badnews

The A's don't have a particularly strong farm system either. That's why I was hopeful the Cubs would ask about Nick Swisher (not happening). But I imagine that if, say the Dodgers offered LaRoche, Hu, Kershaw, and a bullpen arm like Meloan and offered to take back Eric Chavez in the deal the A's would do that. That's the kind of ridiculous haul I imagine it would take.

Do any of those Oakland pitchers ever leave Oakland and pitch as well elsewhere? At least recently? Why does his second half look like such rubbish? A 1.50 WHIP? A .298 BAA against? If a Chicago Cub had a second half like that we'd replace him with Steve Trachsel in September. Dan Haren's FIP the past three years has been 3.84, 4.15, and 3.82. That's very good, but not an ace, I think. He's no Santana. Haren is available provisionally, I think; I imagine Beane is hoping someone steps forward and overwhelms him with a dream package, much like he tried to do with Barry Zito.

Yeah but he's not "athletic." According to Jim Hendry, we need athletes who have no real skills but being athletes. The object of this drafting philosophy is to be able to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in a pick-up game of basketball.

It's already stated the highest that the Kendall pick could be is 35, the lowest it could be is 41.

Wasn't Riske dumped by the Red Sox and White Sox? It seems like every time I saw him in a game he'd give up a home run.

I thought Lindsay's arm was toast. I was unsure Brian Barton was eligible (as the topic below mentions). I like him. However, he's old and there are people who are going to say he shouldn't make the team ahead of Angel Pagan or Sam Fuld or whoever. Barton does a little of everything decently or well - he can play all three OF positions, he takes walks, he has a bit of power, he's a good athlete and while strikeouts are not unknown to him he isn't crippled by them. Plus I can't help but feel that even a sub-prime prospect on the Indians is better than a lot of ours. Just last year he was ranked their #6 prospect. Von Stertzbach sounds like a wrestler. The pitchers, Fernando Hernandez looks interesting, I'd like to rob the White Sox. I don't know anything about Randor Bierd but the numbers look good.

Where do you think Antigua and Yohan Gonzalez will start the season?

CR, someone on another board posted this, does this sound right? The only free agents who rank higher than Kendall's Elias Sports Bureau score (because he's in the catcher category), are Luis Gonzalez, Aaron Rowand, Luis Vizcaino, Paul Lo Duca, Milton Bradley, and Michael Barrett. Pettitte and Bonds are unlikely to generate compensation picks. Right now the Kendall pick is at #35. That means, 6 players who rate higher than Kendall, even if all six switch teams, it's being said that the lowest this pick could be is #41 (six dropped). But say, if Barrett, Gonzalez, and Bradley aren't offered arbitration and Vizcaino stays put and only Lo Duca and Rowand are offered and switch, the pick would only drop two spots. Like Andruw Jones is rated 66.something by Elias and Kendall 68, so Andruw's compensation pick falls below Kendall's. In short what it seems to be saying is that the pick is guaranteed to be no higher than 35 and no lower than 41. Correct? Okay am I the only one who thinks getting the 41st pick in the draft from Jason Kendall is pretty neat? I mean a lot of really, really good talents have been drafted around that pick number. Just a few years ago Clay Buchholz was drafted with the 42nd pick.

Has this ever been done before? It seems like a somewhat remarkable run to me, considering if you look at the other teams in the top 5 it changes pretty regularly throughout the years.

I'd rather have Mike Cameron or Andruw Jones. If Hendry gives up the team's 1st round draft pick for Rowand (you give up nothing for Jones or Cameron) he's a colossal fool.

I'm not sure how repeatable that good of a defense is next year though. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but what, Soriano was +19, Jacque Jones was +25 in center field, Aramis was +21 at 3rd, etc.

If every pitcher's opponent BABIP heads back toward the median the Cubs are in a crap ton of trouble.

If Torii Hunter makes $18 million a year, what's a younger Rowand going to make? $15 million over 6 years? There is nothing about this guy that the Cubs need. He had a career high in hits, doubles, runs, RBIs, walks, home runs, etc. this year. His OPS the last two years before that hangs around Jacque Jones territory. He's YET ANOTHER righthanded, high strikeout, low walk hitter we don't need.

What role can you fill most easily through dumpster diving? 1) Ace starting pitcher 2) Good hitting/defense shortstop 3) Franchise catcher 4) Closer Yeah. I mean, where else in baseball can a guy in such a hyped up, well-paid role get injured, and you stick some bum in his place and lose nothing? If Russell Martin gets injured, you're losing something. If Grady Sizemore gets injured, the Indians are missing out on something. If elite closer B.J. Ryan gets injured... Jeremy Accardo does his job just as well? What about flamethrowing youngster Chris Ray? Oh! Apparently Jamie Walker can do his job just as well. Where was J. J. Putz two or three years ago? True or false: Bobby Jenks was picked up off the scrap heap? We've got Joe Borowski second in saves and Kevin Gregg picked off the scrap heap doing it well. This is a job so difficult to do that guys who have been mediocre all of their career can suddenly excel at relieving, like Salomon Torres from 2004-2006. Give me a break. The Reds are just shell-shocked from that Danny Graves business so they have to make ridiculous trades and throw money at the problem and hope it goes away. This is an organization that was duped into thinking Todd Coffey was a closer because "he runs from the bullpen to the mound and we like that kind of spirit and gumption."

I think Garza is overrated. I just don't see him in the top tier he's been put in. Plus I don't like his crappy attitude. If the Cubs are out to acquire a stud prospect there's others guy I'd rather have.

Lame. Cordero is averaging, what, not enough $6 million less a year than Soriano on his contract? This is stupid. Closer is the easiest high cost role you can bumble into cheaply. The Blue Jays spent a fortune on B. J. Ryan and he got hurt, and they found a great replacement in a cast-off from San Francisco.

I haven't kept up to date on this at all so I wanted to hear if there are any interesting names out there. I don't see Brian Barton on the Indians 40 man. Apparently he had 28 HBP in 106 games at Double A this year. It looks like Chris Lubanski was left off the Royals 40 man. I don't think he has much of a chance of sticking on anyone's active roster all year though. EDIT: Someone pointed out Barton isn't eligible. I made the mistake of looking at his age and assuming he would be.

I agree with the above poster somewhat. I think we may have to adjust our attitudes on what is overpaying. Teams make money hand over fist, they may as well use it. I agree, you can usually dig up some bargain basement bum like Kevin Gregg to do Cordero's job for a fraction of the price, I remember the Mariners being deliriously happy when they signed Eddie Guardado as well. But I have a feeling we can just copy/paste our responses after every signing. Andruw Jones: "My God! That much money for a guy having the year he had? Unbelievable!" Kyle Lohse: "Dear God! 5 years, $50 for Lohse! This is madness! Jason Marquis has trade value!" Kerry Wood: "Kerry Wood just signed a 3 year, $30 million deal! Good luck when his arm falls off!" Carlos Silva: "Ye Gods, Carlos Silva is now a 4/$60m pitcher? The world has gone crazy!" Josh Towers: "Josh Towers just signed a deal for 2/$15m? Mother of all creatures, big and small!" Aaron Rowand: "Rowand just got a 6/90m contract? Saints preserve us! That's stupid!" Jose Guillen: "Guillen just got a 4/44m contract? Is there a disturbance in the Matrix?" And so forth.

Hey, if Alex Sanchez did, anyone could.

I don't think that's accurate. Hendry more or less broke the bank for Zambrano, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez. How many free agents have we lost in the past few years that we've really wanted to keep? As for this hometown discounts bit, if you look at what Mike Lowell, Tim Wakefield, and Curt Schilling gave to the Red Sox, David Wright and Reyes for the Mets, Brandon Webb for the Diamondbacks, for the most part we're not getting huge hometown discounts. You didn't see Trevor Hoffman gouging the Padres. I haven't seen him do anything particularly remarkable as a reliever. And what about this quote from Kerry Wood: ""I know I haven't given this organization or the fans or this team what they paid for two, three years ago," Wood said in an interview with WGN-AM (720). "As a player, you feel -- you don't want to say 'guilty' -- but you [don't ] feel like you've done your job and earned your money and gone out and done what you're supposed to do. There's an obligation there, absolutely. "This organization has given me everything I've got ... 9/28/06 Sun-Times" Hey, I'd have more respect for him if he flat out acted like a mercenary. I don't like him playing up all those fuzzy Cub nostalgia feelings, and I have to wonder why he should get a bigger contract than any other relief rehab project like Dotel or Percival. Even Gagne only got a 1 year deal. He seems like he's talking out both sides of his mouth to me.

I think Harvey's make-or-break cutoff is well in the past. I will be surprised if Acosta starts the year in Peoria instead of Boise. Question - where do Darin Downs and Alfred Joseph end up, and what happened to Chris Shaver?

Now it's being reported as 5/90? Even worse.

I think the Soriano deal is looking better. No, it's not good, but come on. $16 million for a guy with a career .793 OPS? No one with a career OPS under .800 has ever gotten $15+ million. Ichiro's pulling down $20 million a year and he's only out-VORPed/WARPed Soriano by a little more than the same margin that Soriano did Hunter this year. They all stuck to it to $18 million a year Vernon Wells. Wells has been below average in the field the past 3 years and though he often looks great he's quite erratic. I'm not so sure he's going to rebound to a .900+ OPS guy every year. We must trust in the fiscal irresponsibility of other teams to make Soriano's contract look less crappy.

I know you were joking. I agree with your position for the most part. Also, I think people have a tendency to cherrypick certain metrics and ignore others when it favors them, and some of the conclusions I just tend to find difficult to believe, like Sammy Sosa being an awesome right fielder in 2004. I'm not saying I have the eyes of a scout and I saw every play in relation to every other or anything, but it's hard to believe I was watching awesome defense that year.

No, Jim Thome got robbed. Thome was on a team that scored fewer runs. Since the Diamondbacks had the worst offense of any team that made the playoffs, that means Eric Byrnes should be the MVP.