soccer10k

If you consider both offense and defense, which player would you rather have on your team. John Kruk called Rolen the best third baseman in the league, although I'm not sure if he meant just defensively. But regardless of that, all things considered, which one would you want?

How can anyone ask this question seriously? Cabrera is the next big superstar of this league. Actually, with the numbers he has put up in his first 2.5 years, he already is one at the young age of 22. How do you know that Murton isn't going to be a superstar as well? As for Cabrera being 22, we have seen with Latin American players that what they claim their age to be isn't always true (re: Rafael Furcal). Murton is only 24, 25 in October and Cabrera is about to turn 23. There's not really much of a comparison between the two players. Cabrera is already vastly superior. If you have a chance to get him, do it. My point is that we don't even know what Murton can do over a full season yet. If he ends up being a step below Cabrera offensively, then there is no point in getting Cabrera for just a small upgrade. I don't see how you can fessibly compare Murton and Cabrera. I love "The Red Ghost" as much as anybody, but his likely "average" statline, would be a "down yr" for Cabrera. Look this is Cabrera's career numbers of BA/OBP/SLG/OPS 299 .365 .523 .888, now I could see Murton hit slightly better, reach base about the same, but I don't SEE Murton slugging as well as Cabrera. I see Murton as a low .800 (to low .900 slg in a career yr) OPS kind of player in his prime. Which to me...means Murton is likekly to be a 22-23 type homerun power with 30 doubles. Cabrera in his career has average 33 doubles and 26 homeruns a yr, and his numbers are still GOING UP. I like Murton, but if the Marlins want him in a deal for Cabrera, I would do it in a heartbeat. Cause Murton is a complimentary player, while Cabrera is an IMPACT player. Nonetheless, I am glad to have "The Red Ghost." If you are going to trade Murton then yes. But I don't want to give up some of our good young arms to get Cabrera (re: Dontrelle Willis). If we can get a good deal for him then by all means go for it. But based on the fact that (since I found this out recently and if I'm wrong please correct me) Cabrera isn't going to leave via free agency after the year so I'm assuming the Marlins are going to want to get a good deal for him.

Good point.

I hope you guys are being sarcastic. I've watched that inning again, and those pitches were SO FAR out, that only Corey Patterson would swing at them!! These weren't hard pitches to take. Nor would they require a good eye. I like what I saw too. But let's not start calling them all patient hitters after that ridiculous outing by Izzy. It was also Walker, Lee, and Ramirez that walked which makes it less surprising.

I would love to get Ramirez starting without the need for an injury. But I wouldn't say that he flies under the radar whereas Barrett does. People are going to mention Ramirez and Rolen as the premier third basemen in the NL but in previous years they would mention Piazza and LoDuca as catchers but not Barrett.

You know somebody will start one early just so you can't. I'm not going to cause I'm WAY too lazy, but somebody will. What I meant by that is the next person doesn't start a thread (unless I can't make it like last Sunday's game...) until I lose, which hopefully doesn't happen soon :D Ok. I got you. Misunderstanding. Here's hoping you do start every game thread then.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Ramirez make it to the All Star game last year? I don't remember if he started or not though.

If Albert Pujols were here Albert Pujols wouldn't care about what you said about Albert Pujols. Albert Pujols would just continue to be the most amazing, dazzling, dumbfound, extraordinary, towering, collossal, ridiculously talented and sexy baseball player since Babe Ruth, who isn't as good as Albert Pujols. Haha.

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=30473 I'm not saying everybody hates Dusty. I'm just saying some people do.

I'm with you Vance. I'll help out as much as I can. It's time Barrett gets the recognition he deserves.

I'm surprised that he didn't mention his Golden Boy Pujols in that article since he, Morgan, and Miller spent half the night touting him. At first they spent time before and after each of Pujols atbats talking about how he was hitless in the series and was such a great hitter. Then after he got a hit they talked about how dangerous he was and how he gets all the big hits.

That was my point. I figured somebody would have noticed it - especially since Sunday's game was nationally televised and would have criticized the Cards. But even Wilbon said the Cubs weren't going to win the division because the Cards still stood in the way.

I think his point is that there are some people on this board that dislike Dusty so much that they are going to make a huge deal when Dusty makes a questionable move that doesn't work out but then when Dusty makes a move that does work out they don't give Dusty his due. If you are going to criticize Dusty when something goes wrong you have to applaud him when something goes right.

Are only certain people allowed to start the game threads?

You know somebody will start one early just so you can't. I'm not going to cause I'm WAY too lazy, but somebody will.

How can anyone ask this question seriously? Cabrera is the next big superstar of this league. Actually, with the numbers he has put up in his first 2.5 years, he already is one at the young age of 22. How do you know that Murton isn't going to be a superstar as well? As for Cabrera being 22, we have seen with Latin American players that what they claim their age to be isn't always true (re: Rafael Furcal). Murton is only 24, 25 in October and Cabrera is about to turn 23. There's not really much of a comparison between the two players. Cabrera is already vastly superior. If you have a chance to get him, do it. My point is that we don't even know what Murton can do over a full season yet. If he ends up being a step below Cabrera offensively, then there is no point in getting Cabrera for just a small upgrade.

How can anyone ask this question seriously? Cabrera is the next big superstar of this league. Actually, with the numbers he has put up in his first 2.5 years, he already is one at the young age of 22. How do you know that Murton isn't going to be a superstar as well? As for Cabrera being 22, we have seen with Latin American players that what they claim their age to be isn't always true (re: Rafael Furcal). Murton is only 24, 25 in October and Cabrera is about to turn 23.

YES!! The news just keeps getting better.

I think I've watched that clip about 20 times since it was posted. It hasn't gotten old yet. "A GRAND SLAM!!"

seconded But I would think that Wilbon's take on the Cubs would be a bit more serious than their other opinions.

I am a college student and I only have 1 class on Mondays.

Why would we go after Cabrera? He's listed as a 3B and I believe we have a decent 3B already. I'm not sure on that so somebody will have to let me know for sure. If you want him to play LF, don't we have Matt Murton already? I understand if Murton is hitting like Corey Patterson or suffers a serious injury. We need to wait and see if we really need him. As for Willis, I agree that we need to wait and see if Wood/Prior/Miller can come back and pitch well for us. Even if 2 of them come back that solidifies our rotation. Overall we need to take a wait and see approach to both players. I hope we don't need to make any trades because that will mean everything is going well.

I thought I heard it was something like 4yrs/$50 mil somewhere. I could be wrong though.

I expect Mariotti to say that the Cubs suck but I figured Wilbon would have something good to say about the sweep. He has been known to wear Cubs attire on the show.

On "Around the Horn" and "PTI" today, they talked about the Cubs and nobody thinks the Cubs are any good this year and Wilbon even said that "sweeping the Cardinals in April doesn't mean a thing." They all think that the Cardinals are still easily the class of the NL Central. I'm not saying the Cubs are for sure going to win and they should be the favorites, but what happened on Saturday and Sunday normally doesn't happen to us. Normally if we fall behind against a good pitcher, our bats stay asleep and we lose the game. Normally a player in a slump gets a meaningless hit with nobody on base to get out of it. Normally when we get gifts like three straight walks to start an inning, we ground into a double play or hit a sac fly and the inning ends with us scoring at most one run. Normally when the calls don't go our way, our team folds. But none of that happened this weekend. I'm trying to look at the 2004 Red Sox as the example. They were supposed to lose to the Yankees. Usually Rivera closes out his saves. Usually the Yankees (re: Aaron Boone) get the big hit against the Sox. Usually the Red Sox end up losing. But in 04 that didn't happen. I know the White Sox lost for 88 years also but they didn't have a bigtime rival they had to overcome like the Red Sox with the Yankees and the Cubs with the Cardinals. After all, the Cards have won the most World Series titles (9) in the NL. Here's hoping 2006 Cubs = 2004 Red Sox