MeatampPotatoesMan

Nice. Just put another man in the box and stuff the run all day long. I don't think Orton is going to break 200 yards today. :lol:

good call on keeping him off the 40, Jimbo.

what? you're not changing arm speed or delivery from your fastball if you're doing it right. it's the resistance the ball sees that slows the ball down, not arm speed. the forces on the arm should be the same. 12 year olds learn this pitch. it should be the second pitch you learn (after the fastball).

I agree with you, I just don't see what Hendry is sseing in this guy. To put him on the same "untradeable" level as Pie is ridiculous. Having said that, I hope Hill learns a third pitch and proves me wrong. a changeup is super easy to learn and only makes your fastball better. at 78 mph changeup with a 90 mph fastball would be very nice indeed. why doesn't he throw the changeup? i have no idea. maybe he does, but isn't sold on using it. that's usually the problem getting pitchers to throw the changeup. it's the same thing as a fastball delivery-wise with a deeper grip. mastering the grip is fairly easy. it's not like a slider, which takes quite a while to figure out the pressure you need to apply with your fingertips.

They are sort of direct opposites of each other. Wilkerson has power, not a lot of speed, has difficultly making contact, limited defensive range in CF but a really good arm. Pierre has no power, a lot of speed, rarely strikes out, has great range in CF but has no arm. They both bat lefty and have pretty good career OBP, but other than that, they are completely different, but both fill needs that the Cubs have. I'm sort of torn between the two at the moment, but you seem clearly against Wilkerson. Help me out. Whatcha got? Wilkerson's OPS nose-dived last season (by about 100 points). I wonder why. It wasn't obviously park factor IMO, even though RFK was definitely not a hitter's park. Wilkerson's home/road splits for 2005: home: .236/.367/.395/.762 away: .257/.337/.414/.751 Home was a little tougher on Wilkerson in some respects, but it seems like he just flat out lost the ability to hit the longball. His SLG is what really dropped and he had similar numbers of XBH compared to previous years, but a monster drop off in HRs. He could come back strong next season (bad season at an unlucky time), but the steroid issue makes me wary. If we're talking about Wilkerson of '02-'04, I'd take Wilkerson over Pierre easily. Dusty had better not bat him leadoff if his power returns. IIRC, Wilkerson was dealing with a sore shoulder most of last year. I don't know if he's healthy now or not. he missed a couple of games with forearm problems in May and a couple of games in August with shoulder soreness. i don't think the shoulder started acting up until late August, so the effect on his season's numbers wasn't that great, although the injuries certainly did hurt his numbers somewhat.

NY Daily News Looks like the Daily News is making up stories again... Let's hope. how is it fair to give Furcal 5 years and Ramirez 4? i thought you had to earn things in this organization.

Walker or Murton. Heck, Bradley wouldn't be such a bad option there as long as he understood he shouldn't even attempt to steal. Any of those guys could probably get on base just as much as Furcal would. They wouldn't have the ability to steal, but they'd also be better bets to put themselves in scoring position via the XBH. In all likelihood, Walker is gone. I'd have no problem starting him at 2B and having him leadoff or batting 2nd. With defense being the new in thing with Hendry and Baker, it's more likely Neifi starts at 2B (if Cedeno moves to SS w/o Furcal in the mix) and Walker is sold down the river. Murton can't be counted on to put up solid enough numbers to pencil him 1 or 2. We should have a lineup where he can bat 6, 7, or 8. If he performs well, we can juggle the lineup, but to count on a young guy's performance (limited # of ABs to judge from) is risky. I'm very interested to know Hendry's backup plan if Pierre's price is too steep and Furcal doesn't become a Cub. We could have one crappy ballclub in a hurry, especially with Baker filling out the lineup card.

Supposedly Hendry is set to give Furcal a 5 year offer. :-& NY Daily News

OK fellas. If we don't get Furcal and get Bradley for CF, where are we going to get our leadoff hitter from? btw, i really like Bradley in CF.

They are sort of direct opposites of each other. Wilkerson has power, not a lot of speed, has difficultly making contact, limited defensive range in CF but a really good arm. Pierre has no power, a lot of speed, rarely strikes out, has great range in CF but has no arm. They both bat lefty and have pretty good career OBP, but other than that, they are completely different, but both fill needs that the Cubs have. I'm sort of torn between the two at the moment, but you seem clearly against Wilkerson. Help me out. Whatcha got? Wilkerson's OPS nose-dived last season (by about 100 points). I wonder why. It wasn't obviously park factor IMO, even though RFK was definitely not a hitter's park. Wilkerson's home/road splits for 2005: home: .236/.367/.395/.762 away: .257/.337/.414/.751 Home was a little tougher on Wilkerson in some respects, but it seems like he just flat out lost the ability to hit the longball. His SLG is what really dropped and he had similar numbers of XBH compared to previous years, but a monster drop off in HRs. He could come back strong next season (bad season at an unlucky time), but the steroid issue makes me wary. If we're talking about Wilkerson of '02-'04, I'd take Wilkerson over Pierre easily. Dusty had better not bat him leadoff if his power returns.

i'd take pierre over wilkerson and i'm not fan of the noodle arm from florida.

Beane wouldn't bat DLee and ARam 1 and 2? He batted Giambi in his prime at leadoff. OBP isn't the endall though. OBP has become more expensive since Moneyball and the A's early success (Boston and the Blue Jays have zeroed in on some of the same players). The market for baseball players has become more efficient and still the Athletics have continued to win. There is a lot more there than OBP (the A's don't currently have stellar team OBP b/c of payroll concerns). It isn't black magic. Somehow the sabermetricians are exploiting market inefficiences while the old skool organizations (Cubs included) flounder in the woods.

where is the link to this BP study? i'd be interested in reading it.

But would you rather have two years of Abreu or 4 years of Giles, who is almost certainly going to decline? Abreu is going to cost us quite a bit in prospects. Giles costs us only money. It's not as simple as asking whether you'd have player A or player B. Hypothetically, I'd take Abreu. Realistically, I'll take Giles, who'll only cost us a draft pick and some dinero.

Bradley. he's cheap to acquire at the moment. if we're worried about durability, we should get lofton.

It looks like the Mets are in on almost every rumor I read this offseason. as they should be....they need help that club is quickly spending itself into the gutter. if it wasn't for the low priced prospects already in the system (milledge, wright) they'd quickly spend themselves down to the bottom of the division. they could have been leaning on kazmir at this point, but we all know how that went. they wanted sosa for god's sake. sammy sosa. at the beginning of the year, they wanted to dish floyd. that organization has "succeeded" almost in spite of itself.

I don't think Abreu is the answer. he's a big name and his production was great up until 2005. is this the beginning of the end or is it just one bad season? i think it's the beginning of the end. check out how his SLG has trended over his career. it looks like '04 was the outlier and '05 was right where it should be. link

I blame the Cubs organization more for Corey's 2005 bomb than I do Corey Patterson. It wasn't his fault he was thrust into a situation he wasn't prepared for. He should have spent 2-3 more seasons in the minors, but the organization decided we needed a home grown position player on the big league team. It's like asking a sixth grader to get passing grades in high school level classes and then complaining that he/she failed because of mental makeup.

Was Nomar a choice in this poll? No, just those listed were (damon, furcal, burnett, giles, jones, millwood).

and yet the cubs.com poll for most desired cubs FA is: Damon 45% Furcal 31% Burnett 10% Giles 8% Jones 4% Millwood 3% I'm glad Cubs fans are so remarkably stupid (i sound like a sox fan, i know). Damon and Furcal are the top 2 choices? :roll:

well, we shouldn't have to give up hill for mench at least (hill>>perez IMO). Kip Wells? hahaha, no wonder the discussion ended.

neither was dontrell and look how he ended up. if hill can come up with a decent 3rd pitch (like a cutter or straight change) to go along with the low 90's fb & awesome curve, he will end up being a very good ml starter. You do know that Dontrelle is two years younger than Hill, right? what does that matter? hills still young. it just took him longer to harness his stuff & find his control. hill has better stuff than dontrell imo. alot of willis's success has to do with his command & deceptive delivery. he made it from college ball to the bigs in 3 years. that's not bad. check these numbers out: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/H/rich-hill.shtml that K/9 is sexy.

two words for you: Scott Kazmir Any GM that can get absolutely fleeced like that doesn't deserve the job. Hendry is a moran, but I'd still rather have him than Phillips (i'm sure you were just kidding about that :D ). I may be wrong but i dont think that Phillips was the one who traded Kazmir, wasnt it his replacement? true. it was Phillips' assitant that did that after Phillips was canned. maybe i should have said "phillip's regime." he's still a moran though. Jim Duquette was the GM at the time, but it was widely rumored that the owners son - Jeff Wilpon, made that deal in a last ditch effort to try and make the playoffs two years ago. Duquette was a figurehead in NY his last year as GM before Minaya got there. hahaha. trade the previously untouchable pitching prospect for a mediocre starter so you can make the playoffs. :oops: why was phillips axed? was it the affair with his secretary or performance related (he deserved it on that alone)?

b/c right handed bats tend to demolish left handed pitching and left handed bats tend to crush right handed pitching. look at the offensive splits vs. Left/Right handed pitching. DLee definitely didn't fall into that trap this year. He didn't care what hand you threw with. 8) He's a bit of an exception to the rule though.

actually its more like "get a leadoff hitter to get on in front of lee & aram AND keep the starters healthy and make the playoffs." :lol: