UK1679666180

It'll be dictated by teams like the Cubs and Boston who have a serious demand for a SS and the caliber of Tejada is a rarity, given how much teams are willing to spend on 2nd tier SS over the past seasons. If a team like Mets become involved, then the asking price becomes even higher.

By MLB rules, you also have to wait 1 year from when Pawelek signed to be able to trade him. It'll take a boatload of prospects to get him and/or a good ML ready player (that's in the pitching).

A team upset about at how the broadcasters talk about them during the game is the definition of soft. This team doesn't have the same approach as they did when they kicked around the Cards in the 5 game series of Sept. of '03. It wasn't the team it was a few players. It was about 3 too many with Walker, Mercker, and Alou. Then, factor Dusty into the equation and there's enough there.

He's not going to get 2.5+ to play as the 4th Of'er they'll probably end up trading him, but if it comes to down non-tendering or bringing him back, he'll be a FA. They're not going to bring him back, unless they feel he can play RF, and I can't see it.

You could get more for Marquis than patterson, so I'd make the trade. I wouldn't want Marquis on the roster, either too much of a baby or too selfish, probably both.

The only one who threw any purpose pitches recently was Zambrano and he was in the wrong when doing so. Look at how they how many times when a Cards pitcher went to bunt that they knocked him down, it's the reason why Haren hit Clement. This team needs to knock some people down or hit them in the rear. But, they didn't assert themselves. A team that wasn't soft would've knocked down Lee the next AB.

If AZ is interested, they can take a nap for about 10 days and try and get him. Hopefully, they can get something useful for CP, I just question if there's interest beyond marginal.

A team upset about at how the broadcasters talk about them during the game is the definition of soft. This team doesn't have the same approach as they did when they kicked around the Cards in the 5 game series of Sept. of '03.

Or how soft this team may have become.

When did I develop an opinion on her? :)

PTBNL will be a toolsy OF'er who is out of options and could compete for a role as a 4th OF'er, unlike Kelton this player will have played CF for all of his career. I'll go w/Choo Freeman.

http://www.pankin.com/sabr30/

Having no RF'er in its current state will put this offense back to '04 levels as well as counting on Lee to produce exact numbers as last year.

A, you don't know that. B, then you might want to become a Braves fan because they are probably the only organization that works the way you apparantly think all teams should. That's called an assumption, I think it is a fair assumption that Hendry is solely involved with gathering all the reports from his scouts surrounding various players they are after, is Fitzsimmons calling around? Why should I root for the Braves? Should I root for Oakland as well? You don't think Shapiro or Jocketty have decisions cancelled by ownership? Oddly enough, they're (Oak/ATL) much more effective models of operation as well. Ideally, management needs to take a back seat, I don't have to root for another team to voice my complaints if I feel someone is potentially crossing the line. So no, I'll root for the Cubs and be vocal.

When financial issues are concerned, most GMs do not have "free reign". Boston ownership squashed the ARod deal due to finances. NYY ownership micromanages far more than Andy and the Trib. Florida ownership gets involved heavily with payroll matters, and have won 2 WS. Reinsdorf plays a huge role in every major acquisition. Arizona's ownership practically held the GM's hand for years. I can't believe how overblown people are making this possibly made up or exaggerated story. Schuerholz might be the only GM I can think of who gets a budget and can do as he pleases with no ownership meddling. Hendry hasn't proven he deserves an ounce of the freedom of the best GM in baseball. The A-Rod deal was b/c of the overall budget being exceeded not the individual player salary. I don't see how using George and his negative impacts as far as meddling with the team is a positive example. They should set the budget and not dictate the parameters within the budget. I have no problems if they are in conjunction, but if it becomes a one or another, then I hope the GM has the final say. It doesn't occur like that as the case of Furcal (if true), but it should. No one above Hendry was in contact with the Cubs MLB scouts as far as their reports. If Hendry rec'd glowing reports about Furcal as well as his own personal opinion, it saddens me that he would overruled by someone not nearly as close to the situtaion as Hendry.

Well, so far I don't think Cubs fans would be content with their team in their current state. I don't think Cards or Astros fans would be as well. All 3 teams would be happy to finish around .500 in their current state.

Plus the Cubs CF'ers had an adjusted OPS of .582 last year, compared to Pierre's adjusted OPS of .666 and it also doesn't fact SBs. Fwiw, Michaels had an adjusted OPS of .873

There was a done several years ago that mentioned that if you took 2 players same production except one had good to great speed and the other had avg. to below. avg. speed, that speed difference as far as advancing bases would lead to .2-.4 wins per year.

Supposedly Boston might be taking a look at Nomar (not at SS), I think if he signs w/them, he'll end up playing SS over an unproductive Cora. They're looking at the Marlins version of Alex Gonzalez, that's pretty bad.

Let me just say that if Bigbie/Taguchi is a platoon in one of the corner spots, I will be thrilled. I'd rather have Hollandsworth starting in LF. Did they offer Sanders arbitration? We'll see how King's slider does in Colorado.

I hate the NCAA, hypocritical pricks.

Marte was likely the 5th option out of their pen, which says something about how good their pen could be. You have Jenks, Hermy, Politte, Cotts, and either Hernandez/McCarthy (if I was a Sox fan, I'd be clamoring for McCarthy) ahead of Marte, they did miss out on Myers though.

What ratio are you looking for as far as a platoon? It is a fact that LH'ers typically hit worse vs. LH'ers than RH'ers vs. RH'ers b/c LH'ers typically throw at a slightly lower angle which creates a higher deception factor and more importantly, a frequency factor. LH'ers will often face less LH'ers than vice versa. Plus, given the infrequency of LH'ers it creates a nice opportunity to give a LH'ed hitter (especially when the hitter is deserving a starting yet not a great hitter, like Walker) a day off.

If Barrett doesn't regress, it's a scary thought what he'd command. His estimated time of decline would be close to when he becomes a FA.

Comparing a F500 corp. to a sports organization is apples and oranges as far as developing and implementing effective models.