WrigleyField 22

One year deal for less than he made this year is about the only way I'd bring him back. So no thanks on him returning. Look at the September line, a .325 BA with only .336 OBP OUCH

I really don't want the Tigers or Twins to win because then I would have to hear from my friends back home that the White Sox just play in the best division in baseball and whine about not making the playoffs. While maybe true, I DON'T CARE. I don't want the Cards to win because they are the Cardinals, plus I go to school in St. Louis. A's over Mets.

There are probably ton of casual Cubs fans who still pledge loyalty to Dusty and want him back.

I wouldn't call it a groin injury. It was in the groin region, but wasn't it quite literally a testicle injury? It's not like he hurt the muscle, correct? And If Barrett isn't our starting catcher, I feel no more confident with Blanco starting. Blanco made 2.5M right? Not a lot just alone, but an extra 2.5 a year could change a big time FAs mind (If we so decide to go that route) If it doesn't go to a starter it could be used to sign a bench player who could actually hit.

He plays for the Cubs, I don't blame you.

Why is Soto not ready? He's played a full season at AAA and word is that he handles pitchers well. With Barrett, the back-up catcher is only going to play every fifth or sixth day. There's no reason to spend 1.25 million on one when you have a player with equal skill set ready to take over. In fact, hasn't it been two full seasons? Also Soto, while having a whole lot less power than Blanco, has the good plate discipline that the team is so severly lacking. Add the extra couple million in salary difference and its a no brainer.

Better, most likely yes. Significantly better? Most likely no. We have enough IFs. Really the spots we need to fill on the bench are power hitters, something Graffanino doesn't supply enough of. We could do worse, but I'd rather pass.

I stopped rooting against the Sox one game in late August when I saw them down in the bottom of the 9th with an out and was glad at their impending defeat. Turns out if you actually have an offense no game is over. Dye hit a 2 or 3 run homer for the win.

I don't think we differ in our belief in the ability of the Cubs to find those players. So instead of agreeing to disagree, I'm disagreeing to agree? :)

Other than possibly Moore we really don't have any kids that could provide good power off the bench. Pagan might provide okay power, but not the kind of power I would want when I need a big hit late. One or possibly two, depending on Moore vets would be useful for that purpose. As far as the bolded part, I don't think thats neccessarily true. If you go after a bench player who has had only one or two good seasons that both came in the last 2-3 years then it would be true. If it is a guy who has consistently put up solid numbers off the bench other than one or two years he is a better bet to do well than a rookie who is not used to coming off the bench and is used to being an everyday player. That's pretty much why I said "Unless the Cubs can get somebody likely to put up an 800 OPS, and/or dominate against LHP or RHP specifically". If you can find a guy who has consistently put up solid numbers, go ahead and get him. I guess where we differ is our believe in the ability for the Cubs to find those players. Hendry's record has shown he wont, with Hollandsworth being his only good bench signing. I think there are enough good bench guys out there, they just need to have a big hit in a playoff game so Hendry will notice them.

Other than possibly Moore we really don't have any kids that could provide good power off the bench. Pagan might provide okay power, but not the kind of power I would want when I need a big hit late. One or possibly two, depending on Moore vets would be useful for that purpose. As far as the bolded part, I don't think thats neccessarily true. If you go after a bench player who has had only one or two good seasons that both came in the last 2-3 years then it would be true. If it is a guy who has consistently put up solid numbers off the bench other than one or two years he is a better bet to do well than a rookie who is not used to coming off the bench and is used to being an everyday player. Restovich comes to mind. Does Brandon Sing or any of our stud 1st base prospects play any other positions like 3rd. I agree with saving money. I'd keep Pagan as the CF backup. We need a starter and trade for a big outfield bat. Sing can play some LF, not sure how well, but after this years numbers I wouldn't be willing to save a spot on the bench for him. Restovich, I'm not so sure about. Part of me thinks he just needs to be given a chance, while the other side of me thinks hes an AAAA player. The truth is probably somewhere in between and he would be a decent bench guy, but not someone you can count on to be a big bench off the bench. I'd certainly give him a long look during Spring Training, but wouldn't plan on him having a role on the bench.

who is in CF with this bench? lofton might be better than the starter! :cry: i dont know anything about derosa, but fontenot may be able to play those positions and cost much less. Haven't read the Tribune yet today, but a buddy of mine said Paul Sullivan wrote something in the Cubs Bits about the Cubs possibly being interested in Tony Graffanino as a utility guy next year. I have not followed Tony's career that much since he left the White Sox, but my recollection is that he's consistently been in the high seven hundreds OPS-wise. OPS since 2001 777 757 759 667 791 791 His value as a utility doesn't really mean much as our only position thats not filled which he can cover is 3B, and I'd rather see more power out of that player. Now, if by way of trades, there are openings on the bench at 2B,3B, and SS and we could get him cheap, I'd go for it, otherwise no. This does sound like a Cubs move so I wouldn't be surprised.

My reason for not wanting Theriot to start has nothing to do with Neifi. It's because we can and should do better. The comparison to Neifi was just pointing out how pointless the "nearly a quarter of a season" claim was. Well thats fine, and I'm sorry if I'm confusing you with someone else, but I saw the same Neifi-Theriot comparison made before and they are simply not comparable. I agree with you that we can do better than Theriot. The "should" is tricky, it really all depends on what the other offseason moves and whether you have faith that "better" player Hendry signs will actually be significantly better.

Other than possibly Moore we really don't have any kids that could provide good power off the bench. Pagan might provide okay power, but not the kind of power I would want when I need a big hit late. One or possibly two, depending on Moore vets would be useful for that purpose. As far as the bolded part, I don't think thats neccessarily true. If you go after a bench player who has had only one or two good seasons that both came in the last 2-3 years then it would be true. If it is a guy who has consistently put up solid numbers off the bench other than one or two years he is a better bet to do well than a rookie who is not used to coming off the bench and is used to being an everyday player.

Between September 2004 and April 2005 Neifi had about the name number of at bats and about the same OPS. We had this career line to base Neifi off of: .291 .333 .444* 274 .313 .382* .280 .307 .403* .287 .314 .427* .298 .326 .445* .241 .277 .302 .236 .260 .303 .256 .285 .348 .232 .276 .295 *Colorado Much more proof that Neifi was indeed playing over his head. His only decent years came in the inflated Colorado. Yes, Theriot will not match these numbers and he may struggle to put up a .700 OPS. Lets look at his minor league numbers progressing: .204 .341 .252** 2001 Daytona .252 .335 .313** 2002 Lansing .259 .353 .318** 2003 Lansing .236 .351 .270** 2003 West Tenn .273 .367 .342 2004 Daytona .304 .365 .391 2005 West Tenn .304 .367 .379 2006 Iowa **Switch hitter Theriot has for the most part, improved every season of his career, specifically when he gave up switch hitting. He technically had a slight drop off this year(10 OPS), but thats ignoring what he has done at the major league level. Theriot is plain and simply not comparable to Neifi. Thats not to say we should let Theriot start (barring Ramirez bolting and going into a youth movement, I dont think we should), but you should come up with a better reason, because your current one is weak.

Also it's doubtful he will be considered, and there are quite a few other players already at his position, but I'd like to see Fotenot have a legitimate shot in spring training to earn a spot.

Well I'll start out with the guys we currently have: Soto C Pagan 4th/5th OF Theriot 2B/SS- I'm assuming we wont try to have him start Cedeno SS-2B Bynum's 'versatility' becomes useless, as we have two guys who can cover second, making him an OF. He is cut/traded/whatever That leaves two spots and none of the current guys really has an pop, Pagan having the most. So we need two guys who can offer some SLG, preferrably from each side of the plate. One needs to be able to cover 3B/1B. Two guys I'd look into are Russel Branyan(team option) or Wes Helms. Branyan bats Lefty, Helms righty. So depending on who you get would change what other player you get. This guy would be an OF Lefies: Delucci Hollandsworth(as long as he comes in as a bench player) Stairs Righties: Craig Wilson I'd prefer Branyan as the backup 3B to Helms, which works out wonderfully as Wilson was the only righty FA that jumped out as good(unless I missed someone). Pagan (LF,CF,RF) Wilson (1B, OF)-would get lots of ABs vs lefties in RF Branyan (3B) Theriot (2B,SS) Soto © Cedeno (SS,2B) -All positons covered, with SLG from both sides, some speed, and defense. If Branyan's option is picked up I would go with Helms(or possibly Moore) and Dellucci. I also wouldn't mind Aurilla as a backup 3B, if he'd accept such a role.

He will probably wait until after the Cubs ruin his career.

If you are trying to win next year, Pagan can not be the CF. If you aren't trying to win, you still better have someone else competing for some time, rather than just hand it to him. Be happy we might have a decent 5th OF, hope the next manager uses him that way, and don't try to make him something else.

that's not drastically different from this year's pen, and it's not one of the best in the league. There is a good chance that pen will be pretty similar, but there are two big wild cards in Wuertz and Wood. Wood could be dominant in a set-up or closer role, and Wuertz hopefully won't be exiled to AAA again and can give us a full year of cheap production. Dempster needs to turn things around as well.

Interestingly, Izturis will make about the same as Wells next season. If we would have traded Maddux for an inexpensive prospect, and assuming we have enough to pay for Soriano and Zito and Izturis, we could have just paid for Wells, Zito, Soriano. Now I don't know if Joel Guzman is no longer viewed as a SS, but if he could play there, he would have been a great prospect to take from LA-but instead we accepted crap so they traded him to Tampa. If not we could have gone with Theriot/Cedeno who shouldn't be worse offensively than Izturis will be, and we'd have whoever the prospect was. Our Lineup: 2B-Soriano LF-Murton 1B-Lee 3B-Ramirez CF-Wells C-Barrett RF-Jones SS-Guzman/Theriot/Cedeno plus, with Zito/Schmidt in our rotation Zambrano Schmidt/Zito Hill Prior/Miller/Guzman/Marshall/Mateo/Marmol ... ... I loved that trade!

If thats the case, then it's fine, we'll hold on to him because his offense is good, but I'd like to know we at least explored the option of trading someone who's value might be inflated. It wouldn't surprise me if his value isn't all that high, but since neither of us work for big league clubs we can't know for sure.

I think we should look into seeing what we can recieve in a trade for Barrett this offseason. I'm not talking about definately trying to trade him and making an offseason priority, but just throwing his name out there a little and seeing what kind of interest he recieves. Last year is the last year of his contract and it depends on a few other things, but we may a be in a situation where we would not bring him back for 2008, and while that isn't a problem if we just let him go, he is coming off a career year. A lot of people are in favor of getting a couple high priced FAs this offseason and depending on how those contracts are structured, we may not have money to keep him even if he wanted. I would just like to see what kind of interest he recieves, and if some team is willing to ridiculously overpy because of his year, you do it. If nothing else you have an idea for the trade deadline next season if we are in a sell mode. A big complaint for a lot of people is that Hendry doesnt buy low, sell high. He has an oppotunity to possibly do that. This would also be dependent on finding a decent player to fill in as our closest prospect is Soto, who projects as a backup.

One of the bad things about Wells is that it is buying high.

Its a ploy to place us in a hitters park so we can become overly excited about our offense right away.