RichHillIsABeast

Chris Chambliss anyone? 8) link

I don't think they wan't Pie as they have no room for him when he does eventually come up. A Prior, Eyre, Izturis, and Marshall for A-Rod. I wouldn't mind taking a bad contract like Pavano along with it to help the deal. Damon is getting old, Bernie is old, Shefield will be gone and Matsui only has a few years left. I think they'd want Pie in a big way. They might even want Patterson to ship off Cano for more pitching. They need middle relief and starters of course. I would trade Hill/Marshall, Howry and Pie for A-Rod. I don't think they'll want Prior. They probalby want Big Z but they'd have to throw in Tabathia before I would consider it, and I wouldn't give anything else. Every team in the major leagues not named the Devil Rays has room for Pie (there probably are a couple more). BA says he's not even a top 10 prospect at his position. :shock:

Well, I can see why Pie didn't make the top 10 in CF. That list is pretty stacked. I was surprised to see EPat up there. Must be based on scouts' ideas of his advancement. He certainly didn't merit the callup to AAA on numbers. Wilken to the rescue, please.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just curious why you think that Piniella has more of clue than Baker does. Piniella doesn't rag on walks, complains about hitters not being patient enough, and rips players that don't play heads up ball. Piniella's wish list of players will be vastly different than Baker's. Piniella has already said he'd like a younger bench (I'll dig up the link for that when I get time). Piniella looks like an absolute genius compared to Dusty. So far...

Oh well. No one should have been counting on Prior to even pitch in '07. Miller still didn't have his velo back by the end of this past season. Wood, well, the news about him not being able to close (at all) is news. I thought maybe he'd work his way back to pitching on consecutive days. Wood as middle relief (for the price) is crap.

I agree with you on this one. Often I have tried being somewhat supportive of Hendry and usually been attacked by many posters. I do think Hendry gave too much decision-making power regarding personnel to Dusty, probably because of Dusty's reputation as a winner. One of Hendry's faults is that he had trouble being Dusty's "boss" and allowed him to be a consultant. I think a lot of people will go back to seeing Hendry's potential as a GM after this offseason. I don't think it was so much Hendry not being the boss as it was just Hendry trying his best to get what the guy underneath him said he needed to win. Dusty: I need a leadoff hitter. Hendry: How about Furcal. Damn you, Colletti. Here, take Pierre. Dusty: I need more speed. Hendry: Bynum and Pagan on the way to save the day. Dusty: I can't do jack without defense, dude. Hendry: Cedeno's slick with the glove. I'll get rid of Walker (even though I was in love with him 2 years ago). All in all, I think Hendry just went after what his manager wanted. That's a good trait to have so long as the guys underneath you have a clue. Dusty didn't. Piniella does. I expect a vast improvement in front office performance w/o MacPhail's conservative attitude and Dusty's ineptitude in the way. Hendry's going to have the payroll and roster space to make things happen. The next two years will really show what kind of GM he is. He's finally in the driver's seat.

Hendry said Baker had input on 90% of player acquisitions. Neifi being traded away was one of the few moves Baker wasn't consulted on. 8) The whole "we need a leadoff man" came from Baker. Hendry never bent over backwards to get one before Baker whined about the lack of one. Then he had to go out and overpay for Pierre or Furcal.

Wow. No way is Juan Pierre worth 7M per season, much less 9M. 4 years? [bleep] that noise. I could live with 3/18M at the most. Looks like Juan is gone. Yippee!!

Awesome. He never should have left the Braves in the first place.

Where did Murton hit in the lineup? Lee? RBIs are a meaningless way to compare the two players. Murton's second half: .319 BA, 9 HR, 35 RBI (207 AB) Lee's second half: .311 BA, 11 HR, 43 RBI (283 AB) I tried to use stats you'd accept. Notice how Murton put up similar number hitting in non-RBI spots in the lineup and with fewer at bats. Murton is on the rise. Lee played in a hitter's park (Texas). Who are you going to take when one is making the league minimum and the other is making FA dollars?

I didn't really see the insinuation that we should go after Lee instead. "In left field he's [soriano] a decent choice, but is he that much better than Carlos Lee?" Since Carlos Lee wasn't rejected as a choice earlier in the letter, the implication is that Lee is preferrable to Soriano in LF.

Hendry's eyes just glazed over after reading that. He's not a stats guy and doesn't buy into any of the basic premises you used in your arguments. But I enjoyed it. :)

Yeah, that's what I said. Why did you ask your question again? You implied that our past absence of interest overseas (no bids) meant we wouldn't get Matsuzaka. But, we are submitting a bid, which has never happened before (to my knowledge). I don't get how not bidding before implies anything, one way or the other. If A causes B, not A doesn't mean B will/won't occur. A = not bidding B = not getting a Japanese player not A = bidding If I misunderstood you, my bad.

You are quite wrong on all of your assumptions. Only if you count Little League to be "baseball experience." :lol: Dusty Baker: Lots of baseball experience Tim McCarver: Lots of baseball experience John Kruk: Lots of baseball experience Tino Martinez: Lots of baseball experience Joe Morgan: Lots of baseball experience Steve Phillips: Lots of baseball experience Hawk Harrelson: Lots of baseball experience We're not talking about offensive strategy or offensive vs. defensive value. We're talking about how to play CF. I don't believe anyone said "I can play CF better than Juan Pierre." My dog has a stubby tail.

He doesn't. History suggests they won't be, though. Who else did we actually bid on and lose? No one. That's the point. Name one previous Japanese player playing in Japan the Cubs have pursued. We're pursuing one (or more) now according to Jim Hendry, who wouldn't have sent his scouts over there if he wasn't serious (pulled them off advance scouting). Yeah, we haven't pursued previous Japanese players. IMO, there is no track record to base any hopes of us getting Matsuzaka, Saito, etc. I'm encouraged that we're actually looking into some of these guys for once.

You are quite wrong on all of your assumptions. Only if you count Little League to be "baseball experience." :lol: Dusty Baker: Lots of baseball experience Tim McCarver: Lots of baseball experience John Kruk: Lots of baseball experience Tino Martinez: Lots of baseball experience Joe Morgan: Lots of baseball experience Steve Phillips: Lots of baseball experience Hawk Harrelson: Lots of baseball experience We're not talking about offensive strategy or offensive vs. defensive value. We're talking about how to play CF.

It depends on the manager. Usually they are the guy taking over if the manager is ejected. They do a lot of the running around so the manager doesn't have to. BP, drills, etc. Some of them help out with infield positioning, running game, pitch counts, time to the plate, or just flat out watch for things to exploit. It helps to have another set of eyes watching the overall game (along with the manager). The pitching coach, hitting coache, etc. are really focused on their portion of the game or are busy instructing guys during the game. ^^ All that obviously changes depending on the coaches' backgrounds.

He doesn't. History suggests they won't be, though. Who else did we actually bid on and lose?

He doesn't "track" well. Whatever the hell that is. He relies on his speed. He breaks late to the ball and makes up for his late start with his speed. He often takes bad routs to balls. Because of this when he catches the ball he is rarely in a good position to throw the ball, altough that is not too big of a problem with his arm. He's never been a "great" CFer and rarely exhibits "good" CF skills. I don't know who you've been whatching in CF but it hasn't been Pierre. You don't know what "tracking the ball" is, but you claim to know that Pierre makes bad starts on the ball? Come on. I seriously wonder if some of you guys even watch the games (on tv or in person) or just follow the numbers and rip on players b/c it's popular. There certainly doesn't seem to be much baseball playing experience here, from the ridiculous claims some people make. I do watch games and this is how I know he doesnt get good jumps or follow a straight line to get to the ball. Defense is hard to put stats on. You dont have to watch a lot of baseball to realize that Pierre doesnt get to balls that Jim Edmonds, Aundrew Jones or Mike Cameron get to though. I didn't say Pierre was a Gold Glover. You'd think he was a butcher to read what a lot of ppl here have said. That's just not true.

You are quite wrong on all of your assumptions. Only if you count Little League to be "baseball experience." :lol:

I'd have to disagree. He made 5.7m this year, and was a problem. His OPS+ of 81 (84 in 2005, 86 career) suggests his production is significantly below average, yet a 5-6m salary is significantly below. He's a below average player. The only value he gives is that he's not among the very worst. I would say, at best, he's worth a slightly below average salary, and that's only because there's a slight chance he'll get a little better. Teams need production, and guys like Pierre just don't provide it. No reason to pay extra for that. Pierre's value to a team isn't reflected in OPS+. Speed is his main contribution. Don't get me wrong, I don't love the guy, but he gets a lot of unfair bashing on this board (defensive range). We definitely overpaid for his production - salary and 3 pitchers. The money doesn't bother me so much as the arms. A leadoff hitter is great, but he needs to get on base consistently. Pierre just doesn't do that with his inability to take a walk. He tried. I saw him take what he thought was ball 4 a lot of times and walk back to the dugout with his head down. It's just not one of his skills. Consistent production is important. Slumps happen to everyone, but Pierre seems to be developing a habit of starting slow. Not good.

He doesn't "track" well. Whatever the hell that is. He relies on his speed. He breaks late to the ball and makes up for his late start with his speed. He often takes bad routs to balls. Because of this when he catches the ball he is rarely in a good position to throw the ball, altough that is not too big of a problem with his arm. He's never been a "great" CFer and rarely exhibits "good" CF skills. I don't know who you've been whatching in CF but it hasn't been Pierre. You don't know what "tracking the ball" is, but you claim to know that Pierre makes bad starts on the ball? Come on. I seriously wonder if some of you guys even watch the games (on tv or in person) or just follow the numbers and rip on players b/c it's popular. There certainly doesn't seem to be much baseball playing experience here, from the ridiculous claims some people make.

We finally get a worthwhile position player out of our system (ok, ok, via Boston) and some people want to replace him with a high priced FA (Carlos Lee) who arguably won't provide better production. I agree with you that Murton is going to hit for more power. It's there. He really started getting the ball in the air more the second half instead of little dinkers in the infield. Nice adjustments there by the Big Murt. His hustle is much appreciated and his defense improved markedly this season. Will he be a Gold Glover? I doubt it, but he'll be above average if he keeps working hard. It's nice when one of your outfielders can hit the cutoff man too. :lol:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/chat/chat.php?id=2006102001 Why not the Cubs? We're not going to get that front of the rotation starter via trade. If we're going to pay out the backside for a front of the rotation starter, he might as well be young Japanese stud.

I do agree that Pierre's range is above average in CF. I don't know where some people are getting this idea that he stinks in the field. His reads on the ball are very solid. He tracks very well. His arm is a big liability though. That extra base on his arm really counts against him, IMO. The only reason he led the NL in hits is b/c he played so many games. His BA wasn't that great. It's not exactly something to be proud of that he had so many hits. There are tons of players that would get more hits if they batted leadoff and played 162 games. He may have had a .350+ OBP after the ASB, but his slow start killed us. It isn't the first time he's pulled this slow start garbage. Games played at the beginning of the season count just as much towards your overall record as any other regular season games. I do like his speed on the basepaths, not just b/c he can steal bases, but because he can take that extra base with the ball in play. I don't like his caught stealing numbers. It's ridiculous that a guy with that much speed can't steal bases more successfully. You might as well not get that hit if you're just going to run into an out. He has a great work ethic. Wonderful. So does Murton. 0% chance of injury? There is no such thing in baseball. I never though Prior would destroy his should running into Giles or catching a line drive off the elbow. Freak things happen. If Pierre suffers a leg injury, he has zero value. All his skills are tied up in his speed. Pierre is a good player at 5-6M per season. He'll easily get more than that in arbi or on the FA market. I'll pass on Pierre. The skills he brings to the table aren't worth it.