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dew1679666265

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Everything posted by dew1679666265

  1. dew1679666265
    Ed Reed may miss the first 6 games of the season.
  2. dew1679666265
    Interesting, though probably not meaningful at all. Thought I'd pass it along anyway.
  3. dew1679666265
    My question regarding trading Aramis is whether we'd get good value for him. Teams know he's capable of being very good, but he's had injury issues in back-to-back years now and was awful to start the season. I think teams would have interest in acquiring him, but I think the contract plus the injuries plus the horrid start to the year may decrease the return we could get for him.
  4. dew1679666265
    Hendry was on Mike and Mike this morning and said the focus of the search would be on managerial candidates who can "be here for the long term." Hendry emphasized how we have quality young players here now (mentioning Castro, Colvin and Cashner in particular) and that he expects a steady flow of them in the upcoming years. That would seem to rule out somebody like Torre and make a Sandberg, Fredi Gonzalez, Brenly, etc., more likely.
  5. dew1679666265
    He was one of two minor leaguers acquired from Arizona for Heilman.
  6. dew1679666265
    Don't take this as disagreeing (it's not) and I don't want to derail the thread too much, but what problem do you all have with Oneri?
  7. dew1679666265
    Torre actually reminds me a lot of Lou – veteran manager with a very good track record who emphasizes patience/OBP in offensive approach but likes to be a bit too active on the basepaths.
  8. dew1679666265
    I like Wilken. The farm system has done nothing but get better since he took over.
  9. dew1679666265
    If I had to guess, in a weak FA class, that's the range I'd probably point to for Dunn. That over 2 years isn't bad, but at 3-4 years is tough to do considering age.
  10. dew1679666265
    That's a very legitimate point, though I think it's fair to point out that Pujols and Fielder may also be available that offseason. Pujols is incredibly unlikely, but Fielder may well be there and would be a similar option to Dunn, only younger. It's similar to the NBA offseason we just had, do you build with the big offseason in mind and hope you can attract the great free agent, or do you take the safer, yet less attractive route? I wouldn't strongly oppose pursuing Dunn and price/years would be a big factor in whether I'd strongly want him or not.
  11. dew1679666265
    Freak me out? No, but even a guy as good as Dunn gets a bit iffy as far as production once he hits his mid-30s. I'm just not real comfortable with the idea of paying him $10+ million at 35. He's got the skill set to age well, but I'm still not comfortable with him at 34-35. Of course, a potential 7-year deal to Gonzalez is uncomfortable as well. I think there's the potential for a 5/100-110 deal for Gonzalez, though, and I'm pretty confident he'll be very valuable throughout that contract.
  12. dew1679666265
    If we're talking about acquiring Dunn, my only response is what has taken the Cubs so long? However, I have a strong to very strong suspicion that the Cubs don't value Dunn as much as we do, or they should. I think they have been interested, but with Lee at 1B felt they didn't want to commit to a guy they didn't feel like playing in the OF every year. Yeah, all the rumors have been that his offense has interested them, but his defense has kept them from going after him.
  13. dew1679666265
    Now that he's playing first base, he's worth a whole lot more. He won't get a mega-deal, but apparently he's looking for a 3-4 year deal worth more annually than his current deal. And eliminating his awful OF defense might just help to get him that. My main concern with Dunn is that he'll be 31 by the start of next season. If we can get him for just 2 years or so, I might not have a problem with that. If the offers get to 3-4 years, I'm not sure I want to give him that. I would put Prince Fielder in that group as well. He's not been more valuable than Dunn this year (2.8 WAR for Fielder, 3.0 WAR for Dunn), but he's nearly 3 years younger.
  14. dew1679666265
    More than he's worth considering the first base FA class likely to be there in 2011. Dunn is still a great player, but is getting up there in age and will want a contract meant for a young stud in his prime. If we sign Dunn to a deal like that this offseason, we'll miss on the better players in the 2011 offseason.
  15. dew1679666265
    We shouldn't need to sign much, if any, pitching. With Cashner, Diamond, J Jackson and others looking ready for a major league rotation (or close, at least) we shouldn't put any FA money into pitching. And there's not really a "big" 1B FA in this offseason. The best first baseman likely available are Jorge Cantu and Adam Dunn. Cantu would be a good option, but Dunn will likely be too expensive. It would make more sense to find a stopgap first baseman (Cantu) and wait for the 2011 offseason when Gonzalez and Fielder are available (and in a longshot, Pujols). The second base free agents are also terrible, so a Baker/Fontenot platoon should be the way to go.
  16. dew1679666265
    Well, I don't really think that is saying much. Or at the very least, it's glossing over the very difficult task of actually acquiring that impact bat. Because the bulk of the team is in place. We don't have to try to fill numerous holes and we don't have a bunch of barely replacement level guys just filling space. There's some legitimate talent on the team and more coming from the minors. Adding an impact bat is not an easy task, but this is a team with the resources to go get one (whether through a trade or free agency).
  17. dew1679666265
    It's not a core if you don't have your best players. The Blackhawks have a core, which is their best players. Any additions need to be role players. The Cubs need a freaking stud bat, which is the core of just about any really good team, and something the Cubs do not have. When you have to add a star to be able to contend, you don't have a core in place. You have a lot of role players and some nice pieces, but not a core. I've already said in this thread that we need a major, impact bat. However, even if core isn't the right word, my statement is still correct. We have the pieces in place to have a good to very good team, we just need that impact bat. This team could very easily be 1-2 moves away from competing at a very high level, however the right moves are not available in free agency this season. That's why I think we need to continue to improve the role players on the team this offseason and then focus on getting one of Gonzalez/Fielder next year.
  18. dew1679666265
    The beauty of Cantu is that he can play first next year and then move to third in 2012 assuming we don't pick up Aramis' option. Then – and I know you're not in favor of this – we don't have first blocked if we go after Gonzalez or Fielder. I think both are still young enough that giving a huge contract to either would be ok. I wouldn't go more than about 4 years to Prince, but I'd give Gonzalez pretty much any contract he wants. He just turned 28 in May and has the approach/skill set to age well. I really don't think we need to rebuild that much. I really think we have the core in place to be successful, we have some quality minor leaguers coming through the system (Brett and Jay Jackson, HJ Lee, Archer, etc) to have some cheap production and we have a high enough budget to make quick fixes through free agency for the spots we can't fill through the farm. We're a team that can and should be able to rebuild quickly and not have multiple years of being bad.
  19. dew1679666265
    I think we've got a lot of the support pieces we need to form a good to very good team. However, we don't have that major impact bat that can take us from mediocre to great. I'd feel a lot better about our chances to be competitive in 2011 if this free agent class included the premiere guys who will be there in the 2011 offseason (Adrian Gonzalez and Fielder, primarily). We'd probably be best served finding more complimentary pieces (Cantu) and leaving enough budget room and a place on the field for the impact bats that will be there next offseason.
  20. dew1679666265
    Most of the crap Soriano's gotten has been either forward-looking (he'll be paid $18 mil at 38 type stuff) or critical of his awful year last year. None of the Dempster bashing has been warranted at all. He's been really good since taking over as a starter for the Cubs. I feel like Dempster bashing has plummeted since he became a starter again. Yeah, it's definitely dropped off significantly. Any Dempster bashing is kinda random at this point, though. He's one of the better starting pitchers out there at this point.
  21. dew1679666265
    Most of the crap Soriano's gotten has been either forward-looking (he'll be paid $18 mil at 38 type stuff) or critical of his awful year last year. None of the Dempster bashing has been warranted at all. He's been really good since taking over as a starter for the Cubs.
  22. dew1679666265
    Soriano's the only 10M+ player playing close to his contract. Just thought that needed to be pointed out You don't think Dempster is?
  23. dew1679666265
    Fangraphs lists his HR/FB percentage currently at 5.4%. It was 8% last year and his career HR/FB is 10.2%. Again, that's all according to Fangraphs. Besides bad luck, the other most likely reason for the drop over the last two years, and especially this year, is a change in his swing. Like with an injury, though, it seems that if his mechanics had been tweaked enough to make that big a dropoff, some of his other peripherals would have been affected as well.
  24. dew1679666265
    Just out of curiosity, if not bad luck, why do you think he has fewer fly balls leaving the park than in the past? because he isn't hitting fly balls far enough to go out of the park? if a guy hits 20 straight medium depth fly balls, is he unlucky that none of them left the park? Why are those fly balls no longer going far enough to be home runs, though (if that's the case)? What's changed from the past few years and this year that makes him hit about the same number of fly balls, but have a smaller number of them leave the park? The number of fly balls hasn't really decreased, nor has his ability to make good contact (LD% is right on his career average). If he were injured, it would stand to reason that some of his other numbers would have taken a hit as well, but they haven't. I understand this doesn't prove that he's gotten a lot of bad luck this year, but that's easily the most likely explanation.
  25. dew1679666265
    Lilly/Theriot for Scherzer? 8-)
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