jersey cubs fan

Murton is a below avg hitter for his position and has a below avg glove. I understand he's cheap but high payroll teams should attempt to do better. I'm not sure I understand the "selling at his lowest value" argument. IMO at age 26 a .296/.365/.455 line is pretty close to his ceiling. Murton is a useful player but he's not exactly untouchable. He's not below average for his position. His numbers would easily put him in the upper half. He's at his lowest point because the Cubs have screwed around with using him as a backup to guys like Jacque Jones and Cliff Floyd, and then are spending this offseason doing whatever possible to put somebody other than Matt Murton in right field. He's letting everybody in the world know he's got no use for Matt Murton, so, if anybody wants him, they can get him easily, most likely for less than steller value in return.

Aren't advanced scouts the guys who go to see the teams you are going to play, in advance of those games, to give you a little scouting report. Also, Jim following the advice of the people he relies on for scouting is exactly what got them into this mess.

I cannot understand the staying power of this blind allegiance to Ryan Theriot. Its' one thing to be in the middle of the season and being somewhat unaware of the facts about how terrible Theriot is. But it's December. Everybody has had plenty of opportunity to properly evaluate what Theriot did this past season, and what he's capable of doing in the future. To have that opportunity and still think he was, and is good is just absurd. Ryan Theriot was terrible. He was one of the worst SS in all of baseball, and he has absolutely zero upside. He is what he is. That is to say, probably good enough to be a backup on most teams, definitely not good enough to start.

If only he was left handed.

Yes, this is probably true. Plus grit.

with hendry basically announcing that murton's not in the cubs' plans, i don't see how he could. Murton is probably going to be like throwing down a $50 bill on top of the $70 you were offering for a $75 item. They might wind up with somebody better than Matt, but it's doubtful the player will be significantly better, and Matt won't get it done on his own anyway. The other GMs all know Hendry is focused on a LH hitting RF with speed and has no use for Murton.

2.5 year of a 9 year career. He's Ryan Dempster. If he wants an extremely cheap 1 year contract with a team option, sure. Otherwise, there's no point.

He wasn't that good to begin with, and only managed to put together a brief period of effectiveness. I don't see much point in adding to the depth of questionable and injury plagued arms. This team needs bats.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070526/ai_n19179908 Yeah it's a funky thing and I think it depends on the pitcher too. Some guys need to get in that groove while others it doesn't matter who's up. It would be an interesting thing to study. I still say you have to get the best 8 hitters you can at the 8 positions that hit, and not worry about R/L. If there's a question as to which equal guy to get, go ahead and play around with mixing it up. But the Cubs need hitters, not any specific type.

Because it's irrelevant to the here and now. I would care if a Cub tested positive now, because it would have a direct impact on the team, as well as proving that individual an idiot for taking something now that MLB has a testing program. But revealing who used in the past serves no purpose. Does it have to serve a purpose in the here & now in order to be something that's worthwhile knowing? And what purpose does it serve? How is it worthwhile knowing? It could help probably evaluate, and value a player's worth in the market right now. Somebody who is coming off a down year or two might be viewed as poised for a bounceback, unless it's known he dabbled in the juice, which could help explain his situation. If I had solid proof Mark Prior was juicing in the past, I'd be much less interested in giving him the type of contract I've been talking about giving him.

Leaving them with maybe 300 mediocre PA out of Roberts next year, and nobody else for CF? I'd rather let Pie get his 500 PA, Murton 600 in RF, and Roberts 300 subbing for both. He can't stay healthy anymore and that's only going to get worse and worse as he ages.

Dave Roberts is also old enough to be Juan Pierre's father. He makes less than Marquis, which means a trade benefits the Cubs financially. And he's brittle enough that there's no way he completely overshadows Pie's potential playing time. He'll play at 36 and 37 the next two years, and be a 4th OF who gets on 34% of the time. The big problem is he can't hit lefties, but he can hold his own against some righties playing for Murton. Personally, I don't like it. The Marquis offset is really the only positive, and it's slight.

I hope I get to see the Blackhawks at least once a year now, either in the Garden, Newark, or Philly. No desire to go out to the Island.

We might not like his game, but it's not fair to call Kaz a loser. Because he's clearly the winner here. The Cubs still lose, because now they probably move on to plan B from Kaz, which could only be worse.

Actually, the problem is, RF isn't a problem right now. SS is a problem. CF is a problem. C was a problem, but it may have been solved with Soto. The Cubs were fine in RF last year, and most likely won't be able to improve much upon those numbers. When all is said and done, they will probably end up spending a lot of money to tread water. Unless they get a superstart like Cabrera who is a lock to significantly outperform what they already have, there's no good reason to focus on RF. Just like there's no good reason to focus on a LH bat.

He'll need more than 1 or 2 promising starts to garner a huge contract. Interest, sure. But everybody is going to be questioning his ability to pitch all year. There will be no 5 year 90 million dollar offers because of 1 or 2 starts. At best I see him getting 3/33 type money after next season (barring a 10-20 start hot streak). I think he will have to pitch all or most of 2009 at full strength to get that big contract he's probably hoping for. A 1+option contract gives him time to prove himself for that big contract.

Quite the contrary; Castillo is one of the NFL's biggest spokesman to the Latino community. The double standard for PED use in baseball and football is laughable and arbitrary. I'll never be able to understand why it's a career-staining and career-ending thing in baseball, but in football, people simply don't give a crap. How in the world is it career ending? People give a crap in football. I'll grant you, ESPN still goes along pimping the guys it chooses. But the fact is that steroids and Merriman will forever be linked. There are baseball players playing right now who have come off steroid suspension and are still playing. The only way it's career ending is if your career was over anyway, Palmeiro, or you sucked enough with the steroids that nobody had any interest in taking you after the steroids. I guarantee that the next time some quality 28 year old player goes under suspension, he'll come right back and be worshipped by his fans, if he produces. Baseball will get to the point that the NFL is now, where there is forgiveness, once they actually start acting like the NFL. Everybody knows Giambi did it. When he came back and stunk, he was villified. But he apologized, got good again, and was worshipped. If Peyton Manning signed as a free agent with another team, played well, then got suspended, the reaction would be about how he came back.

No. The old timeyness is the worst part. Every Bob Costas and Billy Crystal who can't get out of the 50's is what makes this game so boring to so many people. I don't care about the "hallowed numbers" or the old time greats. They are meaningless. The game itself is great. If people could stop living in, and romanticizing the past, many more people would realize how great it is, right now. But steroids are still bad.

The Big 10 beat no one outside of the Big 10 that was any good, that's why. Nothing personal Sully, it's just business. it doesn't matter if they beat everyone outside of the b10, there'd still be people saying that the b10 was no good. i can't wait until the illini get to beat up on some sec or pac-10 school in a bowl game, it's going to be marvelous. no respect whatsoever. That's why I like the bowls because it forces some schools out of their protected zone. While allowing others to play within their own protected zone.

Probably correct, but there's no guarantee Boston will give up what Minn wants. And I'm fairly certain the Cubs could match the packages the Yankees are rumored to actually be willing to offer.

Mike Golic has been claiming people don't care about steroids for a rather long time now. Of course, he also admitted he used steroids to "recover quicker from an injury", and has always been a players' apologist, regardless of the situation. I hate that the story is out there so often and things just get repeated over and over, but there's no way I could claim I wouldn't care about it.

It really doesn't matter if all 29 would offer 3/1, it only takes one. If all 29 would line up to talk, you can bet at least one would offer up 3/1. To make it Prior friendly you offer reachable incentives that could cause him to make a lot more than $3m this year. You also allow the option to kick in automatically at certain levels, and you provide for reachable incentives that could bring 2009 up to a very high level. If Mark Prior starts 33 games with 215 innings in 2009, there's no reason why the incentives can't bring him to $15-17m. Another thing to consider is a no-trade clause that kicks in post July 31, 2008, which would make it very difficult for the Cubs to pick up an option and then deal him.

Yes, it has to be higher, or at least include reachable incentives that make it higher. But Prior is going to have to do more than just look to be back by the end of 2008, to get a big contract after that. It may be in his best interest to try and pitch half of 2007 to reignite the hype, then pitch a full 2009, so that going into 2010, teams will be ready to hand out a 6/100 type deal for him. That won't happen after 2008. He might get 3/30 if he's lucky, and that'll keep him off the market through 2011.

I'm pretty sure he just looked for losing teams whose run differential was relatively low.

Have you ever said anything, and then regretted it? To clarify, IF getting Matsui has any positive influence on whether or not the Cubs can persuade Fukudome to join the team - the team would be better with Matsui. Simply because I think Fukudome is exactly what the Cubs need in the #2 spot in the lineup. But I also think that Soriano belongs in the middle of the lineup, and I think Ryan Theriot is a good player. And I think I'd have a chance with Scarlett Johanson if we were to wind up hanging out for some reason. We're both wrong. I thought she had that restraining order that said you couldn't be within 1000 feet? Which is why I need her to agree to hang out with me. If she justs gets to know me I'm sure she'll change her mind.