dew1679666265

Hendry holds no blame in this.

Why not? I'm talking about a healthy Brady/Palmer, by the way.

Except I don't see many 3B out there to get. The usual names Kuzmanoff, Beltre, Atkins, Mora, DeRosa, Wigginton, etc. certainly aren't worth Heilman (let alone Heilman plus prospects). Also, I would think you want somebody that will accept a backup/pinch hitter role and can probably fill in at other positions. DeRosa/Loretta/Aurilia/Wigginton/Belliard kind of player. Are you serious? Heilman has sucked his way out of favor with Lou. Guz has won the 7th inning job and Randy Wells the long man. Heilman will be relagated to mop up. I say sell while we can and fill our biggest need. What makes him a good trade option then? I'd say wait it out a bit and see if the Ms will think about trading Branyan. That's just about our best option, I think.

I'm a little more iffy on Warner than McNabb. Donovan can be a very good QB with no WRs, but I think Cutler will ultimately have the better career.

Those BABIPs simply have to improve. We're hitting balls hard, but they're going right at people right now.

I'm thinking real hard, and I don't think, all factors considered, that there's a QB in the NFC, short of Drew Brees, that I'd rather have. In the AFC, sure, there's a few. Just for one year, or as a franchise QB? If for just one year, I'd probably take Warner or McNabb over him (along with Brees). If as a franchise QB, he's second only to Brees in the NFC. You're right, though, there are a number of QBs I'd take in the AFC (Peyton, Brady, Rivers, healthy Palmer). Yea, I meant taking everything into account. Age, future, etc. Even for just one year, though, I wouldn't take McNabb. And I'm pretty iffy on Warner's resurgence. I figured you meant long-term, but wasn't sure. McNabb is right there with Philip Rivers as the most under-rated QBs in the league. He's put up very good numbers with mostly middle of the road receivers to throw to. If he was given a Marvin Harrison, Brandon Marshall, Randy Moss or Larry Fitzgerald to throw to consistently, I think he'd have some of the best numbers in the league. Warner may be helped out quite a bit by having both Fitz and Boldin on the field, but his arm is still comparable to what it used to be and his decision making still appears good. He could drop off any year, but at this point I'm not betting against him.

I'm thinking real hard, and I don't think, all factors considered, that there's a QB in the NFC, short of Drew Brees, that I'd rather have. In the AFC, sure, there's a few. Just for one year, or as a franchise QB? If for just one year, I'd probably take Warner or McNabb over him (along with Brees). If as a franchise QB, he's second only to Brees in the NFC. You're right, though, there are a number of QBs I'd take in the AFC (Peyton, Brady, Rivers, healthy Palmer).

Haha, the offense would be fun to watch. I'd cringe every time they took the field, though.

Ryan Theriot(amazingly) has been pretty good this year. .810 OPS and .273 EqA. If he does that all year, I'll be thrilled. Me too, but if you told me at the beginning of the year we'd be relying on Theriot to be one of the best infielders on the team, I'd say uh-oh. Definitely. Eventually, though, bats like Lee, Soto and Bradley will come around and with Theriot hitting like this our offense could become awesome again.

Ryan Theriot(amazingly) has been pretty good this year. .810 OPS and .273 EqA. If he does that all year, I'll be thrilled.

He's putting up awesome numbers, but that still doesn't guarantee success at the major league level. I'm not trying to argue that Fox will be unproductive, but Hoff is currently putting up a .929 OPS in the majors and is the better bet to produce now - which appears to be Lou's goal. I agree fully, but I just want to give him the chance if all were sacrificing is a player we really dont need anyway and if it comes down to it can be easily replaced. I'd love to give him a chance, but he simply can't play defense. It's the same reason I don't like the idea of Soriano to 2B and Hoff to LF, great offense negated somewhat by awful defense. I'd be fine with calling up Fox to come off the bench, but not to start.

He's putting up awesome numbers, but that still doesn't guarantee success at the major league level. I'm not trying to argue that Fox will be unproductive, but Hoff is currently putting up a .929 OPS in the majors and is the better bet to produce now - which appears to be Lou's goal.

Inserting Hoff in is much more of a sure thing to boost the offense than inserting Fox. As good as Fox has been in AAA, there's still the chance it doesn't translate to the majors. We know Hoff can hit major league pitching. That doesn't mean I'm in favor of Soriano to 2B and Hoff to LF (I'm not in favor of Fox to 3B either), but I think that's probably Lou's thinking.

He should have had hits in all 3 of his last at-bats tonight, and probably doubles on at least 2 of them. Thats what I'm trying to say Just to let you know, his BABIP so far this year is .194. His previous career low was .279 with the Indians in 2002. Last year it was .396. His LD% is 13.8% so far this season. His previous career low was 15.4% in 2006 with the As. Last year it was 24.7%. He's hitting a lot more ground balls this year (52.3%) than he normally does (career high of 51.6% in 2006) and fewer fly balls this year (33.8%) than he has since 2006 (33%). Last year he hit 41.1% ground balls and 34.2% fly balls.

Hendry can't trade for Peavy because the Trib won't approve the budget boost. Hendry could have a deal in place and would still have to wait for Ricketts to completely take the team over before they could make it happen.

He's played 4 games at second base with one start. A total of 12 innings there.

These are definitely concerns, but if we could do a deal like I suggested, I'd feel pretty good. I think he's a very underrated player.

He's not that much of a lightning in a bottle type player. Obviously he's not going to OPS 1.000+ for too long, but he's a good bet to give us a roughly .850 or so OPS on the year. I'd do Wells and Fox. Fox is a lesser version of Branyan (worse defense) and Wells is a decent enough starter with some marginal upside. Branyan is a poor man's Adam Dunn.

Why would it be stupid? He's only signed through this year, but there is a club option for 2010. He is 30, but they could give him an extension to take him to 32-33 and should be fine. Is there a reason he may drop off quickly? Was there a reason he was suddenly awesome? He credits being more patient in counts and not trying to force things. His pitching coach credited his better control of the fastball and being able to locate in on both sides of the plate. His peripherals are outstanding, so while it's certainly possible he could drop off, I wouldn't call it likely.

I'd absolutely take him in a heartbeat. His BABIP is horrific (.227), but his LD% is about the same as normal (15.4 this year, vs 15.7 in his best year last year). He's pretty much a certainty to get better fairly soon this year. That said, I'd think it'd take a pretty good amount to pry him from the Marlins.

I know which I'm actually pretty happy about. Right now one of this team issues is not having that long guy to eat up innings and keep the game close when the Cubs are only behind by a run or two or tied. Last season we had that with Lieber early in the season and Marshall in the second half. That allowed us to come back and win a bunch of games. This season there's been like 3-5 games when we were in the game until Patton, Cotts, Samardzija and Fox let things get out of hand. Sundays game with the Astros was another example of that with Ascaino giving up two runs and then we saw the Cubs comeback in the 9th. So when Zambrano comes back I'm hoping Wells or Marshall will be able to fill that role and hold teams down for a inning or two and allow the offense to come back. I think the return of Zambrano makes Wells more expendable - if we can use him to acquire a good bat to help fill the void of missing Aramis (and perhaps fill in for Fontenot if he continues to struggle), then I say go for it. If he still won't bring a good return, however, I agree that he should be moved to the pen. Wells has had 2 solid starts, but its going to take more than that to aquire anything of substance for him. Maybe if packaged with Jake Fox and another prospect of the Kevin Hart/Mitch Atkins like, we could be in business. I don't think it'd be on his own, but a guy like Wells who has been decent enough in the minors and then comes to the majors and has 2-3 good starts could become the centerpiece of a minor deal (i.e. for Branyan). It likely would take a Jake Fox or someone like that to really get the Mariners thinking about it.

That's what I'm worried about and why I'm pushing for a deal to be made (though I couldn't care less if Hendry is enjoying a Big Mac, those things are good). If Aramis takes longer than the optimistic reports to return or if he doesn't return to form and needs off days more often, we'll need a better bat than Miles/Scales/Freel to come off the bench.

I know which I'm actually pretty happy about. Right now one of this team issues is not having that long guy to eat up innings and keep the game close when the Cubs are only behind by a run or two or tied. Last season we had that with Lieber early in the season and Marshall in the second half. That allowed us to come back and win a bunch of games. This season there's been like 3-5 games when we were in the game until Patton, Cotts, Samardzija and Fox let things get out of hand. Sundays game with the Astros was another example of that with Ascaino giving up two runs and then we saw the Cubs comeback in the 9th. So when Zambrano comes back I'm hoping Wells or Marshall will be able to fill that role and hold teams down for a inning or two and allow the offense to come back. I think the return of Zambrano makes Wells more expendable - if we can use him to acquire a good bat to help fill the void of missing Aramis (and perhaps fill in for Fontenot if he continues to struggle), then I say go for it. If he still won't bring a good return, however, I agree that he should be moved to the pen.

He'd be well down my list. He'd have been a much better option than Aaron Miles in the offseason, but I don't know that he'd be much (if any) of an upgrade over Fontenot.

That's the biggest question I'd like answered about him. I can't imagine any reason he's not signed, unless it's just simply that no team really needs a second baseman. The Dodgers were the last team that really needed one and for them it was between Orlando Hudson and Durham (given that, I'd take Hudson every time despite my fandom of Durham). I was reading on MLBTR that when Weeks went down, the Brewers briefly discussed Durham but his agent said it would take him a few weeks to get readt. That could be a problem, but it wouldn't keep me from signing him. Any reality there might be to signing Durham would be based off Hendry's willingness to move Fontenot to the bench for the remainder of the year - if he's not willing to do that, then there's not a chance Durham will be a Cub for any reason. But if he is willing to do that, then Durham's slow return is not a deal-killer.