CubColtPacer

I don't think it's that rare. Lots of lower tier coaches find better jobs elsewhere after team success. Is going from being the QB coach on a Super Bowl team to being the QB coach on the Cowboys a better job? It might be when your QB is getting soundly criticized (deserved or no) and eventually some of the blame might fall on you, and instead you go to a job where you're more predisposed to be a success and to continue to move up the coaching ranks.

Hmm-ex-Pacers going everywhere today. Thought of the day-never acquire an ex-Pacer. Many have wanted to be shipped out to find greener pastures, and very few if any have ever had any success again.

Is Todd Walker better enough though to warrant giving up a draft pick though? When you consider that the Cubs would have to give up (I think a 3rd round pick) as well as other teams would have to give up their first or 2nd to get Walker, it makes more sense why they would want to go with other similarly productive options at 2B now and keep the pick. I know I'd rather have DeRosa and keep that high pick to try to rebuild the farm system. OK I don't get it. If the Cubs would have given up a pick to get Walker, why didn't they have to give up a pick to get DeRosa. They were both FA's right? Did the Rangers not offer him arbritration? I thought the pick only changed hands if the player declined arbritration. If you're asking me "should the Cubs have signed Walker if he declined San Diego's arbritration offer", then no, the difference between Walker and DeRosa isn't worth a draft pick. In any event, the Cubs didn't have to trade Walker to begin with. Not trading him wouldn't have involved any picks going anywhere. Well, true, but by trading him they got a very intriguing prospect. Walker was classified as a type A free agent as a 2B, so if somebody signed him like the Cubs they would have been forced to give the Padres a draft pick. DeRosa qualified as a type B free agent because he was listed as an OF, and OF's numbers are much higher across the board than at 2B. With that, the Rangers get a supplemental pick for the Cubs signing him, but the Cubs didn't actually have to give up a pick for him.

It's been mentioned, and it happens every time. There's not much to discuss. They already used it. So they will either sign him for 2007, sign him longterm, or get a nice return via trade. Or the 4th option that happens to many franchised players-a long and drawn out holdout. I think Briggs will be more reasonable than that, but sometimes you never know. I wouldn't really call that a 4th option. It's something that might happen before one of those three things occurs, but it's not an outcome. Well, sometimes that either leads to trading him for much lesser value, or Briggs not showing up until week 10. What's the history of guys not showing up until week 10? Does it really happen? I could see him missing all of training camp, but don't really care about that. He's an experienced pro, and not a QB, so it really doesn't matter. In 97, Sean Gilbert held out the entire season. In 98, Dan Williams held out the season after being franchised Joey Galloway held out with Seattle till about week 10 (I can't remember the exact week he came back) Keenan Mcardall held out half the season in 04 till TB caved and traded him to SD Deion Branch last year would have held out and said that he wouldn't report till week 10 before the Patriots caved and traded him after week 1 I think only half of those involved the franchise tag, but those were just the ones I could come up with immediately, and I'm sure there have been others. There have been several cases though of people holding out much longer than training camp though, and it usually turns ugly for the club when that happens. I hope Briggs is not that ridiculous.

Thanks Vance and please keep posting this stuff! I like the fact that he has the confidence to want to be the guy and I hope he remains realistic on his abilities and his role on the Cubs. Yeah, I don't mind the first quote either. Floyd thinks that he can play his way into being the everyday starter if he's the best outfielder of the 3 corner ones-I don't mind him thinking that, and I don't mind if it happens as long as he actually earns it and doesn't get it handed to him for nothing or after just a few at-bats.

It's been mentioned, and it happens every time. There's not much to discuss. They already used it. So they will either sign him for 2007, sign him longterm, or get a nice return via trade. Or the 4th option that happens to many franchised players-a long and drawn out holdout. I think Briggs will be more reasonable than that, but sometimes you never know. I wouldn't really call that a 4th option. It's something that might happen before one of those three things occurs, but it's not an outcome. Well, sometimes that either leads to trading him for much lesser value, or Briggs not showing up until week 10.

Is Todd Walker better enough though to warrant giving up a draft pick though? When you consider that the Cubs would have to give up (I think a 3rd round pick) as well as other teams would have to give up their first or 2nd to get Walker, it makes more sense why they would want to go with other similarly productive options at 2B now and keep the pick. I know I'd rather have DeRosa and keep that high pick to try to rebuild the farm system.

I'm not winning this argument, so I give up. You win. It's not a big deal anyway-I'll give up too, and we'll call it a draw.

It's been mentioned, and it happens every time. There's not much to discuss. They already used it. So they will either sign him for 2007, sign him longterm, or get a nice return via trade. Or the 4th option that happens to many franchised players-a long and drawn out holdout. I think Briggs will be more reasonable than that, but sometimes you never know.

Okay, now I'm more confused. I think his 2006 salary was modest, I wouldn't call it underpaid. It was low because 2B don't make much unless they are really good, and Walker isn't really good. He's okay, but replacable. And the fact that so many 2B make the minimum just shows how easy it is to find 2B, and thus, why the prices are so low. You're not confused, instead you just argued my point-thanks :D

I wouldn't assume that. They determined he was healthy enough to take a risk, not necessarily "very healthy". I'm just taking it from Bruce's comments earlier in the offseason that they wouldn't be ready to sign him unless they could feel confident about his health situation, which tells me that he is at least healthy right now.

He looks like Ryan Howard...without the injury luck. Fixed. Cliff Floyd has been a pretty damn good player in his career when healthy. I mean, he's no Ryan Howard, but a damn good hitter when he's been healthy. It would be funny to see a ball hitting the wall behind him while he's doing that. I wonder how healthy he is? I'm sure he's very healthy right now because I'm sure the Cubs looked at the medical reports very carefully before signing him. If he stays that way or not is a very different question though, and one that I'm not sure anybody would know.

The problem is that Ramirez doesn't know when his home runs are going to go out or not-I have no problem if somebody stands there for an obvious home run, but if it's questionable, the player has to run in order to avoid what happened to Ramirez multiple times last year. Again though, if Ramirez is the worst hustler on the team, then the Cubs have a good hustling team, because his possible hustle issues are much smaller than several around the league. Please, "multiple times"? You think Aramis has the speed to turn an obvious double into a triple? Please, let us find some other nits to pick. Aramis is fine. He didn't get a double on those plays.

The problem is that Ramirez doesn't know when his home runs are going to go out or not-I have no problem if somebody stands there for an obvious home run, but if it's questionable, the player has to run in order to avoid what happened to Ramirez multiple times last year. Again though, if Ramirez is the worst hustler on the team, then the Cubs have a good hustling team, because his possible hustle issues are much smaller than several around the league.

500K is a lot more than league minimum? Chase Utley inf 7 years/$85M (2007-13) signed extension 1/07 $2M signing bonus 07:$4.5M, 08:$7.5M, 09:$11M, 10:$15M, 11:$15M, 12:$15M, 13:$15M I'm guessing CubColtPacer was using 2006 to come up with his average salary base. 500K is what Utley made last year. What he'll make for the next 15 years has no bearing on this discussion. He said "is" and "makes", that's present tense. I don't see how Utley's current salary has no baring on a discussion about current 2B salaries. What is the discussion anyway? I said is and makes because no one has calculated the numbers for 2007 yet. The discussion is if Todd Walker has been underpaid for his work the past few years, and if so, how much so.

Lou has a lot of history managing and I'm curious on what he's done in the past regarding this issue? From what I heard from a Mariners fan that I trust a great deal, Lou is not typically one who will stubbournly stick with a guy-if anything, he's a person who pulls a person too early that is struggling.

I blame the manager for that. Dusty rewarded plays like that with continued playing time. Moises Alou was too lazy to reach down and pick up a baseball, instead electing to kick it into the ivy to give the appearance it was hidden and a ground rule double, which turned into an inside the park home run. Alou was rewarded by staying in the game and playing the next game as well. Dusty seemed to embrace that kind of sloppy play. Unless a rookie did it. Well, I would agree that it is both of their faults-Ramirez for doing it, and Dusty for allowing it to continue-it's a small issue right now, but I bet in short order it won't be a issue anymore with Lou at the helm.

And what was the average salary for 2b's when you exclude the guys making league minimum, like Josh Barfield, Richie Weeks, Dan Uggla, Robinson Cano, Jorge Cantu, Chase Utley, Jose Lopez, Brandon Phillips, Jose Castillo and Aaron Hill. You have to admit that this is a pretty extensive list of minimum payroll talent. 1/3 of the major league teams worth. Of course-that's part of the reason why other second baseman's salaries are being driven down. There are too many second basemen on the market, and so nobody is in desperate need to sign one of them because they are so similar. That's how people like Belliard put up a .725 OPS last year (which is less than 30 points behind Walker) and is making less than a million dollars next year. People are always looking for some of the other positions that are much more rare, but second basemen are usually a dime a dozen unless they are something special, which Walker is not.

Well, Bracketology has OSU as a 2 seed right now-if they lose to Wisconsin, I don't see any way that they climb their way back up to a number 1.

The first one of those two scenarios, I hope Lou does for the first part immediately-the second one of those, I'm willing to give him a little time and see how things unfold first, and then see if he makes a change if a change is warranted.

Again, I'm not on his case very much, but Ramirez did multiple times stand at the plate watching a hard hit ball thinking it was a home run and have it hit off the wall and cost him bases. There have been some hustle mistakes that have cost the Cubs at times, but the issue for Ramirez himself is way overblown.

Possibly, but it sounds like Schilling wants to leave-I think Boston would have to knock his socks off with an offer after the season in order to stay: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2774965 I don't see the Cubs being in a position to knock Schilling's socks off. Boston is pretty famous for knocking people's socks off. Assuming Zambrano gets his long term deal, that pretty much puts Zambrano, Lilly, Marquis, Prior in the rotation with guys like Guzman, Gallagher, Veal, Samardzija, Pawelek, Marshall and few choice others vying for the last spot. The Cubs will already be very close to 100m in committed dollars to only about 12 roster spots (Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano, Lilly, DeRosa, Marquis, Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Jones and Blanco). That still leaves Wood, Prior, Barrett and Izturis as players that will expect raises from their 2007 salary if they are kept around. Oh, let me claify-I'm not saying that the Cubs will go after Schilling or should, I'm just saying that I think it's less than 50/50 that he stays with Boston at this point.

Possibly, but it sounds like Schilling wants to leave-I think Boston would have to knock his socks off with an offer after the season in order to stay: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2774965

DeRosa makes more and was a more attractive signing for several reasons. He had a much better season last year than Walker did, he has the flexibility to move positions to help the team at a later date (they are not resigned to playing him at 2B for 3 seasons), and he also was a class B free agent (because he was listed as an OF) while the other 2B were class A's. Walker also has a problem because of his reported problems in the clubhouse. Now, I don't support trading a player just for that like what was being rumored last year, but when deciding between several similar second basemen on the market (and many of the 5-6 second basemen on the market this year were very similar in terms of overall worth) that issue could be a tiebreaker with some teams, and that could be why other people got jobs in free agency and Walker didn't.

Agreed. He did do that. Just pointing out how underpaid he was for his production. Neifi Perez at 2.5m, Walker at 2.5m and Pierre at 5.5m. Who provides the most production per dollar of that group? Walker in a landslide. That's a good point-but remember, Walker signed his deal before 2005, while Neifi was before 2006-also, Pierre was in arbitration which looks at completely different statistics then some teams do in free agency. Also, what position they played has to be taken into account. The average salary for an outfielder is 4.88 million, for a shortstop it's 4.06 million, and for second basemen it's 2.79 million. Finally, if you would argue how underpaid he was by comparing him to those two, you assume that those two are being paid fairly-when they are likely both being overpaid for their production.