Outshined_One

Leverage in negotiating with Furcal.

BA's 2004 Top Ten Prospects per Team report. They said he worked in the 88-92 range, but could dial it up to 95 when the situation called for it.

The fact that Sean Marshall is involved in trade talks is making me leery. Marshall is one of those high ceiling lefties who has performed admirably in the minors. He's had a history of success along with a few minor injuries derailing his numbers and playing time. He's a sinkerballer who can dial it up to the mid-90s. He has good secondary pitches. As far as I can tell, his injuries are unrelated and are not the lingering type. His ceiling is pretty good, to boot. Trading him to the Marlins in a deal for Juan Pierre might not be the best of ideas, imo.

I will officially laugh at anyone who goes ga-ga over Wilkerson, but doesn't want Dunn because of his Ks.

Remember the Todd Ritchie deal and how everyone laughed at the White Sox for how awful of a trade that was? Kinda odd to ponder about considering current circumstances.

I think it's more due to bunting and being able to move the runners over. Don't forget hustle. You gotta have hustle. And good chemistry, imo.

If acquired for a reasonable contract, I wouldn't mind him. That said, he won't get a reasonable contract.

Typical negotiating tactics, imo. If Hendry seemed willing to throw these guys into any given trade, I'd be more worried than if he decided not to trade them at all. Also, we don't know what kind of trade proposals Hendry has gotten involving those guys, save for the Marlins wanting to trade Pierre for Pie. For all we know, the Reds could have offered Hendry Milton for Hill and Murton, among other horrible deals.

They're also apparently in the running for Jim Thome, according to various sources.

Problem with the organizational attitude thing with Dunn and Kearns is two-fold: 1) As I mentioned, new ownership is taking over and will be the majority ownership. Considering there's a new group coming into town, I think that would likely herald a shift in philosophy of the organization...or at the least give Dunn and Kearns one more season to make an assessment. If the current GM, Dan O'Brien, is fired, Dunn and company will likely be choir boys. Also, with new ownership, I'd have to think that they would look to gain the fans' confidence. Shipping their two most talented players off to a divisional rival would be suicide. 2) Dunn and Kearns' main problems were with the Reds' former manager, Dave Miley. Ditto Junior Griffey. The problems with the departure of Danny Graves have been well-documented in Cincy. When Narron came aboard, apparently things eased in Cincy. Casey and Griffey both have the bad contracts. Both managed to up their value this past season. There are teams out there who would be willing to grab both, since I think they'd come cheaper than, say, Lyle Overbay and Carlos Beltran. Finally, Cincy fans don't "love" Cincy, despite what Chippy lead us to believe for many years ("The mayor of Cincinnati, folks!"). There have been plenty of grumblings about his lax attitude in the clubhouse along with certain aspects of his offensive production (DPs). He's expendable, as far as I can tell.

I think it might be a good idea for him to shake off some rust in AA, but I don't know that you make that decision right away. See how he finishes up his winter season, see how he performs in Spring Training, and then evaluate it. A couple months should be enough to help him get some rust off or help strike zone recognition. If he repeats AA, and puts up a BA around .300 again, I would feel very confident if he was able to rise his OBP to .370-.380 range. if he hits .300 with a .350 OBP again I would be worried. Oh, no doubt about it. However, given how he has been performing so far in the winter league (.245/.264/.408/.672, 12 K, 2 BB, 1 HBP through 49 ABs according to the latest update in the Minors forum), it's clear that he's still not 100% and that he still has some work to do. That's pretty much what I was basing that assessment on.

Congrats on the 100th post Ron! ;) Soon you'll be like one of us. All productivity will cease...mwahahahaha!

Stupid, stupid, stupid trade for the Cubs. The White Sox have made a concerted effort to get rid of Marte for some time now; he has no value to the Cubs. Garland is indeed a case for regression to the mean. He could be a decent pitcher and all, but I'd rather drop some coin to pick up a Millwood, Burnett, or a Washburn than ship prospects and Todd Walker off for him.

I never got the rumors that the Reds were looking into trading Adam Dunn. Seriously, looking at their team, you'd think he would be the last guy they would want to trade. Now, I grant you, he is due for a big raise, but he's worth every penny, imo. He's the kind of guy that you build your offense around for years and year to come. They also have Sean Casey and Junior Griffey on the books. They'd be so much better served trading both of them. Heck, if you even move just Casey, you can stick Kearns and Pena at the corners, then move Dunn to 1B where he could at least make use of his freakish height. I'd kill to have him on this team, but it makes no sense that the Reds would want to trade him, much less within their own division.

cough**jasonduboisbandwgn**cough, cough :P Don't forget the original, which ended up crashing into a tree.

Pie is indeed going to be a special player some day. However, there are some misconceptions about him that I see going on in this thread... 1) While Pie has the tools and the potential to be a hitter anywhere in the order, his current ceiling is that of a middle of the order hitter. His ideal ceiling profiles him as being a 25-30 HR hitter with plenty of power to go around. You could potentially make him into a Pierre-like slappy leadoff hitter, but my concern for that is that it would be incorrectly using him because of his power potential, which was coming into play this season in AA. Heck, Pie had one of the longest HRs in Pringle Park (The DJaxx's home field) history. Keep in mind they've have their share of power hitters down there over the years. 2) Pie's bone bruise is something that is a bit of a concern, but it's not something as serious as, say, tearing a muscle. The Cubs were incredibly cautious with him following the injury since they didn't want to rush him back too soon. I think part of the reason why he's been having some trouble in winter ball is because there's rust he has to shake off from missing that amount of playing time. 3) Pie was not ready for CF this season and everyone knew it. Problem is, Jim Hendry was trying to pull rabbits out of his hat (it worked with Murton) because the team was struggling and stagnant. While I think Pie could have made a good impression on the team and might have had some success, I don't want Dusty Baker and his band of merry men anywhere near him. 4) The Southern League (AA) is one of the best pitcher's leagues out there. The Pacific Coat League (AAA), on the other hand, is renowned for its band boxes and hitters' parks. Players do have to adjust to the more advanced pitching, but making that leap is not as hard as, say, from the Midwest League to the Florida State League. In other words, I'm not overly concerned with Pie going to AAA. Now, in my honest opinion, it would behoove the Cubs to have Pie repeat AA to shake off any remaining rust he might have and also to work on him work more specifically on things such as his strike zone discipline and baserunning. Von Joshua is one of the better hitting coaches in the Cubs' system. Pie would benefit from another go-round with him, especially considering he'd still be young for his league. I wouldn't say have Pie repeat AA all season, though. Something more along the lines of having him show he can torment opposing pitchers, then moving him up to AAA shortly thereafter would work well. As for who I would trade Pie for, that list is not that long. Yeah, I know people want to WIN NOW NOW NOW NOW DANGIT, but the fact of the matter is that I think Pie could be a truly special player down the line for the Cubs. I don't want to ship him off to the Marlins for Juan Pierre, only to watch Pie come up with them and have him achieve huge success. How do you feel about the Matt Clement/Alf trade involving Dontrelle Willis? Yeah, Willis was the only guy in that package who panned out for the Marlins (and was considered a throw-in at the time). Clement and Alfonseca were positive guys on the team. But in retrospect, would you have done that trade? Most likely not. That's what a Pie for Pierre swap would be like, imo.

It's not necessarily that he was undeserving; he had quite a good year in all honesty. But the only reason Clemens didn't win it was because he had to deal with some putrid offenses. There were five games the Astros lost 1-0 in which Clemens pitched and got the No Decision. He pitched 7 innings in three of them, 8 in one, and 6 in another. In each start he did not give up a single run. Some other notable stats in the NL: First in ERA (1.87) Third in QS (26) behind Carpenter and Pettitte (tied at 27) Tied for tenth in Ks (185) Second in WHIP (1.01) behind Pedro First in BAA (.198) Although, I think this is comparable to the Oscars when in one year an actor or actress puts up a great performance in a movie, gets nominatd, then gets robbed, and then does another movie that's not quite as good but clearly is made to get that actor/actress an Oscar, and said actor/actress wins the Oscar. Only in reverse. Clemens didn't deserve the Cy Young last season over Johnson and everyone knew it. There wasn't much of a chance of him winning this one from the get-go. Although, as some consolation, at least this isn't as bad as Colon winning it over Santana...

You don't have to be a (s)crappy, short, slap-happy hitter to be an acceptable leadoff hitter. Sure, it'd be nice to have a guy like that who could consistently get on base. But...in all honesty, the main qualities I look for an ideal leadoff hitter are... 1) An OBP around or above .350 2) A concrete idea of the strike zone (i.e. knows when to lay off bad pitches) 3) A willingness to take and/or foul off pitches effectively. 4) Good awareness on the basepaths. Todd Walker exhibits those qualities. Matt Murton does as well. In all honesty, this team already has two guys who could effectively bat 1-2 in the order. They are an incredible step up from the three headed monster that was Corey Patterson, Jose Macias, and Neifi Perez last season. None of those three guys deserved to be in those two slots. I'd be willing to listen to a case for Hairston being in the 2 slot, but leadoff I'm not as much of a fan. Despite these questionable managerial moves, Hendry seems to think the only way to remedy them is to go out and find stereotypical leadoff hitters. I don't think Pierre conforms to all four of those things I laid out above (check out his career pitches per plate appearance and his SB%). Furcal actually fits pretty well into that spectrum, so I wouldn't be too upset with him in a Cubs uniform. The main problem I have with Pierre is I get the feeling Hendry might overpay for Pierre. At a fair price, he'd be a decent addition. However, he's not the ideal addition; not by a longshot.

If things remain equal and trading for Pierre is the only trade Hendry pulls this offseason, I think Hendry won't extend Pierre. Felix Pie does need another year of seasoning down in the minors, but all signs currently indicate that he has tremendous potential. Granted, he could regress or get injured (again) or something along those lines, but at the rate of his current development, I think he would be a tremendous replacement for Pierre when he's ready. Then again, if the Cubs end up trading Pie somewhere, extending Pierre might not be a bad idea...

I'd be fine with Pierre if the Cubs don't overpay for him. He has some value as a leadoff man and a potential speed guy. He's still relatively young. I believe next year is his contract year (could be mistaken on this one) and typically guys tend to put a little bit of extra effort into things in those scenarios. He's not some one I'd be thrilled with, but I'd be okay with the Cubs getting him using a modest package.

I dunno, he was pretty happy to take Barton in the Mulder deal. Barton is arguably going to need another year before coming up to the majors (that remains to be seen). Also, Matt Murton would probably seem like an attractive player to Beane. Whether or not some one would want to trade him is another issue altogether, but there ya go.

If I'm the Athletics, I'm dangling Zito to teams in the NL Central. They have a history with St. Louis via the Mulder deal last offseason. St. Louis' farm system is not very strong, but there are players to be had who could help. Houston might have interest if there's concern for Clemens' health and career. Cincy has new owners who are looking to make a splash. Milwaukee could use a guy like Zito to give them a legit rotation. The Cubs have enough of a history of injury problems that getting some one like Zito would not hurt much. Granted, he won't attract a package like Mulder or Hudson got (Meyer was the #2 LHP prospect in baseball last season, mind you). However, he could still attract a good package that the A's could use.

The Cubs Convention is going to be a madhouse at this rate, especially when they open up the floor to fan questions for Dusty, Hendry, and company. They put themselves willingly through those things, needless to say. Also, if Hendry doesn't have the spine to handle criticism from a large group of people who are not insiders in the baseball world, boohoo. If that were the case, he wouldn't listen to us anyways unless we kissed up to him. Then again, given the fact that Hendry has not won any new Cubs fans with the Rusch and Neifi deals, maybe he wouldn't even listen to us to begin with.

Is that you Lenny Harris?! :shock:

Depends, are you over the age of 30?