slieb85

You can question his desire all you want, but you have no evidence, so that is irrelevant. I think there is a strong chance that he will never be an effective starter again, but for a team with a $100 million payroll, I can think of many worse investments than $3 million to find out if Prior can come back. If he can't remain healthy next year, then let him go. No kidding, I keep reading in this thread and the Wood thread how the money for the two of them "isn't worth it". If we gave woody and prior a total of $7 Mil for next year, it will be like 5-7% of our payroll, and will not be to tough to swallow if both are not good or not healthy as we have a pretty good rotation and good young arms for the pen. However if woody continues to be healthy and pitches well (he's had some wicked stuff a few times out there) he's well worth 2-3 mil (since demp is making 5.15 jones is making 5.33 howry is making 4, eyre is making 3.66, blanco is making 2.8). And in the case of Prior we've invested a ton of time and energy into him and it would be silly to just give up on him when his pay is going to be like 3.5% of our payroll and he has the potential to really really help this team next year. You can say it's wasted money, but it's not your money so who really cares, i think both prior and wood are better than most guys we can get for 3 mil and 1 year. If they struggle, we have the rotation from this year, plus Guz and Gallagher and possibly Mateo for when injuries arise. We have Rapada, Petrick, Pignatello, Cherry, Weurtz and Marmol that can fill in the pen nicely all making about the minimum. 2 of our SP's make the minimum as does (hopefully) or CF and SS and C. Possibly one other of our OF's could be making essentially the minimum. We've shown we have the pieces in the farm for a solid bench (fox, soto?, murton, pagan, patterson, moore, etc). What I'd like to see us do is move away from Cliff Floydesque signings and use our farm for our bench +2-3 starters, keep the rotation as is with the 3 previously mentioned guys as good fill-ins + prior (who is a complete wild card), keep the bullpen young with the minimum guys and move away jones, eyre, ohman, floyd, ward, etc to shave payroll there. Also I would get rid of Dempster to the highest bidder. My opening day roster would look something like this Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Murton, Pie, Theriot, Derosa, Soto, Blanco, Fox, Pagan, Fontenot, cedeno. Z, Hill, Lilly, Marhsall, Marquis Rapada, Marmol, Howry, Weurtz, Petrick, Pignatello, and Wood. Let Cherry be in AAA for a potential call up guy along with mateo and gallagher, and Prior start off the year with no pressure (same with Guz). Use Demp, Jones and Eyre, OHman to get a few other prospects or spin off a guy like Murton and Demp for a good outfield bat and you have your team and it only costs you about 94 Mil (assuming about 7mil between wood and prior), so obvioulsy you could trade for another bat (which would be my preferrence to get murton and some sort of pitcher out of here for an OF bat)

I really don't know much about FF as it's my first year playing it, but I love Edge in the 4th (that's when i took him) i think peyton is due to struggle a bit this year (fantasy wise) as i think he'll look to get more team wins instead of doing it all himself, i think betts is a superb pickup (could just be the iowa fan in me) who will get some good points for ya when portis undoubtedly goes down. I think TO will be very good, and I think Darrel Jackson could be interesting. I'd also try to trade heath miller and maybe one of your backup WR's or QB's for a better WR.

I get what you are saying but Patterson deserves to be up here... then again... so does pie and soto. BTW Lou will Start Murton, Murton owes Wandy. Deserving to be up here is relative. Compared to either Pie or Soto, he doesn't. I'm not sure his numbers in the PCL really warrant a callup regardless of what Pie and Soto are doing, however. Perhaps I dont understand what you mean. You dont think .299 14hr 62 rbis .360 obp and an .830 ops is not deserving, regardless of what pie or soto are doing? I think he's probably saying what I was thinking, Everyone is hitting in the PCL and everyone on Iowa has like a Plus 800 OPS, so maybe those numbers are a bit misleading and he doesn't expect patterson to outperform theriot/derosa/murton (which I don't either) I would honestly go pretty much every game Soriano is out *assuming pie doesn't come up at some point really soon with. 1. theriot ss 2. murton lf 3. lee 1b 4. ramirez 3b 5. derosa 2b 6. floyd rf 7 jones/pagan cf 8. kendall/hill 9. pitcher

Really? He's been with the team like 8 days. Give the guy a shot to acclimate himself before you relegate him to permenant bench duty. It isn't like Koyie Hill tears the cover off the baseball or something. I've at least seen Koyie make some pretty good defensive plays and I don't think he has cost us a game yet. You can't say either for Kendall. Again Koyie has played in 30 games, and Kendall has played in 4 games for the cubs. I think it's pretty hard to label Kendall for misplaying 1 ball like he's a bad defensive catcher. Also Koyie has only 12 hits this whole year, out of his 25 games that he has had an AB he's been hitless in 15, kept off base completely in 13, and he had 1 game where his only PA was a BB. It's just not enough to convince me to relegate Jason Kendall (who by my and anyone else's own admissions has struggled mightily this season) to the bench daily. Point taken. I hope I'm wrong, but I think he's washed up. That was wasted money by Hendry in my opinion. I'm sure by me saying that he's going to hit for the cycle tonight, which would make me happy. We only are losing about 900K on him right? Hopefully one of the two will get hot enough to justify the PT.

Really? He's been with the team like 8 days. Give the guy a shot to acclimate himself before you relegate him to permenant bench duty. It isn't like Koyie Hill tears the cover off the baseball or something. I've at least seen Koyie make some pretty good defensive plays and I don't think he has cost us a game yet. You can't say either for Kendall. Again Koyie has played in 30 games, and Kendall has played in 4 games for the cubs. I think it's pretty hard to label Kendall for misplaying 1 ball like he's a bad defensive catcher. Also Koyie has only 12 hits this whole year, out of his 25 games that he has had an AB he's been hitless in 15, kept off base completely in 13, and he had 1 game where his only PA was a BB. It's just not enough to convince me to relegate Jason Kendall (who by my and anyone else's own admissions has struggled mightily this season) to the bench daily.

Really? He's been with the team like 8 days. Give the guy a shot to acclimate himself before you relegate him to permenant bench duty. It isn't like Koyie Hill tears the cover off the baseball or something.[/b]

Have you ever seen the women that frequent bars in Des Moines? Yikes. And yes, I speak from experience, I went to Iowa State. Your problem.................. :P I should have known there was a good reason I disagree with pretty much everything you ever say. It all makes sense now.

I think it was you and I that debated this earlier in the season (not gonna go look for the thread but nonetheless) and I had said that while his BABIP was insanely high at that time (i wanna say around .420) I didn't think it would drop too much. And I still don't think it will. Guys are afraid of challenging him in the only place he seems to have power (inside) and seem to be content on throwing to the outer half (hence Derrek's propensity to hit the ball the other way and in the gaps. Who knows how far his BABIP will fall but I would be willing to bet it won't fall nearly as much as you suspect. I also wanna say sorry it wasn't you who I argued this point with before. I found the thread and he had a .440 BABIP at the time. I still think it stays above .350 pretty easily because of how they have pitched him.

I think it was you and I that debated this earlier in the season (not gonna go look for the thread but nonetheless) and I had said that while his BABIP was insanely high at that time (i wanna say around .420) I didn't think it would drop too much. And I still don't think it will. Guys are afraid of challenging him in the only place he seems to have power (inside) and seem to be content on throwing to the outer half (hence Derrek's propensity to hit the ball the other way and in the gaps. Who knows how far his BABIP will fall but I would be willing to bet it won't fall nearly as much as you suspect.

let me see if I have this right, you don't want to try improving because they're winning even though that improvement might help them win more? just because Ronny and Felix had rough spells doesn't mean they are not better suited for those positions NOW. we're getting no production from SS or CF right NOW, so what's the harm in plugging in a couple of guys who don't have much left to prove at AAA and let them work through their big league struggles? if they fail, we're in the same spot we are in right now (except with much better OF defense) Isn't he simply saying that the Cubs want to win now and don't have time to babysit players that can't perform currently? I have no problem with Lou doing exactly what he said he would do to start the year ---- "play the players who produce". Theriot I dunno if your arguing that Theriot was given too much of a shot or if your arguing that Theriot produced and therefore was given his rightful shot. But I would agree with you on the latter, he started off well (after a good spring and productive call-up last year), struggled for a while (and rightfully rested on the bench for a while), and then turned it back on again (.323 over the last month) and now is playing much more often (corresponding with fontenot's major slump). I would also say i'm totally 100% in favor of bringing up Murton/Cedeno ASAP but we have to move jones and izturis (and I don't think that's likely to happen in the next two weeks unfortunately). Cedeno deserves another shot, Murton should have never ever been sent down (or relegated to playing behind Floyd) . *Also just a side rant here but I'm really really sick and tired of hearing Len and Bob talk about how Cliff is a proffessional hitter and that's why the cubs can afford to have him gimping around in RF, the guy over the last year and a half has not been that great of a hitter and only has 9 XBH's this year. He's essentially a bad defending, slow, singles hitter. And he's only hitting .297 to boot. On another note his .370 OBP would be nice in a different spot in the order.

Floyd is/was more productive and hitting the ball much better than Murton. What does that have to do with defense? It has a lot to do with my entire post why Murton should not be playing. He elected to take one small part to disagree with instead of the entire post as a whole. I said Floyd and Pagan are better options right now...which they are. Floyd is a better option, temporarily true. Pagan, not true. Note: Pagan is hitting .231 is last ten games. And Floyd is at .250, I,ll take Murton. Do you think it's fair to judge Pagan in his last 10 games? I don't...he's exceeded my expectations this year and has hit the ball pretty well this year. Yes because Pagan will never put up .320 he'll do .280 You go out of your way to point out Pagan is hitting .231 the last 10 games but fail to mention that Murton was hitting .252 in his first 50. Pagan gives you options at all the outfield positions, is a switch hitter, can actually field his position and can run. To sum it up, I'm not saying Pagan's an All-Star or a reliable every day player but he has not done anything to deserve a demotion and Murton has done nothing to prove he's worthy of a promotion or more at bats when he was in Chicago. I'm guessing by your name that your not all at pro-Murton or a little biased. Ok I think most of us have let you have your fair share of calling our Murton for his defense but this is just absolutely ridiculous. Pagan has speed but takes HORRIBLE lines to balls, misplays balls in center way too often, has never been some sort of prospect, simply a AAAA player that makes a nice cheap bench player for a good team. Murton is a good prospect and WAS A VERY VERY GOOD PLAYER LAST YEAR. It's not like he went a couple months of producing out of his pattern like Theriot (who i like to be a great utility guy) he was hitting along his career line and did it for a full year as a 24 year old. He was not bad at all in LF and could probably get decent at RF with work and hopefully that's what he's doing in DSM. But let's get serious, saying he doesn't deserve to play on this team is absolutely ridiculous. This is a team that has carried Jock Jones on the bench this year, Cesar Izturis starting way way too many games at SS, and a starting right fielder with an OPS of .761 (who's OPS last year was .731). Like someone previously said, Murton had an .809 OPS last year and his second half was .911 with an OBP of .390 (compared to Floyds stellar .291 OBP and .681 OPS in the second half of last year) and was a 24 year old 2nd year player, and JIM HENDRY went out and signed floyd (who is also repetitive since Ward was already signed) just because he was a Chicago guy that Hendry had a previous relationship with. Pretty sorry way to run a franchise, and Murton should be furious about it. At the very very least they need to platoon Murton and Floyd since Floyd has an OPS of .583 against lefties and Murton's career OPS vs. lefties is .877 . They need to give him another shot and DFA jones.

I love how they both said they were going to score it differently than the official scorer did in their book, like anyone cares about their book but still. Too bad FSN North isn't carrying this game. Oh and he wasn't gonna be out either way but I love hearing Hawk complain about it.

That is a better deal for both teams. Joe Saunders and Eric Aybar might be enough to get that deal Dunn (Ha, Ha) Dunn is the perfect example of how overvalued OBP really is. Don't misunderstand, getting on base is important but it does not trump all other offensive stats. There is a reason that for nearly 100 years the only stats that people would recite about players were BA, HR & RBI. Dunn has some things going for him but not a lot. He can hit the Ball VERY far when he connects but is ultimately the 4th best HR hitter on the Cubs should he be picked up. Does 1 team really need that many HR hitters? 4 Solo HR is the same as 2 2 Run HR. Finding a good balance through the entire order makes better sense. See the Red Sox, Brewers & Angels this season as an example (although there are some holes on each team). And what is the best way to judge how often you get on base for those 2 run HR's? OBP. A guy who gets on base at a 400 clip and hits .265 is more valuable than a .330 hitter who has and OBP of .365 and especially -so when the .265 hitter has a +.500 SLG and the .330 hitter has a SLG of around .450. The reason that those stats you listed are what everyone refers to is because they are the easiest to grasp. But don't be fooled if you make less outs and make more productive hits, you are a better hitter (even if your average is .65 lower).

I have a feeling we're gonna do this every two to 3 games until after the break, rotate between rapada, cherry, gallagher, petrick basically up for 3 to 4 days used in all possible games then sent down for the fresher arm. Pretty stupid.

I had a trade vetoed that the kid admitted he asked 2 other people in our league that he works with to veto. I am the only one who keeps up regularly on prospects and can normally get any good young pitcher i want but i needed a bit of offensive help so he offered (after about 15 offers and counter offers) Hanley Ramirez and Joe Borowski for John Lackey and Francisco Cordero. I accepted it and he then got cold feet and had it vetoe'd.

1. Sizemore 2. Utley 3. Hanely Ramirez 4. Liriano 5. Peavy

I thought some of you could be some help. It's a week to week league so no need for telling you my standings in the categories, but standard 5 cats +K's are for the offense and I need to figure out which team is better Right now: C Napoli 1b Delgado 2b Figgins 3b A-rod ss M. Young Of Vlad Of Holliday Of Cuddyer Util R. Braun Bench Iwamura, Thome After proposed trade: C Napoli 1b Cuddyer 2b Utley 3b A-rod ss young of Holliday Of Carl Crawford Of Delmon Young (Available on FA) Util R. Braun Benc Iwamura Basically the trade is Crawford and Utley for Delgado, Thome, Vladdy and Figgins. I don't ever play Thome and i can pick up Young and move cuddyer to 1st. I figure in a week to week league (never played one before) the point is to assemble the best team you can for the playoffs. Any help is appreciated.

But...But... Its The-Riot...doesn't that count for something? Percentage of baserunners driven in........ Code: 04/02 - 06/24 BDI LOB RBI% Ward 5 13 0.278 Lee 33 99 0.250 Floyd 22 66 0.250 DeRosa 28 99 0.220 Ramirez 27 99 0.214 Pie 15 58 0.205 Blanco 3 12 0.200 Bowen 1 4 0.200 Theriot 20 87 0.187 Fontenot 7 33 0.175 Jones 18 96 0.158 Pagan 5 28 0.152 Soriano 15 86 0.149 Barrett 19 113 0.144 Murton 7 48 0.127 K Hill 2 17 0.105 Izturis 8 72 0.100 Cedeno 2 21 0.087 CUBS 245 1126 0.179 WHICH GUY WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE ON YOUR TEAM???? I'm not saying Theriot is a godsend or un-demotable, or anything of the like, but he has been struggling to hit lately and izturis is hitting well and THERIOT'S #'s are still better across the board. That's why people are up in arms, because he has the ability to snap out of a funk and be a reasonably priced contributor to this team, something that definately can not be said about IZcrappis.

Most likely thing is that Muskat did a bad job of reporting Lou's comments. Other reporters said that the surprise had to do with where DeRosa would be playing. The things we've heard that seem possible are that Fontenot is being considered for SS eventually and DeRosa will be playing RF tonight to make space for him. We aren't getting any big name players any time soon. Does anyone have the lineups yet? Lineups Colorado W. Taveras cf K. Matsui 2b M. Holliday lf T. Helton 1b G. Atkins 3b B. Hawpe rf T. Tulowitzki ss Y. Torrealba c J. Francis p Chi Cubs A. Soriano lf M. Fontenot 2b D. Lee 1b A. Ramirez 3b M. DeRosa rf A. Pagan cf R. Bowen c C. Izturis ss J. Marquis p

I just wouldn't see the point of this, because it would mean derosa to LF and since De ro can handle 2b well enough it wouldn't make any sense.

He actually said "unless they give back soriano AND lee or Z i don't think griffey is going anywhere" to which skip bayless replied "oh i'd do that" (i assume he meant from the reds perspective but who knows with him. And then Skip went on to say how he's the only draw on a team way under 500 and how they have to keep him around so people come to the park. That's the sad thing is that people really think like that. Instead of taking an aging superstar and moving him for prospects to rebuild and maybe have a team for the future that people will want to see, we'd rather hang onto said superstar so we can squeeze the last few bucks out of his chase for 600. The only smart person on the show was the guy moderating it who said something of the effect "don't the reds sort of owe it to junior to let him play for a winner after he took the way under market value contract to try and help them win?" Espn sucks. That is all.

I'll agree that he has done very poorly in his tenure in Texas, but I think you should mention that he also got Nelson Cruz, a pretty good prospect, from Milwaukee in the Cordero/Lee deal. Didn't he also get Otsuka in the Eaton deal? He's been very good and could help them pull some good talent by either trading him or by making Gagne expendable.

I prefer cinnamon rolls. :lol: Whoops, probably shouldn't post after $1 you call it at summit all night. Dude, Summit? You can do better than that. Anyone can do better than Summit. for $1 you call it? is that every tuesday? Yep $5 cover $1 you call it. Get there early if you like to sit down though.

I prefer cinnamon rolls. :lol: Whoops, probably shouldn't post after $1 you call it at summit all night. Dude, Summit? You can do better than that. Anyone can do better than Summit. I hate that place, I almost never go, but we were with about 20 of us and pretty much everyone wanted to go there. I basically live at Bo James, Atlas, Airliner, and Martini's. Been around IC too long too long to do the Vito's, Summit, Sports Column, Fieldhouse thing. But alas $1 you call it was good to me last night.

I prefer cinnamon rolls. :lol: Whoops, probably shouldn't post after $1 you call it at summit all night.