XZero771679666304

Guess what? You're not getting that until October regardless of when Hendry is fired. All of the really attractive options are employed in some capacity, and their employers aren't just going to let Ricketts & Co. come in and woo them in the middle of the season, nor are they obligated to. I suppose the Cubs could fire Hendry and hire some retired relic or unemployed buffoon just to appease people who just want to see something, anything happen, but that would be phenomenally stupid. You fire Hendry now, and you're getting an interim GM, it's as simple as that.

He's been awful this year, but has Adam Dunn ever participated? When I think of raw power, he always comes to mind but I can't remember seeing him in a derby.

His trade record is good in terms of what he has given up versus his returns. He has an aversion to selling high, and that has hurt him. But overwhelming bulk of his failure is tied to his FA spending (not just big contracts, but too many Grabow-type deals and NTCs) and early neglect of the farm system. And this particular argument is centered on whether or not he or an interim GM should be allowed to handle the deadline. I don't see any reason not let Jimbo do it, being that he rarely muffs a trade, and frankly there isn't a real impact deal to made, given what we have to offer. Firing Hendry now would serve no other purpose but to placate rabid fans who just want to see heads roll. Delaying that until October isn't hurting the team.

I am a Hendry critic for certain. We are all judged by results, not effort. The problem with Hendry is too many of his deals have not worked. I think he has a reasonably good idea of what he is doing, he just is not getting the results. As I said, we live in a society that does not care if you: 'tried". We live in a results only based society. Pure effort does not cut it anymore. Where did I say anything about effort? His stupid FA spending is what has crippled this team, not that list of slightly positive, benign at worst deals. His trade record is very good, by and large. I want him gone, but there's no need to paint everything the guy has done as grossly incompetent.

Yeah. All those trades were examples of little talent received, and even less talent given up. I'd consider Hendry the winner cumulatively of those trades, but it's mostly been shuffling of spare parts. I don't see how we can expect more than that this year, regardless. And while none of those deals blows you away, none of them makes you cringe, or say you really wish he hadn't done it, either. I'd take my chances with Jimbo over Randy Bush. Citing that list as evidence he doesn't have any idea what he's doing is a bit of a stretch.

At least Jordan embraced it.

basically it's a disparity in slugging percentage, like i mentioned before, and no it's not that hard to overcome a .120 disparity is SLG when the superior slugger is a mediocre defender and slow baserunner. fangraphs' player valuation has ramirez worth 1.8 WAR while polanco is at 1.7 WAR. anyway, polanco was voted onto the ASG roster so your real beef should be with chipper jones. i don't really know what this means, but take a look around mlb and tell me how 3b is an offense-first position. only 8 out of 34 third basemen with 150 PA's have an ops over .800. the average line among 3b is .246/.311/.374/.685. here is a list of the positions that have a worse average OPS than third baseman: pitcher is that the qualification, though? or is it who has been the most effective through the first half of the year? If you read my post thoroughly you'd notice I said I wasn't making an ASG case for Ramirez, but saying he's the best player right now. But it has been a really weak year for third basemen. If not for the injuries/struggles of Zimmerman/Wright/Sandoval etc., we're not having this conversation.

He's not a full time 3B, so I'm not sure how they'd handle that. He plays 2B and OF as well. Regardless, I don't see how Roberts has been better. He has stolen 12 bases, but Aramis leads him in AVG, OBP, OPS, SLG etc etc. Polanco on the other hand has a .681 OPS and 3 steals. He OPSed .583 in May and .545 in June. He's been absolutely terrible outside of April. Unless he's the second coming of Brooks Robinson he has no business in the all star game. The only one who has any claim in my eyes is Headley. nobody disagrees that aramis has been better offensively. defense and baserunning matter a lot more than you're giving them credit for. also, you're giving aramis way too much credit for having a higher SLG. OBP matters a lot more and he's just about tied in that stat with polanco and roberts. Defense and baserunning matters, but not enough to make a cogent argument that Polanco is more valuable or even with Ramirez at this point. Not enough to make up for a .120+ disparity in OPS. Particularly at an offense first position like 3B. Plus Polanco is skating by on his April numbers. He's been flat out awful for two months now, while Ramirez is trending in the opposite direction. Roberts is also trending in the wrong direction, has been an inefficient base stealer, and has only been marginally better defensively than Ramirez, according to UZR and UZR/150. I'm not making a case for Aramis for the ASG (he heated up too late), but he's pretty clearly the best of the three right now, IMO.

Exactly.

Whatever. For me, he's in the company of AJP and Braun.

Valverde is the worst I've ever seen. Easily. This totally anecdotal, but relative to the "average" celebration in the various sports, Valverde might be the most over the top celebrator there is right now. I'm surprised more of his teammates haven't been drilled because of him. Most guys are tolerated by the fans of their team, but if he was a Cub I'd still be really put off by him. For everyone else, it's blood boiling. Marmol isn't passive, but I'd have put him more in the "fist pumper" group.

I think this is definitely the case, why show your hand before someone calls? it still irks me that he is here and if we had the players to really go fire sale Im not sure I would trust his judgement. Realistically though with the contracts we have and the tradable players on this team we are talking about a rather mundane return. I really dont expect any major difference makers coming our way. I don't think anyone really expects to get difference makers at this year's deadline. Realistically, we can hope to get a return of decent prospects who can perhaps contribute in the future or be part of another trade package later on. That is unless Hendry decides to trade Marmol or Soto.

Yeah, unless the Cubs win just enough to make it look as if injuries are what ruined this season and Hendry keeps his job as a result. I hate that circumstances have conspired to make me feel conflicted about Cubs wins, but that's where I'm at. Well, unless it's against the Sox or Cards. My heart firmly overrules my brain when it comes to that.

It's along the same lines as my not wanting to see ARam sprint full speed out of the box every time he puts the ball in play. Giving 110% isn't always what you want. "Old school" types can't abide by that sort of thinking, but it's more pragmatic.

Yeah, I guess a lot of it is just because he looks so awkward out there. More than anything, I feel bad for him because I think he's really uncomfortable as an outfielder. I will maintain that I see him half-assing when running down balls sometimes, but he's not the disaster some people want to make him out to be.

The not going full speed after balls that bounce away and loafing when chasing down balls in the gap bothers me as well, but I don't want the guy going into the wall much at all, because he'd just be making things worse. I don't want to see him laying out, either.

This nonsense. Outfielders pull up short of the wall all the time, more often than not. And there's another option: c) Crash into the wall, missing the catch, possibly giving the runner an extra base. There's no way to know the ratio, but I'd bet the catch is missed when crashing into the wall just as often as it is made. Soriano is absolutely brutal around the wall and he loafs quite a bit, but the notion that "just about every other OF" will crash into the wall when given the chance is utter hogwash contrived to make him seem even worse. Seriously? You see a lot of OFs giving up on balls they have a chance to catch? I sure don't. Then you're not paying attention. If outfielders routinely went into the wall on any ball they had a chance to catch, you'd see a lot more triples. It'd look like pinball out there. A good percentage of the time players play the ball off the wall, they would have had some chance of catching if they went full bore into the wall. Now the deciding factor is how good a chance do they have, and are they better served playing the hop. Most often the chances aren't good, and playing the hop is the prudent thing to do. We remember the crash into the wall catches, but just as often the crashing OF misses the catch, and more often we just see the ball played off the wall. If OFs went into the wall every time they felt they had even an outside chance at catching it, we'd bee seeing a lot more ugly baseball. This isn't a defense of Soriano, I just take exception to the ridiculous notion that the overwhelming majority of OFs go into the wall anytime they feel they have any kind of shot at catching the ball. That's just trying to make Sori look even worse, and it isn't remotely true.

That would be gloriously stupid. Please let it happen.

This nonsense. Outfielders pull up short of the wall all the time, more often than not. And there's another option: c) Crash into the wall, missing the catch, possibly giving the runner an extra base. There's no way to know the ratio, but I'd bet the catch is missed when crashing into the wall just as often as it is made. Soriano is absolutely brutal around the wall and he loafs quite a bit, but the notion that "just about every other OF" will crash into the wall when given the chance is utter hogwash contrived to make him seem even worse.

I remember they had this debate on MLB network when there was a rumor, and Mitch Williams said he would hesitate to trade Howard for Pujols straight up. Of course, Williams is a moron, but still.

I couldn't believe the terms when I heard them. The guy isn't even top 5 at his position. My favorite part was a friend of mine who is a diehard Phillies fan justifying it by saying that "Howard was owed it for all the cheap years he gave them." Brilliant. Most Phillies fans I know think he's neck and neck with Pujols for best 1B in the game. Then again, the Phils fans I know are total homers. At the time I was happy because I thought it would screw the Cards when it came to re-signing Pujols. I didn't think about that one hard enough, I guess. Still, I think in Fielder's case his body is going to work against him, at least when it comes to the years he will get. Plus, you can point to Adrian Gonzalez, a more recent signing, and say Prince isn't the player he is, and should be paid less. I wouldn't mind Prince at 5/110-5/120. I'm beginning to think Pujols might not be the best idea, if he gets away from the Cards at all. This year has brought his value way down. I'll waver on that opinion, I'm sure.

But he's fast. Need that speed at the top. The fact he can't get on base is immaterial.

I thought they were looking for someone who could hit lefties though? maybe i'm wrong too lazy to check right now We have one of those for sale too. We could sell them a whole platoon.

I couldn't believe the terms when I heard them. The guy isn't even top 5 at his position.

I'd gladly take that line over the next 3 years. I doubt Pujols/Fielder will be worth 12-15 million more than that. Pena has had an OBP that high twice in his career, and a SLG that high once. He's also played his entire career in pitcher friendly parks. I don't think he could sustain his current pace over the next few years, but maybe for the rest of this one. The NL Central is fairly hitter friendly. Though after that April that SLG might be a bit unrealistic. Maybe .520.