Jehrico

DLee is a gold glove 1B with a considerably longer reach than Texiera. Tex is not a bad defender at all, but not quite what I would call gold glove material. Why is DLee, a gold glover, DHing? Doesn't make sense to me. I'd have DLee starting at 1B and DH Tex 7 days a week, and twice on Sundays. On the other hand, I'm glad DLee will not be in the field, less chance of freak injury.

You have an obligation to confront the player. You don't have to walk up to him out of the blue and say get off this stuff. Dusty cried about his buddy Alzado dying, and then completely ignored Barry doing the same stuff. Dusty had a chance to say something while this was going on, just like every other manager/coach who had a player in this situation. Don't go crying to the media about how you had no idea what steroids even were. Even more than an obligation to confront the player, he has a vested interest, a responsibility even, that comes with his job to know how his players are keeping themselves at a competitive level. Before everyone broke after the 98 season, he should have had a rundown by every player under contract as to how they planned to maintain themselves over the offseason, what they were going to do to improve themselves by next spring, or any other planned activities that could have an impact on themselves as players. If they're using a dietician, a personal physician or trainer, or whatever, he should know what they're doing. If not for anything else, if someone else has something that is really working for them, then that plan could be shared with other players. Apparently, no one was really digging too deep into what Barroids was doing that was making him so successful. If I were Bonds manager, I'd want all of my players to know what he was doing to make him the best in the game, so that they could learn a thing or two and improve themselves. Had Baker been into it at that level, then he should have learned enough to at least know something funny was going on with Barroids.

Minnesota is not a bad organization. They used to be, but they've been pretty good for quite some time now. Hard to put a recent WS winner on there right now, and they weren't bad last year. You have to wait a year to see if they are running the franchise into the ground. KC and TB are definitely on the list. Pittsburgh, Detroit (although they're at least trying not to be bad), St Louis :wink: , Cincinatti, Colorado also are not good organizations. Washington's an easy answer, as it has no real ownership group. LA hasn't always been that bad, but they're run by a bunch of incompetent boobs, and should be considered too (if not for their market). Black horse for contraction: Baltimore. All owners stand to lose a little if Washington got folded. Taking Baltimore out of the picture would hike the Nat's value considerably and enrich the other owners. I could see the other 28 owners go for that.

Not good...his fastball has all of it's sink when it's around 94. He's less effective when he overthrows. He's broke 100 before, we know he's gotten the arm. But his pitches straighten out when he overthrows and he's more hittable. I hope he keeps it down when he comes back.

I hate Bonds as much as anyone else. I consider him as much of a cheater as anyone on Shoeless Joe's team. He's tarnished the record books with his cheating. However, it doesn't sound like this book provides any new facts, just more details. He's gotten a free pass on this so far, why wouldn't he continue to get one now? Oh, how I hope I'm wrong. He should be banished from the sport if you ask me.

He could conceivably clear waivers and be sent back to AAA. He's not necessarily gone (although I think it's more likely than not).

What did they do in this particular situation that is incompetent? I'm as bummed as anyone else, but let's not misplace blame. Better yet, let's not go looking for a scapegoat at the first problem of the spring. It's going to be a long year.

Dumbbest. Post. Ever.

I'll drink to that. No seriously, I will. I'm glad this news came out on a Friday instead of some other day of the week, because I think I'm going to get trashed tonight. I'm not doing anything tomorrow.

Rob Nen before he got hurt was an intimidator, a goliath. Beck was lucky to hit 90, definitely a david.

Good times! Yeah! What was it again, it was a pile of rotten fruit right next to all the bats or something...that was a fun season all the way round. Until the McGriff rumors started, then it all went downhill.

Kind of like the Griffey's, huh?

moyer seems to have done well with pretty much only a low 80's fb & a great change. i dont see why hill with a high 80's to low 90's fb & great curve couldn't do something similar. Moyer's an exception to the rule. For every pitcher with stuff similar to Moyer that excels, there's probably 100 that don't last very long in this league.

I'm suprised that the article validates how good Wuertz is to you, but you still have reservations about Eyre, since he was listed as the 7th best reliever in baseball in the combined category at the end.

i get the idea that the book on prior is to actually attempt to foul pitches off. it just seems like hitters, when they get behind in the count against him, just try to foul pitches off until he walks them or serves up something somewhat hittable. How is that different from any other pitcher? I think hitters are a lot more tentative, and just try to make contact earlier in the count. They're probably swinging more to drive the ball against guys like Rusch.

Think Farnsworth vs Wilson...

I REALLY like the idea of Barrett being a tough guy and being quick out of the crouch. I can't wait to see what happens the first time someone wants to charge Woody for throwing a little chin music...

After looking at what they actually banned, it's not so bad. They just can be on the sidewalks of Wrigley itself. It sounds like they can still be across the street and everything else. With all of the traffic immediately outside the park, it's probably a good idea.

He's only hit above .260 once in his career. I don't know how you can expect him to hit .280-.290 this year. Take away april and may of last year, and he basically hit 280 over the past two years. He was essentially hurt at the start of last season. He's improved every year he's been in the majors. It's not that far of a reach. Take away Neifi's worst two months last year, and he hit over .300. If you can do that for Jack, you have to do that for everyone. I'd much rather have Neifi for 2.5 (which is steep) than Jack for $5+. It looks like they're going to pay him more than Bay over the next 3 years. Wilson's career line of .263/.304/.368/.672 looks awfully similar to Neifi's .270/.301/.380/.681 career line. Neifi's cheaper and plays better defense.

Well, I'm not totally sure what it is all about, but if he is unhappy that becuase he had to compete for a rotation spot, then he's just a prima-donna sissy. What makes him think he earned a spot, especially that he was getting lit up all over the place last year? Based on his performance last year, makes me wonder why he's having a cow about this? Maybe he's miffed that he has to compete for a spot in the Royals rotation. Talk about insulting...

I don't see how we can get any offensive help from trading Williamson, which is very sad considering how our offense currently looks. 1B, 3B, and C are set, and it'd be extremely difficult to improve those. Pierre isn't going to be replaced in CF, Jones would have to go to open up RF, which isn't going to happen with his 3 year contract. There's no better alternative on the market at SS than Cedeno. That leaves LF and 2B. You could argue that if we traded Williamson and Walker, we might net Soriano, but I would contend that our offense would not be improved by that move. That leaves Murton. Can Murton and Williamson net a big outfield bat? I don't think there's any big corner OF bats on the market that would justify trading Murton out there. Nor do I think there are any big corner OF bats that weren't available before that would be available if Williamson became part of the package.

Apparently, now Wood is ahead of schedule. That's good news. I also like his sarcastic reference to the Chicago media. :lmao: I thought that Prior had done more than just soft-tossing. Anyone in Mesa care to comment on whether this is true, or if Carroll is attempting to marginalize his mound session, hoping to validate himself and his source?

Maybe he can convince his buddy Sisco to leave camp with him?

Look at his quotes on their own, without taking anything out of the author's context: Quote: "He has the stuff," Baker said after Friday's workout at the Cubs' spring training facility. "Sometimes, it takes guys time to do that. Mike Jackson was a setup guy for a long time and had some success [as a closer] after not having much success in the beginning." Quote: "Sometimes, he has trouble finishing guys off," Baker said. "That last out can be hard to get." I can't stand Dusty either, but I don't see anything wrong with the quotes. As for the first quote, Hawkins DOES have the stuff, there's no denying that. He just doesn't have the head. As for the second quote, there's also no denying that he had trouble finishing guys off. Dusty always has been a players manager that plays the networking game to great extremes. He's just throwing out some props to a former player of his.

He put up that line 4 seasons ago and hasn't matched it since. Maybe he will in 2006, I hope he does, but I'll bet against it. In my mind, Huff is far more likley to return to his productive days because he had 3 productive seasons followed by 1 down year. Jones on the other hand had 1 (maybe 2) productive seasons followed by 2 (maybe 3) down seasons entering 2006. I hope I'm wrong and Jones hits .300/.341/.511. He is pretty unlikely to revert to that line in the NL Central with the unbalanced schedule, which is loaded with lefties this year. Huff had OBPs over .350 against lefties the three years before 2005. Jones is lucky to put up a .300 OBP against lefties. Jones also has a daytime OBP over the last three years of around .290 or so. Huff's daytime OBP over the last three years is also around .350. Huff not only can hit lefties and righties, but he can hit during the day. As bad as Jones is, his splits during the day are worse. He has said he had been trying to pull the ball alot more and do more to carry the Twins subpar offense the last two years, and that is why his numbers have gone down. I sure as heck hope that is the case, and he can get back to hitting .300 with mediocre power for a corner OFer. If that isn't the reason he's stunk the last couple of years, then it's going to be a long season for him in right. 3 year contract or not, if we can get Huff, trade him or buy him out.