Splendid Splinter

Hahaha... not really. Maybe I should reword it. They don't have to the All Star games, just produced at an All Star level. So lets say 120 OPS+ or ERA+ seasons... Is that better? If you put up a 120 OPS+ or ERA+ season, you're probably playing at an All Star level. Another way of looking at it could be WAR, I think 5 WAR is an all star quality (on BB ref anyway), but I think that's a little high since there's probably only around 10 players in each league who does that each year so I would go with like top 25 (basically a roster) in each league and that's probably a WAR of 4 or so. If for example we went by WAR and lets say Carl Crawford, he has 3 seasons over 4 WAR (2004/2009/2010) and 1 close enough (3.9 in 2005) so he has 4 total seasons of what I would call playing at an All Star level. He has been to 4 All Stars games (don't agree with it, but no need to talk about that), but I don't think anybody is calling the HoF for Crawford. Is he too high of a standard to go by as well?

A few years equal 2 now? When I said a few, I meant more like 5 years... Like I said before the last post, Soto is the closest thing we had to an impact bat right now. He had 2 great years (although he was screwed one year with only like 350 PAs), but he also had a bad year as well. Also Soto was great last year, but the way Lou was screwing around with him that it almost made it feel like he wasn't a big part of that offense even when he was in the lineup (he mainly batted 7th or 8th).

I was trying to keep it at 4 guys for each team so I guess it should've been the 4 best prospects each team in the division. Wood should've been in there instead of Castro, but I was trying to mix older and newer players. Yes Cubs had other players as well, but so did other teams like Lidge for the Astros and Gallardo/Sheets for the Brewers and heck A Ram for the Pirates (if you wanna get technical about it). As far as Garcia/Alvarez/Stubbs... I really couldn't find or know anyone that should've been in the top 4 from those teams. I did the list to compare Cubs to the division rivals in terms of prospects and "elite" players from each team. If you look at that list from those 4, who looks better than the Cubs? I have to say Brewers/Astros/Cardinals look better there. Reds, IMO, are worse for now and Pirates are close behind the Cubs (due to my thinking that Alvarez will be a stud). Maybe I should've went to like top 10 "prospects to productive MLB players" for each team to "paint" a better picture of each farm system. It was also showing the Cubs "lack" of impact bat as the other teams had at least one (yes Kendall was an impact bat with the Pirates for a C IMO)... Basically in other words, I was trying to show the "cream of the crop" talent level of each farm system. As for Ankiel, yeah maybe so, but he had one good hitting and pitching season each along with good partial seasons as well. Plus after Pujols/Rasmus, I didn't know who else Cardinals developed that was really more productive than Ankiel/Garcia. I pretty sure Cubs smoked everyone in the division in terms of pitching prospect and wouldn't be surprised if they were in the top 5 in all of MLB (most likely top 10 though). I wasn't downgrading Prior. I was downgrading the Cubs for the lack of an impact bat or offensive prospects. Prior was just bad luck for the Cubs. He would've won a Cy Young or two by now had he not had those injuries. Thanks for telling me about MacPhail's era. I never really gone into details with the Cubs (minors/organization/scouting/etc...) until about 2002-2003 or so (when I was 18-19). I didn't know how he was really (but I should really check into that though). Didn't know MacPhail focus on pitching that much. So basically Sosa and Soriano handcuffed the team a little in terms of their contracts and with the offense. Also you said the Braves model??? I must be thinking of another team or something because they signed Maddux/trade for Smoltz and also developed Chipper Jones/Andruw Jones/Javy Lopez/Ryan Klesko/David Justice/Jermaine Dye/Rafael Furcal... Braves were like the Rays right now. They developed both pitching and hitting prospects and are great at it. I agree with your last statement except for I think if Cubs could've had Lee's 2005 season in 2007 that it would've been enough to lead an offense. You also think after that period of time (Grace to now) that you would catch "lightning in a bottle" with one offensive prospect who produced at an All Star level for a few years regardless.

I don't think it's that bad either, but it's not good as well. I think it's probably the lower half out of all the teams. Out of those 4, Prior only lasted a couple years and hasn't pitched in like 5 years. Castro just started out, but he'll be good. Soto been good, but get screwed around by Lou/Quade cuz they like Koyie Hill. Not true that Cubs didn't get to draft at the top of the draft cuz they drafted in the top 10 4 times (2000/2001/2003/2007 and from 2000-2010, their avg draft spot was 13.4), but it's not like they were drafting at the end of the 1st round either (only once they drafted later than 21st pick- 2009) and doesn't matter really cuz some of these guys I mentioned weren't drafted in the 1st round. Most of them were I think, but there's a few that weren't. Cubs are good with their pitching prospects and one of the best at getting quality pitching prospects every year it seems like... It's the lack of an offensive prospect and that's HUGE. You have to downgrade them a bit for that. For example: (these are guys who were drafted by their teams in the NL Central (some before this decade) and played this decade for the same team) Cubs: Z/Prior/Castro/Soto Brewers: Fielders/Braun/Weeks/Hart Reds: Votto/Bruce/Cueto/Stubbs Pirates: McCutchen/Alvarez/Kendall/Mike Gonzalez Astros: Oswalt/Berkman/Pence/Biggio Cardinals: Pujols/Rasmus/Ankiel/Garcia I mean when was the last time Cubs had a position player that made an impact on the offensive side for a good amount of years (let say at least 5 or 6 years) that they drafted or signed as an amateur... Mark Grace??? If it's him, then it's been since 1985 (when they drafted him) or 1988 (when he debuted). That's a long time for an impact offensive player. Like I said before, Soto is the closest thing to it right now, but hopefully Quade won't bench him a lot for Koyie freakin' Hill or he goes back to 2009 season.

Well to be fair though, I think Pie been productive the past 2 years with the Orioles (98 and 93 OPS+) even though it's about a season's worth of PAs. Not up to expectations like you said, but he certainly been shown flashes of his potential and starting to come around with the bat. I blame partially on Lou on the way he handled Pie when he was up in the majors. He basically didn't have a chance to show his stuff and Lou wasn't gonna wait around for it (cuz Cubs were doing well in 2007/2008). I think while Cubs have been producing quality (and good) players from their farm system, what they been lacking is the "elite or can't miss" or high impact prospects that turn into really good or great players like some of the other teams have produced that the list doesn't really get your attention when you look at it. At least that's how I see it... If you don't understand that, then here's my question.... when did the Cubs had a prospect like Ryan Braun/Joey Votto/Prince Fielder/Jay Bruce/Andrew McCutchen/Roy Oswalt/Yovanni Gallardo/etc... That's just players from our division. Closest thing to that is Soto nowadays, Z sometimes (when his head is on straight and actually pitching like he did this last half of the season), and Prior (we all know how that went)... Now we can add Castro to that list so that's 4 in the past 10 years... Now I'm starting to feel good about the Cubs farm system again that I think we will see some of these prospects turn into something. I like what I'm seeing from B Jax/Archer/McNutt/Hak Ju Lee/etc... It reminds me of the Cubs farm system at the beginning of 2000s when it was really good, but hopefully it'll be better than that.

What's Eric Young been up to these days??? The Sr., not the Jr.

offer him 5/150... not sure if even Yankees/Red Sox would bid more than that... maybe Yankees but I can't imagine them paying 60 mil on just 2 players during those 5 years...

There you go...

Because they can afford it even after giving Adrian Gonzalez 160m? Technically speaking they haven't signed Gonzalez to anything, and is still costing them only $5 million this year. Obviously they're going to try and sign him, but yeah. Crawford is the only big contract they've given out so far this year Would be awesome if Gonzalez leaves Red Sox after next season because Red Sox doesn't have enough money to add him into the mix? I think their payroll is about the same as last year now (which was about 160 M right???) so after next season (don't know who comes off the books for Red Sox) you would have to add at least 15 M on that payroll (Gonzalez making 5 M this year and most likely 20+ M after next season)... That would put them super close to the Yankees payroll...

Watch him go like 18-7 and 3.17 ERA next year and he gets a big contract the following year (if its a 1 yr deal) cuz he went like 10-1 and 1.89 ERA at Petco...

Haven't Cubs been winning that rivalry in the past few years (during the season anyway)??? Just curious...

Well this will be his 2nd full season at 1B... and last year was a big improvement over his 2009 season at 1B, but still was below average (not too bad though)... If he can improve again this year, I can him being just average or just barely below average.... Plus even if he sucked at 1B defensively, his bat outweighs his glove by a mile... I'm not sure if I would want to give him 15 mil/yr though (unless it's like 2 yrs only). I rather pay A Gonz another 5 mil/yr (20 mil/yr if that would get him) instead...

Umm, are you referring to the David Eckstein who was the MVP for the 2006 World Champion Cardinals? At least Eckstein had a 100 OPS+ over a full season... so he was "Just Enough"... like his nickname. On the other hand, Theriot isn't enough. You gotta factor in his crappy D and don't get me started on his basestealing and baserunning... Anyway, Cardinals been going worse at SS since Eckstein left which is fine with me, but they still have Pujols...

Miles was a FA when Cubs signed him, Cardinals didn't released him. Cubs traded him to A's, then A's traded him to Reds, then got released by the Reds, and finally Cardinals picked him up... Then he goes .281/.311/.317 in 139 ABs which was about 20 times better than what he did with the Cubs and about on par with the Cardinals earlier in his career.

you got Miles order wrong... Miles was a Cardinals before he went to the Cubs so they already had him before the Cubs... then he went back there after he was released or whatever... Yeah I can't explain Theriot or DeRosa though. Cardinals don't secretly covet only Cubs gritty white MI's, they covet ALL gritty white MI's...

Now watch him go .320/.400/.380 next year (a touch better than 2008) and then Cubs will want him back to be the 2B and sign him to a 2 yr/9 mil contract cuz they'll think he's good again (just like they thought with Aaron Miles)...

It's more the shape of Petco Park really. In RF, right off the line it looks like Fenway Park in how the fence goes away from the plate then goes toward CF. It's the same way at LF, but not as bad. Also the OF fence is pretty tall as well. I think from LCF to RF it's 8-10 ft. and LF-LCF is like 10-12 ft. I can't find any details about the height yet. Here's a pic of what Victory Field looks like... http://www.ticketwood.com/images/maps/victoryfieldindy_all.gif Give you an idea what the fence looks like as well... This shows from LF to CF. http://www.bdmd.com/images/landscape%20architecture/Victory%20Field%2067.jpg

Victory Field in Indianapolis can only hold about 15,000 (that's maybe squeezing a few in as well- the highest I've seen is probably a shy over 14,000 on 4th of July a couple years ago and it was pretty packed)... If they move there, Cubs would surely suck as their fielding dimensions is HUGE compared to Wrigley IMO. LF 320 ft/LCF 418 ft/CF 402 ft/RCF 362/RF 320. It's a pitchers park for sure. Don't get me wrong here... Victory Field is a great ballpark. The best minor league park I've been to so far. There's seriously not a bad seat in that stadium. I just don't think there's enough seating (unless they renovate it to add some more seating adding to the 2nd level down the 1B/3B lines to make it to 20,000+ ppl or make seating in the OF area where they add a lot of seats, but I like the lawn as it is great for families to come and watch the Pirates AAA team) and it might too far from Chicago. Plus I don't know how the clubhouses and everything else are within in the stadium that you can't see... Also if they went with this route, they might found out if Indianapolis is a suitable host for a MLB team or not in the future (due to expansion/contraction/team moving/etc...). If they do well with the attendance and everything, then I can see Indy being at the top of the list for the next city to have a MLB team.

Say Cubs do end up getting Nick Johnson... Where would he bat in the lineup? It's not like when he was HEALTHY that he was a 100 RBI man... 77 is his career high. Granted it's team-dependent, but I wouldn't put him at 3 or 4 though. If he could hit like he did in 2006, then I can see it. He's basically a 1B Fukudome with average D AT BEST. If Cubs do get Johnson, then they better sign one of the high risk/high reward SPs (Bedard/Webb/Dush/etc...) where if they stay healthy, they got an Ace/#2 man... if they get hurt, welllllllllll the youngin can have a shot. They better not get a middling SP or throw 2 yrs/7 mil to RPs... I rather have them just crap out this season, get another top 10 pick next year in the draft, let the bigs contracts go (A Ram/Fuku for example unless they want to come back on a cheaper deal then maybe), have the young players/prospects have a shot and see what we really have in the farm system and then see if the Cubs should spend big in the 2011/2012 offseason... It looks like after this year... A Ram/Fukudome/Silva/Grabow can all be FA... That's a lot of money to come off the books. Or they can crap out for 2 years and then go big in the 2012/2013 offseason where Soriano is the only major contract left on the Cubs. Soto/Wells/DeWitt will all be in their 2nd/3rd Arb year by then.

I wouldn't trade for him. It sounds like Gonzalez will be testing the FA market after next year. I rather keep the prospects/MLB players and wait for the offseason to have a chance to sign him rather than trade for him and then lose him in the offseason (but i guess you would get picks back since he would be a type A FA so it wouldn't be a total loss). Just my opinion on it anyway. Most likely though it won't matter since hopefully Cubs will sign Adam Dunn this offseason with like a 3 yr deal for 30-40 mil... That's only if Gonzalez is dead set on testing the FA market. If he's willing to sign an extension through a trade and Cubs don't sign a decent 1B this offseason, then all bets are off and go after him.

if by "is" you mean "was" then i agree 100%. he's 37 years old now and isn't fast any more. Well... He was still above average when he was the Brewers the past 2 years before this season. I haven't seen him in Boston this year to say how he is defensively now. Maybe he's not AWESOME anymore, but I meant it like overall in his career. Beside like 2007 (with the Padres), I don't know another year where he wasn't above average. He was for sure better than Edmonds though.

No, but I figure we'd pay quite a bit of it in that situation, and I don't feel it's necessary for a guy who's not an upgrade, in my opinion Isn't Ellsbury at least a decent CFer though? That would make it close to a lateral move which would be worth doing if it saved a couple million. i suppose he's adequate, but his reads just suck ass. he's certainly got the speed and physical tools to be a good CF, but he is just awful at reading the ball off the bat. there's a reason he shifted to left and mike cameron was put in center. Yeah that reason is Mike Cameron is AWESOME defensively in CF. It's the reason why Carlos Beltran/Ichiro (probably would've been a CFer had it not been Cameron being there) and everyone that he played with were in LF or RF. When you get a CF that is as good defensively as Mike Cameron, you stick him at CF and figure out who will play LF/RF... You can probably argue that Cameron was the 2nd best CF defensively behind Andruw Jones in the past 15 years.

You want me to bunt and move the guy to scoring position??? No... I want you to go Downtown. If only they make Major League 4 now... hahahaha

Yeah he changed his batting stance from last year... first pic is from 2008 and second is from 2009. This year looks more like 2008. http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i206/TommyDekker/Chicago%20Cubs/08SpTr03-02012SotoWeb.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i206/TommyDekker/Chicago%20Cubs/2633616388_79d08287dd_b.jpg

Out of those 3, I want Gregerson... I wonder what it would take to get him though. Should be cheaper than Frasor or Downs since both of them can claim they have "closer experience" and therefore more valuable...