jersey cubs fan

At least I'll have a use for the ARod jersey I bought a couple years ago for a Halloween costume. I was looking forward to wearing it over a cubs shirt, but I'm sure Alex will do something over the next year to inspire a new costume.

Well, he was an All Star in 2002 and he has his .281 with RISP over the course of his career.

I've had Randy Winn on my brain for a while. I assumed it would be for Murton. But there was talk the other day of Marquis in an exchange of bad contracts. That's better, if not optimal. If Randy Winn is the big change in RF that would be awful.

I'm guessing not ticked at all, since they won the world series and are probably the favorite to win it next year.

Taking big money from an American team has got to be a lot less tempting than it was a few years ago, when the dollar was actually worth something.

I've always had a hard time convincing people how much they look alike. It seems so obvious to me.

So Hendry said he's going to be looking for a "different type of player" to fill the RF spot, and I can only hope he meant it, and actually knows that Jenkins is no different from the slew of other part-time RFers he's had here.

The problem with that is I don't see it working unless Anaheim or LA come right back and offer something huge. If it's a charage, he's not going to be able to keep it going long. "charage"? Forget it, he's rolling. Sorry, charade. For anybody thinking Bruno is a credit whore, espnnews is running a note saying Len Pasquirelli is reporting Rex Grossman will start, even though the Bears officially announced it themselves over an hour ago and everybody else is also reporting the story. Please note my post was an attempt at humor, not trying to be a dyck van [expletive]. Well I laughed at my own stupidity, so the attempt was successful.

If Tejada can, ARod can.

Nah. The people writing the articles are still idiots. True, but this is basically a big push in the argument that he's all about the money. Granted, the Yankees are still the Yankees and could win it, but some other competitive teams could have given him a good chunk of change (at least $20 million per for 10-12 years) where him being there could have very easily pushed them over the top. Or it supports the notion that Boras was driving him to take more money, and he decided enough was enough and he wanted to win in NY.

822 post ASB OPS 183 post ASB IsoP just my opinion. He doesn't look like he's in great shape any more. If he's really off steroids (who knows with the HGH business) then I think he's going to fall off pretty quickly. Steriods were banned going into the 2005 season. 2005 and 2006 were two of his three best seasons in the majors. HGH Yeah, Truff said that... I have no problem waiting until the Mitchell report comes out. If hes on it, I'll take him for 50 cents on the dollar, if hes not, I'll still take him. Tejada-HGH>>>>>>>Theriot+Hendry spending 13M/season for the next 2 years. I'd take him too, my point is steroid testing doesn't really mean anything here.

extremely

822 post ASB OPS 183 post ASB IsoP just my opinion. He doesn't look like he's in great shape any more. If he's really off steroids (who knows with the HGH business) then I think he's going to fall off pretty quickly. Steriods were banned going into the 2005 season. 2005 and 2006 were two of his three best seasons in the majors. HGH

The problem with that is I don't see it working unless Anaheim or LA come right back and offer something huge. If it's a charage, he's not going to be able to keep it going long. "charage"? Forget it, he's rolling. Sorry, charade. For anybody thinking Bruno is a credit whore, espnnews is running a note saying Len Pasquirelli is reporting Rex Grossman will start, even though the Bears officially announced it themselves over an hour ago and everybody else is also reporting the story.

The problem with that is I don't see it working unless Anaheim or LA come right back and offer something huge. If it's a charage, he's not going to be able to keep it going long.

It will be quite interesting to listen to Yankees fans and media backtrack.

The fact that he was supposedly talking to NYY w/o Boras was mentioned, but this was the first I'd seen anybody say it was close to happening.

Honestly, I like Lee, and would normally have no interest in dealing him. But, for a chance at those two, you have to try. Besides, I imagine Lee might like playing in LA under Torre. Not saying he'd go, just saying I could see why he might consider it... I like him as well. However, he's replacable, and I believe a bit overrated.

This story is so weird, it would really blow a hole in my theory.

I'd be all for trading Lee, if it wasn't for the no-trade clause. In order to pull off a Lee trade, I think it would have to be quick and painless. Cut the cord and make the trade without any time for public discourse. But the no-trade guarantees he won't go quietly or quickly, and at that point things could get ugly.

A great Rf (or OF in general regardless of position) is easier to come by than a great SS, though. There's really no reason a team with a $100M payroll should end up with Burnitz/ Jones/ Hollandsworth, etc in their OF. And the RF numbers, weren't horrible. But they were middle of the pack, and boosted by players like Ward and Pagan having astronomical numbers in RF. Even Floyd was better in RF than he was in all other situations by a long shot (LF, PH, DH). I think the point was that we didn't need a great SS, we could get the same marginal additional production by acquiring a decent SS as by acquiring a really good RF. Yes, they probably could have gotten better improvement by just getting a decent SS, to replace the pathetic one. RF was middle of the pack, but it was the leader of the middle of the pack. And I find it hard to believe that some combination of Murton, Jones, DeRosa would struggle to match the 794 OPS next year. Murton playing 150 games would probably beat that number. The second best RF OPS in the NL was just 843 last year. They were 235 OPS points from moving up to 2nd at SS. There was much, much, much more room for improvement at SS. Choosing to focus your attention on RF is choosing to take the hardest road to improvement. In the end, you can end up with a great lineup, if done correctly. But it's just another example of Hendry's lack of efficiency. He's probably going to end up spending a lot of money and talent to wind up with minimal improvement at RF.

Going into the offseason, the positions most in need of improvement were SS, CF, C and RF. RF improvement was needed the least, as they weren't that bad there last year, and their in house option was the best of the 4 positions. SS was the worst, considering their in house option stinks. CF was close, but given the fact that their best young player, Pie, is there, and that they had Jones as a fallback, it was relatively stable. C was horrible last year, but Soto, even if he comes nowhere near his 2007 numbers (which I assume will be the case) would most certainly provide enough production for the position to be fine. The only way to get better by focusing on RF is by actually getting a great RF, or getting a very good RF and then trading Murton & others for an improvement at SS. You could say they've painted themselves into a corner, but there's still a chance to come out with a masterpiece.

Take Dontrelle's $8m off their hands. Hill and Gallagher slot into their 2008 rotation, include Pie or Colvin. If you have Soriano in left and Cabrera in right, you don't need much production out of CF for the next few years. It's no guarantee to get outbid. Not everybody is anxious to give up huge amounts of talent, and pay the longterm extension Cabrera will want and does deserve. It can't hurt to get in the discussion.

The better question is how many opportunities have there actually been? Prior, Zambrano, Hill, and Marmol. What other young talent has come up from the farm and shown 'sell high' value? The list is slim, and if Hendry had moved Pior or Zambrano, or moves Hill or Marmol, it would trigger a wrath-storm. I wouldn't freak if Hendry trades Hill or Marmol, as long as he gets an elite player in return.

I'm not sure why it would be unbelievable for a Tampa radio station to scoop the Chicago radio stations for such a trade.