David

I've heard 15 as a start for Soriano and as much as 17/18. Obviously 16 is more attractive than 18, from a team standpoint. But Drew is still the better option, in my mind. Especially if it's "just" 14. Drew $$ wise right between Lee and Aram. Does he deserve it? What else does have have besides his 20 HR and .390 OBP. I just haven't checked his stats thoroughly. Does he hit alot of doubles or something? He has a .900+ career OPS, and he is a good IsoD guy, which means his success is much more sustainable as he gets past his prime years.

i will give you scientific analysis: the cubs have never outbid anyone for a major free agent. once, macphail was super-excited because the cubs simply were among the finalists for mike hampton. Why did you make me remember that fiasco! Thats one move I'm glad they didnt make though... I thought we did outbid on Hampton, but he choose Colorado because of the area and schools or some BS like that...

A very good trade. I don't know about "very good." It's a "meh" trade at best.

I thought I heard (shortly after hearing the rumors of Glavine going back to Atl) that Glavine had re-signed with the Mets. Maybe I just heard that he was close to re-signing?

Pretty cool.. Thanks

That was you?!? http://forumimages.footballguys.com/style_emoticons/default/bowtie.gif LOL.....sorry Chocolate :) No Rex-bashing allowed, darn it!!! ...but colorful nicknames are. Will it be Turnoversaurus Rex next weekend? 8) are you one of the guys who wants to play kyle orton because he "didn't lose games" last season? apparently, people forget about the 5 INT cincinnati game. i'll never understand it. not many quarterbacks can play well when their line is being demolished. rex has made some bad throws this year, no doubt, but he's 12-4 over the course of his career-he doesn't lose many ballgames either....and he's never had a 5 INT performance while throwing a minimum of passes. I don't think Soul was trying to bash Grossman at all, despite the reference to the "Turnoversaurus Rex," nickname. In fact, he made the exact same point you just made (about QB's not playing well under pressure) on the page before this.

My hope (not expectation) is that they just sign both. The money isn't that hard to figure if they dump Jones, Dempster, and Eyre. What is Westbrook's contract status at this point?

Per the Philadelphia Daily News :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :x :x :x :x :x I don't buy the "set to sign" part at all. No way he signs for that little this quickly. He is, after all, a Boras client, and Boras will milk any potential suitors for all they're worth. I'm sure they might've made an offer like that, but in no way do I believe that he is set to sign anything yet.

Really? I'm starting to have a really good feeling about it. And it starts with the fact that we A) seem to have no interest in Zito, and B) are showing interested in Drew.

It's been confirmed for a while. Muskat first said they were coming back a few months ago. Bleh. At least, we don't have Nomar or Grudz anymore. That looked really, REALLY stupid.

Can somebody tell me anything about Cotts's stuff?

Semi-threadjack, but is it confirmed that the Cubs are putting names back on the home jerseys? I really, really hope not.

QFT I was about to respond with something almost exactly along these lines, particularly the parts about Mike North.

I'd like to see Berrian and Bradley lining up together on the same side of the field. =P~

All those numbers does us no good if he can't stay healthy. As many others here have stated, the last three years he has played 145+ in two of them. His missed time in 2005 was due to a broken wrist on a HBP, not exactly your "injury-prone player" type of injury.

I'm much cheerier this morning. The Drew news definitely helped :D Lots of good news this morning. :)

I really hope this is true. But isn't it possible Boras is doing what he seems to do every year? Mentioning the Cubs as a serious suitor (and the Cubs going along with it) for one of his top free agents to drive up the price for the other teams? We seemed to see it with Pudge, Beltran...

I want no part of Zito. He's good but nowhere near as good as he's made out to be, and he's going to be paid as the guy he's made out to be, not the guy he is. Wouldn't mind Schmidt at all, but it could be the Cubs are scared off by his age and injury history, which you can't really blame them for. Plus, it seems like he's limited his options to the west coast. Wish there was a better free agent class out there in terms of pitchers, but it is what it is. Hopefully, Prior can make some sort of contribution, and Hendry can pick someone up via trade. In terms of free agents, the names discussed don't excite me too much, but hopefully Z and Hill can perform well enough at the top and these guys can round out the rest of the rotation.

Take the human element out of officiating as much as possible. I want replay for safe/out calls, catch/no catch, and fair/foul. Seriously, screw tradition. Having the right outcome is far more important. And if they can make an electronic strike zone, I'd be for that too. You can keep the umpire out there to "announce" the balls and strikes, but the machine would make the decisions.

Know what you mean. I reload the Transactions page 1000x a day hoping to see the title of the Drew thread changed to something like "ESPN Reports Cubs make offer to Drew!" Wishful thinking, I know. Maybe I'd settle for Soriano.

Dumb? Wow. Okay, here's his last 3 years: 2006- 54 games, .245 .295 .318 2005- 106 games, .257 .302 .322 2004- 159 games, .288 .330 .381 He's clearly trending downward, etc... WFT, mate? I don't disagree with you at all. My point was that your post showed why it's stupid to evaluate a player based on his career stats. In fact, that's exactly what your post and the ensuing one showing what Delino's most recent season stats were (compared to his career stats) demonstrated. I don't know why you got the impression that I was arguing with you. But thanks for the smart-ass response, :wink: . I liked your first response much better than your edited version. My response wasn't "smart ass". Maybe I took your response out of context, but if you go back and read the part I quoted, maybe you could possibly see how someone could take it out of context? You pointed out that I should show stats for the last 3 years, trends, etc.. and I gave them to you. I thought I was being quite polite with my response considering I thought you were telling me I was dumb for using career stats. Really, no need to get so worked up. I noticed you threw the trend and the "etc." at the end in there in what I took as a smart-assy manner, and I was just kidding with you. Hence the smiley. Why so defensive, B?

Dumb? Wow. Okay, here's his last 3 years: 2006- 54 games, .245 .295 .318 2005- 106 games, .257 .302 .322 2004- 159 games, .288 .330 .381 He's clearly trending downward, etc... WFT, mate? I don't disagree with you at all. My point was that your post showed why it's stupid to evaluate a player based on his career stats. In fact, that's exactly what your post and the ensuing one showing what Delino's most recent season stats were (compared to his career stats) demonstrated. I don't know why you got the impression that I was arguing with you. But thanks for the smart-ass response, :wink: .

At the same time it shows how dumb it is to base judgements of a player on career stats rather than last three years, trends, etc.

If the Cubs get Alph you can forget Drew. I think we should aviod referring to Soriano as "Alph" at all costs. Too much pain associated with that nickname. Yeah, its really annoying, especially considering he spells his name "Alfonso," not "Alphonso." "ph" doesn't make an "f" sound in the Spanish language. While you're right, 'Alf' would be no less annoying. I echo Mr. Wood's sentiment.

At first I thought you were talking about El Pulpo, which really confused me. Then I realized you meant Soriano, and it made more sense. That wasn't Hendry that was going to trade Sosa. It was MacPhail.