MeatampPotatoesMan

Those people are probably looking at his K rate. I think he would be a fine placeholder for Pie for the next couple of years. Believe it or not there are people who don't eat, sleep, and breath OBP as the final bastion of baseball batting glory. Wilkerson is a very respectable player but not a difference maker. He's a glorified Bellhorn who puts up 60 XBH, .350 OBP, and 150 Ks. He's a step above Pierre, who is our rumored main squeeze. Wilkerson was MLB average this year OPS wise for qualified CF on a down year. Players who put up worse OPS: Kotsay, Pierre, Beltran, Rowand, Taveras. btw, Pierre was 16/18 in OPS. I'd rather have Milton Bradley.

He can have him. The Blue Jays are going to choke on those contracts and they still won't be good enough for any better than 3rd place in their own division. If true, that is massively dumb. Riccardi, say it ain't so!

In order to assure Neifi isn't starting, I'd be willing to overpay a little bit. 5/50 is doable for someone who isn't injury prone, but is consistant like he is. How is Furcal consistent? In 2005, his contract year, his stolen bases went way up and his errors went way down, otherwise he wouldn't be getting near the type of offers he's getting now. Furcal's OBP the past three years: .352, .344, .348. His SLG: .443, .414, .429. His SB%: 93%, 83%, 82%. His BB and K are also nearly identical over the past three years. In fact, his SB and Errors are the only two stats that are at all out of line with his norms. Last year wan't even his best in the past few years, 2003 was. Furcal is pretty darn consistent. Yeah I know that stuff, but it's his 2005 SB and E numbers that have convinced people he's a defensive and base-stealing wizard, and an elite lead-off hitter. Take away those two numbers and he wouldn't be getting these ridiculous offers. Unfortunately, I think the offers he is getting are fair given recent contracts for Renteria, etc. He's really only being offered slightly over market value, even if that value is high. Fair? Those are widely considered crappy deals. You can talk about marktet prices if you want, but there are multiple markets. there's the free agent market and the trade market. the trade market is pretty reasonable compared to the FA market right now. Let's put it this way: If Renteria got 10 million per, there's no way Furcal's agent is going to allow him to sign for less. My point is not that Furcal is the best option, but that the contracts being offered him can hardly be considered surprising. Fair enough. It's still a poor way to go. Hendry isn't all hot and bothered by Giles b/c he thinks the bidding will get out of hand. What makes SS more important than the OF in terms of overbidding? Isn't the term "overbidding" used, based on opinion? My point is you don't really know if it's overbidding, unless you know all the bids that have been presented. I doubt every formal bid that goes to a FA & their clients is public information. Well, by all accounts it's just the Braves and the Cubs competing for Furcal. Furcal will stay with the Braves unless offered substantially more money than the Braves can come up with b/c he likes Atlanta and Bobby Cox. Yeah, it's overpaying if we come up with him.

In order to assure Neifi isn't starting, I'd be willing to overpay a little bit. 5/50 is doable for someone who isn't injury prone, but is consistant like he is. How is Furcal consistent? In 2005, his contract year, his stolen bases went way up and his errors went way down, otherwise he wouldn't be getting near the type of offers he's getting now. Furcal's OBP the past three years: .352, .344, .348. His SLG: .443, .414, .429. His SB%: 93%, 83%, 82%. His BB and K are also nearly identical over the past three years. In fact, his SB and Errors are the only two stats that are at all out of line with his norms. Last year wan't even his best in the past few years, 2003 was. Furcal is pretty darn consistent. Yeah I know that stuff, but it's his 2005 SB and E numbers that have convinced people he's a defensive and base-stealing wizard, and an elite lead-off hitter. Take away those two numbers and he wouldn't be getting these ridiculous offers. Unfortunately, I think the offers he is getting are fair given recent contracts for Renteria, etc. He's really only being offered slightly over market value, even if that value is high. Fair? Those are widely considered crappy deals. You can talk about marktet prices if you want, but there are multiple markets. there's the free agent market and the trade market. the trade market is pretty reasonable compared to the FA market right now. Let's put it this way: If Renteria got 10 million per, there's no way Furcal's agent is going to allow him to sign for less. My point is not that Furcal is the best option, but that the contracts being offered him can hardly be considered surprising. Fair enough. It's still a poor way to go. Hendry isn't all hot and bothered by Giles b/c he thinks the bidding will get out of hand. What makes SS more important than the OF in terms of overbidding?

In order to assure Neifi isn't starting, I'd be willing to overpay a little bit. 5/50 is doable for someone who isn't injury prone, but is consistant like he is. How is Furcal consistent? In 2005, his contract year, his stolen bases went way up and his errors went way down, otherwise he wouldn't be getting near the type of offers he's getting now. Furcal's OBP the past three years: .352, .344, .348. His SLG: .443, .414, .429. His SB%: 93%, 83%, 82%. His BB and K are also nearly identical over the past three years. In fact, his SB and Errors are the only two stats that are at all out of line with his norms. Last year wan't even his best in the past few years, 2003 was. Furcal is pretty darn consistent. Yeah I know that stuff, but it's his 2005 SB and E numbers that have convinced people he's a defensive and base-stealing wizard, and an elite lead-off hitter. Take away those two numbers and he wouldn't be getting these ridiculous offers. Unfortunately, I think the offers he is getting are fair given recent contracts for Renteria, etc. He's really only being offered slightly over market value, even if that value is high. Fair? Those are widely considered crappy deals. You can talk about marktet prices if you want, but there are multiple markets. there's the free agent market and the trade market. the trade market is pretty reasonable compared to the FA market right now.

40M/4 is overpaying for Furcal. Can anyone justify that from his stats and previous contracts? Nope. He fills two holes (leadoff and SS)? What kind of bs is that? If Dusty wasn't an idiot, we'd have more than a .300 OBP leading off last season. A better option was certainly available (Murton).

you mean that every good essay should argue a point, but bring up the possible opposing arguments and address them?

Is the US a melting pot or not? This argument could get very complex.

cubs.com reported the signing. cubs.com reported an "agreement" which is contingent on a physical, which hasn't been confirmed to have taken place. it's pretty much a done deal unless something ridiculous happens.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=2239213 Anonymous sources. Bah. What do they know? Usually nothing. I really doubt that the offer Hendry made was for more than $10,000,000 a year. Considering the contracts we've seen so far I bet he gets at least 5\60 but we shall see... gfd. you're trying to make me cry. 40M/4 is overpaying.

It'd better not be for 50M/5. 40M/4 would make me :x , but I could deal with it.

Soriano doesn't suck. He has great range defensively and has great hands. I really don't know why he has so many errors. Maybe he has ADD. I'm not kidding, sometimes it seems like he is just napping out there and the errors come fast and furious He's an OBP nightmare, but he slugs like a champ. If we bat him 6th instead of 1 or 2, I'd be happy to have him. Defense is overrated anyways. I don't like his salary, but we could do a lot worse. I really like Bradley in CF and if with Mench you either get an average ML season or possibly stud production at a cheap price. If we save on RF and CF, we can afford to throw money someplace else. Furcal really isn't my favorite at 50M/5, but I could live with it. Furcal isn't the ideal leadoff hitter, IMO, but he'll do. I'd rather not pay a premium for him, but at least it reduces the chances of Neifi playing a lot to nil. Never underestimate Dusty's ability to F up a perfectly good lineup. Slap some horns on that man's head and a forked tail.

:wink: um, ok.

Link I'd be mad if someone threw a beer bottle at me too. The fan should have been arrested.

is that when the quarterly chemistry report comes out? By July we should have a good idear of what we have. If Bradley's serving a long suspension, I'm sure the pro-Bradley's will catch hell just like the pro-every prospect, pro-Matsui's, pro-Choi's, pro-Farn's, etc. :o That's the beauty of it. he's cheap. If he is suspended, who cares? We can run Hairston out there every day until we can pick up a better replacement. Just don't count on his production. He'll save money to put better offensive production elsewhere (if hendry is smart). I really don't see the downside. Where is it? The downside is possibly having a mere utility guy playing CF for half the year and possibly the playoffs. Of course, Pie could be ready by July... Picking up Bradley looks a lot better if he's picked up to play CF, not RF. Bradley would have to flip out almost immediately for us to have a utility man (who was competing with Brian Roberts for the starting role before Dusty) for 1/2 a season. At the worst case he flips out immediately and we grab someone serviceable at the trade deadline. Bradley is only attractive if in CF, IMO.

A little higher than rumored (40M/4) but not unexpected. Is anyone going to claim this justifies overspending on Eyre and Howry? I'm sure they will be along shortly. :wink:

is that when the quarterly chemistry report comes out? By July we should have a good idear of what we have. If Bradley's serving a long suspension, I'm sure the pro-Bradley's will catch hell just like the pro-every prospect, pro-Matsui's, pro-Choi's, pro-Farn's, etc. :o That's the beauty of it. he's cheap. If he is suspended, who cares? We can run Hairston out there every day until we can pick up a better replacement. Just don't count on his production. He'll save money to put better offensive production elsewhere (if hendry is smart). I really don't see the downside. Where is it?

hmm, he joined in '03 and none of his other posts are trollish. maybe your skeptism is unjustified.

Noice!! It doesn't seem like Bradley's attitude has put off Dusty and Hendry. Earn that money, player's manager. Hopefully we don't get Pierre or Furcal though. Please, baseball gods, don't do it to us!

Who's trying to move starting pitching right now? Trading for guys is still going to be costly. Lowe, Clement, Wells, and Beckett are all widely known to be (were in Beckett's case) available. GMs are trade happy right now with the weak FA class. Tons of teams have money. Costly? It isn't going to cost more $-wise than the current FA market. Prospects? Just look for the right deal.

Beane is on the bottle. It doesn't matter what the FA market is like. You don't need to throw away money in free agency when everyone is as willing to trade as they are.

If you don't have it, you're probably never going to. Pie will never have an even or better K/BB ratio, but there is some room for improvement when you're at 3:1. Players from Pie's neck of the woods are notorious free swingers. They're taught from a young age that you have to swing the bat to get anywhere (pro ball).

I like Zito, but judging by what he got last season for his top of the rotation starting pitchers, we probably don't have the prospects to snag him. if we wouldn't have re-signed Rusch, i'd love to go after Zito, but since we have Rusch and a hole in RF, we'd probably better take care of the biggest hole first.

I think it was stupid of Hendry to overpay for Eyre and Howry since we have a limited budget and many holes besides the pen, but it was genius (if intended) to run up the prices on the competition (who doesn't need pen help?) by making pre-emptive strikes into the marketplace by getting Howry and Eyre while everyone else tried to get bottom dollar. I may have to change my avatar if you keep this up, Hendry.

The only good thing to say about Orton is he doesn't lose games that the D and the running game win for him. We're playing with fire scoring so few points. If the D has a bad quarter or two against a decent team, we'll lose.