Backtobanks

He sure looks lost at the plate right now.

I don't see anything idiotic about that take on the White Sox and their chances of contending in a weak AL Central. My point is that both Central divisions are weak and to say that the Cubs awful start is reality while the White Sox awful start is an illusion is idiotic. The WS have a strong starting rotation with a lineup that is close to being terrible. The Cubs have a very good rotation with a much stronger lineup (that is slumping). While the Cards are better than the Twins, I think the talent gap between the WS and Twins is greater than the gap between the Cards and Cubs.

Another example of the "experts" (aka idiots) weighing in. He writes that the Cubs really are that bad, but look at his comments about the White Sox: White Sox (5-10, last place in AL Central) Rating: Illusion We don't see the White Sox winning this division. But they're not this bad. They might have the best bullpen in baseball (1.89 opponent average, 65 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings), for one thing. And any rotation with Jake Peavy, Mark Buehrle, John Danks and Gavin Floyd in it isn't going to have a 5.13 ERA all season. But this is an aging lineup, and one that currently has five regulars hitting under .229. And that's not as big an illusion as it appears. "The record is an illusion, at least because of the division they play in," one scout said. "With the bullpen and rotation they run out there, they've got enough to stay in this race. But they may not be able to score enough runs to win it if they don't make a move someplace. They're going to need a bopper. A left-handed power bat is what they need. I'm not sure where they find that guy. But [GM] Kenny [Williams] always seems to come up with some kind of move." This is a team counting on an everyday lineup including Juan Pierre, Mark Teahen,Mark Kotsay, Andruw Jones, Alexi Ramirez, and Alex Rios to show enough offense to contend.

I think the Rangers need to throw in a pack of Topps too. I don't want to scare them off. Maybe we can ask for a PTNL (pack to be named later) :yahoo:

From MLBTR: Rangers In Need Of Bullpen Help? By Luke Adams [April 21 at 7:28pm CST] The Rangers have identified two needs in their bullpen, according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. The club would like to find a left-handed reliever to complement Darren Oliver, and a power right-handed arm for the 8th inning. Grabow + Samardzija for a bag of balls and a box of chewing gum.

The Cubs are not in a rebuilding mode when you have 8 regular players with contracts ending somewhere between 2011-2014 (plus DLee and Lilly may get extensions). Also, we have discussed that many of these contracts are almost untradeable. Slowly mixing in Castro, Vitters, Cashner, etc. will help, but I don't expect the Cubs to be in a complete rebuilding mode in the forseeable future. Out of all those contracts, Soriano's is likely the only one that's completely untradeable. I agree that Soriano's might be the only one thats completely untradeable, but most of those other big contracts won't get anywhere near equal value in return without eating a portion of the contract. We could trade Zambrano, Dempster, or ARam, but what team is going to give us "sure-thing" prospects while picking up $14-$19 million per year. In this economy there's only a handful of clubs that can afford those kind of numbers. Also we've seen this year that the "big spenders" have cut back and are putting more value in their own prospects.

There's no way another team is going to pick up the rest of that contract, even if he looks like he's fixed. Getting a team to pick up half of that contract would be miraculous. Depends on how long he has success. If it's coming down to the wire at the deadline and he's been on the comeback trail since April you could likely move him without having to pay any of the money. The question is how many opportunities will he get to prove he's fixed after Lilly comes back.

The Cubs are not in a rebuilding mode when you have 8 regular players with contracts ending somewhere between 2011-2014 (plus DLee and Lilly may get extensions). Also, we have discussed that many of these contracts are almost untradeable. Slowly mixing in Castro, Vitters, Cashner, etc. will help, but I don't expect the Cubs to be in a complete rebuilding mode in the forseeable future.

There's no way another team is going to pick up the rest of that contract, even if he looks like he's fixed. Getting a team to pick up half of that contract would be miraculous.

Wait... you want to improve the offense by removing our player with the highest OBP and OPS? Geo has been nothing short of fabulous so far this season (not that many people are noticing that). I meant getting a backup C/bat (i.e. - someone like Doutmit), not replacing Soto.

That's a gigantic assumption at this point. Treating the bullpen as the team's most pressing need right now would be a waste. The bullpen is not the most pressing need right now, but there aren't many impact bats available (especially at whatever positions we have an opening). Obviously, we have to assume that players like ARam, Theriot, Tracy, etc. are going to get at least near their career norms or else the season will be over. The offense has been terrible, but one strong relief appearance at the right time might have given us a few more wins.

The "experts" (aka idiots) weigh in: From Jon Heyman of SI: Heyman received indications that Tom Gorzelanny will remain in the Cubs' rotation when Ted Lilly returns Saturday. That would mean Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, or Carlos Silva heads to the bullpen. Given his past experience in the Cubs' pen, Heyman finds Dempster the most logical choice. I respectfully disagree, as Dempster is the Cubs' best starter. I'd make Silva the long man and continue to scour the trade and free agent markets for relief help. Promoting Andrew Cashner merits consideration, if the Cubs don't think a temporary move back to relief would stunt his development.

this is exactly the sort of trade i don't want. Trading something valuable to add a bullpen arm to a crap team. The Cubs are in a win-now situation, so any trade they make will be giving up young players for what they need now. One obvious need is the bullpen. As for "trading something valuable", Gorzelanny doesn't have a role once Lilly comes back, Colvin seems to be destined to be a 4th OF in the ML, and the three pitching prospects are just that - prospects. If we got Bell, we might not be a "crap team" (assuming the offense comes around).

With Lilly coming back, the obvious choice to trade is Gorzelanny. How about Gorzelanny + Colvin + Berg/Stevens/Caridad for Scott Hairston + Heath Bell Padres get younger and cheaper. Cubs get versatile veteran OF plus big-time relief help.

The question is where do you put another bat unless you're trading a starting position player. We've talked about 2B, but what kind of impact bats play 2B? If it's an OF, then you have to trade an OF unless you send Colvin down to the minors and try to platoon Soriano, Byrd Fukudome, and the new player. Catcher might be a possibility (if a bat is available), but they like Hill's defense. :-k

I think that would be inhumane. =D>

Maybe it's time to accept that only played 7% of the season has been played. Maybe we will end up being a middle of the pack team in a bad division, but I'd prefer to play 35-40 games before making any kind of statements about the wasted season. We're closer to 1st place than the Dodgers, Angels, Mariners, Rangers, White Sox, and Red Sox at this point in the season and many of those teams were picked to win their divisions.

Even with the awful year last year, Soriano's 2009 was better than 2 of the past 3 years for Wells. Soriano has posted OPS' of .726, .876 and .897 the past three years. Wells has posted OPS' of .711, .840 and .706. Wells has had two really good seasons (.909 OPS in 2003 and .899 OPS in 2006) that have really helped his career numbers. Besides those two years, he's been a .760-.800 OPS guy. I'd rather take the chance that Soriano – the significantly better hitter throughout his career – rebounds from one bad year than that Wells rebounds from 2 out of 3 bad years. Went to today's game and watched Soriano really butcher plays out in LF. He may rebound offensively, but his defense is just brutal.

As much as I would love to have Gonzalez, the price will be way too high because of all the competition for his services. I'm sure DLee will re-sign, but it seems that I've seen Pena's name mentioned in rumor sites.

Wells- .281/.330/.472/.802 - 26 HR - 95 RBI Cameron-.250/.340/.448/.788 - 23 HR - 82 RBI Hunter- .274/.330/.472/.802 - 26 HR - 95 RBI Damon- .288/.355/.438/.793 - 16HR - 76 RBI Edmonds- .284/.377/.527/.904 - 32 HR - 99 RBI Beltran- .283/.360/.496/.856 - 28 HR - 107 RBI I'm not sure what numbers you are looking at, but Wells' numbers matched Hunter's and are better than Cameron and Damon. That puts him in the middle of those 6 players. BTW, Wells did win 3 Gold Gloves which would certainly put him ahead of Damon. Again I'm not defending Wells, I'm just pointing out that he's had a decent career.

We'll see if Silva can keep pitching decently. It's not a surprise to me that Byrd has been doing well, but Silva I did not expect. It's so early though, I'm still bracing for bad Silva to show up. Plain and Simple: Cubs win in the Byrd for Bradley trade (using Mariner money). Anything positive out of Silva makes it really one sided. I never knew a full season was worth seven games. That's a new one. I never said that it was. Byrd will outproduce Bradley's 2009 season unless he's injured for most of the season. Add in the defense and the better attitude and we have the best of the deal. I will admit that Byrd won't compare to Bradley in negative stories and youtube videos. As I posted before, anything positive out of Silva will be a plus.

We'll see if Silva can keep pitching decently. It's not a surprise to me that Byrd has been doing well, but Silva I did not expect. It's so early though, I'm still bracing for bad Silva to show up. Plain and Simple: Cubs win in the Byrd for Bradley trade (using Mariner money). Anything positive out of Silva makes it really one sided.

If Wells couldn't play LF, we could put Byrd in LF and Wells in CF. Lots of options in the OF with Byrd able to play all 3 positions, Colvin (3), Fukudome (2), Wells (2), and Nady (2). We still only marginally (at best) get better after the trade and yet are paying more money. I don't see the value in it. You know what you have in Soriano, but Wells is the unknown (after wrist surgery). I'm not saying it would be a great trade, but at least Wells will get within 10 feet of the wall. Obviously putting "Soriano" and "great trade" in the same sentence is ridiculous. Has the wrist been bothering him his entire career? Because, if I recall correctly, he's only really had one really good season. If you're convinced Soriano will be awful for the duration of the contract, this trade could make sense for us. But I'm not convinced of that. Wells has had good numbers when compared to the other CFs. Again I'm not saying he's the second coming of Willie Mays, but he's had a decent career. Wells- .281/.330/.472/.802 - 26 HR - 95 RBI Cameron-.250/.340/.448/.788 - 23 HR - 82 RBI Hunter- .274/.330/.472/.802 - 26 HR - 95 RBI Damon- .288/.355/.438/.793 - 16HR - 76 RBI Edmonds- .284/.377/.527/.904 - 32 HR - 99 RBI Beltran- .283/.360/.496/.856 - 28 HR - 107 RBI

If Wells couldn't play LF, we could put Byrd in LF and Wells in CF. Lots of options in the OF with Byrd able to play all 3 positions, Colvin (3), Fukudome (2), Wells (2), and Nady (2). We still only marginally (at best) get better after the trade and yet are paying more money. I don't see the value in it. You know what you have in Soriano, but Wells is the unknown (after wrist surgery). I'm not saying it would be a great trade, but at least Wells will get within 10 feet of the wall. Obviously putting "Soriano" and "great trade" in the same sentence is ridiculous.

They're both signed through 2014 or eternity whichever lasts longer. :-)) For what it's worth: Soriano LF UZR/150: 5.7 Wells RF UZR/150: 6.8 (-5.7 in CF, he's never played left) I'd rather keep Soriano. No since in adding a player who's unlikely to be an improvement and take on extra money. If Wells couldn't play LF, we could put Byrd in LF and Wells in CF. Lots of options in the OF with Byrd able to play all 3 positions, Colvin (3), Fukudome (2), Wells (2), and Nady (2).