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MPrior

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Everything posted by MPrior

  1. MPrior
    It doesn't scare you just a little bit that they trotted Corey Patterson, Neifi Perez and Jose Macias out there at the top of the order all year long when better options were available? It sure scares me that this team doesn't seem to think there is a serious problem with the offense (lack of OBP). To hear the press leaks for Preston Wilson and other leaks about not retaining Nomar or Walker leads me to believe that they don't think there is a problem. They seem to be all too interested in Furcal. But, I'll bet they are interested in Furcal because of his speed. Baker has been quoted as saying you need a speed guy at the top of the order. I wonder if they even know what Furcal's OBP was this past year. That's what is scary. Of course that terrifies me. I am firmly entrenched in the OBP-is-good-and-therefore-we-should-fire-Dusty-Baker camp. I also think that Hendry probably doesn't value OBP (or understand Dusty Baker's idiocy)nearly enough to field the best team that he can. At the same time, I do have faith that with the amount of money that Hendry has at his disposal, and given his track record in the past, he will do more than sign Furcal and Preston Wilson.
  2. MPrior
    The nice thing, I guess, is that this is really kind of a worst-case scenario. Hendry may not think in the same way we do, and thus may not see going after Giles as the no-brainer that many of us do, but he still typically makes some pretty bold moves (last offseason excepted, but that was really because of Sosa's contract). So I think he'll do more than signing Wilson and/or Furcal, even if it's not exactly what we want him to do.
  3. MPrior
    You just ruined my day.
  4. MPrior
    Well, the poll results say fewer years, and yet it seems to me that the consensus (or as close to it as we've got) is that it will take at least 4 years to get him to consider. Does this mean that the people who voted for fewer years think he's not worth offering 4 years, and would be willing to see him sign elsewhere rather than offering it, or do you (the people who voted for fewer years) think that three years could get him? I think this a pretty important distinction. I guess a simpler way to put it is: if Giles won't sign for 3 years at almost any price, would you be willing to go to 4 years if you think it'd land him? I'm personally of the school of thought that we should pay Giles pretty much whatever it takes. Look at it this way: the Cubs' biggest problem as a team is lack of OBP, and their biggest hole is RF. There just happens to be a RF on the market with excellent OBP (not to mention an appreciable amount of power), and our biggest asset this offseason is the amount of money we have to spend. It seems to me to be a no-brainer. My guess is that something along the lines of 4/52 should probably do it, if he's going to be pried off the west coast at all.
  5. MPrior
    People have been talking about the liability of Lowe's contract - and I mentioned this earlier, but no one responded to it (admittedly, someone else mentioned it as well before me). I think, if this trade were to go down, we ought to trade Lowe to someone else to see what we could get. He's not worth the amount of money on his contract, especially when we have someone like Williams who could take over and do almost as well (obviously not a given, but his numbers could be very very comparable to Lowe's). And if we can trade Lowe to fill in one of our other holes (like bullpen help, for example), that not only fills a hole we need filled, but also probably frees up even more money to go after the people we REALLY need, like Giles, and then still have enough to shore up the bench and come up with some suitable solution at SS.
  6. MPrior
    I like Larry Rothschild too, but when pretty much every single pitcher on your staff has developed control issues, you've got to begin to wonder why. Especially when some of those pitchers should be very, very good. I think, at the very least, Rothschild needs to come up a with a completely new philosophical approach - as in, encourage the pitchers to throw more strikes, aim for contact, and put an emphasis on control rather than just trotting pitchers out there and hoping that their stuff (which is admittedly very good) will be enough to do the trick. The reason that Roger Clemens has been so good for so long isn't just because he has a nasty splitter to go with his upper-nineties fastball. It's because he consistently hits his spots with those nasty pitches.
  7. MPrior
    So let's assume this happens. We obviously still have the hole in RF to consider, as well as some bullpen help and filling out the bench, as everyone's mentioned, and we wouldn't necessarily have enough money to get all that we want out of that. I really like the idea of flipping Lowe along to someone else in this case. Williams may not be great, but his production probably won't be too much worse than Lowe's, and he costs much much less. So if we can get some bullpen help in return for Lowe, it would free up $5-7 mill (depending on who we get in the trade) we could put towards picking up Giles or paying for some other impact RF. There will almost certainly be someone interested in Lowe who has something we want. What do you guys think?
  8. MPrior
    Hoops- You said you heard this from two different people - I obviously don't want to know who they are, but I would like to know in what context they said this. As in, were they just throwing out ideas that they thought might work? Or were they actually citing it as something they had reason to believe might be happening? Lastly, the Marlins definitely seem to be making out big here too. I wonder it if would be possible to get them to send a prospect or something to the Dodgers if that would me DePo more likely to pull the trigger.
  9. MPrior
    I think that anyone can see that the White Sox's success this year is due almost entirely to their lights-out pitching staff. Every pitcher on that team - starters and relievers - has pitched better than expectations (some more drastically than others). I think (read: "hope") Hendry sees this as clearly as we do, and if he does try to emulate the White Sox, it will be their pitching, not their batting, that he goes for.
  10. MPrior
    I'm sorry, but if you think you're going to get the best offensive free agent on the market for 4 million dollars per year. You sir, are insane. I'm pretty sure he meant 3/36. Somehow I just don't think it's right to give Giles an equivalent or better deal than Aram. Can't explain why, though. You can't look at it that way when dealing with free agents. If we won't pay Giles more than Ramirez, then we won't have him. So it's either pay him more than Ramirez or have another season of Jeromy Burnitz or someone like him. You'd only do it for one season before Aramis opts out for a bigger contract, anyways. look on the bright side, this could be the year when aramis' groin pops and he misses the whole season. then he won't opt out for sure. That's the bright side? The future looks even bleaker than I thought, then.
  11. MPrior
    Just to play the hopeful devil's advocate, Brian Giles has been pretty vocal on how much PETCO sucks as a hitter's park. So he may seriously entertain offers from other teams. Plus, SD may not be able/willing to pay what he'll demand on the open market. Secondly, as far as trading for outfielders goes, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay are both potentail suitors (both because they have a surplus of outfielders, and because Tampa Bay's new GM may not be as crazy as Lamar, and Cincinnati hopefully won't be demanding ridiculous prices for their players like they were at the trade deadline). That said, I think that Kearns and Huff are both more likely than Gomes or Dunn.
  12. MPrior
    I think, since we don't know how Giles is going to feel about it, what we should be determining here is the absolute maximum we'd be willing to pay - as in, at what point does his cost outweigh what he brings to this team? I'd say something close to what's already been suggested, but I'd be willing to go a little more. Like, for example, 4/52, with a team or mutual option for a fifth year (what's the harm? If he's not worth it by then, don't exercise it; and it makes the deal sound a little better). What do you guys think? (as a maximum, I mean)
  13. MPrior
    I agree. AND they should do it in an overly exaggerated, histrionic manner, and follow it with a glare at the ump. Cause I would laugh out loud every time they did it.
  14. MPrior
    Does anyone think either of these players will be leaving NY? I don't. Steinbrenner might blow a gasket and fire everybody on his coaching staff, but he probably knows that Matsui and Sheffield aren't the reasons the Yankees didn't win it all this year, and he won't object to bringing them back (and neither will Cashman, or, if he's replaced, whoever his replacement is). I also don't think either player has any desire to leave, especially when nobody's going to outbid the Yankees.
  15. MPrior
    The only team left in the playoffs that would be acceptable for me is the Angels. And I guess that all hinges on tonight's game anyway. Between the Cards and Stros, though, I think I pick the Astros. The Cards are, in general, a class act, but I really, really can't stand Jim Edmonds. And last year they made me very angry. After running away with the division, they rolled over and played dead for the Astros, effectively handing them the wild card (which is not to say that we didn't do everything in our power to give it away ourselves).
  16. MPrior
    By the way, just playing with a lineup after a series of moves like this, and the lineup is insane: Giles Giles Lee Helton Ramirez Barrett Murton Cedeno Assuming Helton at $14m (Rox have to pick up some of the deal if they trade him), Giles/Giles at 5.5/10, respectively, a crazy 3/30 deal for Wagner, a bench of Blanco/Theriot/Fontenot/Greenberg/1.1m OF, and I've got a $102.75m juggernaut. Having 2 minimum wage starter helps a lot. And with that lineup, you have to be happy to go with the kids on the bench. Don't you dare say things like that. My hopes for this offseason are already precariously waiting to be dashed against a Preston Wilson signing. Your lineup, while formidable and roughly within budget, is so far out of the realm of Jim Hendry's reality that I don't even want to think about it - because I might cry.
  17. MPrior
    So are we more or less decided that the #1 choice for RF is signing Giles? If so, is it in the spirit of this thread to acknowledge that that might not be a possibility and come up with a backup plan? Or do we just move on?
  18. MPrior
    Murton all the way. I personally think that Murton is potentially being robbed of NL ROY because of too few PAs. If he had 150 more PAs or so, and put up numbers even comparable to what he's done, he'd have it. So how can you not give him the starting position? As far as power goes, that's one of the most easily teachable aspects of batting. I'd much rather have a prospect with good plate discipline, patience, and bat control and have to teach him to hit for power than have a guy with incredible power and have to teach him plate discipline. Murton will no doubt be aware of some people's skepticism about his ability to hit for power, and will probably be doing some heavy conditioning in the offseason, I imagine. Give him the job.
  19. MPrior
    Well, that's mostly good news, if it's true. The one thing I'd be concerned about is Pie coming up, because I frankly don't want him to. But it sounds like Hendry's pretty reserved about whether or not that's going to happen, so hopefully he plays well in winter ball but not well enough to earn the job. Other than that, though, I like that Nomar wants to come back, and would possibly be willing, if necessary, to move to the outfield. I also like that Rothschild might be on the block. He seems like such a nice guy, but I've been wondering for the past two years if he's not doing his job quite right. Almost no one on our entire pitching staff has lived up to his potential - some have been downright ruined while they were here (Farnsworth, Remlinger, Hawkins), and inconsistency and way too many walks have plagued everybody. That really doesn't speak well for the pitching coach. I wish we could just borrow Leo Mazzone for spring training. I'd trade Neifi, Macias, Patterson, and Dusty Baker for a month of Leo Mazzone. Think the Braves would go for it?
  20. MPrior
    I didn't say the Cubs have limited money to acquire what they need to; I said they have limited opportunities. The free agent class is extremely weak: any class of free agents in which Rafael Furcal is considered "big-name" is pretty lame. Who knows what's available for trade, and the Cubs don't have any real big trading chips (Walker being the only one to speak of, and I'm fairly adamant about keeping him unless something very helpful can be had for him). And even if Hendry does make several big moves, he still won't have covered ALL the holes on the team. So what I meant was, if we can't fill ALL the holes on the team, why are we worried about addressing the least significant detriment this team has?
  21. MPrior
    Good post. I've been thinking this for a while. That Corey's inability to adjust has little to do with stubborness or poor coaching, and lots to do with the fact that he just can't do it, has been my opinion for a while. In Moneyball (don't hate me because I'm referencing it), they point out that the least teachable aspect of hitting is plate discipline, and that's why the A's didn't draft toolsy players who hadn't demonstrated plate discipline. Perhaps Corey just doesn't even have the capacity to develop plate discipline. Do you think he continues to swing at all those high fastballs because he thinks "maybe I can hit this one," or simply because he cannot distinguish between a high fastball and a pitch in the zone? I think it's the latter. Secondly, his success early on might have been because opposing pitchers assumed that they would have to pitch to him as if he were actually a capable hitter. Then they discovered that they never had to throw a pitch anywhere even close to the strike zone.
  22. MPrior
    As far as the lineups go, I'm with Raw. If we were to get Giles (what are the odds, do you think?), I'd put him 3rd. So you'd have: Michaels/Lofton/Wilkerson/The decent OBP guy we are going to get in CF (Let me dream) Walker Giles Lee Aramis Nomar Barrett Murton (feel free to switch Barrett and Murton if you want; I just get tired of seeing Barrett bat 8th where his patience - which he actually has, when he thinks it's necessary - is totally wasted). This way, you still have Giles before Lee and ARam, but you also get to use Walker where he belongs, the 2 spot, and utilize whatever leadoff guy we actually get.
  23. MPrior
    Nomah! This is a low-risk (since he won't cost TOO much or have to stay too long, and we have a ML-ready backup waiting in the wings), high-reward signing. Any time you have a low-risk, high-reward situation, it seems like you ought to do it, unless there's something that is obviously way better. Paying Furcal something on the order of $30-32 million for 3-4 years is NOT way better. In fact, it's way worse. Add in the slight possibility (and I know we're only talking SS, but it is related) that Nomar might be convinced to move to LF, if necessary, and it's a no-brainer.
  24. MPrior
    In the same way that striking out Barry Bonds is a serious achievement, I think that walking Jose Macias should be equally celebrated, on the basis that it's at least as hard to do.
  25. MPrior
    Good article on ESPN.com: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2173271 Kinda makes me want to cry. I thought I'd quote a few of the points most salient to our situation, but there are so many that I'll just let you read it for yourself.
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