abuck1220

I actually like the idea of holding out for something significant, even though he's not really worth much. Teams get stupid when going after name pitchers. You never know. well, yeah, hold out as long as you can. but if he's left to rot on the cubs' roster 8/1 because hendry couldn't get a top of the line prospect for him, i'm going to be kinda upset. if the cubs were in the dodgers position and they traded murton (who is half the prospect ethier is) for a guy like maddux, i'd be irate. i can't get too excited for the cubs being in sell mode for the first time in a while anyway because of how hendry and co. judge prospects and draft picks. i'm not getting my hopes up. Sort of contradictory: you don't trust Hendry to do the right thing in evaluating other teams' talent (a legit criticisim, IMO). But now Hendry is apparently willing to do the right thing and go after a good one, but you are killing him for shooting too high. Can't have it both ways, no? no, it's not contradictory. i don't think it's worth the risk of holding out for a top prospect because a) i doubt maddux will net a top prospect and b) i doubt i'll think much of hendry's idea of a top prospect anyway. now, if he's really after ethier, then i'll give him some credit (as far as talent evaluation), though i'm not 100% convinced that's the case. OK, but if he is in fact after Ethier (as is being reported) and is holding out in an attempt to get him, wouldn't that be a good thing? How can you criticize him for that? because he's not going to get him. on one hand, i'd be glad that hendry appreciates ethier's ability. but at the same time, there's no way he's going to get him, so he's wasting his time.

is it so ridiculous to at least consider the possibility that soriano's just gotten better?

I actually like the idea of holding out for something significant, even though he's not really worth much. Teams get stupid when going after name pitchers. You never know. well, yeah, hold out as long as you can. but if he's left to rot on the cubs' roster 8/1 because hendry couldn't get a top of the line prospect for him, i'm going to be kinda upset. if the cubs were in the dodgers position and they traded murton (who is half the prospect ethier is) for a guy like maddux, i'd be irate. i can't get too excited for the cubs being in sell mode for the first time in a while anyway because of how hendry and co. judge prospects and draft picks. i'm not getting my hopes up. Sort of contradictory: you don't trust Hendry to do the right thing in evaluating other teams' talent (a legit criticisim, IMO). But now Hendry is apparently willing to do the right thing and go after a good one, but you are killing him for shooting too high. Can't have it both ways, no? no, it's not contradictory. i don't think it's worth the risk of holding out for a top prospect because a) i doubt maddux will net a top prospect and b) i doubt i'll think much of hendry's idea of a top prospect anyway. now, if he's really after ethier, then i'll give him some credit (as far as talent evaluation), though i'm not 100% convinced that's the case.

OPS Home/Road - 1.042/.879 Doesn't seem to be bothered by the size of his home park. exactly. imagine how he'd be doing if he was hitting in a good park. Yeah, just imagine him in a place like Arlington. if he were hitting like he is hitting this year in arlington, his numbers would be even better.

I actually like the idea of holding out for something significant, even though he's not really worth much. Teams get stupid when going after name pitchers. You never know. well, yeah, hold out as long as you can. but if he's left to rot on the cubs' roster 8/1 because hendry couldn't get a top of the line prospect for him, i'm going to be kinda upset. if the cubs were in the dodgers position and they traded murton (who is half the prospect ethier is) for a guy like maddux, i'd be irate. i can't get too excited for the cubs being in sell mode for the first time in a while anyway because of how hendry and co. judge prospects and draft picks. i'm not getting my hopes up.

hendry's dreaming if he thinks he can get ethier for what's left of maddux's old bones. and the cubs are foolish if they refuse to move maddux unless they get something great in return. opening up his spot in the rotation is return enough.

While I agree with your thought process, I find it hard to lump Maddux (a hall of fame 300+ winning pitcher) in with the rest of those scrubs. Pierre has been playing really well as of late and Maddux numbers aren't bad for a projected 5th starter. pierre was absolutely worthless the first three months or whatever of the season. it's so nice of him to turn it on now that the cubs are 25 games under .500 so he can salvage a nice contract out of the whole ordeal. maddux is not being paid like a 5th starter, and his performance over the past three months has fallen below what you'd want out of a fifth starter. no matter how you slice it, those two have hurt the cubs this year much more than rich hill has. yet baker is acting as though he's at the end of his rope w/ hill. Even if Pierre played well I highly doubt it would have had much of an effect on the Cubs record this year. Maddux has the 29th best ERA in the NL this year which would put him in at a low #2/ high #3 and the 16th best WHIP in the NL. I would hardly consider that to be numbers "below what you'd want out of a fifth starter."

You would have to point that out. :x if it makes you feel any better, it may be the most points you can score when your SP gives up 7 runs in 5 1/3.

hill is #8 on BA's hot sheet. i certainly agree that he is an enigma. veal is in the team photo.

It's too bad that the Cubs are the only team in baseball to not develop players capable of playing 1B. If we would we wouldn't have to play veterans we have no intention of keeping while the team is 20 games under .500 man, that is just utterly ridiculous. put mabry at first, call up hoffpauir, give a turtle a glove and put him at 1b, whatever. who the hell cares whether the cubs' 1b hits .240 or .220 the rest of the way? this is the same logic that's going to "force" the cubs to keep maddux, thus squeezing guzman/hill out of the rotation when marshall and marmol comes back. i've never seen a team pride itself so much on trying to maintain a .380 winning percentage.

it doesn't really matter at this point, but if it were ronny cedeno dogging out there, you can bet your bippie that he'd hear about it. or if rich hill said something about how nice jones' double was, he'd probably be cut.

sorry, but i'm not bothering w/ all the matchups. if anybody wants to bare knuckle box me on the issue, you know where to find me. i just wanted to start the thread to point out cole hamels' line tonight... 5.1 INN, 6 HA, 2 BBI, 12 K, 7 ER

BA chimes in...

it's called sample size.

so the white sox can compete with the cubs' news that lee's going on the DL.

OPS Home/Road - 1.042/.879 Doesn't seem to be bothered by the size of his home park. exactly. imagine how he'd be doing if he was hitting in a good park.

If a corner OF w/ an .835 is a Superstar, you can have all the Superstars you want. At 2B, that's good; for corner OF, it's nothing special. I want good baseball players, hype or not. Soriano's all hype. Thats a little over the top. Has he been overrated in the past? You bet. This year he is hitting almost .300, OBP over .360 and he is on his way to 40 HR's, 40 doubles, and 40 steals. I don't think it's fair to say he is "all hype" at this point. Will he do it again next year? I have no idea. He is doing it now though. Will he do it for the next 3 months? I don't have any idea about that either, but his career numbers suggest otherwise (esp if you put him back in the AL - the NL East isn't exactly full of dominant pitchers). If Soriano's 400 ABs this year make him a Superstar, that's just insane. His career numbers, esp w/ that .325 OBP, are nothing special. it's full of huge ballparks, though. especially the one he plays half his games in.

soriano's putting up a .361 OBP this year.

two straight seasons of rushing a star player back from injury for no reason...i love this team!

Soriano for McCarthy would decimate their bullpen. He's their long guy and one of the only reliable relievers they have. Tribune was suggesting that the Sox will get Soriano and play the triangle defense game so the Twins and Tigers don't get him. i think getting a hitter of soriano's caliber would more than offset the loss of their long man.

Point blank in the 4 starts he looked over matched in the big leagues. He didn't look comfortable on the mound and showed no presence what-so-ever. It was a good move by the Cubs to let him work on whatever was wrong in AAA. Hopefully it pays off for him or maybe he's suited for the pen. Who knows? but if the "whatever was wrong" was getting used to pitching in the big leagues, sending him down would not help him work on "whatever was wrong." How do you know that? i don't. that's why i said "if." i disagree.

well, they did win the world series last year by bunting, so...

yeah, i'm concerned that the injuries to marshall and marmol will prevent a maddux trade, which is, of course, idiotic.

Point blank in the 4 starts he looked over matched in the big leagues. He didn't look comfortable on the mound and showed no presence what-so-ever. It was a good move by the Cubs to let him work on whatever was wrong in AAA. Hopefully it pays off for him or maybe he's suited for the pen. Who knows? but if the "whatever was wrong" was getting used to pitching in the big leagues, sending him down would not help him work on "whatever was wrong."

i don't think it's fair to equate hill's 8 starts (which have been spread out over two years and each one had do-or-die pressure attached to it) to 8 starts that make up 1/4 of a regular rotation guy's season. if hill had started the year in the rotation and gone 0-7 (or whatever he is on his career) and posted a 9 era in his first eight starts, i'd think different of him than i do now.