jmajew

I've been looking at some former Cub prospects who were considered can't miss and i find myself scratching my head and wondering what makes a good prospect. Corey Patterson http://thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Corey-Patterson.shtml He never once put up great numbers in the minors. So why did we assume he was going to be a great pro. Was it simply becasue he was so toolsy? Kevin Orie http://thebaseballcube.com/players/O/Kevin-Orie.shtml He put up great numbers in the minors but for some reason was never able to make it in the pros. You can't blame the Cubs for having faith in this guy. David Kelton http://thebaseballcube.com/players/K/Dave-Kelton.shtml This guy never once put up good numbers in the minors but for some unknown reason was at one point untradeable. I wish this could be explained to me. Brian Dopirak http://thebaseballcube.com/players/D/Brian-Dopirak.shtml He put up one season of great numbers when he was 20. You can not blame the Cubs for expecting him to become a good ballplayer. Matt Murton http://thebaseballcube.com/players/M/Matt-Murton.shtml He has put up good numbers at every level and has been performing well at the majors. Throughout his career in the minors he never hit for power but he was expected to in the majors. Seems pretty unrealistic and because he isn't for power he will probably be coming off the bench next year. Granted he is only 24 so his power could still develop, maybe even with a lil swing adjustment. Ricky Nolasco http://thebaseballcube.com/players/N/Ricky-Nolasco.shtml He had great numbers in the minors. However, he got traded. My bet is we could have traded some other pitcher for Pierre and kept Nolasco. His ceiling may not have been as high as others so we were willing to give him up eventhough he will be a solic pro. Felix Pie http://thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Felix-Pie.shtml He has put up good numbers at every level. Wouldn't it be safe to say he is a better prospect than Patterson was? I just don't see how a player can be a top prospect when he didn't put up good numbers in the minors. Plus wouldn't it be safer if we drafted more College players. Granted Brownlie and Christiansen have failed, but they same to have a better track record. Look at the A's. Zito, Hudson, Mulder, Huston Street, Bobby Crosby, and Nick Swisher all went to college. I'm just frustrated with the Cubs saying this young guys have so much potential even though they can't put up good numbers in the minors. I'm sick of potential. Why not go with the safer bets, guys who are older and have performed well in college.[/url]

I don't remember it that way, at all. Yeah, that isn't anywhere close to the truth. I think most people would rather have signed Lofton and gotten basicall the exact same production. It would have only cost us a lot less.

I have always believed that Marcus Giles would be a better 2nd hitter than leadoff. I know the stats don't prove this other than this year. So i really have no basis for saying this other than what i remember vaguely. I could deal with a lineup of Pierre, Giles, DLEE, Ramirez, Barrett, Murton, Jones, Izturis. If Murotn progesses and you mix it up for RH and LH starters it could be pretty successful. Get a platoon for Jones and bat them 5th, Craig Wilson.

I know I already posted some ideas in this thread but here is another set. Sign Lofton to play CF for 3 mil, 2008 will be Pie. Sign Craig Wilson to a two year 6 million dollar deal. Platoon him with Jones. Sign Soriano to play second 5/75 seems about right for him. For the rotation you need one more solid starter. Guys like Mulder, Zito, Schmidt would be great. The only problem is I don't think we should break the bank for another pitcher. No more than 11 mil a year. So that probably rules out Zito and Schmidt, plus Zito is overrated and Scmidt is getting old. IF we can get them for that great. But otherwise we should look at Mulder, Gil Meche, Cory Lidle, Tomo Ohka. I'd even look to trade for Freddy Garcia. If the guy from Japan, Matasuka(I hope i'm close), is as good as everyone says i think he would be worth the 11 mil-15 mil range, mainly because he is still young and will just be hitting his prime. Our Bullpen is set already. Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Wuertz, Ohman, Aardsma/Novoa/etc. Our bench we can fill with young players/inexpensive players. Jones/Wilson, Pagan, Cedeno, Fox(backup C), Theriot, and Resterovich. Lineups RH Lofton Murton DLEE Ramirez Jones Soriano Barrett Izturis LH Lofton Murton DLEE Ramirez Soriano Barrett Wilson Izturis This would put our payroll somewhere around 100-110 mil

Heres a suggestion. Sign Soriano. Vs Righties play him at second and have Jones in Right. Vs Lefties have him play right and put cedeno at second. Then you can Keep Murton in Left. The two lineups would be: RH Pierre Murton DLee Ramirez Jones Soriano Barrett Izturis/Cedeno LH Pierre Murton DLEE Ramirez Soriano Barrett Theriot/Cedeno Izturis/Cedeno I think this would be a pretty decent lineup.

Barrets 900 OPS would be in the lineup for 150 games if he moves to LF. As of now he is only in the lineup about 130 times a year. My point is simply that there are worse ideas. It would help the offense if he could play more games. If we could sign Bengie Molina in the offseason it is something I would consider. It is definitely not ideal. If we could move Barrett to second that would be ideal. He did play 3b for the Expos at one point in time so I would bet he could handle playing 2b.

It seems to me there is two moves Jim Hendry will be interested in making this offseason. First, he will attempt to sign Soriano and then he will try to sign a top of the rotation pitcher, Zito or Schmidt preferably, but I can see Hendry over paying for Mulder. Other than that I bet the team would maintain the status quo. What he should do is look at the holes on this team. We need a center fielder, and a second basemen, another high slg bat, and a high OBP leadoff hitter, someone to platoon with Jones, and another starting pitcher. The centerfielder we should go after in a 2 yr/10 mil deal is Mike Cameron(Thus giving Pie some more time). The second baseman we should go after is Mark Loretta or Julio Lugo. The platoon partner for Jones we already have in the organization in resterovich. The pitchers we should look at are the same ones I believe hendry with go after. Proposed lineup RH (OBP) Loretta/Lugo (350) Murton (360) Lee (380) Ramirez (360) Barrett (365) Jones (335) Cameron (340) Izturis (310) LH (OBP) Loretta/Lugo Murton Lee Ramirez Barrett Cameron Resterovich (335) Izturis For Jones and Resterovich I figured assuming they would only play in the platoon that their numbers would not get pulled lower. I think this is a good way to build a team that can be competetive for next season but also not hurt our future.

First off, if the cubs signed Furcal, Pierre still would have been on the team. Hendry wanted them both, he said it numerous times. Second, If the cubs signed Furcal would we have had the money to waste on Jones? A lineup (assuming what i said earlier is correct) of Pierre, Furcal, Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Walker, Patterson, Murton would not look all that bad, compared to what we got now.

I think this has more to do with finding a way to play both Ensberg and Huff. Now they will have a lineup of Biggio, Taveras, Berkman, Ensberg, Huff, Burke, Ausmus, Everett.

I'm a firm believer that fundamentals are neccessary to win. I believe in clutch hitting, and I believe in giving it your all 100% of the time. When Ramirez doesn't hustle I get upset. The reason being that I believe everyone should always give it their best effort no matter what. It is just like any other job. I think everyone should give 100% no matter what. Whether you work at McDonalds, in an office, as a salesman, or play pro sports I think you should give your whole heart all the time. If you look at all the truly great players in any sport they all wore their hearts on their sleeves. Brett Favre(I hate him but he does), Cal Ripken Jr, Griffey Jr (remember when he ran into the wall catching a ball and broke his wrist), Jordan would play with a fever and still have games of his life. I hate guys who don't play up to their potential because they don't have the motivation. First off, I hope my post didn't come off as being too caustic. My 3 week old has been keeping me up all week, so I'm a bit edgy. I shouldn't generalize like I did. My main point was that the majority of the fanbase has not correctly identified the reasons why our team isn't good. They have an idea, albiet a very basic, general one, but until they realize that Ramirez's hustle is an annoying but not fatal flaw, or that it's not that Dusty should be fired not because he doesn't yell enough, but because he's a really bad manager with glaring tactical and strategic flaws, we're not going to see any change come about. MacPhail probably hears the complaining of the fanbase as being indicative of a fanbase upset about a losing season, and not a failed direction. That's a problem. This organization is pointed in the completely wrong direction. First off congrats, second no offense taken I just have little thing about people not doing their best at all times. Third, I think all people really want is a manager who is willing to hold their players accountable for their actions. As far as I can tell Baker only rips the players he doesn't like and lets the ones he does like to get a free pass. Personally I like fiery managers. Even Joe Girardi pulls players aside during the game to reprimand them. I love that kind of stuff. I believe it gets the best out of people. You have to show that you are not scared to be harsh but that you also have their back. Just as an example, a good boss at any business is willing to yell and scold their employees when they make a mistake but they are also willing to praise them and when something bad happens, say a family member gets sick or something, they go out of their way to help out the family. Basically all managers need is repsect from their players, they shouldn't be friends with them. The tactics is an entirely different breed and I think we can all agree that Baker is horrible when is comes to that. Like over using Zambrano, No pitcher should throw more than 100 pitches more than 2 starts in a row, imho. I Hope that made sense

Rocket, you know as well as I do that this management team doesn't give a rat crap about what anyone thinks outside their inner circle of scouts and coaches. God, being a Cubs fan absolutely sucks. I know, but I'm not asking him to point out an opinion. Just print Dusty's quote about Hanley's AAA numbers then Bruce simply respond with the facts. Then the reader can see what a moron Dusty is without Bruce having to say anything. But are we the majority of the fanbase? I think we're the somewhat vocal minority. I think the majority of Cub fans are the sort that call sports radio and complain about Ramirez's hustle, Wood and Prior being soft, and yearn for a fire and brimstone manager. They believe in clutchiness and old baseball mystique about pitching, defense, and fundamentals. They understand Baker is a problem, but on a very basic level. They fail to comprehend the enormity of the wreck he (and Hendry) have made this team. They don't recognize the uselessness of half the players on the roster. They don't understand that you can have a $90m payroll and waste half of it away on terrible baseball players, and it won't do any good. They LOVE Cesar Izturis and his RBI-creating glove. They complain about the Trib's "lack of committment to winning", when they've increased payroll a ton since the mid 1990's and spend over $100m in 2004 on a team that by all rights should have gone to the playoffs. They don't understand that it was an unreasonable workload on top of flawed mechanics, and not a lack of guts, or a stubbornness to alter said mechanics that led to Wood's shoulder exploding. They look 16 blocks south or whatever it is and see Guillen and a World Series, and think that what they need is a team of grinderballers who play "smart" ball. That majority would read Bruce's column with those stats and either not grasp the signifigance of it, or would dismiss it out of hand because prospects' numbers in the minors don't mean anything, good or bad. I love Bruce. I respect him and appreciate the advocacy he shows on our behalf, but the hopelessness of it all it just mind blowing. I'd rather have an interviewer point this crap out live, and make Baker or Hendry respond. Get tape of one of them stammering, grasping for a response. THAT's what I want. Calling their idiocy out in print isn't helping. Bruce has been doing it for nearly 2 years now, and perceptions haven't drastically changed. Just, anybody, PLEASE grap a stat sheet before an interview or press conference. I'm a firm believer that fundamentals are neccessary to win. I believe in clutch hitting, and I believe in giving it your all 100% of the time. When Ramirez doesn't hustle I get upset. The reason being that I believe everyone should always give it their best effort no matter what. It is just like any other job. I think everyone should give 100% no matter what. Whether you work at McDonalds, in an office, as a salesman, or play pro sports I think you should give your whole heart all the time. If you look at all the truly great players in any sport they all wore their hearts on their sleeves. Brett Favre(I hate him but he does), Cal Ripken Jr, Griffey Jr (remember when he ran into the wall catching a ball and broke his wrist), Jordan would play with a fever and still have games of his life. I hate guys who don't play up to their potential because they don't have the motivation. With all of that said, I am a firm believer in everything this board talks about. I think OBP and SLG are probably the two most important stats in all of baseball. I hate Hendry and Baker for being ignorant to those numbers and I hate the fact that Baker rode his starters too hard back in 2003. I apologize for this rant but I'm sure I am not the only person on this board who feels this way. I don't think the new school thought of strictly stats is right all by itself. I think a team needs a mix of both old and new school. If a reporter actually asked Hendry and Baker those questions they would probably lose their posh job of being the Cubs beat writer. Frankly can you blame them? I wish someone would ask them those questions. I'd love to see their reactions. However, they have their jobs and are making their millions so does it really matter to them what others think. They are paid to do a job and are trying to do it. The problem isn't with Hendry and Baker it is with the man who put them in charge. Andy MacPhail is to blame more so than Hendry or Baker. Heck, the tribune compnay is even more to blame, they should have fired MacPhail years ago, and then brought in a guy who would fire Hendry and then Hendry's replacement could fire Baker. You can't blame them for not spending enough money but you can blame them for who they put in charge.

I don't know if i agree 100% with the notion that managers don't win titles. I believe they are part of the equation and that in order to win you need the right manager to handle the players. Like Dusty Baker would not be a good fit for the 2003 Marlins. Other than that I love Len. He knows his baseball. I also love the fact that he is passionate enough about it that he is willing to argue for what he believes. I don't know if anyone else feels this way but Hendry and Baker seem to feel that just because they have their jobs that their opinions have to be right. I believe it is healthy for them to have to debate and explain why they believe certain things. I know their opinions may not change but atleast we can learn where they are coming from. Hopefully making their decisions more understandable. The fact we are left in the dark makes it hard for fans to understand why they are doing these things.

Aram still has absolutely no range. He is still average at the best defensively. He doesn't get to as many balls as guys like Rolen, Jones, and Zimmerman therefore he makes more routine plays and has less chances to make errors than the others.

Can you explain IsoP to me? Thanks IsoP = SLG - AVG Basically a ratio extra bases per at bat. For example, if a guy goes 11 for 30 with 3 doubles, then he'll have a .367 AVG and a .467 SLG. If another guy goes 8 for 30 with 3 doubles and a home run, he'll have a .267 AVG and a .467 SLG. Even though it's obvious the second player hit for more power, they have identical SLG. However, if you look at IsoP, you can see the first player (.100 IsoP) is less powerful than the second (.200). Thanks, now i won't feel like an idiot when i see people talking about it.

Can you explain IsoP to me? Thanks

Does anyone see it being possible to trade Jones in the offseason. It seems to me that if we can move him we have room for our two young players while still allowing ourselves to sign another bat. I'm sure I'm repeating myself but I trully see our offense only being one player away. I think the guy we need is Soriano. Pierre, Murton, Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Barrett, Izturis, Cedeno is a lineup that can compete everday. My favorite situation would be to trade for Andruw Jones. We could put him in Center and move Pierre to left and put Murton in right. Not only would our offense be improved but our defense up the middle would be the best in baseball, which i'm sure could only help the pitching staff.

I really believe Murton has earned a starting spot for next year. He has not hit for a lot of power but he is only 24. That comes with time. He will learn when to look for certain pitches that he can try to drive out of the park. Right now he is more of a defensive hitter. He doens't know what is coming and therefore just tries to put the ball in play. The only problem with Murton starting next year is it give us no room for improvement offensively if we keep Jones, unless we let Pierre go and move Jones to center. The trade for Cesar Izturis means that Hendry plans on using both Cedeno and Izturis up the middle next year. Lineups keep running through my head for next year and it seems like we only have two options. Move Jones to center and go for CLee or bench Cedeno and go for Soriano. If we move Jones to center that means Izturis will bat leadoff, which would be a complete disaster. The best scenario I can come up with is finding a way to trade Jacque Jones. If we can trade him we can sign CLee, Soriano, or Sheffield (My preference being Soriano). We could then resign Pierre. Pierre, Murton, Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Barrett, Izturis, Cedeno is a lineup that can produce some runs. Sorry if i was rambling. I just feel as if Murton is going to be given a raw deal. Just because he cannot hit for power yet does not mean he isn't valuable to this team. He is the perfect 2 hitter for us next year, but the contract Jones has is going to force us to give up on Murton in order to improve the offense. When the fact of the matter is we can improve the offense more by getting rid of Jones. Jones's low OBP is going to kill us next year because he cannot bat at the top of the order. We will be forced to use Izturis up there. Once again sorry for the rant. Any ideas though? Am I right in assuming these things? Are my ideas valid? Edit: Murton with runners in scoring position. AVG 289, OBP 385, SLG 474, OPS 859. I'm not so certain he is incapable of driving in runs. Maybe the problem is he doesn't get enough opportunities.

If Hendry would make a deal for Jones that would be amazing. It would make this team interesting again. Pierre, Izturis(unfortunately batting second), Lee, Jones, Ramirez, Barrett, Jones/Murton, Cedeno. Not only would our offense be improved but our defense up the middle would probably be the best in baseball, which is good a for a young pitching staff.

If Wood works out great next year in the Pen it would make Dempster available and we all know how valuable closers are in this league so we could probably get something pretty sweet back in return. At least some top prospect.

Carlos Lee has been "the man" in Milwaukee since he got there. This is the 1st time in his career Soriano has been the best player on his team. See that is my point though. He was in a low pressure situation in Milwaukee. I want someone who knows what the pressure is like to play in a Chicago, Boston, or New York.

I definitely agree defense doesn't win championships. Great players win championships. The D-Backs won because of schilling and Johnson. The Red Sox because of Martinez, Schilling, Manny, Ortiz. The White Sox because of their 5 great pitchers in the playoffs. The Miami Heat won because of Dwayne Wade the Bulls won 6 Championships because of Jordan and Pippen. My point is simply that what the Cubs need is a couple of realiable superstars who are more than willing to carry the load. Then we need to put solid role players around them to fill the gaps. Barrett, Izturis, Murton/Jones fit the bill. I do not think Carlos Lee is the answer in Left. I would much rather have someone like Soriano who is more accustumed to being the man and being in the spotlight.

When talking about the Cubs/Cardinals he said that the two teams basically switched identities. With the Cardinals being the ones making mental mistakes and other poor decisions. While he was in the middle of this statement he abrubtly cut off. Don't know if Comcast had something to do with it or if he realized what he was saying and stopped.

Pierre and Izturis are likely 1 and 2. I Pierre gets his OBP up to about 340 this year like he is on pace to do he is a pretty solid leadoff hitter. If the intent is to bat Izturis 2, then this trade was not smart. Izturis is nothing more than a 7 or 8 hitter with incredible defense. Pierre, even at .340, is not a solid hitter, no matter where he bats. They've hit Neifi in the 2 hole more than any other spot this year and last. I believe they think Izturis is a better version of that same thing. If what you are saying is the truth then i take back everything i've said about this trade all day.

Pierre and Izturis are likely 1 and 2. I Pierre gets his OBP up to about 340 this year like he is on pace to do (he has been playing great since the start of June) he is a pretty solid leadoff hitter. If the intent is to bat Izturis 2, then this trade was not smart. Izturis is nothing more than a 7 or 8 hitter with incredible defense.

I'm more concerned with Murton than Cedeno when it comes to what players this organization has given up on. The fact that Phil Nevin received plenty of playing time since his acquisition while Murton's time on the field gradually decreased at first signalled a possible trade to me. However, unless a waiver deal is in the works, that does not seem to be the case. I like Murton quite a bit and hope he can put together a solid August and September to make a case for a starting job next year. However, I have to wonder if that will be the case... Murton is starting to come around now. He is now batting like 270 vs righties which is pretty respectable. If he can get that up to 280 and keep his 300 vs lefties my bet is he would get the chance to start and bat second next year. IF we sign someone to play right and don't trade Jones or are willing have him come off the bench we will be in some trouble.