MSG T

What's Kosuke going to do for us? Move us from the #2 to #3 pick next year? Then we should have gotten rid of him sooner, dammit.

lol @ him having a .294 OBP in his second season of A+ ball.

I don't know how those two rate in the Indians organization, other than not in BA's top ten, but Abreau is listed as having the best OF arm in the organization. I don't know if he can hit what he aims at, but evidently he's got a strong arm.

Does upper and lower refer to AAA and A- or really good and meh.

this article seems to suggest otherwise: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0728-cubs-brewers-chicago--20110728,0,3036298.story but it is probably just Sullivan rewriting what others have said. Yeah, its not like Z is worthless. Plenty of teams would take him if a big chunk of salary were picked up. Its just that the cubs im sure want a good prospect in return for doing so. Hendry wants to have his cake and eat it too (Insert fat joke here). That last paragraph suggests they aren't willing or offering to eat a bunch of his salary. Pointing out his hefty salary as being a reason he hasn't had any takers, or is my reading comprehension lacking?

this article seems to suggest otherwise: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0728-cubs-brewers-chicago--20110728,0,3036298.story but it is probably just Sullivan rewriting what others have said. Yeah, its not like Z is worthless. Plenty of teams would take him if a big chunk of salary were picked up. Its just that the cubs im sure want a good prospect in return for doing so. Hendry wants to have his cake and eat it too (Insert fat joke here). That last paragraph suggests they aren't willing or offering to eat a bunch of his salary. Pointing out his hefty salary as being a reason he hasn't had any takers, or is my reading comprehension lacking?

They pay 95% they better get a least one stud prospect and a couple of other good ones to even consider it. And I'm not sure I would even then.

Except we didn't get an average year from Gregg. He was pretty awful. Maybe he meant average for Gregg?

All of next year's guaranteed changes. Technically, the arbitration awards aren't guaranteed, but even the Cubs aren't dumb enough to non-tender Garza and Soto. I won't guarantee I'm reading it right, but it appears that the $72 mil covers Soriano, Z, Dempster, Byrd, Marmol, Marshall, $2 mil to Silva and Aramis' buyout. That leaves Garza, Soto, Baker, Hill, Wells and DeWitt as Arb-eligible and six pre-arb guys. They appear to have seven guys either becoming FA or have some sort of option year in Aramis, Kosuke, Pena, Wood, Grabow, Samardzija and Johnson. So what will it take to bump up the arb and pre-arb guys? Would $10 mil total do it? I honestly don't know what a good guess would be. If $10 mil is enough, that leaves roughly $52 mil to spend, if they leave payroll the same. With seven spots to fill, at least 2-3 would be in-house options, 2-3 would be cheaper FA options and the rest big-name FA. Assuming nothing else happens (ie. no one is traded) it leaves this- FA - possible replacement (spot on 25 man, not necessarily spot on the field) Kosuke - B Jackson Aramis - FA? Pena - Pujols/Fielder? Wood - In-house/FA/re-sign Grabow - In-house/FA Samardzija - In-house/FA Johson - In-house A couple of those will be filled in house, just not sure by who, a couple more could be. I'd say the two most likely to be filled by bigger names is Aramis and Pena. So, the question is, given who is coming back, plus the money available, who can they get that will turn this around next year? Does Wells and Cashner recover enough to fix the starting staff? Will (as an example) Fielder/Reyes provide enough of a bump to the offense? Maybe Aramis/Kosuke get re-signed to cheaper contracts. As always, this can all change as we get through the trade deadline and the waiver deadline in Aug.

Yes, please. Works for me.

Defensive metrics? You really think he's the second-best leftfielder in the national league? LOL. You seriously are pathetic. Those metrics don't show he's the second-best leftfielder in the NL. But thanks for stopping by and embarrassing yourself again by thinking they do. Well, that went over your head. And they do show he's the fourth best. Maybe not "prove" he's the fourth best, but you get the picture... I'll assume (probably shouldn't do that). Fourth best? Huh? Not the point, but seriously, WTF? Some allegedly saber-savvy folks apparently have no clue how to read and interpret what they're looking at. Are we not still talking about his defense? He's currently fourth among qualified LF in the NL. And I think truffle's post was suggesting that you would say something like what he wrote, not that he thinks that.

Defensive metrics? You really think he's the second-best leftfielder in the national league? LOL. You seriously are pathetic. Those metrics don't show he's the second-best leftfielder in the NL. But thanks for stopping by and embarrassing yourself again by thinking they do. Well, that went over your head. And they do show he's the fourth best. Maybe not "prove" he's the fourth best, but you get the picture... I'll assume (probably shouldn't do that).

Because winning the division shouldn't be the goal. If the goal is to win the WS, the division will come. This attitude drives me crazy. Part of me agrees with you, but... the playoffs are a crapshoot. The Cubs had the best team in the NL in 2008 and got swept in the playoffs. How many times does the best team win the WS? The first goal should be to get to the damn playoffs. They get there enough times, they'll win the WS. That being said, do I really want them to build a team aiming to be slightly better than the rest of the Central? No. But, considering the alternative, I'll take that for now.

Since her name was in the Carroll piece, what does everyone think of Kim Ng? I know I heard some good things about her in the past. I'm not sure she'd be my top choice, but I'd hope she's at least a candidate.

It may have started there, I don't know. But it definitely picked up steam a few years ago when he didn't run out a grounder to first, IIRC because he was having hamstring issues at the time. I think it was Kaplan or one of the local writers that called him out for not hustling. I don't remember the specifics, but I do remember the complaints being in the Trib.

Any chance hes also sitting on some early/mid rounders, say 11th and 14th round ? :) I was just thinking, if he's sitting on those two, what will he do when Maples and Dunston sign?

Well now you're just listing off cliches. Crash Davis taught him well. You lollygag the ball around the infield, you lollygag your way down to first, you lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Lar? BTW, I know it was Joe Riggins, but the quote fit the topic.

118 OPS+ - tied for 391st all-time w/ such luminaries as Don Baylor, Charlie Bennett, Mike Easler, Wally Moon, Ben Olgilvie, Lonnie Smith and (I'm not making this up) Chicken Wolf .3751 OBP - good for 212th all-time - behind players such as Adam Dunn, Jim Edmonds, Chuck Knoblaugh, Henry (not Barry) Larkin, Merv Rettenmund, Mark Grace(!), Minnie Minoso, Augie Galan and so on and so forth. Rose got so many hits because he played so freakin long. He has almost 2,000 more AB than Hank Aaron, that's like 3+ seasons worth and Aaron played forever. And that's just to get to second all-time. I'm not trying to say he was not good, but he isn't even in the top 50 (maybe 100) hitters ever. He may have hustled, but there's a bunch of guys, at every position he ever played, that I'd take over Rose without even thinking.

He just has a better reputation because of a couple of fantastic diving catches. Granted, many CF would have gotten to those balls without diving, but still. And you're right, Johnson isn't much better.

Colvin. ;)

Agreed. We had 1 season of decent 3B play between Santo and Aramis (Madlock) and people are ready to ship Aramis anywhere. 3B in baseball is a giant pile of crap right now. With so many other holes on this team, might as well ride Aramis as long as possible. What do you consider decent? Maybe not great, but I'd think the following were all at least decent. 1983 - Cey 658 PAs , .805 OPS, 118 OPS+ 1986 - Cey 306 PAs, .891 OPS, 138 OPS+ Lopes 191 PAs, .908 OPS, 144 OPS+ Trillo 172 PAs, .740 OPS, 99 OPS+ 1993 - Buechelle 520 PAs, .782 OPS 110 OPS+ Plus quite a few years where the 3B had OPS+ over 100. Again, I'm in no way saying these were great seasons (although the 86 team had really good output from 3B), but they weren't crap either. As a side note, in looking at B-R for these numbers, when I saw the batting stats from 1993 I was surprised they were a 4th place team, granted they did win 84 games. Then I saw their pitching stats for that season. How did they finish over .500 when their best starter was Greg Hibbard, with the 100 ERA+ and 1.340 WHiP. Their best starter!? Shouldn't pretty much every 3B in MLB have an OPS+ over 100 when accounting for all of the terrible offensive players at SS, 2B, and C, at least theoretically? Besides that 1986 platoon, which was good, the others are still pretty bad production wise for 3B, historically an above average offensive position. I know you were talking historically, but it's a sorry, sorry lot this season. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=3b&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=180&type=8&season=2011&month=0&season1=2011&ind=0 Go back and look at some of the seasons from the 70's and 80's. Outside of about 2-3 future HoF'ers, things were worse.

Agreed. We had 1 season of decent 3B play between Santo and Aramis (Madlock) and people are ready to ship Aramis anywhere. 3B in baseball is a giant pile of crap right now. With so many other holes on this team, might as well ride Aramis as long as possible. What do you consider decent? Maybe not great, but I'd think the following were all at least decent. 1983 - Cey 658 PAs , .805 OPS, 118 OPS+ 1986 - Cey 306 PAs, .891 OPS, 138 OPS+ Lopes 191 PAs, .908 OPS, 144 OPS+ Trillo 172 PAs, .740 OPS, 99 OPS+ 1993 - Buechelle 520 PAs, .782 OPS 110 OPS+ Plus quite a few years where the 3B had OPS+ over 100. Again, I'm in no way saying these were great seasons (although the 86 team had really good output from 3B), but they weren't crap either. As a side note, in looking at B-R for these numbers, when I saw the batting stats from 1993 I was surprised they were a 4th place team, granted they did win 84 games. Then I saw their pitching stats for that season. How did they finish over .500 when their best starter was Greg Hibbard, with the 100 ERA+ and 1.340 WHiP. Their best starter!? Shouldn't pretty much every 3B in MLB have an OPS+ over 100 when accounting for all of the terrible offensive players at SS, 2B, and C, at least theoretically? Besides that 1986 platoon, which was good, the others are still pretty bad production wise for 3B, historically an above average offensive position. Looking at 1980-1990 on Fangraphs, if my count was right, there were 15 3B that had an OPS above .800 for the decade out of 200+ that played there. 6 of those were qualified 3B, Boggs, Schmidt, Brett, Pedro Guerrero, Molitor and Bonilla. Notice any similarities among 4 of those 6? 3B just isn't as offensive based as you would think. There have been many that were, the four above examples plus others like Matthews and Santo. But overall, offensively, the position has had much more in common with middle infielders and catchers than the OF and 1B. Look at Graig Nettles and Brooks Robinson. Both were thought of as great all around 3B. Guys that could hit very well and were excellent fielders. And they were both good hitters for 3B. But, look at their numbers. Nettles had a career 110 OPS+ and B Robinson had a 104. Both fairly pedestrian. And they were considered very good, but not great, with the bat. You're comparing a bunch of years where the Cubs had average 3B production to a guy that should be in the HoF and was one of the best hitters of his generation, let alone for his position, and a guy that has been a top 3-5 3B for the last (almost) 10 years. Santo was a great hitter, period. When looking at 3B he's one of the best ever. ARam has been very, very good since he joined the Cubs. You have two outliers at that position bookending a bunch of average (for the position). That's really not fair. I'm not saying people should be happy and not try to improve on a .750 OPS from 3B. But, that shouldn't be looked as as horrible either. That's really pretty close to what one would expect an average 3B to produce.

Is Soriano a caveman or something here? Yes, haven't you seen him on all those commercials. Not real easy to suggest a hispanic accent without actually typing in spanish. Or getting completely offensive.

It amazes me how many people are begging for the day they let him go, as well as all the reports that he is as good as gone next season. If he walks, they will have to spend just as much money to get back to where they are today, let alone add another stud. Agreed. We had 1 season of decent 3B play between Santo and Aramis (Madlock) and people are ready to ship Aramis anywhere. 3B in baseball is a giant pile of crap right now. With so many other holes on this team, might as well ride Aramis as long as possible. What do you consider decent? Maybe not great, but I'd think the following were all at least decent. 1983 - Cey 658 PAs , .805 OPS, 118 OPS+ 1986 - Cey 306 PAs, .891 OPS, 138 OPS+ Lopes 191 PAs, .908 OPS, 144 OPS+ Trillo 172 PAs, .740 OPS, 99 OPS+ 1993 - Buechelle 520 PAs, .782 OPS 110 OPS+ Plus quite a few years where the 3B had OPS+ over 100. Again, I'm in no way saying these were great seasons (although the 86 team had really good output from 3B), but they weren't crap either. As a side note, in looking at B-R for these numbers, when I saw the batting stats from 1993 I was surprised they were a 4th place team, granted they did win 84 games. Then I saw their pitching stats for that season. How did they finish over .500 when their best starter was Greg Hibbard, with the 100 ERA+ and 1.340 WHiP. Their best starter!?

No. He "retired" after 2008. Rueben Amaro Jr signed Howard to his extension.