dew1679666265
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Everything posted by dew1679666265
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Unless the Big XII breaks up, I don't think the SEC will expand.
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I wouldn't mind them at all if they were part of the crowd noise. Problem is, that's all you hear when watching a game, outside of the announcers.
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As a non-soccer fan who's trying to be open to it, this is one of the biggest things for me. Entering this world cup, I had heard so much about the atmosphere and how crazy fans of countries got into it. And I'm also a bigger college football fan than NFL because of the frenzy and passion of the fans at the game being much higher (in general) than the NFL. However, with the vuvuzelas, I simply can't hear any fans at all. All I've seen is silent people dancing around. I think crowd noise and "interaction" could help me understand that it's important when two guys are kicking the ball back and forth to each other on the opposite side of the pitch.
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Correct, but that's assuming Aramis won't hit better than he is now and that Z being consistently in the rotation won't pitch better than a 5-something ERA. I'm not taking that bet. If you think those two players especially will improve upon their performance to this point in the season, then trading them now is selling low – and very low. As for Kosuke: he's productive and provides value to teams. The only question with him is money owed to him and whether teams will be willing to pay it. If that's the biggest concern, then keeping him until his there is less time/money left on his contract is a good thing. The only question is whether he'll fall off a cliff next season, and I don't see any reason to expect it.
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And posts a near .400 OBP with excellent defense in right field. His slugging has also improved each year he's been in the majors and currently sits at .456. Teams value that. His career slugging is .408, and his .456 slugging currently sits 14th among right fielders. While his .375 OBP is good, it's not good enough to overcome his lack of power at a position where teams typically look for it. And teams don't typically pay much of a premium for defense in right field. I'm not saying Fukudome isn't a useful player, but his worth on the current market is nowhere near his salary. It depends on what a team values and needs. A team that has some power from second base or shortstop or catcher might be more willing to pay for on-base ability in right field. Likewise, a team that feels it needs to add some on-base skills at the top of the lineup and has an opening in right field will have more interest in Kosuke than most. Remember, if we look to deal him between now and the deadline, we're not dealing with teams shaping their rosters. We're dealing with teams looking to plug holes and can tend to be more desperate. I can't say right now who in particular would be willing to pay the most, but Kosuke has abilities that teams value around the deadline.
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Possible, but that has little to nothing to do with dumping Aramis, Z and Fukudome. If he dumps those three and saves all the money, but then doesn't put all of that back into payroll, casual fans will complain.
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I'm sure they have a separate budget for both, but at the end of the day, it's all Ricketts' money and he can rob Peter to pay Paul as much as he wants. True, but I doubt he'd lessen the payroll to hire front office guys or bring in more international signees. The more casual fans than us (the vast majority of fans) would not take kindly to that.
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I strongly disagree with you on Aramis, Z and Fukudome. I hope you are right or it will be a LONG next 2 years. Good discussion! Very good discussion! I expect the team to struggle this year and next, but I still think we can compete as soon as 2012 once a number of these contracts/dead money will be off the books and we have time to make some trades and get youngsters developed.
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I strongly disagree with you on Aramis, Z and Fukudome.
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Crawford would be a nice move (and is a younger version of Kosuke), but Lee is old, Hudson has big injury questions and Webb may not be healthy/good next year. I don't want to give 3-4 year, big money deals to guys (like Lee and Hudson) who aren't likely to be productive for more than a year or two of those deals. There are some nice additions we could make, but I don't see a way to make us contenders next season. Thus, I'd prefer to keep some of our underperformers and see if they can start performing up to par again and be worth something more than just salary relief. I could be wrong on this, but I don't think player payroll is tied to organizational hiring or draft picks/international signings. I think they come from different pots, but I could be wrong on that.
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If you believe that there is no point in time between now and the end of their contracts that you believe you could get prospects/players of value for them, then you're right. But if you believe that they could raise their value in a way that will make them attractive enough to other teams that the other teams are willing to give prospects/players for them, then you're selling low. Basically, do you think this past offseason that the Cubs could have gotten a good deal for Aramis or Z? If so and now you're advocating waiving them for nothing, then you're advocating selling very low for them.
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Just out of curiosity, for those who want to dump Z, Aramis and Fukudome for nothing, who should we spend those dollars on this offseason that ensures we compete in 2011? And if the players to ensure we contend in 2011 aren't available this offseason, then why don't we keep the players and see if their value rises between now and the 2011 trade deadline?
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It'd be pretty dumb as well to know you have assets that can bring in a good to very good return in the future and give them away at their lowest point of value (with the exception of Kosuke). Just like you shouldn't buy high, you also shouldn't sell low and if the Cubs simply waived Z and Aramis right now, they'd be selling as low as they possibly could.
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Right this minute with his struggles bouncing between the pen and rotation, yes I agree. Before this season when he didn't have a season where he posted an ERA over 4 and a career K/9 at 7.71, I think there would have been quite a bit of interest in him at $18 a year for two seasons. It might not have been a great deal even then, but I think somebody would have given a 29 year old pitcher that.
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And posts a near .400 OBP with excellent defense in right field. His slugging has also improved each year he's been in the majors and currently sits at .456. Teams value that.
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2 years, minimum $10 mil: Bay Lackey Holliday Randy Wolf, Chone Figgins and Aroldis Chapman also got deals with a total value greater than what is left on Kosuke's contract. Also keep in mind the whole $26 million left on his deal won't be paid by the acquiring team. By July, the Cubs will have paid roughly $6.5-7 million of this year's contract, leaving the other team to pay about $20 mil or less for a stretch run and one more season. Like I've said before, I'd be willing to pay as much as $10 million to an acquiring team if it got me a quality prospect or two. If that doesn't interest teams, I keep Kosuke until next year's trading deadline and look to trade him then.
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At this very moment, Z and Aramis likely wouldn't have much of a market. But both probably had significant markets very recently and there's little reason to think neither can rebound and play well for extended periods of time.
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Kosuke couldn't get a 2/26 deal right now? Or Z get a 2/36 deal? I'd bet both would get similar deals to those. And I'd just about guarantee Ramirez would have gotten a 2/30 deal before this season and if he can rebound in the second half of this year and first half of next year, there's no question whatsoever he'd get a 1/14.6 deal. None of those three are vastly overpaid. Kosuke has been very productive for two seasons and started this year well. Z and Ramirez have struggled this year, but both have very recently been very good to great and can very realistically get the trade value back that they had as recently as this past offseason. I don't see the logic in just dumping players who could net us some decent to very good prospects.
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Trading Kosuke and getting nothing would be awful, same with Z. Both have been very good to great very recently (this year for Fukudome) and neither have awful contracts. There's really no comparison of Kosuke and Rios' contract either. Rios is paid $1 million less than Kosuke per year, but is guaranteed through 2014, while Kosuke's contract is up next year (three years earlier). In the same way, Z is overpaid, but his contract is guaranteed only through 2012 – two years less than Rios. That difference cannot be overstated. In the part of what you said that I quoted, we would save quite a bit of money, but we would also lose out on the chance to get value for very valuable pieces. There almost certainly is a market for Kosuke and Z, there will be for Aramis assuming he rebounds and there could be for Soriano if he continues to hit. Getting nothing for Kosuke and Z and selling Aramis at the lowest point he'll ever be at are extremely short-sighted at best.
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Grabow off DL/Atkins to Iowa
dew1679666265 replied to Keener98's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
A 2.84 and 3.36 ERA the past two seasons are enough to interest GMs down the stretch, no matter how lucky those numbers were. I'm not really arguing that he's a guy I want to keep around or that he's worth the contract, but right now he has no trade value whatsoever. But my argument is that we should take advantage of the time left on his contract to pitch him and see if he can post numbers similar to 2008 and 2009 again. If he can, his trade value will be back and we can, at least, get some of his salary off the books. -
Grabow off DL/Atkins to Iowa
dew1679666265 replied to Keener98's topic in MLB Draft, International Signings, Amateur Baseball
Cutting Grabow wouldn't be the best of ideas. With more than a year left on his contract, he could very well pitch like he has the past couple of years and have some trade value. -
Maybe not all, but they could pick up $8-10 of it and give us a decent prospect or two. I don't know that I'd pay more than half his contract, but if we can get a couple of decent to solid prospects, I'd be willing to pay up to $10 million or so of the roughly $20 mil left on his contract by the deadline.
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It's not so much that I don't think we should focus on Colvin, it's just that I don't see a pressing need to get him in the lineup. I think he can eventually be a quality starter, but he still has options and is still young. There's no real need to force a trade that won't really help the team at this point.
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He has a career .775 OPS, but his OPS has improved each of the last 3 years and is sitting at .823 right now. He's not an offensive force by any means, but his .367 career OBP plus very good right field defense ought to garner a pretty decent level of interest.
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What to do with Colvin is a tough decision. I can't believe Fukudome will have no trade value whatsoever at any point from now until the deadline next year. At some point, we'll be able to trade Fuku for something of value and I'd hate to force a trade now and get nothing in return. I'm not at all opposed to trading Fukudome and I think his value should be at a decent level right now, my main point earlier was to say we shouldn't dump him for nothing. If there's no market right now, there likely will be at some point – even if it's in the offseason or during next year. In the meantime, Colvin can either get experience at the ML level in a bench/platoon role or get ABs in AAA.