jersey cubs fan

Am I nitpicking, or is that just a poorly written, very confusing phrase? Their contracts will average $60 per season suggests to me that there are 4 guys whose individuals contracts will be $60m per year on average. Or that combined they will cost $240 million per year. Perhaps he should have said, their contracts will combine to cost the Cubs $60 per year, on average over the course of the respective deals. Nitpicking a bit. I don't have a problem the way it's written. When he says average I assume he means the average of the 4 players. Yes, you can assume that. Anybody with a sense of baseball's salary structure will understand that. But the way it's written, it suggests the 4 of them average $60m per year, individually, as opposed to the sum of their 4 contracts averageing $60m per year.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7553926?MSNHPHMA Am I nitpicking, or is that just a poorly written, very confusing phrase? Their contracts will average $60 per season suggests to me that there are 4 guys whose individuals contracts will be $60m per year on average. Or that combined they will cost $240 million per year. Perhaps he should have said, their contracts will combine to cost the Cubs $60 per year, on average over the course of the respective deals.

I don't want Soriano in leadoff, but I can live with it. I still feel it's far less important than just getting the right guys in the lineup in the first place.

Manager Lou Piniella, who called Fukudome a cross between Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, said last week he expected to bat the new Cub fourth or fifth in the order. Wow. I didn't think he had enough power to bat 4th. I always thought he was a leadoff or #2 guy. Just like OBP isnt the ONLY important thing out of a leadoff hitter, power isnt the ONLY important thing out of a middle of the order hitter. Also, while he doesn't have HR power, he definitely has great doubles power and will probably lead the team or be very close to the lead in 2bs. But it sure would be nice to have his OBP at the top of the order instead of a 330. Yeah I was thinking Roberts and Fukedome at the top too. I wonder if Soriano has made noise about being moved off the leadoff spot? Do you think the Cubs should actually obtain Roberts before everyone starts to pencil him into the lineup? That's why it's in pencil, you can erase it. Is there a pencil font we can use?

Jacque Jones and Latroy Hawkins...just off the top of my head. Hundley. Juan Pi........ or wait, I hated him playing for the Cubs.

Pay him to see if you can get 3-4 months of quality pitching out of him this season, and then see what you can do about resigning him next offseason. But what if you can't and you now use the money for another pitcher that can have an impact now? They aren't going to find any pitcher of any value for $3 million.

Must win game for the Blackhawks tonight. Too early for such a statement? I don't think so. They have faded this month. Last in their division and 12th in the West right now. They are just 2-3 at home since returning from the long trip. And they are facing the last place team at home tonight. You simply have to win these games if you are a young team hoping to climb into playoff contention this season. Savard is playing with the lines on an almost shift to shift basis right now. If this team does fade, I believe he will lose his job, and the new regime may even dump Tallon and replace the whole crew by the summer. I hope it doesn't come to that. Even if they ultimately may need new leadership to get to the Stanley Cup level, I want to see this group at least make the playoffs this year and find some success. With all the attention and pressure on Kane and Toews to succeed this year, it would be a shame if the team disapointed just as people started paying attention.

Pay him to see if you can get 3-4 months of quality pitching out of him this season, and then see what you can do about resigning him next offseason.

That brings me to something else. I really hope that if he struggles next year that the "New-style" Cubs Fans don't boo him too much. It would just be a shame. I can see if he is mailing it in and not trying, but if he is working hard and being diciplined and is just struggling to adjust right away I hope they don't take it out on him. It is embarassing to have fans boo their own team when it is unwarrented. I suspect he'll get a similar grace period as Soriano received. As long as he isn't making outs on the bases, getting picked off repeatedly, and throwing the ball into the ground, he will be given a couple months of adjustment before any but the most obnoxious fans even consider booing. I bet he's given many a standing ovation early in the year.

edited to shorten the quote

Allstate?

Bruce's article http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=93666 Forgive my cynicism, but I can't help but imagine Hendry was pushing hard for a December 11/12 decision date by Fukudome to make the Prior news backpage stuff.

Isn't that just your standard superimposed new jersey on an old picture situation?

Agreed. Now, if we could just get him to let the players know it's okay to take a walk.

Bruce's article appears to be indicating the likelihood is that Prior will be non-tendered. Bummer.

What next, are you going to talk about his VORP? Are you freaking kidding me Jim? Did you finally realize the Damien Jacksons and Neifi Perez's of the world have a fundamental problem with them. Jim has mentioned OBP a lot in recent years. Although I felt he was just paying lip service after having people like Bruce Miles ask about it repeatedly. The one concern I still have is that he likes OBP, only if it comes with high AVG. In other words, he still doesn't see the problem with the lack of walks. Hopefully Fukudome is a signal that is changed.

According to the dudes on the Comcast Sports show a few minutes ago, Dan Plesac said earlier today that he felt Fukudome and Roberts were an "either or proposition" and that the Cubs wouldn't go after both of them. Which led to a discussion of which one would you prefer and a lot of discussion on how much Fuk's Japanese stats should be discounted. In the clip I saw this morning, he was really skeptical of Japanese players in general. But this is also the same guy who thinks the world of people like Ryan Theriot and talked about how wonderful a player Jacque Jones is. I don't think he's analyzing anything here, just falling back to the "that's Japan this is the majors, there's no way to compare".

If he plays long enough to accumulate 10-15 HR and 18 SB, he will walk more than 0 times.

against the spread?

Wakey, wakey hands off snakey. It's 8:00 am Kosuke, rise and shine and make up your mind. All due respect.

My concern would be strictly about what sort of Plan B Hendry would force upon us if that happened.

I think most people are still stuck at the davhern sourcing davearm thing.

I figured this out when my wife was working in Tokyo and we'd call each other from the office.

What a waste of Alyssa Milano.

Pretty much every forum that has this info lists the payroll of the team's opening day roster. For instance, you won't see the $16m the Cubs paid Baltimore to take Sammy Sosa, or the $3+ million they paid Rusch not to pitch. They will not account for midseason acquisitions like Nomar Garciaparra, Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, or Steve Trachsel. They won't include the money the Cubs will pay Detroit to take Jones. They fail to take into account a lot of things, and when you do take this into account, it's clear the Cubs have had financial resources to spend than their divisional competition. That is certainly a factor in to why those numbers would be off. At the same time, over the years the Cardinals have added plenty of money at the deadline themselves (probably more than the Cubs have because the Cubs have rarely been good enough to add payroll during the season), and both have had years where they have cut money at the deadline. As for paying money as part of a trade, iirc the Cardinals have done that a lot less than the Cubs have. At the same time, the Cardianls have been much more active during the season of cutting struggling players, eating the dead money, and signing new players for small contracts that still add up. Those reasons do throw the reported figures off, but that still doesn't push the Cubs significantly above the Cardinals. Yes it does. The Sosa money alone makes 2005 go from 92-87 to 103-92 and blows your averages away. STL has never done anything close to that. They traded for Larry Walker in 2004, but Colorado threw in $8m in cash, meaning they paid the rest of 2004 and part of 2005 (yet USA Today gives Walker's entire salary to the Cardinals payroll).