MeatampPotatoesMan

Yeah, labrum surgery doesn't have the best success rate, although there are some pitchers who've come back just fine. I wouldn't put money on Wood being one of those guys, but supposedly he does look good. I haven't heard anyone down in Mesa saying Wood is ahead of schedule. A setback or two and he's behind schedule.

P. Fielder, G. Anderson, T. Gordon for C. Delgado and J. Duchscherer

He also had solid to great numbers at every level of the minors. I didn't hear the scouts showing him a lot of love despite the numbers, but I still didn't expect the first season flop.

:lol: when I saw this was a 20+ page thread, I assumed there had to be something more than the original report, so I read the whole thing... sucker! :lol:

From what I've heard, Williams is looking very good so far, for whatever that's worth.

Can't believe you left this part out. This is the first I've heard of Williamson being possible trade bait. What would they trade him for, another backup OF? Maybe they could package Walker and Williamson for someone decent (NOT SORIANO).

Did I miss something? I thought Wood's rehab was going well and he was on track to miss no more than a week or two at the most. Now they're saying he could be out a month and a half or more? :evil: Awesome!

Our kids have great attitudes.

Izzy's declining K/9 (over like 4-5 seasons) gives me hope of his overall decline as a closer, although his BAA and WHIP haven't suffered...yet. :twisted:

Not necessarily. The Cubs would have a good chance to win the division but the only team that has a chance to 'run away' with the division in 2006 is the Cardinals. Look at their resume -they won the division last year -they have a 1-2 starting punch that is as good as any in the league with Carpenter and Mulder -they have a solid closer with Isringhausen -Scott Rolen only played 56 games last year, and stunk it up when he was playing -they still have Pujols and Edmonds as well I'm not saying the Cardinals will win the division, and I do think the Cubs have a chance. But there is no way that the Cubs run away with the NL Central in 2006 -They did win the division last year, that doesn't mean much unless you're from Atlanta -There's at least 6 1-2 punches I'd take over StL's -Izzy is getting old and is on his way out, that's why they signed Looper as an insurance policy -Rolen isn't the same player he once was. Maybe he'll turn it around, but Wood has as good a chance to return to his prime as does Rolen -Pujols I'll give you, but Edmonds is a shell of the player he used to be. Look at his dwindling numbers the past 3 years. I'd expect that trend to continue I agree with everything except on Edmonds. Edmonds arguably posted career bests in 2004.

I have to disagree. Your offseason, no matter how successful, can never guarantee success in the postseason. Ask the Yankees, Mets or Dodgers of the past few years about that. There have been plenty of teams to spend and overspend only to find themselves on the outside looking in in October. The moves may look great at the time, but who's to say that Brian Giles doesn't bat .220 and completely lose it? It's not unprecedented for a guy to just lose it? Of course it's highly unlikely, but the only way you can make that statement is in retrospect. That kind of defeats the purpose however since the statement is more of a prediction. The only way to say we could have run away with the division is if we added a bunch of all-stars who were guaranteed to stay healthy and perform at their normal level - which is pretty much impossible anyway. I'm sorry if I'm being a bit overcritical, but the moral of the story is you still always have to play the games first. When did I guarantee anything? I said "could." :? I also only commented on winning the division and said nothing about the postseason. I read it as if you were saying, "If not for this poor offseason, we could have run away with the division." If what you meant was, "We could have had a chance to run away with the division, had we not had a better offseason.", then I misinterpreted your statement. It just looked more like an indictment toward the GM, as if there was a plan he could have followed that would guarantee a ticket to the playoffs - which in my opinion would be impossible due to countless external factors. Of course, now it does seem as if I misinterpreted what you were saying. no problem. i agree with what you wrote. i take it as a given that we're not doing much in October if Prior and Wood miss significant time (or God forbid, Z). I'm pretty confident that we can contend for the WC as is (if healthy). A solid offensive OF and an offensive SS would do wonders as far as narrowing the gap to the Cards, who are seemingly weaker this year. We certainly had the money. Jones wasn't my favorite acquisition. Pierre, Howry, and Eyre were really expensive and I'm not sold on any of the 3. I just think we could have done better and am a little irked we didn't especially since our rivals didn't improve a whole lot either. A better offseason wouldn't guarantee us a playoff run, but it would certainly increase the odds.

By the time he becomes available, Pawelek could be one of those top prospects. Yeah. I included Pawelek in my fictional package for Cabrera (Pawelek, Hill, Pie) a couple posts back. I agree that he's going to jump in value with another solid season (very likely). Still, even if Pawelek makes the top 10, Pie is still second tier and Hill...well, we like to overvalue Hill. Look at the Angels' system. It's packed with top shelf talent. My argument is that other teams with that upper level depth can afford to give up those players and will be more willing to do so than Hendry as it won't destroy their farm system. Our farm system is pretty barren without Pie, Pawelek, and Hill.

Nope. Do we get Reyes in this deal?

I have to disagree. Your offseason, no matter how successful, can never guarantee success in the postseason. Ask the Yankees, Mets or Dodgers of the past few years about that. There have been plenty of teams to spend and overspend only to find themselves on the outside looking in in October. The moves may look great at the time, but who's to say that Brian Giles doesn't bat .220 and completely lose it? It's not unprecedented for a guy to just lose it? Of course it's highly unlikely, but the only way you can make that statement is in retrospect. That kind of defeats the purpose however since the statement is more of a prediction. The only way to say we could have run away with the division is if we added a bunch of all-stars who were guaranteed to stay healthy and perform at their normal level - which is pretty much impossible anyway. I'm sorry if I'm being a bit overcritical, but the moral of the story is you still always have to play the games first. When did I guarantee anything? I said "could." :? I also only commented on winning the division and said nothing about the postseason. I agree with what you wrote, I just didn't say what you think I said. :)

.247/.370/.617? That looks fantastic. Wait, what three stats are you comparing in that line? Usually it's AVG/OBP/SLG Jones v. LHP 2005: .201/.247/.370/.617 3 year: .238/.295/.363/.658 Jones lifetime vs. LHP: .227/.277/.339 /.616 Those numbers would embarrass Jose Macias. They're not even acceptable for a utility infielder. I can't for the life of me figure out why Jones has been allowed to face LHPs for so long. The dude's athletic!

What's sad is that we could have run away with this division with a solid offseason.

Wow, Williams did a lot more than call Thomas an idiot. Read this.

I think the Cubs could put together a package that would satisfy Florida, but I'm not sure they'd even try. A lot would depend on how guys play early this year. If Pie gets off to a rocking start his value will increase. If Guzman looks good, he would be of value as well. Pie isn't even a top 25 prospect. If a club wanted to beat out a Cubs offer of Pie, Pawelek, and Hill, they could do it. I'm pretty sure the bidding on Cabrera would be insane in terms of prospects. Guzman is a health concern despite whatever numbers he puts up this year. That seriously hurts his trade value. BA rated Pie 27th, Pawelek 85. Those two plus Hill is a very attractive package. Could it be beat? Undoubtedly, especially by either LA team or Arizona. That said, to eliminate us from putting together the best package is premature, especially since we have another full season of prospect development/regression before this supposed deal. Of course it could be beaten, and rather easily. An offer of Wood and Kendrick trumps pretty much whatever we could offer. They'd still have about 5 top 100 prospects left in their system. Our system just isn't that stacked with top shelf talent and losing some combo of Pie, Pawelek, and Hill would put us in the bottom third of farm systems. I think Cabrera is the type of player that's worth going all out for, but so will other teams...teams that can dish the prospects and only make a stomachable dent in their farm.

I think the Cubs could put together a package that would satisfy Florida, but I'm not sure they'd even try. A lot would depend on how guys play early this year. If Pie gets off to a rocking start his value will increase. If Guzman looks good, he would be of value as well. Pie isn't even a top 25 prospect. If a club wanted to beat out a Cubs offer of Pie, Pawelek, and Hill, they could do it. I'm pretty sure the bidding on Cabrera would be insane in terms of prospects. Guzman is a health concern despite whatever numbers he puts up this year. That seriously hurts his trade value.

If Cabrera comes available, he'll be traded for no less than the other team's top prospect and then some. Pie isn't even a top tier prospect, so I think we'd be out of any serious bidding. If Cabrera leaves the Marlins, he won't be coming to Chicago.

I'm very curious to see how he dealt with 1B, as it is a completely different defensive problem compared to 2B, SS, and 3B. You don't just take the plays off the bat. It's going to be nigh impossible to be accurate judging vector, distance, and accuracy of throw from the other infielders to 1B by watching video (which is how they got their data). Since this is the means by which 1B touches the ball the most, the inaccuracy that comes into the evaluation is going to be fairly high.

You can when he's being compared to Arod. Pujols had an .008 advantage in OPS. ARod was the best defensive SS in the game, now is one of the better defensive 3B in the game. The difference between their defense is much greater than the difference in their offense. I think you're skewing things slightly by taking only last year's numbers. If you look at their careers, Pujols is easily the better offensive player. Pujols: .332/.416/.621 ARod: .307/.385/.577 ARod had an above average season last year and Pujols just had his ho-hum average season and still beat ARod by 8 OPS points. I'll take Pujols offensively. Pujols isn't such a great defensive liability that we should overlook age and the offensive gap between the two players.

Neifi Perez vs. LHP 3 year: .259/.291/.415/.706 You know you suck when Neifi puts up better numbers than you.

:shock: CPat wasn't clogging the bases much last year, that's for sure. Good luck in Baltimore, Corey.