badnews

Come you guys. He's worth it. Teixeira's putting up an .857 OPS this year! It's impossible to find an .857 OPS 1st baseman!

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Casey%20Coleman&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=488787 Wow, look at his birthdate and look and his picture.

Tim Kurkijan came out and said "Erik Bedard isn't the type to succeed on contending teams, or if he is, he can't be "the man." The best quote was him saying he was happier on non-contending teams. Ouch. Can't wait to see who pays out the ass for this guy when he's a free agent!

No one's going to give up their first unprotected pick for Marte... this is going to be like one of those Tony Graffanino/Todd Walker/Michael Barrett situations.

In reference to Golson, I wouldn't have put quotes around the word "covet," I would have put quotes around the word "prospect."

Average plummeting, his K/BB ratio is starting to drift... I'm cancelling the parade.

I'd expect nothing less. Am I being unfair? Is what I'm saying about Boise untrue? I keep an eye on a lot of minor league teams and Boise seems to be in the top 3 in producing hitting mirages. I shouldn't even have to explain it further. All I should have to type is RUSSELL CANZLER THREE HUNDRED ISOLATED POWER in all capital letters. As for the other poster, if a guy hits well in Arlington it doesn't mean he's great, but if he hits badly there he is probably even less so. I don't see where there's a double standard. You guys think I'm being unfair, I think you're giving away too many free passes. He doesn't even have to do better than Canzler and now he's great.

Cedeno has little value. He's got over 800 career ABs and a career .638 OPS. He's hitting, like, what, .180 with a .400 OPS since the end of April? I was pulling for Cedeno but he's hit the Sean Burroughs stage of his career. He can't drive the ball at all.

Can we even remotely trust Boise offensive numbers? Everybody seems to look good at Boise. Josh Donaldson was a world beater at Boise. Boise made Alfred Joseph look plausible. Russ Canzler had like a .300 Isolated Power as a 20 year old at Boise. I think Boise offensive numbers may be about as reliable as Advanced A Lancaster offensive numbers. Too many utterly crappy players are good there and do absolutely nothing elsewhere. Russ Canzler! 20 is no way too old for Boise, he's like a .680 OPS everywhere else. Josh Donaldson is a 1.075 OPS guy playing for Boise, .650 everywhere else. Before I have any faith in Vitters he will have to prove himself somewhere where Russell Canzler doesn't look like Brandon Wood.

I can't believe you even wrote that. That's like saying about Ryan Theriot last year "Who do you want, Cesar Izturis, Rey Ordonez, or Ryan Theriot?" or "Who would you rather have, Shawn Estes, Glendon Rusch, or Jason Marquis?" Come on. That's bogus for a lot of reasons. We're not just talking about power here. We're talking about a poor batting average. Since the beginning of May in the low 250s with a middling 700s OPS. There's your Burnitz/Jacque territory right there. I don't even understand this attitude. "Oh he'll be fine." Really? How do you know that? Well, he's making good money and he's from Japan so he has to be fine. Okay. Nobody knows he'll be fine. I don't know he won't be fine, you don't know he will be fine. What I do know is that for 2 months now he's been a .740 OPS right field and I don't think that's acceptable. Look at J. D. Drew's numbers in 2007. Everyone says that contract is bad because of Drew's numbers but that's about right where Fukudome is heading and he's making around the same a year. If he ends up with rate numbers like Kevin Millar, Austin Kearns, Dan Johnson, or Jose Bautista in 2007, or Brian Giles and Felipe Lopez 2006 I won't be pleased. I don't see how a sub-.800 OPS can be considered a good thing here.

It's strange. Over the offseason certain people will harp again and again on certain mistakes and it's no problem. But this, everyone wants to give it a free pass. Nobody seems to care about accountability in this case. People will scream bloody murder about, oh no, somebody's batting one slot off where they should be, and who is paying attention to the fact that that was an inane choice by an organization that makes them too often. This is compounded by two annoyances, to me: #1- A bunch of obnoxious loudmouth types on here simply would not stop going on about the 2004 Devil Rays draft when it now looks obvious that that was more Tampa than Wilken. So people say all this stuff but then there is no accountability about it. #2- Wilken gets all smug about people doubting Colvin and says he's the next Alex Rios and people didn't like the Rios selection either. Which is a disgusting amount of arrogance. So yes. That decision may be one of the most important affecting the course of the 2008 season and it deserves more attention than we've gotten. Why can't the Cubs trade for the players people are advocating? Mentioning the state of things now without talking about how the Cubs bungled the bonus money and bungled their first pick is like talking about the current state of Afghanistan with no mention of 1979. Why don't the Cubs have a Travis Snider to trade? Because Wilken and Hendry blew it. Why don't the Cubs have a Lars Anderson, Jordan Walden, or Matt Latos to trade instead of nobody Chris Huseby? Because Wilken and Hendry blew it. This is not hindsight. Go back and look at the topics at the time. But I guess we'll pretend some nickel-and-dime nonsense issues are more important than who we are capable of acquiring. Instead of, I don't know, placing blame where blame belongs?

People sure are determined as all get out to give Fukudome a free pass. Why is everyone so sure he'll hit for more power? I don't see evidence of that. Facts? A corner outfielder who has a .130 Isolated Power is a disappointment. That's bad company to be keeping. I'm not enamored with the plummeting batting average either. Since May 4 Fukudome is hitting .254 with a .367 OBP, slugging a robust .368, for an OPS of .734. But people will be elated if he just keeps taking walks? Sorry. In my opinion if you're happy with 2004 Scott Hatteberg rate numbers your standards are just too low. I'm not impressed. Corner outfielders who hit in Wrigley should produce more than just walks.

Gamel or LaPorta alone is worth more than Ceda, Veal, and Cedeno. People just can't figure out that quality trumps quantity.

You're just mushing mediocre names together. Who gives a crap about Veal? His 2.67 ERA really means little looking at his 1.36 WHIP, his 4.5 walks a game, a K/9 that has gone down precipitously. He's not even young for his level any more. That's just a lame looking trade chip to me.

Targeting the draft is fine. But it's more like "If we had drafted Travis "Bad Body Awesome Bat" Snider instead of Tyler "I'm from the Southeast and I have tools in a vague way but they don't manifest themselves in a manner that actually helps me succeed in baseball so of course the Cubs will draft me even though Baseball America has Sir Colvin going more in 50 pick area, because the Cubs know more than Baseball America when everybody else on the planet knew you pick Snider, bad body and all and to hell with Colvin and his mediocre 5 tools" Colvin. This isn't hindsight. WE ALL KNEW on the day it happened Snider was a better pick. Go look up the damn topics. TRAVIS SNIDER GETS YOU C. C. SABATHIA. TYLER COLVIN GETS YOU A LUMP OF COAL IN YOUR STOCKING. Sorry, but I get angry people still defend Saint Wilken.

Beane thinks all you have to do is get to the postseason and from there it's a roll of the dice whether you win it all or not. So he's not going to sell off the season anywhere near as easily as people have been talking about. I could hardly see him doing it all, and not for what the Cubs have to offer. The problem is people are coming up with the same kind of trade proposals as the Diamondbacks did for trading for Richie Sexson. A whole lot of junk thrown together getting you a real player. That's not happening in this case. There's no names to make Billy Beane sit up and take notice. Ceda? He thinks relievers are overrated. Murton? He's flush with better outfielders. Pie? Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeney really fill the Pie niche over there. Trading Harden is a white flag trade, no bones about it. I think he'd just have to be floored, and the Cubs aren't in a position to floor him.

We made a "going for it" trade in 2004 with Garciaparra. Really now. After the 2003 season we added the best setup man in the American League, we added a good #4 pitcher to an already loaded staff, we added an MVP calibur 1st baseman to replace a Randall Simon/Eric Karros platoon, we added an offensive-minded catcher and 2b, and at the deadline we traded for what looked like a Hall of Fame shortstop. No one can say the Cubs didn't "go for it" in 2004. They went for it as much as any team has ever gone for it ever in baseball history, when you look at the 2003 team and the additions they made.

Buster Olney said on Sportscenter that the feeling is The Brewers are the frontrunner for Sabathia and the Indians have been scouting the Brewers' farm system. Maybe it will be re-run, he was also doing a segment about what the Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox should trade for. He also said the Mariners are looking to get back ALL their value they gave up for Bedard in the trade and then I said to the TV "**** Bedard, that is not the guy who is going to end a 100 year curse."

I think some people are deluding themselves a bit. Any time a team is mentioned that could need Sabathia or could easily outbid us (not difficult) someone has to jump in and cook up an excuse. Seriously. I don't understand why it's crazy the Brewers would trade for Sabathia and grab the draft picks when they may not have a place to play EITHER Gamel or LaPorta, let alone both. Even the Cubs' "good" prospects are bland and uninteresting compared to other organizations. Veal has some pretty iffy peripherals for example. I seriously doubt putting together like 6 mediocre names is going to get the job done for a guy who won the Cy Young Award the previous season. But okay. I'm sure the Cubs are going to get Sabathia because of their willingness to sweeten the pot with an additional 3 F+ prospects. "Not satisfied? Okay! We'll throw in Nate Spears, Mitch Atkins, and Matt Avery! Our prospects are your organizational filler!"

A number of people said pretty much that exact same thing in the Brian Roberts trade thread. Yeah... how many examples counter to this are there too? The Astros traded Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen for 3 months of Randy Johnson, he pitched well, and they got squat. Maybe Freddy Garcia now doesn't impress you but he did win an ERA title back then. I'm not even arguing really, I just think you're oversimplifying things. Ha. Good point. I don't understand why everyone is so hot for a Sabathia extension. By the time he gets into his 30s that obese body of his will fall apart in a heartbeat and the Cubs will be paying him like $21 million a year. I don't think the Cubs will spend the money. Anyway, I don't mind trading whatever to get Sabathia because most of what the Cubs have to offer looks like crap more or less. But even with being desperate I don't see how the Cubs aren't outbid.

i doubt that he has; most competent clubs do not evaluate potential acquisitions on the basis of a a couple of poor performances. Its not just a couple of performances. Hopefully none of the clubs have actually scouted him playing 2b either. In Iowa his 2b was actually worse than his LF if that is possible. i highly doubt that that is true. Oh, its true. There is a reason the Cubs are trying to find a different position for him, and its not because DeRosa is blocking him. His fielding percentage in LF is like .810 and it was never that low at 2nd. So yeah. Hyperbole.

Remember when Justin Jones had like a 13.00 K/9 as a 19 year old lefty in Low A and he felled trees with one chop of his bare hand? Or Corey Patterson who was as hyped nearly as much as Delmon Young? Or when PECOTA projected Hee Seop Choi to have 150 walks and 50 HRs?

yeah i was gonna say, it feels like iowa has been playing the isotopes for about a week straight, and it also feels like mcpherson has hit a home run in every game. i guess the part about mcpherson hitting a home run every game is true. wonder if he'll ever get another shot in the bigs. i figure at worst he is a righthanded russell branyan. He bats lefty I was pretty sure. But "at worst" is a lot worse, he could be Brad Eldred or the current Wily Mo Pena or he could never stay healthy...

So the players are just being irrationally superstitious and there's no difference? Anyway, if something gets done it better be after the season, I don't want anything messing with the Cubs' offensive mojo.

Check out this nickname I made up for him: BEEF WELINGTON. Oh yeah I'm going to pretend that's awesome.