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goonys evil twin

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Everything posted by goonys evil twin

  1. Hendry doesn't like long term deals. Moreno probably wouldn't blink at throwing a 7 or 8 year deal at him. I believe the no longterm deals order came from MacPhail, who as president, would have the team's longterm interest at heart more than a GM. It also primarily applied to pitchers, not hitters, due to the higher risk of injury. In general that's true, but the Cubs had a pretty clear no longterm deal practice for everybody. They didn't even get into discussions with the big boys who were looking for big deals. They supposedly flirted with the idea with Hampton, when they supposedly weighed a Hampton vs Sosa gameplan. But even when they decided on Sammy, they refused to go past 4 years.
  2. Perhaps, but maybe not. On an ERA+ basis, the results are mixed. Schmidt was better last year, 126-116, but Zito was better the year before, 116-94. Zito also has the career number, 127-110. I don't think there's anything close to a guarantee that Schmidt will be better in 2007, and anything beyond that might go even further into Zito's favor.
  3. If it's true, I'd imagine Boras would mention it because he knew everybody who mattered already knew that, and he was just being honest about the situation. It doesn't serve him much good to pretend the guy is a free agent next year, if he isn't. That fact might lessen their leverage, but his acknowleding that fact does not.
  4. True. You don't, however, necessarily need stellar pitchers. That's the dilemma. You need stellar pitching at the right time, but it's impossible to say which pitchers will be pitching stellarly at the right time. The White Sox won with stellar pitching by very non stellar pitchers. Florida's pitching staff was highly touted, after they won, but none of those guys has done a whole lot since. Boston won with some stellar pitchers, but also had journeyman types step up at the right time. Anaheim had a stellar staff, but it wasn't stocked with stellar pitchers.
  5. That's not the point. He inherited a team capable of winning the division. If he didn't, they wouldn't have won the division. Wait a minute-the original point is that a GM who takes a team capable of winning a division and doesn't do much more isn't that good of a GM. The original point I made was that it's absurd to claim Depodesta inherited a team that could win the division but Hendry did not.
  6. That's not the point. He inherited a team capable of winning the division. If he didn't, they wouldn't have won the division. Besides, every important player was already there. They acquired role players, but nothing else. The team was capable of winning the division because the only reason the team won the divsion was due to insanely good pitching that was already in place.
  7. I have to say I disagree with this. Threads over 30 pages should be archived and a new thread started. No one wants to read this whole thing and you end up getting repetitive posts. How would you eliminate repetitive posts simply by starting a new thread? Yea, how would you eliminate repetitive posts simply by starting a new thread? Good question.
  8. I have to say I disagree with this. Threads over 30 pages should be archived and a new thread started. No one wants to read this whole thing and you end up getting repetitive posts. How would you eliminate repetitive posts simply by starting a new thread?
  9. USA Today says it opened at Giants -1, and is between 2 and 3 right now. I'm pretty sure I saw 3.5 once, and I think the tighter spread is because of Strahan's health.
  10. Hendry inherited a team that won 88 games 2 years before, then the team went out and won 88 games and won a division. That sounds nice, but that doesn't mean the team he inherited could win the division. The 2001 Cubs were nothing of what it looked like at the end of 2002. They had talent at the end of 2002, but the talent was completely different than what it was when they won 88 in 01-the only players even available to Hendry from the 01 team were Sosa, Hundley, Mueller, Wood, and some bullpen guys. That's it-the team in 03 had an almost complete turnover. That's a great deal different then his point that the Dodgers were ready to win then and there. Hendry inherited the team at the end of 2002. The 2003 team was very similar. The rotation, the primary reason they won, was already in place. It's simple absurd to claim that Hendry didn't inherit a team capable of winning a division. He inherited a team, and they won the division.
  11. Fingers-crossed still. I'd bet this is just a negotiating plea.
  12. Well, the success of Ichiro, and others, is why the price tag for other Japanese stars has gone up. Before, there was significant doubt that such a player could transition to MLB. Now, those doubts have decreased immensely.
  13. Honestly, there isn't going to be any Cubs news that doesn't show up on this site within a matter of minutes. If you're looking for blogs or opinion articles, there are other options, but there really isn't any "news" out there that hasn't been covered ad nauseam.
  14. How many threads is this guy going to inspire?
  15. Hendry doesn't like long term deals. Moreno probably wouldn't blink at throwing a 7 or 8 year deal at him. I believe the no longterm deals order came from MacPhail, who as president, would have the team's longterm interest at heart more than a GM.
  16. Hendry inherited a team that won 88 games 2 years before, then the team went out and won 88 games and won a division.
  17. I don't think this is possible under posting rules. The winning bidders needs to sign the player. Once the players signed, he can be traded, but that probably needs to wait until after May of the following season to happen, like other free agent signings. But the player isn't a free agent, so why would he have those rights?
  18. Assuming that ARod/Boras wants out of NY, but don't want to admit that Alex wants out, and that the Yankees want to get rid of ARod but don't want to make it look like they are giving him away, this could be a believable scenario. The question then becomes what happens with the money in the end. Do the Cubs pay $21m, plus ARod's remaining non-Texas contract? I doubt that. The hangup is that the Cubs actually have to outbid the Yanks. I would think NY would prefer to just win the bid outright, then trade ARod seperately. But this is where the no trade clause kicks in. You would have to assume that ARod specifically wants to go to the Cubs, and that the Yankees are willing to play along only if they end up with Daisuke.
  19. Our hope doesn't like with Ramirez resigning. It could still be a long cold winter with him returning, and the team could still suck. Resigning Ramirez does not improve the team, and this team needs to be improved. They have to resign Ramirez, then still make major improvements.
  20. Did anyone listen to WGN radio sports reports yesterday afternoon or Sports Central? My dad was in the car and he thinks he heard David Kaplan say that Aramis will be signed by Saturday after he gets a few more bucks. Can anyone confirm? Yeah, I heard that too. Very encouraging, IMO, since Kaplan has been money on his scoops lately - MacPhail being the opt out clause creator and Aramis getting a full NTC for the first two years of his contract. When was it confirmed that Ramirez had a full NTC? http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-061030cubs,1,187565.story?coll=cs-home-headlines That is not confirmation of a full no trade clause. A no-trade provision can mean many things, most common is a list of 4-5 teams where the player would refuse to be traded.
  21. Did anyone listen to WGN radio sports reports yesterday afternoon or Sports Central? My dad was in the car and he thinks he heard David Kaplan say that Aramis will be signed by Saturday after he gets a few more bucks. Can anyone confirm? Yeah, I heard that too. Very encouraging, IMO, since Kaplan has been money on his scoops lately - MacPhail being the opt out clause creator and Aramis getting a full NTC for the first two years of his contract. When was it confirmed that Ramirez had a full NTC?
  22. did this guy sleep through last season or what?? Unfortunately, far too many people still think that. They see the stereotypical leadoff man, and decide he's a perfect fit, without putting a second of thought into the stats (besides low K and high SB). For some reason, it's been a lot easier for many people to overlook Pierre's overall weak numbers by dismissing his poor April and May to a fluke, than it has for them to accept Ramirez's overall good numbers, because of his poor start. To her credit, Muskat seems to think Pierre ain't all that.
  23. Even if he doesn't suffer as much as Nomar, the notion that the broken bones wouldn't affect Lee was already proven incorrect when he tried to come back this year. It had a much greater effect on his 2006 than many people were willing to assume, both in terms of time missed and how productive he'd be upon return. Nomar was only 28 when he returned, and seemingly still had some upside. Lee is already 31. Anyway, I just think it's important to remember, when discussing Ramirez, that we can't just assume he's nothing more than the 2nd best hitter on the Cubs. He could easily be the best hitter on the team, as he has for 2 of the past 3 years. We can't dismiss Ramirez leaving by saying Lee was the true face of the franchise or franchise player. Lee isn't Pujols. He hung tough with Albert for one season, but he's not the rock solid stud anchoring the lineup that the Cubs need, this is why it's all the more important to have multiple very good hitters. And that means keeping Ramirez, getting Lee healthy and acquiring new guys. You can't just replace Ramirez with a new guy and count on enough improvement to make this team better. Not that I'm saying anything new or anything.
  24. I agree, but even a 900-925 OPS is going to be a large decline from 2005, and will require a lot more improvements elsewhere to make the offense better than 2005/2006 overall. I think a lot of people have been penciling in Lee circa 2005 in whatever lineup takes the field in 2007. And that's not realistic. Pretty much anything he does in 2007 will be better than 2006, but the offense sucked in 2005, even with him playing great. So any expected improvements for 2007 should take into account a non-special season out of Lee. This just makes the job of Hendry's offseason acquisitions that much more important.
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