brinoch

That's some serious money you're spending between Bonds, Tejada and Fukudome. 30m at least. I know. :) I wasn't really being serious.

A fair point. He'd need his own locker room or something.

The only team he may be playing for is on Mike Vicks. There's no guarantee of that. Of course, there's no guarantee he won't be. But if you're looking for a power-hitting lefty, it's pretty hard not to include Bonds in the conversation. After all, the guy slugged .565 last year. I really don't think the circus he would bring with him would help the Cubs though along with him being a greedy guy and he would probably want 16 a year. Gotta fund that legal defense.... :) He won't get $16M per year. But what is his bat worth to the Cubs?

The only team he may be playing for is on Mike Vicks. There's no guarantee of that. Of course, there's no guarantee he won't be. But if you're looking for a power-hitting lefty, it's pretty hard not to include Bonds in the conversation. After all, the guy slugged .565 last year.

I have one word, just one word: Plastics. Just kidding. We need a lefty? Hmm. We need a power hitter? Hmm. An OF? Hmm. How about... Bonds. Move Soriano to right. Play Bonds in left. Bonds-Pie-Soriano.

Sign Bonds to play left. Spell/Platoon Bonds with Murton. Sign Fukudome to play center. Move Soriano to right. Trade Pie+Marshall+B prospect for Tejada.

I don't see why Schneider is worth anything... but Church has some value. He's an 800+ OPS guy and can play CF. But it's not like he's any better than Milledge, who is also younger. I can see this as a good deal for the Nats -- they never liked Church much and Schneider is terrible. But the Mets? I'm not sure.

Don't mean to argue, but the testing regime won't completely stop it. As I've said over and over, it happens in the Olympics and they supposedly have the toughest testing. And, for every Marion Jones caught, there's probably a dozen that don't get caught. I'm way more pessimistic that anything can completely stop it, but you're right that it should slow it the heck down a bit. You're right, of course. There's no testing system that will catch everything and anything. Testing will always be a reactive process, but strict testing with stiff enough punishment can do a heck of a lot to deter PED's.

This has been talked to death, and I no longer care about who used PED's. I'm sure there were lots of guys who did them. I'm sure there were Cubs who did them, too. But the operative word here is did. Those seasons are in the past. I care about next year, and I care about stopping PED abuse. The testing regime will likely put an end to steroids, at least for a while, and that's all that really matters. After all, it's not like they can or will punish these players ex post facto.

I haven't had time to really look, but is there anyone among the Rule 5 eligibles that might work? Worth a look, in any event.

The problem is that there aren't many upgrade options at SS. True. But, why manufacture a need when your true need is at SS? Next thing you know, we'll need a left-handed, green-eyed nurse to assist the trainer. SS, C, CF, and RF are, realistically, the positions of need. Of those, RF was the best last year, and has the best hitting incumbent. C has Soto, which should stabilize the position and give a decent upgrade in production. That leaves SS and CF. Since the Cubs appear likely to give Pie a chance in CF, that leaves SS. Alternatively, you could sign Fukudome for CF and trade Pie in a package for a SS. I do realize that the Cubs have no love for Murton and are seeking to upgrade over him. The problem is that the available options aren't particular better than he is.

Dave Roberts is also old enough to be Juan Pierre's father. There has been talk that Juan Pierre is available... *ducks* What, Ned? Fine, Kemp and Pierre for Marquis? You have yourself a deal.

Which is why focusing on SS is so important. Upgrades here will do the most for the team -- spend a bunch of money/players to upgrade your greatest need, rather than spend a bunch of money to tread water.

I completely understand why the Cubs want to sign Prior for two years. I also completely understand why Prior wants to hit free agency after the '08 season. Working under the assumption that both the Cubs and Prior are interested in having Prior in Cub uniform for multiple years, what makes sense here is a one-year deal, with an option year for the Cubs. I'd offer $3.5M for this coming season, with incentives for games started at the ML level, and a Cubs option for $10M for the '09 season. There's no real loss to the Cubs, or Prior, in making the option year cost more for the Cubs. If Prior makes it back to 2004/2005 levels, he's surely worth $10M. If he doesn't, then it's probably not worth it to exercise the option.

Kind of like Dusty's Dice?

The SEC is consistently a very good conference with large fan bases in close proximity to many of the bowl sites.

Which is truly painful.

And Phil Rogers is right as usual... and this thread is locked.

I know, I know. It's old news. But, still, everyone will be shocked by this... but Mathis "fell out of favor" with Arena. Really? Arena is such a whiny little favorite-playing schoolgirl. I so hate him.

Freddy, right now, is further along in his development than Geovany dos Santos at Barca. What's even more impressive is that he's scored 5 times in very limited minutes. I'm very glad he's cap-tied. I think we're going to be very happy with the team come South Africa 2010. I'm not a huge Bradley fan, but he's starting the rotation of young talent into the MNT, and that's wonderful to see (and much to his credit). Obviously, we still need to qualify, yadda, yadda, yadda, but I think with some combination of Adu, Altidore, Dempsey, Donovan, Beasley, Feilhaber and Johnson our attacking will be decent. I believe they will score plenty of goals. I'm more worried about our defense right now. By June 2010, here's what the current pool will look like, age-wise: Albright -- 31 Barrett -- 34 Bornstein -- 25 Berhalter -- 36 Bocanegra -- 31 Boswell -- 27 Califf -- 30 Cherundolo -- 31 Conrad -- 33 Convey -- 27 DeMerit -- 30 Gibbs -- 30 Hejduk -- 35 Lewis -- 36 Mastroeni -- 33 Moor -- 26 Mullan -- 32 Namoff -- 31 Onyewu -- 28 Parkhurst -- 26 Pearce -- 25 Purdy -- 25 Simek -- 25 Spector -- 24 Wynne -- 24 My hope is that as some of our guys age, they begin peaking at the right time. Defenders, in particular, peak later than forwards. So, hopefully, in 2010 Bocanegra and Onyewu in particular are at the top of their game (and better than they are right now).

Fabregas and Rooney. John Terry and Micah Richards are in the mix.

Only a 13 point win? That seems like a pretty close game for them considering they were playing ISU. It's hard to say. Projections have Illinois State anywhere between third and seventh in the tough Missouri Valley. This is one that probably can't be accurately judged until much later in the season when we see how good Illinois State really is, but all the buzz is that they are supposed to be much better than normal. I knew ISU was supposed to be decent, but figured a talented IU could at least win by 20. Where was everybody else on offense for IU? Gordon scoring almost their points is nice and all, but not really something you want to see happen often, right? Did you see the game? (I'm assuming not.) I read with tremendous amusement all the Illinois fan griping about officiating the other day -- it might have been warranted, it might not have been. I didn't watch the game, and therefore didn't comment. This game was also marred by extremely poor officiating by the refs. They were very inconsistent and that hurt both teams, but probably impacted IU more. In the end, that inconsistency led to more foul calls than not since no one knew what would be called and what wouldn't be called (47 PF's were called in the game). In any case, IU dominated for a part of the first half, but played uneven and unspectacularly. Crawford, in particular, made a lot of bad decisions with the ball, forcing a lot of bad shots and playing into turnovers. Neither team shot well -- IU was 44.5% from the floor (outside of Gordon, IU shot 37.5% from the floor). I thought ISU played very solid defense, were well-coached, and played a decent game. IU was the better team, and didn't play particularly well. Had they played well, it was a blow-out. Finally, I'm tired of the IU/UI wars, which from my reading last year and this year. In my opinion, they are pretty much caused by UI fans virtually trolling pro-IU posts, but as an IU guy, I might be a bit biased. :) A little jawing here and there in a thread like this is fine, but the battles have really detracted from this thread in both years. From here on out, if you want to have an Indiana/Illinois battle, that's fine, but create a separate thread for it. Let's tamp things down a bit in this particular thread, however. Note: I'm not saying anyone's out of line or has broken the rules. I'm saying that if you want to have these battles, don't derail this particular thread to have them.

Especially without Landy stretching it. Beasley disappeared and playing 3 defensive mids was a bad idea. The other problem is the continual playing of your best offensive weapon out of position with his back constantly to goal, and no midfield support. I don't know why we need to have so many defensive mids on the field all the time. Because our back line was getting boned and they were liking it.

Let's find a way to revoke Kaz's visa.

I really like the idea (I think it was yours) from the other thread where we sign Fukudome for CF, put Murton in RF, and trade Pie to SD for Greene and a prospect. That seems like a pretty realistic scenario that would help both teams if we included Cedeno and they sent back whatever decent guy(s) they've got in their system. I have high hopes for Pie, but I don't think there's any way possible that the Padres trade Khalil Greene and a prospect for Felix Pie. You might get them to bite if it was Pie and Cedeno for Greene, but I don't even think that would do it. Once the dust settles, San Diego will likely pick up someone cheap like Corey Patterson or Coco Crisp (after Boston picks up a significant portion of his deal) and just keep Greene. My idea was that Greene and Pie would be in the deal, but I didn't specify who else, propect-wise, would go to SD. But, yes, I think it would take more than Pie and Cedeno to get Greene... though that's not a bad place to start -- once you sign Fukudome. As for SD's plan, what you said could very well be the case. But, with a long-term deal coming for Peavy and $10M for Maddux... SD could afford to cut some payroll. They've done a good all-around job assembling their team and not locking down a ton of money, but Greene's heading into another arby year and he made $2.35M in '07. He can expect to make quite a bit more this year.