MeatampPotatoesMan

Macias is awesome. Solo HR in his 1 AB. You heard it here first. :roll:

Prior, don't be a pansy. Pitch to contact.

i'd still take MC, even with his attitude problems. S T U D. i'm sure florida is more than willing to put up with it too.

Hendry won't trade Lee this offseason. Yes, I think we could make a killing if we did it, but it will never happen in a sports town like Chicago, with the level of media scrutiny on a certain GM.

Consistency is overrated? A lot of guys have the "stuff" to justify a 3/24 contract. Not all of them back it up with repeatable success. Dempster's one year of success as a closer, without dominant peripherals, has justified a pretty significant 2 year deal. However, if you go to 3 years, and you spend that much per year, there are better options. Dempster at 3/24 is equivalent to Ryan at something like 4/40. Ryan is much more dominant than Dempster, and much more reliable. Wagner, same thing. I don't see those guys getting those deals, and Dempster shouldn't get anything that contends with those numbers. again, look at how consistant remmy & hawkins were before they got to chicago. granted, they were not used very well at times by baker (no suprise there) but they were not very effective compared to their history the whole time they were here. if hendry signs dempster to a 24/3 contract and he stays healthy & saves 45 games a year, it will have been a great move. if dempster gets hurt or blows up, it will have been a bad deal. if you are talking about bj ryan btw, i dont see how 34 saves in 39 with a 2.55 era ops is "much more dominate" than 30 saves in 31 ops with a 1.98 era. Save percentage is not a great sign of dominance, especially when you are talking about a time frame of under one season. Ryan has been a consistently dominating reliever for 3 years, with excellent peripherals numbers that should lead to confidence in his ability to maintain that dominance. Dempster has less than a season's worth of success as a reliever with less dominant peripherals. Things like k/9, bb/9, k/bb, WHIP are all leaning pretty heavily toward Ryan. Ryan is the better pitcher, but is his obtainable? He's going to command top dollar in this market, that's for sure.

My source is telling a much different story. My source is a magical pumpkin patch that appeared in front of my garage. The pumpkins seem to think that Larry Biittner will come out of retirement to replace Macias. But that's crazy. Surely Biittner would replace Murton in LF. well, it couldn't be much worse than the Holly/Dubois platoon we endured this year.

Tom House is an admitted steroid user, so I don't think he'll be welcome in the Cubs org. I'm not knocking House, just saying that the people in charge are image conscious. I don't think this is true. Do you have a link? I thought the story went that House meant greenies and not steroids. Additionally I'm not sure if he said he did it or it was just pitchers on his team. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2005-05-03-steroids-house_x.htm?csp=34

For what it's worth I'd like to quote something from our recent Q & A with Len: ^^^^ SWEET!!!! :shock:

That's not right...putting something like that public. Dusty, you jerk.

it's called "regressing to the mean" and I am enjoying it.

well, speaking as a pitcher (yes, i did pitch beyond hs), it's not unrealistic to come off an injury, absolutely suck and then dominate (like JoBo) and then get hammered as another problem crops up (be it blisters, delivery, mental). btw, pitching out of the bullpen is harder than it seems. gf leaves you = arse raping. :wink: hahaha :lol: ...just trying to say that it is very mental. it may explain the unpredictability of bullpens.

we can outspend Atlanta for Furcal, but should we? both Giles (the IF and the OFer) are intriguing. I'd take either one or both, please. Of course that will never happen. Baker is too stupid to value OBP, so we'll never sniff either. Furcal really isn't that great. There's a reason Atlanta is willing to let him walk. He's not a must have player.

Who cares if the offseason is "eventful" or not? Activity doesn't mean acquiring the right pieces. We are several (3+) years away from making a serious WS run. The lack of plate discipline and OBP on this team is truly astounding (encouraged by management). A couple offseason pickups aren't going to save us. Last year's FA debacle in the outfield assured that with this year's weak FA class, we will again be twiddling our thumbs come October.

I hope the Cubs don't replace Barrett with IRod. The 34 year old catcher with a .743 OPS vs. the 29 year old catcher with a .821 OPS. I second this post. his gamecalling is better. :roll:

i've thought about compiling all the stats for MLB. the pain is setting it up, acquiring all the data. where can i get this stuff? it's pretty simple to write a program and generate the necessary stats/graphs for all of MLB. the base data is what i need. anyone know a good place to get this stuff w/o paying. i'll pay for it if necessary, but i'd prefer not to. :wink: regression analysis, here i come. :roll: :D

dood. let's resign Sosa for '06. We can get him super cheap...and he's a vet. :lol:

Chalking up JoBo's success/failure as smoke and mirrors is baseless. Show me how his success/failure correlates with injuries/"figuring him out." it's injuries that caused his "downturn." btw, deception gets people out. smoke and mirrors. pfff.

Giles is very realistic. If the Cubs went with Walker (2.5) at 2nd and Nomar at SS (5-6 + incentives) the money will be there to pursue Giles. We went with Walker and Nomar at 2B and SS this year. That didn't work out so well for us. The only difference between this year's approach and next year's approach is that we can conceivably count on Cedeno if Nomar gets hurt. We do have money (from a lack of Sosa) to spend on the OF, but really, counting on Nomar to be healthy for a full season has a low probability of becoming reality. If we resign Nomar, it had better be at a very low base (2-4M) and high incremented PA incentive laden deal. If he does go down, we have Cedeno in the wings and money to throw away via trade mid-season. I love Nomar, but we'd better have several backup plans for SS if he stays on the team.

Does anyone think that Dusty does stuff like this just because "he can?" It is getting to the point where there is no possible way to rationalize his actions other than stubbornness, and not willing to admit he is wrong That thought has crossed my mind. it's just old skool mentality vs. common sense. bat high OBP guys 1 and 2? no way, i have a gut feeling that my veteran player is due. :roll:

Look at Walker's offensive stats vs. Perez's: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.aspx?playerid=359&position=2B&page=1&type=full http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.aspx?playerid=620&position=2B_SS&page=1&type=full look at OBP and BB/K especially. can anyone honestly say Neifi deserves to start on a 100M team? ...especially over walker?!

you seem set on nomar accepting no less than 5+ incentives, is it that hard to think the base might be less? im not doubting nomar might use his recent performance as terms for negotiation but just a thought. I think nomar is a sign here as well, a full year of him is just about as good if not better as every other shortstop in the league offensively. But you have to have someone with substantial to terrific defense opposite him. Walker and Nomar can both play LF if neccessary, leaving the option to still sign Furcal if need be. One day you could have Nomar at 2nd, Furcal at Short, and Walker in LF, and then shift walker to to 2nd, and put murton or nomar at LF. Could lead to a more powerful bench and having the LF situation taken care of as well. Thoughts? You're not going to have a happy Nomar and Walker, that's for sure. Hopefully the mythical team chemistry really is overrated. I'd love to go that route, but the egos involved might make that more trouble than it's worth. Nomar has never played LF to my knowledge, and considering his issues the last 2 years have been leg injuries, I don't think he's the best candidate to move to LF. Walker played like 2 innings of LF in 2004, and looked like he was baffled by the flight of the ball off the bat. We have a perfectly good, cheap LF option who has patience, speed, can hit the ball to all fields and does have enough power. We can debate this when we get to LF, but dumping 2 infielders in LF isn't going to solve our issues. You beat me to it, USSoccer. I couldn't have said it any better, though. That assumes Murton can play LF and only LF...which we haven't gotten to yet. :D

you seem set on nomar accepting no less than 5+ incentives, is it that hard to think the base might be less? im not doubting nomar might use his recent performance as terms for negotiation but just a thought. I think nomar is a sign here as well, a full year of him is just about as good if not better as every other shortstop in the league offensively. But you have to have someone with substantial to terrific defense opposite him. Walker and Nomar can both play LF if neccessary, leaving the option to still sign Furcal if need be. One day you could have Nomar at 2nd, Furcal at Short, and Walker in LF, and then shift walker to to 2nd, and put murton or nomar at LF. Could lead to a more powerful bench and having the LF situation taken care of as well. Thoughts? You're not going to have a happy Nomar and Walker, that's for sure. Hopefully the mythical team chemistry really is overrated. I'd love to go that route, but the egos involved might make that more trouble than it's worth.

What will it take (years/money/options) to resign Dempster as a closer? I realize that we could go after a FA or someone via trade. I'm just asking what it will take to get him if we do want to retain his services as a closer.

It's amazing how oblivious Baker is to this. How can a human being be that clueless?

OBP is overrated. :roll: