Tim

I guess you haven't spent much time with the regular UI recently. :D

Hey Tim. Hola!

Testing....

Time's up!!!

30 minutes until board shutdown.

Better yet, some one put together an ex-Indians team.The ex-Indians would beat: C - Hernandez 1B - Giambi 2B - 3B - SS - Tejada OF - Damon OF - Dye OF - SP - Hudson SP - Mulder SP - SP - SP - RP - Foulke RP - I'm too busy to fill in the blanks, but that's a serious start to a great MLB team.

I was thinking the other day about how few type A compensation picks the Cubs have gotten over the past 10 years when compared to other teams. The answer why is pretty obvious when looking at this list. The Cubs simply haven't had many good FA's that have left the team. If this list distresses anyone, take a moment and put together an ex-A's team and see how it looks. I really wish that there were more good players to be shown here.

It should go okay. I've already tested the process and copied everything over there once to work out the bugs.

Here's a link to the emergency board that can be used while this one is down: http://s8.invisionfree.com/emergencynsbb/index.php?

Probably best. If nobody else gets around to it, I'll post a link sometime this morning.

What do you think I'm going to be doing from 12 - 3? ;)

use email or PM's until you get agreement.

Yeah, I got it straightened out. But we'd be on the new box already if it weren't for that hangup.

The board is going to go down tomorrow afternoon around 3pm central in advance of the move to the new server. I'm not sure how long it will take to get everything over, but I'm hoping that everything will be functional by Monday afternoon/evening. Sorry for the inconvenience, but this will put NSBB on a much more robust platform than we've ever been on.

I wonder if Jose Cruz, Jr. would be a good short term solution (1 year) for CF and lead-off. Nice OBP (100 points above batting average), decent slugging and he's a free agent. He had a terrific September. Hoops Didn't he get released twice last year? I'm not necessarily against the idea, but let's just say that he's not my first choice.

IIRC, Thome signed for $15/year for 6 years, but was prepared to go as low as $12/year for 6 years with the Cubs. Do you think that would have made for a good contract for the Cubs now? I don't. Thome went to JUCO around here, and he told some buddies that he told the Cubs 5 years at 10 mil per. Second hand info, whatever it's worth. The "hometown" discount info on Thome came out when the competition was Cleveland's offer. When Philly came in with 6/90, I think the discounts went out the window.

I was looking at everyone's keeper situation earlier today and you're one of the people in the toughest spots. Your best players all have full points counting against you. No offense, but I'm hoping Oswalt ends up in the draft. :D

That's a solid point, Tim. But sometimes teams have to be willing to have a bad contract for a year or two in order to have the services of a player before the team's window of opportunity closes. Take the Cubs this offseason. Many of us (including you) want the Cubs to sign Giles even if it means the Cubs give him 4 years. He's unlikely to earn his money the fourth year of that contract, but we'd be willing to give him the money anyway. We'd be willing to do so b/c we recognize that the Cubs time should be now. With Wood, Prior, Zambrano, Lee, Aramis, the Cubs have the pieces to contend for a World Series title in the next two years. We need Giles to do that. I think that Theo made a mistate by not resigning Pedro. He spent a lot of money on Clement, who just is nowhere nearly as good as Pedro. Yes, Pedro might not be worth the money by the 4th year of the contact. But the Red Sox would have won the division this year with Martinez and they may still be playing in the playoffs. This should have been the Red Sox time to win before players like Manny, Damon, etc move on... The argument with Giles is a bit different, in my opinion. I see Giles as being a guy that is likely to decline by the end of the contract, but I think he'll still be a serviceable player. The risk with Thome and Pedro is different. With those guys, the danger is that they will completely blow up and provide absolutely nothing to the team and will be completely untradeable, as well. There hasn't been much talk about Pedro's shoulder this year, but he's still a major health risk that could just blow out at any point. Given his past shoulder issues, I'm pretty sure that's an uninsurable contract, too. At least if he goes down with shoulder issues, anyway.

I think Theo knew there was a big risk to look foolish by not signing Pedro for the first year or two of the deal. It's the third and fourth years of the deal that are questionable. If Pedro would have been willing to take a shorter deal, I'm sure Theo would have loved to have re-signed him. It's much like people were blasting Hendry for not signing Thome to a five year deal before 2003. For all of 2003 and 2004, many fans were saying it was a horrible decision. It's funny, but I don't hear so many complaints about that choice any longer. Now, if you want to question Theo's decisions on how to fill the rotation once it was decided not to re-sign Pedro, I think that's another matter. I'm interested to see if they go big money to fill the rotation in 2006 as the fans will want them to, or if they give Papelbon, Lester or Sanchez a shot at the rotation.

You definitely have the strongest crop of minor leaguers at this point. And huge props for Van Buren making the list as the first team reliever. Even if they did call him Jamie.

They get our second round pick + a supplemental first rounder (not from us, the pick just gets stuck in there between the rounds).

Mark posted the link here back in spring 2004, I think. But I recall not agreeing with parts of the methodology. Even taking their methodology without question I thought the study showed that speed on the bases does so little for the hitter to basically completely rule it out as a legitimate factor when compared with putting good talent in the lineup overall.

It could have been worse... Perhaps Furcal hits some pitcher's better than Giles?? Or perhaps you're really reaching to support a position without substance. After all, it's more likely that a pitcher who has already allowed one guy to reach is going to be a hittable guy. No. I just don't think stats tells the entire story. What other story is possible in the face of those facts? You cannot possibly still maintain that Giles was helped by the presence of Furcal on the bases, can you? Don't certain guys hit certain pitchers better than others?? Doesn't substance = looking @ all the factors. Maybe Giles hits better in these 100some appearances w/out Furcal on. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe these pitcher's bare down more though. Maybe these pitcher's are guys Giles has more trouble with?? Maybe I'm just needling you on your use of substance cause you look up a few stats and think you have all the substance. :o I might buy that argument if the stats were even close, but they're not. Giles is basically horrible with a runner on first base and Furcal is the logical person to have represented the bulk of those 108 men on first. I've also done this for people batting after Juan Pierre and came to the same conclusion. As well as other speedy leadoff guys. It just doesn't help the people that bat after them. It is a myth that the speedy basestealer distracts the pitcher and helps the following hitters. If you don't believe me, I suggest spending some time with ESPN's splits data and microsoft Excel some evening.

For those who insist that the only real choice with Guzman is to send him to the pen, do you think Minnesota made a bad move by leaving Liriano in a starting role after missing two complete years with shoulder problems? Because they look like they've got a heck of a pitcher on their hands to me.

It could have been worse... Perhaps Furcal hits some pitcher's better than Giles?? Or perhaps you're really reaching to support a position without substance. After all, it's more likely that a pitcher who has already allowed one guy to reach is going to be a hittable guy. No. I just don't think stats tells the entire story. What other story is possible in the face of those facts? You cannot possibly still maintain that Giles was helped by the presence of Furcal on the bases, can you?