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The minor leaguers we got in return are better than that. All three look like they have decent shots of reaching the majors at some point and it wouldn't surprise me to see one of them turn into a pretty solid MLer. It wasn't a deal you just had to take, though.

I think, if I remember correctly, that Bruce Miles basically insinuated as much around this board. I always kind of thought that it was a trade to either replenish the farm after a Peavy trade or to get prospects that the Padres specifically wanted. Found Bruce's insinuation: Exactly. I have a hard time believing that, if we were really trying to pinch pennies we wouldn't have given Miles a 2 year $5 mil. deal. We probably would have just signed a guy like Grudzielanek to a deal under $1 mil. That's my thoughts exactly. The only way Hendry could figure out to save $3 million was to downgrade from DeRosa to Miles? He couldn't have tried to move Gaudin for A-ballers or restructure a deal or something? I just don't buy it.

He'll hit some singles. I guess that'll be moderate enough production. I'd still rather have saved the $4 million over the next two years and gave German a shot at being just as good as Miles for a fraction of the cost. Or signed one of the few better options at a cheaper cost than Miles. But, oh well. Yeah, here I am definitely with you. I would have loved to sign Grudzielanek to a 1-year deal for 1-2 million. But, given the current, albeit "less than perfect" scenario, we could do worse than Miles. He is more or less another Ryan Theriot playing second base for Fontenot when he sits versus LHP. Yeah, and that's not particularly good. Theriot is a really nice player to have who will produce something for a cheap price. And if Miles was making Theriot's money, I wouldn't have the slightest problem with him here. Problem is, he'll produce around what Theriot gives us (if he repeats last year's career year) at a much larger cost. You're probably right. But guys posting a .380 OBP aren't really that common regardless of the price, are they? I know it would be better if he could slug his way out of a wet paper bag, but getting on base at that clip is still not terrible. I guess I'm just hardened by the Neifi Perez days and always look for the silver lining. It's worth something, but again he can't slug and is pretty mediocre defensively (terrible at short). He is better than Neifi, though. That I can agree with!

How are baggy pants modern? http://www.myclassiclyrics.com/artist_biographies/Ty_Cobb_Biography_4.jpg http://www.workers.org/2007/us/Jackie_Robinson.jpg http://www.nndb.com/people/861/000085606/cy-young-1-sized.jpg I think those are more tarps tied around their waists than they are actual clothes. :wink:

He'll hit some singles. I guess that'll be moderate enough production. I'd still rather have saved the $4 million over the next two years and gave German a shot at being just as good as Miles for a fraction of the cost. Or signed one of the few better options at a cheaper cost than Miles. But, oh well. Yeah, here I am definitely with you. I would have loved to sign Grudzielanek to a 1-year deal for 1-2 million. But, given the current, albeit "less than perfect" scenario, we could do worse than Miles. He is more or less another Ryan Theriot playing second base for Fontenot when he sits versus LHP. Yeah, and that's not particularly good. Theriot is a really nice player to have who will produce something for a cheap price. And if Miles was making Theriot's money, I wouldn't have the slightest problem with him here. Problem is, he'll produce around what Theriot gives us (if he repeats last year's career year) at a much larger cost.

Nothing has been officially confirmed as to why DeRosa was traded. It's possible that it was for an expected Peavy deal that fell through. If so, Hendry should have waited until there was no possibility that the deal would fall through before pulling the trigger on the DeRo trade. It's also possible that it was made to get Fontenot more ABs. The problem there is, with a very large injury risk in RF, a potential injury risk in LF and an injury risk at 3B to take up DeRo's time, there would have been plenty of ABs for Fontenot - especially since, as our roster stands now, he would have been our only middle infielder. Fontenot got well over 200 ABs last year and with Cedeno gone he would have gotten all (or the vast majority) of those as well. He would have had at least close to 400 ABs, if not more. There was no reason to trade DeRo if that was their reasoning.

I can completely understand, my friend. It's all good. :D He'll hit some singles. I guess that'll be moderate enough production. I'd still rather have saved the $4 million over the next two years and gave German a shot at being just as good as Miles for a fraction of the cost. Or signed one of the few better options at a cheaper cost than Miles. But, oh well. Please stay healthy Milton.

Except that every time a left hander takes the mound this season, it'll be Miles batting instead of DeRosa. I don't think Miles playing second base over Fontenot next year against purely LHP will be a negative at all. He's posted an OBP of .368 and .378 against LHP in 07 and 08 respectively. Fontenot has done nothing but look completely clueless against LHP in his short MLB tenure. It's a win-win in my book. Miles is already on the roster, so let him platoon with Fontenot. Fontenot has a question mark as to his abilitiy to sustain his MLB success over a full of AB and Miles is far from a bad option against strictly LHP as a second baseman. Yeah, Miles is a better option against lefties than Fontenot. My problem, though, is that he'll be a big downgrade from what DeRosa gave us against lefties last year. CCP did provide the stats that showed most of DeRo's ABs against lefties came in the OF, but that doesn't make me feel any better about dumping DeRo. Our payroll right now is at $137 million. In trading DeRo and signing Miles, we saved roughly $3 million. Most estimates have said our payroll is $140 million. I'm not convinced trading DeRo was a necessity to sign Bradley.

Ok, just curious after the proven closer comment. I actually preferred Gregg winning the job as well, but it was purely because I thought Marmol was the better pitcher and would serve the team better in the more precarious situations. Yeah, I can understand. The main reason I was happy Gregg won the closer's job was mainly because 1) He's been successful the last 2 season's as a closer in Florida and 2) I'm one of the people who's not completely sure if Marmol would be a successful closer. I mean the guy deserves the chance to prove to us he can close and I'm sure he will get that chance soon, but a few things that worried me were that he did blow the elimination game against the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic and he's hit 5 batters in 8 innings this Spring Training so I'm wondering how good his control is at the moment. Keep in mind I haven't seen much of him in Spring training. But at the moment, I think the Cubs will be fine with Gregg as their closer and as long as he's successful (which I think he will be), the Cubs will be fine. The closer's job really hides Gregg's weaknesses the best. Gregg has a bad tendency to walk a lot of people. If he does that in the ninth, he'll have some room for error. If he came in with the bases loaded and nobody out and started walking people, we'd be in trouble immediately. I don't worry at all about Marmol's ability to close games. He'll be fine at it. I think this setup highlights his strengths the best, though.

It's hard to pass on the best defensive player on the board, so I can understand the move. In the Rams' case, though, resisting that temptation might be best if they want their franchise LT in this draft. Does anyone buy the talk going around of Detroit taking Jason Smith with the #1 pick? I think they're probably legitimately torn. Stafford is apparently the lead candidate, but it could well be a smokescreen. Smith is a definite possibility, I think.

I'd be fine with a minor league deal. If Lamb can recapture his 06-07 numbers, he'd be a significant upgrade over Aaron Miles. If he repeats last year's awful numbers, he'd actually be a worse option than Miles.

Ok, just curious after the proven closer comment. I actually preferred Gregg winning the job as well, but it was purely because I thought Marmol was the better pitcher and would serve the team better in the more precarious situations.

He's put in 155 games at second and 35 at third. The rest were between the outfield and first base. Offensively, he'd have been a much better option than Miles. Defensively, he hasn't played middle infield since 2002, so I'm not sure he would be a very good bet there. He's also never played short. Ultimately, I don't think he fits the team's needs at the moment and he doesn't hit enough to sign him purely as a bat off the bench. If Hendry were willing to cut ties with Gathright, Catalanotto would be an upgrade there. Otherwise, he won't be much, if any, better than Hoff and probably worse than Reed.

Just out of curiosity, did you support Kerry Wood as closer last year?

Not really. A decent percentage of DeRosa's starts against left-handers last year came in the OF. If I counted correctly, there were 25 starts against left-handers where Cedeno started at 2B and DeRosa started in the OF. In those scenarios, it will be Miles taking Cedeno's AB's and either Soriano, Bradley, or Hoffpauir taking DeRosa's AB's. DeRosa had 272 AB's at second base and 47 at third. Fontenot will likely take around 175 of those AB's at second and Miles will take the other 100 of Derosa's along with Cedeno's 110. Miles will likely get between 300-350 at-bats this year, but only 150 or so of them (100 at second and 50 at third) are replacing DeRosa. The other 150-200 are replacing Cedeno. I didn't notice that amount of ABs for DeRo against lefties in the OF. Thanks.

Mike Aller and Cleveland are now on the clock, by the way. I PMd him.

It's hard to pass on the best defensive player on the board, so I can understand the move. In the Rams' case, though, resisting that temptation might be best if they want their franchise LT in this draft.

Tackles aren't a real good bet here. Jason Watkins from Florida is probably the best currently on the board, but he doesn't really excite me. Xavier Fulton from Illinois is also a decent option here. Robert Brewster from Ball State also sounds like a moderately raw, yet with fair potential, tackle. Well I really wanted to go tackle earlier then this, but just didnt see any that I liked that much. In reality I think the Rams go tackle in the 1st round. But they do need a tackle after releasing Pace, so I will go with Watkins from Florida then. Yeah, I kept an eye on the tackles through the second and third rounds for the Titans, but I'm just not that big a fan of anybody after the first round, elite guys in this draft. The middle round guards and centers I really like, but I think this draft lacks tackle depth.

Tackles aren't a real good bet here. Jason Watkins from Florida is probably the best currently on the board, but he doesn't really excite me. Xavier Fulton from Illinois is also a decent option here. Robert Brewster from Ball State also sounds like a moderately raw, yet with fair potential, tackle.

Nah, Denver taking Robert Ayers in the middle of the second round was the steal of the draft. Chase Coffman is also a better value here than Beckum, I think. Beckum is still a great choice here, though. reggiemiller rules and St. Louis are now on the clock. I'll PM him.

Except that every time a left hander takes the mound this season, it'll be Miles batting instead of DeRosa. That was 171 ABs last year for DeRo. Fontenot played twice the games at second that Cedeno did. Those ABs will now be split between Fontenot and Miles (and a few to Gathright or Hoffpauir for the times that Fontenot came in when DeRo moved to the OF in the middle of a game). Plus, anytime this season Fontenot takes a day off against a righty, it'll be Miles playing. That won't be a lot of ABs, but they would have likely gone to the DeRosa/Fonenot duo last year. Miles will definitely be getting a whole lot of DeRosa's ABs.

I still don't see how the record of a team with a horrifically awful defense is any implication on the quarterback. Most of the team's losses were not the fault of the offense and, thus, not the fault of Cutler. And I didn't see a lot of the poor throws, but I'd wager at least some were him trying a bit too hard to score knowing that the defense would likely give up points either way.

that's putting it mildly. he sucks at life. I don't know many details, but I've heard it's pretty extensive.

Just for the heck of it, here's the link to what nick is talking about.

Handlebar McSkullet and the Chiefs are now on the clock. I have PMd him.