Stu

Apologies if this has been mentioned, but did anyone catch that line on Hill from Stark's column today?: "To be honest," said one front-office man, "Rich Hill is worth a lot more than that. Everyone in baseball was asking about Rich Hill at the winter meetings. So he's not getting traded for a fourth outfielder. If everyone feels that way he may indeed be a valuable trading chip.

Venezuela's confirmed starting staff: Big Z, Santana, Freddy Garcia and Escobar Closer: K-Rod. Sick indeed. I'm psyched, and plan to attend as many games as possible in San Juan..

If there's any truth to the whole travel to his family thing, it would have to be. Chicago would probably be third only to Miami and NY as far as ease of travel home. Well, maybe Atlanta as well. There are several daily flights from San Juan to O'Hare.

Has anyone seen Venezuela's pitching staff? Starters: Santana, Big Z, Freddy Garcia Long men: Kelvin Escobar, Victor Zambrano Closer: K-Rod. Ouch!

Not only that, one who is a left-handed hitter. Why can't Hendry just pencil in Twalk at 2nd and Ronny at SS and address the real needs on this team? It's maddening.

This guy is a shower?

Just curious: What would you all consider acceptible OBP for a leadoff man? Looking at career stats: Furcal's is .348 while Pierre is at .355.

Whoa. The line for Corey bashing usually forms right behind me, but this is a bit much. The fact that he is going at all should tell you something about his "mindset." He's a professional athlete for goodness sakes. I'm sure he doesn't enjoy being awful at the plate. Let him go work on it, show up early for spring training- again, and let the winter play out. At least there is an effort to improve. Playing a 1/2 season of winter ball doesn't tell me anything positive about his mindset. It says he will do just enough to get his critics and Hendry off his back, but not as much as a player who really wants to reach his potential would. And I'd hope he doesn't enjoy being awful at the plate, but if I were in his shoes when asked by reporters if I'd consider winter ball, I'd enthusiastically respond with a: "YES! I'm having a very poor year and I have disappointed Cubs fans and the team, but I know I can do better. I plan on getting better by playing the game when most MLB players aren't: in winter ball." "But my game isn't the only thing I need to improve on. I'm also going to adjust my attitude, because there were times when I just didn't care about the game. Remember my 'It's just a game' comment? I'm going to work on my intelligence too." Yeah. You'd say that. Right. You're reading way too much into his 1/2 season of winter ball. Besides, why is winter ball the cure for all his ills? Who's to say that one-on-one personal instruction down in Mesa wouldn't be better for him? He's working on his game this off-season. That's the bottom line. He had a lousy season, and he's working to get better. That's all you can ask of him. Not to take side in this debate, but as a resident of Puerto Rico, I've seen my share of winter ball over the years, and it ain't what it used to be. I remember about 10 years ago, San Juan's starting lineup featured Edgar Martinez, Juan Gonzalez, Roberto Alomar, Bernie Williams, Carlos Delgado, and others. Ivan Rodriguez played for Mayaguez, Ruben Sierra played for Santurce, etc. But one year Juan Gonzalez hurt his wrist, and really screwed up his subsequent season with the Rangers. Since then, a lot of players have passed on Winter ball and the talent level has gone from primo to pitchers like Oil Can Boyd, who pitched here in recent years. So it's not like Corey, if he plays here, will be facing top shelf talent. I can't speak to the talent level in Venezuela, Mexico or the Dominican Republic, though.

Did anyone see that shot of Astros' players celebrating in the dugout, waving their hands and pumping their fists in the air before the bomb? I kept thinking they were angering the baseball gods. I think you are supposed to play it cool until the final out.

Speaking of Abreu, check out the scathing remarks about Bobby made by SI's Tom Verducci recently. I didn't realize how low is 2nd half power numbers have been. What's going on with him? http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/102-09302005-548673.html Hoops Don't know if it's playiing on his mind, but his fiance, former Miss Venezuela Alicia Machado, got caught doing the nasty with another guy on tape this summer. The steamy sex video has been all over the place. It was a major sex scandal. he was due to wed her in December. I would imagine that's gotta affect a guy's job performance.

You know in retrospect, I wonder if Riggs was all that bad. He did a good job of managing an undertalented team to the Wild Card in '98. His use of Wood has to be questioned, considering the fact that Woody was badly hurt. But I don't remember too many negatives associated with the Riggs era, apart from the Woody thing.

I'm no Macias fan, but I looked at the box score after today's game and he is up to .281. I've never understood why so many people hate the guy. Really, if used properly, he would be a useful 25th man to have. He's kind of our own Cheito Oquendo, plays a ton of positions, pinch hits,runs decently, he's even the emergency 3rd string catcher. That said I always shudder seeing him as the 1st pinch hitter off the bench.

Grace would be interesting, but I think he said he doesn't want much to do with the Cubs as long as MacPhail is there.

Yeah, Miller had a frayed labrum. On the other hand, so did Matt Morris, and he's better than ever. I think Pedro had it as well a couple of years ago. That was the season where the Sox GM said Grady "owed it to the market" to pitch Pedro, frayed labrum and all?

Funny how when they just told that Prior bad blood story they failed to mention that Kline said he wished Prior would take a line drive off the head.

That is exactly what I was thinking. The only difference is Izzy has better "stuff." Does he really though? I've always heard about Dempster's 97 mph heater and wicked slider. Those are 2 mighty fine pitches for a closer to have. Ryan's no Billy Wagner or Gagne, but neither is he Shooter or JoBo.

Well I was around for a lot of it, and let me tell you, your post brings back some bad memories. 1B-Eric Perry -- don't remember him, 2B-Ty Griffin -- a stud -- against Cuba in the Olympic games. SS-Luis Montanez -- and the waiting, is the hardest part. 3B-Kevin Orie or Gary Scott the one starts the other off of the bench -- hmm, I remember being excited about Gary Scott, for about 5 games. F-Earl Cunningham -- Ate his way out of Pro ball. Tuffy Rhoads -- 3 hrs on opening day and then dissapears Derrek May -- had the name of a star but never did a thing P-Lance Dickson -- Mr. Fragile. Micha Bowie -- We got jobbed by the Braves Jeff Pico - Dont remember enough about him. Mike Harkey -- Bob Gibson lite Jamie Navarro -- Mr. Have a great year, come to the Cubs and suck.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but if you pitchout 1-1, it almost guarantees the squeeze at 2-1 unless you are trying to walk him. Actually that would not have been a bad move, to walk him. He meant nothing as a runner, and would have set up a double play.