Transmogrified Tiger

Who backs up first base in this situation? Well who do you consider our backup firstbaseman now? Macias? You cant surely be advocating keeping Macias. Walker will do just fine starting a couple of games and if Lee were to go down I'd rather bring up Sing as he surely could do as well as a 25th man. I have no idea who our backup is this year, it's one of several things I'd like to see remedied. With a backup that at least has played significant time there in the past, Baker might be more likely to give Lee the rest he needs.

The other guy has more RBIs, and we all konw how much people love that stat. Plus it was noted that he plays on the team that apparently is running away with the regular season title. Patterson has been the best player in this league the year, but the other guy won the MVP... that kind of thing happens a lot in the big leagues too. Serena's comment about Home/Away splits with Gonzalez lead me to believe that he may play in a pretty heavy pitcher's park, which would close the gap that Patterson has. Gonzalez is also several years younger than Patterson.

They've done that on several occasions. I normally just skim over it, knowing that I'll never like Ryno the writer/analyst.

A MAXIMUM of 4 years(Ideally 3 + team option), with a maximum of 12 million in any of those years.

Who backs up first base in this situation?

Great work as always BK. Kudos.

You really think Hairston will be back? The current braintrust doesn't seem to like him too much. I'd guess he's gone, regardless of what I'd do. Outside of that, I agree with everything you said and hope the Cubs management does as well. He's under contract for 2006, so unless we deal him, he's ours. Hairston was a super-two, so I believe he's a free agent. I'm not positive how that works though.

That's friggin' weird. Wasn't one of the "Killer B's" that way? Great for night games and fair to poor on day games... You know the moment the playoff schedule comes out LaRussa will shift the pitching rotation so that Mulder has night starts. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, there's probably a maximum of 2 day games in a series. Neither Biggio or Bagwell have pronounced Day/Night splits, I can't find them for Derek Bell. Not this season; maybe a year or two ago. I dunno, I could be smoking crack too. Oh, I was looking at their career numbers.

That's excellent, especially the comment that one guy had about the blog entry and the article. Awesome.

Minnesota has Johan. :D Seriously though, Minnesota needs a 2B, maybe we could take advantage of their overcrowded OF and pen.

That's friggin' weird. Wasn't one of the "Killer B's" that way? Great for night games and fair to poor on day games... You know the moment the playoff schedule comes out LaRussa will shift the pitching rotation so that Mulder has night starts. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, there's probably a maximum of 2 day games in a series. Neither Biggio or Bagwell have pronounced Day/Night splits, I can't find them for Derek Bell.

It appears that the Cubs are trying to work him back into having enough stamina to pitch as a starter. Why else would he be pitching multiple innings right now? So he can get as much work in as he is able to. Many players pegged to be relievers pitch as starters so they can get innings. I'm not saying that this is the case in Guzman's situation, but it wouldn't be unusual if they decided to put him in the pen.

I brought up Lee because one or two posters were criticized earlier in the month for suggesting trading Lee in the offseason due to his unlikliness to hit the way he did the first half of the season based on his career numbers. I could've sworn a couple of people who criticized the proposed trade are the ones talking about Perez's career numbers. Perez's offensive numbers stink, as we knew they would based on his career numbers. But the same must then be said of Lee, too; triple crown threat or not. As I said, you can't pick and choose. Lee's post ASB average is closer to his career norms than his numbers for the first three months. So, to me, anyone wanting to deal Lee while his value this high has a very good case. I can only speak for myself, but I was on board with the idea of capitalizing on Lee's value. I don't remember any more specifics, so I don't know about how anyone else's position would have shifted.

Perez isn't really having a career season. His OPS is only a shade higher than his career totals, and his OBP is a tick lower.

His .281 OBP outside of April is tied for 40th out of 44 SS with 100 PA's. He's bad compared to everyone. Why do you keep dropping April off? Wasn't it part of this season? 23 games to be exact of which Neifi played in 21. So far his numbers for August are matching his April numbers. Maybe he should start months that start in "A"? Notice how it's generally a pick and choose around here? There have only been a few people on here mention that Lee is hitting around .280 since the middle of June. But because of his great first half, we should just ignore that his career numbers don't suggest that that's the real Lee. Yet, we rely on career numbers for Perez. I don't know what ticks me off more, me sounding as if I'm defending a scrub like Perez or the bias shown by some of certain Cub players. Call it picking and choosing if you like, but the fact is that Neifi's April was a fluke, and showing what he's done outside that month(which is closer to his career norms away from Coors) is probably a better indication of what he will do in the future, since we're talking about next year. Not many people have mentioned Lee dropping off. I don't see what the point is. I haven't seen any threads discussing Lee's future production with the team, it's not like people are analyzing his numbers often and conveniently leaving it out. August so far: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/batting?team=chc&cat=OPS&season=2005&split=44&seasonType=2&type=reg With half the at bats as previous months, and a 5-12, 2 BB, 2 2B, 1 HR trip to Coors.

His .281 OBP outside of April is tied for 40th out of 44 SS with 100 PA's. He's bad compared to everyone. Why do you keep dropping April off? Wasn't it part of this season? 23 games to be exact of which Neifi played in 21. So far his numbers for August are matching his April numbers. Maybe he should start months that start in "A"? Notice how it's generally a pick and choose around here? There have only been a few people on here mention that Lee is hitting around .280 since the middle of June. But because of his great first half, we should just ignore that his career numbers don't suggest that that's the real Lee. Yet, we rely on career numbers for Perez. I don't know what ticks me off more, me sounding as if I'm defending a scrub like Perez or the bias shown by some of certain Cub players. Call it picking and choosing if you like, but the fact is that Neifi's April was a fluke, and showing what he's done outside that month(which is closer to his career norms away from Coors) is probably a better indication of what he will do in the future, since we're talking about next year. Not many people have mentioned Lee dropping off. I don't see what the point is. I haven't seen any threads discussing Lee's future production with the team, it's not like people are analyzing his numbers often and conveniently leaving it out.

I never mentioned Wood being thrown at by Morris. It was last year. Here's a link to the Game Thread. Apparently the Cards accused the Cubs of stealing signs, and Morris retaliated by throwing at Lee's head. Lee also had some "colorful" things to say during the incident to LaRussa.

His .281 OBP outside of April is tied for 40th out of 44 SS with 100 PA's. He's bad compared to everyone.

Whose head did he throw at? Did he hit a player in the head? He missed Lee in the head, and may have thrown at Patterson's head at well. Definitely Lee though, and there's almost no doubt it was intentional. Larussa doesn't tolerate his players throwing at other players' heads, plain and simple. Nor does he tolerate other pitchers throwing at his players' heads. Kerry Wood threw at Morris' head THREE TIMES when Morris was in his most vulerable position (trying to bunt). When Morris came up the first time, Wood threw at him TWICE (the 1st pitch was at his mid-section, as he tried to bunt....... the 2nd pitch was directly at his head, as he tried to bunt again). Morris took the high road when Wood came to bat, and promptly struck him out on 3 pitches. Morris' next at-bat was a replay of the first. He tried to bunt Matheny over, and Wood threw the pitch directly at his head. The Wrigley fans cheered wildly. I don't care what front LaRussa wants to put out there, it's way too much a coincidence that he just missed Lee's head, who's height puts his head WAY out of the zone, in a series with beanballs. I never said anyone else was above blame. As far as Wood goes, I don't remember the incident. However, there's a slight difference between Matt Morris crouched over to bunt, and Derrek Lee hitting away. Also, in some situations, that's what players are taught to do when a player squares around, is to throw it at their head. I don't recall the situation, so I don't know if it was appropriate. My post was regarding Morris, someone asked why Cubs fans don't like him, and I explained why. Please don't try and misdirect the argument by attempting to indict the Cubs/Wood. I never claimed any innocence or guilt on their part that would make it appropriate to bring them up.

Guzman for bullpen next year. That way he won't overstress his arm with innings so pitching in the AFL isn't as big a deal.

Any other ML team would bench him over a veteran who is a similar fielder and was hitting worse than him?

That is not saying much. Hollandsworth is clearly not an everday player. Dusty gave Dubois a better chance at earning a job, than both Cedeno and Murton. He also had a chance in Cleveland to grab an everyday spot as DH, he just hasn't taken advantage of his opportunities. I don't quite think he was going to take Hafner's spot. Once again, Wasn't Hafner hurt when Dubois was acquired? Dubois got almost 50 Abs with the Indians and struck out more than half of them. The way he was playing, he wasn't going to take anybody's spot and didn't even warrant staying on their 25 man roster. Hafner had a concussion, but I'm not sure how that coincided with the Dubois trade. He was also platooned with Liefer for his sub-50 PA's as an Indian. That's not much of a shot at all.

Neifi sans April: .256/.281/.363/.644 Compare that to NL SS and he's in front of only Jack Wilson in OBP and only Wilson and Izturis in OPS. That's the real Neifi.

I am pretty sure they would get 330ish thousand not 500k. Please, please no. I don't think he is going to decline that option. What's wrong with Wickman? He's 36 years old, has an unspectacular WHIP with a low K rate, and will be overpriced with the amount of saves that he's accrued. This is the first year he's been any good since 2001. You're likely to get as good or better results from Wuertz/Novoa/Welly.