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I don't have a problem getting Abreau if they could. His OPS post-ASB was near his career average, but what happened to his BB. He hadn't been lower than 110 since '97, this year he dropped way down, though I believe he still had more than any Cub. Would they realistically be able to afford him? If it came down to a choice of upgrading RF with an Abreau type player or upgrading SS with a Tejada/Rentaria type, I'd prefer they go with SS. Bigger jump in performance there. Note: I'm assuming( I know) that they couldn't bring in both, ex. Tejada/Rentaria and Abreau. I think even with dropping some payroll in a deal or two wouldn't be enough to acquire more than one of them.

no, it generally does mean overrated though, which applies here. and rose is overrated. OMG HIT KINGZ But he was still by and large a "good" player. I think true GRIT involves distinctly middling mediocrity dressed up in a pretty, hustling package. Podsednik??

I'm thinking it increases the second Dunn complains about getting called out for striking out and clogging the bases in the same sentence.

Tejada isn't ARod, but it's not like he doesn't walk. The way the Cubs can fix their offense is by getting significant improvements at their worst positions, and SS was their worst position, along with C, last year. Tejada and Soto could easily eclipse the production from their respective positions, and, barring major setbacks elsewhere, that would significantly improve the offense. You'd probably be able to talk about a top 5 lineup at that point. If you are getting top 5 pitching and top 5 hitting, you are going to have some nice success. I agree. If Tejada can rebound even a little, which he should, his numbers will destroy what you would expect from Theriot or Cedeno. Keep in mind, he did miss a month with a broken wrist. Even if he doesn't regain all of his power, he should still be able to put up an .820-.830 OPS, will Theriot or Cedeno do that, or even come close? I'm not saying I think the Cubs should do whatever it takes to get Tejada. But, if he can be had( or Rentaria for that matter), at a good deal, it would be ridiculous for the Cubs to not at least consider it. Especially when SS is that glaring of a hole in the lineup. If you're worried about his D, it's not like you'd be going from a GG'er to the worst in the league. There's certainly not a big enough difference to warrant not getting him for that reason.

I doubt you could get Shawn Kemp for Jacque. I realize that, I stated it probably wouldn't happen, I doubt Hendry would even try to acquire him. Like I said it was an example of something that could be done without adding a ton of payroll. That was the point I was trying to make. The only reason I mentioned Kemp is because he was discussed quite a bit on here a week or two ago, and from the sounds of it he can be had. I wasn't trying to say he was the best option or only option.

As an example, I'll add a couple of the names that people have floated around, discussed...whatever. Both probably won't happen, although one could. They trade Jones for Matt Kemp( probably won't happen). They lose around $5.5 million in salary. They trade for Tejada( could happen). They gain roughly $12.5-13 mil(taking off the salaries of the guys they trade, which isn't much). INF-Lee, DeRo, Tejada, ARam OF Sori, Kemp, Murton (l to R) C Soto, Blanco(back up) Since Soto is somewhat unknown, I'll leave him alone, for now. That gives you a team where you three worst hitters put up .791, .791 and .799 OPS this year( DeRo, Murton and Tejada). Two of those three were well below their career averages this year, so some correction would be expected. That would be an excellent offense, and much more OBP proficient than we had this year. It would also only cost $5-6 mil more than the starting 8 did this year, figuring what they spent on Jones, Barrett and Kendall all gone and adding Kemp and Tejada. Could a much better starting 8 be constructed? Yes, but again this is but one of a hundred examples.

Colorado ranks 2nd in OPS and 8th in ERA in the NL... going to World Series. San Diego ranks 1st in ERA and 14th in OPS...didn't make the playoffs. I won't disagree that pitching and D are important, but you win by scoring more than your opponent. You need a good offense to do that. And of all the names you listed there, the only good( or better) hitters are Lee, ARam, Sori and DeRosa. Soto may be, but I still want to see him behind the plate for a full season before I make a call. Jones is bad and Theriot and Blanco are nearly craptacular. Throw Murton in there and that's one more good hitter. I'd prefer 5 good( or slightly better) and 3 mashers. That's a good offense, and if done properly, not overly costly.

You've got to figure out a way to incorporate running out grounders, cause you know, hustling adds a hit or two every 3-4 years.

And yet people still blame goats, black cats and Bartman.

Oh.My.God. This has to be a mistake. Right. Say it's a mistake. Please. Pretty please... with sugar on top. Jim can't possibly be THIS dumb, can he? Any time the question is "Is Jim Hendry really this dumb?" the answer is always "yes." I know. Never ask a question that has that obvious of an answer. Still, to quote my 7 year old son- Trachsel sucks. You'd think an adult could figure that out.

Oh.My.God. This has to be a mistake. Right. Say it's a mistake. Please. Pretty please... with sugar on top. Jim can't possibly be THIS dumb, can he?

If we could get Church I'd be happy, if we can also get Renteria, I would be very happy. This would definitely be a fairly cheap upgrade of the offense. I would probably keep Jones for the first half of the 2008 season, unless a team really, really wanted him, which I don't see as being realistic. Maybe this offseason, Perry and Jones can help him find the power swing he somehow lost. It will be a contract year for him. Another season like this one, and he'll find himself unemployed. A good first half might improve his trade value a bit. Pie could probably use some time in AAA again, after sitting on his butt most of the 2007 season. The only problem is that Church is no better than Jones. If you look at the stats, Church is actually much better than Jones. His ops was 70 points higher this season and two seasons ago Church posted a ops+ of 128 which is higher than any season Jones has ever had. He had both a higher obp and a higher slugging percentage. Add into that Church is 3 years younger than Jones and it makes complete sense to make the swap. Pie doesn't need more time in AAA it's time to find out if he can hit or not. The guy absolutely killed AAA pitching and has nothing left to prove there. We need to find out what he can do at the big league level. So Pie needs to start in CF next season and the Cubs need to solve the RF equation. Church would be a nice addition to the club that wouldn't cost you what landing someone like Dunn would. What he said, plus, Church costs around $5.2 million less.

We're Cubs fans, this is normal. Cub fans hope- Cubs are going to the series Reality- They'll look horrid getting swept in the first round. Cub fan hope- Cuban will buy the team and turn them into perrenial contender. Reality- Selig's buddy will own them and nothing will change from the last 60 years or so.

Exactly, you go in trying to win in 3-4 games and worry about game 5 if neccesary. Same in a 7 game. Win what you can now and worry about the last two games if you need to. Play to win now, not later. Starting with your #2 guy when you don't have to in the first game, you're expecting to lose a couple of games. I'd go in expecting to go 11-0.

First and foremost, for my grandma, who died a couple of weeks ago. She was 96 and had not seen a Cubs World Series title. Add to that she married a Cards fan. After that, for Harry, Fergie, Ron, Ernie ( and the rest of the 69-72 Cubs), all of the fans who lived through 84, and for my kids, so they can actually believe there's something there to cheer for.

Me likey. No team in league winning 90 games = Chicago team in World Series (Cubs in 1945, Sox in 1959). Yet another sign this is our year. :D Yes, but going by that reasoning shouldn't this be the White Sox year?

Does anyone think Hendry is smart enough and Coletti dumb enough to do Lee, Jones and Blanco for Kemp Loney and Martin. That would open up roughly $20 mil next year to sign Arod. Soriano LF DeRosa 2B Arod SS Ramirez 3B Kemp RF Loney 1B Martin/Soto C Pie CF Not too bad of a lineup. Heck, take Blanco and Martin out of it and it's still a great deal both short term( fixes salary situation to go after Arod) and long term, two great young players at lower salary. Plus the Dodgers get their coveted veteran leadership. Hendry could sell it as Lee for Kemp, with Jones and Loney throw ins to fill positions opened by the trade. No GM could be that dumb. I wouldn't wanna part with Lee, but if we could pull that off, it would go down as one of our one of our best trades this decade, right up there with Bobby Hill, Jose Hernandez and Matt Bruback for A-Ram and Lofton. While I don't disagree that Hendry wouldn't trade Lee, and I realize my post is complete daydreaming, I've seen GM's do things that make both sides of this seem like common sense. There's some pretty stupid people running baseball teams. Look at the example you used.

Does anyone think Hendry is smart enough and Coletti dumb enough to do Lee, Jones and Blanco for Kemp Loney and Martin. That would open up roughly $20 mil next year to sign Arod. Soriano LF DeRosa 2B Arod SS Ramirez 3B Kemp RF Loney 1B Martin/Soto C Pie CF Not too bad of a lineup. Heck, take Blanco and Martin out of it and it's still a great deal both short term( fixes salary situation to go after Arod) and long term, two great young players at lower salary. Plus the Dodgers get their coveted veteran leadership. Hendry could sell it as Lee for Kemp, with Jones and Loney throw ins to fill positions opened by the trade.

Yeah, find me those numbers, please. In Sept: Murton .292/.370/.542/.912 Floyd .290/.421/.742/1.163 Murton's OPS hasn't moved much post-ASB( it was .924 in AUG), Floyd had a horrid JUL and AUG( both sub.700 OPS). Floyd's OPS skyrocketed in the last week, his OPS for the last 7 games is over 1.500. I'll admit Floyd is hot right now, but I'd still rather see Murton getting a majority of the time in RF.

#-o Sarcasm, I hope. Based on my back-of-the-envelope compuations, absolutely not. You have to take into consideration that pitchers can perform at a high level for many more outs than the number of games a hitter can perform at. A good hitter might play in 2,000 games in his lifetime at a high level whereas a good pitcher could pitch 2,500 innnings = 7,500 outs at a high level. Imagine if Tony Gwynn could hit .340 for 7,500 games. I'd say he could have at least tied Dimaggio's record just based on the sheer number of opportunities he'd have. Hmm....now I'm thinking about running some MATLAB simulations to test out this theory. there is some extremely fuzzy math going on in there Agreed. Wouldn't 2000 games by a hitter, assuming they started and finished most of them, at least come close to 7500 AB's? Didn't quite a few big leaguers go way past 7500 AB's. You use 2500 innings= 7500 outs, then compare that to 2000 versus 7500 games. Wouldn't 7500 AB be a better comparison to the 7500s out for the pitcher? Or is it just that his post confused the heck out of me?

I actually tried #1 in a game in HS. They had a very fast #2 hitter and the third hitter hit a popup. So I let it hit, figuring at the very least I'd get the guy with the wheels out. Umm, well, it kind of took a bad hop( the backspin, I'd imagine) and in my rush to get the out at second, I was SS, I threw the ball into RC. Ended up 2nd and 3rd no outs. I got the butt chewing of my life, coach would have done a Drill Sergeant proud. I never even thought about it again. With a bad hop, I could see something similar happening in MLB. Guys get rushed and make bad throws occasionally anyway, add in the idea of doing something they shouldn't have, and you can imagine the results.

Hey Bruce, any word on if they're putting Murton in RF everyday, or will he go back to 2-3 games on followed by PH for a week? I think he, and the Cubs, would be better off with him in the lineup everyday. That is, unless they shock us all and get Griffey.

I've seen him twice, plus a few assorted highlights on the news ( I live in the Des Moines area), and he hasn't looked too bad. The last time I saw him he looked more comfortable than he did the first time I saw him there. He didn't have any terribly difficult plays, but made a couple a nice running catches. I did see a highlight of his throw to third. He was near the bullpen and made a good strong throw to third. I think him playing RF would just be a matter of sticking him out there and letting him get comfortable. He won't ever be Vlad offensively or defensively, but I'd expect what he did last year at the plate and average D once he gets used to RF at Wrigley, assuming he played everyday.

If, by love fest, you mean people upset that the Cubs are talking about acquiring people that would do exactly what Murton would, than yeah, it's a love fest. I personnally think if the Cubs are going to acquire an OF, it better be a big time bat, Griffey, Dunn, Dye, or a good CF that can hold down CF for the rest of the year, Lofton comes to mind. If they're talking Craig Monroe, just bring up Murton, stick him in RF and let him learn the position. He's cheaper, and when he's played everyday in Chicago, he's put up decent numbers. Fact is, he wasn't given a chance at playing every day this year. He had ONE stretch where he played everyday for a week. The rest of the time he was spot starting or PH. And when he was sent down, he had as good of numbers as Floyd. Defensively, Murton>Floyd. The point is, he may not be the best option, but he's the best option currently controlled by the Cubs.

Thanks Fonzie.