Transmogrified Tiger

Michael Young loves him some Ballpark at Arlington.

Royals commiseration and the lack of guilt for making him a Cub fan

That's me explaining that giving Hendry an additional 2 weeks before starting to hand-wring. when he's had a month to get something done is silly. Why continue to be patient when the majority of the time has passed? Again, that's because there's no way Ramirez is going to get a good enough deal before he opts out. I don't have a problem with Hendry trying to get a good deal for Ramirez before he opted out. Now that he has, if Hendry doesn't up the ante he'll lose Ramirez and he'll be to blame. But just throwing up the number of days that he hasn't been able to ink Ramirez is pointless without context. And that context is that Ramirez has no reason to negotiate until he has leverage, and he gets that leverage once he opts out.

Admittedly, in previous offseasons I was all about not overpaying for FA's. However, I've changed my thinking a bit to the point where if a player is really good and he's got age on his side(pre-prime, entering prime), then he's worth overpaying for. To me, Soriano isn't that player, and there probably isn't a player like that on this FA market. There is no Beltran, no Vlad, all the top FA's are pushing 30 years old or more.

Or maybe he's just using the time alotted to get the best contract he can. Now that Ramirez has opted out, Hendry will in all likelihood be forced to up the offer to sign him, which if history is any indication, is what's probably going to happen. What history? I'd say it's far more likely that Hendry allows him to walk and signs someone completely lousy to play 3B than it is that Hendry actually pays a top 5 player at his position market value. The history I was just talking about. While each situation is different, Hendry has always locked up the players he wants to keep. He's in negotiations with Ramirez and Ramirez is opting out to improve his leverage. I'm not saying to blow it off and ignore the situation, but there's an excess of hand-wringing over it. If we're still in the same spot by next Friday, then it's time to really worry. Why Friday? He's had every day since the season ended to resolve this. No progress has been reported. Bruce can ever verify that they aren't anywhere close. Why be optimistic, or wait an arbitrary amount of days for pointing out that (once again) Hendry has screwed up and put our team in a terrible position? And again, there is no history for this situation. Hendry has never had a player as good as ARam be FA eligible. Because it takes two people to sign the contract. Before now, it's not in Ramirez's interest to sign because he hasn't opted out yet, and the chance he might not works in Hendry's favor. Now that he's opted out, Hendry has to up the offer, and he'll probably do so. The next friday comment is in response to the amount of time we have exclusive rights to negotiate with Ramirez. If they're still nowhere close to each other near the end of that, then go crazy. But until now it wasn't in Ramirez's interest to sign, and it wasn't in Hendry's interest to up his offer.

Or maybe he's just using the time alotted to get the best contract he can. Now that Ramirez has opted out, Hendry will in all likelihood be forced to up the offer to sign him, which if history is any indication, is what's probably going to happen. What history? I'd say it's far more likely that Hendry allows him to walk and signs someone completely lousy to play 3B than it is that Hendry actually pays a top 5 player at his position market value. The history I was just talking about. While each situation is different, Hendry has always locked up the players he wants to keep. He's in negotiations with Ramirez and Ramirez is opting out to improve his leverage. I'm not saying to blow it off and ignore the situation, but there's an excess of hand-wringing over it. If we're still in the same spot by next Friday, then it's time to really worry.

I'm surprised there has been only a few posts on this topic. I think it was dumb to start Verlander, for a couple reasons. First off, this game was a must win. Rogers had been unhittable all postseason. Verlander hadn't pitched too well. You absolutely have to go with the guy who gives you the best chance to win in an eliminateion game, and Rogers was clearly that guy. If Rogers won, then Verlander could've started game 6... at home. I imagine his nerves would've been calmer pitching in front of his home town, rather than pitching in a cold and rainy Busch Stadium. You can't think about how you have to win three games. You have to win one game before you can think about the next two. Who do you think was more likely to be rattled pitching in Busch stadium, Verlander, or the guy who got caught with pinetar on his hand? You live around St. Louis, you had to have heard every single fan and quasi-fan talking about it. Rogers pitching in Busch would have been a hellacious environment. Rogers would also benefit more from Comerica than Verlander, given their respective approaches and stuff.

Can you remember the last time when one of those players deserved a top flight contract on the open market? There's a big difference between Hendry wanting to keep Neifi and Glendon, and Hendry paying what Aramis deserves to be paid. He's going to let him walk. Granted he has re-signed most of his own FA's early, but he has a pretty good track record with Wood, Lee, Barrett, and others. Barrett's not as good, Lee had a career year and got resigned a year before FA, and Wood was also resigned a year before FA. If Hendry were truly serious about Aramis being his "#1 priority", this would have been done by now. Or maybe he's just using the time alotted to get the best contract he can. Now that Ramirez has opted out, Hendry will in all likelihood be forced to up the offer to sign him, which if history is any indication, is what's probably going to happen.

Can anyone remember the last time Hendry failed to retain a player he wanted to keep?

.348 BABIP and a .273/.331/.404 career line fluke season

IMO, Soriano is a pretty big gamble to be really good next year. What's the difference between him and Carlos Lee?

cripes was that a savage hit reminiscent of the hit Overstreet put on a Nebraska WR last year, almost the same spot on the field too.

crap crap crap I didn't even notice Baltimore got two defensive TD's. Thanks for sucking, McNabb. I mean, 4 points? For real?

Nail, meet head.

I forgot about Drew in my original list of OF's, he'd be great. Another reason why he might get moved is that Colletti is heinously old school and might be souring on Drew's lack of intangibles, laissez-faire attitude, etc.

Winner likely gets the opportunity to get killed by Texas in the Big XII title game? Nebraska had Texas all but beat last week. Mizzou went to Tech and handled them on their homecoming while Texas needed a big comeback to beat them in a rivalry game. On the other hand, Texas did handle OU while Mizzou lost to them at home. Add in the fact that the game is being played in KC, I don't think that either team will get humiliated if they play Texas(who could lose the South if aTm wins their rivalry game). I know Callahan is throwing the ball more, and that's how they beat us, but prior to that game they were really running the ball well. Is Nebraska still doing well on the ground? If so, how does that bode for Mizzou. I know aTm ran it on you guys pretty well. Cubbies75 had it right, our linebackers got skewered by OU. I honestly don't remember even seeing Bacon, and Harrington and Christopher couldn't shed a block to save their lives. On the plus side, Taylor is a statue who attempts to escape pressure by going backward, and Callahan will probably throw more than necessary. Last year we beat them by smacking Taylor around all day. I think we can get to Taylor when he throws, which will force more throwing downs. Offensively, it's a matter of making sure Daniel has the time(and him not needlessly escaping the pocket when he does) to dissect Nebraska's pass defense. I actually like our chances better than the home game against OU, but we can't have the turnover problems we've had(-5 differential in the two losses).

where would you prefer the much needed offense to come from? i don't love soriano or anything, but he's the best hope for making this offense respectable. Get a 2B in Free Agency(Durham and Iwamura are my favorites, Loretta would be okay too), and revamp the OF in trade. Kearns, Burrell, A-Rod(which isn't the OF, but still), Sheffield, maybe Cabrera, Hawpe, or Cuddyer if they come available. What and alomst completely strip our farm system of any of the A prospects left of it? I'd rather keep the prospects and sign big free agents when they become available, somewhat simular to the mets. If we would have done it that way a few years ago, just for example. We could have a guy like Beltran and still have guys like Willis, Garland. . ect. . Instead we trade the Willis' and Garland's for mediocre crap and think we're gonna contend. (we=JH). . This is why many different options were listed. Like was said before, Burrell is pretty much there to be taken, no "A prospects" necessary. Making a trade for one outfielder is not going to strip our system. I'm not suggesting to get 4 of the guys I listed as trade targets.

5-6 starts in a post-season should tell how good a pitcher is. It's not really a "sample size" in my opinion. So if the Tigers were smart they'd get rid of Verlander and Robertson, the A's should get rid of Huston Street, the Mets should dump Billy Wagner, Steve Trachsel should retire, and Tom Glavine will win the Cy Young next year(narrowly edging out Jeff Weaver).

Winner likely gets the opportunity to get killed by Texas in the Big XII title game? Nebraska had Texas all but beat last week. Mizzou went to Tech and handled them on their homecoming while Texas needed a big comeback to beat them in a rivalry game. On the other hand, Texas did handle OU while Mizzou lost to them at home. Add in the fact that the game is being played in KC, I don't think that either team will get humiliated if they play Texas(who could lose the South if aTm wins their rivalry game).

4th time this year we're starting before noon, with at least one more before the end of the year. Why can't the teams that are in the eastern timezone start at noon?

USC is 22 points in front of Notre Dame in one poll, 19 in the other. Hardly definitive.

where would you prefer the much needed offense to come from? i don't love soriano or anything, but he's the best hope for making this offense respectable. Get a 2B in Free Agency(Durham and Iwamura are my favorites, Loretta would be okay too), and revamp the OF in trade. Kearns, Burrell, A-Rod(which isn't the OF, but still), Sheffield, maybe Cabrera, Hawpe, or Cuddyer if they come available.

Play Pie

Not a promising start for me. Several touchdowns for ChiCubs and uninspiring first half performances from my guys. IMB, Raw, and Uber have big matchups this week against the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams respectively. Playoff posturing abound.

Schmidt + Kuroda = Good Soriano = Bad