Transmogrified Tiger

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.

Wood will make 12 million, and Lee 8.67 million. Here's the Cubs that have guaranteed contracts next year: Wood 12 mil Lee 8.67 Prior 3.55 Ramirez 10.5 Barrett 4 Blanco 1.5 Maddux 9(Option is only 16 IP away, he'll vest) Options Walker 2.5 mil Team option that can escalate to 2.75 Burnitz 7 mil Mutual option w/ 500k buyout Williamson 2 mil Team option Rusch 2 mil Player Option Arbitration Zambrano 2nd year eligible, 3.76 mil in '05 Patterson 2nd year eligible, 2.8 mil in '05.

Desperation? They gave up Jody Gerut, who's basically a 4th outfielder, for him. It was a calculated gamble given Lawton's 2nd half struggles in the past, and it's not paying off. I definitely wouldn't call it a waste, it was worth the shot to upgrade.

Giles is a great defensive player, but his offense is a shade better than Walker's. While he'd be a great player to have on the team, I don't know if acquiring him would be the best use of resources, considering we aren't hurting for a good 2B like we are in other positions.

Haven't seen you in a while Too Tall, welcome back. Words and emoticons can't express my disgust at that quote about Neifi.

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.

66th pick is, Warrick Dunn, Running Back, Atlanta

I'll post something in a little bit, gotta get a couple things done first. Just wanted to let you know it's coming. EDIT: This offseason is a tough one. The Cubs have a lot of needs and there is a pretty thin Free Agent class. Of the Free Agents, I'd go aggressively after Giles, Milwood, and Ryan. Obviously you aren't going to get all 3, but Giles is the most coveted. However, he's the one most of all you don't want to overpay for, so there's a very thin line between aggressiveness and foolishness. If Giles wants anything past 3 years, we're out of luck, same with Millwood and Ryan. They're not worth sacrificing for, since they'll all be in some stage of decline by the time their contracts are up. Therefore, since the market is so thin, we'll have to be creative in the trade market. I'd love to try and exploit the OF situations in Tampa and Washington, Gomes and Wilkerson would be my favorite two targets. I'd pick up Walker's option without batting an eye, and I'd try to bring Dempster back on a one year(with a team option for another perhaps) deal that is reasonable. For SS I'd try and bring Nomar back to a lower base, similar total with incentives deal, with Cedeno backing up both middle infield spots. If Nomar walks I'd try and work a deal for Lugo like others have mentioned, or possibly consider Furcal if the price/years are right. If all else fails, I'm willing to give Cedeno the SS position at '06, but that means you really have to work hard to upgrade the OF, having Patterson or Murton in one of the 3 spots probably won't do if Cedeno is the starting SS. If I get Millwood, I plug him in the rotation with Prior, Z, Maddux, and Wood. If I don't get them, depending on how reliable I think Kerry will be, I'd consider a lower tier SP in FA or trade(Elarton?). If we acquire no new SP's, I'm content to let Hill/Mitre/Wellemeyer/Brownlie/Nolasco try and win the 5th spot. I keep Dempster, Williamson, Ohman, Rusch(assuming his option is picked up), and one of Wuertz/Novoa/Wellemeyer/Leicester in the pen. If I sign Ryan, then I'm in great shape with the pen. If not, try and find a steady reliever somewhere in the FA or trade market(Linebrink from SD is my personal fave trade target). I'd try and sign Dotel to a Dempster/Williamson deal, and if I don't get that extra proven reliever, get a few more NRI's than normal. Closing up the bullpen, the darkhorse is Guzman. If he can stay healthy and pitch as he can, he could be a great boost to the pen. Depending on the situation, he could replace Wuertz/Novoa or another in the bullpen. The bench. Blanco is here, I'd have Cedeno and Fontenot as my two back up infielders, and Mark Sweeney would be ideal to back up 1B/OF. If we got Wilkerson, we could look to more of an outfielder here. Hairston I'd like to use in a trade, but he would be a serviceable jack of all trades. Murton would be a good 4th OF, especially if we got Sweeney, since Murton hits LH, and Sweeney RH very well. So, if things went our way, we'd have: 2B Walker L SS Nomar/Lugo R 1B Lee R RF Giles L 3B Ramirez LF Gomes/Wilkerson R/L C Barrett R CF Patterson L Prior, Z, Wood, Millwood/Elarton, Maddux, Hill/Mitre/Welly/Brownlie/Nolasco Dempster, Williamson, Ohman, Wuertz/Novoa/Welly, Rusch, Guzman/Ryan/FA/Trade/Rehab Blanco, Fontenot, Cedeno, Murton, Sweeney, Hairston/FA/Trade

I'm tired of watching this team get so many errors. I want to see this offense built around speed, situational hitting and defense, not just heavily depended on power which has translated to a lot of K's and terrible clutch hitting. I know Walker is capable of the hitting part, but I want to see the D part for once. Defense is very underated, with a bad defense, you will go nowhere. I don't think I said anything about trading our good players either. Of course I want Aramis, Lee and Barrett here. I know Ramirez doesn't fit into the "great defense" but we have to have his bat. Same with Barrett, but he can keep improving behing the plate. I'd like to see Blanco back though. And I wouldn't mind seeing Damon, Jacque Jones and Pie in the OF next year. Yes, Jacque Jones. He may still be a Twin next year but it would be great to get Jones. He may K a little more than 100 times but he can win a gold glove, is a great clutch hitter, pretty good power, can still hit over 270 and a team leader, not selfish, just does what he's asked and is a team guy. Jones still has good speed, but not base stealing speed. I think all that should translate into for once, not one of the worst clutch hitting teams and RISP hitting teams. Jones, Damon, Cedeno, Pie, Hairston and Lee, that's a lot of speed. I think we would see more runs. How do you plan on getting a team that is a good "situational hitting" team, when "situational hitting" numbers vary wildly and ultimately end up around the player's career numbers? Free agency, trades. In case you didn't see already I mentioned Damon and Jones. That's wisful thinking for me, 2 players I want the most. You're missing the point. It's basically impossible to get a good "situational hitting" team, because there's almost no such thing as a good "situational hitter". The numbers for players in those situations vary from year to year, sometimes extremely. They aren't predictive. That's not 100% true. Situational hitting=clutch hitting too. Are you saying it's always different clutch hitters every year? No, not true at all. Damon just hits, any situation, he is a hitter that will drive in runs when need be. Jacque Jones has had a history during his whole career being a clutch hitter, something the Cubs have 0 of. Believe me, I have seen a lot of Jones. I have been watching as many Twins games as possible and rooting for them for a long time now. But getting Jones is just a dream because he will probably be a Twin next year anyway. Someone stated it well in an above post. Fundamentals and contact is basically what I want to see. A lot of that translates to "situational hitting" and not blowing games because of defense. This offense is depending on the homerun way too heavily and it has NOT worked at all. That kind of team translates to way way way too many K's, not great contact hitting, bad situational hitting and a lot of LOB's. LOB's has KILLED the Cubs this year. We have way too many guys that can break the K record. Whatever situational or "clutch" situations you want to use, they aren't predictive, they vary too much. On the whole, situational numbers reflect career numbers. If you want to see a team that makes more contact, that's entirely another thing, although I'd still say that's not a goal you shoot for(if it happens, then fine). The fundamentals that someone stated are endemic of every major league baseball player. It would be ridiculous to sign a guy for his ability to hit a cut off man.

Maybe if the kid learns to take a walk (12 walks and 105 strikeouts in 387 at-bats). His lack of discipline would cause him to be eaten alive at the Major League level, I would think. Hasnt seemed to hurt Franceour. Now obviously he is nowhere near as good as Franceour but why not give him a shot for a week or 2 and see what he can do and see if he is a decent prospect. I live here in Springfield and hold season tickets to the AA Cards. Trust me there is no way Aaron can make it in MLB. Most guys can hit till teams discover their weakness. It would not take long for them to discover Aaron's weakness and that is he sucks. :D Actually he can hit, and this year he hits with power. However his lack of hustle, defense, and swinging at pitches 5 feet out of the zone will be what keeps him a career minor leaguer. Herr looks like a poor man's Richard Lewis. 24 year old in AA with low OBP high SLG numbers, and a lot of strikeouts leading to a very high BABIP(.352). I think you'd be better off with Hart, Herr doesn't look like much of a prospect.

Yes, I said in a previous post in this thread that Murton deserved to play everyday at the big league level because of his performance thus far. In my last post I was speaking about after the season, and going forward from there.

Wright's two weeks older than Encarnacion and he's hitting .303/.385/.509 playing half his games at Shea. That's your perennial 3B all-star in the NL most likely. Cabrera's younger than both of them and the Marlins have said that he'll be moved back to third when Lowell moves on. And he's hitting .336/.397/.591. Well that might be a while b/c after the 04' season I think Lowell signed a 4 year deal with the Marlins. Lowell has an out-clause in his contract for this season unless the Marlins get a new park approved by the end of the year (not very likely!). Even if he doesn't exercise it, speculation is rampant that the Marlins will dump his contract in the offseason, play Cabrera at 3B, promote Hermida to the OF in 2006 and use Lowell's money to replace Burnett in the rotation or shore up the pen. I think Lowell got rid of that clause, I'm not sure though. I remember reading something about it. Let me do some digging. EDIT: The Marlins and Lowell agreed to drop the clause in exchange for guaranteeing Lowell's option year in '07.

As I stated before, would it be that bad if the Cubs got away from the home run? We have Lee, we have Ramirez. Nomar is a good hitter, Walker is good, Barrett can hit you 25 homers per year, and maybe we can trade for a good outfielder in the offseason. What this team needs is not another power hitter, but a guy with a high ba/obp who we can build the lineup around. Power does not equal Home runs. There's cause for concern that Murton will not hit enough non-singles to be considered a productive corner outfielder. Well, I guess there's only one way to find that out, isn't there? That's true, but all I'm saying is that Murton isn't an ideal corner OF, and we shouldn't necessarily be trying to build the roster around him as a starter. That's all.

Yeah, the California team and the Florida team in the finals is my bet.

As I stated before, would it be that bad if the Cubs got away from the home run? We have Lee, we have Ramirez. Nomar is a good hitter, Walker is good, Barrett can hit you 25 homers per year, and maybe we can trade for a good outfielder in the offseason. What this team needs is not another power hitter, but a guy with a high ba/obp who we can build the lineup around. Power does not equal Home runs. There's cause for concern that Murton will not hit enough non-singles to be considered a productive corner outfielder.

That's the day that I lose a lot of hope, if Neifi is brought back. Can you guys tell me why Neifi would be bad as a true 25th man? Unless you bring back Nomar and know he's likely to have at least one stint on the 15-day disabled list then I could see why you wouldn't want him as a backup. But if that's the case you shouldn't re-sign Nomar. I'm just trying to figure out how many better backup shortstops there are in the majors. Okay, maybe you might want to go with Ronny Cedeno. I just hope everyone realizes this is his first season with good offensive numbers. So if he's your backup and Nomar misses a month or two of the year, is Cedeno going to be an adequate offensive player at shortstop? Cedeno > Perez, that's about as succintly as I can put it. If Nomar goes down for a month or two, I think that Cedeno is a better option than Perez. Also, going back to my previous post, to me it would show an approval of what Neifi has done this year. I don't like that in the least, since Neifi has done more harm than good, although whether he would do that next year may be up for debate due to playing time considerations.

That's the day that I lose a lot of hope, if Neifi is brought back.

Better starting pitching? I don't have any numbers, but I don't think the 2003 offense was any better than this year's offense. Very crude, but 2005: 4.44 Runs/Game. 2003: 4.47 R/G. Very close.