Transmogrified Tiger

I said in that post that the offense wasn't great, but it was feasible. I really didn't want to go down the "he's not available", "he'll cost more than that"/"you overvalue our prospects" road today with regards to trade targets. Feel free to come up with how we're going to fix the corner OF without running into the problem of giving up on Murton or trading Jones or Izturis, which isn't going to happen on Hendry's watch. Playing Pie in CF and hitting him 7th is far less crazy than keeping Pierre and having him leadoff. Notice that I said Schmidt was my personal fave, but I simply said to acquire a "good" starter? I even wrote "Acquisition" in the rotation in an attempt to have people not get hung up on Schmidt. The same thing with 2B. Names like Durham, Loretta, Giles, maybe Castillo, etc. could be brought up to fill the role. My point was in the ideology of getting a 2B to hit at the top, not to get hung up on who exactly it is. That comes later. I said trade Howry and Eyre if we can get something "worthwhile". I prefaced that statement by saying to keep the bullpen as it is otherwise. And finally(and probably most importantly), the Cubs have painted themselves into a corner with regards to starting pitching. They have unproven pitching(Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman/Mateo), a great starter(Z), and a wildcard(Prior). Will a rotation made up of that win? Maybe, odds are it won't be great. But you know what? That's the bed Hendry has made for himself. The Cubs have based their farm system around pitching, and have done a poor job of getting that pitching a chance when they have an opening. And since they have less in the positional prospects, they have to use the pitchers they produce somehow. Either that is in trade, or in actually playing. Since hitting is a better investment in the free agent market than pitching, and considering we have those pitchers themselves to plug the pitching holes, it's a logical fit. You can't draft pitcher after pitcher after pitcher and then not give them a chance in the major leagues, because otherwise you end up with a nightmare like now. Add in that Hendry built the worst offense in baseball, and you're left with the Cubs of 2006.

Someone tell Ned Colletti that James Loney is in fact a part of the Dodger organization.

Do you really think the bullpen is fine? We have lost a lot of games thanks to the pen this year. Howry has not been as good as advertised. Howry has been fine. Of course there's not much telling if it'll stay that way(like any other reliever), but he hasn't been bad. As for the topic of the thread, the easiest thing to do is play Pie, keep Murton, trade Cedeno/Theriot, get Jones a platoon partner and get a 2B to hit at the top of the order. It's not great by any means, but it's feasible 2B/Murton Murton/2B Lee Ramirez Jones/Barrett Barrett/Platoon Pie Izturis Add a good starter, Schmidt is my favorite. Z Acquisition Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman Marshall/Marmol/Hill/Guzman Prior Keep the pen, although if you can trade Eyre or especially Howry for something worthwhile, do it. Wuertz closes.

Wow, I just looked it up the roster, and you're right. That team had no business winning 90 games at all. It's like Major League all over again, plus Sammy. It wasn't all bad. Grace and Morandini had some sexy OBPs, Brant Brown had upwards of 400 PA's with an .850 OPS, and Glenallen Hill had upwards of 150 PA's with a near 1.000 OPS.

Someone was dumb enough to vote for 1-Dog?

He's a better pitcher then Zito, and he'll get a comparable offer. Look at Oswalt's career stats. He's been consistent his whole career and pretty much free of injury. Why does this shock you? I don't think free of injury is a good description of Oswalt.

Right now we're 1.5 games out of the 3rd draft pick(Tampa currently losing), 2.5 out of the 2nd pick(Pittsburgh), and 6.5 out of the #1 spot(KC).

I've been holding down the Wuertz bandwagon all year long. Wuertz for closer

Gameday just had an aneurysm trying to process the error.

Wuertz for closer

Good to see Wells have a decent outing. He's had a rough go at AAA.

PLAY PIE

Wuertz is such a stud. His numbers since his callup are amazing.

Heck, make Chris Speier the interim coach and let the minor league coaches come up and see what they can do. At worst, you offer them their old jobs in the offseason. Can Speier see straight enough to fill out a lineup card? I still fail to see the downside. Imagine the confusion of the players trying to figure out if the scribbled out lineup card is saying Pagan or Novoa at 2B.

Anything to save Z's arm from further damage.

Ryu has been lost in the shuffle his whole career. He's got a deep arsenal of pitches, and he's doing well in Iowa at age 23. He's a little younger than Mateo and has consistently been a level higher. I'd rank him over Mateo.

That's always a good sign. Still, we'll see how he develops and if he can stick at CF. Here's a sobering thought. Even if he sticks at CF, he's only 7 months younger than Pie. Is there any chance that Colvin will be a better player than Felix? Doubtful. This is unfair for a couple reasons(comparing Colvin to a top 25 overall prospect, the insinuation Pie will block Colvin despite their different career stages, or the related insinuation Pie will be a CF forever), but it really underscores how important age is. When you're as old as Colvin is when you're drafted, you've got to produce, and pretty quick.

Ooh, Akron v. PSU Some people are predicting a BCS run from the Zips.

but lee is available and bay is not. and if bay were available he would cost the farm in prospects and lee would only cost $. Obviously that's true, but you're the one who said Bay "isn't much better than Lee".

There's no way Lee is the difference in 10-15 games. If 2-3 is absurd, then 10-15 is even moreso.

Bay is much better than Lee.

Some said the same thing about Paplelbon this spring. Tampa is as close as it gets to the minors anyways. No, he thinks Young should still be suspended for the bat flip.

Except he wouldn't be on the market if he didn't sign that deal. If I'm not mistaken he would be looking at FA after the 07 season. So he would have been dealt in July of 07 to the Yankees/Red Sox and inked his new deal a few weeks later. Either way he took some terrible advice from an agent. Nope, he wouldn't have been a FA until after the '09 season. He had 2+ years of service time going into this year.

Except he wouldn't be on the market if he didn't sign that deal.

It's overrated for the most part, except for times like this, and watching replays of the kU bball game at one in the morning.