don_kessinger_was_good

If Rich Hill is so damn valuable that Hendry wouldn't use him in trade this winter, then we isn't he penciled in as the 5 starter right NOW. The guy is 26 years old already, what are they thinking, maybe he'll blossom when he's thirty? Idiot Cubs, as usual.

If Tampa throws in a mid-level interesting prospect, I'd do it. Lugo can match Walker in BA and OBP, Walker has a big advantage in SLG, true. And he hits LH. But Lugo is a superior defensive player and don't forget, he can run like crazy, too. 39 SBs in 2005, how would that look with Pierre's likely 50+ from the leadoff spot? Have the Cubs EVER featured speed like that at the top of their order in the modern era? Dernier and Sandberg is about the only 1-2 I can think of that would. Meanwhile, Walker is a slug on the basepaths. I like Jerome, but honestly--when Wood returns, the Cubs have SEVEN, if not EIGHT (Guzman), starting pitchers. They can afford to move one. Still, Jerome is no slug, so to even things out yes, I would like a prospect coming back too, please. For those not liking the trade idea, keep in mind Boston is supposedly dangling Andy Marte as an alternative. Marte is one of the top five prospects in all of baseball, he's a lot more valuable than Walker + Williams. So you have to offer SOME value to get a deal done. Now, you wanna make me REALLY happy? Expand the deal to include Matt Murton and Aubrey Huff. :D

Who cares about Wood, he's always hurt and you can't count on him for anything. 10 more months and he'll be out of Chicago for good. How many innings pitched and victories did the Cubs get for their $45MM, I'm just curious. Biggest contract bust in Chicago baseball history? Yep, that's safe to say.

The reports are/were that Hendry didn't have to pay $13MM a year to get Furcal. He only needed to offer $10MM for 5 years, and either he or the Trib said no. The reported best deal they made was 47.5/5. So the Cubs cheaped out for $500K, or roughly 1/6th of Neifi F. Perez' salary. I'm not the world's biggest Furcal fan, but I'd sure rather him on the team and batting 2nd then Neifi. Ugh. And need I point out, my payroll estimate at this point assuming Walker is gone is $93MM. If indeed the payroll cap for the Cubs is $100MM, then let's see.....Furcal at $10MM, less Perez at $3MM, equals $7MM. Lovely. Talk to the sig......

You can't look at payroll and salaries like "Sammy's $16MM is gone, we can get player X for the same now," it doesn't work like that. Some players are under prior contract and make more money in the later years than the earlier years. You'd characterize that as "no change" in the team, but it IS more money spent. For example, Wood is making $12MM for 2006, it was $11MM last year. Lee makes $1MM more in 2006. Ramirez I think it's $500K. Point is, those little things add up. Then there's arbitration raises to existing players. Zambrano, Prior, Hairston combined expect $5MM in new money. Next, more money to players you already have via new contracts. Dempster gets a $3MM raise. Williamson $1.7MM. Rusch $1MM. Neifi $500K. Add those things up. With no change in personnel there, the payroll has increased by roughly $14MM. There's most of your Sosa money. You can say that many of these personnel implications were bad decisions, and I won't argue with you one bit. But that's a different argument. Finally, assuming Walker is not on the team, and assuming no highly paid veteran is brought in to take his place, I have payroll right now at $93MM. Too bad there's no one around worth spending $7MM on at this point, absent any unexpected trades.

If Boston trades Marte for Lugo, they're dumb.

Fire 'em. Now.

If Hairston is given the righthanded pitcher part of the platoon it might be OK, if memory serves, Hairston has reverse splits while as Neifi! is decent batting righthanded versus lefties. Nope, that was only last year. For his career, Hairston has a modest 20 point advantage in BA and SLG against LHP compared to RHP. The numbers are close enough that's there no real advantage to him going against lefty or righty. Though Dusty won't see it that way of course. Neifi has the same, miserable 300 OBP against LHP and RHP. The split difference for him is in SLG, where he typically gets 50 to 70 points advantage against LHP. Not enough to warrant him getting PT, but it should be noted that against lefties, Neifi's typical OPS of 725 to 750 becomes marginally acceptable if he hits low in the order.

yeah living in kansas city I hope to get to see billy a little this year either in witchita or kc. But, I guess the doug meinkeiwitz signing has blocked that for the time being. I'm pretty sure he'll start the season in AA Wichita. If he continues to post good numbers, a promotion to Omaha is likely, and maybe a late season September call-up. But 2007 is the year he'll likely hit the bigs.

Sutter has stated he wants to go in the hall as a Cardinal, which sucks. But given how close his Cubs vs. Cardinals games are, I'm betting the hall gives him his wish. Sutter was yet another Cub star who was shafted by the skinflint PK Wrigley, and left town with a chip on his shoulder. In arbitration, the Cubs offered him $350K, the arbiter awarded him $700K; no surprise, since Sutter had just won the freaking Cy Young Award. Mr. Wrigley had Sutter shipped out of town almost immediately thereafter. We got the coke head Leon Durham in exchange, along with the incredibly bad Ken Reitz. Sutter rocked.

what do you want him to say? 'i suck. i can't get on base, i strike out too much, and i'm incredibly lazy. maybe i should quit.' That would be refreshing.

BTW, gotta love Rotoworld's take on the Macias "six teams" news blurb:

For once, a Phil Rogers column that makes a lot of sense. Nothing we haven't said on this site before of course, many many times, but nice to see someone in the media putting the blame not only on Patterson--who deserves a lot of it--but on Baker and Hendry and the Cubs organization as well. A piece making nice about Don Baylor, who knew? http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-060109rogers,1,1354654.column?coll=cs-cubs-utility

If Harvey was "all that", don't you think he'd have progressed farther and faster by now, with improved numbers? I don't see anything encouraging from his 2005 performance, and he's still a long ways from the major leagues. He's yet another free swinging hacker. The kid has tons of power, but if he can't do better than this, where's the excitement? 2006 is make-or-break year for him. If he doesn't progress impressively, he's a bust. That seems to be a bit dire for someone who didn't turn 21 until the very end of the season at Low A. A .275/.335/.500 line isn't very unfeasible at all, and would be a fine line for a 21 year old at High A. He has shown no progress in plate discipline. The K's are exceedingly high. His speed, cannon arm, and power are exciting, but if he never learns how to get on base....his progression arc looks too much like some other Cub prospects who we will not name.

I think Corey was misquoted. What he meant to say was "If I can ever learn to get on base, and learn how to use my speed to successfully steal bases, then I could really help a team."

Wow. SIX teams?? The stupidity of some GMs just never fails to amaze me. You'd think KW would know better though.

If Harvey was "all that", don't you think he'd have progressed farther and faster by now, with improved numbers? I don't see anything encouraging from his 2005 performance, and he's still a long ways from the major leagues. He's yet another free swinging hacker. The kid has tons of power, but if he can't do better than this, where's the excitement? 2006 is make-or-break year for him. If he doesn't progress impressively, he's a bust.

Actually, as memory serves me, they either have or could potentially have a heck of a lot more than five guys for those four spots within the next year. Delmon Young. Plus returnees Gomes, Crawford, Huff, and Gathright. And now Baldelli is back (and under contract) after his injury. If the Rays really are budget strapped, then Huff is the one that needs to go, he'll make $5MM+ in 2006. If they're serious about keeping BJ Upton at SS, then they should move Lugo, too. But this is Tampa we're talking about, an incredibly intransigent organization. There may be new ownership, but they seem just as reluctant to trade talent as they've ever been. Too bad, too.

Ugh. Typical draft in that some of the players that turn out the best are drafted low. Ohman has made himself into a major league LOOGY, and Hinske won ROY. Poor Nate Frese, he was climbing the ladder nicely until he ripped up his legs. Patterson and Kelton though, colossal busts, and any draft where your 1st and 2nd rounders fail has to be considered a huge failure. Which is also why recent drafts look so painful as well. Bobby Brownlie? Ryan Harvey? Grant Johnson? Not exactly inspiring. I am however pumped about Pawelek from last year, hope for once the Cubs can keep a young pitcher healthy.

Are you a trade the farm for Dunn guy, Don? Just curious. Nope. Dunn doesn't excite me all that much. He's a slugger yes, but so was Dave Kingman. People fixate on Dunn's OBP, and it is nice, but that's in part because for a long time he's been surrounded in the Cincy lineup with weak bats--we've all seen teams pitch around Dunn. When Cincy managers batted Dunn lower in the order, like 5th, that only compounds matters because now you're DEFINITELY going to walk him, or at least give him nothing good to hit, because you have decidedly weaker bats following him. There aren't many guys I'd "trade the farm" for, Dunn isn't one of them. Of course, a cynic could point out that our farm doesn't have a lot of value, so why NOT trade it away, but that is a different question and a different thread.

Leverage, what leverage? As Bruce Miles stated on this forum just a few days ago Corey was not a hot name at all throughout the baseball world. I am seeing more and more us Cub fans value players much more than they are worth. How was JH supposed to get quality talent in return when he was giving up someone who everyone knew had a horrible year and frankly hasn't done much since his knee injury. The baseball world, heck even the casual Cubs fan knew Corey needed to go. He has talent, no doubt...but how many 23, 24, 25 year old ballplayers have a world of talent yet can't seem to put it together for love or money? Much more than the players who stand out and become legitimate players throughout MLB. Think about it, JH traded Sosa for a decent player in JHJ. Sosa might end up shinning shoes again this spring as no team has interest in him. He traded Hawkins for a potential 4/5 starter in Williams. Other than the Farnsy trade and possibly the Juan Cruz trade, JH has done well IMO. I would take issue that the Farnsworth trade wasn't decent. We all knew the Cubs would let Farns walk in free agency anyways. Getting ANYTHING for him would be a bonus. But the Cubs got a little something worthwhile, which is better than just anything. Scott Moore is a former 1st round pick who, while his big league prospects are weak, has jumped into most folks' Top 15 Cubs prospects lists. Roberto Novoa is a serviceable middle reliever. Bo Flowers I'll give you is nothing. The only deal besides Patterson that Hendry literally gave someone away was Cruz for Pratt and Lewis. That one sucked, regardless of the fact that Cruz clearly is never going to be the stud big league starter everyone thought he would be. In fact, it's safe to say he's a bust at this point, seeing how he's 27 years old. Still, Andy Pratt, what a joke that was.

I will only add that it's very difficult to re-teach a 26 year-old with five years big league experience how to swing correctly through the strike zone. Until Patterson corrects that upper-cut, he is doomed. Let him figure that out elsewhere, honestly, I think the Cubs gave him plenty of chances. You can argue he wasn't given proper instruction, and I wouldn't deny that. But results matter, and it really was time for the Cubs to move on. If he figures it out eventually for someone else, then bully for him. I'm only disappointed that we got such crap prospects in exchange. Hendry couldn't even score Majewski for a major leaguer?

Assuming your numbers are right, I'd replace Rusch with AJB or Millwood rather than Neifi. I think I'm in the minority, but I think he's a perfectly fine backup IF. The only problem comes if he's counted upon in a starting role, which I'm still hoping against. The crime here is that Hendry puts a product this inferior on the field with so much money to spend. A pretty damnable indictment if you ask me.

Has there been any confirmation that the Cubs are NOT paying the O's any money to take Patterson off our hands? So long as that's the case, I'm satisfied with the move. Patterson has no value right now, and by tendering, Hendry at least got a marginal SS prospect and potential future big league utility infielder. That's better than nothing, if Patterson would have been non-tendered. If Hendry paid Baltimore ANY money though, it's a bad deal. Given how low these prospects were on Baltimore's depth chart, I'd have to think that's why there is no money changing hands. So once Walker leaves, I have the payroll at $93MM, figuring $5MM for Z and Prior, $6MM for Pierre, and $1.5MM for Hairston in arbitration. So with $7MM on the table, if Hendry hadn't signed Neifi he'd have the money to acquire AJ Burnett, do I have that about right?

I don't quibble with your argument at all, except to say that when healthy, Vidro is quite a bit better offensive player than Walker. Regardless, I was simply posing that between these three options, and recognizing that the Cubs want Walker gone, period, for better of worse, than which of the three is the least problematic? 1. Neifi Perez/Jerry Hairston Jr. split job 2. Fonzie 3. Jose Vidro If Vidro's knee is functional, he's the best of those three options.