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Well, he only hit 90 once-they said he was 87-89 consistently. That's still a good improvement from the earlier reports, and I think he can be effective at that speed. And I also think he'll add a mile or two... I would agree with that-in fact, I almost put it in my original post. I think he'll be able to hit 89-90 consistently and touch 91-92.

Well, he only hit 90 once-they said he was 87-89 consistently. That's still a good improvement from the earlier reports, and I think he can be effective at that speed.

Agreed-if it's anywhere close Miller will win because if Miller wins, Guzman is still there if anything goes wrong with one of the pitchers. If Guzman wins and somebody goes down, you either have to start Cotts, hope Prior has come back, or turn to one of the other minor leaguers.

Personally, I think another MI that can hit right handed pitching somewhat well would be better-Theriot and DeRosa are already both very good against left-handers.

I'll never understand how Hendry could justify going into 2005 with the OF he had, which pretty much guaranteed Burnitz would get a ton of playing time. He was, uh, hamstrung by the sosa situation. Which is why we had to have Burnitz instead of Beltran. Or something like that. Yeah but we had this dude named Matt Murton who could have used some more starts but Dusty just had to play Burnie damn near every day. It was like Burnie was some indispensable superstar and not a washed up geezer who wasn't going to be on the team the next season. No way did he need or deserve to get 155 starts. Wasn't this the year where we were all pleading for DuBois? Yes it was. Murton was in the minors for most of the season in 2005.He came up on July 8th and played very little until mid-September. Meanwhile old man Burnie continued to start almost every game. Would've much preferred to see Murt get some of those starts, or anybody else who wasn't washed up and who already had his bags packed. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?statsId=7597&year=2005 As far as I know, Murton hasn't played any RF at all but just LF. Burnitz didn't play any LF at all that year, so he didn't block Murton whatsoever. Plus, when do you pack it in for the season? The team was in the Wildcard race as of mid-August and still had an outside shot a few days into September with 7 games against the wild card leader coming later that month. Edit: Personally, I would agree that even if the team was in the race Murton would have helped the cause out if he played more, but part of that is hindsight about how well he ended up doing in September and this past year.

FAMU was complaining? Niagara was the team that had the gripe. i thought it was FAMU. Maybe I was wrong Oh, I didn't read any quotes. I didn't mean you were wrong, I meant that if one team had a right to complain, it was definitely Niagara. In my paper, Niagra was definitely complaining-I do agree, there were definitely a few teams that were worse than them during the season-I'm not sure why there were relegated to the play-in game.

Why would Z feel compelled to take that? Oswalt is clealy underpaid in a market in which Gil Freaking Meche gets 5/55. Even if Z has a down year or gets hurt he'll still be in line for a huge payday, as evidenced by Jason Marquis getting 3/21 after putting up a 6.02 ERA. Z would have to have a totally catastrophic injury not to get more than what Marquis got. IMO Z was correct in his initial assessment that he should demand what Zito got. Somebody will give it to him if he just stays firm in his demands. I don't think Z will take that, but I do see a 5 year deal for him. Hendry probably won't want to go over 5 years, and Z is on record saying that he will accept 5 years. He might me willing to go for 5 for 82-85 million.

I think this means Ronny is headed to AAA. The Cubs want a polished backup. I think that quote from Piniella screams for a trade more than an in-house option. He has decided he doesn't want just one backup MI (which I agree with, especially since Theriot is the main weapon pinch-hitting when leading off an inning) and he doesn't see anybody he wants to take with him to be that. I don't mind Muskat in this case speculating Cedeno and Perez-when looking at in-house options right now of middle infielders, they would seem to be the two candidates, and Muskat is not the type to spontaneously think about who they would possibly trade for. I do see a deal coming quite possibly trading one of the Cubs excess bullpen arms for another backup infielder.

Miller's velocity was in the high 80s however, he hit 90mph once. From the interpretation of that quote and from their outings, my guess is that if Guzman has a good outing on Friday, he'll be the leader-if he has an average to below average one, then Miller will be the leader right now. It is encouraging to hear Miller in the high 80's and hitting 90 rather than 82-84 like we were hearing early in camp.

The second person to leave the Colts-Nick Harper. He signed a 3 year deal with the Titans, financial details were not revealed: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070313/SPORTS01/70313070 Harper was a good corner for the Colts, but the Colts have so many young corners ready to get playing time (Jackson/Hayden/Jennings could all fill Harper's spot and were high draft picks ready to play) that they just couldn't justify paying him. It will be interesting to see if he can play man coverage in TN now though.

Two players peripherals right here-both are on NL Central teams right now, both were on the same team in the years these were taken from, and one is expected to be average while the other one is not: Year 1- A-6.17 K/9, 1.97 K/BB, 2.17 G/F, 1.42 WHIP B-5.27 K/9, 1.69 K/BB, 1.59 G/F, 1.37 WHIP Year 2- A-4.35 K/9, 1.45 K/BB, 1.59 G/F, 1.32 WHIP B-5.28 K/9, 1.81 K/BB, 1.43 G/F, 1.38 WHIP Here is year 3 for one of those 2 pitchers B-4.93 K/9, 1.51 K/BB, 1.61 G/F, 1.45 WHIP Based on those peripherals, what do you think of these two pitchers? Are they both destined to be pretty bad? Where is the third year for the other pitcher? I was going to post that and make a further point after someone evaluated those two on those peripherals that were stated. Is pitcher B better than Pitcher A on those numbers? How much better? Then the obvious answer is the one who has the worse secondary stats. The point that is lost in this not so original example is that every data set has an outlier or two. In other words, just because it happened once or twice doesn't mean it is likely to happen. I'm just trying to point out that people are pointing out that Marquis's peripherals even from 2004-2005 were going to catch up to him and that last year was more indicative of the type of pitcher he was than 2004-2005 was. They are trying to say that even if he has 2004-2005 peripherals he's going to be a below average pitcher. I disagree with that-I think pitchers of that type can succeed. For people with even better ground ball rates but otherwise peripherals are very similar, look at Jake Westbrook and Aaron Cook. Then if you go down a little bit more into Marquis's range, you have pitchers like Clay Hensley, Miguel Batista, Zach Duke, Jeff Suppan, Dontrelle Willis (his 2006 was very similar to 2004 for Marquis). All of them had similar peripherals in 2006 to Marquis in 2004-2005, and all of them had ERA's that I'm sure everybody would be happy for Marquis to have (all under 4.7 I believe, and some under 4). Those are not just outliers-high ground ball pitchers can and do be average to good major league pitchers with the type of peripherals that Marquis put up in 2004-2005. Suppan (the one in the example) has successfully done it for years now-I'm sure some of the others fall into that category. Can he post 2004-2005 peripheral numbers? That's debatable, although the very early indications are encouraging on that, it's still a long way to go to be anything for sure. What I do question is if those peripherals necessarily say that he's going to be a worse than average pitcher, and I think a few pitchers in the league show that it's not as uncommon as it seems to have been said to have those peripherals and yet come out with an average to good ERA, with some pitchers able to do it year after year.

Two players peripherals right here-both are on NL Central teams right now, both were on the same team in the years these were taken from, and one is expected to be average while the other one is not: Year 1- A-6.17 K/9, 1.97 K/BB, 2.17 G/F, 1.42 WHIP B-5.27 K/9, 1.69 K/BB, 1.59 G/F, 1.37 WHIP Year 2- A-4.35 K/9, 1.45 K/BB, 1.59 G/F, 1.32 WHIP B-5.28 K/9, 1.81 K/BB, 1.43 G/F, 1.38 WHIP Here is year 3 for one of those 2 pitchers B-4.93 K/9, 1.51 K/BB, 1.61 G/F, 1.45 WHIP Based on those peripherals, what do you think of these two pitchers? Are they both destined to be pretty bad? Where is the third year for the other pitcher? I was going to post that and make a further point after someone evaluated those two on those peripherals that were stated. Is pitcher B better than Pitcher A on those numbers? How much better?

You're not sure why that would have anything to do with SS? SS is a MI position. A MI, by definition, has to be able to play SS. True-but to get a backup MI, all they need is somebody who can play 2nd or SS, as long as they are confident that the other 3 can all play both SS and 2nd. There will never be a situation where they will absolutely have to have that other backup play SS, so there's no reason why the backup would have to play SS. That would be preferable, but not a real deterrent if they find a good backup who only plays 2B. Izturis is coming back from injury so the Cubs may want a defensive insurance policy for SS. This would allow both DeRosa and Theriot to play in the same game while keeping Izturis (or his would be substitute) in the game for defensive purposes. Well if Izturis got hurt during a game that both DeRosa and Theriot was playing, then whichever one was playing 2nd could switch over to SS and the backup come in to play 2B. It would be great if we could get a guy who could cover both positions, but I would rather just get the BPA who could play at least one of those 2 positions.

Wouldn't it be a 4.50 ERA? the ERA is cumulative of all ST appearances. 4 runsin 9 IP I'm more pessimistic than most of Miller's performances. WHIP is way to high. Today would be a 1.75 WHIP...not good. Too many guys getting on bases, eventually, you give up too many runs. He's had some luck on his side to not have an ERA closer to 6. That's the same thing he did at the end of last year as well-1.71 WHIP, 4.57 ERA. I have no idea if he'll be able to continue that or not. What is this last year you speak of? Are you trying to forget 2006 that much :D BTW, I made this post because I forgot to add that was in 5 starts last year.

I'm starting to think we might have been fleeced in the Aardsma deal. It's still too early to make that call, but I have yet to see anything to the contrary... We can't have been fleeced regardless-Aardsma is struggling just as much if not more for the White Sox.

Wouldn't it be a 4.50 ERA? the ERA is cumulative of all ST appearances. 4 runsin 9 IP I'm more pessimistic than most of Miller's performances. WHIP is way to high. Today would be a 1.75 WHIP...not good. Too many guys getting on bases, eventually, you give up too many runs. He's had some luck on his side to not have an ERA closer to 6. That's the same thing he did at the end of last year as well-1.71 WHIP, 4.57 ERA. I have no idea if he'll be able to continue that or not.

You're not sure why that would have anything to do with SS? SS is a MI position. A MI, by definition, has to be able to play SS. True-but to get a backup MI, all they need is somebody who can play 2nd or SS, as long as they are confident that the other 3 can all play both SS and 2nd. There will never be a situation where they will absolutely have to have that other backup play SS, so there's no reason why the backup would have to play SS. That would be preferable, but not a real deterrent if they find a good backup who only plays 2B.

I enjoyed Todd while he was here, but his best days are behind him and I don't see any point in bringing him back at 34 to see if he can help. The Cubs could use some offensive help, but Todd is no guarantee to be of use with the bat. Plus if the whole goal is to get DeRosa and Theriot playing together, SS is the obvious target. The goal is to have Izturis at SS, Theriot at 2B, and DeRosa in right field against LH-that's why they are trying to get a backup MI to be on the bench for those days. I'm not sure why that would have anything to do with SS.

At this point I don't even want him back next season. I empathized with his situation going into the offseason, but so far he's handled it without class. If I publicly roasted my employer like that, I'd get fired. Unfortunately, in this case that's exactly what Briggs wants-to be fired.

Got it, thanks. I wonder if we'll see Jones dealt for an MI and a B prospect before April. I doubt it-if Jones is dealt, no backup MI is needed anymore. Plus, this article seems to think that Jones will not be traded at all now.

Either I'm dense today, or just confused. How does acquiring another MI give Piniella the option to play both DeRosa and Theriot? If he wants to play those two in the MI, wouldn't Izturis then slide into Theriot's bench role? I don't understand how acquiring another player fits into this discussion. Rosenthal was saying that one of those players would play in RF-Izturis, DeRosa, and Theriot would all be in the lineup on those days, but there would be no backup MI on those days-which is why they need to get another backup if they are planning to use DeRosa or Theriot as Jacque's platoon partner in RF.

Miller's having a good outing-after that leadoff HR, he's allowed 3 hits, struck out 4, walked none, and picked off one of the runners he let on in 3 innings.

untrue. the week before harris went down, the trib did a full spread on how the bears front four had been getting little pressure over the previous 5 weeks They didn't get much pressure in 2 of those 5 games, but they still had 6 sacks and 3 QB forced fumbles in 3 of those games. That's not too bad, and their defense also had 10 INTs in those 5 games, which at least some of those could have come from pressures.

Miller with a confusing 1st inning-2 hits including a leadoff HR, but then he strikes out the last 2 batters of the inning. 1-0 Arizona after 1.

Well, it looks like the top of the 1st had Pie fly out, Theriot strike out, and Murton strike out.