UMFan83

That one was bad, but it wasn't monumentally bad. Not nearly as ridiculous as Rollins winning it this year, IMO. Sosa was 7th in VORP that year and a whopping 36 runs worse than McGwire. Cubs made the playoffs, Cardinals didnt? Just trying to look at it how the voters did. Obviously statistically his OBP, SLG, VORP, OPS+ were worse than Big Macs.

Is the report true Bruce that Hendry wants Matsui to be the full-time starter at second and move DeRosa to a utility player? Does he want either one of them to be the SS? Neither one for SS. Probably split time at second between Matsui and DeRosa and have DeRosa fill in at third and right when needed. I understand the strategy. I really do. Lou really liked the ability of DeRosa to play all over, and wasn't thrilled with having to put a Cedeno in at 2B and Derosa in there at 3B there everytime Ramirez needed a day off (like he always does and will next year) or Floyd was hurt. But DeRosa seemed to be the model teammate last season, he had a good year statistically, and was pretty much promised to be the starting 2B when he signed here but made no complaints when he was moved around the field. Plus Kaz Matsui? If you are going to get a backup/platoon 2B, NOT Kaz Matsui. Pathetic.

Worst MVPs in recent memory: 2007 - Rollins, Phi (NL) 2006 - Morneau, Min (AL) 2002 - Tejada, Oak (AL) 2001 - Ichiro, Sea (AL) 2000 - Kent, SF (NL)

Any justification as to why?

I just noticed that....good stuff! Soriano got 39 Ramirez got 36 Marmol got 1

I read somewhere 1.5 mil

They must have thrown a boatload at him to get him to leave for the Hawks, unless he grew up a huge Hawks fan and this was his dream job. Great move for the Hawks. If he can even do half of what he did for the Cubs marketing wise, it will make the Blackhawks a much better organization.

That confuses me if true. Either he didn't want the job long term, or the new potential owners are forcing him out. I thought the Trib was happy with the job he did in his first year. Interesting stuff. If true, I hope for the best for John.

Pardon? A 33 year old SS? The Angels rotation is ridiculous now Lackey Escobar Garland Weaver Santana The White Sox...ehhh not so much Buehrle Vazquez Danks Contraras? Floyd?

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2007/02/12/1171296729_0298.jpg http://media.scout.com/Media/Image/18/180204.jpg Eh, who cares DLee was part of the 03 Marlins that killed a generation of Cubs fans

Matt Kartchner for Orlando Cabrera?

Looking at the pics on BCB...it doesnt look like there is much room for the bullpens with the expanded warning track. http://images.bleedcubbieblue.com/images/admin/wrigley111807a.jpg

Dusty calls Jim Hendry and convinces him that Soto simply isnt ready to be a starting catcher because 'you need veterans to catch dude'. Jimbo resigns Kendall for 3/20 to play catcher 158 games a year.

I seem to recall a few years ago Choi doing well in his winter league. I seem to recall a few years ago Choi doing well in the major leagues. I don't recall that... it's true http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/choihe01.shtml I remember all the sigs and threads about Choi vs. Lee in 2004. Funny stuff.

Why are people shocked? The Cubs have shown interest in every LH hitting OF out there. Doesn't mean that he's our first choice.

DAMN YOU JIM HENDRY! YOU COULD HAVE SIGNED AROD AND YOU DIDNT! Jim Hendry just set the team back at least 5 years with his inaction. Come talk to me when Omar @(#$@ Infante hits 40+ HRs. Did he not play enough positions for you Jimbo?? Was he not fast enough for you Donut Boy! All he had to do was offer him 8 years, $500 million and the Cubs have a HOF SS/3B. But nooo...stupid Jim Hendry is over in Japan drooling over Mr. Tools Fukudome and the rest of his Asian buddys. I hate this team!!! (by the way, completely kidding)

Is this a guess? If that is the case, why would a writer or the Cubs consider it newsworthy? I was looking at the transactions from last year and there is no mention of Prior or Wood being activated from the 60 day DL in November/December. Haha, I love the hotstove season.

Who is this? Are we talking about the guy who hit 16 HRs and slugged 560 after the all star break? And he hit 46 in 2005

I know its hypothetical, but I like playing Devil's Advocate 1. OK 2. Not sure if LA would do that. Although they are not smart enough to play Loney and Kemp, I think they know the value that they hold. A 32 year old 1B with declining power and speed that is being paid $10 million (?) a season is not the value they would be looking for 3. Also not sure. I think they are not committed to trading Chamberlain or holding onto him for a player like Cabrera. Don't get me wrong, ARam is a really nice player and Soriano provides good value, but with their contracts (and trust me the Yankees aren't as careless as they used to be) they arent in the same league as Cabrera or ARod. Then again, acquiring 2 potential 40 HR guys under the age of 33 for just Chamberlain and Cano might be enticing. 4. OK, but not sure where Infante adds to the trade. 5. Not in a million years would the Twins take that package. 6. I'd probably rather Andruw Jones in that situation, but ok.

Rickey Henderson career OBP: .401 Carl Crawford career OBP: .331 This was one of the biggest parts of Henderson's game. Crawford is NOT Rickey

C'mon man, there are 168 hours in a week. 80 hours at your job, plus 56 hours sleeping leaves you an entire 32 extra hours a week to fix all of the boards problems. Thats almost 4.5 hours a day!

No. I think JH's plan should be getting a good corner OF whether it be Fukudome, Crawford, Guillen and the committing to Pie in Center. Cheap option that could put up decent to good numbers with great defense. If Pie really flops, you can always make a deadline deal.

Not sure what career numbers you're using for Kosuke. I'm going with the numbers from this site: http://japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=1064 .305/.397/.543 Multiplying that out by those factors gives: .292/.369/.462/.831 Pretty much a Carl Crawford equivalent, but older and without the steals. Straight up, I'd rather have Carl. Given the cost of acquisition and contracts, I'm not sure. Depends on the package required to bring Crawford to the Cubs and what Kosuke would sign for. You are concluding that Fukudome's CAREER number projections are comparable to what Crawford would put up right now (last year his OPS was .821, 10 points less than Fukudome's career projected career numbers in the US) If you compare Crawford's last 3 years with Fukudome's (when reduced to US ball), there is no comparison. Plus, everyone is making it seem like Fukudome is so old at 30. Lee is 31, ARod is 32, Ramirez will be 30 this season. Again, not that Fukudome is in the level of those players, but 30 is right in their peak years. We are taking about giving a 4 year contract to a 30 year old. How much regression do you think you'll see at 34? Not much We're just saying that if you want to use Fukudome's last 3 years compared to Crawford's, that's fine. You have to use a different reduction system though then the one you linked, because that one uses career numbers. You can't say that all these Japanese players hit 93% of their career numbers so Fukudome is going to hit 93% of his numbers in his prime. That's comparing apples and oranges. You either have to use career numbers, or translate everybody's numbers again that came over from Japan using their last 3 year data. Yes, I realized that after you pointed that out. It did just temper my excitement on Fukudome a bit, especially when looking at the numbers Matsui put up before and after his move. Considering Matsui was still a 30 HR hitter when he came to the Yankees, and his OBP dropped that much makes we wonder whether a .370 projection would be expected.

Not sure what career numbers you're using for Kosuke. I'm going with the numbers from this site: http://japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=1064 .305/.397/.543 Multiplying that out by those factors gives: .292/.369/.462/.831 Pretty much a Carl Crawford equivalent, but older and without the steals. Straight up, I'd rather have Carl. Given the cost of acquisition and contracts, I'm not sure. Depends on the package required to bring Crawford to the Cubs and what Kosuke would sign for. You are concluding that Fukudome's CAREER number projections are comparable to what Crawford would put up right now (last year his OPS was .821, 10 points less than Fukudome's career projected career numbers in the US) If you compare Crawford's last 3 years with Fukudome's (when reduced to US ball), there is no comparison. Plus, everyone is making it seem like Fukudome is so old at 30. Lee is 31, ARod is 32, Ramirez will be 30 this season. Again, not that Fukudome is in the level of those players, but 30 is right in their peak years. We are taking about giving a 4 year contract to a 30 year old. How much regression do you think you'll see at 34? Little to none. I'm concluding nothing of the sort. I'm merely fixing a math/reporting error. I also said nothing about regression. But if I can choose between two players with similar production & cost, one of which is 26 and one 30, I'm going to pick the 26 year old everytime. It may not be a huge factor, but it shouldn't be ignored, either. Understood...your post compared Crawford with Fukudome based on (i'm assuming) Crawford's last 2-3 years not his career numbers. With that, it seemed that you were saying that they would produce equally...but all of those projections use statistics from one Fukudome was 21-22 years old, not his peak numbers. Its not very relevant to use Fukudome's numbers from 8 years ago when projecting how he will do today. Thus, I would conclude that Fukudome would put up better numbers than Crawford, and there is no need to compare a 26 year old to a 30 year old in my mind at least.

Not sure what career numbers you're using for Kosuke. I'm going with the numbers from this site: http://japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=1064 .305/.397/.543 Multiplying that out by those factors gives: .292/.369/.462/.831 Pretty much a Carl Crawford equivalent, but older and without the steals. Straight up, I'd rather have Carl. Given the cost of acquisition and contracts, I'm not sure. Depends on the package required to bring Crawford to the Cubs and what Kosuke would sign for. You are concluding that Fukudome's CAREER number projections are comparable to what Crawford would put up right now (last year his OPS was .821, 10 points less than Fukudome's career projected career numbers in the US) If you compare Crawford's last 3 years with Fukudome's (when reduced to US ball), there is no comparison. Plus, everyone is making it seem like Fukudome is so old at 30. Lee is 31, ARod is 32, Ramirez will be 30 this season. Again, not that Fukudome is in the level of those players, but 30 is right in their peak years. We are taking about giving a 4 year contract to a 30 year old. How much regression do you think you'll see at 34? Not much