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goonys evil twin

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Everything posted by goonys evil twin

  1. goonys evil twin
    Why? I think they're great. If you deserve it, you'll get your money up front. If you don't perform, you're cut. They're the best thing that's happened to pro sports. MLB and especially the NBA are plagued with underperforming players taking up too much of the payroll. These aren't blue collar workers getting shoved around, even the worst make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. If you work your tail off you'll keep getting more and more. If somebody passes you by, you better find a new line of work. It's a great system, and one of the primary reasons why football blows away all other US sports.
  2. goonys evil twin
    I see the Mets making some moves with the OF, but I don't see them trading both Cameron and Floyd. If they do deal Beltran, there is no doubt they'll keep Cameron. They only have one really good hitter on the team, Wright. 1B, 2B, and SS are relatively weak hitting positions for them. RF and LF were pretty good for them last year, if they deal both Floyd and Cameron, they'll need to replace both and add offense to another position, like 1B.
  3. goonys evil twin
    With all the talk of defense, fundamentals, clutchiness, etc. etc. etc., I don't see them making a splash offensively. I think they'll try to White Sox it, half assing the offense. And if that's the case, they must go heavy on the pitching, which would include a big time end of the game reliever. I've drawn up several models of next year's payroll, nearly every single one of them (including the ones with Giles) had room for a 3/30 contract in the bullpen.
  4. goonys evil twin
    Makes a lot of sense to me. Let Dempster start the 8th. Ohman is the guy you bring into the middle of an inning to face a lefty, Wuertz or whoever else you sign comes in to face the righties. You can also bring Wagner into a very tough 7th/8th inning spot, then let Dempster close that day. Not allowing yourself to improve the team just because Ryan Dempster is already techinically the closer would be absurd. The bullpen can use bigtime arms. If this team fails to adequately fix the offensive problems, which it seems they will almost certainly do, then you absolutely have to bring in a lockdown arm to the bullpen. I'd love to have Ryan or Wagner.
  5. goonys evil twin
    The Cubs are an established brand. WGN9 games helped build the brand in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, but the fanbase is already huge and solid. I agree that they will have a tough time drawing in news kids from Kentucky or Iowa by not having as many games on from 1-5 on WGN. However, I'm not sure they need to recruit more 12 year olds. There's already an enormous base of fans who grew up on the Cubs, and are now having children of their own. Those kids will get exposed to the team. And the number of fans buying things like the extre innings package, MLBTV and XM radio keeps growing. Sure, that's not the same as having free tv exposure, but times have changed. There's probably too much competition for eyeballs to think the Cubs can retain the dominance of that market in that timeframe. You and I might have come in from outside to watch the Cubs every summer afternoon, but this generation is very different from the ones that grew up with Cubs on WGN everyday.
  6. goonys evil twin
    I wonder about this. Last year, coming off his good season, Rusch was classfieid by the Elias system as a *starting pitcher*, not a reliever. And he did *not* make class B, he only made class C which does not bring any compensation picks. I'm not sure exactly how they decide how to classify a guy: over 03-04, he'd appeared in a few more games in rotation than relief. Over 04-05, he may be now eligible for the relief class, since he appeared in more relief games this year. By innings, of course, he's got lots more rotation innings. Elias normally takes the previous two seasons. Given how bad his 2003 was, peerhaps even if he's in the rotation pool this year his 04-05 combo is improved enough relative to 03-04 that he'll now make class B. In the relief ranks, he's got a limited number of appearances, but a lot of innings, and his 2-year ERA of around 4.0 would fair quite well among relievers. But you still have to offer arbitration, and I'm not sure I'm willing to risk paying Rusch $4-5m just for the chance to get another 2nd round pick. This organization hasn't exactly lit the world on fire with their draft picks anyway.
  7. goonys evil twin
    I'd sign him.
  8. goonys evil twin
    He's also had zero good full seasons.
  9. goonys evil twin
    Thinking about that is making me slightly nauseous. Wuertz would actually have to spend money to buy the Cubs. He wouldn't think of doing that. He's a bottom feeder. he's just a young reliever. He doesn't make THAT much. You know, I wrote that and was thinking, "this doesn't look right.". I just now figured it out. Wirtz.
  10. goonys evil twin
    Thinking about that is making me slightly nauseous. Wuertz would actually have to spend money to buy the Cubs. He wouldn't think of doing that. He's a bottom feeder.
  11. goonys evil twin
    You decide
  12. goonys evil twin
    The Milton Bradley train is starting to run out of control when people suggest Bradley would be the ideal 4 hitter for the Cubs next year. He's a career .269/.350/.426 hitter. He's outperformed that number in 2 of the last 3 years, but the only one that was close to a full year he was in-line with his career numbers. I'm fine with Bradley on this team, but he's a 2 hitter at best, and probably more like a 6 hitter.
  13. goonys evil twin
    You prefer?
  14. goonys evil twin
    I would never suggest an "all your eggs in one basket" option. Just look at the SS position. No way do I want to see them let Nomar walk and then try and negotiate with Furcal. That would either force their hand to pay an exorbitant amount, or leave them with very little at the position. I think there are several options to look at for RF, Giles just tops the list. If they end up settling for Griffey, then they probably have to go out and get another bat, because he's less reliable than Nomar (with a longer injury history, and being older).
  15. goonys evil twin
    Paul's 1B production is replacable. They can either find a better hitter than him, or take a slight hit, but pay a whole lot less. If they're smart, they won't miss a beat from his departure.
  16. goonys evil twin
    And yet, toward the end you could have easily let Rusch go and use Hill, likely not giving up a thing. I hate that this organization builds in the excuse not to use a guy in advance. "We have to sign Rusch because we don't know what Hill can bring us." Why didn't you see what Hill could do in the 2nd half. "We had to see if Maddux could manage a 15-15 season, and Rusch earned those starts." Make the right decision in the first place and you wouldn't be stuck feeling it's necessary to negotiate with Glendon Rusch.
  17. goonys evil twin
    I believe he's the team president, not a GM.
  18. goonys evil twin
    I'm also not keen on giving players player options. My expectation is that in each of those cases, Aramis in particular but also Rusch and Walker, they wouldn't have taken the offers without the extra "stuff" in them. It's hard for me to judge whether offering those player-controlled options or incentives is wrong unless I know how much guaranteed money would have been required in their absence. It's one thing to cave into the demands of good players like Walker, or potentially great players like Ramirez. But my specific problem is with giving that control to Rusch, a guy who could give you a 6+ ERA really easily, and basically provide no value. *edited for ramirez/rusch mix-up
  19. goonys evil twin
    The amount of buildings in NY and Boston older than Fenway is pretty high. It'll need repairs, but it should be able to stand for quite a while. It was the weeks old stuff that collapsed, not the 90 year old stuff.
  20. goonys evil twin
    I think it's viable. You're basically looking for moderate production on the bench with different strengths for different guys. A .250/.320/.440 line would be acceptable for RH power threat. Sing is capable of that. I'm not saying he'd be a lock, but at 25 next season, he's not too young, and he does have over 2200 pro at bats, a pretty significant amount. It would depend on how the OF is constructed, and how the rest of the bench looks. I'd be happy with Blanco, 2 vets with good history and 3 minimum wage kids. Dubois was not the first pinch hit bat off the bench this year. Baker wouldn't use Sing as the first bat off the bench either. I wouldn't expect him to be. I would assume those 2 vets I talked about would be, hopefully they're better than Macias/Perez. UK mentioned Saenz/Sweeney as those vets. If Nomar/Walker are your infielders, and Cedeno and Fontenot can backup, then you're looking for probably a more natural OF, or possibly speed (Bacon?). But what if Hairston was one of those vets, and it went Sweeney/Hairston/Cedeno/Fontenot. Your IF is covered pretty well. Sweeney has acceptable LH pop. The rest of the lineup is hopefully giving you some OBP and reasonable speed. The one thing you are lacking is a RH with some power. Sing could fit there.
  21. goonys evil twin
    .300 AVG against this year, 800 OPS against, .292/796 for his career. He gives up a fair amount of flyballs, and is susceptible to the HR. He doesn't walk a ton of guys, but he doesn't strike out many either, and allows a large amount of baserunners. He's a smoke and mirrors tight rope walker. People love to bring up Moyer, but Moyer didn't start getting paid until after he started actually coming up with the results on a consistent basis. Rusch hasn't done that yet. He's fine if he's willing to play without extra years guaranteed or more money. But anything more is not realistic. If you look at a list of his most similar pitchers, overall or by age, there is nothing to give people faith. Names like Allen Watson, Ricky Bones and Frank Castillo are nothing to hang your hat on.
  22. goonys evil twin
    I think it's viable. You're basically looking for moderate production on the bench with different strengths for different guys. A .250/.320/.440 line would be acceptable for RH power threat. Sing is capable of that. I'm not saying he'd be a lock, but at 25 next season, he's not too young, and he does have over 2200 pro at bats, a pretty significant amount. It would depend on how the OF is constructed, and how the rest of the bench looks. I'd be happy with Blanco, 2 vets with good history and 3 minimum wage kids.
  23. goonys evil twin
    The Cubs don't need old school. They don't need a red-ass. They don't need yelling and screaming and bitching and moaning. They need somebody who will play the best players, employ sound strategy and not kill the pitchers. Not trying to be argumentative here, Goony, just curious. What is your definition of a red ass ? That's not really a phrase I use. It's just the one I hear most often when talking about Lou. Basically, somebody who gets pissed off easily and yells a lot.
  24. goonys evil twin
    That is something I would not consider. The guy could easily throw up a 6+ ERA this year, injury or not. That would mean paying $2m for a worthless pitcher, and then being forced to do it again next year, because he knows he can't get more. No responsible GM should ever put Rusch in control of whether or not he gets to come back a year in advance.
  25. goonys evil twin
    The Cubs don't need old school. They don't need a red-ass. They don't need yelling and screaming and bitching and moaning. They need somebody who will play the best players, employ sound strategy and not kill the pitchers.
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