goonys evil twin

Agreed, but Michaels would be in CF while the FA would be in LF (hopefully Drew/Soriano). Michaels will probably be non tendered. Even better. Michaels is no good and he is already 30 years old He was no good this year, but was good before. He could be a good option to platoon with Jones, not to mention spell Drew in CF.

Somewhat surprising, but comforting, as I'd rather have Big Murt out-produce him for the league minimum again. How did Murton outproduce Carlos Lee? Not saying I want Carlos Lee, because I don't, and I really like the idea of having Murton at league minimum, but in what way did Murton outproduce Lee? Check post all star splits.

Unless Soriano goes to LF.

See, the thing is, he's not a top of the rotation starter. Hence the "overrated" label. if he's not a "top of the rotation" starter, i'm not sure what is. Take a look at his ERA+ over his past 7 seasons. Anybody who doesn't acknowledge that he has not been, over the past three seasons, the same pitcher he was his first four seasons, is dishonest. He's good. But he's no ace.

that's totally and absolutely ridiculous. in a full season (which has been every season since his rookie campaign of 2000) barry zito has only failed to post 14+ wins and a sub 4 era ONCE. in addition, since 2000, his abbreviated rookie year, he's never pitched fewer than 213 innings in a season. all of the sudden, he moves to the national league, a league that lacks the DH, and he gets WORSE? that makes no sense whatsoever. i'd like to know where you get your facts, your gut? Why are you guys talking about win totals?

I thought Westbrook was a strong candidate to become a Hendry target. 3 straight years of 200+ innings, and below average to very good effectiveness during those innings. I don't believe he's a free agent until after 2008, but he'll make a lot in arbitration following this season. And I'm deathly afraid he'd trade Matt Murton for Westbrook then sign Carlos Lee. He said the Cubs would be trading young bull pen arms for Westbrook which "was the one commodity they had to trade." Also said Lilly was looking for 4/36. Young relievers for a starter like Westbrook would be nice, but I doubt that gets it done. He'd probably have to at least include a guy like Moore, and maybe a young starter as well. i still like the idea of freddy garcia better. not that jake westbrook doesn't intrigue me, but i just think that a package of JJ, dempster, and marmol would get the deal done without increasing payroll at all. You like Freddy Garcia better than Westbrook? Freddy is older and losing it. His ERA+ has dropped for 2 straight years, and was nearly back to what it was when he wasn't good the last two full seasons in Seattle. Westbrook's peak season was as good as anything Garcia has done, and his 2006 was better than Freddy's as well. He also costs half the money in 2007.

Career ERA+ of 103 is very similar to some guys who are going to cost $10+ million this offseason. I'm not a huge Pie fan, and believe his biggest value to the Cubs is in trade value, while he's relatively young. I wouldn't include the Cubs best pitcher prospects, but it's not like they have any sure thing pitching studs who absolutely can't be traded.

I thought Westbrook was a strong candidate to become a Hendry target. 3 straight years of 200+ innings, and below average to very good effectiveness during those innings. I don't believe he's a free agent until after 2008, but he'll make a lot in arbitration following this season. And I'm deathly afraid he'd trade Matt Murton for Westbrook then sign Carlos Lee. He said the Cubs would be trading young bull pen arms for Westbrook which "was the one commodity they had to trade." Also said Lilly was looking for 4/36. Young relievers for a starter like Westbrook would be nice, but I doubt that gets it done. He'd probably have to at least include a guy like Moore, and maybe a young starter as well.

I thought Westbrook was a strong candidate to become a Hendry target. 3 straight years of 200+ innings, and below average to very good effectiveness during those innings. I don't believe he's a free agent until after 2008, but he'll make a lot in arbitration following this season. And I'm deathly afraid he'd trade Matt Murton for Westbrook then sign Carlos Lee.

Yankees won't have any interest in Marshall and Moore, they don't play kids in NY unless injuries (eg, Wang) or complete lack of other options (eg, Cano) require them to. That's simply not true. The Yankees bring up kids all the time. The large number of millionaire players and veteran free agents gives the impression they won't play kids, but they do. And given their pitching situation, they won't have much choice but to give a kid a shot.

Career OPS+ of 92. He has never in his career reached 600 plate appearances, and routinely suffers hamstring injuries. He's fine as a 4th OF, or maybe the starting CF on a team with great corner OF production. But he's not a good option for a 3 year contract.

If Melky gets the Yankees anything of value, I will be pissed. He's no good. He's a chubby non athlete who doesn't produce. He's the kind of guy who, if he was on the Cubs, nobody would talk about him. But since he's played for the Yankees, and Torre speaks highly of him and they say he's good, it's believed that he is good. He was hidden in a great lineup, and since he didn't completely crap the bed, all of a sudden people talk about him like he's a huge trading chip.

The problem with all this Ramirez bashing is nobody offers an alternative that will actually make the team better. These people just seem to think the team will improve if Aramis was no longer around. I'm guessing he doesn't really think that, but he realizes making outlandish statements is how columnists get recognized.

It's going to suck the next few years.

It's pretty simple really. He came on the scene like a superstar and won a Cy Young. He built his reputation early. Since then, he's been consistently good, but not nearly as effective. His ERA+ looks like this from 2000-2006 174 125 169 129 105 116 116 Basically he went from a very good/great pitcher, to a decent pitcher. He still racks up the innings, but he's not as effective. But his reputation remains intact from the days when he was very good/great.

For some reason, they moved the Giants/Titans game to the 4:15 slot as well. Both of those games feature road NFC teams, meaning they will both be on Fox. I don't see why they'd want to put both of those games on the late broadcast. Maybe since the Jets are doing decent they want to separate the times of the teams games so that they can get a wider viewing audience for each? Thats my best guess. They always play the NY games at seperate times. Can't believe I didn't think about that. Although I'm a little surprised they didn't choose the Jets game for 4, since that game will be on CBS. Now, the only CBS game is Oakland/SD. Now that I look at it, they have all remaining Jets and Giants games scheduled at 1pm, for now. That means one of those games will be moved each week.

why? He's a top starter, he's 28. While I wouldn't sign him to that contract, it wouldn't surprise me at all if someone did. I think he'll get truckloads of money, but if he gets seven years, I'll be surprised. Even in the current market. Remember around the turn of the century, 7 years was not that big of a deal for most teams. The dot.com bubble burst, and the economy was hurt by 9/11, and money didn't flow as easily. That's why 7 year deals stopped. But the economy has rebounded, and MLB teams are flush with cash and feeling good about the future. Toronto gave 5 year deals to an oft-injured slightly above average starter, and to a closer. The Mets gave a 7 year deal to Beltran, and a 4 year deal to a pitcher on his last legs. They essentially said "we don't care what he does in his last two years, this is about winning now." It only takes one team with that attitude to make it happen. 7 year deals will once again become the norm, just as they were when Bagwell, Hampton, Chipper, and the others signed theres. If a somewhat brittle Jim Thome could get 6 years in the middle of the downturn in contracts, then a consistently healthy and productive 28 year old Zito could probably get 7.

And if Colvin becomes a very good, Mark Kotsay type player, who produces for a long time, are you still going to call it a "huge risk", even if the players (some of whom some Cubs fans wanted) never developed into a star? The draft will always be a "Crapshoot" and it doesn't matter the rd. Albert Pujols lasted till the 13th rd. Oswalt and Piazza went further down in the draft, whereas we've seen players like Brien Taylor, Todd Van Poopell, Darren Dreifort become spectualr busts. So, "huge risk" or not, I like the pick, and I fully expect him to win over just about every body here, in the last few yrs. How is Mark Kotsay very good? He's not. He's mediocre. He had a couple good years. He did more than most 1st round picks, but he was hardly special.

Who thought that? Bruce Miles was talking a little less than what Aramis got. Sure, some people got goofy at the end and said sign him to whatever he wants even if it's $18m a year. But he ended up getting pretty much what everybody thought. Plus, Wood is just about exactly what people thought. Low guarantee, incentives to get around $5m.

For some reason, they moved the Giants/Titans game to the 4:15 slot as well. Both of those games feature road NFC teams, meaning they will both be on Fox. I don't see why they'd want to put both of those games on the late broadcast.

Hmm. Would he throw a hissy fit about playing CF like he did over playing LF? I assume they'd broach the subject before signing, instead of springing it on him in March. And I'd bet he'd be fine with it. The only benefit to him protesting the move to LF was because he'd presumably get a premium for hitting as a 2B. But if he's getting the money anyway, I think he'd play out there.

I agree with the sentiment, but what other role was he going to get elsewhere. I thought that medically, Wood had made the decision to be a reliever. I really think he could have gotten up to 5-7MM from other teams, with a chance to enter ST as a starter, or a guaranteed chance at closing. The market for pitchers is ridiculous. And besides any of that, it's obvious that Wood specifically prefers the city of Chicago and its' fans. A starter? He's already said medically, he's going to have to be a reliever if he's anything this year. Nobody was going to sign him and hand him the closer's job.

I couldn't disagree more. Hendry signed Ramirez to an extension for a really great price leaving more money for the Cubs to get the other players they need. He also brought on board a 5th starter option who could be pretty good for just 1.5 guaranteed and brought back Kerry for only 1.75 guaranteed when he could have easily gotten more by going elsewhere. That's definitely doing something. I couldn't agree more. He has a very long way to go and he doesn't deserve any praise until he returns the Cubs to the postseason. Clearly the most important part of the off season is yet to come. The current Cubs are the same Cubs that stunk the past two years. He didn't bring a 5th starter onboard, Miller was already here. And he could just as easily be useless as he could be pretty good. Hendry kept the team together so far. Big deal. He needs to make the team a lot better. He has not done that yet. People are getting excited about the 2006 team returning. I don't get it. He's positioned the team so that it can get better, but it has not yet gotten better. So if he signs Schmidt, Zito, Soriano, CLee, and trades for ARod, Cabrera, and Tejada, he doesn't deserve any praise until the Cubs go to the postseason. He has done just about all that could be expected of him in 3 weeks. He's not finished ( by a long shot), but I think he will deserve praise if he builds a team that looks like it will be very competitive in the NL Central. Each step along the way will generate praise or criticism, but to dismiss everything he does until the Cubs actually go to the post-season isn't fair. The manager, coaches, and players also have some responsibility in getting to the post-season. No. Signing those players would make the team better, which is what I said was necessary before praising him was justified. He doesn't deserve any praise until he improves the team. He has yet to do so.

He's been mentioned a lot. He's just not that good. Murton was better during the 2nd half. Lee has been consistently good, but nowhere near great, and doesn't deserve the type of contract they are talking about him getting. He's 30 now, coming off a career year, with an OPS+ of 125. Typically he's closer to the 110-115 level, which is barely above what Jones did this year. So, you're talking about a guy who is not as productive as Ramirez, but is 2 years older and could get a contract that is significantly bigger. You'd be foolish to replace Murton with him, unless Matt is needed to get a stud like Cabrera. And the defensive questions (who plays right) just add to the problem. CLee should be an AL player.

You enjoy seeing people humiliated?