Transmogrified Tiger

Who's better? Bradley? I'll take him. Brady Clark? I'll take him too, but he may not repeat his numbers and isn't young. After that, unless you're getting Sizemore, Edmonds, Griffey, or Andruw Jones, you're hard pressed to do better. Or Beltran or Lofton. Unless you want to consider the top 10 CF in the game outstanding (which he may be in), he's really nothing more than average. What he brings in OBP, he loses in so-so defense and less than spectacular baserunning. Like I said, I don't think the guy's a bum, I just think he's highly overrated on this board. I like Beltran, but he's got a monster contract and would require a bunch in return. Lofton is about to fall of a cliff production wise, his BABIP this year disguised that.

Could that also be a reason for Pierre's slide? Pierre's dropoff is at least partially BABIP related. Wilkerson could be because of the "S", but I'd like to see him play a season away from RFK before coming to that conclusion(I know his road splits weren't stellar either).

Who's better? Bradley? I'll take him. Brady Clark? I'll take him too, but he may not repeat his numbers and isn't young. After that, unless you're getting Sizemore, Edmonds, Griffey, or Andruw Jones, you're hard pressed to do better.

I'm talking about Wilkerson. I don't understand the love affair. Maybe using "a lot" was an exaggeration, but there are definitely better options out there. For center field? He had a down year and still was above average for a CF, and better than other options like Pierre. He's still only one year removed from an .874 OPS, which is outstanding for a CF. He plays average defense, he's still young and relatively cheap. There's not much downside, considering even if he stays at last year's down level he's about as productive as someone like Pierre was in their best years.

How do you justify that statement?

Well, at least this can't be used to up his price in an extension, since Hendry doesn't look like he has the guts to trade Lee.

Rotoworld's reports are all based off Newspaper articles and other published reports. This particular rumor was from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, as seen quoted in the original post.

I'm pretty sure that's not Bill James.

God I would hate to have timely hitting and speed. Good luck finding it, since timely hitting is about as easy to get as a leprechaun.

and guys who can steal 50+ bases with a potential .370+ obp. but more importantly, guys who can catch the ball. Just like dem White Sox. See, the Sox showed Hendry that if you score less runs but appear to be "scrappy", you'll win the whole shebang. I hate to say it but I think the Sox winning the World Series pushed Hendry to acquire speed this offseason, so he can 'Southside' the offense. #-o Why is speed so bad? The stolen base, when attempted at the right time, is a valuable weapon. The stolen base isn't all that valuable. Especially when you acquire players who steal bases at borderline acceptable rates, and have very few appealing qualities outside of speed. Tell that to the Boston Red Sox and Dave Roberts. I could care less if Pierre gets thrown out trying to steal in the 4th inning of a game against the Pirates in May. I care about the base he'll potentially steal in the 9th inning of a 1 run game in September when we're fighting for the playoffs. The Boston Red Sox aren't even in that situation without all the OBP and power in their lineup. We're going after players who aren't really great at either, and potentially terrible at both. Pierre is just as likely to get caught in that 9th inning situation, but coming up with obscure hypotheticals doesn't change the fact that stolen bases as a whole have significantly less value than other traits we should be targeting.

and guys who can steal 50+ bases with a potential .370+ obp. but more importantly, guys who can catch the ball. Just like dem White Sox. See, the Sox showed Hendry that if you score less runs but appear to be "scrappy", you'll win the whole shebang. I hate to say it but I think the Sox winning the World Series pushed Hendry to acquire speed this offseason, so he can 'Southside' the offense. #-o Why is speed so bad? The stolen base, when attempted at the right time, is a valuable weapon. The stolen base isn't all that valuable. Especially when you acquire players who steal bases at borderline acceptable rates, and have very few appealing qualities outside of speed.

Pierre is an impending Free Agent coming off a sub 700 OPS season. Nolasco, Pinto, Marshall, Guzman, Ryu should not be involved. If Hendry really is pursuing this hard for Pierre, it's disheartening. Jim, Juan isn't all that great at catching the ball.

I would definitely rather have lugo - for a quarter of the price. I thought he was slated to make about 5.5 million next season? Lugo will make 4.95 mil in '06.

Oh, poor Quin. Having watched an equal portion of that game and the Boston/Duke game, I'm pretty sure Boston would've beaten Mizzou by 20 tonight.

I wouldn't want him for 4/40, but I'm not convinced he'll get that.

Mizzou loses to Sam Houston State at home. I'm glad I had a test so that I didn't waste my time attending, or watching more than part of the first half.

Pierre isn't very good. I'd rather improve at RF and SS and keep Corey at CF. What if Corey, in a package, could help the Cubs get an impact RF? Go get Michaels, Bradley, Wilkerson, even GMJ.

Pierre isn't very good. I could easily see him having a .350 OBP year. As long as the Cubs don't give up too much I could see him as a nice stop gap. Not everyone on your team can be a superstar. He could have a .350 OBP, but he's going to make .335-.340 OBP's worth of outs, he doesn't hit for extra bases, and he's an average defender at best. Oh, and he had a SUB 700 OPS last year. Why is he our(not you CFICT :wink:) first option for CF?

Pierre isn't very good.

Among other things. He's taken to the Duke appearance of conceit quite well.

You said OSU by 3. Now he's talking about UM-ND.

Tennessee, BYU, or Pitt would be ND's second best win. You could debate on which one is exactly second, but they're similar. How are Pitt and Tennesse similiar? Every game Tennessee lost was to a top 25 team. A few of those games could have gone either way. Pitt is just bad. Sorry, for some reason I thought Pitt was already at 6 wins, where the 2 extra W's evens out the schedule difference a bit. My bad.

Why waste a year stunting his development in a platoon? Beat me to it. He'll only be 22 for all of 2007, easing him into his role like that is the way I would do it, as long as the platoon partner is competent. Remember as a lefty he'll get the majority of the AB's in a platoon. Like Choi? That's a whole different argument, you know that. How is it a different argument? You have to put things in context. If Baker is still here, you have to remove his options or he won't let the young player play. I only see the platoon as a viable option if Baker is gone and the Cubs are close to winning the world series. Otherwise, I don't see the point (and yes this whole discussion is based on a very solid 2006 at AAA). I wouldn't mind seeing the platoon late 2006. If Baker's tendencies are keeping you from appropriately developing a player, then you get rid of him, that's the separate argument.

As I said in the other thread, Boston is doing much better than better teams have fared in Cameron. In other news, it only took me a couple minutes to not be able to stand McRoberts, Duke's freshman bigman. 19-18 BU, 8 mins left in the first half. Mizzou tips off against Sam Houston State momentarily.

Why waste a year stunting his development in a platoon? Beat me to it. He'll only be 22 for all of 2007, easing him into his role like that is the way I would do it, as long as the platoon partner is competent. Remember as a lefty he'll get the majority of the AB's in a platoon. Like Choi? That's a whole different argument, you know that.