn off avatars and images for awhile until these issues get settled? It may not be the root of the issue, but the extra bandwidth it would save can't hurt.
  25. USSoccer
    We all thought that about Bonds/Grissom/Alou, but then Bonds got hurt, and Moises deprived us of the high comedy of watching him patrol that giant CF.
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