DenverCubs

No. But, as everyone has said, an out is an out. Plus if every out you make is a K you never hit into double plays. That goes for something (not much).

Man, I'd love to get him without giving up Hill. That would be a nasty rotation 1-4. Left handed heavy, but yes, it would be dominating. My concern is it would be nice to go back and forth. So you'd have to have Z not start the opener. So if this did happen, you'd go LRLRL Bedard Z Lilly Marquis Hill Who's starting in between Hill and Bedard? I hate this "reasoning" that you can't have back to back lefties in the rotation. Yes there are more righties than lefties in any given batting order. Don't you think these guys have been facing these same batting orders their whole careers? In the same way, I see no reason with the obsession of having a lefty in the rotation or a lefty in the batting lineup. 8 best hitters, 5 best pitchers, let em throw and hit with whatever they want as long as they do it well. 100% true. I can almost (really almost) see wanting a diverse hitting line-up if only to make opposing teams burn through their bull-pens in late innings (but not if it means starting a worse player). How does going RLR with pitchers who appear in totally different games and maybe even against different teams help at all. Also, it seems like the Cubs worry more about RL match-ups based on like league average results instead of player specific stats. If a left-handed bat clobbers left-handed pitching, who cares if he swings the bat with his left hand or his wiener (can I say dick on this forum)?

Not sure if someone's posted this...but here's more of Hendry being himself (on acquiring Fukudome): "This was Option 1, 2 and 3 as far as we were concerned," Hendry said. What a guy. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071211&content_id=2323241&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Trading him for a career .254 hitter with uninspiring ISOs who's already at arbitration with FA upcoming in 09 is what I consider very little return. It's also been suggested we relegate him to AAA next year to give Mark Derosa fulltime RF duties, or to trade him for Roberts. There's not much support for Pie, but endless praise for Cedeno on here. If Ryan Theriot was our center fielder, there would be abundant support for Pie.

It is? my fault, 7:30am now SmarterChild: The time in Tokyo, Japan is Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 6:34:25 am. so they're 15 hours ahead of central time, not 16? Refresh this: http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGklPl_F5HkBIBBUFXNyoA?p=current+time+japan&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8 Or you can just add 3 hours to the current time (if you're in the Central) and make it a.m. I bet you figured that out just for Fukudome...huhh...

I agree with this, but it seems like right now it's like Theriot is the guy until Cedeno does something. I see nothing about Theriot that should give him the upper hand, other than the fact that he started last year (and was bad). Plus spring training has too few games against a lot AAA pitchers.

Here's the thing...Cedano is better...right now...today...than Theriot...at baseball...

I think it's like 6:30 am

Jesus. I rarely post on this site because I usually agree with or at least understand where everyone posting is coming from, but this is ridiculous. If you can't see that Ronny Cedano has the POTENTIAL to be a much better every day SS that Theriot you are insane. No one is arguing that Ronny would definitely be an substantial upgrade, but I would definitely be willing to take a change. Many people have said it but project Cedano's career AAA stats to the Majors he dwarfs Theriot. Compare their age relative stats and it's the same thing. This is not hard to understand. I feel bad for players like Ronny who are brought up too early and under-perform in the big leagues, then never get another regular chance. If you only let him play 5 games before you send him back down again he'd have to get pretty lucky to redeem himself. He had a bad year, improved his game in AAA (where he belonged all along) and he deserves another shot. It's sad that the Cubs devalued him by bringing him up so early that now he's worth less in a trade than he would have been (probably) if he'd never been a big league regular. Theriot is a below average guy and there's no reason to believe he will get better. I guarantee that Cedano would do a better job for the Cubs than Theriot would next year. I wish we could play two simultaneous seasons to prove this.

This would definitely work. Japanese dudes dig busty blondes even more than we Americans dig adolescent asian chicks.

Does anyone else see the plus of having basically a "human calculator" in right field.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071206&content_id=2320340&vkey=hotstove2007&fext=.jsp btw - I believe I have been telling everyone that Soriano will still hit leadoff even if we acquire Roberts + Fukudome... I hate that you are probably right...25 solo home runs is fine and all, but it leaves me wanting (I totally made that number up, but would be interested to now what the real # for Sori was)

Exactly my point. These guys are getting paid to play everyday and they pretty much want to be in there everyday. There are days off built into the schedule. Yes, occasionally there are long stretches of the season where you might want to rest a couple of the starters. In that case, take DeRosa out of the SS spot and move him around a little bit and give those players the necessary rest. Lee won't be suspended and hopefully Soriano is over his leg injury. Typically, Soriano averages over 150 games a season, as does Lee. And if Lee does actually take a day off, are people honestly going to tell me that DeRosa will start at 1b over Daryle Ward? I just don't see where DeRosa gets enough at bats filling this made up "super sub" position. if fukudome can play CF he may end up there the majority of the time with Derosa in RF. That seems like the best case...with a line-up of Roberts DeRosa Lee Ramirez Soriano Kousuke Soto Theriot not bad

Maybe down to #2...but I doubt it. The point of Kosuke is that he can be a middle of the order hitter to break up the right handers. So that still leaves only Roberts as a "natural" top of the order guy along with Soriano. Lou likes to have the lefty bat in the #2 spot - for one thing it does more to break up the right handers and it also is easier to take advantage of the hole on the right side when Soriano is on base. I'd bet we see a lineup along these lines on most days: Soriano Roberts Lee Kosuke Ramirez Soto Pie Theriot I think I disagree. Though I now Lou gets a chubby for Soriano at leadoff I think he's left less that 1% flacid looking at Roberts. His hair cut is pretty scrappy and he won't clog up the bases. If Theriot was good enough to lead off when Sori was hurt Roberts should IMO be enough to take over the spot. Who does Lou have as a "prototype #2 hitter" in that scenario? Not sure. I think Fukudome is more of a 2 hitter in the US though. I guess I forgot how much Lou and Jim like to go R-L-R at all costs.

Maybe down to #2...but I doubt it. The point of Kosuke is that he can be a middle of the order hitter to break up the right handers. So that still leaves only Roberts as a "natural" top of the order guy along with Soriano. Lou likes to have the lefty bat in the #2 spot - for one thing it does more to break up the right handers and it also is easier to take advantage of the hole on the right side when Soriano is on base. I'd bet we see a lineup along these lines on most days: Soriano Roberts Lee Kosuke Ramirez Soto Pie Theriot I think I disagree. Though I now Lou gets a chubby for Soriano at leadoff I think he's left less that 1% flacid looking at Roberts. His hair cut is pretty scrappy and he won't clog up the bases. If Theriot was good enough to lead off when Sori was hurt Roberts should IMO be enough to take over the spot.

Someone may have mentioned this, but one of my favorite things about getting Roberts would be that maybe Lou would move Soriano OUT OF THE LEADOFF SPOT.