Andy

Come on Dusty. At least give him some ABs before you start batting Macias in LF. :wink:

KILL ME NOW. If you want to give Ozzie MOY, fine. He's deserving, that's probably not arguable. But the whole smartball is crap. The Sox won because their entire pitching staff basically had the years of their lives and the Sox were one of the most homer-happy teams in the AL, with seven (SEVEN) 15-HR hitters in their lineup. Was Guillen great this year? Yes. Was it "smartball" that got them there? Absolutely not. And thanks for the laugh, Ryan. :lol:

Duhon is out, and evidently Eric Piatkowski will be starting in his place. Jason Richardson and/or Baron Davis may score 100 points tonight...

Why is Nocioni starting over Deng? Deng is the biggest key to this team IMO. He's the guy that has the upside to make up for some of the points Curry took with him. I have no idea why Deng continues to be benched in favor of Chapu. Andres's intensity would seem to be better fit for a bench player, and he hasn't been playing well lately as it is.

Seconded. There's absolutely no player in baseball I would trade Z for apart from maybe Pujols and we all know the Cards wouldn't make that deal.

I would've picked Wedge in the AL, but Cox is the right choice in the NL.

That's a reasonable point. Do you want a guy who helps you score 10 runs in May, but only 2 in August, or do you want a guy who helps you score about 5 runs, consistently? This is an extremely weak point, actually. The flipside of it is equally true - I'm too lazy to do it, but if you look up the pre-all star break stats, I'm sure it will favor Lee just as much (in fact, moreso) as these favor Pujols. So Lee was significantly outperforming Pujols for the first 3/5 of the season, and Pujols outperformed Lee for the last 2/5 of the season. What's the big deal? Especially considering that for the Cardinals, the first 3/5 of the season is when they jump out to their annual 25-game lead in the division before coasting the rest of the way.

but Neifi is a better hitter from the right side than from the left It won't make any difference in how he's used. The fact that Remlinger is better against RH batters than LH made no difference to Dusty and the fact that Neifi is better against LHP than RHP won't either.

Fixed. But anyway, I would be happy with a Furcal signing. He'd be a major improvement over our leadoff situation this year even if he was a little below average for his career, and he's got a decent glove at short. Short of Giles or some other on-base machine, Furcal would probably be the best option for the Cubs.

I'm not betting against Macias being a Cub in 2006 until I find out that another team has signed him, and even then I won't be completely secure. This organization is legitimately scaring the crap out of me lately.

He said no one saw Hollandsworth struggles coming. :x See man. I will say this though. Hendry pretty much said that he has failed the past two years. At least he can recognize that. Yeah, that was the only part of the interview that irritated me. I don't think the questions were the right ones, though. I would have asked about: -Why not Brian Giles? -Aramis' offseason stretching program -Dotel? -Rule 5 draft guys; why not trade some? -Why not let Neifi go test the market and save money? -OBP in the 1-2 spots. Agreed. Those questions would have been excellent to ask. Well I know Hendry did mention that Stat-wise the lead-off position was not where it should be. Hendry isn't going to come out and say that Dusty's top of the lineup was terrible. It's just not his M.O. He mentioned that RF was something they are going to be looking at as well as more pitching depth. I didn't expect him to come and tell Silvy and Carmen exactly who he is looking at. I wasn't knocking Hendry's answers; I was being critical of the questions that were asked. I didn't think they were the best questions to ask Hendry. He could have answered however he wanted, but if the interviewers at least bother to ask to right questions, that's all I could hope for. I wasn't arguing against you. Didn't mean for it to come off that way. Just pointing out some things he said that I wasn't sure anyone knew they were addressed...in particular the OBP in the 1-2 spots. I totally agree that the questions were fairly soft. I think a lot of times they have GMs on just to say they could get them on and talk to them and then they leave it up to Bruce Levine to ask the hard questions...although I am not sure he does either. The interesting question I heard was about Walker and why we haven't heard about him much. Hendry denied that Walker wasn't in the plans for the future and in a nutshell discredited the rumors that if they sign Furcal 2nd base would come down to just Cedeno and Perez. I hope he's not just saying that just to be saying that. Todd Walker should be our starting 2nd baseman next year, and he should be batting 2nd behind Furcal. At least I'd hope that would be the case.

That's really suprising. I also think it's a clear sign they're going to move at least 1 OF this winter. I don't want Huff, but if Hendry is set on Pierre, would Crawford be better? Outshined_One has already posted Crawford's numbers in a different thread, and Crawford seems like little more than Patterson with less power and slightly better hitting. No thanks.

If you want to go on wins, Willis should win as he had the most wins in the league as well as a better ERA. If Carp wins, then the Cy Young has no integrity whatsoever because Mark Prior had a better season in 2003 and the award was given to Eric Gagne.

But I'm a fan of a football team that wasn't even created till seven years after my birth. Tell me how this one makes sense, Norm. :wink: Just kidding.

Bulls face the Warriors tonight at 8:30 ET at the United Center. We really need this game and the next before that rough circus trip starting next week. Expected starters for the Bulls: Duhon (game-time decision due to a right knee contusion) Hinrich Nocioni Songaila Chandler For the Warriors: Baron Davis Jason Richardson Mike Dunleavy Troy Murphy Adonal Foyle

Depends, are you over the age of 30? Do you refuse to take a walk? Can you catch the ball?

They also mentioned that they're "the only curse in town". Like anyone in the Cub organization would EVER say something like that. The networks' obsession with curses really pisses me off sometimes.

He would've been top of the list if he was still a free agent. Well, Dusty's list, anyway, and that's all that matters.

I hate SAS. The reason ESPN exists is for the Rome-Horn-PTI block from 4:30-6 each weekday.

Looking @ it from an optimistic perspective, it gives the Cubs the ability to use Jerome Williams, Rich Hill & Cedeno in a trade or trades, which can net a starting pitcher or OF. Combined they'll likely make about 1/5th of what Rusch/Perez will. Overpaying and bidding against yourself doesn't excuse anything. You want to use Williams, Hill, and Cedeno for trade? Great but, that doesn't excuse kicking yourself in the groin in the process. Everyone focuses on which role they play under Baker, look at what they are making and what their past production merits. To me, they're both severely overpaid, regardless of roles. Where do you get "bidding against yourself???" It's what we mean by Hendry giving Neifi much more money than anyone would have offered him. A much lesser offer would have landed Neifi, but Hendry topped that, ergo "bidding against himself".

Is Augie available? can he play RF? Can he catch the ball?

Unfortunately, no comment from Steve Phillips about how good Furcal is at catching the ball.

Depending on the off-seasons the Reds and Pirates have, a 6th-place finish is not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Fixed :(

For the last time, it's not just about Neifi. It's about Neifi at the cost they paid, at the expense of a cheaper alternative, at the possible cost of being able to sign Giles because they think HE will be overpaid. It's about paying Neifi and Rusch $6m for next season, when neither of them are worth close to it. It's indicative of a lack of coherent direction, because we now have Cedeno, Walker Hairston and now Perez for basically the same role. No we don't. The Cubs will probably be unloading the best two of those (Cedeno and Walker) before the season starts. I hate this team sometimes.