David

I was on the "It's cool to finally get the biggest free agent on the market but it sucks that the free agent class sucks, and that we severely overpaid in terms of years and dollars," side.

Gordon OR Deng, not both. If it's both, I'm going to throw things, stomp my feet, and generally act like a sissy. :P Gordon. No or Deng. I was about to post the exact same thing. What do you do if you give them Deng and not Gordon? Play Kobe at the 3 and Gordon at 2? Doesn't exactly seem realistic or anywhere near ideal, especially on defense. Would Kobe even want to play the 3? Noc at 3, Kobe at 2, and Gordon as the sixth man? I guess, but that's nowhere near ideal. Especially not with Noc and that mysterious injury (I'm surprised we made the financial commitment to him that we did). The deal has to be Gordon and filler. Or Gordon and Noc and filler (after Dec 15th).

I don't think minor injuries like those would affect anything at all.

It doesnt matter who signs and who doesnt. If they sign, the Base Year Deal, is NEXT season. If wouldnt put any restiction on Deng. Poison pill provision. Yeah, the PPP means his contract would be counted as a higher amount, meaning The Bulls couldnt through Griifin (for example) in with the trade. Frankly, I think the knowledge of what he will be getting for the next 5 years would be worth it to the Lakers. (I do not want Deng sent over at all) It would be counted as a higher amount for the Lakers as incoming salary and a lower amount for the Bulls as outgoing. Makes things pretty difficult in terms of working out the salaries, from what I understand.

It doesnt matter who signs and who doesnt. If they sign, the Base Year Deal, is NEXT season. If wouldnt put any restiction on Deng. Poison pill provision.

What, you mean it might have had something to do that they only had three players that deserved a spot on a major league roster? He definately had some craptastic players. 1996 Cubs Oh jesus, Sosa had 40 home runs that year and only a .323 On base percentage. :| You have to try (there is no almost about it) to not take walks to do that. Consider that it was 40 HR in a season shortened by about a month and a half after he broke a bone in his hand, and it's even more ridiculous.

The ideal scenario is that Deng is signed and Gordon isn't. That would basically mean that BG is still available for a Kobe trade while Deng would effectively be off limits.

Isn't Kenny Williams the guy who completely refuses to negotiate with Boras?

I'll put a billion Stanly nickels on him going to the Red Sox. I have 1000 Shrute bucks that say otherwise.

I wish we had Theo Epstein..

I guess I took way too long to read through the thread and then post that. Heh.

Just out of curiosity, how come...is it so they can't go after any other FA's? I'd like to know, too. Because a Cubs lineup of C - Soto 1B - Lee 2B - DeRo 3B - ARam SS - ARod LF - Soriano CF - Jones/Pie RF - Murton ...would pretty much leave the Cards with no chance of competing for the next couple years, particularly if Prior can come back and pitch to even 75% of his former self next year. That outfield sure looks crappy, but my god, that infield has better hitters than any outfield around... :shock: I know he would like the Cubs to be screwed with contracts and such. I guess that's the only reason I could see for CFICT feeling that way.

Is that because Wood is now a reliever? Prior has a lot more upside I'm assuming it's because Wood has already shown he can come back and pitch at a high level. Until he gets on a mound, we don't know if Prior will even be able to break 80 mph yet (although I'm optimistic about his recovery from the surgery).

Um, no he's not. He's a little guy that plays shortstop. Leadoff hitters can only come from the SS and CF positions. Occasionally a second basemen can bat leadoff, but usually they bat 2nd. So I'll take Theriot batting leadoff over Pie anyday. This is sarcasm, right? I'm not so sure... You guys have obviously never played baseball before. Your fastest guy always leads off. It's common sense. OK. Definitely sarcasm.

Um, no he's not. He's a little guy that plays shortstop. Leadoff hitters can only come from the SS and CF positions. Occasionally a second basemen can bat leadoff, but usually they bat 2nd. So I'll take Theriot batting leadoff over Pie anyday. Is this a serious post?

wat?

For a second I was wondering if CM stood for some credible publication or something. Nevermind.

Dude, where do u get this stuff "The Matsuis haven't"....uhhhhh, the Matsuis were extremely productive this year, hideki has been great since he came over, and Kaz had a very good year too, thats just a stupid statement and its obvious that you just didnt look at the numbers before posting this. Kaz outhit Iguchi this year. You don' really think that Iguchi and Johjima were more productive that Hideki Matsui, do you? Come on, if your going to make bold statements don't contradict them with bad info. He said they were the exception. Reading is fundamental. Ummm...

I really hope the bolded isn't true, because in no world is defense more important than offense at any position. Defense should never take priority over offense. Ever. That doesn't mean that defensive ability isn't more important at the positions you listed than at others. It is. That said, the most important thing will still be what they can produce with the bat. I don't think it even really needs to be said. The only exception to this would be pitching, which is really what constitutes the vast majority of a team's "defense." People love to say that pitching and defense is what wins baseball games. It's not. It's pitching and hitting. Defense is relatively insignificant compared to those two.

You're assuming that they don't upgrade at any of those 3 positions in the offseason. I really hope that's not the case. Hell, if they don't upgrade at one of those, they basically don't upgrade anywhere. The only other obvious need is another starter.

Wow. Did anyone realize just how well Murton did in his callup in the second half? .310/.375/.543 6 2B 7 HR Only 116 AB's, so take it with a grain of salt, but not bad, nonetheless. That AB/HR is pretty solid, too.

He doesn't hit well enough for the outfield, and he doesn't field the position well enough to get away with diminished batting production. How on earth does an argument about Matt Murton's productivity level have anything to do with one about Ryan Theriot? The Cubs could use upgrades both in the outfield and at SS. And they need one at SS even more than in the OF. I didn't know that they were mutually exclusive.

A hair over 6' and 187 lbs

Please...list these "facts" for me. * Offensive and defensive statistics (you can look them up). * The Cubs winning percentages with Theriot starting/Cedeno starting. All the "mathmeticians" that want to say that Theriot "sucked" in 2007 - I don't really know what to say. I am sure he will improve, and I am sure there was a reason why he started at SS most of the year. I know he was inconsistant at best offensively, and didn't play SS like Ozzie Smith. I can appreciate that the 2007 Chicago Cubs were a hell of a lot better than the 06 Cubs - and they got almost all the plays from SS because of Theriot. I watched a hell of a lot of games this season, and we definately had a better team when he was in the lineup. I love players like Theriot, and hope he is our SS/2B for as long as he plays like he did in 07. I'll bet you if you asked any member of the team they would agree with me too. The Cubs finished 65-62 with Theriot starting, and they were 20-15 when Theriot did not start. They were 8-6 when Cedeno started this season. If you want to make the winning percentage argument, you're arguing for Cedeno because his winning percentage was a lot higher than Theriot's. The Cubs scored 4.496 runs per game when Theriot started. They scored 5.17 runs per game when Theriot did not start. They scored 5.07 runs per game when Cedeno started. hahahah I love it.

Um, I'm not about small sample sizes at all, but this statement couldn't be more wrong. Ronny in Sept .391/.417/.696 Again, the sample size makes these numbers pretty much completely insignificant, but to say he looked awful after his call up is pretty much totally wrong.