Tim

I hate to denigrate another Cubs website, but this kind of bogus rumor is not outside the history of ITI. This is the same website that a couple years ago broke the "Pudge a Cub" story and talked about the "outlaw curveball" of Bobby Brownlie's that was supposed to be thrown at 95 MPH.

How about Adam Smith instead? :D

Premium has that feature. Probably my favorite one too. Inside of a thread? How do you use it? Just click the orange note next to the thread title. non-premium kind of has that feature, but it takes you to the most recent post at the beginning of your session.

Sankei Sports reported this week that Matsuzaka is threatening to sit out in 2006 if Seibu won't post him this offseason. Matsuzaka feels he pitched "well enough" to be posted after the Lions said they would if he pitched well. I still think it's a super long shot for him to be posted. He'll be a FA next offseason, right?

I still want the Cubs to sign Daisuke. -- edit -- N/M. I just read a post I had missed earlier.

Maybe they haven't. Would you rather play for Toronto @ 5/50 or St. Louis @ 4/40? Toronto @ 5/50 - I'm a friggen geedy S.O.B :lol: "Hey, man, I'm just trying to feed the kids and keep a roof over their heads!"

Well, if the mod doesn't exist, tht would be a good reason it can't be done. If you know of such a mod, I'd be interested in taking a look.

Oh, just a postscript to the ignore thing... I can't be ignored even if you're premium. :twisted:

Sure. At the low, low cost of $5 per month. ;)

Actually, my point is that good bullpens rarely get built by throwing money and long-term deals at guys coming off career years. We already had Dempster, Williamson, Ohman, Wuertz for the backend of the pen. We've got either Rusch or Williams for long relief. I probably wouldn't complain about Howry if he were the only other big deal. That would give us six men in the pen and we'd be set. It's really the combination of the Eyre and Howry deals that irritates the heck out of me. It means that we're committed to those guys for far too long a time considering their overall career track records. I prefer to build a pen through exceptional scouting, player evaluation and player development, rather than trying to throw money after past performance. I think there's a very, very strong chance that one of the two three year deals ends up being an anchor in the pen and the other no more than ordinary. I think that rather than turning this into one of the elite pens, Hendry has done nothing more than make sure it will be average. I think he took the easy way out. We may say that we wanted a sure thing and so we're glad he signed guys that did well last year. But no reliever is a sure thing and we're committed to these guys even if they don't work out. Great pens like Anaheim & St. Louis have very few long-term commitments except at closer. They're built from within and astute pickups that were pretty much freely available to anyone. When non-closing relievers get expensive, they're traded or let go. Minnesota's been able to maintain a strong pen for years wth the same philosophy. Ah, what's the point. I should just let everyone be happy because we went out and committed a big chunk of payroll for "proven" guys. Hooray.

You're not in the "Pierre sucked in 2005, I don't want him" camp? Or the "Pierre has no SLG" camp? Or is it "Pierre's not worth the $$" camp? Me, I like him considering (a) he's available at modest cost in players, (b) his $$ post-arbitration is likely to be moderate (~$5MM) compared to alternatives like Damon, © he is an unrestricted FA after 2006, so signing him does not block Pie's potential future development, (d) you are getting a guy on the cheap that was a terrific leadoff man three times in the past five years, (e) and by all accounts, Pierre is a nice guy and good teammate, there are no "Milton Bradley" issues here. In a perfect world, there are several CF-ers I'd prefer over Pierre (either Crisp or Sizemore certainly come to mind), but in the real world, I recognize he's likely the best attainable option, and I applaud Hendry if he closes the deal in the next few days. Actually, I ranted that Pierre was vastly overrated when he was having "good" years. It has little to do with his 2005 performance. So, no, I'm not in the "Pierre sucked in 2005, I don't want him" camp. I'm in the "speedy leadoff hitters that walk 40 times in 700 PA's, slap the ball around with no power and get caught stealing far more often than they should are way overrated" camp. I've been a proud member of that camp for any number of years now. Hendry keeps saying that he wants to focus on pitching and defense, yet he's acquiring one of the worst defensive CF's in baseball. Honestly, I'd be happier with GM Jr than Pierre. At least he can catch the ball and throw it. And I really don't want GM Jr as anything but a backup at this point. Also, I'm basing that decision off career value, last 3-4 years and 2005, so please no crap about inconsistency.

Oh, I agree with you completely. But I don't think Gomes is available, whereas Lugo may be. It would be interesting, though, if the Cubs had Furcal, Gathright, Pierre and Patterson on the same team to see footraces before the games!

There's no reason to repeat here our back and forth in the Howry thread; suffice it to say, your comparisons were silly--as pointed out there. The stats you chose to focus on were selectively made. The logical inconsistency of your argument from one thread to another was also startling: on the one hand, you want to focus on recent performance and discount past results (Pierre), but on the other, you want to look at lifetime performance and discount recent results, even though said recent results came after career-trajectory-changing events (Eyre's ADD treatment; Howry's surgery). And to top it all off, you, one of the proudest proponents of the dangers of small sample size, then tout Ohman and Wuertz' case despite both having incredibly small sample sizes from which to observe. Hey, I don't take it with venom, in fact I take it more tongue-in-cheek; my interpretation is that you've been away for awhile and are just in the mood for some good natured arguments, and that's cool, I'm always up for that. But it doesn't change the fact that you're dead wrong, on multiple fronts of late. Actually, I and others compared Eyre's post-add results with Ohman and found them lacking. And others brought in a lot of additional stats that reinforced the point even further. But you don't seem to want to acknowledge that our side of the argument just might have some merit to it. It's very hard to avoid small sample sizes when that's all that's available. In those cases, it's all you have to go on. I'd also use Ohman's minor league numbers, but people would complain about that, so I didn't. I'm not sure where I've talked all that much about Pierre the last couple days. I think you're confusing me with someone else there. And I don't mind the back and forth, either. Hence the big smiley at the start of my post!

Greenberg can take a walk and hit more than singles. Gathright's been an okay base stealer at the major league level, but he's also put up a .316 OBP and .656 OPS there. He won't be worth what it'll cost to get him methinks. So...what's the difference between Gathright and Pierre? :D Just kidding, of course. Pierre has a much better record of success than a .316 OBP. But they're very similar types of players. Pierre's just better at it. It wouldn't make any sense to have both on the roster, though. I hope Hendry's just looking at that deal in case the Pierre deal falls through. I thought it was interesting to note that the Cubs have inquired about Huff, too. But no word about Lugo. :(

Yeah, let's just get rid of that Prior guy. Wood never amounted to much, either. Ya gotta love hyperbole. You're the one that has been overboard with the hyperbole of late. Prior doesn't count, for crying out loud. He was a big league talent the day he accepted his diploma. Or are you honestly going to claim that the Cubs minor league system had any role, whatsoever, in developing Prior's talent and preparing him for the big leagues? Wouldn't surprise me, because you have a strange fetish for making excuses for the Cubs' minor league system. I don't. It's a failure. Because I deal in end-results, and the fact is, we have nearly nothing to show for these guys at the major league level. Thank god at least a few of them were traded for talent. You can go back to rubbing the belly of your Hee Seop Choi doll now, Tim. :D Wow, that's a lot of venom, Don! Please show me where I used hyperbole on the order of "our prospects suck, they've always sucked..." I'm really interested in seeing it. Was it when I claimed that Eyre was no better than Ohman and used their respective major league performances to back that statement up? Or when I said that Howry/Eyre was not a huge upgrade on Wuertz/Ohman and used stats to back that up (Howry is better than Wuertz, but Ohman's better than Eyre, so it evens out a bit). Please, elucidate upon your point a bit. If I actually did use hyperbole of your magnitude, I will most certainly admit fault and retract my statement.

Yeah, let's just get rid of that Prior guy. Wood never amounted to much, either. Ya gotta love hyperbole.

Actually, at this point any additional class A or B free agent will merely cost us a 4th round draft choice. We've already blown our second and third rounders on relievers.

Eliminate Eyre, Howry, Rusch and Neifi and there's plenty of cash for those three. Which is the point we were making in the Howry thread that you fought against.

When I see Hendry make a move I like, I'll be very vocal about that. But so far this offseason, i haven't seen a lot to cheer for. I just don't believe in the myth of the leadoff hitter. He's a leadoff hitter once a game. I don't believe that speed is that disruptive a force - it certainly does not have the impact of extra base hits on scoring runs. I don't believe in overpaying middle relievers who are coming off a career year. I think if you looked at it realistically and ranked relievers based upon their "stuff", you would come closer to predicting the next year's performance than if you ranked them by their previous year's performance. And I'm simply not overwhelmed by the "stuff" of Howry or Eyre (particularly Eyre).

We're perfectly free to trade him now if Florida would take him. But that would expose FL to the chance that someone takes him in the rule 5, which is why most of the time guys in that position are listed as PTBNL's.

People are acting as if having Novoa in the pen would doom the Cubs in 2006. He'd be the seventh option out of the pen. That's very akin to saying that having Macias on the bench dooms the Cubs.

IIRC, Delgado had no interest in playing for the Mets. Delgado showed no interest in wanting to be traded this year either. Should be interesting to see how this plays off. Could he cause some problems in that clubhouse? posted before I saw this. I wonder if he'll demand a trade next year, wouldn't surprise me. I know I'd be pi$$ed off if I signed a multiyear deal with a team just to get traded a year into it to a team without a clue that I had absolutely no interest in playing for in the first place. Mets could end up with a one year rental when it's all said and done. after trading away top prospects to get him. he's a steve phillips clone, that Omar Minaya. Well, they'll end up with a year of Delgado, plus whatever players they can trade him for after he demands a trade. And it is possible that Delgado ends up liking Randolph and wants to stay there. It's just costing them a pitcher who many scouts consider to be overrated and a hitter who either blossomed upon reaching the majors in 2005 or played over his head for a short stretch of time to pump up his value. I think this is a far worse trade for the Marlins than the Beckett trade, actually. In my mind, Sanchez > Petit and Hanley > Jacobs. Plus they got Boston to take all of Lowell's salary in the trade. And Delgado on offense is superior to Beckett on the mound (with Beckett's injury concerns balancing out his age advantage). Personally, I think the Mets got a steal here.

Petit is going to be very good. Is the 1st baseman Brazille? Here me now and believe me later, the Las Vegas Gamblers are going to be very, very good. I think Petit's going to be one of those pitchers who have tremendous minor league numbers that becomes a 4th starter in the bigs. Control issues? Control pitcher. The stuff just isn't overwhelming according to any report I've ever read on him.

Petit is going to be very good. Is the 1st baseman Brazille? Here me now and believe me later, the Las Vegas Gamblers are going to be very, very good. I think Petit's going to be one of those pitchers who have tremendous minor league numbers that becomes a 4th starter in the bigs.

and now they're paying more for him than they offered at the time. it's hilarioius. i'm sorry, but OM is a moran! a moran with a lot of cash, but still a moran. If I were a Mets fan i'd be pissed. Talk about no game plan... I don't know about that. If Reyes ever learns to draw a walk, that team will have a pretty good offense, though Shea will mask that fact to some extent. A Beltran-Wright-Floyd-Delgado core is pretty darned good. If Reyes can start to get on base at a .350 clip in front of them...oh, boy.