javy knows my name

D Lee and a spare part does not net Loney and Kemp. If it did, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Yanks don't do the deal for Cano and Chamberlain, either. As for NTCs, I think the big three have them, in ARam, Lee and Soriano. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I think CC was given the award on Fausto's behalf as well. Really, though, I thought they'd split more votes and Beckett would win easily

I'm so glad he's not. Also really surprised we've heard nothing about Cordero.

I'd trade Pie straight up if he could play a decent SS.

What do you mean by full season? As a starter? I'd have no interest in either starting. However, given Fontenot's numbers vs RHP this year, .297/.358/.423, I would think he'd be able to at least come close, if not exceed, Infante's career .257/.301/.387 line, as a part-time player. Fontenot v. RHP June: .410/.449/.689 Every other month: .239/.318/.289 Those "other months" were those where he saw breaking balls

so pretty much never follow it, eh? Ouch. You're right, though, it's pretty bad when halfway through the season, you're just hoping for 6 wins and a bowl bid. (Born and raised in Iowa City so not talkin smack) Btw Derwood, when was the last time PSU won the big ten? It's only been a few years for us :lol:

I'm ok with it; just surprised. Braun coupled a historically amazing offensive year with a historically awful defensive one, and he didn't play the whole season. He would have been a lock to compile more errors than Bartlett, and to decrease his AVG and SLG, IMO

WTF I looked all over the place. Nothing about it in the Braun thread.

Woah. Guess no one cares about defense... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/11/12/roy/index.html EDIT: Yikes, two points over Tulowitski!

Good point about Fontenot. I don't think his name has even been brought up. After that good first month, he was just terrible the rest of the year. Maybe Infante is being brought in to fill Fontenot's role. I would have no problem with that at all. I would much rather see them spend $350,000 on Fontenot as the 6th IF than $2m on Infante. What if it's just 1.5 mil? I'd rather have someone who has a shot at being good, Fontenot, over a full season, would be the worst hitter in the league. Yes, and it's wishful thinking to believe that Infante will play second-fiddle to Theriot/Cedeno or maybe even DeRosa following a Hendry trade(see Fontenot's role). The kid will play, at least initially.

I think I posted in a different thread that I'm convinced it's all about opening up the closer spot as they negotiate with Wood. OK, that's bush league though. You could keep something like that behind closed doors. Why box the entire organization into an important decision like that with 5 months to go before opening day? Now if they make further changes and Demp isn't a starter, they look like liars. If they kept it "behind closed doors", how does Wood know they've done it at all? Announcing it publicly would be a way to prove to him that the larger role he wants is actually open. And as Beertown Cubbie has pointed out, could be beneficial if they're trying to move Dempster (which I also believe). Really, I can't think of any other (good) reasons why they'd announce something like this now, while they're negotiating with Wood. A whole lot can and probably will happen by spring training, and if Dempster is indeed in the rotation, he'll either be decent or he'll be back in the pen. Hopefully. Didn't Wood say he wants to try to start again? Or was that a similar type of ploy to up his asking price? Yes, he did, and to no one's surprise. And if anything, this hurts his asking price because there aren't many GMs who would gamble with him in that spot for any significant amount of money. My bet is that he'll stay with the Cubs as long as we don't insult him with a lowball offer. I think he realizes that we are one of his best chances to ever start again, because we've already invested so much in him.

If he admits to being under it is so not an insult.

That's quite a cynical assessment of the best thing we've got to predict future talent. I must say the bolded part made me laugh out loud, though.

IBL?

i'm pretty sure A-Rod ends up with the Angels. It's a good team, and the media scrutiny is like 5% of NYC Plus a billionare Latino owner in a heavy latin market. Angels are the best fit for A-rod. But since when has Boras ever put his client in the best place for them? Kevin Millwood, Jeff weaver, and now ever Kenny Rogers all left places they were comfortable for the money. A-Rod does not care about where he plays, he is in it for the contract status. Plus Moreno has said it does not make good business sense to put 20-25% of the payroll into one player. While I think A-Rod would bring the Angels twice what they pay him in revenue, will they go 10 years on a contract? How can you say A-Rod doesn't care where he plays? If this were all about money, he'd have signed a huge contract already with the richest team in baseball, who also enjoyed a $72 million subsidy for his services. Boras knows this, and since all Boras wants is money for A-Rod, it seems that A-Rod overruled Boras. Now, if you made the argument that A-Rod only cared about staying away from New York, I'd buy that. The Yankees asked to meet with him to offer a reported 5yr 150 million extention. It wasn't enough according to Boras. If he cared where he played, why did he go to Texas in the first palce? He loves Lou Piniella, he should have stayed in Seattle with Lou and that team. He went to Texas for the money. I absolutely refuse to believe he walked away from the richest team in baseball in search of more money, when this richest team in baseball had $72 million free dollars with which to negotiate.

Because he plays in a big market!! Seriously, Silver Slugger = Gold Glove with more subjectivity. They both make me hate all baseball writers.

(!!) I'm putting the over/under on Yanksfan's age at 16 (!!)

And I think this: :)

Is that English? He just missed a "to" in there! Jeez! where exactly can a "to" be placed in there to make it a decent sentence? ;) That's correct, if haughty, english for you

The comparison isn't to Barrett as a Cub, it's to Barrett as an Expo. Infante and Barrett are both guys who were highly regarded as potential offensive assets at important defensive positions. They both had initial struggles that resulted in their never getting a real opportunity, thus deflating their values below where they should be. Hendry saw Barrett as a guy who could come back and be an asset, and it's possible he'll do the same with Infante. If Infante could find Barrett-like production in the next couple of years, he'd be a steal at the current price

Is that English? He just missed a "to" in there! Jeez!

The Winn hate is over his horrible contract. Obviously, trading Marquis' (literally) equally horrible contract negates this. Other than his age, I don't really understand the objections to the deal. Much better than breakeven for the Cubs.

Voted for Dixon. Tebow wins it next year before a single game is played

So you want the cubs to acquire left handed hitters AND improve against left handed pitchers. You do realize that for the most part those are opposing needs. I'd love for someone to tell me why we need left handed hitters. I believe that term you are looking for is mutually exclusive. Well, that might be a bit strong. Maybe Abe thinks Jacque's one year of moderate success against lefties means most lefties hit well against other lefties? (Wow, thats a lot of lefties). And no, the Cubs don't need more lefty hitters, righty hitters or switch hitters; they need patient hitters.

I agree. My point is that that's not a whole lot better than Zito's for a MUCH better pitcher. Edit: I see that above I stated he wouldn't get that. Probably too conservative on my part.