jmajew

How in the world do you get the idea that the offense was better? They were worse across the board. They scored a couple more runs, but in relation to the league, got worse. whatever the outcome, that offense was not 13 games worse than last season. It may have scored more runs this year but it did not improve as much as the rest of the league. Thus making the offense much worse in comparison.

How in the world do you get the idea that the offense was better? They were worse across the board. They scored a couple more runs, but in relation to the league, got worse. I didn't say I thought they were better. I just said they were better in terms of runs scored. I was just attempting to show that our pitching staff fell off far more than our offense did this year and that pitching is the biggest problem. I am not an advocate of spending 15 million dollars on another bat for the lineup because it would still leaves holes in the lineup. I'd like to see us sign Mike Cameron and Julio Lugo for a combine 10-15 mil a year and then spend the rest of the money we have available on starting pitching, about 12-17 mil. I think our offense has more potential to improve without a big free agent splash than our pitching staff has of improving without one. Lugo, Theriot, DLee, Ramirez, Murton, Jones, Cameron, Barrett looks really good. However, unlikely cuz we all know Izturis will probably start next year.

What does he do best? It's certainly not field a great pitching staff, because he took what was a great pitching staff before he got the job, and ruined it. His lack of attention to walks has been as big a problem on the pitching side as it has on the hitting side. In fact, the best players he's acquired at the big league level have all been hitters. I completely disagree about it being more expensive to significantly upgrade the 2006 lineup. Your solution to fixing the rotatin is signing 2 very expensive starting pitchers, all of whom have stability questions. I want a top five run scoring team and a top 5 run preventing team. That's not asking too much. Limiting ourselves because certain teams got away with it for one year (and then got worse) doesn't make sense to me. This isn't a team that has to limit itself becasue of payroll. This should not be an either/or team. I am of the belief that pitching and defense wins Championships. However, that only rings true when you have an above average offense. The White Sox scored the 14th most runs in 2005 so their offense was above average. Yes their pitching won them the championship but their offense wasn't going to kill them. The simple fact of the matter is we either have to improve our pitching alot to make them top level and then improve the offense just enough to make them average or we need to improve the offense to top level and make the pitching atleast average. I think it will be more cost effective to make the pitching top level and the offense average. Then next offseason you tinker to get the offense into the top ten.

I just thought this was an interesting comparison between the 2005 and 2006 seasons. 2006: We were ranked 28th in runs with 716. Had an OBP of 319, SLG of 422, and OPS of 741. 2005: We were ranked 20th in runs with 703. Had an OBP of 324, SLG of 440, and OPS of 764. 2006: Our pitching staff allowed the 5th most runs with 834. Had the 4th best BAA at 255. WE allowed the most walks with 687. 2005: Our pitching staff allowed the 18th most runs with 714. Had the 5th best BAA at 250. WE allowed the 7th most walks with 576. I dont' really know what to make of this but I just found it interesting that our offense was better this year in terms of runs scored but our pitching staff was just that much worse. I'm not going to lie that it leaves me questioning the idea that our offense was our biggest problem this year.

While his average may have slipped, he still had a very respectable 365 OBP. The only Cubs who had a higher OBP than that were Theriot in his limited AB's and Lee and Barrett. Murton matched him in this area. His low BA does not affect his ability to get on base. With that 365 OBP, he produced a 490 SLG, his lowest in three years. That SLG combined with his OBP gave him a 855 OPS. Only three Cubs were better, Theriot (who won't repeat these numbers over a full season), Ramirez, and Barrett. Looking at only BA as a metric for Dunn is asinine. He's still extremely productive. Furthermore, he's only 26, there is time for him to improve his game. His adventures in the field are overplayed. Productive outs...excuse me. :lmao: I want a player who is good at not making outs. Dunn is one of those players. He's 26 years old and he already has three season of 900 or better OPS. He's never had a season under 800. The clutch argument against Dunn is a joke. With a man on third, with less than two outs, Dunn has a 355 OBP. In close and late situations, he has a 389 OBP. With runners in scoring position with two outs, he has a 410 OBP. In a line-up where he could be sandwitched with two good hitters as he could in Chicago, Dunn would be a great asset. With bases loaded, he batting 273, his OBP was a poor 214, but in those situations he slugs 636. Dunn would be a huge upgrade for this team. If we get Dunn that means Murton is useless. Murton put up an OPS of 809. Dunn's was only 855 this year and his career OPS is 893. I don't think he is worth the extra 7 million or so in salary. He is a good ball player but unless we get rid of Jones I dont want him and I don't think he will be that big of an improvement over Murton next year. I'd much rather look for upgrades in CF and 2B than I would look to replace Murton. Just to reiterate. If we can either trade Jones or move Jones to center I would take Dunn in a heartbeat. But if it means replacing Murton with him I think it would be a poor allocation of our resources and it would give us as big of an improvement as spending 7 million more on a secondbaseman.

IF the Yankees are going ot shop A-rod they will want starting pitching. I can see a deal of Prior, Veal, and Moore for A-rod being the kind of deal the Yankees would take. I know Prior is a huge risk but if healthy that trade would be an amazing deal for the Yankees.

If we are going to Trade for A-rod I gaurentee the Yankees will want Prior in the deal. I would assume they would want Prior, Veal, Dopirak, Pie. I know Prior is an injury risk but he is so cheap right now he is a gamble the Yankees can afford to take.

A's vs. Dodger's. I'm a huge fan of the A's. Plus I'd love to see Frank Thomas win world series and shove it in the White Sox face. I'd like to see the Dodgers in it and win for Nomar and Maddux.

First off, I'd like to apologize for my little rant earlier. I just see no reason to keep bashing someone over and over again. Say your piece and don't keep harping on it, in the same thread over and over and over again. I hate name calling it just makes people look ignorant. IF you want to make a critique, lay out facts and actually make an argument people will take you more seriously. Most people on this board do this, and it is what makes it so respected and it is why guys like Bruce Miles read it. Lets try to keep it that way. The point about screwing the fans with the whole scalping issue from our standpoint looks shady. But you have to admit in the business sense it was a shrewd move. He made more money for the team and that was his goal. If he can use that kind of ingenuity as President to help us win a world series I'd have no problem with it. It is proof that he can think out of the box. Just as a side note, McDonough would not have been my choice for President, but he is so we have to hope for the best.

seriously man the negativity has got stop. Give they guy a chance before you bash him. If someone can be a successful leader of the marketing department their is no reason he can't be a quality leader for the team. A President needs to surround himself with good people, if he does that all he has to do is lead them. McDonough seems to have succeeded in one thing so there is no reason to assume he cannot in another. If what you are saying is true why do major corporations hire people form different corporations. My uncle was president of a major liquor company and then got hired to run Slazenger/Maxfli. Those two things are not related, he was just a good businessman. The Cubs are a business. All business is related to one another. PS. If you are going to be this optimistic please don't monopolize the board. Make your pessimistic comment and leave it at that. Don't try to ruin it for everyone else. That ain't cool.

That is the scariest thing i've ever heard. I really wonder how realiable this guy is as a source. I can't see any team trading a 25 year old with an OPS of 810 in his first major league season and replace him with Gary Matthews who even in his career year only has an OPS of 868. If you put Matthews in CF for two years I can handle that but definitely not if you are trading Murton.

The splits would be skewed cause right handers hit better against lefties, which would be the only time TheRiot would be hitting right handed as a switch hitter. That may not be true because Theriot vs RH in his stint in the majors this year is very comparable to him vs LH. I do not expect him to keep up the pace he is at, that would be foolish.

Is there any way we can get Theriots splits in the minors. Up until 2005 he was a switch hitter. I would like to see what he was batting as a Lefty and a Righty in the years before that. As of now I am taking the stance that his 2005-06 MiLB stats are more of what we should expect because of the switch to batting righty full time. If his OPS is only 750 but he can put up an OBP of 350 i'd be more than willing to let him start and bat second or leadoff. Just my two cents.

It is going to be extremely hard for anyone to stop the Yankees. There is not one even remotely easy out in that lineup. Since the All-star break the Yankees have added three all-stars to their lineup; Abreu, Sheffield, and Matsui. It is simply disgusting.

I'm sorry. I can't believe people are even debating on whether or not Crawford will be an upgrade next year. I have a serious man crush on Theriot but i'm not going to use him and say we sign Loretta. Loretta, Crawford, Lee, Ramirez, Jones, Murton, Barrett, Izturis is a drastic improvement. Gallagher, Mateo/Marmol/Marshall, Cedeno/Moore should be able to net us Crawford. Crawford will improve he is only 25. He may never be a superstar but no matter what if he stays at the same level he is at now he will be an extremely valuable chip for any franchise.

But here's the thing - adding Crawford adds only 4 million for 2007, a cost made up by pursuing a couple 1 million dollar bench players (or cheaper) instead of some higher profile 2.5 million bench guys. In other words, you can almost wash the salary of Crawford while adding an .850 OPS CF to your roster. So adding Crawford could allow the team to also add Soriano and Schmidt, while retaining Ramirez. The opportunity cost of losing Hill is worth it, IMO. What if you can't sign Schmidt or Zito? There are other teams out there with deep pockets, you know. I've never heard either of those players express interest in Chicago. Then you're looking at a rotation of Zambrano and who else? Prior and Miller shouldn't be counted on at all. Our young uns need more time in the minors and shouldn't be viewed as anything other than #5 starters. Crawford doesn't make your offense so overwelming that you can get away with one ace and a bunch of rookies. You don't make the playoffs with a rotation that barren. I'm not seeing how keeping Hill with that group somehow legitimizes the rotation. I think his point was that we shouldn't hurt our rotation so drastically by trading a pitcher who is as of right now our #2 for next year. At this point in time I would say Rich Hill has to be untradable, he has now "succeeded" at the major league level so he is no longer as big of a risk as Gallagher and Veal.

I would like to think a package of Gallagher, Cedeno, and Marmol would get us Crawford. The D-rays need a SS and they get a Pitcher who could help them next year in Marmol and a pitcher who has top of the rotation potential. Their OF is jammed with Baldelli, Crawford, Young, Gomes(eventhough he is pretty bad). So they will need to trade one of them. Gomes won't net them much and young is untradeable. Even if they decide to trade Baldelli I'd look at it. He is almost the same player as Crawford. Same average, OBP, SLG, the only difference being Crawford steal more bases.

Bold prediction...Larry Rothschild will be our next manager. I have a feeling the reason he stayed with the Cubs this past offseason was because Hendry made the promise that if Baker fails this year that Rothschild will get the shot next year. The only problem with my theory is that Hendry then could have fired Baker in the middle of the season and put Rothschild in charge.

I thought that at first too. But an outfield for the next 5-10 years of Murton, Pie, Crawford looks pretty darn good to me. With regards to Vance saying they'd want Hill. I was thinking maybe they'd take either Veal or Gallagher in a package with some other prospects as well. Not really sure though.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/scorecard/09/26/truth.rumors.mlb/index.html I just thought it was interesting that Carl Crawford would be available. He coudl be someone the Cubs would look at to replace Pierre in CF. Then when Pie is ready move him to RF. His stats. 303 BA/345OBP/480 SLG/825 OPS/56 SB/ 9 CS The last two stats add up to a 86% success rate compared to Pierre's 74%.

I think it would take Marshall and Pie.....or if the Cubs weren't willing to trade Felix. Marshall, Cedeno, and Marmol. I think they will want pitching...that is clearly where they need depth. So something along the lines of Marshall, Cedeno, Mateo, and Marmol. I also believe I heard the rumor forgot from where, maybe ESPN, that if the Blue Jays trade Wells they will go very hard after Soriano. My bet is they would get him because of the tax benefits of playing in Canada, Soriano seems like he would be that kind of guy.

If the cubs were to trade for Wells and we then gave him an extension it would probably be along the lines of 4 years and 40-48 million. Our CF problem and our big bat problem would be solved for years to come. You can eventually either trade Pie or play him in RF in 2008. If we trade for Wells we will not need to go after Soriano which means we could spend more money on the pitching staff. Wells would clearly give us more financial flexibility than signing Soriano would.

You need to try to get Vernon Wells. He is the perfect solution, not only for next year but for the future. He will be 28 when the season begins next year. He should have 3-5 more exceptional years left. The only question is what will it take to get Wells? For that matter whta would it take to get Andruw Jones? If they want too much we may have to look at someone like Mike Cameron to play center.

1) Trade Marmol, Pie, Marshall, Novoa for Vernon Wells. 2) Sign Schmidt to 4/45 10,11,12,12 3) Sign Craig Wilson 2/7 4) Sign Vincente Padilla 3/18 5) Sing Vernon Wells to a 5/55 deal 6) Re-sign Ramirez 4/52 2b Theriot .33 mil LF Murton .35 mil 1B DLee 13 mil 3b Ramirez 13 mil CF Wells 11 mil RF Jones 4 mil C Barrett 4.5 mil SS Izturis 4 mil Bench Wilson 3.5 mil Cedeno .35 mil Moore .33 mil Soto .33 mil Pagan .35 mil Rotation Zambrano 10 mil Schmidt 10 mil Padilla 6 mil Hill .35 mil Prior 4.5 mil Pen Dempster 5 mil Howry 4 mil Eyre 3.5 mil Wuertz .35 mil Ohman 1 mil Aardsma .35 mil total payroll=99.74 million I used Vance's salaries.

What gives you the impression that Theriot can perform at an Eckstien level? Eckstein in college and with the exception of one half season in the minors posted OBP in excess of 400. Theriot has not come close to that. Why do you think Theriot projects to have those numbers other than the fact he's scrappy and white like Eckstein? The cost of your team if you get Wells or Jones will greatly exceed mine. If I could get Wells or Jones, I would as well. I still wouldn't get Padilla and if I had those, I'd likely pursue Durham which would still be a better option than Theriot. I like Ryan. As an LSU fan, I hope he will suceed as a Cub, but there's nothing in his history that projects to anything like what Eckstein has done. Your hopes for Theriot are based on a measley 100 AB's. It's pie-in-the-sky thinking. Cedeno has just as much liklihood of becoming Tejada as Theriot has of becoming Eckstein. Honestly, I think it because certain people develop at different rates than others. I think Theriot is just now figuring it out. I don't think he can keep up his 412 OBP but I definitely think he can keep up his 350 OBP. Like he has had every year in the minors since his first two. If you don't give the kid a chance you will never know what he can do. He has played well this past month so he deserves the chance just like Cedeno did last year. However, the difference being Cedeno only had one good year in the minors where Theriot has had two and Theriot has always shown good plate discipline. I also don't understand the fascination with us adding more power to the Lineup. Adding a healthy Derrek Lee and getting a platoon for Jones should give us more than enough pop in the middle of the order. You can expect the 3-4-5 all to give you atleast 30 homeruns. You can expect Barrett to hit his 15 and Murton to hit between 15-20. We have enough power. Our team lacks OBP and Soriano besides this year does not provide that. I'm not going to debate that Theriot hasn't shown nice plate discipline. He's also a lot older than Cedeno. You're exactly right in that without the chance, we'll never know. But what if we give him the chance, and he posts a 260/320/335 line. Then say goodby to contention in 2007 because with the other pieces we have in place, the line-up cannot sustain that level of production. Unlike other teams or other situations, the Cubs are really not in a position to gamble with Theriot at second, especially when there are better options available. If we were stronger in other spots, it might be prudent. If Theriot had a higher ceiling and a higher level of performance in the minors, maybe. But he doesn't. Our team doesn't just lack OBP, it lacks both OBP and SLG. This team needs one more slugger. It's not just important to get on base, and believe me, I believe that is important, but it is also important to have some feared hitters that can drive the ball with authority. If not, we will still have to produce too many baserunners to be effieciently scoring runs. Unless we get that slugger in left by moving Murton or in CF, we'll need to get it at second base or by trading for it at SS. Since I don't see Hendry moving Izturis, and I think trading for Jones from Atlanta is ify, and I value Murton's projections over Theriot, second is the ideal place to get that missing component of the line-up. I really think what is happening here is that Theriot is a likeable player. He hustles, he's scrappy, and he's all the things we like in a ballplayer. He's also a product of our system. We all would want the chance if in his shoes, so we root for him. That's all good. But when baseball teams make decisions based on sappy sentimentality, more times than not, they fail. Soriano may represent all that is bad in the game. But his bat makes the most sense for our line-up in 2007. Does it suck to be Theriot in that situation? Yes, it does. I wish it weren't so, but I want the Cubs to win more than I want what's best for The Riot. Only if there was some way to get Hendry to dump Izturis and put Theriot at SS.