jmajew

I think the Cubs would have a better chance getting Marcus Giles than Furcal. Furcal is more valuable to the Braves than Giles. Couldn't the cubs offer a Walker/Hill package for Giles. If the Cubs do this you play Cedeno at short. Sign Lofton as a stopgap until Pie is ready. Then you look at guys like Jacque Jones, Juan Encarnacion, Brian Giles, Milton Bradley, Reggie Sanders, or Austin Kearns to play RF. Lofton CF Giles 2b Lee 1b Ramirez 3b RF Barrett C Murton LF Cedeno SS Then you'd use the other money on a starting pitcher. Like Jarrod Washburn, Matt Morris, or Kevin Millwood. I'm not a fan of Burnett, I see him being another anomaly like Kerry Wood.

I think Murton can play left or Right it doesn't matter. No matter what we need to solve Center and the other corner outfield spot. I'm just throwing out options I'm sure Hendry is debating. When I talk about heart and hustle I'm talking about running the bases right. Not missing signs and all that other stuff. If you love the game you learn that kind of stuff. The more you love the game the more you are willing to learn the little things which seem so trivial. Those are the things that win you games. I hate saying this but the White sox were great at the little things. The took great routes to balls, knew how to bunt (eventhough the struggled abit there in teh postseason), and they take hustle on every play. That is the kind of ball club i like. Yes there pitchign was great but a good portion of that was because their defens was so god damn good. Don't worry about Ussoccer...I love arguing. Even if I'm wrong i'll argue just because I love trying to convince people of what i think.

Just give the guy some time to practice out there he may get the hang of it. He has decent speed so he can cover some ground. He may not be great defensively but I don't see how he can be worse than Alou was when we had him.

The ideal situation for the Cubs is to sign Brian Giles. He solves the outfield problem. He is good defensively and he plays the game the right way. Runs everything out, takes out the second baseman, and will just do anything to win. It however, looks, like he is going to St. Louis. The ohter outfielders available are nothing special. Juan Encarnacion is good defensively but strikes out too much, Reggie Sanders will probably wind up back in St. Louis, Jacque Jones is nothing special, Damon is not worth the 10 million a year he will probably get. One possibility is sign Furcal at short, put cedeno at second and play Walker in left field. Then sign Lofton, trade for Pierre, or play patterson, pie, or hairston in center. This would be a very solid team. The only problem would be walker would be a weak 5 hitter. He may be better at 3 so he can get on base infront of the the big guns Lee and Ramirez. Trading Ramirez is not the ideal situation but the Cubs have to look into it. I don't want it to be another Kerry Wood situation. The Cubs were offered Mark Texiera a few years ago and then in separate trade Alfonso Soriano. Cubs fans have a tendency to hype up players too much and think they are better than they actually are. I don't want the Cubs to pass up on a deal for Aram that coudl help the team...I obviously don't know what this deal would be but i'm sure one is out there. All i know is the cubs need to shake things up. The team doesn't seem to have any heart. I watch them play and it seems like they are playing for the money. I want players who play for the love of the game and play hard. I think part of that problem is with Dusty Baker. I get the feeling watching him that his goal isn't to win the World Series. I feel like he just wants to make his 4 million a year and go home. The cubs need some fire. I'm also dissappointed in the fact that the Cubs resigned Rothschild. The rumors i've heard say that the reason Hendry resigned him is because once Baker's contract is up he will become our new manager. That is dissappointing to here. I'd like to have someone like Mark Grace manager or someone with his passion for the game.

In 2001 Aramis had his best year he was with the Pirates...he had brian Giles batting in front of him that year and the next two seasons. In 2001 giles OBP was 400, 2002 450, 2003 430. Yes Aramis Ramirez is good offensively but he is not great. Replacing him with Nomar and someone to play the outfield it doesn't have to be Manny or Hunter. You also have to take into account that Aramis doesn't have the best OBP himself. Since 2001 it has been 350, 279, 314, 373, 358. In comparison to Manny who was 405, 450, 427, 397, 388. Yes it has gone down but every year is still better. Hunters are lower but not incredibly worse than Aramis. 306, 334, 312, 330, and 337. By getting Manny it would be creating more RBI opportunities for whoever bats behind him therefore helping our offense. Aramis is simply an RBI machine. NOmars OBP in taht same span is 352, 352, 345, 365, and 320. Just as good as Aramis. Is nomar that big of a drop off? Woulnd't having Nomar and Manny, Hunter, Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu, be better? I don't like trading manny but sometimes the best way to help you team is trade away one of your best players for a player that would fit your team better. Teh cubs have two solid third baseman in Nomar and Aramis, if nomar resigns which he wants to. Aramis has more trade value than Nomar so he would be the one you would trade. I think the most important offensive stat is offensive is OBP. In Response to the creating more holes idea. I do not believe this trade woudl be creating more holes. WEwould still have a good third basemen and gain an outfielder. How does that create a hole? If you traded them for prospects that would cause more holes. I love Aramis Ramirez but if we are to win it all you have to make tough decisions. Teh White Sox traded one of their best offensive players in Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik. The Red Sox traded Nomar.

In that trade you would have to think the red sox would pay 5 million bucks a year of manny's deal. And Torri Hunter doesn't add anything to our offense, but when you add in his defense he is more valuable than Aramis. Hunter has averaged about 85 rbis the past 3 years not counting last year. Aramis is one of the worst defensive third basemen in baseball and he can't run. The only reason he was putting up such big numbers this year was because D. Lee was batting in front of him. Yes Aramis is valuable to out team but I think you can best help the team for next year by resigning nomar and making one of those trades. In the long run it is not the best deal but the cubs should be in the business of winning today. I'd be more than willing to trade away a possible all-star for the next 6 years for one World Series. I don't think I am alone in that sentiment.

This Cubs team has many holes. The biggest holes I see are the defense, a consistent offense, and an extra starting pitcher. The first thing I propose to do is trade Aramis Ramirez. With this we have two options. One trade him to the Red Sox straight up for Manny Ramirez. The second, would be a three way deal. The Cubs would get Torri Hunter, the Angels Aramis Ramirez, and the twins would get Corey Patterson and prospects from the Angels. No matter which trade we would make we would resign Nomar to play third base. If it is to the Red Sox the cubs will need to sign a centerfielder who will be here for the year until Pie is ready. This player should be Kenny Lofton and if we can’t get him you play Pie. If it is the Hunter trade we need to sign a corner outfielder. The options are pretty slim. You have Reggie Sanders, Jacque Jones, Juan Encarnacion or Johnny Damon. I’d go with Encarnacion or Damon (Damon obviously my first choice). So we have two potential lineups. If the Red Sox deal you have Lofton CF, Walker 2B, Lee 1B, Manny LF, Nomar 3B, Murton RF, Barret C, Cedeno SS. If it is the three way deal you have Damon LF, Walker 2B, Nomar 3B, Lee 1B, Hunter CF, Murton RF, Barrett C, Cedeno SS. If you don’t get Damon you bat Cedeno first and put Encarnacion 7 or 8. The other option of all of these is to not trade Aramis. If you don’t trade Aramis there is a completely different situation. I think you would need to sign Lofton to play center and sign either Nomar or Reggie Sanders to play one of the corner outfield spots. Preferably I’d sign Nomar because I believe he belongs in Chicago and I think he will be a pretty good defensive outfielder. He has a good arm and he has the speed to cover ground in the field. In this scenario the lineup would be Lofton CF, Walker 2B, Nomar LF, Lee 1B, Ramirez 3B, Murton RF, Barrett C, and Cedeno SS. I think any of these potential lineups would be more consistent than our lineup was last year. Our defense in the Torri Hunter trade will be much improved and the offense will be most improved. This may be the best case scenario for our lineup. If we don’t make a trade I think our offense will naturally just be better because we will have a proven leadoff hitter in our lineup meaning Lee, Nomar, and Aramis will have more chances to drive in runs. When it comes to the pitching staff I say we keep everyone. For the rotation we need 6 pitchers. I think we need to go out and sign a solid number three starter. The options are Jarrod Washburn, Jeff Weaver, and Matt Morris. I think the one who would fit our team the best would be Jarrod Washburn. But any of the three would be good. I think we could get Washburn at the cheapest also probably about 7 million a year. Our Rotation would be Zambrano, Prior, Washburn, Wood, and Maddux. You would have Rusch in the bullpen but with our injury history you will assume he will end up starting at some point. Our Bullpen would pretty much stay the same. I think we need to sign a setup man and that is it. I think we should sign either Octavio Dotel or Paul Quantrill. Dotel is my preference because we know he can be dominant. He did have surgery this past season but I think he is worth the risk. Just like Dempster was two years ago. Our bullpen would then be Dempster, Dotel, Williamson, Ohman, Wuertz, and Rusch. You have Novoa and Jerome Williams if needed also. When it comes to our bench we resign Nefi Perez and Jose Macias. Our bench would then be Perez, Macias, Patterson/Pie, Hairston, Blanco, and Ben Grieve. You know with the way Dusty is everyone will get some playing time so there is no need to worry that Pie will regress in his time up here. With any of these lineups the Cubs payroll will be right around 95 million, which would be about the same as it was this year. This, of course, is just one Cubs fan’s opinion; however, I truly do believe this would work. I think it may be time for the Cubs to buy a championship, just like the Marlins did in 1997.