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i don't have much respect for the voters if the best signing was daisuke. I think they're only factoring his contract in and not the posting fee-when you do that, he is the best signing IMO. I think it is still too premature to say that. Potential or not, fact stil remains that he has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues. He may be great, but I still think it is risky. True, but he's getting paid less than 9 million a year-in this pitching market, that is bargain basement for somebody with his potential. He may not all be that great, but right now I still think he's the best if you ignore the posting fee. If you include the posting fee, then several people pass him for that honor because then the risk is magnified.

i don't have much respect for the voters if the best signing was daisuke. I think they're only factoring his contract in and not the posting fee-when you do that, he is the best signing IMO.

So Soul, do you think Skiles may be a Tom Coughlin/Bobby Knight type of coach? Coaches who get good things out of their team for a while (even overachieve sometimes) but work them so hard that they are inconsistent at times and wear down by playoff time (Knight for the players of the last 20 years, before that was a little different of a situation). Those coaches also had a little trouble with "star" players. I can definitely see a little bit of that from afar, and the rules do wear on a player (see what Tiki had to say about Coughlin earlier in the week about how tired he was). I don't know enough to say that he should be fired or not, but I was just wondering if that was the way you were going.

Wowza. 5th round pick for Carr? Wouldn't just about every team jump into those trade talks? I think that's low. Carr's failures have clearly been partially due to an inept franchise. It's true, but it may take a long time to uncondition him from what he is now-he definitely looks like now that he's always feeling the pressure where it is there or not. Playing behind a good line will help that, but it will take time for him to re-learn how to stay in the pocket and throw the ball downfield a little more in order for him to be consistently effective as an NFL QB.

some article (Daily Herald?) said Prior was ahead of Miller, who is in the long-toss phase of his rehab. didnt say where prior was, though. Well, at the very least, we've known Prior has been on the "throwing off the mound" phase since mid-January. That's definitely an improvement from past years. Prior even standing on the mound is an improvement over the past few years. I really hope those three can all come back and come close to their old form. One, it would be the best thing that could happen to the Cubs, and two, it would make all the people who said their careers are over eat crow. One good thing about the spending spree is that the entire focus in ST is not on the injured pitchers, which should help them because they probably won't press quite as hard.

I'm not sure it's quite that long, but that's probably Jeff Samardzija, the pitching prospect from ND. I just watched a video on the trib's website, it was Dan Roan's report on WGN, and yes, Samardzija's hair was definitely shoulder length. He had that goofy mop top pulled back and behind his hat, so it hung low. Now that I think about, it makes sense. "long" hair almost has to be down to the shoulder to be classified that way (I think it starts just a little before shoulder length) and Samardzija's hair is long, although you can't really tell that much when he will have the baseball cap on.

I'm not sure it's quite that long, but that's probably Jeff Samardzija, the pitching prospect from ND.

given those numbers, I guess it does make a lick of sense. At least replacing Jones with Floyd against lefties. of course, then you might as well play Floyd every day since he is a better hitter against righties than Jones as well. Hopefully Lou can manage to get Jones on the bench frequently and against all LHP - perhaps each corner OF gets 450-500 PAs although I would prefer to see Murton and Floyd each get more than Jones. I'm actually not sure they want to get Floyd that many at-bats-the more at-bats he has in a short amount of time, the more likely it will be he will get hurt. I see Floyd taking a few of the left-handed at bats from Jones and a few of the right-handed bats from Murton-if neither Murton or Jones get hurt, I see Floyd getting 250-300 AB's overall. Besides, the big problem with playing Floyd and Murton everyday is the outfield defense-one of them could possibly play right field occasionally, but I wouldn't want that to happen on a routine basis.

What exactly is the hold up, then? The same holdup as Lee and Ramirez-negotiations. Hendry is trying to get the best deal he can, and sometimes that involves not locking up the player immediately. Plus, there are always a million details to work out. If Hendry had lowballed them, don't you think Z would have come out with that to get sympathy? They are probably a couple million and a year or two apart right now, and they are playing a little chicken and seeing which side breaks first. A) If thats the case, then how did Sori get done in like 0.2 nanoseconds B) Hendry has said that even on the arbi case they are significantly far apart and even thinks it might go before the arbitrator. If they arent even within a couple million on a one year deal, how can they be within a couple million on a 7 year deal? I would say you are taking about as extreme of an optimistic viewpoint you can take. Sori got done because the team was desperate-they knew if they didn't pay it, somebody would. Z might give them a slight hometown discount only because he doesn't know what the other offers for him might be (he can estimate, but not like Soriano could) and there is still over a month till opening day. I haven't seen those Hendry comments on the arbitration-it's possible the club may go to arbitration because if the club wins it, that will be a big point in their favor in contract negotiations. I have no idea if they are close or not-all I know is that Hendry did not just forget about Z-he has the money, it's just his decision if he is going to give Z what he asks or if he decides it is too much money and either trades him or lets him walk after the season.

Now that sounds great. I understand exactly-they waited to see if they were going to sell on Nintendo systems, and there is too much difference in the game for them to be able to quickly develop the game-it sounds like they are going to work though to make MLB 2K8 quality-that should be a great game for the Wii.

I know what you mean, but I disagree. When I think of motion controlled batting and pitching, I don't think of the most realistic representation of baseball at all, really. I think gimmicky (which I mean in the nicest way - it sounds fun). I've not played the wii, but I imagine it would use it's unique technology in a "fun" way, with "fun" being very subjective between me (a hardcore baseball simmer) and Nintendo (devloper of a console for kids, compared to the other companies). Nintendo is going to lose it's "kiddie" label very soon-there are some very mature games coming to the Wii. The Wii is really going to be a mix from games for everybody to the youngest to the most mature of games out there (even some criticized on other systems for being too mature)-they are really trying to give something for everybody. I think if somebody took the time to do the controls nicely for a baseball game on the Wii, it would be spectacular. There's so much you can do for the controller-it's just a matter of developing the code. I'll cross my fingers - that would truly be awesome. Yeah, I'm expecting a game like that to come out-unfortunately, I have a feeling that the first true great baseball game won't be seen till sometime in 08-developers one by one are jumping on the Wii bandwagon though (for example, Activision said it is going to double the number of games available for the Wii, and mentioned titles like Spiderman and Guitar Hero as coming to Wii-and another studio is bringing the violent Manhunt series to Wii, and might bring GTA as well (although I have no interest in buying either of those games)). Developers were really waiting to see if the Wii would take off or not-now that it has, you're starting to hear much better support for it, and that should continue to grow-and that should include a good, realistic baseball game eventually.

That's a mistake I didn't expect Callis to make. One would be a typo, but he didn't get his draft year or his age right in that sentence. Isn't he 19 now? People are going to read that and wonder what kind of player is in his 4th year in the minors at 22 years of age still playing rookie ball :D

Sorry, kids I taught were a little wild tonight. I just don't think this deal will be remembered at all in 3-5 years when Kearns and Lopez have probably moved on to other teams (as many average to good but not star major leaguers do)-we can definitely agree that it was a horrible trade from the get-go, and shows no sign of changing now :D.

See, that's a different story. The Cubs have the money to re-sign Z-now if they want to sign him for the money he's demanding, that might not happen. It won't be because of Lilly or Marquis's contracts though-if the Cubs let a pitcher like Z go, it's because Hendry won't give him 18 million, or a 7 year deal, or because of his injury risk, but not because he suddenly forgot that he had to sign Z when he went on his spending spree during the offseason.

Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez, Ryan Wagner to Washington for Bill Bray, Gary Majewski, Brendon Harris, Royce Clayton and Daryl Thompson. Do you have any idea what I would have given up for Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns? Bill Bray seems like a decent bullpen arm. Nothing more, nothing less. Gary Majewski is damaged goods. Brendon Harris is now a Tampa Bay Devil Ray, Royce Clayton is now a Toronto Blue Jay. I've never even heard of Daryl Thompson. That trade will rank as one of the worst ever when all is said and done. The worst ever? Kearns and Lopez will have to get better for that to be the case-they are nice major league players, but nothing more than that. Worst ever trades are when somebody trades a HOF or somebody like that for somebody who flames out, not when pretty good players are traded for nothing. Now, I will give you that it was one of the worst trades at the time of the trade I have ever seen, but we knew that back in July-not only did it not work out for the Reds, but it really never had a chance of working out for them.

What exactly is the hold up, then? The same holdup as Lee and Ramirez-negotiations. Hendry is trying to get the best deal he can, and sometimes that involves not locking up the player immediately. Plus, there are always a million details to work out. If Hendry had lowballed them, don't you think Z would have come out with that to get sympathy? They are probably a couple million and a year or two apart right now, and they are playing a little chicken and seeing which side breaks first.

Nobody knows exactly, but it seems to be somewhere around 115 million (that includes around 13.5 million for Z this year).

I know what you mean, but I disagree. When I think of motion controlled batting and pitching, I don't think of the most realistic representation of baseball at all, really. I think gimmicky (which I mean in the nicest way - it sounds fun). I've not played the wii, but I imagine it would use it's unique technology in a "fun" way, with "fun" being very subjective between me (a hardcore baseball simmer) and Nintendo (devloper of a console for kids, compared to the other companies). Nintendo is going to lose it's "kiddie" label very soon-there are some very mature games coming to the Wii. The Wii is really going to be a mix from games for everybody to the youngest to the most mature of games out there (even some criticized on other systems for being too mature)-they are really trying to give something for everybody. I think if somebody took the time to do the controls nicely for a baseball game on the Wii, it would be spectacular. There's so much you can do for the controller-it's just a matter of developing the code.

Have I missed something? I haven't seen anything that would even suggest that they don't want to sign Z over concern over the budget in the next couple years (2007, 2008, 2009)-so where is this all coming from about Hendry not knowing if there's money left for Z?

Wii has made me a fantastic bowler. On wii. With a decent coach, you could translate most of that sucess on Wii to the lanes pretty easily-the motion and the spin are the same, the things that would change would be 1) the weight of the ball and 2) the amount of oil on the lane. With a little practice, those things could be worked out-I think people will be better bowlers then ever with the help of the Wii system. Actually the spin isn't terribly similar. You can back spin the ball on Wii MUCH more easily than you ever could in real life. That said it's a pretty realistic simulation...and it does have me wanting to join a bowling league. Well-that's true. If the spin is what I think you mean, it becomes much more difficult with the weight of the ball in real life to turn your wrist in that unnatural way. My strike shot though is the exact same shot I use in real life (my average shot-in real life the oil patterns are different and change during the game, so you have to adjust every so often-that's why scores will be a little higher on Wii than in real life even for good bowlers) , and so are most of my spares. I have platinum on spares, but only gold on spin control-I can't get lane number 19.

Ohio State has shown a tendency to do this-remember the Michigan State game that they came back in the second half? That could really hurt the Buckeyes if they don't get it fixed before the tournament.

Wii has made me a fantastic bowler. On wii. With a decent coach, you could translate most of that sucess on Wii to the lanes pretty easily-the motion and the spin are the same, the things that would change would be 1) the weight of the ball and 2) the amount of oil on the lane. With a little practice, those things could be worked out-I think people will be better bowlers then ever with the help of the Wii system.

Are you saying this with something in support or is it just the pessimistic party line? Piniella mentioned candidates for the 2 spot, and Murton was not in there-that doesn't mean he won't change his mind though-he said he was going to re-evaluate everything in ST, and Lou is somebody who will change his mind on things quickly if he decides something is not working right.

I've always been under the impression that Jones wanted out, and Hendry tried to accommodate him. I'm glad he's coming back, and I'm equally glad he's withdrawn his request to leave. But, Jones should sit vs. LHP. That may not sit well with Jones, but I really don't think he has any clout in the matter. It will be interesting to see what they do about Jones and LHP. My guess is that he sits a few more days than last year, but still will bat against a decent amount of LHP.

I found the ZIPS projections from last year-here are a few notables: Williams-165.0 IP, 4.36 ERA, 104K/62BB Guzman-41.0 IP, 4.39 ERA, 28K/10BB Ryu-155.0 IP, 4.59 ERA, 110K/46BB Mitre-141.0 IP, 4.72 ERA, 111K/55BB Nolasco-154.0 IP, 4.73 ERA, 143K/56BB Hill-130.0 IP, 4.78 ERA, 156K/65BB Brownlie-110.0 IP, 4.91 ERA, 110K/67BB Koronka-151.0 IP, 5.01 ERA, 110K/67BB Marshall, Marmol, and Mateo were not listed. http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/2006_zips_projections_chicago_cubs/ I'll post the others if/and as I find them. Edit-BTW, Zips was found to be the most accurate system for pitchers last year-based on this study: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/2006_projection_results/ The differences in the rs for the pitching projections really aren't significant. CHONE fell below Marcel (thats gotta hurt), but I think he made a lot of upgrades in the offseason. That's true. None of them were all that accurate last year (certainly not nearly the way it is with hitters), but they were all close to the same. I was just pointing that particular thing out just in case somebody came back with that zips just had a tough year picking pitchers, and some other projection was a lot better.