CubfaninCA

Hyperbole!!! :o How did Dusty win all those games w/ SF?? As AAA said, Hendry needs to Dusty proof the team which means not relying on Nomar and Patterson again, and letting Neifi walk. I can't imagine someone who doesn't see the need to fire dusty seeing the need to dusty-proof the team. Maybe he just doesn't want to eat his contract, but I doubt it. Hendry traded for Lawton right?? He signed Walker and Nomar w/ the intention of having them @ the top of the order right? The gamble w/ Nomar failed, and I think Hendry will be smart enough to sign or trade for a better SS.

With the steroid crackdown, will pitching become more important? Sure seems so this year. Perhaps all those walks aren't as important w/ less extra base hit to knock them in?? If the Cubs can pull off a trade for Livan Hernandez, I'd be thrilled. He's an inning eater and has had success in the playoffs. Even if Wood flames out again, Z, Prior, Hernandez and Maddux is an adequate 4 man playoff rotation. If Prior returns to 2003 form, it's a really tough playoff rotation. Make some tweaks to the offence and they can sneak into the top 5 in runs and be a very competitive team.

This Nomar hate seems to be clouding your math skills. Nomar didn't have a zero OBP while he was sitting on the DL, he had an undefined OBP on the DL. (Zero devided by zero isn't zero, nor is it infinity... it's undefined.) C'mon... that's basic Calc stuff right there. ;) I, for one, still say Nomar should be option #1 for our 2006 SS. I don't see the need to grossly overpay for a mediocre bat just because he's slightly less likely to spend significant time on the DL. I hate that there were 100 games where Nomar got on base a grand total of zero times. Why repeat the same mistake again??

I think Anaheim would have to trade Garrett Anderson to Boston. Sure they have lots of money, but they're already paying Vlad, Colon, GA and Cabrera a boatload of money, and looks like Molina will get a nice raise. Anaheim and Boston may not be a good match. Iirc Anderson has some health issues. I believe he has pretty poor knees, and Boston already has a DH.

Hyperbole!!! :o How did Dusty win all those games w/ SF?? As AAA said, Hendry needs to Dusty proof the team which means not relying on Nomar and Patterson again, and letting Neifi walk.

Maybe that's exactly what they did.... and identified that there *is* a need to bring Rusch back as insurance? They charted Mitre's pitches, and noticed that he doesn't have anything that he can throw consistently in the strike zone to control the count. They watched Koronka; and made the logical conclusion that Rusch was a better bet. They watched Guzman in Arizona... and judged that his arm is iffy and he doesn't have any control at present, so they aren't sure if or when he will. They charted Wood going to surgery, and couldn't conclude that he'll be healthy and good. So they perhaps charted Williams in as #5, Hill in as #6, and Rusch in as #7. Hill may be removed because he may be invaluable in relief, or may be too wild to be good. Wood may be removed because he's injured. Prior may be removed because he's injured. Z may be removed because he's injured. Williams may pitch worse than Rusch. Seems to me there is plenty of reason, given the age and fragility of the front 5, to think that the #7 guy might be needed, and might be worth $2.5 million bucks. To want some insurance other than Koronka and Guzman as your #7 starter, I guess I don't see why that's so crazy. If Wood, Zambrano and Prior are hurt, or perhaps or, it doesn't matter who our 7th starter is. Might as well go with youth. Yep the season's probably over if Prior and Wood bite the dust again, even if the Cubs get a few of the guys the walk romanticists pine for on a daily basis. :D However, if Maddux and Williams go down (quite possible this is the Cubs afterall), Rusch and Hill are not a huge dropoff.

Maybe that's exactly what they did.... and identified that there *is* a need to bring Rusch back as insurance? They charted Mitre's pitches, and noticed that he doesn't have anything that he can throw consistently in the strike zone to control the count. They watched Koronka; and made the logical conclusion that Rusch was a better bet. They watched Guzman in Arizona... and judged that his arm is iffy and he doesn't have any control at present, so they aren't sure if or when he will. They charted Wood going to surgery, and couldn't conclude that he'll be healthy and good. So they perhaps charted Williams in as #5, Hill in as #6, and Rusch in as #7. Hill may be removed because he may be invaluable in relief, or may be too wild to be good. Wood may be removed because he's injured. Prior may be removed because he's injured. Z may be removed because he's injured. Williams may pitch worse than Rusch. Seems to me there is plenty of reason, given the age and fragility of the front 5, to think that the #7 guy might be needed, and might be worth $2.5 million bucks. To want some insurance other than Koronka and Guzman as your #7 starter, I guess I don't see why that's so crazy. Good post. Only thing I can disagree with is Hill as the 6th starter and Rusch as the 7th. I think it's more like bring back Rusch as the 6th starter and Hill is the 7th starter. Keep Hill @ Iowa and let him start instead of letting him rust away in the Cub bullpen.

With the way Cub pitchers get hurt, they need a 6th starter. I'd rather see Rusch than the trio of crap sandwiches, Welly, Mitre and Koronka (or whatever the h his name is). Bring him back as a long reliever/starter.

People want to address obp yet bring back one of the biggest obp killers. If Nomar goes down again, the Cubs are stuck w/ a backup again. Yes, Cedeno could be alright, but as goony says, there's no guarantee of that. Who is the OBP killer you are talking about? The guy who posted an obp of .000 for 100 games this year. Let him go to LA and sit on their DL. Bonds had an OBP of .000 during that same stretch last year. I'd take him and Nomar next year. I'll take that gamble. I'll remember this discussion. If you're right I'll applaud you @ the end of next year. If wrong, I'll give you a some Dusty treatment. :) I take it you spend a lot of time @ Barona. ;)

Lawton bombed, but as bad as he bombed as the Cubs lead off hitter, he wasn't any worse than Patterson, Perez and Macias. Between the 4, they had OBP's of .263, .263, .269 and .270. Lawton had the .269. This horrible combination accounted for 354 at bats in the lead off spot. The only thing that salvaged what might have been the all time worst OBP from a lead off spot from any team in the history of baseball was Jerry Hairston Jr. The Cubs waited too long to try and do something about the glaring hole at the top of the line up. What's worse is they had in house candidates that either sat on the bench or played at the bottom. I applauded the effort to fix the problem in going after Lawton, but they were basically already done by that point anyway. When Lawton didn't work out, they could have kept searching (Murton, Murton, Murton), but went back to has beens and never was's in Perez and Macias. Perhaps Murton was better off batting 6th and 7th. There's not as much pressure as batting 2nd. Perhaps you just like to argue for no particular reason. Check Murton's OBP when hitting at the top of the order. He didn't get many at bats, but the few he did were WAY, WAY, WAY better than Neifi, Macias, Lawton and Patterson. Also, look at how well Neifi does at the bottom of the order. Some people are just better suited to hit at the top of the order and others are better suited to hit at the bottom. It's a manager's job to find each guys niche. Most of Dusty's homework was already done for him, however. Neifi has never been a good candidate to hit at the top of the order. Yet, he did it anyway. Our best lead off option never hit lead off all year. Todd Walker. He had 2 lead off at bats in 2005, compared to 100 in the 6 hole. I don't mind you wishing to argue with me, as it helps me further my point. But, some of these arguments are getting a bit lame. You can either show some patience at the plate or you can't. Murton can, Neifi can't. By that deduction alone, Murton is a better candidate to hit at the top of the order. Period! Just to point out how wrong you are about how much more difficult it is for a rookie to hit at the top of the order, Cedeno got 24 at bats in the 2 hole this year, and he hit .292 with a .346 OBP. Once again, way better than Macias, Neifi, Patterson or Lawton. Was Dusty so magical that he could pick the spots that these guys would succeed? If he were that magical, why did this team suck so bad last year? He had his opportunities to try something new (like giving the rookies more top of the order at bats for Lee), but Cedeno and Murton were slid aside for the wonderfully talented at nothing, Jose Macias. PERHAPS, I'm just more willing to give Baker & Hendry the benefit of the doubt from time to time. They've been around the game for a long time. I'm just a mere armchair coach. I know it's in vogue to rip Baker for everything, but I respect that he played the game, and maybe it is a good idea not to throw a prospect into the deep end of the pool. Perhaps it's a good idea for Baker to watch and learn how Bobby Cox threw all 17 of his rookies last year into the deep end of the pool, on their way to another 1st place finish. Different coaching philosophies. One worked quite well. One doesn't. One even has the opportunity to CORRECT his flawed thinking after the 3rd or 4th day in a row of 1-8 .125 OBP from the top two spots in the line up (Macias/Perez) while Lee went 4-4 again. I've made mistakes a 2nd or 3rd time before. I'm human. But, he does them over and over and sits there scratching his head wondering what the problem is. THE PROBLEM IS LETTING BAD HITTERS HIT. Atlanta's farm systems is light years ahead of the Cubs. Bobby Cox has it made. Schuerholtz or whoever runs that system is a drafting god.

People want to address obp yet bring back one of the biggest obp killers. If Nomar goes down again, the Cubs are stuck w/ a backup again. Yes, Cedeno could be alright, but as goony says, there's no guarantee of that. "If" Nomar goes down. "If" Furcal blows out an achilles tendon rounding 1st trying to stretch a single into a double, we'll be stuck with Cedeno as a back up. Hey, I'm in favor of getting Furcal AND Nomar, and keeping Cedeno as well. Every team in baseball doesn't have a star player backing up their starting star player. Not going to happen. Nomar is an injury risk. But, because he's an injury risk, he'll come cheaper, for less years and can provide + offensive potential for the dollar. It's worth the risk. Furcal will cost you bigger dollars, longer years and he could just as easily turn into a long term injury risk. How often did Nomar get injured early in his career? Nomar, an OBP killer? That's a new one. The guy has twice finished a season with an OBP OVER .400. He typically finishes a season with a higher AVG than many peoples (like Macias/Perez) OBP. Come on. "Stop gaps" and "getting guys on the cheap" cause they're injury prone is what has got this team into trouble in the past. Furcal's A LOT less likely to get hurt.

People want to address obp yet bring back one of the biggest obp killers. If Nomar goes down again, the Cubs are stuck w/ a backup again. Yes, Cedeno could be alright, but as goony says, there's no guarantee of that. Who is the OBP killer you are talking about? The guy who posted an obp of .000 for 100 games this year. Let him go to LA and sit on their DL.

Lawton bombed, but as bad as he bombed as the Cubs lead off hitter, he wasn't any worse than Patterson, Perez and Macias. Between the 4, they had OBP's of .263, .263, .269 and .270. Lawton had the .269. This horrible combination accounted for 354 at bats in the lead off spot. The only thing that salvaged what might have been the all time worst OBP from a lead off spot from any team in the history of baseball was Jerry Hairston Jr. The Cubs waited too long to try and do something about the glaring hole at the top of the line up. What's worse is they had in house candidates that either sat on the bench or played at the bottom. I applauded the effort to fix the problem in going after Lawton, but they were basically already done by that point anyway. When Lawton didn't work out, they could have kept searching (Murton, Murton, Murton), but went back to has beens and never was's in Perez and Macias. Perhaps Murton was better off batting 6th and 7th. There's not as much pressure as batting 2nd. Perhaps you just like to argue for no particular reason. Check Murton's OBP when hitting at the top of the order. He didn't get many at bats, but the few he did were WAY, WAY, WAY better than Neifi, Macias, Lawton and Patterson. Also, look at how well Neifi does at the bottom of the order. Some people are just better suited to hit at the top of the order and others are better suited to hit at the bottom. It's a manager's job to find each guys niche. Most of Dusty's homework was already done for him, however. Neifi has never been a good candidate to hit at the top of the order. Yet, he did it anyway. Our best lead off option never hit lead off all year. Todd Walker. He had 2 lead off at bats in 2005, compared to 100 in the 6 hole. I don't mind you wishing to argue with me, as it helps me further my point. But, some of these arguments are getting a bit lame. You can either show some patience at the plate or you can't. Murton can, Neifi can't. By that deduction alone, Murton is a better candidate to hit at the top of the order. Period! Just to point out how wrong you are about how much more difficult it is for a rookie to hit at the top of the order, Cedeno got 24 at bats in the 2 hole this year, and he hit .292 with a .346 OBP. Once again, way better than Macias, Neifi, Patterson or Lawton. Was Dusty so magical that he could pick the spots that these guys would succeed? If he were that magical, why did this team suck so bad last year? He had his opportunities to try something new (like giving the rookies more top of the order at bats for Lee), but Cedeno and Murton were slid aside for the wonderfully talented at nothing, Jose Macias. PERHAPS, I'm just more willing to give Baker & Hendry the benefit of the doubt from time to time. They've been around the game for a long time. I'm just a mere armchair coach. I know it's in vogue to rip Baker for everything, but I respect that he played the game, and maybe it is a good idea not to throw a prospect into the deep end of the pool.

People want to address obp yet bring back one of the biggest obp killers. If Nomar goes down again, the Cubs are stuck w/ a backup again. Yes, Cedeno could be alright, but as goony says, there's no guarantee of that.

Believe it or not I would prefer to see our OF talent be upgraded via trade if we can't get Giles to a good deal. If they can't get Giles, they have to upgrade via trade. Status quo is completely unacceptable. No way can we go into the season with our OF the way it is right now. If we do, Hendry will be exposed. Not even just the way it is right now. To me, status quo is replacing Burnitz with somebody like Wilson or Jones, and settling on a second rate CF as well. They need somebody who is a real threat to have a 900+ OPS next season to play right, and is practically a guarantee for a .360+ OBP. Only 5 rightfielders had an ops over .850 this year (Vlad, Giles, Sheff, Abreu, and Jenkins). The Cubs have little shot @ any of these guys. yep. they have the ability to outbid anyone for giles, yet they have "little shot"? okay. How long you been a Cub fan?? Hopefully, you're not one of the people who got bamboozled into thinking there was a legit shot @ Beltran last year.

If you put together the right trade package, any of Ramirez, Dunn, Jones, Burrell, Jenkins, Abreu, Floyd or Winn from your list above are obtainable. Plus the free agent Brian Giles of course. If the Cubs had a better farm system, I'd me more optimistic. Jmo but Giles, Abreu, Manny and Dunn are all major longshots.

Of those who had enough at-bats to qualify, there were 20 outfielders who had an ops of .846 or higher. Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay, Vlad, Cabrera, Griffey, Berkman, Dunn, Andruw Jones, Giles, Pat Burrell, Sheffield, G. Jenkins, Delucci, Abreu, Bobby Holiday, Cliff Floyd, Matsui, Randy Winn and Jermaine Dye. How many of these guys do the Cubs have a legit shot at?? Floyd?? Burrell?? Delucci?? Iirc Winn and Dye are signed for another year, and the majority of these guys are going nowhere. Taking the slim pickings into consideration, guys like Jacques Jones and Preston Wilson don't look so horrible.

This is ridiculous. Our chances of signing Giles are I'd say, roughly, about a bazillion times better than our chances of landing ARod. Let's assume the Yankees are stupider than we think they are, and trade ARod because "he's not a true Yankee." What would we offer that they would accept in a trade? Aramis, Prior, and Pie? The situation is similar, though not nearly as extreme, with Manny. Floyd is more realistic. But it's worth pointing out that all we have to give up to get Giles is money. Which we have a lot of. Yes, it's true that he might sign for less to play somewhere else, but I'm sure he realizes that this team is (for all of our griping) only a few steps away from being big time contenders. And he would be one of those steps. Couple of problems... Giles has a choice over where he goes. Sure Manny, Arod and Floyd can block a trade, but I doubt any of them would. As for merely "giving up money," Floyd and Arod are probably alot more attractive to the Trib. Arod has a lot more marketing potential, and Floyd has a Trib friendly 1 year deal. Manny's deal probably will have less years remaining than Giles.

Our chances for landing Giles are much greater than landing those other players. To get Giles, you must simply outbid the other teams. Many other factors play into a trade that do not play into landing a FA. That doesn't mean we will get Giles. In fact, as I've stated before, I'm skeptical that we will. I just don't see him as the target that Hendry will pursue. On the other hand, the Cubs will have available to them the financial resources to outbid nearly any other team, which makes our chances good if he were a target. Simply outbid eh. Well, there's a huge problem for starters....

I think we can get Jenkins actually. And he wouldn't be a terrible option if we don't get Giles. For who?

Lawton bombed, but as bad as he bombed as the Cubs lead off hitter, he wasn't any worse than Patterson, Perez and Macias. Between the 4, they had OBP's of .263, .263, .269 and .270. Lawton had the .269. This horrible combination accounted for 354 at bats in the lead off spot. The only thing that salvaged what might have been the all time worst OBP from a lead off spot from any team in the history of baseball was Jerry Hairston Jr. The Cubs waited too long to try and do something about the glaring hole at the top of the line up. What's worse is they had in house candidates that either sat on the bench or played at the bottom. I applauded the effort to fix the problem in going after Lawton, but they were basically already done by that point anyway. When Lawton didn't work out, they could have kept searching (Murton, Murton, Murton), but went back to has beens and never was's in Perez and Macias. Perhaps Murton was better off batting 6th and 7th. There's not as much pressure as batting 2nd.

Believe it or not I would prefer to see our OF talent be upgraded via trade if we can't get Giles to a good deal. If they can't get Giles, they have to upgrade via trade. Status quo is completely unacceptable. No way can we go into the season with our OF the way it is right now. If we do, Hendry will be exposed. Not even just the way it is right now. To me, status quo is replacing Burnitz with somebody like Wilson or Jones, and settling on a second rate CF as well. They need somebody who is a real threat to have a 900+ OPS next season to play right, and is practically a guarantee for a .360+ OBP. Only 5 rightfielders had an ops over .850 this year (Vlad, Giles, Sheff, Abreu, and Jenkins). The Cubs have little shot @ any of these guys.

The Cubs started the season w/ Patterson, Walker and Nomar @ the top of the order. Not bad at all. Things fell apart pretty quickly w/ Walker and Nomar getting hurt and Patterson really struggling. Then Hendry tried to fix things w/ the trade for Lawton, which some prefer to absolutely ignore. Unfortunately, Lawton choked big time. Nothing went right this year. Yet ironically some want to bring back Nomar & Walker and count on those two again. Those two's lack of durability and the subpar pitching were the big problems. It sounds like Hendry's on the right path by going after Furcal and another starter. Matt Clement was nothing special, but his loss really hurt this year. Yes the Maddux signing was not great, but who would have replaced him @ a cheaper cost?? Wellemeyer? Mitre? Rich Hill? Angel Guzman? Guess they could have never signed Maddux and brought back Clement, but there's not much of a gain there.

How would you like Lofton at 2/$6m, along with Wilson for 2/$10-14m? Because that's probably the type of people Hendry thinks would help this team. How do you know what Hendry thinks (assuming that's a typo), and yes, I know you said "probably"? Just basing it on his history of overpaying for mediocrity, and ignoring the BB/OBP problem on this team. Lofton, in theory, isn't a bad option. But if Kenny gets more than 1 year, or more than $1-2 million, and he's guaranteed the CF/leadoff job, no matter how he performs, it's a bad move. I actually think it would be kind of interesting to have Corey/Kenny/Greenberg battling for CF. But that would only be acceptable if they go big in RF. And going off Hendry's history, I'm not certain he'd solve that RF problem with an impact bat. Besides Burnitz what history is there?? Choi for Lee? Signing Walker? Trading for Nomar? Trading for ARam and Lofton? Giving DuBois a shot in LF? Giving Patterson a million shots in CF? Trading for Barrett?? Trading for Lawton? Neifi Perez was never signed to start btw. Contrary to your continual revision of history, Hendry has a clue.

Not saying Jones is that sensational or that he should be a #1 priority but there's not any guarantee that Giles or any other names floated on this board are dying to come to the Cubs. Point = Cubs fans need to be flexible and realistic. Jacque Jones SPLIT OBP SLG OPS Season 319 .438 .757 Career .327 .455 .792 U wisely comprehend that there are 29 other teams competing in the free agency market w/ the Cubs. Add everything up and the Cubs have a better shot @ getting ARod, Manny or Floyd than Giles. Also, I can live w/ an outfield of Murton, Bradley and Jones, if the middle of the infield is Castillo and Furcal. The White Sox, Angels and Houston have been successful w/ less offense, and the Cardinals offense is not all that prolific w/ Sanders, Walker, Molina, Grudz and whoever play 3b in it.