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why are you so hateful all of the time? Were you beaten as a child or are you still being beaten? Why can't we come onto the message board & state our opinions without all of the biting comments all of the time? This is a message board talking about games...not financial planning, teaching or engineering. Is it really worth the anger? I disagree w/ nearly everything that you ever say, but it doesn't make either one of us right. The only thing wrong is when someone makes it personal against the other. At the end of the day, this is no more important than taking out the garbage. To be a message board hero/thread winner is the equivalent of winning a grade school straw pole popularity contest. Umm, stating that Howry was the 8th inning guy last season is not an opinion, it's a lie. And I like how you leave the board when you've been beaten down in baseball arguments because you "have a wife and kids", yet you can come back and respond to me on an unrelated subject. How about leave me alone

You really need to stop constantly complaining abut refs and now other things lol ill put it in green next time for you i was more talking aot the refs. you're cool but you complain about the refs every single game

You really need to stop constantly complaining abut refs and now other things

Because we don't want to waste 2.5M on a backup catcher?

Nothing in this approach is "extremely flawed logic". I could accept Meph's -Bradley replaces Edmonds and leave Fukudome alone- comment because CF/RF will likely be overlapping all year, but I disagree with your points in total. First, the off-season isn't over. Not all roles have been resolved. I currently don't see who will fill the 7th inning with-a-lead role (Marmol 2008) or the floating loogy/6th starter (Marshall 2008) for 2009. And there is nothing wrong with that. I don't acknowledge a lack of depth because there is no need to yet. The roster isn't complete. If spring training rolls around and we're having this same discussion, then there is a problem. Second, role does matter. Otherwise you could say Bradley replaces Wood, or some other random observation. Wood was the closer. Therefore if you're going to analyze a replacement for Wood, then I believe you have to start with the incumbent, Marmol. Gregg might be "in the mix" for closer in spring training because Lou loves competition for spots, but at this point in the off-season, Gregg looks like the 8th inning set-up man (Howry 2008) and Marmol the favorite for closer. 2008 7-8-9: Marmol, Howry, Wood 2009 7-8-9: ?, Gregg, Marmol Spring training likely shakes out that 7th inning guy. If I was forced to fill-in a name, I would say Samardzija has the inside track on the 7th inning. Another way to approach it would be look at the unit as a whole. Meaning, evaluate the Marmol-Howry-Wood unit against the Samardzija-Gregg-Marmol unit regardless of which guy slots into which role. I hesitate to look at this way because we don't know if Samardzija is the guy in that mix. But if he is, I'd call it a slight downgrade, only because the unit is less proven and doesn't have the track record of consistency. Third, DeRosa's value as a plug-and-play anywhere player can't be replaced by anyone on the current roster. There is no point trying to account for Bradley's replacement in RF with a 2B because you assume he will get hurt for extended time. That isn't how a 2B is typically used. If you want a depth chart replacement for Bradley, then it would likely be Pie, which is a notable downgrade. But back-up plans and depth for injuries, while part of the discussion, isn't the purpose of starter level or 1st choice role analysis. DeRosa was primarily a 2B. And if everyone is presumed healthy, he would get 80% of his ABs at 2B if still with the club. When defining his replacement, you look at 2B. How was it not flawed logic? You had Marmol replacing Wood but Gregg replacing Howry instead of Marmol? Who replaces Marmol? Gregg is replacing Wood, or if you want to get into semantics, he's facing Marmol. Either way, he's not replacing Howry. Also, as others mentioned, Fukudome is still in the lineup against rigties, so Bradley is essentially replacing Edmonds. Also it's not fair that you just say Marshall replaces Marquis but then fail to mention that Marshall's old role will not be replaced., or that Fontenot can't replace DeRosa since he can't play right when Bradley gets hurt. Your whole thing was just very flawed and simplistic and left out of a ton of things. I alreayd explained all this (and so did everyone else), I guess you just didn't read it. I don't understand why you keep saying this. Did you not follow the Cubs last year, or are you just lying and hoping we don't notice? Marmol was the 8th inning guy last season.

Do you work at Wrigley or something?

I dont like Mpeh but you should probably actually read what he's saying instead of putting words in his mouth

Yes, and he maintained it all season (single playoff game at the end aside). That's not say he'll regress, but again, to say he's likely to fully regress to a Marquis-like season would be a really impressive downfall. 13 wins,era 4.00-4.60 ? why are you predicting wins?

This part is interesting. So who will be the 5th starter? Either he's planning on adding somebody or planning on going with Samardzija. Hopefully it's the former.

I don't find it hard to believe at all. Since day 1 of the offseason Hendry and especially Lou have pretty much made it clear that they're obsessed with adding a LH bat to play RF, for better or worse. It was never a "we'll see if we can find somebody we like" thing, it was always a "we're going to get a left handed right fielder we like, period" thing.

except that he just did say something

Uh, there's a pretty good "NHL" hockey team in town now. Playing a pretty big game tommorrow afternoon. who is leading off

Guess who is back? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idQmNjMICnA He's devastated about the loss of Miles (seriously) and is basically saying he was an integral part to the Cards recent "success". He says that Miles was his favorite player and that he was mad that the Cards didn't offer him a contract (even though Miles said he'd stay for whatever they offered), and then goes on to say he wishes nothing but the absolute worst for Miles. This kis really delusional about the whole Cubs/Cards rivalry. He needs to get out of his fantasy world and realize that these guys didn't grow up Cardinal fans and that this is a job for them.

So we can't criticize bad moves and praise good ones? Also, we can't use numbers/facts to debate whether a move was good or not?

Have you watched Dempster pitch? He's so much better than those guys. I don't understand the people who don't think that Dempster is good. Watch his stuff; it's filthy! He was mis-cast as a reliever and still wasn't terrible. He will continue to put up 15+ win seasons for the Cubs. Wow, a "use your eyes" AND using wins as a measurement in the same post. That was a gritty post. You can use any measurement you like, Dempster was awesome last year and it should continue. Remember how awesome Adrian Beltre was in 2004? Man, he was so awesome.

The space between how excellent Dempster pitched last year and how Jason Marquis usually pitches over a season is pretty gigantic. I agree he almost certainly won't repeat last year, but to just assume he'll plunge all the way down to Marquis' level is incredibly pessimistic. Dempster and Marquis both have a 4.55 career era. Marquis career 198 starts 79 wins,Dempster 195 starts 76 wins.Marquis has averaged 13 wins a year for the last 5. Dempster was a regular starter from 98-03. Only once in that span was his era under 4.50. Dempsters history suggests that if he makes 30 starts,he'll pitch more innings than Marquis. But,Marquis making 30 starts is more likely. So your basis for this argument is wins and ERA?

Have you watched Dempster pitch? He's so much better than those guys. I don't understand the people who don't think that Dempster is good. Watch his stuff; it's filthy! He was mis-cast as a reliever and still wasn't terrible. He will continue to put up 15+ win seasons for the Cubs. His stuff has always been good, that's never been the question. You talk about his being "mis-cat" as a reliever. He was a starter for several years and sucked as that also. Really the difference this year was that he limited his walks, which he's never been able to do. His stuff has never been in question. He's sucked with good stuff before and he can do it again if he doesn't maintain his control.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=ArSSbMBzs281YXsFnKArpt0RvLYF?slug=ti-peavy123108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

CALM DOWN DUDE. WE GET IT. i don't even see what this has to do with gus frerrote

this is absolutely one of the dumbest, most indefensible things you've ever said Our CF last season put up a .290/.374/.484 line. Sizemore put up a .268/.374/.502 line. He's pretty bad defensively too... so all he's really got is a tick extra power and some speed. It's not a terrible comparison. well if you're going by last season's numbers then you have to mentiont that he stole bases at an excellent rate last season. 39 of 44

In another thread somebody said Hendry was on XM today and basically said they weren't going to pursue Roberts.

If the chose is between playing for a contender like the Cubs, or a 2nd tier team like the Nats, imagine what team Bradley will sign with? The only way the Nats will sign Bradley is if they severely overpay for him. And really, the Nats need another OF like the Cubs need another backup 2nd baseman. I'm not concern about the Nats for Bradley. It means that much like Roberts and Peavy before him, the deal is not as "done" as we've been lead to believe. Seriously, just because Washington isnt a good team, doesnt mean that they wont throw more money at the guy than hes worth, and he wont accept. Remember, as stated, they were about to dump a truck load of money on Tex, and now that hes out of the pictre, they still have said truck load of money, and nowhere to dump it. If they were willing to offer Tex that kind of money, surely they can afford Bradley plus another decent free agent. Granted, it would be like the Giants chosing Rowand as their cornerstone-a player who would be a great addition to a contender, but not the type of guy that they can take an all around bad team and make a contender. The whole point of them going after Tex was so they'd have a franchise player/superstar that would draw attendance and a guy they thought they could build a team around. Milton Bradley is none of these things.

So Grady Sizemore is an .858 OPS guy with poor defense and no speed?

I agree but Gregg has had a mid 3 era the last three years out of the pen, so I expect the same thing out of him next year. I expect him to be much better then Howry was last season. Plus I'm still hoping that he will end up being the closer in the long run. But I don't think Lou will change the way he uses Marmol all that much either way. I think we will see alot of 5-6 out saves by Marmol, so Marmol will be pitching 8-9th inning instead of 7-8th inning. If Gregg or another pitcher get in the jam in the 8th in a close game Marmol is still gonna come in to shut the door. I don't see him using him as a one inning closer and just coming in the game with the lead in the 9th. ERA is a very deceiving stat for relievers

The one we just signed to a 2 year deal. Unfortunately, he sucks.