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Radar3454

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Everything posted by Radar3454

  1. Radar3454
    Does he still get his guaranteed $$ for the year or did he give it up by retiring?
  2. Radar3454
    insider - http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=law_keith#20070126 fyi - He values prospects close to the majors highly 19. Chi. Cubs: Other than the enigmatic Felix Pie, there isn't much close to the majors here. Other teams of interest 1. Tampa Bay 2. Colorado: 3. Arizona: 4. Kansas City: 5. N.Y. Yankees: 9. Milwaukee: 14. Boston 15. Cincinnati 16. Chi. White Sox 18. Houston: 20. Pittsburgh: 28. St. Louis 30. San Diego
  3. Radar3454
    This doesn't make sense. If soriano is playing CF it's because were are not gonna play Pie yet and we will have Jones in right. It absolutely makes sense. Soriano has said he wants one position and to be left there. Putting him in CF now and moving him to RF when Pie arrives is silly. Making him learn two new positions is not best for Soriano or the team's defense. I guarantee you Jones plays a better CF right now than Soriano does. Pie leaves them both in the dust. I'll give you Pie but I don't know about Jones being better then Soriano in CF. Soriano is faster and has a better arm and I think he played a better LF than Jones did RF last year.
  4. Radar3454
    I think it is both - if not for football he might have been a top 10 pick.
  5. Radar3454
    I think you have it right except for Wood - I hope you are wrong about Jones - if not we had better get value back for him.
  6. Radar3454
    Thinking about big names and came up with Helton, Manny, Peavy, A Jones, Willis, Cabrera, Penny in addition toTejada, ARod, and Crawford could be involved. I am definetely intrigued.
  7. Radar3454
    Can someone clue me in on what happenned w/ Hill after the Barrett/AJ game? What did he do and what did Dusty and others say?
  8. Radar3454
    I think Boston is offering a very fair deal considering the leverage they have. To suggest Matsuzaka HAS to go back to Japan b/c of the offer is crazy to me. He has to decide if he would rather take less than he would be worth as a FA but still a significant offer or go back to Japan and go thru the posting process again next year or wait until he can be a FA which I believe is next April.
  9. Radar3454
    Depending on the contract I could like this signing - he has not done nearly as well as he should considering his talent. Hopefully it is a low risk contract that can really pay off if his results start to match his stuff.
  10. Radar3454
    That was Lamar - they seemed more willing to do deals under the new mgmnt last year. I think they will make a trade this offseason.
  11. Radar3454
    I know I am in the minority but I would have a hard time paying that much to a player that doesn't play hard all the time, is ok defensivly, has nagging injuries, and isn't in the best shape even if he is a great hitter. That being said he will be very hard to replace.
  12. Radar3454
    He knows Zito will get big $$ but he thinks he is very overrated. This is his report Zito has long been considered the prize starter on the 2006-07 free agent market; he's one of only two available Cy Young Award winners (with Greg Maddux), he's left-handed, and he's put up great numbers while throwing most of his innings in pitchers' parks with great outfield defenses behind him. Zito needs to pitch somewhat backwards to be successful. His fastball is below-average, usually around 84-86 mph and occasionally touching 88, with a little run but no sink. He has two plus secondary pitches: a changeup with good fade and tail, a pitch on which he maintains his arm speed extremely well, and his famous curveball, with a huge, two-plane break, a pitch he can throw for strikes when he needs to or throw down and away against left-handed batters to finish them off. What Zito brings to the table is durability; he's never had a major injury and has topped 210 innings in every full season he's spent in the big leagues. That sort of predictability is valuable, especially in a market full of guys with serious injuries in their recent histories. Zito is a third or fourth starter with the reputation of a one or a two. In fact, over the last three years, he's struggled badly when facing the two premier offenses in the AL, posting a 6.59 ERA against Boston and the Yankees while walking 47 men and allowing 18 homers in 83.3 innings. His control is below-average; only Daniel Cabrera has walked more batters in the last two years than Zito has. And should Zito's stuff slip at all, he becomes a fifth starter or a guy who needs to head to the National League, the current destination for asylum-seekers who fear AL persecution of their fringy fastballs.
  13. Radar3454
    Keith Law posted his top 40 FA's for espn but it is an insider article so I will only post 10 that the Cubs might have interest in and a couple others that I think are interesting. Mods feel free to delete if needed. He doesn't predict contracts or where they will sign but he has a scouting report for each of them. 1. Aram 2. Matsuzaka 3. Soriano 4. Schmidt 7. C. Lee 8. J.D. Drew 12. T. Lilly 13. G. Meche 15. B. Zito 19. D. Roberts 23. N. Garciaparra 31. Kei Igawa (japanese LHP) 33. V. Padilla - 34. R. Aurilia 35. G. Matthews Jr. 40. J. Pierre http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/columns/story?columnist=law_keith&id=2655094
  14. Radar3454
    Just putting it in play should never be the focus. I think the focus can be more on hitting it far in the air, but unless the defense is conceding the run, and/or the runner on 3rd is fast, putting it in play might not help much at all. Putting it in play, to me, just means making easy outs. They need to put some authority behind their swing. At 2 strikes you can't be as picky, but you also can't just slap at anything that comes up there. I am suprised by the responses and it may be b/c I was not clear. I think most borderline pitches can be hit well and your approach w/ 2 strikes cannot be to still to look for a pitch in a certain zone.
  15. Radar3454
    i am very happy with this signing. what an amazing switch in philosophy. nobody that i know has ever advocated going up there looking for a walk. it's exactly like perry says, shrink the strike zone, look for a pitch in that area. if the pitch is borderline, don't swing, even if you have two strikes. the likelihood that a hitter is going to get a good swing on a questionable pitch is poor anyway, unless the hitter is pujols, vlad, or aram. I am with you until 2 strikes - at that point you can't let borderline pitches go IMO. I wonder what he thinks of a platoon partner for Jones?
  16. Radar3454
    Overall that would make me sick but I would much rather spend $$$ on Matthews than Pierre.
  17. Radar3454
    http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/mlb/article/0,2777,DRMN_23924_5083133,00.html According to this link draft pick compensation will be eliminated and there will be a slotting system for draft picks. Kudos to both sides if they in fact do come to an extension.
  18. Radar3454
    I am not a fan of Lou either but I remember being suprised when he was announcing a game this year and talking about how the Cubs have to value OBP more - I think he said he doesn't know what OPS is which as long as he values OBP and Slugging is not that important.
  19. Radar3454

    Radar3454 replied to Banedon's topic in Chicago Cubs Talk

    I did not the deal at all at 1st and I still think we could have done better but he definitely exceeded his contract this year and at his age we should not see much of a drop off in the next 2 years IMO so the deal is looking a lot better to me. I would still really like for us to find a platoon partner for him.
  20. Radar3454
    I was just thinking there was some room for hope in that regard. He has been with the organization for a long time, though, so hard to say if opinions have already been calcified. At the risk of being a contrarian, I think the Cubs have been excellent at times in player evaluation. They traded Choi, Bobby Hill, and Brendan Harris while acquiring DLee, Aram, and Murton. Unlike most of this board, the Cubs were on target about Jacque's abilities. The problem isn't scouting, it's not relying on stats as well as scouting. Finding a platoon partner for Jacque, batting high OBP guys #1 and #2, etc. The management team needs balance, not a complete overhaul. *sigh*...the problem with Jones, for the millionth time, wasn't that people thought he wouldn't perform well this season. It was that we didn't think he was obtained at a good price, and for a reasonable length of time. If he maintains this same level of play for 3 years, then maybe you'll have a point. Well, this day in age I think his production was just fine for only 5 M/year. But that's THIS YEAR! Forget this year. In the last year of his deal, will he perform well enough for his salary? That's the argument. Ok, I hear you, but you can only go by what he has done so far. Nobody know what he will do in year 3, its kind of pointless to argue that right now. You can only discuss what he has done so far, which was a pretty good year. Let's sign him to a 40 year $6 billion contract What, you don't know how he'll do, he hasn't done it yet. edit: oh, and yay, I guess. Huh? Only point i was making is that Jacque was just fine this year based on his salary. But instead of acknowledging that fact, most are quick to point out that he has two more years left on the deal. There is more factual evidence (at this point in time) to support this deal being a decent one as opposed to a bad one. I was very against the signing but I have to admit that he did much better than I expected and it looks like a solid deal. I still hope they get him a platoon partner though.
  21. Radar3454
    I haven't seen him play much but since early in the season I thought he played really well in LF and isn't even comparable to Dunn. It isn't like Pierre is very good anyway.
  22. Radar3454
    who is wilson?
  23. Radar3454
    I have not been around much this year b/c I find it fairly depressing but Baker should be gone soon so I am getting interested again - I apologize if this has been discussed previously. Soriano seems like a great fit for CF - CF is actually easier to play than the corners as long as you have enough speen to cover ground which he does and he has done better than expected in LF(I think he would be at least as good as Pierre). His bat would be great in center or 2nd but his defense is terrible at 2nd. If we signed Soriano and resign Ramirez our lineup would be solid w/ theriot, murton, soriano, lee, aram, barrett, jones, izturis - not necessarily in than order. I would think many teams would be interested in him in cf but I have not heard anything - can anyone let me know why?
  24. Radar3454
    I would be willing to wager Pierre gets at least a 3/21 and unfortunately it will be with the Cubs. I like the fact that he plays everyday and hustles but he needs to be better at getting on base and defense since he has absolutely no power.
  25. Radar3454
    Good article about this from Caple http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/offbase/060607
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