UK1679666180

We never faced Bailey this season. I would say I agree with your 2002 and 2003 assessments though Weeks is high up there in 2003. Pujols was 2000 though. And I would put Carlos Gonzales as my 2005 non-Chiefs player and Felix Hernandez as my 2004 non-Chiefs pitcher, and Dopirak as my 2004 player though if i included Barton I would pick him. You're about Pujols in '00, I I forgot to include Adrian Gonzalez in '01 for KC. Hard to say with Weeks in '03 he was only with Beloit for about 1 month I recall.

One more thing about Rosenthal, he believed a pitcher should not be afraid to sacrifice velocity for command. Sounds like something the Cubs staff could use.

As far as Burnett, I think he'll end up with Toronto.

So you're saying he is a whinny complaining type of guy? I think in this current case he is whiny, not with Rosenthal though. He just ignored and talked back to Rosenthal. Some reason pitchers like Beckett and Willis didn't adapt to Rosenthal either. Of course, you look at what he did with Pavano, Benitez, Chad Fox, and Brad Penny as well as the turnaround the '03 Marlins staff had, it pays to listen. But when a player says something like this... You wonder about the mindset of a player, if he's a rectum or not. Beckett was known for being upset with Rosenthal b/c Rosenthal would not call the scorekeeper during the game to protest a hit that should've been an error and save Beckett some earned runs.

Burnett was one of the main reasons Rosenthal was not brought back for Florida. (off-topic:I wouldn't mind seeing Rosenthal as the next Cubs PC.)

I was excited about getting Soriano and Lilly, Ledee did nothing for me. I was not for or against it at the time, I would not have opposed a trade to Sosa, but I thought the Cubs handled it poorly. There could've been a great chance to create a bidding war (Did Sosa's 10-5 kick in?) but they seemed settled to trade him to the Yankees while there appeared to be a smear campaign from within.

The Cubs won in 98. I think Sosa should have been dealt in 2000. The broken down players is what the Cubs do. They look for bargins to go with their superstar marquee players. I want a team of good players not one superstar to bring in the sheep. If the Cubs actually decided to go after good players to go with with Lee then yeah...I agree with you but history has shown they do not. Do you remember the trade proposals the Yankees gave us for Sammy? A bunch of crap for the #1 slugger in the game. Wonder why we didn't take that. :roll: didn't they offer Soriano? Iirc it was Soriano, Ledee and a couple of garbage pitching prospects. If Soriano was offered, Sosa would've been on the Yanks. Soriano is the reason why the deal fell thru, the Yankees did not want to give him up and offered Jimenez instead. The deal was based around Ted Lilly, Ledee, and Soriano/Jimenez.

Homer Bailey was the best prospect I seen in '05 in the MWL. '01-Pujols '02-Mauer '03-Fielder '04-Dopirak '05-Bailey (Forgot to mention Zumaya in '03 along with Prince.)

I believe him being a GM on a rebuilding team has given him more perspective than any current manager has.

Best manager since Sparky Anderson or more likely Earl Weaver, without question.

Damn the Indians for bumping up the Saturday game to 1:25PM from 7:05PM. Luckily, my flight arrives about 2 hours before that so I'll catch the game as well as Sunday's.

Tom House would be my top choice as well, many dollars req'd to sway him from his pitching clinics. 2nd choice would be Vern Ruhle, Cincy might go with someone other than Narron and then who knows if Cincy will let Ruhle go or keep him like the Cubs kept Rothschild despite going from Baylor to Kimm to Baker. Of course, getting Ruhle would also help in getting Larry Dierker after next year once Dusty heads west. :)

I think it is more than justified to be part of the reasoning if a pedigree background is an added bonus. I think Riccardi is a solid playing in the toughest division in MLB with a modest payroll, I think that is where the "moneyball" or whatever poor label attached philosophy is best suited. Personally, I think with the payroll of the Cubs is best suited for higher ceiling players and put faith in your minor league instructors and scouts' ability to promote the players. This is part of the reasoning behind why I want Dayton Moore, part of that has to do with who he learned from (Schuerholz) and what he has provided to deserve the promotion.

(Stole from another site) http://www.fangraphs.com/players.aspx?letter=a http://www.fangraphs.com Definitely an interesting site geared towards statistical analysis. I love the player comparison feature. Sorry no intangibles are graphed on this site.

Some of the teams will be located in Edinburg (replacing the Central League team), Harlingen, and possibly Laredo out west. The tryouts are in the Spring, I might get out to Tahoe this T-Giving, but I'll be in Belize this January. My current team is better off than the one I left you with.

It'll be interesting, there will be 8 teams spread throughout Texas and maybe sneaking into LA. But they'll need as many players as possible for the draft and tryouts, which is my responsibility.

Tedward, Here's an interesting article from the USA today about the GM hot seats... http://www.usatoday.com/sports/bbw/columnist/nightengale/2005-09-21-majors_x.htm

Barry has a tendency to draw some BBs at an extremely high rate which takes away his chances to get hits despite the higher avg.

I didn't even realize Michaels was that good. UK has been all over Michaels for a while (it has been you, right? I know someone here has). He has put up some surprising numbers vs lefties, but I dont see why the Phils would let him go. I guess 1.2M or so that hed make next year would be a decent chunk for a 4th OF, but if they are keeping Lofton he will be very useful to platoon. Victorino is a switch hitter, but has been used exclusively as a LHB this year and the majority of his stint with SD in 2003, so he probably wont be a good platoon partner with Lofton. But if they could get some one decent for Michaels, theyd listen. I dont know if theyd be interested in Rusch and his tendency to give up the long ball. Plus who would they drop from the rotation? Not that they have a ton of great starters, but they have enough to fill a rotation. But with Wolf, Leiber, Lidle signed and Padilla, Myers arbi eligible and Tejada looking to have secured himself a good chance at being in the 2006 rotation, they are one man up, rather than one man short. IMO Padilla gets released. Victorino was the IL AAA player of the year, switch hitter, could leadoff for them even if they don't bring Lofton back. Wolf is out b/c of injury and not likely to start in '06 after TJS and I don't see Padilla coming back, Rusch could fill in nicely at the btm of the rotation cheaply. But, I've never really pushed for Michaels until recently, that was someone else.

Michaels has flown under the radar and might be avail. this off-season.

He was a great hitter before the spike in numbers. They helped him, there's no doubt. But, he had the best bat speed before the spike in numbers, similar to Griffey. I'm not going to ignore what he's done. He went from a great hitter to the greatest hitter, he was still a great hitter.

I'll throw a name out there... Jason Michaels-Phillies. Everyone talks about Lofton, but what if Lofton re-ups with them as he has worked with Manuel in the past. They also have Victorino in the minors and Golson down the road. Michaels might be the odd man out and combined with his recent legal troubles could be had for a starter (hopefully Rusch). http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/michaja01.shtml

If Choi is struggling with 15 homers, hitting .257 with a .336 OPB in about 300 ABs, I'd better never see you shower praise on Neifi Perez again. I hate those .794 OPS players.

Who said Baker brought those guys in here? Besides you... I blame Hendry for those poor acquisitions. I blame Baker for playing them more than they deserved as well as putting them in roles they were not suited for (hitting 2nd for Perez and having Macias be the prim. bat off the bench). Odd how that shifts that standpoint you were reaching for? He sees his talents, everyone does. I'm sure he thought Corey should play as did I. But, either he overvalued Hollandsworth or undervalued Dubois to the point where he didn't deserve the chance to start over a career 4th OF'er. Dusty was wrong in either scenario, IMO.

He went Patterson in '03 and stuck with him in '04 as well as the start of '05 b/c who was there that could play CF? Macias? Dusty wouldn't start Hollandsworth or Burnitz in CF for any extended period of time. Plus, the ceiling of Patterson and those of Murton, Dubois are separate items. neither Murton or Dubois have ever been close to the top prospect in MLB. Dubois was coming off a great AAA season, Hollandsworth was coming off a strong '04 season. The difference is that Hollandsworth proved throughout his career he was a career 4th OF'er even with his strong '04 season. With Hollandsworth being a career 4th OF'er, Dubois should've gone in as the primary LF'er unless they got an additional LF'er (I wanted Floyd).