Transmogrified Tiger

well, indians.com works the same, and it's quicker.

I just wanted to say that the phrase "trained monkey factor" is hilarious, and should be injected into as many conversations as possible.

My favorite part is that he's heard rumors about it, just like he heard rumors about an unnamed Cubs pitcher using steroids then going on to describe Maddux. Mark, the Rangers play in a hitters park, that's why they and everyone else hit better there. On the other hand, maybe TLR lent his holograms to Texas...

From his wording it looks like he is. Do you have JVB on the 40?

105th pick, Travis Henry, Running Back, Tennessee

Career numbers, regression since the all-star break, lucky BABIP/LD% numbers, take your pick.

The Cubs sure do seem to have a lot of them. I thought the idea was to trade for postion players with all this young pitching since the Cubs don't prefer to draft them. You bring up a good point. All those pitching prospects we brought up this year havent done squat. It also doesnt seem like we have a power OF ready to come up for us. I think Harvey might be our only power OFer we have and hes not even close to ready. Hopefully the power Pie displayed in the first half will carry over for a full season. Sing is also a power hitter and his future (with the Cubs) would be as an OF. Yeah, but are they ready to come up any time soon? Still that leaves only 3 power hitting players. I dont know that just doesnt sound like too many players with power for an entire organization. Pie Sing Harvey Dopirak All have very good to great power. That's about one prospect per level, which isn't bad at all.

Um, OK. Nice reasoning there. How about, why not? I don't think that's enough talent in return for Lee. I'm not high on Zito, and while Kotsay is a pretty good player, him and Zito for Lee doesn't do it for me, especially when both are one year away from free agency. Plus, Oakland has Dan Johnson at first base. Kotsay signed an extension in June. Crap. I forgot to get the info on that. My bad.

Um, OK. Nice reasoning there. How about, why not? I don't think that's enough talent in return for Lee. I'm not high on Zito, and while Kotsay is a pretty good player, him and Zito for Lee doesn't do it for me, especially when both are one year away from free agency. Plus, Oakland has Dan Johnson at first base.

I never said that Overbay was a better fielder. I just said on the whole that Overbay+A-Rod is better than Lee+Nomar/Neifi/Cedeno/whoever

Mendez all the way to Iowa? :shock:

I would argue that a top tier everyday player is more valueable than a pitcher (even an ace). That's not an even trade in my eyes; the Cubs would have to get more. Santana only pitches onces every 5 days and the Cubs are not 1 pitcher away from a World Series Championship. Lee gets 4-5 Plate appearances and several fielding chances everyday, but Santana faces 20-25+ batters every 5 days. If they were willing to trade Santana for Lee, we'd be stupid not to. Sorry, I just don't view it that way. Lee has the opportunity to impact the game daily while Santana can only do so every 5 days. I think this all boils down to people not believing that Lee will duplicate this season. I doubt the same trade talks would be said about Pujols, Sammy (in his prime), or a host of other top tier players. Lee is not making that much money therefore trading him deteriorates the infield defensively and the team offensively. Derrek Lee is the type of player teams build around. The Cubs can solve their problems without making any changes at the infield corners. Lee also turns 30 next week and will be a free agent after next season who will likely command more than he's worth. And yes, there's plenty of reason to believe that Lee won't repeat next season, whether it's his career numbers, his regression in the second half, his lucky BABIP/LD numbers, etc. I agree that we can improve the team without trading Lee, all I'm pointing out is that it might be an opportunity to improve the team if we can get more value out of him. For example, if we were able to spin Lee for A-Rod + Cash(example only, not saying it's feasible or likely) and then make a deal for Overbay, that would be significantly better than Lee at 1B and whoever at SS. Great, now I'm going to be thinking about a deal that would work all morning. Me and my imagination making sense :x.

Sizemore please. Seriously though, some combo of Riske, Betancourt, Crisp, etc. might work, although trading Walker because someone is willing to trade for him isn't the wisest of choices.

I would argue that a top tier everyday player is more valueable than a pitcher (even an ace). That's not an even trade in my eyes; the Cubs would have to get more. Santana only pitches onces every 5 days and the Cubs are not 1 pitcher away from a World Series Championship. Lee gets 4-5 Plate appearances and several fielding chances everyday, but Santana faces 20-25+ batters every 5 days. If they were willing to trade Santana for Lee, we'd be stupid not to.

Do you know what velocity the two guys normally sit at?

Choi tanked before the injury. I think the vast majority of players in the game go through a stretch where they hit .200/minimal run production over 50 ab during the course of a 600 ab, 162 game season. Indeed. By they way... has Choi extracated himself from that tank yet ?? .809 OPS this year, still far better than Eric Karros against RH. Gmab w/the .809 ops. He's still not an everyday player. He rarely plays against lefties and Tracy sits him against certain righties. Play him everyday and he's probably in the mid-700's, if that. HE'S STILL BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE THAT DUSTY PUT OUT THERE. Jeez, people are so quick to point out his lack of success on the whole that they forget that the "crappy" Choi WAS OUR BEST OPTION AGAINST RHP.

It makes more sense to trade Lee? :shock: :shock: :shock: Walker doesn't make Lee better, in fact, the opposite is true. Lee's the anchor of the infield. Without DLee at first this team would be amazingly miserable defensively. Without DLee this team is pretty much the worst team in the NL, no better than the rockies or pirates. Trading Walker>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Trading Lee. Of course, that assumes you don't get anything in return. If you can capitalize on his inflated value, it might make sense to deal Lee, since he has an inflated value and may command more than he's actually worth after next season.

Blackford's k/9 absolutely blows. And he's only in the rookie league. It's not like when he moves up the ladder people will strike out more, in fact just the opposite. I don't like that number at all. I'm interested to see what Burrows's stuff is. He probably has to have some pretty good heat to be converted that late.

Burrows, converted to pitcher last year, is now 25: Low A: 20.2 IP, 3.48 ERA, 7.84 K/9, 2/1 K/BB, 1.54 WHIP High A: 20 IP, 3.15 ERA, 9.9 K/9, 2.2/1 K/BB, 1.20 WHIP, .192 BAA Blackford, 20 year old starter: Rookie: 59.2 IP, 3.17 ERA, 4.52 K/9, 1.36/1 K/BB, 1.17 WHIP, .219 BAA

BA didn't have anything stuff-wise, so all I can go by are their numbers. Numbers to follow.

Burrows. He is a converted outfielder, and only started pitching last year, which is why he's 25 and only at A ball this year. He's put up pretty good numbers in the pen at low and high A this year. Blackford is a 20 year old starter that has posted decent numbers in rookie ball this year, he was a 13th rounder last year.

Good.

They've scored fewer runs this year. They won so many games because they have the best pitching in the game this year.

A player can't be promoted back for 10 days since his demotion, and Matt hadn't finished his 10 days when McClain was promoted. Also, theoretically, Scott can play 3B. Matt will be back when rosters expand. Len said earlier in the game that Matt would take Wood's roster space tomorrow instead of the more logical choice in Rich Hill. Haha, so we have 11 pitchers for exactly 2 days. Better too late than never I guess.

Choi's a pretty poor example. The guy still can't play. And Karros still can't hit RHP.