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dew1679666265

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Everything posted by dew1679666265

  1. Keeping Hendry on would be a really bad move, but to this point the Ricketts have also poured quite a bit of money into the farm system and made available the money for Wilken to put together a potentially terrific draft. That's got to count for something.
  2. Albert was just traded for a 5th round pick, so I'm not sure he's a good comparison.
  3. If by some chance he were to retire, then I'd be perfectly fine with that - there are options out there this offseason we can use the extra money on. However, I agree that's an extremely unlikely scenario. If he doesn't retire, I think you almost have to bring him back. The internal options (Coleman, McNutt, Cashner) probably aren't going to reproduce what Z is likely to give us next year unless he implodes further, so giving him away while eating the vast majority of his contract is a bad idea. Suspend him for the rest of the season if they feel it's necessary and then slot him back into the rotation next year and hope he regains his former glory so he'll be valuable at the deadline if we're out of it (or so that he'll help us win if we're in it).
  4. You can do some things scheme-wise to cover for some of his faults as he's improving. Rolling him out and having him throw on the run might keep some of the pressure off of him and keep him from reverting back to that long windup motion. The good thing about Tebow is he does (apparently) have a great work ethic, so the chances of mechanical changes and tweaks are more likely to stick since he'll probably work at them a lot. He's definitely going to be limited in what offenses he can be effective in, since the more he sits in the pocket looking downfield will probably increase how often he gets pressured and, thus, how often he reverts back to his more natural motion. I think he can eventually be an average to above average QB if he's in the right system, but he certainly picked too high. That said, with his athleticism I think he'd be much more valuable moving around the field and playing some different positions. A hybrid TE/H-Back/FB role with some wildcat elements thrown in would make him more valuable than trying to force him into being simply a QB, I think.
  5. Yep, you're right. For some reason I was thinking Lou was here for 3 years instead of four.
  6. Lou Piniella's first two years. People seem to tend to disparage his tenure in Chicago due to his third season, but he was a really good manager for the first two.
  7. I'm not sold on this at all. I'm not real familiar with the Cardinals' system, so maybe they have more prospects than I think they do, but my impression was they have Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez and then a bunch of nothing. BA would seem to agree with me, as they ranked the Cubs' farm system (post Garza trade) at #16 and the Cardinals at #24. The Cubs don't have any stars on the edge of making the majors, but they have a lot of options to fill spots cheaply who will likely be up within the next 1-3 years. As for the current major league squads, the Cubs have 12 players on the current roster who will be under 30 next year and are under team control in some capacity beyond this year. The Cards also have 11 - and they just traded away one of their best pre-30 players in Colby Rasmus. Both teams have their own share of filler and stars on that list as well.
  8. Hopefully Tennessee will come out focused and ready against Montana, because losing to an FCS team (even a legit one like Montana) would be embarassing. I'm fairly optimistic about this season. This Tennessee team is going to be ridiculously young again - still mostly freshmen and sophomores, but at least with a few juniors and seniors mixed in this time around. However, the SEC East is probably going to be really down this year and 7-8 wins is very realistic. If a few surprise guys break out and guys like Bray, Hunter and others improve as they should, 9 wins isn't out of the question. With Da'Rick Rogers and Justin Hunter starting on the outside, we could have one of the best young WR duos in the nation and that's pretty exciting.
  9. Mark Schlereth might.
  10. It does matter, though, since those are teams that won't contribute to the bidding process for Marmol's services. The more teams you can get in on the bidding, the higher the return you can get for that player. It's a hindrance, but how big a hindrance it is depends on how many teams are taken out of the bidding by the price tag.
  11. That's possible. However, it depends on the exact parameters of the player's arbitration status. If Marmol were traded at the deadline and had one more year under contract for relatively cheap, then more teams would be interested - you could include teams like the Royals, Pirates, etc., in there who might want him for a season and then look to extend or trade him again. However, if his arbitration years were up after this season, then the current contract in place is probably best case scenario for any team out there - it leads to many teams looking for guys like Adams and Uehara who don't cost a lot, though. I can't remember when Marmol's arbitration years were up when he signed the deal.
  12. I'll be the peacemaker here (or try at least). I think it's unfair to call Marmol's contract bad, since that tends to imply that his value is going to be pretty significantly less than what he's going to be paid. At the same time, it is going to be a pretty big hindrance to trading him since it'll take so many teams out of the running. It certainly would have been better, if the plan was to trade him soon, to deal him before you signed the new contract - that way the new team could work out their own deal with him. However, I don't think the Cubs will have to eat most or all of the salary for teams to have real interest in him. If he rebounds next year, teams will see the dominance and the saves and will give up good value despite the money. The Cubs just won't have the same negotiating power they would have had were they to trade him before he got expensive.
  13. No kidding. Marmol and Byrd have no keeper value? There are very justifiable reasons to want to trade Marmol ASAP, but his lack of value to the club going forward isn't anywhere near the list. The only way his analysis makes sense is if Jonah Keri is in the "Cubs won't compete for at least 3-4 years" camp.
  14. That may be it. It may also be that the Cubs have this stigma of perception that they have these humongous, monstrous contracts weighing them down and Soriano's is an example of that. Whereas the Blue Jays and Angels haven't been hurting for money during the duration of Wells' stay.
  15. There's definitely merits to the old-school scouting style of evaluation. There's a lot that can be gleaned that way that can't through numbers only. However, there needs to be a balance between the two. Old school scouting can be wrong just as numbers only evaluation can be wrong. The biggest mistake people make oftentimes is ignoring one of the two. The eyes can lie just like the numbers can be manipulated. It's important not to disregard one form of evaluation in favor of another. Derek Jeter is a great defensive SS. Exactly.
  16. I agree with this completely. When the Titans officially cut Vince I said on here that the Eagles would be the perfect place for him and I think this is actually an upgrade at backup QB. Vince isn't a particularly special QB right now - in fact he's been average to below average his entire career - but Kolb hasn't shown much to think he's special either. Factor in that Vince fits the Vick offense significantly better than Kolb and that there won't need to be changes made when Vince comes in, I think VY is a better fit in Philly. That said, I'm also unsure if Kolb is capable of being a very good NFL QB, while I think the only thing Vince needs to do is learn to work harder and be more prepared to make him a very good NFL QB. We know he can make game winning plays and lead an offense, he just needs to read defenses and be able to run a more open offense - two things that come with better preparation.
  17. I could see both the Angels and Blue Jays giving him that type of contract potentially. Both have tons of money to spend and nothing set in stone at first base (Trumbo for Anaheim and Lind for Toronto). I think the Angels will put that money towards giving Vernon Wells a raise. That was a horrid trade. His salary is going down after this year, though, and they still have $60 million (minus arbitration raises) to spend next year. On a side note, where is all the angst (nationally) over Wells' contract when people rip Soriano's to shreds? Wells has been a little more productive overall, but not that much. I'm not defending Soriano's contract by any means, but it doesn't seem like people are as aghast over Wells' as Soriano's.
  18. I could see both the Angels and Blue Jays giving him that type of contract potentially. Both have tons of money to spend and nothing set in stone at first base (Trumbo for Anaheim and Lind for Toronto).
  19. There's definitely merits to the old-school scouting style of evaluation. There's a lot that can be gleaned that way that can't through numbers only. However, there needs to be a balance between the two. Old school scouting can be wrong just as numbers only evaluation can be wrong. The biggest mistake people make oftentimes is ignoring one of the two. The eyes can lie just like the numbers can be manipulated. It's important not to disregard one form of evaluation in favor of another.
  20. Five starts in 3 years? I don't think it's worth a try.
  21. We may need Baker to platoon at third if we let Aramis go in the offseason. We also wouldn't see a defensive improvement (most likely) playing Baker in left over playing Soriano in left. Reed would definitely be a defensive upgrade in left over Soriano and probably be similar offensively, though I wonder how good a hitter he actually is at this point considering he's got a sky high BABIP this year.
  22. As an extra note, NTCs are also valid in waiver pickups. For instance, if we place Soriano on waivers and the Giants (picking a team at random) claim him, even if we want to just let him and his salary go for free, Soriano could still invoke his NTC to block the claim.
  23. Sounds like a decent plan assuming Colvin starts to show anything. Right now he's hopeless. Yeah, part of that plan is assuming the Colvin we've seen this year isn't anywhere close to the Colvin we can expect going forward. Long term I think he could potentially give us close to the .810 OPS he posted against righties in 2010. If he doesn't show anything the rest of the year, however, we'd probably have to start looking at other options. The key is to get Soriano into a platoon to maximize his value.
  24. No matter what we do in FA this offseason, one thing we must do is platoon Soriano and Colvin. That's the best chance to optimize Soriano's value the rest of his contract (.880s career OPS v lefties, .880s this year as well). It'll also help keep him healthier.
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