David

According to like one or two crappy writers What writers aren't crappy? Rosenthal was as high a profile guy reporting on this as there was and he, IIRC, reported that Dempster and Peavy wasn't a mutually exclusive proposition for the Cubs. Again, that's IIRC and I'm much too lazy to look for quotes on this. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

I heard that the Dempster signing doesn't necessarily mean we will quit pursuing Peavy. Peavy-Zambrano-Harden-Dempster-Lilly...*drool* Yeah Hendry isn't the type of GM to close the door on a pitcher like Peavy. Hendry doesn't control payroll. He has a certain amount of money to work with. If he spends like 10 mil on a RF I don't see how he can afford Peavy too Marquis money in '09= Peavy money in '09 Next. Huh? So you're assuming someone is going to take on Marquis' contract next year without us eating a big chunk of it? Yeah, good luck. I highly doubt the few million we would have to eat on Marquis's would stop Hendry from getting Jake Peavy for the next several years if he has the opportunity to.

For the same reason the Cubs didn't resign Wood. Money. It doesn't grow on tress, especially in this economy. Peavy has no chance of coming here. That settles it, then.

Like I said, it's nonsense. I hate how people need an explanation for everything that happens in sports. It was about as lame a way as you could come up with explaining that series, but, then again, I would've thought any explanation or excuse giving was lame.

What the hell? It's just a bunch of player-speak nonsense. They went out, played baseball, and lost. Now they have to come up with things to justify it and to "explain" it to the press.

I hate when speculation is reported as fact and then lumped in with quotes that may or may not actually have anything to do with a discussion of what was reported along with them. This is, essentially, speculation.

orrrrr... he could suck for 3 years and decide he's much better off taking that option than going on the market.

True. Bonds was in insanely good shape in his older years (for obvious reasons) and look how good he stayed. I know steroids = everything out the window, but the point being it's not like his hand/eye coordination went or anything. He was insanely strong and had superhuman recovery. Now that gets me thinking about something else, though. If those types of results (recovery allowing more working out and stronger muscles) could possibly be achieved by using other types of supplements, would that be cheating too?

So has Peavy.

It's probably to put pressure on Atlanta to up their offer. The scary part of these Dempster rumors is that Atlanta had Dempster on their radar. If the Cubs sign Dempster, Atlanta could up their offer, especially considering some of the other FA pitchers Atlanta is looking at are likely to sign elsewhere. If I'm Towers, I prefer the packages Atlanta can put together over just about anything the Cubs would reasonably offer. Yeah, there's that and that's what Towers wants, but once again Peavy doesn't want to go to Atlanta. Today. But if this drags on for a long time, perhaps Towers is trying to pressure Peavy to open up the list of acceptable destinations. Maybe. Certainly it would seem more likely in terms of the AL destinations. I still think there's no way he'd go to Atlanta, though. He can just stay home and lose in SD without having to uproot his family or move. Maybe that's just my wishful thinking, though, since I'm pretty sure ownership will force Towers' hand at some point and force a deal to happen.

Why do people always want to think that when a baseball player struggles, it's because of effort? Frankly, if I'm looking for reasons for the decline in Derrek Lee's numbers the last few years, effort is the last thing I'd try to attribute it to. It's not just on field effort though. It can be the effort in preperation. The guy can still try just as hard, but is there the same incentive to kill yourself in the training room all winter? Certainly contract years can lead to more work than non-contract, years, which can contribute to discrepency in performance. That being said, my concern with Dempster isn't really effort related, it's just that he's never did what he did last year and I have very little reason to believe he'll do it again. But he can be a decent pitcher for 4 more years. Oh, I agree. There are certain players that are completely worthless and lazy when it comes to preparation and they wind up in bad shape and it definitely winds up hurting their abilities (i.e. extreme cases like Andruw). That said, it's something that fans and writers seem to go to a lot and I just don't think it's a key factor most of the time. In Lee's case, for instance, I'm sure he spends time and puts in the work to stay in shape as best he can. I'm just not sure the ability is there anymore. As for Dempster's workout regimen and hiking in the mountains and crap... who knows how much that actually impacted his pitching, if at all, but I guess it's nice and neat to think that it did.

Why do people always want to think that when a baseball player struggles, it's because of effort? Frankly, if I'm looking for reasons for the decline in Derrek Lee's numbers the last few years, effort is the last thing I'd try to attribute it to.

same

It's not about trading DeRosa to the Padres. It's about what DeRosa could bring from another team that we could, in turn, send to SD for Peavy. That said, I don't think it's much.

It'd be funny if they were actually basing that on Donnie's story but didn't want to cite some guy on the internet as their source.

Then they'd have to pay him for over a half season. Also, how quickly does ownership want this firesale happening? I've heard something about a divorce...

If you happen to believe Donnie, though, he wouldn't approve a trade to the Braves, anyway. I do, but mainly because that's been what I've suspected all along.

Then again, being on a much better team didn't help Gordon all that much... but Okafor had much bigger numbers outside of scoring... and there was this sentiment that gordon would just get the 6th man award and that okafor would get roy and that would work out nicely.

well in that case Rose isn't in the top 5; he's behind Speights, Morrow, Anderson, Rudy and McGee terrible argument. at any rate, i was stating a case that it's nowhere near a sure thing he'll win, at this point it's a close race, much closer than Bulls fans realize it's not a terrible argument if you think those players don't stand a chance in the long run. if the Bulls win in the mid 40's and fight for a low seed, as I have expected them to all along (even before they went 5-5 in the first ten when i expected around a 5-12 start - watch them go 0 - 7 the rest of this stretch), and the grizzlies win in the high 20's (as I expect), I don't think it'll be all that close... unless being on such a bad team lets him REALLY pad his stats. but you're right, mayo is quietly putting up really nice numbers and is obviously a contender.

Mayo - 16.5 PER Rose - 18.9 PER

Rose's last 5 games... 20.0 ppg 7.0 apg 6.4 rpg 1.4 spg 2.0 to .481 FG% only 1 turnover in the last 2 games and 3/5 from 3 last night.

If he never shot jumpers, he'd be a decent player to have.

Words cannot describe how much I love Derrick Rose.

I'm so glad the Bulls got the number one pick. It was the same day Geovany Soto hit the inside the park HR. Coincidence? I think not.

petition for jake peavy thread immunity if i have to hear any more kvetching over kerry wood i'm gonna go crazy werd