jmajew

That deal just doesn't seem like one Brian Sabean would make. Abreu makes more than Schmidt and they already have 5 quality OF; Bonds, Alou, Grissom, Winn, and Feliz. I could see them trading Schmidt for someone like Hank Blalock but definitely not another OF. This trade makes sense because they could then make a run at not only Morris but also another starting quality pitcher. Yes, I know that Feliz plays third, but I've read on ESPN that they want to trade him. Did Stark say where he got his information from?

Wouldn't the Yankees be a good fit for Patterson? They don't need tremendous offensive production from their CF just good defense. And I think they can afford to have one blackhole in their lineup.

I'm still praying the Cubs don't trade Walker and bat him second behind Furcal if we get him. I think we could get Bradley for cheaper than Walker. I see Walker as being the ideal number 2 hitter.

Huff just had an off year. He'll probably be at 280/355/500/855 type player in wrigley batting between lee and Ramirez. Last year Burnitz gave us exactly what we expected out of him. Huff no doubt has a much higher ceiling than Burnitz.

Huff just had an off year. He'll probably be at 280/355/500/855 type player in wrigley batting between lee and Ramirez. Last year Burnitz gave us exactly what we expected out of him. Huff no doubt has a much higher ceiling than Burnitz.

I hate to say this but if Orlando Cabrera and Jimmy Rollins each make 8 mil a year one has to assume that Furcal is worth about 9 mil a year. If i were the Cubs I start the bidding at 4/34 and work from there. Realistically i think the he will get a 4 year 36 million dollar deal with a fifth year team option at 12 mil with a 4 million buyout.

I really like the Huff idea. However I am not a fan of trading for Soriano. why not keep Walker and bat him second. Soriano is not worth the type of money he makes. Then we still go after Bradley and Furcal. SS Furcal 2b Walker 1b Lee RF Huff 3b Ramirez CF Bradley C Barrett LF Murton The bench would be Blanco, Perez, Hairston, Mabry, and Patterson (defensive specialist to replace Huff and moving Bradley to right and CPatt playing center). Then I think we should go with 12 pitchers cuz our bench is so versatile. Z, Maddux, Prior, Wood, Rusch, Williams, Dempster, Eyre, Howry, Williamson, Ohman, and Wuertz. I think this is a fairly realistic goal for the Cubs and by my calculations the payroll should be roughly 105 million. You can also easily cut costs by not getting rid of Patterson and getting someone who is cheaper to be the defensive specialist in the OF. With that Lineup I'd even be willing to play Pie in center and not get Bradley. Just move up Barret and Murton in the order and bat Pie eighth. This would save you another 4 mil.

my computer was freezing up so I clicked submit a few times and it ended up posting three times.

I could honestly see the Cubs going with a six man rotation to start the year if Wood is healthy. This way we can help keep Prior, Wood, and Maddux healthy and strong for the full season. I could handle a six man rotation through mid to late May and then possibly reinstitute it in August to give some extra rest before the playoff push in September. You also cannot forget that as of right the Cubs also have Rich Hill who can jump into the rotation when needed. And we all know that Hill is one of Hendry's favorites. In my opinion the Cubs already have seven starters when you include Hill and personally I believe it is necessary to have atleast 6 starters you will feel comfortable with throwing in at any time. Just look at how many starters the Yankees went through last year. A staff of Z, Prior, Maddux, Wood, Rusch, and Williams as startes and Dempster, Eyre, Howry, Williamson, Wuertz and Ohman looks pretty solid to me. Definitely an upgrade over last year.

I could honestly see the Cubs going with a six man rotation to start the year if Wood is healthy. This way we can help keep Prior, Wood, and Maddux healthy and strong for the full season. I could handle a six man rotation through mid to late May and then possibly reinstitute it in August to give some extra rest before the playoff push in September. You also cannot forget that as of right the Cubs also have Rich Hill who can jump into the rotation when needed. And we all know that Hill is one of Hendry's favorites. In my opinion the Cubs already have seven starters when you include Hill and personally I believe it is necessary to have atleast 6 starters you will feel comfortable with throwing in at any time. Just look at how many starters the Yankees went through last year. A staff of Z, Prior, Maddux, Wood, Rusch, and Williams as startes and Dempster, Eyre, Howry, Williamson, Wuertz and Ohman looks pretty solid to me. Definitely an upgrade over last year.

I'd say either Bradley or Michaels. In my ideal world, and realistic, we could get both of them. Having both of them in the outfield woudl really help out the defense and we all know Hendry likes guys who can catch the ball. Assuming we sign Furcal we'd also have a nice little lineup. Furcal Michaels Lee Ramirez Bradley Barret Murton Cedeno/Perez Do you think it would be possible to get both Abreu and Michaels in the same deal? It is probably just a pipe dream.

The only thing about that Lawton deal that i didn't like was giving up Jody Gerut. He would have been a terrific fourth outfieder for this team.

Perez is great with the glove and he is a great team guy. That is where the extra two million comes in. (Note Sarcasm)

If the Yankees trade Pavano my bet is it will be to either the Nationals or the Mariners. It is just a hunch though. I don't think the Cubs would have anything more than passive interest in him. It wouldn't make sense for us to go after anotehr injury prone pitcher. We need someone who will make 30-35 starts and about 220 innings.

I only want Lofton if we still have a gaping hole at lead-off. While he isn't a bad option and if he repeats his last year's numbers, he's a good option...but the possibility of a tail off is huge with him. If we sign Furcal, I'd rather have a hitter that brings more to the table than Lofton. Like I said earlier, Mench isn't the best option...but he's clearly better than some. It's also pretty evident he's available. I'd love a dream scenario where we sign Furcal, trade for Bradley and then trade for Castillo instead of Pierre. Imagine this line-up. I might even roll the dice with Patterson then or sign Preston Wilson or Juan Encarnacion. SS Furcal 2b Castillo 1b Lee 3b Ramirez CF/RF Bradley LF Murton CF/RF Patterson or Wilson or Encarnacion C Barrett I think the 1-6 is good enough to compensate for the weak spot in the seven hole. Here is a question for ya. If you had to choose between getting Castillo and Furcal who would you choose. Assuming Furcal would cost us 5/50 and Castillo costing us Walker and Hill. Castillo would make about 4 million less per year than Furcal.

Mench is clearly not the answer to our RF question. But Milton Bradley could be. Why wouldn't you trade for Bradley or sign him if he gets released like has been rumored. Then go out and get Lofton to play center. Furcal Lofton Lee Ramirez Bradley Barret Murton Cedeno Couldn't we compete with that team? We only had two problem spots in our lineup last year, 1-2. This would solve that problem. We'd have to score more runs with Furcal and Lofton at the top of the order.

I was looking on ESPN.coms rumer central and it doesn't even have the Cubs as a possible suitor for Eyre. Just thought I throw that out there. If the Cubs are looking for a lefty specialist why wouldn't they try to sign Mike Myers. He is a Chicago native and he won't be that expensive. He is basically unstopable against lefties. 158 BAA, 198 OBP, OPS 409.

I only have 6 listed because it was either Tracy or Sweeney. If we can get Wes Helms that'd be great. But Dusty loves Macias. So my bet is he is back.

The Cubs have to make a choice, either sign Giles or sign Furcal. If we sign both that would leave us no money to spend on the rest of the team. The two of them would cost about 20 mil a year. When you add them to Lee and Ramirez we will have 4 guys making 40 mil. Then when you take into account all the other players were already have signed (Rusch, Nefi, Dempster, Wood, Zambrano, Maddux, Prior, Walker, Barrett, Williamson) the total for 14 players will be just under 90 mil. We still would have a lot of holes to fill and our budget will probably be 100 mil. Every acquisition in baseball has to do with who is more valuable to this Cubs for the money they are asking for compared to teh player we already have on the team. Basically where can you get the biggest upgrade for your money. The answer, IMO, is Giles, seeing as we have no RF and we already have two in house options to play short and bat eighth in Nefi and Cedeno. A middle infield of Walker and Cedeno sounds pretty darn good to me. A good plan for this offseason would be to: 1) Sign Giles 2) Sign Lofton 3) Sign Dotel to set up Dempster 4) Sign or trade for a bat for the Bench. ie: Mark Sweeney or Chad Tracy A bullpen with Dempster, Williamson, and Dotel as your three horses is pretty good. Then all we got to do is fill in the rest of the pen with the guys we already have. Ohman, Wuertz, Novoa, Hill, Williams. The Bench is pretty simple also. Perez, Blanco, Hairston, Greenberg, Sweeney or Tracy, and Macias (only if he is the last option to come off the bench though. I think someone who can play almost any position on the field is important to have on the bench)

Such as? And how many ABs did they get in Chicago? The Cubs haven't had any recent call ups that deserved a shot. At least Hendry and Hughes seem to be able to evaluate minor league talent. Too bad they can't evaluate the talent before they draft. if they're so good at evaluating talent, we'd have productive young position players in Wrigley more than once every blue moon. It is not like they are wasting draft picks or not making use of the minor league system. If you look at the roster the top two offensive players are a direct result of the farm system. Choi -- Lee, and Hill and Bruback -- Ramirez. Also, you have 4/5 of your starting rotation all products of the farm system. Not too shabby. I always love how people like to point to Lee and Aramis as instances where Hendry used the farm hands to make a smart trade. Nothing could be furthrer from the truth. Aramis was a hurt palyer comming off a terrible year with a very poor attitude when he came to Chicago in a salary dump move. Lee fell to Hendry b/c Baltimore couldn't work out a long term contract for Lee and Florida was desperate to move his salary. The only instance I can think of where Hendry made a smart trade was with Nomar and he had his hand held by Theo. If I remember correctly, Jim Hendry said he would not make that Nomar trade unless Matt Murton was in the deal. Otherwise the Cubs would have just of traded for Orlando Cabrera like Hendry first wanted to do. Murton was the sticking point in that deal. Hendry forced Epstein's hand. With all that said I could be wrong on my facts, but I believe i'm rigth on this.

Of all the spots in the lineup, the leadoff spot is where a high strikeout total/low BA (at least when compared to the hitter's OBP) matter the least. The main drawback of high OBP/low AVG and high K hiiters is their comparative weakness at advancing runners. K's only really hurt you because they're less likely to advance a baserunner than another type of out. Similarly, the only time a walk is worse off than a single is when there are runners on base who could conceivably advance an extra base or two on a hit, whereas on a walk they may not advance a base at all. Basically, the moral of the story is that for a walk or strikeout to "hurt" your team there needs to be at least one runner on base. Leadoff hitters should have the fewest such opportunites (by far) of anyone in the lineup. Hence, strikeouts are not a big concern for a leadoff hitter, and neither is a low batting average. (Provided he can still maintain a good OBP by drawing lots of walks, that is.) As far as the Cubs are concerned, I'd much rather have Bradley or Wilkerson than Pierre. Wilkerson provides a much more stable OBP than Pierre thanks to his walk rate, which tends to be much more consistent than the BABIP-dependent nature of Pierre's OBP. The same is mostly true of Bradley, and both men provide much more power than Pierre would, as well. As far as prospect costs go, Bradley would likely be the cheapest option of the three, though there's his reported attitude issues to consider. I agree. I'd rather have Wilkerson or Bradley over Pierre. I just don't see Wilkerson being an ideal leadoff hitter. There is no doubt both would be 100 times better than what we had last year and improve this ballclub.

FWIW the Rollins contract was widely seen as dumb (I honestly can't think of a better word for what Ed Wade did). Link to some NSBBers reactions I agree it was dump. I was just trying to justify why the Cubs shouldn't even offer Furcal more than 8.5 mil a year.

This was by far the best post I've read on this site so far. I don't necessarily think a team with all guys who have a high OBP but low BAs is gonna be a winner. You won't have anyone driving in the runs. I think teams need to be built systematically A leadoff hitter needs to have a BA/OBP/OPS of 285/360/770 and he has to have speed so he can score from second on a single if there is two outs. Second 280/340/780 and he cannot strike out. He has to be able to put the ball in play consistantly and advance the runner. Third 300/390/900 and needs 30 hr potential. Four 280/370/950 and he can strike out around 100-120 times a year and 40 hr potential. Fifth 285/360/900 with 40 hr potential. Sixth 270/345/830 and 30 hr potential. Seventh 275/335/800. Eighth 260/320/750. He must have speed though. If the pitcher bunts him over to second and there are two outs he needs to be able to score on a single. This would give you team averages taking in the pitcher around 270/340/795 So my ideal team with players available would be: CF Lofton (2 mil) 2B Walker (2.5) RF Giles (11 mil) 1B D. Lee (8.5) 3B Ramirez (10.5) C Barrett (4) LF Murton (.5) SS Cedeno (.5) It is a relatively cheap one also...Only about 39.5 mil. I understand probably once a week you will need to be starting either Patterson or Hairston in center. If you cannot get Giles then you try to trade for someone like Bradley and bat him fifth. I really don't see why we would need to trade for anyone. Everything we need is right there in Free Agency.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've read all day. Wilkerson as a bench player...OML....that's funny as hell. he only hits .250 OBP is not the only thing that makes a good leadoff or nuber 2 hitter. He needs a low number of strikeouts, a decent batting average in the 275, and a good OBP. Wilkerson only achieves one of the three. Lets say you have Wilkerson batting second and Furcal batting first. Would you want someone who strikes out 150 times a year batting behind Furcal. Would we not complain about his inability to advance the runner? I'd rather have a guy who bats 285 with a 330 OBP with a low number of strikeouts batting second. The reason being that he would be more likely to advance the runner. I think we are overvalueing OBP because of how bad the top of our order was last year. We can't forget their are other things than OBP involved in making a good top of the order hitter. I also said in a later post that I may have exaggerated just a bit and that I just believe Wilkerson is not the best fit for our offense. The fact is Wilkerson is the perfect fit for this team. He's a left-handed bat that gets on base. If we sign Furcal, he won't be needed to hit lead-off. We also wouldn't need him to hit second either. Walker, Murton, or Cedeno could hit in that spot. Wilkerson would be ideal in the fifth or sixth spot in the order. If we don't sign Furcal and fail to get another hitter capable of hitting lead-off, Wilkerson isn't a poor option to do that. Not making outs is the most important thing a hitter can do, and Wilkerson does that better than most of the other options the Cubs have considered. I concede the point that Wilkerson is a good player. But I stand by my opinion that I don't think he is a number 2 hitter, which would not make him the best fit for this team if we sign Furcal or trade for Pierre. I'd rather have walker batting two than Wilkerson.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've read all day. Wilkerson as a bench player...OML....that's funny as hell. he only hits .250 OBP is not the only thing that makes a good leadoff or nuber 2 hitter. He needs a low number of strikeouts, a decent batting average in the 275, and a good OBP. Wilkerson only achieves one of the three. Lets say you have Wilkerson batting second and Furcal batting first. Would you want someone who strikes out 150 times a year batting behind Furcal. Would we not complain about his inability to advance the runner? I'd rather have a guy who bats 285 with a 330 OBP with a low number of strikeouts batting second. The reason being that he would be more likely to advance the runner. I think we are overvalueing OBP because of how bad the top of our order was last year. We can't forget their are other things than OBP involved in making a good top of the order hitter. I also said in a later post that I may have exaggerated just a bit and that I just believe Wilkerson is not the best fit for our offense. I believe the perfect number 2 hitter is Tadahito Iguchi. He batted 278 with a 343 OBP, and an OPS of 780. Granted he did have 114 Ks but that is still 33 less than Wilkerson.