goonys evil twin

Here's to good ole' Jack clearing Kyle's head and the defense giving the Bears a chance to go 2-2, taking control of the division.

He's been rumored to be part of many past deals in Boston. He's missed significant time in each of the past three years. He's not anywhere close to elite. His numbers against lefties practically scream platoon player. He has one year left on his deal then becomes a free agent. Boston needs pitching in the worst way. There current payroll situation is quite screwy. Clement, Renteria, Foulke, Schilling are all signed for a few more years but are not likely to live up to their salaries. If they decide to keep Damon, I could easily see them move Nixon for pitching.

Not sure why anybody would want him over Williams, and I'm not even a Williams fan.

Sullivan wrote that, did he not?

Clemens should win, he's been the best pitcher. If you're a GM, looking to sign two pitchers, and everything about those two pitchers is the same except for W/L and ERA, you're telling me you would sign the pitcher with a 15-10, 4.00, rather than the guy who was 10-7, 2.50? Sure we'd like to be fortunate to have a guy with a 4+ ERA win 15 games, but that would only happen if the rest of the team was good, not if the pitcher pitched particularly well. How about another question? Do you like a pitcher who went 15-12 more than a pitcher who went 10-4? People love to harp on win totals, but they tend to ignore loss totals. What should matter to somebody putting together a team is how that pitcher pitched irregardless of how his teammates played.

Who described his career to this point as fantastic?

Isn't that how the White Sox and Astros got to the post-season? Timely hitting? How does somebody go out and acquire timely hitting in the offseason? Houston and White Sox didn't make it to the playoffs off timely hitting, they made it on unbelievable pitching. They better not waste time, focus and money thinking they can magically solve the clutch dilemna. Just get production Jimbo, let the romanticists worry about the myths you have no control over.

He didn't "imply Wood is hurt a lot". He said he gets hurt every year, comparing him to Angel Guzman. I fully admit Wood has been hurt a lot. But he hasn't been hurt every year, and he cannot be compared to Guzman. Angel is 23 now and we don't know anything more about him and his future now than we did when he was 19. Wood is an established major league starter. Sure he's been hurt a lot. But he still blows away Guzman in the reliability department. The talk of Wood to the pen has been dead for a month now. He's going to start next year. Guzman, who has less than 150 IP, combined, the past three years is nearing cut bait time. We know Wood can give you 30+ starts and 200+ IP with fantastic numbers, while on the other hand we don't even know if Guzman can throw 100 innings in back to back starts.

Have the Cubs discussed moving Angel Guzman to the bullpen, since he can't seem to stay healthy as a starter? if they wont move wood to the pen after watching him get hurt year after year why would it be any different guzman? Because Wood doesn't get hurt year after year. He's got 2 200+ inning seasons, he's got 6 20+ start seasons. Guzman has never been healthy for a full year.

Oh, lighten up. It's a game, ribbing of the opposing team's fans should be encouraged. Yeah, that's what sports needs more of, we're really lacking in the smack talking punks department.

bruce, can we assume if the cubs are looking at a veteran righty righty for the pen that they are not very high on jvb? i would think that another solid lefty like villone or sauerbeck would be higher on the list than another righty. is this also a clue that wood will not be back in the pen in 06? I think the bigger clue that Wood won't be back in the pen is everybody involved in the situation saying that Wood won't be back in the pen, that he's a starter and they will try to get him healed in time to once again start for the Cubs next April.

What is your take on the rumors surrounding Hendry/Baker extending their contracts. I'm just crazy enough to still be holding out hope that Andy is getting this story out there in order to put the ball in Baker's court and force him to make a move. Baker's time in SF was filled with this sort of political maneuvering. Dusty likes to play the innocent victim. The "woe is me, I've never had a longterm deal" routine has always been his way of claiming management is screwing him over, and he's just doing the best he can with what they give him. If Dusty was visibly annoyed at questions about his contract extension talks, perhaps he's feeling a little squeezed knowing he'll be the one who has to quit if he wants out, leaving money on the table. Here's to hoping that Andy is trying to save his boy Hendry from having to take the fall with his first major blunder, Baker, being let go. I've always thought Hendry's future was tied to Dusty's, but if Dusty quits, as opposed to being fired, there might be less pressure to fire Jim as well. Then again, if the only way to rectify Jim's biggest error is by having Andy step in and CHA, perhaps we'd be better off with Hendry gone as well. If he can't learn from, and fix his own mistakes with the manager decision, how can we possibly expect him to wake up to the lack of walks, lack of OBP, lack of OF offense, incompetent overpaid veterans on the bench, and a pitching staff that hates throwing strikes. Great, I just went from mildly optimistic about Baker potentially leaving to once again depressed at the lack of ability for the front office to affectively carry-out a winning philosophy.

You guys are nuts, this season stunk. We all failed.

I would be more worried signing Damon to the deal he'll get compared to Giles and what he might sign. I think Damon is looking for 5/50 as a starting block. And while he's good with the OBP, he's not really that special, and he's been somewhat inconsistent. His last 5 seasons' OBP were .324, .356, .345, .380, .366, and he's had a sub 800 OPS 3 of 5 of those seasons. Add to that his absolutely pathetic OF arm and occasionally crazy play out there and I'm not sure he'd really be a wise signing. His SB totals keep declining, although he remains efficient. With a game seemingly dependent so heavily on speed/quickness, I'd be concerned about how the 32 year old ages over the course of his next contract. I see his defense, while seemingly good overall, deteriorating, and his avg/obp/slg to be far less than what I'd like to see from a big money player. Then of course there are the concerns about his whole hollywood thing. He's been a golden boy since his KC days, but has never built upon those early successes (his best days were his 25/26 year old seasons). I believe Damon might be better than I give him credit for, but I still wouldn't be all that comfortable seeing him signed like some sort of superstar.

If we're making a public record I'll say I'd be disgusted by that OF. Basically you are very likely getting 3 sub 800 OPS, and quite possibly getting no more than a 750/650/790. That's awful, and completely unacceptable.

Pat Burrell would provide much more of a positive impact than Kent would.

It would have to bring back a serious upgrade elsewhere, extremely large in fact, to justify such a series of moves.

Oh, I think we'd have to give up something good, whether it's 1 or 2 or 3 players/prospects. My questions for the group here are (1) is getting Vazquez plus a young bat a good idea in the first place and (2) what would be a fair trade for both teams? I'd entertain the idea, but they'd have to get back a serious bat in order to justify the move. Vasquez has pretty much defined mediocrity over his career, and is paid far too much for what he gives you. 200 average innings is not worth anywhere close to $12m.

It's sad that "none" in that sentence is not an exaggeration. Has there ever been a worse OF? They were bottom 5 in the NL at all three OF positions. Some may be shocked to learn that LF was actually the best of the 3, at 12th out of the 16 team league. RF was 15, CF was 16. It's not even a debate about where the focus has to be.

Kent isn't even a guaranteed 100 point OPS improvement. He's old, and just getting older. Walker isn't much less of a player. They absolutely positively have to get impact bats in the OF. There's no debate. It's not about waiting around for big names to come their way, and hoping they succeed. They have to get enormous improvements in the OF, or they will not contend. 2B is not a position that needs an upgrade, and minimal upgrade for maximum cost is about as foolish a strategy as a GM could employ.

Anybody who tries to deflect criticism away from Dusty has a much tougher challenge than somebody who rightfully holds him responsible for much of the prodlem. He's one of many problems with this team, not the sole problem, but without a doubt an enormous problem. Defending him is pointless. He's absolutely the wrong man for this job, and has been since before he was hired. The team is heading in the wrong direction and he deserves enormous amounts of blame for that fact. Hendry also deserves blame for his failures. But this is not a black or white, either/or situation. You aren't giving a free pass to anybody else by saying Dusty screwed up and must go. You're simply holding a leader responsible for the rudderless direction of the team.

In 7 seasons as a full time top of the order hitter, the guy has 1 100 run season. Seems to me that if he really did "make things happen" at the top of the order, he'd do better than that. This year he had 10 SB and 7 CS. While in 2004 that was 21 and 4, in 2003 that was 21 and 19. His speed seems to be hurting the team more than helping it since he apparantly has more faith in his running than he should. I think Castillo at the top of the order would be fine, but I'm not sure he'd really help improve the team as a whole when the one bat he'd replace was already good. Plus, all that extra cash they'd have to take on would mean less ability to fill the other, far greater needs. The Cubs need LF, CF and RF production, they got none in 2005. They also need SS production. They don't need an upgrade to 2B.

I'm not a Kent fan. Certainly he's a better hitter than Walker, but he's not a whole lot better. 2B wasn't a position problem for the Cubs. They got subpar performances from several positions, notably RF, CF and LF, as well as SS (they were last in the league at SS before Nomar returned). They were 4th in the NL at 2B, and had Walker played a greater percentage of the games, they would have been higher. Kent just isn't that much of an upgrade to justify the cost. It would be similar to the situation in 2001 when they foolishly went hard after McGriff even though he wasn't a huge improvement over Stairs, and had positions in greater need of an upgrade. If you spend prospects and millions more to get X more production, then you have less prospects and money to spend on positions that need 5*X upgrades.

That's just in the tidbits section of the article, which is about several other things. But with Abreu's little post-HR Derby hiccup, maybe his price tag is down a little bit. OK, probably not. But it's fun to think about, and if he's at all available, Hendry should be beating down the door. I've thought for quite a while that if Philly didn't make the postseason this year, affectively wasting the first two years in their new ballpark, and a ton of money at the same time, there would be a very large chance they'd make changes that might include trading Abreu. As well respected as Abreu is in the fantasy baseball world, in real life in Philly he's just not treated like a star. I'm not saying he's not appreciated, just that I don't think Philly views him as a franchise, cornerstone irreplacable player. Personally I think they're more likely to deal Burrell before his contract goes berserker, but you never know who the favorites are among the front office types. Somebody who could end up with more control this year might be a Burrell supporter, and that person could look to build around Pat by acquiring pitching with Abreu. With that fractional behind the scenes ownership situation, it's a total wild card. What I'd love to see happen is the Cubs acting as a middle man for a Thome deal, perhaps sending Jim to to the White Sox, Red Sox, Baltimore or Anaheim. They would send a big chunk of prospects, as well as pay some of the Thome money, and end up with Abreu. Philly would clear their books of a bad deal, an AL team could split Thome between 1B and DH, and the Cubs would get the difference making bat they so desperately need. The Cubs have the money to take on deals, the problem is the lack of talent to pay that money to. And I would have no problem dealing away Walker or Hairston and Murton in such a deal if they end up signing Giles as well. Then go with Cedeno at SS, Walker or Hairston at 2B and Patterson in CF. The Giles, Lee, Abreu, Ramirez fearsome foursome would more than makeup for a lack of big time O at some other positions.

Who cares if some fans liked him, he's brutal. He's a terrible middle of the order hitter, and pretty bad for a RF, no matter where he hits in the order. The Cubs RF production was abysmal this year. LF gets all the attention, but relative to the position, RF was nearly as big a hole as any other position on the field. He did not play great defense, just because Brenly repeatedly made the claim that he did that doesn't make it true. He had his fair share of mistakes, and was Alouesque on the basepaths. Burnitz must go. If he wants to take $2m to be a 4th OF, then you consider it, but he's not worth anything close to his salary, and he certainly doesn't deserve a starting job on a $100 million team that should contend.