RichHillIsABeast

Where are you going to get a number 2? I'm not in favor of signing Marquis, but a front-line starter is pretty much out of the question. Why not Zito? The money the Cubs would throw at Zito should be reserved for Zambrano, who is going to cost a small mint to keep around. right now, just thinking what Big Z would ask for on the open market is scaring me. 6 years and $102M is my guess. And that would be a bargain. Zito is likely to get that being a #2 starter. Z is a legit ace. Aces don't hit the open market very often anymore. They don't get traded often either.

Huh? sarcasm

They want young starting pitching - either Marshall or Marmol if the reports are to be believed. The Jones market must suck b/c the O's reportedly offered Newhan. Church >>>>>> Newhan.

wasn't newhan once highly regarded? i take it by your context that he no longer is (?) yeah, back in 1996.

Not filling up roster spots (ie blocking prospects) with longterm unmovable contracts while rebuilding their farm system. Guys like Meche are token gestures to the fan base. If he pans out, great. If not, no big deal.

Notice that there were plenty of stat inclined GMs out there that didn't talk with Bonds either. I can't blame Hendry or anyone for not wanting to bring the circus to town.

He also said we gave the Rocks the finger when they asked about a Jennings for Pie swap. ok, i exaggerate.

That SLG isn't right is it? I'm afraid so. 406 AB, 103 H, 17 2B, 0 3B, 12 HR (last 3 seasons vs. RHP) He's always had good power potential though. I remember him hitting one in the river at PNC. edit: got my numbers from foxsports. wth.

Ward's 2006 splits: vs. LHP .059/.158/.059 (17 AB) vs. RHP .345/.412/.619 (113 AB) last 3 seasons: vs. LHP .264/.327/.273 vs. RHP .325/.406/.384 Ward may have had a career year last season, but he's still solid against RHP. Coming off the bench and facing righties, he's a huge improvement over the crap we had last season. At least he can take a walk.

Zito would be nice, but that's not going to happen.

I'll be shocked if Soriano isn't at least .340 next year. Shocked? Are you kidding me? Shocked? You'd be shocked if he had an OBP that wasn't higher than his OBP in every season but 2006? I'm shocked any reasonable person would think this way. There's no way a .335 OBP can be a surprise to anybody next season. Soriano is going to draw his share of IBB next season. Izturis/DeRosa aren't exactly threats. Soriano's OBP will be fine. I'm not sure we'll see many IBB from someone at the leadoff spot with Lee and A-ram behind him When there is 1/2 out(s) you will. With our pitching staff (excepting Z) and Izturis/DeRosa, that's a very likely event. I doubt we'll ever see Soriano IBBed to lead off an inning as that means Lee gets an AB, but if I was the opposition, I'd role the dice walking Soriano with 2 outs to get to DeRosa or Izturis. I'd definitely do it if there was a slow runner on base in front of Soriano eliminating the SB threat.

I'll be shocked if Soriano isn't at least .340 next year. Shocked? Are you kidding me? Shocked? You'd be shocked if he had an OBP that wasn't higher than his OBP in every season but 2006? I'm shocked any reasonable person would think this way. There's no way a .335 OBP can be a surprise to anybody next season. Soriano is going to draw his share of IBB next season. Izturis/DeRosa aren't exactly threats. Soriano's OBP will be fine.

5 years? WTH!

Well, the good thing about putting Murton in the 8 hole is Soriano has a lot of pop. With most leadoff hitters, it's a waste of good OBP in the 8 hole. Izturis is in the 2 hole to advance the runner, which he is good at. It's too bad he can't get on base at a decent clip, mostly b/c of low BA. All in all, I don't think Izturis in the 2 hole and Murton in the 8 costs us many runs. I'd prefer Murton in the 2 hole, but that lineup looks a lot better than the crap Dusty ran out there day after day.

who cares about how many games he won? He's a good pitcher, better than Lilly and better than Meche. Definitely better than Meche, Lilly is debatable. OK, so it's debateable that he's better than a pitcher the Cubs just gave $10M (even though he's undoubtedly more consistent and a smaller health risk than Lilly). So again, why would he not be a good addition? I did say that I'd rather have him than Meche. Where has anyone argued that Meche is preferable?

who cares about how many games he won? He's a good pitcher, better than Lilly and better than Meche. You don't determine who makes the playoffs by ERA, k/9, bb/9, and WHIP. It matters when you give up runs. When you strike out guys. When you walk guys. All those stats have a serious problem. They're all averages. You lose a lot of statistical insight using them. Win-Loss records are far from perfect b/c it does depend on run support, but at least it takes time into account.

Crap. Garland and Oswalt. Carlos Lee. Crap. Garland could get lit up in that park. Garland IS going to get lit up in that park. Jon Garland is the quintessential product of what goes right with great run support. He's not the stud pitcher a lot of people think he is. He's not awful either, but he's not THAT good i didn't know run support affected ERA+ or WHIP. He just won 17 games with league average ERA. That's what run support does for you.

OK, we could seriously beat this rumored Astros offer. I'd rather trade prospects for Garland than dish out 4/44M+ for Meche. It's not even a tough decision.

Ted Lilly pitched 4 or fewer innings/gave up 5 or more earned runs in a quarter of his starts last year. How many times do you really think the cubs' best assortment of rookies would do this? Z did the same in roughly 18% of his starts last season. What's your point? Z is a #1 starter. Lilly is a 3. I don't expect Lilly to be a world burner. All he has to do is not get blown out early, which happened only 3 times last season out of 32 starts. One of our rookies isn't going to do that for us. We'd be lucky to be in half the games they pitch. We have some good young arms, but most of them are a year away from really establishing themselves in the rotation (excepting Hill of course).

As if we've never gone into a season with a bunch of "ifs" before. :roll: I don't appreciate the eyeroll. Yes, we've gone into seasons with "ifs" before, but I think we're all setting ourselves up for a massive dissapointment. Soriano alone won't fix the lineup. We're status quo with Ramirez (but that's a good thing), and we added Lilly and Cotts to the pitching staff. Wowie. But looking at all these posts.... "IF Prior is healthy" and "IF Hill can pitch like he did in the 2nd half" and "IF Wood's shoulder can hold up" and "IF we can do better than Izturis and SS"... just far too many unknowns to be absolutely certain of any type of success this year. DLee will be healthy and that's a HUGE improvement over Mabry/Nevin/Walker at 1B. An OBP monster in front of Ramirez is a very good thing. That's not an "if." Having Lilly keep you in games, usually giving you 6 innings is a huge improvement over running a rookie out there that loses you the game by the 2nd inning. Hill will be fine, but expecting his 2nd half numbers for a full season is a little much to expect from just about anyone. Wood isn't a SP anymore. We have plenty of quality bullpen options should he spent significant time on the DL. Prior isn't being counted on in the rotation. There are very few "ifs" this season. We'll be competitive if Wood and Prior don't pitch one inning. If they do, this team has a ton of potential.

Who? The only positional prospects who look to contribute anything in the next couple of years are Pie and Patterson (perhaps Soto), and the two guys they would likely replace (Jones and DeRosa) are two of our cheapest guys as it stands. Position players: Murton, Pie, Patterson (maybe) Pitchers: Rapada (LOOGY), Veal, Gallagher, Pawelek, Marmol (pen) We'll be fine. If we get 2-3 pitchers making the league min or first year arbi money (Hill), we're pretty much set. Ramirez is making below market value. So is DLee. We're not flooded with bad contracts. If we are pressed for cash, guys like Lilly will be very movable. Geez, Howry and Eyre are very movable right now and everyone was complaining about their price tags last season.

Bynum was ok last season. His defense pissed me off, but his bat was a lot better than I expected.

Is the glut of backloaded contracts the Cubs have handed out this winter worrying anyone else? Guys like Lilly and Meche will be very movable two years from now. The market for SP will continue to be ridiculous. I think we're also counting on one or two guys being in the starting lineup making the league minimum. That frees up quite a bit of cash.

It's going to take a truckload to get starting pitching in this market. That sucks b/c it doesn't look like FA is going to satisfactorily fill our rotation.

Those guys weren't ready for the show. No one claimed they were. They're not "chumps." They're still developing. Marmol is going to be a stud.