goonys evil twin

They went as far as listing 3 middle infielders they were comfortable with, and not including Walker on the list. They've talked about open competition a lot, when none of the other competitors has done a thing to deserve a shot at the position full time. It's an insult to any major league player to have his manager and GM state Neifi Perez is being given a chance to win his job. Hairston is a credible fall-back option if you're stuck without a real 2B, but he's had a pretty long career to earn a starting job and hasn't come close to proving he can be a good starter for 150 games a year. We're talking about a team that strongly emphasizes tenure and seniority. Saying the second base job is open for competition this spring is the same as saying Walker is already gone. I can't understand why people have a problem with what Todd has done. Heaven forbid somebody talk openly and honestly. I'd much rather hear about vague rehab assignments that don't really have schedules and how kids have to earn a job in spring training while veterans just have to show they can move around a little. And on top of all this, open competition for starting roles in spring training is absolutely pointless, and terrible baseball decision making. Spring training will not tell you which of these guys should start. Their career paths have already told you that. If over the course of the next couple months Walker proves to be less of a contributor than he was last year, you can think about replacing him. Doing so now is unwise and a sign of a team with misplaced priorities and irrational decision making skills.

I don't think football people should be that astonished. The salary cap in 2006 and 2007 will be so much bigger than it was in 2004 and 2005. As soon as it became clear how much higher the cap would be, it became obvious that guys would be getting contracts way out of line with the deals signed by similar players (and even better ones) just one or two years before. You can fit a whole lot more under the new system. Teams will still be hurting if they keep up the irrationality, but with so much more space, a few deals like this were inevitable, and should have been expected.

When you boil it down, doesn't it really come down to wins? If you left it out it wouldn't have changed the way I feel about Wood. When you boil what down? The pitcher's performance? No, not at all, not even close.

If his knee proves to be a problem, then you make the change, you don't prepare to make the change before the knee becomes a problem.

Wow....wow wow wow. An NFL writer has to do a story about how they pull this off every year. I think the Redskins will be one of the playoff teams from this season to not make it next year.

http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/ http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/tv-listings.asp Off to a 6-4 spring training start, the Cubs look to continue their winning ways as they host the Colorado Rockies (CSN, 2 p.m.). The game starts at 3 eastern, it hasn't started yet.

The answer to the concerns with Walker is to play him as a regular 2B to start the season. If there are issues that keep him from being the same productive player he's shown he can be, then mix in Hairston to the job. But Jerry has done nothing to earn an everyday job over Walker, and spring training cannot change that fact. Concerns about what his health might do to his productivity are not a legitimate reason to give the job to somebody else.

Does that really matter in the scheme of things? Walker is the player and Baker is the manager. How is this different than what goes on in the regular workplace? Many times workers feel that management has wronged them but they don't talk about it publically. Now Walker is saying, on the radio, that Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker never lied to him. He says his comments were generalizations about his previous experiences on other teams... How could it not matter in the scheme of things. Most employees aren't interviewed by the media and asked about their relationship with management. Most employees don't have their bosses tell the media they are looking to replace them. Bringing that line of thinking into the discussion is completely pointless. This whole story looks like a classic case of people taking bits and pieces of quotes and deciding to roast somebody without looking at the story in context. Walker said nothing wrong. Teams tell players things to get them to sign. Oh wow, what a revelation. As far as anybody can tell, Walker never said Hendry lied to him. Dusty and his players have a history of telling the media two different stories about the supposedly same conversation. Why Walker gets taken to task for this is beyond me. This is a non-story that people are taking way too far.

Don't know much about him other than this data. Looks to be too old to consider a real prospect. He's had rather inimpressive peripheral numbers in limited professional action since the draft (less than 100 IP in 4 years - missed 2003 season). No idea where he'll pitch this year, though he could probably fill a spot in the Iowa bullpen if they have the need.

Dusty and his players routinely contradict each other when it comes to revealing info about conversations between them. Are we going to just ignore that history and the implications it has about the honesty with which Dusty speaks about his players, and villify Walker.

. That is exactly what WHIP does-there is no distinction. The stat itself doesn't differentiate. But the people who value WHIP aren't dumb enough to think that way.

I don't see what the point would be of moving Jones to center and putting Pie in right.

I don't know how many are better, but most are older, and considerably so. Ryu is 22, and the only name I see on the roster born after him is Byung Doo Jun, a small lefty (one of only 3 on the roster). Half of their pitchers are major leaguers. I'm not sure if any others are playing in the American minor leagues, but I'm guessing most of the others are establish "veterans" in their own league which could help their management team build more faith in their abilities.

It's hard to tell. It could be there is no source, and the writer is just going off his impression of how others feel about players. Or it could be that somebody in the organization is talking up Marshall over Hill, which would be really stupid if the team was thinking about trading Hill, as it would lower his value. The time to deal him was early in the offseason, when he looked like the favorite of many on the team. You don't start downplaying a guy's worth after a couple shaky spring outings, which are meaningless.

That is an absurdly foolish claim. WHIP=H+BB/IP 9 singles+ 0 BB/9 IP=1.0 WHIP 9 HR + 0 BB/9 IP=1.0 WHIP Next. Next what? Next absurdly foolish claim by you? Okay, what is it? WHIP is one stat. It's one extremely helpful stat in judging pitchers, but it's still one stat. Nobody will tell you 9 singles equals 9 homeruns. To claim so is completely ignorant.

Competing for jobs in spring training isn't very smart baseball. And is Walker really arguing about competing? It sounds to me like he thinks he should be the starter based on his track record and the likelihood of what the candidates will bring to the table this year. That's about the mpost rational train of thought in this silly storyline.

Using spring training as a time for players with established track records to compete for a starting job is a poor way of determing the makeup of your roster.

If Murton is going to be traded, it's going to be for an impact veteran OF bat, which would only happen if the team was still in the race. Although I don't think it will happen, this would be the type of scenario in which it will happen. Cubs start off the season pretty well, but trail STL by a couple games and do it all on the strength of pitching. Meanwhile, Philly struggles out of the gate and lose the faith of that fickle fan base who no longer come just for the stadium. With a bloated payroll and disappointing results, the team decides to play for the future, trading off either Abreu or Burrell. This would leave the Cubs an opportunity to find the impact middle of the order bat they need, and they would trade Murton and a pitcher for one of those two hitters. You could substitute any other team with expensive OF bats who would be looking to trim payroll, hopefully including Florida. What I can't see happening is the Cubs trading Murton for prospects. It makes no sense on any level. You trade for prospects when you are looking for the future or trimming payroll, and another team is willing to trade prospects for established veterans. That wouldn't be the case here.

I'm not that excited about this potential signing. It would be nice to improve the return game, but they shouldn't spend a large amount of money on a guy whose only value is returning. They have to remember the return game was fine just two years ago using two servicable cornerbacks primarily (plus a little bit of Berrian). Drummond is useless anywhere but the return game. He's also never played a full season. I would rather they draft a mid round cornerback with return ability or another receiver who can do the job, or give it to one of the guys already on the roster. They should spend their free agent dollars on players who can have a much bigger impact than Drummond, who was no more than an average return man last year.

That is an absurdly foolish claim.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/060308 I think they look stupid and the "science" behind it is BS.

Some of the pitchers have been guys who won't even make the team. The best pitcher is in the WBC right now. And everybody scores a ton of runs in the cactus league.

He can't say anything more.

Wild card is good Inter-league is decent Opening in Europe - effff that, opening day is a big thing, don't take that away from the loyal fans. They've played it in Japan and in Mexico. I don't see how it takes anything from the fans to play it in Europe. Put 2 east coast teams over there and I think it would be a good idea. Every other team would still have their opening day.

That's the key really, learning how to win.