Transmogrified Tiger

Take Gomes instead.

McCarver on Pujols: "He has the ability to take a pitch off the plate inside and hit it well AND keep it fair. Most players hit it well but pull it foul." One pitch later, Pujols crushes an inside pitch off the plate foul down the left field line. And Yadier Molina is hitting CLEANUP today.

Dick Stockton working with McCarver today, this could lead to more hilarity than the typical Buck/McCarver broadcast.

This just proves what an excellent job the Cubs have done in bringing prospects to the major leagues. What it proves is that the KC Royals have such a screwed up organization that they would destroy the chances of a talent like Sisco of developing into a #1 or #2 starter. I still don't understand why at midseason they didn't make a deal with the Cubs, trading a middle reliever for the rights to Sisco. KC then could have sent him down and developed him as a starter for the future. Sisco didn't pitch above A ball as a starter, and this year hiding at the back of the bullpen will cripple his development. I'm betting Hendry got caught flatfooted because he didn't think a team would be so stupid to pull a stunt like this. And Sisco is going to be stuck on a pathetic KC team for years to come, and as a reliever at that! In a year or two I'll bet Sisco is going to envy Rich Hill. I understand what you're saying and agree with it, but Sisco's still only 22, 3 years younger than your example of Hill.

There you go. Man you're quick, CPATT! Hobbes is swift, he's the brains around here. Looks to me like he spends all of his free time dancing. That's what he wants you to think.

I agree with you. I'm just sick of watching Walker takling the baseball @ 2nd. Not to single him out, but Aram,Barrett & Nomar are also avg. to below avg defenders. Hitting is very important to create runs. However, a good defense behind a decent pitching staff is also very important & is a major ingredient in winning championships. Ex. Marlins of 03'. There was not a better defensive IF in MLB. The key here is finding the complete ball player. I just feel, Todd Walker is not it. And you may be right. However, there aren't really any "complete" 2B men out there to be had right now, and Walker is the best option we have. If they do happen to find a "complete" 2B in the offseason, fine, trade Walker. However, they'd be stupid to do anything without an adequate backup. Orlando Hudson is a more complete player than is T. Walker. O. Hudson would be a great fit for the Cubs. Hudson is pretty subpar at the plate. It's one thing to argue that his combination of hitting and defense is better than Walker's, but he's not a more "complete" second baseman. His strength is just in another aspect of the game.

No, not until after 2008.

That would be an excellent move, Walker is a defensive liability & the Cubs do have Hairston & Neifi who can play 2nd along with rosters expanding on Sept. 1st. But do his "defensive struggles" outweigh what he brings to the plate? IMO, giving a number from 1-10, with 1 being the worst player in baseball defensively, 10 being the best, and 5 being average, Walker is no worse than a 4. Agreed. Walker will never win a gold glove, but he's not a "defensive liability" that it's worth sacrificing his bat.

What was wrong with giving Ohman a shot? He is a better pitcher than Bartosh. I didn't see anything in Bartosh from the beg., I saw a flat 90 MPH FB and an avg. breaking pitch, there wasn't anything there worth trading for. I thought Hendry overpaid for another situational lefty. Bay projects as a 4/5, but that is a higher ceiling than Bartosh. Yeah, Ohman was the first lefty, and Bartosh theoretically was the 2nd with Rusch as a long man. Bartosh was the wrong target in hindsight, but since Bay was going to be part of that roster crunch anyways, dealing him to take a chance on a short term upgrade, even with a lower ceiling than himself, isn't a terrible decision to me. Actually, if I recall correctly thr Bartosh trade sent Ohman to the minors. And after Hendry figured out he made a bad trade he demoted Bartosh and brought Ohman back up, but I'm certain Ohman did not open the season on our roster. Hmm, didn't remember that. In either case Bartosh provided a second ML level lefty out of the pen, and I've already spent more time than I should have trying to justify it. To me, it doesn't strike me as an awful or terrible gamble all things considered.

There you go. Man you're quick, CPATT! Hobbes is swift, he's the brains around here.

What was wrong with giving Ohman a shot? He is a better pitcher than Bartosh. I didn't see anything in Bartosh from the beg., I saw a flat 90 MPH FB and an avg. breaking pitch, there wasn't anything there worth trading for. I thought Hendry overpaid for another situational lefty. Bay projects as a 4/5, but that is a higher ceiling than Bartosh. Yeah, Ohman was the first lefty, and Bartosh theoretically was the 2nd with Rusch as a long man. Bartosh was the wrong target in hindsight, but since Bay was going to be part of that roster crunch anyways, dealing him to take a chance on a short term upgrade, even with a lower ceiling than himself, isn't a terrible decision to me.

Probably the same person who did yesterday.

I'm not sure if this answers all of your questions, but it's a good resource. Transactions Primer by Rob Neyer

Why would the Flash stop at first base?

There you go.

Welcome! Fox is on the 60-day Disabled List, which means he is not taking up a spot on the 40-man. Players on the 15-day DL remain on the 40-man, but not players on the 60-day. If and when a player comes off the 60-day DL, a spot has to be open for them to come back to.

The Lawton trade really made no sense considering the consensus on this forum already was that we had no chance. AT the same time we had Murton doing good when he played for us. Hendry's move this year have been TERRIBLE!! Bay for Bartosh. Oh God that was bad. I would be worried if Hendry gave up on the season based on the consensus on a Cubs forum. His job is to keep trying to improve the team until it is out of contention and that is what he did. This team has some major 40 man roster decisions during the offseason so this worked out fine. In the end they cleared a 40 man roster spot of someone clearly not in their long term plans (Dubois) and added a younger prospect that does not need to be protected this year. Hendry was able to do that while also having Lawton for a while in a effort to get to the playoffs. I don't see how anyone can call Bay for Bartosh TERRIBLE until first of all Bay actually makes a big league roster and contributes and secondly we see what Bartosh winds up doing. He is still pretty young and could turn into a servicable LOOGY. At this point Bartosh has better odds of being a serviceable MLB pitcher than Bay just based on their level of development. Yes, Bay for Bartosh was indeed terrible. Bay was a good prospect and has been doing good in the minors for the Indians. At the very least you could have got a better player than Bartosh who sucked for us when he played here and chances are will be a non factor. I was never too upset about the Bay-Bartosh trade. Bay is a guy with the ceiling of a bottom of the rotation guy, and he was going to be a part of the Rule V crunch at the end of the year. The Cubs needed another LHP for the pen, so they used the excess to try and grab one. Maybe they shouldn't have gone after Bartosh, but on the whole, I guess I never felt trading away Bay to try and catch lightning in a bottle with a reliever was that bad of a gamble.

You see people! The opposition fears Carlos Enrique!

Nolasco's name is below all the other semi-worthy candidates. This is a consipiracy I tell you!

Remember when Tree said that it was clear that the Cubs were just making stuff up as they go along? yeah....

Minimal power, minimal walks, from a 21 year old not yet to Low A. Meh. I wonder what caused the shift from Murton, he only played 2-3 innings there tonight.

Okay, so then nothing comes of it. Nothing hurt on the Cubs end.

I never said anything about batting average, I posted his entire stat line. I care more about the 1.000 OPS in that situation than his batting average. The Macias comparison isn't valid, his OPS is terrible. As far as Barrett goes, numbers broken down by situations that deem his "clutchness", have no predictive value. They vary wildly from one year to the next in many players. BK's new article, The Importance of Persistence refers to this.

They still have a poor outfield. If they want him, getting him and offering arbitration could be a good way to get something if they don't sign him on the open market. Yeah but the Pads would want at least one good prospect for him and it would make no sense for the cubs to give up a prospect for him just for a rental when they are out of the race. They don't have to try and trade for him, just see if SD is dumb enough to let him go.

Hmm, looks like Hendry just officially pulled the plug on the season.