goonys evil twin

I've never purchased anything from any of those vendors, and couldn't care less if they are gone. But I wouldn't support such a law.

That is what I meant. Small fast athletes, what Dusty considers to be prototypical leadoff men, aren't abandoning the sport en masse to another sport.

Your point is taken, and I think you're dead wrong. I don't see anything wrong with saying Murton could be the Cubs best OF this season. We don't know how good he'll be, maybe he'll be the worst, but he could be the best. We don't know how good Pierre will be, but his track record gives us a pretty good idea. If he repeats 2005, it won't take much for Murton to be better. Production is production, no matter where it comes from. It doesn't matter if Pierre is one of the best leadoff men, if Murton outproduces him from the 2 spot, 7th spot or 8th spot, he'll be the better OF. Right now we don't know who is the best OF on the Cubs. I'd wait until after the season is well under way to claim it's impossible to rank one ahead of the other. They could all be similarly mediocre, or worse. Hopefully they all outproduce expectations.

Personally I think it's rather ridiculous to go around insulting other fans for stating their opinion on the OF situation. The fact remains the Cubs OF is pretty poor. It wouldn't take much to be the best of the bunch. Murton could have a disappointing season and still accomplish the feat.

Is this necessary?

Do you mean you do think a guy's HBP numbers can be somewhat predicitive?

If they can get him on the cheap, and get something of value for Walker, I'd be much more satisfied with the 2B depth chart of Vidro, Hairston, Perez, instead of Hairston, Perez. I envision that to be a rather big if. Probably.

Dusty doesn't seem to run his team into too many outs, and I like that about him. Although I wonder if that will change with more fast guys on the team. A different quote I heard was his claim that leadoff hitters, ie, small fast guys, are hard to come by because they are playing other sports. What other sports are small fast guys moving to in the US that they didn't play before? Personally I think there are plenty of leadoff guys, and plenty of fast guys in baseball. It's just the filtration system of this sport has weeded out a lot of guys whose only skill is speed, and that baseball is doing a better and better job of looking for overall production instead of arbitrary skills.

If they can get him on the cheap, and get something of value for Walker, I'd be much more satisfied with the 2B depth chart of Vidro, Hairston, Perez, instead of Hairston, Perez.

I don't think I've really heard Hendry talk about extending Dusty's contract. The media keeps saying he should, and I believe Andy has talked the most about Jim and Dusty's contracts. But I would imagine any talk on this subject would satisfy Cards fans. I want Dusty to manage the Cubs forever. Well, the only way he's going to be around for a long time is if the team enjoys great success under his watch, so I guess I would have to say I wouldn't mind if he manages the team forever either.

I don't think I've really heard Hendry talk about extending Dusty's contract. The media keeps saying he should, and I believe Andy has talked the most about Jim and Dusty's contracts. But I would imagine any talk on this subject would satisfy Cards fans.

The difference being the hockey players are already in shape as it's the middle of the season. The pitchers especially are nowhere near where they need to be. I think that's why more people would be in favor of doing this at the end of the year when guys may be tired but are at least accustomed to the workload. I don't know. If I am a professional athlete preparing for an event such as the WBC, I certainly wouldn't show up out of shape and unprepared to represent my country. But if you have gone several years with the same routine getting prepared for the season. You use February and March as a warm-up for April, and all of a sudden you have to be ready for do or die games in early March, you might not be able to prepare. The offseason is helpful in the healing process. You need time off. The only way to be ready in early March for the same type of intensity you usually don't see until August and September is to start getting ready further in advance. It's not a matter of being a fat slob from 4 months of sitting on the couch. Game shape and spring training shape are two different things.

Who says it's a wait and see? He's assuming the decision hasn't already been made privately to let Baker ride his contract out, and replace him next offseason. I don't know why the "wait and see" status is bad for the team. Steinbrenner holds Torre's and Cashman's jobs over their heads every year and the team hasn't folded like the Cubs last year. Of all the columns to write, the "sign the GM and manager right now or the team is doomed" column is probably the most pointless. I'd rather read another "the Trib is too cheap to sign the big names" column, which are tired and boring.

We are talking about Baseball America here, so clearly it's a ceiling thing. They always put far more emphasis on ceiling as opposed to likelihood of making the big leagues. Whether you'd trade Pawelek for Cedeno depends entirely on what your team needs are and where you team stands against the competition. Right now I'd trade Pawelek, no doubt, for a player like Cedeno, a young guy who can start this year at a position of need. But if you are Florida, does that make sense? SS can be filled with 1 guy, maybe 2, over a 5 year period. You will probably need 15-20 starting pitchers over a 5 year period. If you have an adequate SS, or the means to acquire one elsewhere, but were still a couple years away from contending, it probably wouldn't make much sense to trade Pawalek for Cedeno.

He's probably more valuable teaching the young kids who are willing to learn as opposed to veterans who are stuck in their ways. That all depends on what you mean be "continue to hit". Are you saying he'll hit over .300, or .270, or .330? Or are you talking more about overall production at the plate, and his AVG/OBP/SLG line being at a certain level. I don't have a ton of faith in Cedeno being a very solid hitter, but I do believe he's got the ability to get the job done at an acceptable level.

Best of luck to you man. Hopefully you'll be back in time for the ring ceremony.

Murton is a big loss on this team since he's likely the best OF on the team.

Fat Williams http://www.nycdiet.com/nycdiet/images/serenawilliamsfat.jpg

Sort of like de-signing the guy?

The only reason people think there were no Glendon Rusch or Joel Pineiro, or other similar back of the rotation starters, is because everybody likes to pretend the old days were nothing but golden days, and they only talk about the great. We hear about all these tough guys who gutted out a bunch of complete games and never got hurt, because all the guys who blew out there arms were forgotten. This is not a watered down age. The size of the talent pool available to fill the league nowadays dwarves the numbers that were available back in the day. Not only is the population that much bigger, and the facilities that much better for a larger group to get the opportunity, but the amount of black or foreign born players adds to that increased talent pool. Any list of the games best that doesn't include any players from this era is an absurdly illegitimate list.

I remember being screaming mad at Baylor for bunting all of the darned time. I don't recall Baker bunting nearly as much as Baylor did. With Neifi, it's alright to bunt alot because you know he's probably not going to ground into a DP when he bunts. Yeah, I definitely remember the Donny Buntball era pretty clearly, and don't think Dusty compares on that front. But there were a few too many times when he would sac bunt in front of Lee, who would just get walked only to have Burnitz end the inning.

I'd be interested to see if Hairston's OBP last season was inflated by his HBPs. He'd definitely be a better option than Neifi. I wouldn't be disappointed if Hairston wound up starting 150 games at 2b. I think he could have a break out year if that happens. His OBP increased each year from 2001 to 2004 (.305, .329, .353, .378). He regressed when he switched leagues. Walks usually account for about 70 points of his OBP, which is pretty solid, which indicates he should still be capable of putting up a .350+ OBP, especially since he's more familiar with the league now. The main concern is his ability to play 150 games without getting hurt. He's not quite Nomar-fragile, but he's probably about as durable as ARam is right now. I'd rather see Walker, but I still think he gets traded before opening day, and Hairston is a very good 2nd option after TWalk. The only other problem with Hairston at 2nd is we don't have anyone else that can back up CF. That means Neifi gets significant time if either JP or Hairston go down to injury (or even Cedeno, for that matter, knock on wood...), and that is not good. Fortunately, Pierre doesn't take too many games off or get injured much. I think Jacque or Grissom will get backup CF duty if Juan takes a breather. But, if Pierre goes down, Pie will get the call, if not Greenberg. I wouldn't mind Hairston as the starting 2B, but that almost guarantees Neifi will get a ton of time over there if Walker is traded, since Jerry won't play a full year and they have no young infielders.

Because Soriano used to play next to Derek Jeter, who we all know is the most clutch player of all time.. People who clamored for Soriano, are those who continue to buy in the hype that Soriano is actually good. I believe Soriano is good, and could be a useful asset to a team if used properly. But he's far from great, and not worth giving up a guy like Murton, who could give you same or similar production at a fraction of the cost, and without all the BS "I won't go to the OF" talk, or threats of leaving to the AL next year. Not only would it suck to trade a lot for him only to have him leave after one year, it would also suck to give up a lot for him and then pay him his next contract which is likely to be over $10m per year for several years for production that won't come close to justifying that money.

It's not that shocking since in the team-by-team rankings, Pawelek was ahead of Cedeno. The reason Cedeno is lower is because he doesn't have a long record of sustained success while Pawelek has a higher ceiling. BA is always enamored with the toolsier, higher-ceilinged player. I agree with the order they ranked Pie, Pawelek and Cedeno. That doesn't completely explain it though...If BA is more enamored with toolsier guys, that was always Cedeno until he hit AA. He was a young guy in his leagues who was a stud defensively but hadn't figured it out offensively. He always fit the toolsy high ceiling description until he found success at AA and up. I never heard Ronny talked about as a high ceiling toolsy guy.

I like Ronny, but I don't see the problem with rating him where they did, and I don't see it as a diss. He's sucked for most of his time as a pro. Yes, he did start to figure it out in AA, but he wasn't anything special after that year of improvement. It wasn't until this season that he did anything to merit mention as a top prospect, and you can't fault them for still holding doubt about a guy who has done it for just one year.