jmajew

Hitting Soriano 2 is almost ideal in my mind. We can utilize his top of the order abilities as well as he power abilities. With Theriot on base so much Soriano will have a lot better chance of driving in some runs. Theriot, Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Murton, Barrett, Jones, DeRosa looks very solid to me.

If the Twin's stadium doens't have a retractable roof the yare going to have a hard time in early April. May be a bit to chilly to play baseball.

Why would you trade Alex Brown? I love this move with Hester. From Turner's comments it looks like he wanted Hester on offense all last season and it took till now to convince Devin... I just posted it because of this quote from ESPN Insider:

With Hester moving to offense does this mean that Daniel Manning is definitely moving to corner with Mike Brown moving to FS and Archuleta playing SS? Our defense still scares me to death...who is going to lineup next to Harris? Dvorak, Tank? I think if Briggs doesn't play he can be easily replaced because the weakside LB in the Cover 2 is a position made for people to make plays. Nothing confirmed about Danieal Manning moving to CB as of now, still just talk. I think it will happen, though. Our DT depth is certainly going to take a hit with Tank likely to miss at least half the season. The rotation right now is Tommie Harris, Tank Johnson, Dusty Dvoracek, Israel Idonije and former 49er Anthony Adams. I forogt we signed Adams...that helps a lot. It does, and I think one of the big questions out of camp will be if Dusty is ready to play serious downs, or if we will be utilizing Adams alot. Izzy will likely still be deeper on the depth chart. What do you think the odds are of us trading Alex Brown? Could we possilby get a decent weakside LB for him?

With Hester moving to offense does this mean that Daniel Manning is definitely moving to corner with Mike Brown moving to FS and Archuleta playing SS? Our defense still scares me to death...who is going to lineup next to Harris? Dvorak, Tank? I think if Briggs doesn't play he can be easily replaced because the weakside LB in the Cover 2 is a position made for people to make plays. Nothing confirmed about Danieal Manning moving to CB as of now, still just talk. I think it will happen, though. Our DT depth is certainly going to take a hit with Tank likely to miss at least half the season. The rotation right now is Tommie Harris, Tank Johnson, Dusty Dvoracek, Israel Idonije and former 49er Anthony Adams. I forogt we signed Adams...that helps a lot.

With Hester moving to offense does this mean that Daniel Manning is definitely moving to corner with Mike Brown moving to FS and Archuleta playing SS? Our defense still scares me to death...who is going to lineup next to Harris? Dvorak, Tank? I think if Briggs doesn't play he can be easily replaced because the weakside LB in the Cover 2 is a position made for people to make plays.

Why does Floyd need to be traded? I keep reading about how it's a huge problem and we need to deal 1 or 2 of our OFs. The problem is Piniella playing the right players, not the existence of the players themselves. God forbid we have a bat off the bench who can actually hit. Its not good to have guys who want to/deserve to be everyday players not starting everyday. It takes them out of their comfort zone. Lou plays them all as much as he can to try to keep them in their comfort zone. That is not a good setup. A bench needs players who can come in for a month or something if a player is hurt and perform, and accept that as their role. Have 4 outfielders who deserve/want to play everday is a bad thing. The Cubs need someone like Hollandsworth back in either 03 or 04 can't remember which year. Hollandsworth new his role was to come off teh bench and be a spot starter when someone got hurt.

it's been pointed out by others, but Soriano's drop in production could be attributed to other things besides his place in the order. at some point during his tenure at Texas, the league started to figure him out. his production dropped overall, not just when hitting out of the leadoff spot. eventually, Soriano made adjustments to the way pitchers were attacking him and improved on those numbers. i am not totally dismissing the whole "he's comfortable at leadoff" arguement, but there may be more to it than that. i would prefer to see him hitting lower in the order, but i'm not sure what the alternative is. i'm still skeptical that Theriot will maintain his current obp, i guess. if they did make a change, a 1/2 of Theriot/Murton would probably make the most sense. I'm not saying he is more comfortable but there as to be some reason he is better up there. Maybe he sees better pitches because there is no one on base. Maybe his numbers in the first inning are incredibly higher than his career norms. I don't know how to find that information but I think it would be interesting to look up. I could honestly see Soriano's numbers being much higher in the first inning than they are compared to any other.

Here is what I don't understand... Leadoff: 289 BA, 354 OBP, 928 OPS, 706 AB 5th: 272 BA, 317 OBP, 839 OPS, 573 AB 2nd: 264 BA, 315 OBP, 773 OPS, 557 AB. These are his last three years. Would it be worth accepting the dropoff from leadoff to 5th just to get him out of the leadoff spot?

The platoon of Pagan and Jones in CF is ideal, in that it is the best option we have, right now. The obvious solution is to trade Floyd, so Murton can start, and use Ward and DeRosa in the OF when neccessary.

That's one of the worst trade ideas this side of Victor Zambrano for Scott Kazmir. Carl Crawford is flashy but not that good. Carl Crawford is a valuable player. He's young, cheap, plays elite defense and put up a solid .289/.364/.481 last year. Z is expensive, ineffective and going to be a FA. What makes Crawford a bad player? I hope Pie can be as good as Crawford. No to mention he also has a very good contract.

Zambrano and Jones to Tampa for Carl Crawford. However, the only way Tampa would do this is if they are able to lock of Z to a long term deal. I get the feeling all Z cares about is money and not about winning.

I would feel horrible for Z if he gets hurt and loses his big pay day. Granted it would be partially his own fault but you still have to feel for the guy. With that said...I wish we would have traded him when we had the chance. But hindsight is 20/20

And then if nothing is found in his records, people will be asking about the portions that are blacked out. No. All records pertaining to possible steroid use would need to be released. Records not relating to steroids use but of a potentially embarrassing nature (e.g., anti-depressants, STDs, etc.) could be blacked out. A simple avadavit stating all steroid-related information was disclosed could be obtained. Releases like this happen all the time. It's not a big deal. Just to make sure I am clear on this VOR everything but information related to steriods would be blacked out of his record? This way embarassing info like if he has Herpes would not be disclosed to the public? If I understand this correctly it seems pretty fair. The only reason I would see then to not give up the records is either on principle of invasion of privacy or because they used steroids. For the record I think it is an invasion of privacy, but if I needed to accept it to clear up my name I would definitely do it.

I thought this article was pretty interesting. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/luke_winn/05/07/cubs/1.html Here is the part that I found most interesting... They really caught my attention because I couldn't help but think of how much this could help Z.

I don't think it would make a difference if he was managing in Tampa, Seatle or chicago. Reporters are just doing their job and have to ask the same questions over and over again. They keep hoping to ask it in a different way to get Lou to accidentally give up some information.

The more I think about it, Jones should be out starting CF right now. Pie should spend one more year in the minors. If at the trade deadline we can trade Jones for something useful, fine, but there is no reason to rush this.

You summed it up with your first 5 words. I'm still waiting for the Cubs to "buy" anything besides overrated players and square pegs for round holes. Baseball's competitive balance isn't the problem right now. There was a study done saying that a higher percentage of baseball teams have made the playoffs the past 5 years than in Football, which was hard to believe, but true. If they ever do anything radical to upset that balance, it would have to be the institution of a salary cap and a salary floor. Maybe like $65M-$100M or something? There would be only 3 or 4 teams over that upper limit, but several below that limit. So, put AROD on the Royals and suddenly things would be a bit interesting. But to put teams in divisions by payroll would only encourage people to not spend any money and try avoiding having to play Boston and the Yankees. Like I said it was an extremely stupid post. I didn't think it out at all...

Extremely stupid post coming up but I can't resist... I think it would be extremely interesting if they realligned the divisions each year. However, you break it up by payroll in each league. 3 Divisions in each leage. Then one play in Game for the WC in each league. Two next best records. AL Yankees Red Sox White Sox Angels Seattle Detroit Baltimore Oakland Toronto Minnesota Texas KC Cleveland Tampa Bay Florida(Switched Leagues) NL Mets Dodgers Cubs Giants Cardinals Braves Philly Houston Milwaukee Cincinnati San Diego Colorado Arizona Pittsburgh Washington I just think this would be fun to watch. This way lower market teams will have a much better chance of making the playoffs. Instead of the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Cubs etc buying their division.

We shouldn't worry about what the Brewers or any other team are doing yet. Our first priority should be to get this Cubs team playing the type of ball they are capable of. If this happens it will be a very very tight race come September. If you worry about what other teams are doing you are only going to hurt yourselves in the long haul.

He looked fine. No errors. He made the plays you would expect the SS to make. So bascially he's Eckstein. Just make the plays your supposed to make. I have no problem with that. If he can be Eckstein and hit well, then I'll take it over the dark, seething abyss that is Izturis. :crosses fingers: I'm just hoping he can make the plays that he can. I don't expect him to make any spectacular plays or have the best range I just want him to make the plays. Low amount of errors with a little range and good offense is all I ask for.

I was unable to watch the game yesterday. . . How did Theriot look at SS? Did it look like he can handle the position?

It is about time the Cubs play the youngsters and find ways to get rid of guys like Jones, Floyd, Miller, and Izturis(even though we have no one to replace him). The Cubs need to be playing Pie, Murton, and Theriot at CF, RF, and 2B. DeRosa can be the super sub who who plays both infield and OF. Floyd can be the big bat off the bench. Unfortunately it appears like we are stuck for the time being with Izturis at SS. You have to give Hendry some credit so far when it comes to the pitching staff. It looks like both Lilly and Marquis are meeting the organizations expectations. Soriano will help the team in the long haul. The only problem with his offseason was that he wanted proven quantities to fill CF, 2B, and RF, if the unproven players who have lots of potential can't perform. Of course by doing this you put un-needed pressure on the young players to perform and you make older players who deserve to start on numerous other teams angry when they do not play. This was not the way to build a team. With all that said if you aren't going to let the young guys develop please trade them when they have value and before they get past their primes. I believe both of them are like 26,27, or 28. I'm sure numerous teams would be happy to take Murton and Theriot. Heck I"m sure teams like Toronto and Oakland will kill to have either of them. Excuse my little rant I am just extremely frustrated.

I hope they do find something wrong and he has surgery. That would give us more up for the future of Prior returning to his 2003 form.

That's been true since the day Soriano signed. I'd still rather have Murton in RF than Jones, right now. It's not like Jones possesses a great arm anyway. Why didn't the Cubs try Soriano in RF this spring? Wouldn't it have made sense to try to get the team ready for the future. If Pie, Soriano, and Murton are our future wouldn't it have been best to figure out how they would fit best? Quick question though were would Colvin fit in all of this? I believe he is learning CF, could be wrong. Are the cubs planning on him being the solution in RF in the future? Maybe Hendyr is thinking Soriano, Pie, Colving and Murton isn't even in the picture. I don't think Colvin is talented enough to be thinking about while he's still in A ball. I'm not saying he can't be a good major leaguer, but he's far from a sure thing. I completely agree. I'm just trying to figure out Hendry/Piniella's rationale for the future?