Eric Clipperton

How much would Hendrickson cost? If he'll be cheap for the year, I'd go with him- he's solid enough and could both LOOGY and be decent enough against righties. This would seem to be one of those spots to just go with whoever is cheap and not terrible, hopefully staying away from multiyear. Although Shouse is about as loogtastic as you can get with that absurd delivery, isn't he also pretty old at this point? like 39-40.

Day game splits are essentially meaningless due to small sample size. Note that OPS+ is also way inflated for a guy like Scott, due to platoon usage. Off the top of my head, it would seem a average MLB hitter, 100 OPS+, if he would then start facing only opposite-armed pitchers, his numbers would rise such that his OPS+ would be 120ish. Doesn't make him a better hitter, it's just not fair to look at platoon hitters in a pure OPS+ context (i.e. Fontenot would look amazing this year)

MLBTR mentions that the Cubs "will have to offer more than Marquis for DeJesus", with the original source being an article by BPro's John Perrotto. Link: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/11/perrottos-lat-1.html#comments While both these sources are right up there with the absolute most ridiculous and hilarious of internet trade discussions, I still found it interesting as I hadn't at all entertained the prospect of the ROYALS wanting Marquis. Apparently they may? Perhaps there would be a few mill coming from the Cubs, but anyway lets get this done- who else could we put in this deal? At first I thought maybe I'd do Fontenot but then realized that would be too much on our part, personally I'd send them Theriot (they need 2B) but that may just be personal hatred on my part. Someone on MLBTR mentioned Marquis+Wells. They'd maybe have some interest in Wells, although I can't imagine his value would be more than a throw-in. I could see Wuertz being useful for KC, and as someone who Lou seems to hate we might as well just get rid of him for some sort of value...sucks having to work around your manager's idiocy but I think this should be a key part of our offseason strategy. Anyhow- Thoughts? Is this just a stupid MLBTR rumor with 0 chance of happening?

I'd grab & rehab Hampton for the league minimum. Little risk, possible reward. What possible reward though? Are people hoping he'll become the 1999 Mike Hampton, 10 years ago? He's gonna be 36 next year, and he hasn't had an above average year since 2003, and that year wasn't anything terribly special. His WHIP is horrendous, his ERA capability is 5th starter/long reliever at best, and he hasn't played a full season since 2004, which was cut short due to injury. Why on earth would anyone want this guy? Career 4.01 ERA and 1.43 WHIP and chronic injury problems? 4.85ERA in his comeback 1/2 a year? Yeah. Let's get that. Let's get a a frail version of Jason Marquis. I want that on my favorite team. No I don't. If we're gonna toss league minimum money at a reclamation project who hasn't pitched hardly at all in 3 years and is injury prone, I'd rather throw it at Mark Prior. At least we know that if we get a good return on him it will actually be worthy of at least a middle rotation spot, that and he'll be 10 years younger than Hampton. Hampton is a joke. I'd rather take a flyer on Hidalgo. Blech to Mike Hampton I feel even more strongly against this than you do. Hampton's not even a frail version of Jason Marquis, he pitches like a left-handed Steve Trachsel and has the durability of Darren Dreifort. Seriously, if you pick up Mike Hampton, you have to stop to pick up every single piece of trash on the street. Why not sign Mo Vaughn to the league minimum, why not sign Robb Nen to the league minimum, why not sign Sean Burroughs to the league minimum, why not sign Kirk Rueter to the league minimum, Mike Hampton was never even as good as people remember him being. Can we possibly figure out a way to get Kevin Brown while we're at it? Can we take a flyer on Mike Sweeney and Bernie Williams. Hey, remember in 2002 when Elmer Dessens had a 3.03 ERA, let's take a flyer on him. Or Wade Miller. Good 'ol Wade Miller. Or Rodrigo Lopez. Or Jeff Weaver. I've got it - Ismael Valdez. I can't believe anyone thought anything good about Mike Hampton whatsoever. You know who we need? Roger Cedeno. Look at how good he was in 1999. Anyone here anything about this new movie Fight Club, I hear it's supposed to be pretty good. Great post! I agree with the pure rage contained here. Hampton sucks.

As a Cub, 1 start allowing 0 runs. 0 starts knocked out in the 2nd inning or earlier. Guess this doesn't count the game he was immediately thrown out of? That call was a joke, but still came to mind offhand as a game where he didnt make it through the 2nd. Anyhow....I am a big Lilly fan as I love K's. Yeah, he gives up a lot of HRs, but so does Santana. I think we'll get another solid year out of Ted this coming year, that is unless we trade him (which might be a decent option as one of our few vets with positive value).

Oh yeah, I wasn't counting Soriano, forgot about him- he's like the closer that no one remembers used to be a starter, but flamed out after a brief period of starting success. He is still available for Relief 2B, but only an inning or so at a time . ha. I like the idea of O DOG taking over 3rd and biggio taking over for Soto and then maybe we can re-institute the Cedeno at CF experiment. I think we can do it. I think we can someday field a lineup consisting of 8 second basemen. And if Hendry REALLY works at it, someday we can have that ninth 2B come into the game for at least one glorious inning, upon which the converted-2b Pitcher throws an inning and brings Armageddon upon the world.

I'd also like to get Mr .236, Adam Dunn. Perhaps you wouldn't? YAY BATTING AVERAGE Swisher even had a better year than Kosuke this year by OPS+, by one point, but still. Surprised me at first, but then I remembered how awful Kosuke was and it wasn't as shocking.

Also, I guess I am not factoring in the need for a 5th 2B when I consider the club's need for a Roberts trade. How would you set up the Second Baseman Rotation for next year? Personally I'd go with: 1. DeRosa - clearly earned the ACE title this year 2. Roberts - he can be our co-ace, brought in via trade 3. Theriot - converted from SS to 2B, don't know if he can handle the #3 spot in the rotation, but he's still a solid back-end 2b option for sure, and is in this spot so we can split up the lefties 4. Fontenot - he had a breakout year, I love his curveball and there isn't a better #4 2B in the league! oh i got confused with the curveball there...but you know what I mean. Hope he doesn't end the year in daytona like a certain someone 5. Cedeno - I like the riot/marquis comparison here obviously, but ronny also can conjure up that hatred in the fanbase for things such as baserunning gaffes, anyhow you may think he sucks but then you remember he's our #5 starter. How many teams have Five Starting 2B's like this! Not many. WS all the way in 2009. B-Roberts will FILL OUT THAT ROTATION. Second basemen are key in the playoffs. Especially POWER second basemen.

not only does his name sort of sound like the first syllable of HOFFpauir, his outfield defense is eerily reminiscent of that shown by the Hoff. that is to say, a big pile of steaming poop.

I was just thinking "damn I wish we could trade some of our junk for Swisher". If this could somehow happen, I think it would work quite well, I'd be up for tossing some solid prospects over their way actually which they could maybe be interested in as their system is horrendously bad.

I have no idea what you're talking about here, and it's blowing my mind. I keep reading posts to see if maybe there is some reason why you said this, but I have no idea. Perhaps it is just a revelation in your head. who knows. Anyhow, just thought you should know that your post caused 10 minutes I will never get back.

God, I love Adam Dunn. I am pretty sure Hendry hates that type of player, but I would orgasm several times upon seeing the headline Dunn Signs With Cubs, kind of like I did upon hearing the news about Harden this summer. I WOULD

The fact that we have to consider trading theriot for young, means that we basically do not want young anywhere near this team next year. Young might be good at some point, but I would wager on "massive bust". Also, he's got about a 5% chance to outproduce Pie at this point, considering Defense which he is pretty awful at and Pie is ridiculous. So yeah, I'd probably trade Riot for him, but that may only be because I hate Theriot and would even prefer some horrid hitter who makes pretty plays on D. When I see theriot toss up a noodle that should embarass anyone outside of Jacque Jones and Juan Pierre, it makes a part of me die inside.

I agree with the Hendry thought process, which essentially the base of it is "It is OK to put DeRosa in RF". He is versatile! Yay!! Obviously, we all know this is dumb, and I hope such an obviously better option comes around and it won't come down to this, especially the incredibly unnecessary Roberts trade. DeRo this year 120 OPS+, Roberts 118. There's no way adding BRob would have been worth whatever we lost in the trade, it actually would have likely made our actual production worse, especially as this doesn't even count when Fontenot played 2B and was RIDICULOUS against RHP. What CAN we do? Personally, I like and hadn't before thought or heard of the idea of getting Hermida. He is someone we could reasonably get, and have him possibly be worth more than what we pay in prospects. buy low. novel, I know. What would the Marlins be interested in? I guess Pie could match up decently there (if i recall, their current CF isn't great on D and is decent hitter but no big prospect or anything? could be off though), obv Cedeno is worthless to them so we can't pawn off all our "busts" that never really got a fair shake; They might be into Marshall, not sure what else or how low-level of guys they might want, Ceda/Cashner/man we don't have a whole lot in the system outside of incredibly "key" guys.... This is why we can't just trade out for Roberts/etc. Our system is not exactly great, especially at the top. I think we may be best served to take some of our positions of strength and TRADE to fortify the system a bit if possible. Haven't considered where to aim yet, but I'm pretty sure the inevitable best guy to trade would be DeRosa. After this year, owed 5.5 this year, you'd have to imagine he would be able to bring us back some value. Then platoon Fonty/Riot at 2B and let them put up a sweet tandem year, SS is going to be tough to fill but we all know Riot isn't the answer and will be hard-pressed to match his results from this year. If Dome doesn't get it together, than contract is going to be a massive anchor. Ugh. Hope he can, but if not maybe we should look into arranging a seppuku or something...lot we could do with that extra 11.5 If we had to, I wouldn't be opposed to trading Marmol. Yeah, I know. But damn he's going to be VALUABLE and a spot we can likely fill at some point through the ranks; we so many power arms that are not good enough to be starters that I am thinking we are most likely to have 1 or 2 solid guys coming out of Ceda/Guzman/Cashner/Veal/etc. If he could bring back a legit star you've gotta consider it, although it would help to have a non-idiot managing the team's bullpen usage, which I guess is even true with Marmol as Lou RACKED up the appearances for him.

The obvious answer as to why Lou handled this terribly, is because he is pretty much an idiot, and as terrible at managing as baseball team as 95% of managers, which is to say pretty much bad as Howry.

ok let's do it, right here. time to turn this season around. like we did yesterday, except the opposite.

There are 8 more innings in this game. You wouldn't know it by reading this thread, but there are. Yeah we suck, but at least we have a pitcher tonight. Terrible D though. Mostly just REALLY unlucky though. So chill the [expletive] out.

Lilly making his case for hitting above 9th.

I mean, the Obama pic is Hawaii, not exactly known as a Black mecca.

Man, showing the LOB with the score graphic is really dumb.

I would not be able to give Theriot such a high grade, he's maybe a B-/C+ to me, and it is certainly not a complement to be compared to Eckstein (at least not one I'd personally like to receive).

Mine was merely last year, against the Rockies. This was the classic where Howry Howry'd a 3-run homer in the 9th and the idiot charged the field at him and got wrecked by a security guard. Then Kaz "Anal Fissure" Matsui came up with the huge 2-out error to allow a Soriano game-winning hit. This was a pretty good first game. Although I wish I had gone about 20 years earlier.

Thanks!

I was wondering this as well- Harden does look fast. Yeah, if we can get Shark in the starting rotation, then he would have to be one of the fastest starting pitchers around no doubt. This should be an All-Star Game event, instead of the Home Run Derby and whatever else there is these days. Pitcher races, catcher high jump, and David Eckstein Shot Put could make an excellent triathlon to mark the ASB. You don't have to be Eckstein to participate, you just have to be white and small and suck. Plus also if we're lucky, Eckstein will pull every muscle in his body during the event and be forced to retire to his eventual spot in the GRIT HOF.