jersey cubs fan

I don't understand why some people are trying to pretend that Boras or ARod look like fools after this deal. ARod is getting his $300 million, give or take. Just because Boras threw out the $350 and didn't get it doesn't mean they lost or anything. Boras's client is getting an enormous contract, and that's his job. Whether this whole thing was planned all along, or whether it all blew up in Boras's face, the fact is his client got what is most likely the highest contract anybody could have reasonably expected.

Was he a jerk? More often than not. Did he have a mental illness? Probably. Was he a racist? Yes. You sure showed me here. So to qualify as someone's favorite ballplayer, that person must have the personality of Lou Gehrig? There's a pretty wide gulf between the racist dirtbags of the world, like Cobb, and genuine good guys like Lou Gehrig.

Nothing. I don't care if you like him or not. But being a baseball history nerd and after doing my own research, I feel like he is someone who has been portrayed in modern times as something other than what he really was. Try this. When he went into the stands after that fan who was insulting his wife with the most vile statements (most of his fellow Yankees fans went on record saying he deserved it), his entire team was behind him in the stands. They were protecting him while he whipped the guy. When Ty was suspended for the incident, his entire team went on strike because they felt he had a right to defend himself. It was the first player's strike in history. That's supposed to support the idea that he wasn't a douche?

In other news, Juan Pierre is the same player as Alfonso Soriano (w/ exception of power). Wow. Excellent comparison. Juan Pierre, who might fall into 1 HR a year and Alfonso Soriano who will typically hit 40+ HR to Cedeno who might hit 10-15 HR vs. Greene who will top out around 25 HR. Bravo. Way to go to an extreme to try to make somebody else look bad. U R awesome. cedeno might hit 10-15 HR per year? in what universe? He hit 14 in 2007. 4 in 72 big league at bats, a pace for 27 over 500 at bats. It's a matter of whether or not he can stick in the majors, not whether or not he can hit 10-15 HR in a season.

There's no reason to bother with a guy like that, just stick with Murton in that case.

Yeah, I heard a minute or two of that. They were wondering why every player busted for steroids weren't being prosecuted. They brought up Mcgwire as a counterexample. I wanted to scream at them that steroids weren't the reason that Bonds is being prosecuted, it's that he lied about using them to a grand jury. Mcgwire never did that, nor did pretty much everybody on the Mitchell list (another thing they brought up wondering if the feds are going to go after all of them too). It was a really, really poor argument, actually worse than ESPN usually is. Was Palmeiro under oath when he denied using steroids? Then of course month later he got caught. I'm not sure if they were under oath or not. I'm guessing there's some sort of requirement to tell the truth in that matter. But the issue with Palmeiro is he got caught after saying he didn't. The bust was not evidence that he was using before the testimony. The Bonds situation is quite different.

Can be waived. For a fee, which, for a guy like Lee, making $13m per through 2010, will probably mean something like a 2 year extension, or player option, added on, at about $15-17m each year. It then makes him less valuable to the team acquiring him. It's one thing to trade a guy with a NTC when he wants out, but I don't think that's the case with Lee. Usually it takes a very long time to trade a guy with a NTC.

Marshall or Marshall, plus DeRosa and Cedeno for Greene? Yes, that improves SS, but any improvement will most likely be offset by a decrease of production at 2B. What's the point.

How does he lose DeRosa?

That doesn't happen anymore, guy. That's exactly my point. I wouldn't pay ANYONE playing today that kind of money. That's only because you can't afford it. Obviously they can, and there's no reason not to pay it.

He really could be, which is just frightening.

And that makes you think he might trade Theriot? Theriot is one of the few speed guys on the team now.

I wouldn't mind keeping Kendall as the backup if the price was right. At least he can hit a little bit. Very little, but that's still more than Hank White can. No, he can't. .242/.301/.309 He had one decent month and one great one, but was horrible in every other month. That includes what was hopefully his last month as a Cub, when he hit .183/.279/.233. He's coming off three years of OPS+ at 79, 88 and 63. That's pretty much what Blanco does. They both suck. One will suck more than the other next year, but it's hard to say who it will be.

Yes he can. What bigger trade can the Cubs make without making them worse? If they trade Lee, Aramis, Z, or Hill at best they can hope to get the same level of potential production. None of the prospects are all that attractive, except for Pie (who doesn't love Pie?). They don't have a whole lot to bargin with. Who are they going to get with DeRosa + prospects? Marmol + prospects? DeRosaa + Marmol + prospects? Why does Fukudome need a caddy? Exactly. Hendry very well could prove us all wrong with some stunning deal, but what's the likelihood? If you do end up giving up DeRosa in a bigger deal, you've downgraded 2b significantly in doing so. What exactly makes DeRosa such a hot commodity to other teams? He's not exactly cheap for the production he provides. He's not head and shoulders better than other 2b's that could potentially be available. He'd do alright manning third base in Florida for a year or two.

Good golly this could be bad. If he signs Matsui and doesn't get Fukudome, this team would be up it's creek.

Without the hype and contract, I'm not sure what there is to like about him. Sure it was his first full season, but it's not like he looked great but wore down. He pretty much stunk from day 1. I didn't need him to shred anybody. But it would have been nice if he didn't stink.

Higher than most. He likes the Theriots and Fulds of the world. Claims he could start for 6 teams in center. Looking at the numbers provided by CF on the bottom 6 teams (with the Cubs in 6th), maybe that's accurate, but it's hardly a ringing endorsement.

.659 career home OPS .849 career away OPS he swings at too much and doesn't draw enough walks, but he's still a mile better than any of the trash that we have available at SS. I agree. He just doesn't bring to the table what this team needs. Also, its best to adjust his home stats, rather than just throw them away. this team needs something from SS though, and that's probably the biggest need.

I'm all for more OBP -- don't get me wrong -- but Greene is a marked upgrade over Theriot, and that's really the point -- find upgrades for the weak positions, SS, C, CF, and RF. Given that RF was the best of the bad bunch, and C is covered by Soto, SS and CF are the best places to upgrade the team. MLV indicates that Greene is a 17.8 run upgrade over Theriot, that's a nice upgrade. So where's the problem? I'm pro-Green. He's got flaws, but he could be such an enormous improvement over what the Cubs have at SS, that it could be a bigger upgrade than just about anything else they do this year.

Sam Fuld 8? Is he that much higher on Fuld than most or is the system that devoid of talent?

I heard it elsewhere first, so, ha! (nice work IMB)

Was the NL really that devoid of good pitching?

Jon Daniels for worst sabermetric GM EVER! no way, i'm sticking with coletti on this one. Though Dave Littlefield would've been a strong runner in this race if he hadn't been fired. Coletti is sabermetricly inclined?

Gonzalez is a no brainer top 50 prospect and possibly/probably top 25. In other words...you've set the bar pretty high for most ridiculous trade proposal of the day. Thanks for being such an ass about it. u could have merely said that wouldn't get it done/be enough. It's replies like this that keep me away from most discussions on this board. So the initial Marquis comment was serious? Jason Marquis is a pretty crappy pitcher. But he's reasonably durable. He would work best with a high scoring team that needs somebody to give them innings at the bottom of their rotation. He may win you 12 games, but he's probably going to lose you at least another 12 making him a placeholder more than anything. He's been left off playoff rosters in two consecutive seasons, for two different teams. And right now he's got a 2/$16.25m contract. A team like Arizona isn't going to have any much use for Marquis. They are relatively cost conscious, and can't score much. Perhaps they could use the innings out of a starter, but with $10m of a $50something million payroll going to Randy Johnson to not pitch, they need cheap pitching. Perhaps if the Cubs picked up most of the salary they'd take him. But I doubt it. What the Cubs need to do is find a team like the Yankees, that can hit but needs pitchers. But they are going to be hesitent to take on mediocre NL pitching, given their troubles. The NL version would be Philly, a team paying big money year after year that keeps coming up short thanks to a lack of pitching.

The Cubs could hire a dozen Asian personal assistants for Fukudome at a lot less money than paying Matsui. Plus a couple Japanese massage therapists.