Transmogrified Tiger

is that sarcasm? He hit the hell out of his head. No its not sarcasm. He hit him in the shoulder his helmet didnt touch the Rams WR helmet. You must've missed the replay then.

He cracked him helmet to helmet and he led with the helmet, no way that doesn't get called.

morgan ensberg? of the astros? of 235/396/463??????????? i'll bet he could figure out how to play right field. let's do this. Ensberg's lack of power away from MMP worries me, especially if we get him to play RF. He's not a young guy either. Tim would probably be all over that with you. Like you said, he's better than Izturis and he'll only be 25 next year. And yes, Tsao did have labrum surgery. Link

So the Bears have tie-breakers over New Orleans? I didn't think that was the case. WE HAVE NO CONFERENCE LOSSES HOW CAN WE NOT? Because New Orleans only has one, and in order for the tiebreaker to matter the Bears need to lose twice(they play NFC teams the remainder of the season), and the Saints need to not lose for the tiebreaker to matter. So, the Bears go 12-4 they have 2 conference losses and if the Saints go 12-4 they only have 1.

I absolutely do not want the Cubs wasting precious resources on a "closer." The cash and talent spent to acquire somebody to do that job wouldn't be near as much of an upgrade (if at all) in the bullpen than it would be if it were spent on SS or CF. Wood Howry Eyre Dempster Ohman Wuertz That's a freaking stacked bullpen. (relievers not listed in order of talent, but in the likely hierarchy Lou sees them in... Wuertz for closer, w00t!) how is that a stacked bullpen? besides wood, it's the same pen they had last year, and it wasn't anything special. Wood + a full season of Wuertz is a very large difference, upwards of 100 innings of very good production.

i don't like either really. crisp forgot how to play baseball apparently and pena, well, he's getting better. Crisp had a broken finger last year, that's why his performance suffered.

That's not saying much,eh? :D thats true, but Eckstein is very fast at releasing the ball. I disagree. He has to rear all the way back and take a huge stride to make a throw from the hole and/or get any velocity on it.

Rowand has a nice platoon split....

ack! no. What's wrong with him? Even in his down years he's put up decent enough OBPs, and for his career he has a nice platoon split, especially for a CF. Or were you saying that in reference to his defense in CF?

Another name, Shannon Stewart. Could he handle CF?

The Padres signed him for 650k last week. Rats. Preston Wilson it is! I was just about to throw his name out there. Brady Clark might be available too, but he doesn't have much of a platoon split. Wilkerson has better career numbers v. LH than RH.....

The Padres signed him for 650k last week.

The only thing about that is that Theriot has already been moved to 2B in the past. If a poor arm is part of the reason for that, then it would be a deficiency again at 3B. Was his poor armstrength part of that? His competition in the system was Cedeno, who has a cannon and better range, so I don't know if the move was b/c he couldn't handle SS at the ML level or if he just got pushed to 2B to get playing time. I don't know why he was moved, that's why I used the if. However, if the reason was that Cedeno and Montanez were the reason he was moved off SS, then why was he kept at 2B this past year when we also had Fontenot(and later EPatt) at 2B and only Augie at SS in Iowa?

Pie hit .283 with a .341 OBP in Iowa last season. He was really mashing the ball the last month and a half or so. .310/.365/.548/.913 (126 AB) August .444/.500/.889/1.389 (18 AB) September I don't know if Pie is "ready," but he's pretty close. Pie was terrible during the Dominican Winter League. His line: .216/.263/.272/.535 It's a small sample (only 125 at-bats), but it's still pretty awful. In an ideal world I'd like to see him spend all of next year in AAA with a call-up in September. He can then have the CF spot in 2008 if he shows he's ready. I dig the new handle. I don't put much stock into Pie's winterball numbers. He's been playing there for several years now, and if memory serves he's never put up great production there. Yet, he continues to progress through the minor league system quite well. I'd lend a lot more credence to Pie's second half being an indication that he's made an adjustment to mash AAA pitching than his winter ball showing his second half was a fluke/he isn't ready for a promotion.

Pie hit .283 with a .341 OBP in Iowa last season. He was really mashing the ball the last month and a half or so. .310/.365/.548/.913 (126 AB) August .444/.500/.889/1.389 (18 AB) September I don't know if Pie is "ready," but he's pretty close. Now average in his winterball stats... Negron for CF!

The only thing about that is that Theriot has already been moved to 2B in the past. If a poor arm is part of the reason for that, then it would be a deficiency again at 3B.

He was pretty well gimped out last year. Let's try his 3 year splits vs. RHP: .277 .369 .498 .867 Naturally, Floyd has been much better in the past against RHP. Thing is, Floyd's 34 this year so his injuries aren't something to be brushed aside as no longer an issue. More importantly, the whole idea of platooning Murton is to guarantee good/better than Murton production against RHP. If we're going to gamble on Floyd staying healthy and returning to form, then why not take a similar(better?) gamble on Murton, who hit .338/.398/.530 against RHP after the ASG this year?

Because my head is buried in the sand so I don't have to think about it. I think the answer to the question is, it's necessary to get more out of the offense. Just like last year, I'd be fine with Murton starting 162 games and getting 750 PA, but the lineup around him has to be good enough to absorb less than ideal production from him. I don't see him putting up a .300/.400/.550 line, so we aren't talking about taking away at bats from a star. If Murton puts up a respectable 800 OPS against RHP, I would not be the least bit upset. But if you can get a hitter capable of putting up a 900 OPS in 200-300 of those PA, then you are making your team better. That would artificially inflate Murton's total line (because it would be more "against LHP" heavy), while at the same time providing a great line by the replacement player. I'm not concerned with Murton suffering to a lack of playing time, he'd still get a lot of at bats, and he doesn't seem to me to be the type of player that would sulk, or get lost with less playing time. Ideally, they'd have better production elsewhere, so there would be no thought of sitting Murton from time-to-time. However, this team is still in need of more offense, and if they can't get it by acquiring ARod, Cabrera or Tejada, they have to get it somewhere. Problem is, Murton was better against RHP than Floyd was last year.

Autobahn, not a bird society

San Fran did that against us too at the end of the game. Never saw that before until today. Details for those who didn't see? 2:30 left in the game, Saints on Cowboys 5 or 6 and they just kneeled until they turned it over with about .30 left. Then the Cowboys just kneeled. Well that's anticlimactic. I thought that they did a look out block and Brees dropped back and taunted them with the ball or something.

San Fran did that against us too at the end of the game. Never saw that before until today. Details for those who didn't see?

Probably, because I was going off of their Phillies page that says he makes 14M in '08.

Burrell isn't a FA until after '08, and Abreu and Dunn have options that have a decent likelihood of getting picked up. Guillen really intrigues me though. I wonder if Dombrowski would rather trade him now for a package than wait to see if he tests Free Agency.

I got Drew as my last pick in my keeper league. I love getting lucky.

I don't even agree with him on that one. I've already posted earlier in this thread an explanation for why Hill was kept in the minors as long as he was last season and he just ignored it. The threads only 5 pages long. I just skimmed the thread and didn't see anything resembling that.