XZero771679666304

Damon's price tag will be too high, he has too little power for a corner position and his arm sucks. Just because things are looking bleak doesn't mean Hendry should throw a bunch of money at people who won't fix our problems.

No kidding, who does he think we are, the Cardinals? Anyway, if Hendry did go with Patterson in right, what would become of all the money left to spend?

This has been something that has been bugging me for most of the offseason, especially since The Raj told the Astros to go fly a kite. The Astros have a lot of trading chips that they could put to use. Roy Oswalt has had his share of injuries, but is likely at the height of his trade value (especially after going into St. Louis and shutting down the Cardinals in the NLCS). Andy Pettitte had one heck of a season last year. Backe is solid, albeit unspectacular. Brad Lidge is still a valuable commodity as a closer and would automatically solidify any bullpen. They have some good young pitching (Hirsh, Nieve, Astacio, Buchholz). If you remember, their primary problem last season was a sheer lack of offense. They haven't exactly gone out and done much about it so far in the offseason. SS and RF are both areas that they could upgrade in the offseason. This is a team that could put together a very attractive package pitching-wise. While the Cubs could potentially do the same, I get the feeling that the Astros are more willing to part with certain guys than the Cubs are (mostly due to age, contracts, and injuries). I would not be surprised one bit whatsoever if the Astros end up landing a big bat during the offseason. Oh, they could, but why? If they trade Oswalt or Pettitte and Roger doesn't come back in May, they have little or no shot at the playoffs, even with Abreu. If they keep Oswalt and Pettitte and deal Backe + Lidge for Abreu, they are equally screwed, IMO. I used to fear they would acquire Dunn, but I don't think Adam is going anywhere since Casey has been dealt.

How about a Wilson/Nixon platoon?

I would agree, but an OF of Murton/Pierre/Huff would be absolutely brutal defensively.

*crickets* :wink: But seriously, this thread looks like a moot point because Houston is the team supposedly going after Tejada and Abreu and not Texas. What is Houston going to give Philly for Abreu? Now that they've traded Padilla, the Phils are not going to settle for anything less than a front end starter. If the Astros want him, they better be prepared to cough up Pettitte or Oswalt.

Well, if the season started tomorrow, they certainly wouldn't be nearly as good as they were last year. I think that is pretty clear, and I don't think that is underestimating them. Fortunately for the Cards, Cubs and Astros the season does not start tomorrow, though.

I disagree. There's not much dropoff sliding Reyes in for Morris, and add Rolen. Our lineup with Luna, Taguchi, and JRod would put us ahead of Milwaukee. Our bullpen could screw us over, but not if current rumors of a Rincon and Dotel signing are true. Probably aren't though. All bias aside, I don't think the Cards would be the favorites if the season started today. You will be getting Rolen back, but I don't think you will ever see the Rolen of 2004 again. Taguchi and J-Rod on the corners is just weak. Eckstein and Carpenter had career years they are highly unlikely to repeat. Even if you signe Rincon (who isn't as good as King) and Dotel (won't pitch till June), your bullpen is suspect. I agree with Vance that Milwaukee has a slightly stonger team as of this minute. The Central division picture is really cloudy right now. If the season started tomorrow, I don't think there would be a 90-win team in the division. Good thing there is a lot of hot stove action to come.

MSU lost to Hawaii, but it was their first game of the year and their entire core went down with cramps in the second half. I don't really know how you can say they don't look like a top 10 team. They've beaten two top 10 teams, and lost to another in triple OT. Their defense and rebounding are improving since Trannon came back, and their offense is firing on all cylinders. If they aren't a top 10 team, then who is? Wow. After carefully looking at the top 10, I agree with you. I'll amend my statement to say they aren't the top 5 team they came into the season ranked as. Arizona isn't a top 10 team. The fact that they were when MSU beat them is immaterial. Their ranking now tells us more about them than there #8 ranking did. And they didn't just get beat by Hawaii, they got whacked. The cramps hurt, but top 10 teams don't get beaten by mediocre teams by 22 regardless. And there wasn't that big a discrepancy between minutes played among starters between MSU and Hawaii either. And don't foret it was Hawaii's first game of the year as well. The rebounding and defense has gotten better, but it's not by much and a very small sample size. MSU hasn't been dominating the boards or shutting teams down. The have a long way to go to be an elite defensive team. And the offense is playing well, but not well enough to scare anybody good. The defense is the issue for me though. MSU hasn't shown anything resembling a shut down defense, and their offense isn't good enough yet to beat top 5 teams without one. All the talent is there, though. Illinois has a shut down defense already, and they are just beginning to grow together offensively. The are a bit disjointed offensively, but have a very high potential ceiling. Indiana is too inconsistant, both offensively and defensively. A ton of talent, but SO inconsistant. Could totally dominate or flat-out stink any given night. Iowa is just not all that good, I think. I haven't seen Michicagan enough to make any kind of judgement. Same with Minnesota and OSU. I haven't seen much of Wisconsin, but I can't bet against Bo Ryan. My top 10: 1. Duke 2. UConn 3. Villanova 4. Memphis 5. Louisville 6. Illinois 7. Texas 8. Michigan State 9. Gonzaga 10. Washington IMO, the field is relatively weak and top heavy. By the end of the year, there could be 3 or 4 Big 10 teams in the top 10. Of course, this is all opinion based conjecture.

Look out Dee is starting to find his shot, the further he gets from his surgery the better. Did anyone else notice the announcers talking about how great Luther Head is then not recognizing it was him sitting behind Dee and James during the game? If he is so great, why don't you recognize him. :alright: i didnt notice luther either, but i wasnt watching really closely. oregon just looked really bad, unless thats just the defense. randle needs to get in on the scoring more often, and arnold looked good today. If Randle gets going, I like the Illini's chances of winning the Big 10 again. Illinois is undefeated and hasn't come close to playing their best ball yet. The lost a lot when Deron and Head left, but they are better defensively and are a lot more physical now, IMO. I am a lot more optimistic about the team than I was before the season started, mainly because MSU, Indiana and Iowa aren't living up to their billing. They aren't living up to their billing? Each of them has a bad loss, but each of them has played a much tougher schedule. Gonzaga, Arizona, BC, Texas, Kentucky(twice), Duke, and probably NC State are all better than anyone Illinois has played thus far. Iowa may be showing that they aren't as good as advertised, but Horner went down late in that UNI game, and with him there's a decent chance they still only have one loss. MSU got whacked by Hawaii, and other than tonights game has played pretty close games. Arizona has been exposed as being overrated, so that win isn't particularly inpressive. Illinois barely beat Wichita State on a neutral court, but MSU barely beat Ark-LR at home while the Illini blew them out. I'm sorry, but MSU was highly ranked coming in, and they haven't looked like a top ten team. The Hoosiers played Duke relatively well, but they were beaten by Indiana State. Indiana has played a cake schedule outside of Duke and a vastly overrated Kentucky squad who probably won't be in the top 25 much longer. The Hawks are just not all that good. They have lost two in a row to unranked teams, their win against Kentucky was ugly and Kentucky is overrated. They played Texas well, but we all saw Texas exposed today. The Illini have played a relatively easy schedule, but UNC is better than expected (Probably better than UK and Arizona), and the Illini beat them on their home court while playing a poor game. Xavier and Georgetown are good teams. Illinois lost two thirds of their starting five and are just learning to play together. Now no one is going to run away with the Big 10, but from what I have seen MSU and Indiana aren't as good as I expected them to be, while Illinois is better than I expected, and havent come close to playing cohesively. I just think things are a lot less clear than they were before the season started. I don't see any big 10 team winning more than 10 or 11 conference games at most.

I agree about Patterson, but Hendry seems hell bent on trading he and Walker, so I am taking them out of my equation. And while I think there are better options via trade, I don't want to see Hendry clear empty the entire cupboard.

Don't you think Baltimore would want Cedeno? Do they have another SS waiting in the wings?

No. If we got Tejada, I think we could settle for Jacque Jones. And I think the lack of trade bait that would be left would prevent us from acquiring a top notch alternative, unless Texas is willing to give up Wilkerson for very little.

Look out Dee is starting to find his shot, the further he gets from his surgery the better. Did anyone else notice the announcers talking about how great Luther Head is then not recognizing it was him sitting behind Dee and James during the game? If he is so great, why don't you recognize him. :alright: i didnt notice luther either, but i wasnt watching really closely. oregon just looked really bad, unless thats just the defense. randle needs to get in on the scoring more often, and arnold looked good today. If Randle gets going, I like the Illini's chances of winning the Big 10 again. Illinois is undefeated and hasn't come close to playing their best ball yet. The lost a lot when Deron and Head left, but they are better defensively and are a lot more physical now, IMO. I am a lot more optimistic about the team than I was before the season started, mainly because MSU, Indiana and Iowa aren't living up to their billing.

I do not mean this with any disrespect, backhandedness, sarcasm, or anything other than a sincere desire to know the answer. Do you work for The Score or have friends or relatives who do? I have never come across someone who is more pro-Score than you. Like I said, no disrespect, just curiosity. Not even CubbieRich? I think Cubbie Rich must work for the SCORE.

Because he isn't really that great of an offensive player. We got slightly less production from Walker last year that we would probably get from Tejada this year. Just because he plays a positon were offense is scarce doesn't mean we should overpay for him, especially if it is possible to upgrade more cheaply at another position. What were his numbers last year? No way is he comparable to Walker. I was just surprised to see that Tejada has never had an OPS over .900. HIs OPS last year was .864.

I'd see what Boston wants for Lowell. We didn't offer Nomar arbitration, so he won't be back. I know....that's why I suggested Lowell. :D Of course Boston is going to be all over this. If they are involved in any deal for Miggy, they will be the ones getting him.

The percentage is far more important than the number. If you the thrown out too much, then you have cost your team more runs than you created with your successful steals. Pierre is still in the range were his steals are benficial, but not by a whole lot.

Isn't that the break-even point of SB effectiveness? I wouldn't call that "can't steal to save his life". I think one of the "experts" on Baseball Tonight said that Pierre started last year with a leg injury which hampered his base stealing. Which is interesting because his percentage was much worse in 2004, at a terrible 65%.

Speed is fine, but he cant steal to save his life, he gets caught 25% of the time. 75% is a very solid percentage. To say he can't steal to save his life is absurd. 75% is borderline. Not particularly good, but not terrible. How many guys with over 15 SB attempts have a higher percentage? I think you would find he's in the top 15% or so, I don't know exactly. 75% would be above average for guys that do a bit of running. I checked and there were 26 players with 20 or more SB in 2005. 20 of them were at 75% or better. 11 of them were at 80% or better and 5 were at 85% or better. Only 4 were below 75%. The average percentage for all 26 was 79%. Looking at the numbers, IMO you could easily categorize them as follows: 85% and up: Excellent 80-84%: Good 75-79%: Average 70-74%: Fair 65-69%: Poor 64 and below: Abysmal Pierre's care average would put him in the fair category.

Vidro may not even play next year.

The A's want a big bat for Zito if they are going to trade him.

Yeah that. Did you guys here Stone on the score today? He said he personally has heard from MacPhail that he will never sign the top free agent and let them go to the other teams and secondly he will never exceed the the yearly payroll to the point where it will hit the luxury tax. Not exactly the type of guy you want running the organization if you ask me. What in the heck is 2-4mil dollars when you resign scrubs like Rusch and Perez to 3mil each? How ridiculous is this. Do we really need a payroll of 175MM? Isn't that where luxury tax comes into play? I know we all want the new shiny toy and so called "hot" FA but a high payroll does not equate to a championship team. That's why you have a GM, Manager, Scouts, and the like; to help discover, develop, and motivate talent. I tend to agree with MacPhail in this regard. Did anyone notice the recent article detailing how many millions the Yankees lost last year? It's one of the big reasons why they have not gotten into the high stakes market this off season. I'm of the opinion that every franchise (even the most wealthy in the highest market) needs to exercise restraint. No, we sure don't need a 175 Million dollar payroll. Throwing money at a problem isn't the answer. Look at some of the recent Wolrd Series winners: The White Sox, Marlins, Angels....did any of them have luxury tax-high payrolls? Meanwhile the Yankees are paying astronomically high salaries and flaming out year after year. Just think about the Yankees' payroll: 205 million, and they can't get to the series when teams like the Sox, Houston, St. Louis, Florida, etc. do. If a team can't win with a 95-105 million dollar payroll, someone is doing something wrong. The problem isn't monetary, it's philosophical.

Speed is fine, but he cant steal to save his life, he gets caught 25% of the time. 75% is a very solid percentage. To say he can't steal to save his life is absurd. 75% is borderline. Not particularly good, but not terrible.

I'd rather sign Graffanino.