sunnydoo

C FA market is horrific this year. I think the big names are all 36+: LoDuca, Posada, and Pudge. Kendall and Barrett will both be added to that mix as well as a few other 2nd and 3rd tier FA catchers like Melheuse, Ross, etc. Think we would have to go out and find us a prospect or use Hill/Soto/Blanco if Henry can return. Blanco and Soto would be under our control, but i have not looked at the details on Hill's deal.

Almost 40 years and counting of Cub misery. I can see it coming from a mile away now. Its the old story of the train, the tunnel, and the light at the end of it. ](*,)

ha ha ha...i called this yesterday. Cy Ohka here we come.

lol, been spending too much time looking at the Eagles situation and mixing my metaphors. :wink: Fixed. Cap Anson was our 1b/3b for a while also, so there is a Cap in baseball.

Still not getting it, so i will recap it for ya one more time. We trade Jones to the A's for Kendall, clearing 5.6M next year in cap room and fixing the disfunctionality of our OF. We then flip Barrett for a prospect over to the AL. Barrett is probably leaving anyway, so might as well get something for him. The difference between Barrett and Kendall at the moment is 1 WS. We gain 5.6M next year to use either on the FA market or to re-sign Z, v 2.0. Because remember, we may or may not have a 100M payroll depending on the new ownership, so we may need to conserve some cash. Jones is the 6th highest paid player on the Cubs atm and is a waste of talent and money. He is an albatross and his deal is a boondoggle (link for Raisin b/c he obviously gets confused when i use big words http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/boondoggle).

He entered June of 2006 with 7 HR's and a .938 OPS! I was watching the Braves game the other night and Chip said the Twins were actively pursuing Lowell. I was like why in Hades would the RedSux trade him to the Twins? How many HRs will ARod hit this week in Denver? Should be exciting to watch. Sammy used to own Coors Field.

um, i gave you a link for albatross. you obviously have no idea on its meaning b/c it does mean what i used it for (the definition is A constant worrisome burden or an obstacle to success which fits Jones and Barrett- especially his lack of defense.) And Loogys dont exist. and i said anyone in our system other than pie, guz, and marmol...epatt, veal, soto, anyone.

Well IMB! i disagree with you. The Braves have no prospects to dangle to get Howry types. Blanco is the CF they are waiting on. Harris at 2b is 28 and has been awful in every trip to the majors (can you say AAAA). Escobar is taking over for Renteria when he leaves. Prado doesnt have + talent. Pena will be the backup for the Braves if they trade McCann or Salty. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&cid=431 Now they could go out and trade Renteria and give the job to Escobar, but that is taking quite a chance, especially with Chippers health being d to d, not to mention the difference in production. It also may end up like the Betemit trade last year. Where they could get these mystery relievers i would like to know, as would the GMs of Cleveland, Philly, NYY, Oakland, and LAA. As for the recurring Kendall thing, think of it kind of like the deal we did with the Dodgers, having one of the teams take the financial hit one year vs. 2 years. Getting rid of Jones would be a good thing. Barrett would probably bring us a decent prospect, which we will lose when he leaves. Kendall could be a rental or we could arby depending on how the season goes. And its 1 WS currently between Barrett and Kendall. Regardless of what happens with that, we have 5.6M more to spend next year on a contract extension for z, v 2.0 or to go into the FA market with.

The biggest need area the Braves have is bullpen setup after Gonzales went down. We have a proven setup guy, so that is the Howry part. The Braves 2nd biggest need area is 1b, where Thorman has been woeful this year. Hoffpauir wont make it with the Cubs, he is locked by position not only at 1b but in the OF. He has talent to be an average to maybe a slightly above avg. 1b. Not an All Star, not a world beater, but just an avg producer, which they arent even getting at 1b now. Since they are sending us one of the guys that may be in that mix depending if they put McCann or Salty at 1b, you want to send them something back, b/c they have nothing coming in the system for the foreseeable future in that area. It also would be nice for people to step outside of their contrived theories for a change and realize outliers sometimes exist. Just b/c a guy is 27 doesnt mean that he cant ever be productive in the major leagues or needs to be sent to outer Siberia. He isnt the focal piece of this deal. The last part is up to the Braves. They dont need Pie, b/c they have a guy ready to go for CF next year when Andruw leaves. I dont think they would take Guzman b/c of his injury issues, but they might take Marmol, and that would be too much for Salty. they could have anyone else that they wanted. I would suggest Cotts or Cherry to them b/c they need pen help especially left handed b/c McBride is awful or to groom Cherry to one day take over for Wickman. But they could have any they wanted in the system except Pie, Guz, or Marmol. Maybe they ask for a little more, maybe not...but its an opening offer, not a done deal. It allows them to compete for the rest of this year and addresses their need areas.

Well they changed a bunch of stuff related to the draft. Good article here: http://www.baseballdigestdaily.com/bullpen/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=161&Itemid=39. If you look towards the bottom, So i dont think Kendall would want to explore any further contract and hit the market to see what he could get. As a type B we would get a sandwich pick between rounds 3 and 4, so that is a little bit different too.

The loss of 1 WS may or may not kill us this year. Losing 5.6M next year when we have to re-sign Z, v 2.0 may for a long time kill us. Who knows what will happen with the new owners? Maybe they walk in and say 100M and thats it. You can then wave bye to Z, v 2.0 over Barrett, who by the way wont be back either. For the record that was Hoffpauir (who just turned 27 and who is now up to 320/358/532), Howry, and either a prospect (other than Guzman/Marmol) or more pen help in Cotts or Cherry depending on what the Braves wanted/needed. But thanks for totally simplifying the argument and making it look ridiculous.

So Ivan DeJesus (Pitchers hitting coach and former Cub SS) will step in for Gerald Perry probably in Texas?

Milwaukee Brewers last pennant...1982. Chicago Cubs last pennant....1945. I feel no sorrow.

Yep. The one who doesnt drink the Kool Aid. See also my CP fan club. CP was a bum then, he is a bum now. Barrett needs to go somewhere where he can play first or be the DH, he is just too much of a defensive liability...almost Dunn-like. :lol:

More numbers for ya: Win Shares (actual) Year Tm Lg Batting Pitching Fielding WSP WSAB Total WS CWS Kendall 2007 OAK AL -1.3 0.0 2.9 .129 -3 2 203 Barrett 2007 CHN NL 1.7 0.0 0.9 .214 -2 3 86 Marcels (estimations) 2007 0.87 581 514 69 148 25 1 3 49 9 5 48 49 .288 .361 .358 .719 2007 0.82 457 410 54 118 28 4 16 58 1 3 36 58 .288 .349 .493 .842 I am really starting to think you guys dont like defense. All you ever talk about is OPS. Why dont you like the defense?

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/the-one-about-win-probability/ and about the play by play, not only has MLB stepped up to the plate to embrace technology with pbp they are boldly going beyond recording speeds for almost all changes of the ball, measuring pitching and swings by degree, as well as opening all this info to the public. Some of it will surely be used by the video game people, but its still cool to think about that which we have not yet developed in terms of formula. Whereas today we may be impressed by a 98 MPH fastball, we may find out later on that the correct arm release angle would be 9 degrees (just as an example). I like all of this b/c it should help prove one of my theories that the recent spate of arm injuries isnt necessarily overuse or incorrect mechanics, but the lowering of the mound to produce more runs for hitters. Think baseball should definitely jack them back up a couple of feet.

Albatross- Def 2 from American Heritage...A constant worrisome burden or an obstacle to success....perfecto for Jones and Barrett. http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/albatross Our Payroll is 99,936,999 which ranks 8th http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=chc. Jones is the 6th highest paid Cub, almost 6% of the payroll, and spends most of his time watching the world go by on the bench. He is hitting a rocking 235/294/626. On top of that he is left handed in a position where the other 2 guys he is competing with are both left handed, so platooning is an issue. Its also a case where he may just be a better fit for the AL as opposed to the NL, so trading him makes sense. You also have a natural replacement already ready at Iowa who could be used in a platoon situation. I dont understand how you can defend Jones at all. As for Barrett, his defense is god awful. He has struggled at the plate all year. He is not coming back next year. And he may or may not be a clubhouse cancer. Get what you can get and move on.

Jones is still due 7.8M, including 5.6M next year. I can think of a lot better uses for 5.6M dollars player wise. Barrett is a liability b/c of his defense and lack of production this season. He is a FA at seasons end and probably wont re-sign with us (thank God). We should cash in and get what we can for him now. Kendall is not a long term solution. We just get by with him offensively, but he still has a better skill set defensively than Barrett. He also would likely bring us a Type B pick in next years draft when we would lose him to FA at seasons end. So in essence we lose Jones, Barrett, and a B prospect for Kendall, a Type B pick, and whatever we get for Barrett.

Barrett is avg a PB every 58 innings, Kendall every 90 innings. Thats a bit of difference. NL Avg for starters is almost 124 innings per PB. And again its not the long term solution. it is ridding ourselves of 2 albatross no later than the end of the year, instead of letting the Jones thing drag on forever.

1- He is a FA at years end just like Barrett, so its not a long term solution. 2- He is nowhere near as bad defensively as Barrett. He had 7 PB in 1254 innings last year, and 6 in 544 so far this year. He did throw out 30% last season, but only 19% so far this year in stealing. Would expect that might come up a bit. Barrett is 10 in 852 last year and 8 in 466 this year. 19% and 17% in stealing throws. 3- He is struggling. .533 OPS is horrible. His .709 last year was also not good. But Kendall has always been a 2nd half hitter (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/5562/splits;_ylt=An4oXuknM.zQBd6UKH5LC7SFCLcF?year=career&type=Batting) and he will be going from a 96 ballpark to a 104, so one would expect that his offense might rise as well. 4- We clear the OF out a bit and arent hamstrung by Jones next year. Lifetime #s for Kendall in Wrigley: Wrigley Field 51 179 28 50 12 2 2 28 18 17 2 4 .279 .378 .402 .780

Yep, an upgrade at Catcher for us. We then trade Barrett to the AL. Clears 2 problems with 1 stone.

Another thought is if Hendry got together with Beane again and did something involving Kendall and Jones + B Prospect. Kendall is due about 7.5m left this year and then will be a FA. They have Piazza returning soon and want to use him as a catcher more so as to take advantage of Cust's bat. They also want to get time for Suzuki to see if he is in fact their catcher of the future. Jones would be re-paired with his buddy Shannon Stewart back over in the AL. He is due 8.42M left over this season (3.42M) and next year (5.3M) with us. That would clear Billy about 4M more in payroll to deal for another piece, solidify a hurt OF, and give him a B prospect to play with. Kendall does have a NT, so Jimmy would have to be nice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_business_rules Here is the outline of the working agreement. The numbers can be symbolized by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. or with Roman Numerals i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, etc. depending on comfort.

um, you do realize what Roman Numerals are for? they are a type of numbering system often found in legal documents. They come from the Roman Empire, which was a government based in Rome about 2.5k to 1.7k years ago. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/columnists/askbarule5.html Shockingly, there is a rule vi and a vii too, as well as a few others. They are also known as rule 6, rule 7, and so on and so forth.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2908510 B/c its not true until someone writes it on the interweb. :wink: