brinoch

Out of all the options, Griffey makes sense. It just seems like a fit. Except for the cost to get him. The issue with Griffey is the Reds will likely want a package that includes one of Hill or Marshall, and without adding another starter, the Cubs can't afford to pay that price. I think the Reds would be willing to package Kyle Loshe into any deal. He's going to be traded, the question is where. That's kind and generous and all, but no thanks.

That's the problem. They may just be "marginal" upgrades but when you're around 89-90 runs each win brings your chances of making the playoffs up so much. All wins aren't created equally. Wins between 88 and 92 are the most valuable in baseball, economically and on the field wise. are you saying a win in april isn't as important as a win in september? No. He's saying that 92 wins will get you into the playoffs whereas 88 will generally see you sitting at home.

I think Piniella would prefer Griffey. I think he would prefer Griffey a heck of a lot more than Sosa. Personally, I'm not particularly in favor of Sosa -- he's old, and while he does mash against lefties, I don't see how he's an upgrade over Murton. Back to Meph's original point -- where to upgrade -- I'd use internal options for SS and RF (Theriot/Cedeno and Murton). BP's Pecota projection for Pie have him at a .271 EqA for the season, and while it's a risk, I'd probably just use him there rather than a Jones/Pagan platoon. Unless you're going to go out and get a true impact player, I just don't see wasting prospects and cash for a marginal upgrade over our available internal options. Granted, I'm not in a decision-making position, but this seems pretty self-evident to me.

wow, making jokes about chemical imbalances. at least you were clever abou... oh wait, it wasn't clever either. your post had nearly formed a whole point for once, then that. good job. Shut the hell up chief....I have ADD myself, so I can joke about it all I want. All right, all right. Everyone settle down a bit. Thanks...

Clean, but awkward. It was clean. Weeks drilled Rodriguez, but Rodriguez is so much bigger that he didn't go flying or anything. The ball dribbled away from him upon impact, and Weeks was lifted into the air over Rodriguez -- and that's when touched the plate. Lowry and Rodriguez ran for the ball, only to see it roll into the dugout at Yost's feet.

Stupid Giants.

Well, there you have it. Look for him on Tuesday!

I love how winning brings back all the posters... next thing you know JC is going to be starting threads. I've been busy with work and school, but I appreciate being labeled a bandwagoner after following this team for 2 decades. I'll stand with you GC. I think it's pretty funny for anyone to call you a bandwagoner, GC, given that you were one of the first 10-20 posters on the site, and were a regular on cubs.com before that. Points to response above... I meant it in a positive way. Okay... I see what you meant. By the way, JC is *very* busy with work and family, but he stops in once in a while.

Yay. Cubs win!

I love how winning brings back all the posters... next thing you know JC is going to be starting threads. I've been busy with work and school, but I appreciate being labeled a bandwagoner after following this team for 2 decades. I'll stand with you GC. I think it's pretty funny for anyone to call you a bandwagoner, GC, given that you were one of the first 10-20 posters on the site, and were a regular on cubs.com before that.

Methinks she won't be that easy...

Gameday's gone batty again.

He stocks the beer fridge.

Seriously, does Kendall have some embarassing pictures of Len? :lol:

Since we're in a soccer interregnum for a bit, I thought I'd break out World Soccer Manager 2006 again, only this time as the US National Team Manager. The US still aren't good enough to win, of course, but I'd like to make the quarters again. It's September 2005, and the US just qualified for the World Cup by defeating Mexico 6-1 at the Rose Bowl (US was able to tie Mexico 0-0 at the Azteca). I used this 4-3-1-2 line-up (subs in parenthesis): McBride Mathis (Johnson 54) Donovan Beasley Reyna Noonan (Kovalenko 83) Vanney Mastroeni DeMerit Conrad (Bocanegra 54) Keller At half time it was 1-1. I didn't like how Mathis was playing, and Vanney was tired. So I subbed early. Johnson scored three goals in half an hour. McBride, Donovan and Reyna all scored as well. Looks like it'll be USA, Mexico, and TT from Concacaf with Guatemala having a go against the Asia team. Of course, I still have both TT at home (and one away against Panama).

That's probably rather optimistic. Carp's no spring chicken anymore, and he's had arm injuries in the past. I feel pretty comfortable saying he won't pitch meaningfully in '08, either. We're coming up on August already. Yeah, he might potentially get some bullpen time. But that's probably about it. This is really tough for the Cards and Carpenter.

Guess you weren't born yet when the Cubs were tossing out line ups that had both Neifi Perez and Jose Macias batting at the top of the order. No, like every good Cub fan, he's chosen simply to forget those line-ups. Thank you not at all for reminding me.

Considering my last name....I'd sure like to see Moore come up and be a Stud...it'd be cool to have a Jersey... My last name is Moore, too. :)

First of all, I've never disputed that the Hampton deal was a bad one or that it is a problem for the Braves. Please, show me where I said this. Frankly, I thought it was pretty dumb for the Braves to acquire Hampton, all in all. But that's pretty much a rare thing for the Braves, rather than a consistent problem like it is with the Cubs. Generally speaking, they make good deals and they either don't sign or they let over-priced guys go. And, by the way, Hampton's contract is insuredagain for this year, though I would imagine that it's probably not for as much as the Braves would like. Here's an interesting article (from an MLB writer no less!) that details just how bad that contract has been (for all parties except Hampton). I have no understanding at all for their fascination with Julio Franco. Craig Wilson, on the other hand, was a pretty decent deal -- pre-hindsight -- for $2M. For his career, including his abysmal 2007, he's batted .262/.353/.474/.827. He did fall off a cliff this year, but at the time he was signed, I think it's pretty difficult to challenge the deal. Frankly, I was surprised that Wilson did as poorly as he did, and I was in favor of the Cubs picking him up and perhaps giving him a shot. Yes, but what about making a comparison of Floyd and Wilson during the offseason, when contracts are signed? Who would you have signed? Floyd's numbers, historically, are a little better than Wilson's. But Floyd is 4 years older, and much more injury prone. Floyd for $3M or Wilson for $2M? (I won't bring Franco into this because I wouldn't have signed him either.) Right now the Braves are desperate for production from 1B, yes. That's their greatest area of need; I have no doubt they'd take on Floyd at this point. Oh, now you had to go and make it personal. Nicely done. Please, don't make generalized personal attacks about my life. I don't appreciate it and it's not particularly appropriate. Furthermore, I'd hardly call what I've posted in this thread a "hair trigger" or a "constant need to attack other's credibility" given that I've used the word credibility (until this post) once in the thread. Unlike you in your comments to me above, I wasn't intending to insult you; I'm sorry you took it that way. How about I re-phrase my sentence: I no longer find your points to be a reasonable or rational, and they are increasingly making use of hindsight, and at least one major point you've made is unsupported by fact. Your attack on Murton is ridiculous and not credible. While acknowledging that Francoeur is a top 50 BA prospect, you call Murton a mid-level prospect. In '06, Murton was better than Francoeur (and I believe Murton would have outproduced Francoeur this year, as well, if given a chance). Murton: .297 BA, .365 OBP, .444 SLG, .809 OPS Francoeur: .260 BA, .293 OBP, .449 SLG, .742 OPS The Braves didn't rush out to sign Cliff Floyd to replace their young guy. But Hendry did. My discussion point in the thread is that the Cubs waste a ton of money. Frostwyrm, YearofDaCubs and I started this line of discussion and conversation ensued. Some disagree, some agree. By the way, it may not have been courageous for the Braves to admit their mistake, but that's a heck of a lot more than the Cubs have done with the many mistakes they've made. Hendry's mistakes litter the team and have cost the Cubs a lot of money. Admitting, fixing, and learning form your mistakes makes you a better GM.

Those who are giving reds44 the business need to get a life. What the hell is wrong with posting rumors in the transactions forum? For the love of G-d the title of the thread begins with the word "rumor". There was nothing at all wrong with what reds44 posted. It's been noted many times by mods and others that reds44 was unjustly attacked for posting properly.

utility player, utility player, 5th starter, inconsistent guy with #2/3 talent, 5th outfielder, inconsistent pitcher with good arm who's better suited for the bullpen And the Braves have what? James and Davies are certainly no more consistent than Hill or Marshall. Thorman's terrible. They have Kelly Johnson, Brian McCann, and Salty. In this they certainly have produced three fine young talents. I don't know if Kelly Johnson is the real deal or not. But the main point was that the Braves have bad contracts as well as the Cubs, and probably would have the same issues as Chicago with an equal budget. Umm... the Braves have developed several other position players on that roster including Jones, Jones, Francoeur and Escobar. C - McCann 1B - Thorman 2B - Johnson 3B - C. Jones SS - Escobar (could replace Renteria) RF - Francoeur CF - A. Jones LF - DARN IT THEY ARE ONE SHORT OF AN ENTIRE TEAM!! Yes, it is true, the Braves are starting 7 home grown position players with Escobar and Saltalamacchia on the bench, as well. That's miles ahead of the Cubs.

utility player, utility player, 5th starter, inconsistent guy with #2/3 talent, 5th outfielder, inconsistent pitcher with good arm who's better suited for the bullpen To be fair, Hill's been pretty consistent, all in all, over the past year. Of late, he's been inconsistent, though. And Marmol's been lights out in the 'pen. I don't disagree with your other assessments, however. In fact, you might be a little optimistic with Pagan.

Atlanta's got Wickman and Andruw Jones this year, Tim Hudson and John Thomson last year. Oakland's got Eric Chavez, Jason Kendall, and Mark Kotsay. You can spend even larger amounts of money on high paid dreck too. The White Sox won a world series with a team full of middling salary guys and no superstars. The Cardinals did it the other way with a few studs, and the rest dreck. The Red Sox had a couple superstars, and then a bunch of role players. Don't overspend on bad players. Shocking revelation. Braves are also on the hook for the entirity of Mike Hampton's 14.5 this year. Also, if you think of Floyd's $3 million as "overpaid dreck", I wounder what you would call Atlanta paying Craig Wilson $2 million when he doesn't even last two months on the team. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Hampton is insured. And, I might point out that when Wilson didn't produce, they cut him. Amazing. They made a mistake BUT THEY RECTIFIED IT by cutting Wilson. What do we do with a crappy veteran? Keep 'em on the roster while punishing the young guy for the veteran's failure. And Floyd is overpaid, injury-prone dreck. Along with his incredible 4 home runs, he's hitting .304/.374/.415 for a .789 OPS. Wow. We're paying him $3M+ for that? Why, we have a nice little guy in AAA who did better than that last year who we are paying $415,000. With Jacque Jones on the roster, Floyd was always an extraneous piece. Hampton was insured last year, but not this year. And if Craig Wilson was hitting anywhere in the same stratosphere as Floyd's "wow" numbers, or could play CF or SS like JJ or Itzturis, you better believe he and his $2 million would still be on that Braves roster. Braves would have probably offered him a raise if he could put up an .780 OPS like Floyd is providing the Cubs. Unfortunately for the Braves and Wilson, he was a defensive monstrosity even at 1B and was putting up a .560 OPS at the time of his release. Not a real courageous stance to "rectify" that. The difference between the Braves organizationan and the Cubs organization is that they're developing and bringing up BA Top 50 prospects like Saltimacchia. McCann and Francour while we're so poor at developing positional players that our fans have to resort to pumping up and overvalue mid level prospects like Matt Murton to laughable hero status. Whatever credibility you had with me in this discussion dissipated with this post. The whole ever-loving bloody point is that the Braves fix their problems quickly while the Cubs give their problems more time "to iron out their difficulties." Eyre, Jones, and Izturis? How long have they been on the team? How many appearances and PA's have they wasted? Moreover, the reason the Braves are able to develop excellent positional players is because they give them a chance. They allow them to struggle before they ship them back to the minors. For most players, it takes a while to get the hang of major league pitching and you do them a disservice by benching them at the first sign of trouble. And, calling Murton a marginal prospect is ridiculous. If the Cubs had been patient with him this season, he'd most likely be putting up an .850+ OPS. (Soriano, by comparison, has an .872 OPS.) I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather have saved the $3M we're paying Floyd and just let the successful, proven young guy play LF. Put Soriano in RF and Jones in CF. An .850 OPS would be good for about 22nd best among MLB OFers. I don't know about you, but I'll take that from a 25 year old. Magically enough, the development he has this year will help solidify him into a solid major leaguer as he enters his peak years.

I think the starting pitching is likely to regress a bit, though I suspect the bullpen will get a bit better with the addition of Wood and the return of Dempster. I'm very worried about Marquis and Marshall. To my mind, the Cubs need an upgrade in the offense. I don't see anything on the horizon for SS or C and if they aren't going to play Murton, they might as well make a deal for an CF/RF. The guys who might be available and who are worth it are guys like Adam Dunn (.908 OPS), Ken Griffey, Jr. (.954 OPS), Torii Hunter (.881 OPS), and Eric Byrnes (.860 OPS).

I wouldn't mind that strategy, though I think the power arms theory can work too. Going 100% either way is the only strategy I'm against. I think a variety of good arms is important. Personally, I don't really care how hard or with which arm they throw. I'm interested in their K rates, BB rates, WHIP and how often they get ahead the hitter.