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To throw my 2 cents in (not sure my thoughts are worth that much-so make me an offer, and I'll negotiate :D) I can't see the Bears getting more than a 1st for Briggs (or something equivalent, like a 2nd and 3rd or 2nd and 4th). Teams value draft picks so highly because they are cheap talent-giving up a 1st for a guy like Briggs, a very good to great linebacker but not elite and then giving him a huge contract would be about as far as a team would go, IMO. If you look at trades for established players, they just never get as high of a draft pick as you might think they would in return.

He's not upset about money-he's still upset about Payton holding him out of the NFC Championship game. I think it's still the coaches call on allowing injured players to play, but Horn has done so much for them that if he says he's ready to go I'm not sure that they shouldn't have just trusted him and at least go out there and try for a quarter.

Did anyone else grimace at the last quote in that article, where he says they got the bases loaded, and they had the right guy (Ward) at the plate? Well, that is what he is supposed to do-come in during the late innings and be the main pinch-hitter in a key situation.

It seems about the right pick for Plummer-but Tampa Bay? I don't think that's a great fit for him.

Interesting. If Lou is dead set on a lefty in the 2 slot here I'd rather see what Pagan could do there than Izturis. Pagan's not an option for the two spot on a regular basis though-it's Murton, Jones, DeRosa, or Izturis-Piniella said he is looking for patience there and the ability to hit fastballs and hit the ball to all fields. I don't mind Izturis there for now-if he shows those abilities, then that's great. If he doesn't, let's find it out in ST and not during the regular season. I agree but I would rather see him get some AB's to show what he has or doesn't have. Ahh-yeah, I'd definitely put him in front of Blanco-it's not like Blanco's AB's are really going to be important in spring. I do think Lou cares more about finding the proper lineup order though then evaluating the different possible 25th man candidates-it's an interesting question of which is more important right now. Well let's hope that Lou's son tells him how bad of a hitter Izturis really is! Well, as I think you know, while there's a decent chance Izturis will be really bad I also think there's a decent chance from a close analysis of his numbers that he'd be all right-I'm hoping this spring indicates that he's returned to be the latter than the former. Care to give me the details of your close analysis? I see at best a guy who could possibly hit .300 given an incredible amount of luck, and due to a lack of plate discipline and power would still be pretty worthless offensively. Defensively of course he should be pretty good, so I can live with him if he is the 8th hitter and everyone else in the lineup hits well. Well first, if he does hit .300 he'll be a very good #2 hitter-his plate discipline is getting better every year- viewtopic.php?t=38595&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45 That thread my second post on page 4 has my look at year by year (I didn't dig into the peripherals into that post though). Basically, he was a defensive SS who was rushed through the minors every year and was never allowed for his bat to develop. As you can see from the numbers though, his overall bat improved every single year, even if his numbers sometimes didn't (the two times his numbers dropped was when he got promoted from single A to Triple A too quickly, and then again from Triple A to the majors too quickly). He then has improved every year he has been in the majors-he was a little below average for a SS but not terrible in 2004, and then was having his breakout season in 05 before the injuries. He hasn't been consistent in how terrible he is-his bat improved every single year from age 17 until he got hurt at age 25, and it was coming into the levels in which it was quite acceptable or maybe even an asset if he had kept improving.

I don't see how. Unless you define alright much differently than I do. I define all right as around league average at the shortstop position.

He turns 32 this season, so age is definitely a concern. However, I think he would be fine at SS for another 2-3 years, and fairly productive with the bat for 5-6. His best years, with a 167 OPS+ probably won't return, but I could see him being a solid 135-140 OPS+ for quite a while. ARod's game is based on patience and power, two things that tend to last for quite a while. Where do we move him after he's not ok at SS anymore? 1B? (I think he's only got 2 years at most right now at SS-I don't think he'd be good at it even if he played it now, and he will continue to slip as he gets older).

No, but most of the times that a true Japanese star has come over, he's been very successful, and in three of those cases, won the RoY. I'd say the six biggest stars to come over were Ichiro, Sasaki, Nomo, Kaz Matsui, Hideki Matsui, and Hideki Irabu. The first three won, Kaz Matsui and Hideki Irabu were busts, and Hideki Matsu narrowly missed out on the award but has since become one of the better-hitting LF in the game. All but two (Kaz & Irabu) has made an All-Star team, and half (Ichiro, Sasaki, H. Matsui) made at least two all-star games. So I'd say the "hit rate" of Japanese star players is quite high. True, but that happens a great deal with the minor league players as well. If you only took the best prospect of every 2-3 years (not random ones, but the ones that were seen as truly special coming out of the minors) and see if they won the ROY, I'm sure they would have a decently high rate of winning it as well.

Interesting. If Lou is dead set on a lefty in the 2 slot here I'd rather see what Pagan could do there than Izturis. Pagan's not an option for the two spot on a regular basis though-it's Murton, Jones, DeRosa, or Izturis-Piniella said he is looking for patience there and the ability to hit fastballs and hit the ball to all fields. I don't mind Izturis there for now-if he shows those abilities, then that's great. If he doesn't, let's find it out in ST and not during the regular season. I agree but I would rather see him get some AB's to show what he has or doesn't have. Ahh-yeah, I'd definitely put him in front of Blanco-it's not like Blanco's AB's are really going to be important in spring. I do think Lou cares more about finding the proper lineup order though then evaluating the different possible 25th man candidates-it's an interesting question of which is more important right now. Well let's hope that Lou's son tells him how bad of a hitter Izturis really is! Well, as I think you know, while there's a decent chance Izturis will be really bad I also think there's a decent chance from a close analysis of his numbers that he'd be all right-I'm hoping this spring indicates that he's returned to be the latter than the former.

Interesting. If Lou is dead set on a lefty in the 2 slot here I'd rather see what Pagan could do there than Izturis. Pagan's not an option for the two spot on a regular basis though-it's Murton, Jones, DeRosa, or Izturis-Piniella said he is looking for patience there and the ability to hit fastballs and hit the ball to all fields. I don't mind Izturis there for now-if he shows those abilities, then that's great. If he doesn't, let's find it out in ST and not during the regular season. I agree but I would rather see him get some AB's to show what he has or doesn't have. Ahh-yeah, I'd definitely put him in front of Blanco-it's not like Blanco's AB's are really going to be important in spring. I do think Lou cares more about finding the proper lineup order though then evaluating the different possible 25th man candidates-it's an interesting question of which is more important right now.

Interesting. If Lou is dead set on a lefty in the 2 slot here I'd rather see what Pagan could do there than Izturis. Pagan's not an option for the two spot on a regular basis though-it's Murton, Jones, DeRosa, or Izturis-Piniella said he is looking for patience there and the ability to hit fastballs and hit the ball to all fields. I don't mind Izturis there for now-if he shows those abilities, then that's great. If he doesn't, let's find it out in ST and not during the regular season.

So he's automatically a liar? I don't see anything in his character that would make you think he was automatically a liar-I don't like the way he looks at baseball either, but that doesn't make him a liar. If Morgan says he voted for Santo, I'll believe it when I see it. There are a lot of things I don't just automatically believe without seeing it for myself. This is one of them. I'm not saying that you have to automatically believe him-but your second sentence basically implied that you could call him a liar and point to this as an example-I just think there's quite a bit of difference between not knowing if something is true and calling it a lie.

So he's automatically a liar? I don't see anything in his character that would make you think he was automatically a liar-I don't like the way he looks at baseball either, but that doesn't make him a liar.

I think Norm Charlton, Randy Myers, and Rob Dibble might disagree with you. Those 3 did have somewhat of a closer by committee, but except for 1 year, there was a clear preference on closer-it just changed from year to year. 1990 Myers-31 saves Dibble-11 Charlton-2 Layana-2 1991 Dibble-31 Myers-6 Power-3 2 others with 1 1992 Charlton-26 Dibble-25 Bankhead-1 By 1993, Charlton and Myers were gone. The Reds never really had a 3 way closer by committee-1 year they went with a true 2-headed closer by committee, but the other years they had a clear closer and went to another option not nearly as often. Which really is beside the point. Did it, or did it not work? For one year-yes, it did.

If the next two picks are Ramirez and Carlos Lee, I'd maybe say pick Albert Pujols. I dunno, call me crazy, but I think he might end up being a good one. It's only free agents-he can't pick Albert Pujols since somebody already owns him in his keeper league. If you want to make a big gamble, I'd pick Daisuke-none of the pitchers are sure things (Zito or Schmidt are the other two choices) and Daisuke is the youngest with the most potential.

You can try wgnradio's web site during the game... I know that the games are blacked out during the regular season, I'm not sure if the same principle applies for ST. That won't work today-the Cubs aren't broadcasting it at all. There might be a feed that will open up for the opposing team, but that won't be known till a little before gametime.

Lee was 1 for 2, and Izturis is 1 for 1 so far-can't think of anybody else who did anything.

Here is the link for you to listen online: http://www.1350krnt.com/ Click on the listen live link on the left.

Cesar's going to either have a short at-bat that leads to a hit or a long one that's an out.

Defense is overrated. so are pitching and offense Woah. What's left? Truffle's favorite thing-heart :D

No-Jones would only be in the 2 spot against right-handers. They are only going to start Jones in the 2 spot when Floyd starts with him, and the days where Floyd and Jones both play against left-handers would be very, very rare.

It sounds like I'm going to be able to hear the game! Yeah!

Here it is-click on listen live on the left: http://www.1350krnt.com/

Does anybody need a way to get to the pre-game show on the Internet? I have a feed for that.

Bly's the extreme risk-taker-he'll create plenty of turnovers for you, but he can be burnt from time to time as well. I see this as a pretty even deal actually-Detroit gets possible pieces they can try out for the future, while Denver gets a piece they needed now-I doubt Detroit was going to re-sign Bly after the season anyway, so to get two possibly good pieces for him is a pretty good move, and Denver gets a piece they need now without giving up any of their core.