USSoccer

jmajew, I don't mean to be so hard you you in your first posts; I just argue pretty intensely. It's a side effect from the college I went to. I hope you don't take it personally.

Alou is older and had a shattered leg at one point in his life. Guys are 2B for a reason, and it's just not that simple to switch to the OF. Walker's range and glove are suspect at 2B; I can't even fathom how much his defense would cost us. Singles would be doubles, and he would likely not get to many balls that other OF's would normally get to. Also, the Cubs have a really promising LF that makes the league minimum that hit well over .300 in 150 major league AB's. I think he'd be the best LF option. :D Plus Twalk showed us his noodle arm at 2B. How many outfield assists would he have? We might have to use the double cut-off man from the Tom Emanski commercials. You mean the Johnny Damon "I once had a guy tag and score from second base on my arm" cutoff man plan? :D

Alou is older and had a shattered leg at one point in his life. Guys are 2B for a reason, and it's just not that simple to switch to the OF. Walker's range and glove are suspect at 2B; I can't even fathom how much his defense would cost us. Singles would be doubles, and he would likely not get to many balls that other OF's would normally get to. Also, the Cubs have a really promising LF that makes the league minimum that hit well over .300 in 150 major league AB's. I think he'd be the best LF option. :D

What evidence can you offer that the Cubs don't have heart? You can't make decisions onh who to have based on guys who appear to "play the game the right way" or "have passion for the game". Those terms mean pretty much nothing. I guarantee if the Cubs in 2005 had won the division, no one would have questioned their heart, hustle, et al. Those things get nitpicked when teams struggle. People point to Aramis not always running hard to 1B on easy grounders. He was playing with a bad hamstring, and tried to play through it, and actually got hurt trying to hustle down the line so that he didn't hit into a double play. One could argue that Aramis loafing on that play might have been a better thing for the Cubs. The Cubs don't necessarily need a total shakeup. They need to make good signings to improve the team's weaknesses, which weren't heart or hustle, but OBP. I agree with signing Giles. Also, I've never heard of any deal on the table that was Wood for Texieria. Wood for Soriano would have been a bad deal. Too many people get hung up on wins and losses for pitchers. up until this past, dissapointing year for Wood, he was statistcally one of the best pitchers in the game. With any run support, he would have had a nice, gaudy win total, and thus no one would ever call him overrated. Calling him injury prone is fair game, but he's not reallly overrated.

Has there been a lot of talk of moving Walker to left field? His defense is below average (to be nice) at second, I don't think it would be anything better than poor in left. Walker played LF for one game, and it was comedic gold. I don't think it can be realistically considered. He only saw one play correct? If he had more, I only remember the routine fly he had a little trouble with. A little trouble? He ran around it a circle and had to dive for the ball. It was a pop fly. Walker in LF is not a good idea.

One could argue that signing Neifi with Dusty around is like giving a pyromaniac a lighter and can of gasoline. That's proably where it stems from.

I foudn this on SoSh. I thought it was a really thorough breakdown of last winter's FA's. http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?showtopic=1731 For all it's hype, last season's FA class was really dissapointing this past season. I think a few of the bigger signings might pan out, but for the most part, teams took big financial risks and got burned for it. My question is, can we learn a lesson based on this info as to what was undervalued, and what might be undervalued (and therefore something worth signing) this winter?

Neifi's not that good. He's one of the worst everyday players of all time. As a 24th or 25th man, he's valuable because he can play 3 IF positions and not be a total hack with the glove, but I think the Cubs could do better than Neifi even if that's all they were looking for. If the Cubs bring him back at about $1.5m and he takes Macias's place on the roster, and gets maybe 25 starts, and is the 3rd bench PH option, I'd accept the signing. If he's brought back to "win" a starting job at 2B for 3 times that amount I'll freak.

it depends on what you get in return. if someone wants to get robbed, yeah, i'd consider trading Ramirez, Lee, or Z. He gets the least national attention, but Z's probably the most valuable of the three. I think you might be right. I'd put the top 5 as: Z Prior Ramirez Lee Barrett

he doesn't just swallow his pride, he throws away millions of dollars. you don't pay 3+ million for a bench player plus incentives (that he'll never reach off the bench). That's the only role I'd want Nomar back in. It would pretty much tank the notion of bring Neifi back, plus I think that's the only role Nomar could contribute for a full season in.

I also would like to point out that Torii Hunter's OPS+ sucks over the past 3 seasons, and he makes $10.75m in 2006. That roughly as much as Aramis would make for a signifigant drop in production. Manny's peripheral numbers are also declining. They're still going to be really good for the next 2-3 years, but he's not worth Aramis. Short of ARod, Tejada, Pujols and Johan Santana, I don't trade Aramis. Concened about his conditioning? That's why the Cubs are sending a trainer to work with him all winter. Aramis is one of the last things we as fans should worry about. He is going to win an MVP in the next 4 years. I promise you.

Aramis is on the uphill part of his career. Nomar is clearly on the downside. He's a name only. He bears no resembalance to the batting champion he once was. His legs have gone out on him the last 2 seasons and he's missed over 50% of the games in the past 2 seasons. He's not an answer for the Cubs at 3B. There's no question to be answered at 3B. That question was answered in 2003. Nomar is no longer an elite player, Aramis is. You would be making your team worse by choosing him to play 3B. You seem to be saying that the only avenue for the Cubs to improve the OF would be to make their infield vastly weaker. That's no formula for success. That's a recipie for disaster. If you want to improve the OF, there are tons of ways to do so without trading one of your 2 most valuable offensive players. Also, citing the fact that the Red Sox and White Sox both traded players means nothing. The one thing both of those teams had in common was not some voodoo trade karma, but the fact that both teams got great pitching, and in the case of Boston, rode a great 1-2 punch to a title. We already have that 1-2 punch. Why screw with that? If you want to improve the offense, improve the OBP at the 1-2 spots, not at a spot where you're already getting great production that has a great chance of being spectacular. If you want to get an impact OF bat, there is one available in FA and 3 or 4 likely available via trades, but those trades would not involve one of your 5 core guys. You have a farm system for a reason. If the Cubs want to trade for an OF they theoretcially could do it just with prospects, depending on the target and the length that Hendry is willing to go to make the deal.

I really think the field messed up Kyle's mechanics. He should be more settled against SF. Also, if Lovie is smart, he'll hold Jones out until Carolina in 2 weeks. Benson and Peterson should be able to handle the running game against a bad SF team.

In response to the three bolded points- CF defense will never outweigh what Aramis contributes to the offense. Ever. I'm sorry, but Hairston or even Corey in CF is just as good as having Hunter and no offense from CF and a signifigant drop from 3B. It would be a stupid move for a team with offensive issues to compund said offensive issues by dealing arguably their best offensive player for a defensive specialist at a position where we have a couple of acceptable defensive players at that position. Second point, how then do you explain Aramis' stellar 2004? And his 2002? I'm sorry, Derrek had a nice year, a great year, but Aramis is just as good of a player. The Cubs had one of the best 3-4 combos in baseball last year; they need more OBP in front of those 2 guys; they don't need to jettison one of the two unless they are getting an impact player of similar age. Your third bolded point is the way you end up with no titles in 98 years. You can't make shortsighted trades and expect to win a World Series.

Oh yeah, Welcome to the forum! :D

Trading Aramis Ramirez would be pure idiocy. Pure idiocy. You'd trade him for Manny Ramirez, who's leaving him prime, and makes twice as much? There's not a giant difference in the production between the two-all you're doing is making a lateral move. Your second trade is an even worse idea. Basically, it's Aramis for Torii Hunter? Hunter is a nonfactor on offense. That would be the worst trade in the history of sports. Ramirez is going to win an MVP award sometime during the next 4 years. The day he got hurt, he led the Cubs in RBI and HR, and this was after an awful start to the season. With respect to Derrek Lee, Aramis is the better offensive player. You don't trade your best offensive player if you're trying to fix your offense. I'm sorry to be so harsh, but trading Aramis is a truly terrible, godawful idea, unless you're getting a major impact player of similar age and production.

Way to make a good decision, there Lovie. :roll:

Our O-Line sucks tonight.

Okay, so the offense is going to have to win this game. Needless to say, I'm not optimistic.

What a terrible sequence. Moose should have come back to the ball on 1st down, Benson gains 1 on 2nd, and a terrible play called on 3rd, coupled with bad blocking and a missed FG. Way to waste a TO.

That's going to be the big key to the 2nd half- if Orton can get a little more accurate, the Bears should tear apart NO.

I think the footing has played a major factor in this. Orton's accuracy issues are supposedly due to some mechanical issues with his footwork. Look at that field-it looks like it was chewed up and spit out. I'm not shocked there are offensive issues today. The defense needs to hold us in this. NO is playing on the same field. It's not like they've been much better, though, and Aaron Brook's problems stem from the fact that he sucks, not his footwork.

If Ramirez was offered to the Cubs for Patterson, Williams, Hill, Walker, and picked up half of Ramirez contract would u do it? As good as Sizemore is Manny Ramirez is HOF that still produces so paying him less than you would have to pay Giles with the amount of holes the Cubs have would be worth it. Our budget is about twice that of Cleveland's though. That's got to be a major factor in any Manny trade.

I think the footing has played a major factor in this. Orton's accuracy issues are supposedly due to some mechanical issues with his footwork. Look at that field-it looks like it was chewed up and spit out. I'm not shocked there are offensive issues today. The defense needs to hold us in this.

Grossman is going to take his job. :wink: Maybe. I guess it depends on the wins and losses, though, and how rusty Rex is. It's not like Rex wasn't also prone to inaccuracy