squally1313

Yeah, I have that vision a lot. Regardless, Theriot is going to start tomorrow, I'm almost positive Yeah I wouldn't put much stock into tomorrow's line-up. They just played a 15 inning game. I'm sure we'll see Blanco, Pie, Theriot...maybe even Ward at first for all I know. Either way, we need Hill/Marquis to go deep, and if not, then I hope Lieber is ready to go after a couple days off. I know he's used to being a start and getting his 4 days, but if we need bullpen innings tomorrow, we're in trouble if he can't pitch. I don't like Marshall going back to back, Woody can only go an inning, Hart pitched 2, and I'm pretty sure Marmol's on pace to shatter the appearances record. IMO, just throw Marquis, score about 9 in the first off of the shell that once was Matt Morris, and let Marquis go 7 innings, 4 ER and pick up an easy win....yes, those are possible sometimes.

IF we're going to stay with the notion that we have to have a LOOGY, which is debatable as it is, I wonder how much it would take to pry Damaso Marte from the Pirates. I remember in the game yesterday they said that the Pirates had 3 lefties in their bullpen, which seemed a little excessive, and since they aren't going to be competing for a while I doubt a 33 year old reliever is of much importance to them. He's making $2 million this year, and has a club option for next year ($6 million or $250,000 buyout, which is a no brainer). Last year was his best year, so his perceived value has probably never been higher, but then again this is the same guy the White Sox traded for Rob freaking Mackowiak a couple years ago. His numbers against lefties have been amazing...a career 571 OPS against for left handed hitters, and last year they OPSed (not OBPed, mind you) 372, going 6-64 with 2 extra base hits. Even against righties he was pretty good, giving up a 765 OPS to them last year. I know our bullpen is one of our strengths, and maybe the upgrade he would bring isn't worth what we would have to give up, but it wouldn't hurt to look into it.

Phillies beat the Red 5-3

:shock: With that wind....that was a BOMB

I'm a little behind...but I'm guessing the unintentional-intentional walk is coming to Soto here....

Erstad....Kendall....Jesus....I hope we don't play the Blue Jays this year....Eckstein would go deep about 5 times.

Anybody else secretly hoping that ball got through the infield so Fuku would make Berkman look foolish at home plate?

good thing I took him in about every league I was in Yeah, but my pick of Brian McCann AND Soto is looking real good right now, where the top two free agent catchers are Salty and AJ. I'll just wait for the trade requests to pile up...

Or Fukudome would agree to switching between center and right depending on the pitcher...Against lefties you go Fukudome/Murton in center/right, and against righties you go Pie/Fukudome in center/right. Probably too much ask from Fuku, but hey....we can dream right?

No mention of Jack Parkman for catcher? I know you don't want to double up on the same movie, but he's much better than a career minor leaguer. Also, off the bench you'd have to have Hedo (Heddo?) from Rookie of the Year. I say pinch hitter simply because the announcers seemed to be stunned when he came up in the ninth inning for the Mets. And anyone who can grind the bat with their bare hands would have to be pretty decent...

Anyone know how long DeRosa is expected to be out? Obviously with that sort of thing you want to give him all the time he needs, but it'd be nice if he got all the rust off before opening day.

Yeah he's on pace for 112 points through 8 minutes, which would be, I believe, a little bit above his season average.

I can't even explain how good it feels to have him in they're instead of Jaque

Oh man, could you imagine if the Cub's games outdrew the Sox games at Hell in a Cell? Which, thinking about it logically...wouldn't be all that unrealistic. One nice little consolation if this were to happen....

Having no knowledge about the accuaracy/past success of this application, I thought it was funny that: A. Hendry seemed absolutely set on trading our 3 hitter for Kaz Matsui B. Soto bats above Soriano. Geovany Soto. C. Theriot bats 9th, below the pitcher. Our pitcher's that good of hitters? LaRussa actually a genius? Theriot actually that bad? (Hmmmm, I wonder) I mean, I know this would never be the lineup, and I know lineup organization has been proven by some very reputable sources to be pretty meaningless, but still, found it amusing...

So knowing Hendry, let's guess how this contract is structured.... Year 1: $8.50 Year 2: $1.5 million Year 3: $18 million Year 4: $28,499,991.50 ...Just trying to balance out all the positive posts

Along that same line of thought, I'm assuming you guys were against Soto being called up at the end of 2007? After all, he put up great numbers in the minors, but he never proved anything in the majors before. Those great minor league numbers just weren't translating...

Great minor league numbers. Too bad we haven't seen a hint of that yet in the majors. Yet, by starting Theriot next year, you're basically guaranteeing that you aren't going to see any good numbers from Cedeno next season either. Outside of Ward, there's not a lot of people that put up good numbers getting a start once a week. What are you planning on doing with this 24 shortstop who dominated AAA last year? If you put him back there again, odds are he puts up the same numbers, but obviously minor league numbers aren't good enough to deserve a shot at starting over one of the worst shortstops, statistics wise, in baseball last year. You want to keep him with the Cubs as a backup next year? I'm sure it's a great idea to give our best middle infield prospect 4 at bats a week. He should improve tons backing up Theriot, learning his hustle and grit and 672 OPS. If we're starting Theriot next year, get rid of Cedeno before whatever value he has is destroyed.

I love this logic. How is Cedeno going to prove he can hit major league hitting when he is getting at most 1 start a week? You saw what that kind of stuff did to Murton last year, and I pray to God it doesn't happen to Pie in 2008. To repeat what everyone else has said, because apparently it's still necessary: At age 23, Cedeno was absolutely terrible, to the tune of a .610 OPS for the Major League level Chicago Cubs At age 23, Theriot was almost as bad for the freaking single A and double AA minor league teams. (671 and 621 OPS) Theriot's amazing performance at that age got him sent back to high A ball, making him, at the time, a 24 year old playing single A ball. There he posted what I guess is an acceptable 273/367/342 line, but nothing that screams future major league starter. What did Cedeno do at age 24? You mean besides put up a ridiculous 359/422/537 line at AAA? Well not much I guess... To a certain degree, I understand the logic. We know what we will get out of Theriot this year. He'll hustle, get his uniform dirty, maybe slide into first a couple times, etc....But he'll do all that putting up numbers that are replacement level at best. I know all of us here, Theriot lovers and Theriot haters, can agree that Eckstein is the most overrated player in recent memory. Theriot's numbers last year are worse than any of the last three years for Eckstein. Is there a chance, if Cedeno starts, he puts up the same crap numbers he did at age 23? Of course. But of all the shortstops in AAA with more than 50 games played, Cedeno was second in OPS. He's got nothing else to prove in the minor leagues (For what it's worth, he also threw up a 921 OPS in 2005 at AAA in 65 games). To let him sit on the bench while Hustle McGrit puts up a 700ish OPS next year is just a wasted opportunity.

Agreed but in just 2 or 3 more days I'll be out of here and get a well deserved month off. I'm hoping that by the time I'm finished with my Final tomorrow Fukudome will be signed with the Cubs. Get it done Hendry. I'm secretly agreeing with you guys here about finals week, but I'm also quite sure that almost everyone else on this site would be in the college situation if they could, so I'm not going to complain about it. Back on topic...glad that step one is out of the way. Being able to pencil him in at the 2 spot in the lineup every day would be amazing, and gives us so much more flexibility for more moves this offseason.

Please explain this Second what King said. I mean, I'm sure you have plenty of statistics to back this up and everything, because I've never really seen you say something you couldn't support (outside of maybe the anti-Pie stuff), but all the statistics I'm looking at show Bedard putting up Rich Hill like numbers last year in the AL East, which is much better than the NL Central.

http://wintermeetings.mlblogs.com/nashvilleconfidential/ Edit: This is the website MLB.com links to. Here's the MLB page http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071204&content_id=2317414&vkey=hotstove2007&fext=.jsp

Like I said, I was just throwing out ideas. I know Rich Hill is a great pitcher, and I would never do the first trade if I didn't have the second one in line and confirmed. But I know Arizona needs starting pitching, and I know Baltimore needs outfielders. Arizona gets a solid number 2 for one of their many outfield prospects (Quentin, Young, and Upton, along with Byrnes and Salazar), Baltimore would get a number 5 pitcher, a young shortstop to replace Tejada, two outfielders that could conceivably start with Markakis in Pie/Gonzalez and Murton, and we would upgrade from Hill to Bedard, and obviously Theriot to Tejada, which would cost us only Marshall, Murton, Cedeno and whatever prospects we would need to finish the Baltimore deal, since we would still have a young top outfield prospect. I would hate to see Hill go, but Bedard put up better numbers in almost every single category, against significantly better competition. And since it's been mentioned many times how we weren't even that bad in right field last year, upgrading Shortstop would help our offense the most.

I agree that Rich Hill is a great pitcher, but I'd rather have Bedard's 146 ERA+ out of the AL East than Hill's 119 ERA+ out of the NL Central. I definitely think Rich Hill is already a number 2 pitcher, and maybe could become an ace, but he just seems like a guy Arizona would love to pencil in as the number 2 guy behind Webb. That only strengthens our package that we could offer to Baltimore. In my opinion, going into next year I think having Bedard/Tejada/(Dempster, Prior, Hart, etc) at #2 pitcher/Shortstop/#5 pitcher is a lot better than Hill/Theriot/Marshall. Bedard put up better stats (WHIP, K/9, BB/9, ERA) in a much better division. Tejada is obviously an upgrade, at least short term, over Theriot/Infante/Cedeno, and while I think Marshall is better than any of the options we would have at the #5, I don't think the difference is that much, or near enough to overcome the advantage gained in Bedard vs Hill and Tejada vs Theriot. Plus, as you said, the organization clearly doesn't like Marshall, much like Murton and Cedeno, so who knows where Marshall would even be next year if we don't make any moves.