Jehrico

But considering the fact, that around September he had to be shut down, and it found it that Izturis needed "Tommy John surgery." Something tells me his 2005 was more of a product of playing through an injury he shouldn't have been playing through, moreso the fact he turn into Rafael Belliard. Once he gets healthy again, he won't be THAT bad again. I don't know...he was never very good to begin with. Career OBP of .295, career slugging of .338. Career best OBP of .330. Nothing to write home about. I doubt he puts up an OBP next year over .310.

I don't think it's really a matter of Hendry being interested in Bradley, but rather an indication of his resolve to replace Patterson, that him acquiring Bradley is a more likely possibility for next season than Patterson being our starting CFer next year. I think Bradley is like option R, while Patterson would be option S.

When the trade went down, there were more Sox fans who were upset at losing Murton than there were fans upset about losing Nomar.

Not quite. That was our OF in '05.

*crickets* I would love to have Holla as our 4th OF off of the bench, and our 1st pinch hitter. Unfortunately, this concept escapes our oh-so-great manager, and he wouldn't be used in the purpose that he is absolutely ideal for.

Castillo's health problems worry me. Plus, Dusty would try to steal with him too much. Dude's got wheels...(but he still sucks at stealing bases despite his speed).

I think I'd rather go after Mench or Kearns than him (Mench likely to get on base more, better defender, Kearns has the possiblity he could live to his earlier displayed ceiling). However, Ibanez wouldn't be a bad option C though.

Do you think the Delgado trade or Thome trade can give us any new insight as to what it might take to land Abreu in terms of players and money? Hoops, you have to ask yourself how the Phillies are going to 'look at' the 25M they sent to Chicago. What percentage of that counts towards the 06 payroll that they're budgeting for? Secondly, it's pretty obvious that either Abreu or Lofton will be traded, and that brings up the second question of timing. Assuming neither have signed by the beginning of the winter meetings in early December, do you forget Furcal and go all out for Abreu assuming he's made available? What would it take to acquire Abreu? Obviously not another outfielder, so Corey is out of that equation, which brings up question number 3 - Corey hasn't been rumored in the Marlins trade, and if he doesn't have a spot in Philly in a possible Abreu trade.......what are we going to do with him? I think the trades do give us insight as to what it is going to take to get Abreu. The question is whether or not the Cubs are willing to give that up. Of course, I don't see Philly eating any of Abreu's contract (they ate too much of Thome's and had an ample replacement in the wings), so I don't think it will take an established ML'er and 2 top prospects. I think we're looking close to the Delgado deal of 2 top 10 prospects and 1 midlevel prospect. Personally, I think it would take Pie, Hill, and probably a throw in arm they can put in the pen (Wellemeyer). But I still think the best deal for Philly and the Cubs would be to get a 3rd team involved. My proposed deal: Cubs get: Abreu Phillies get: Jerome Williams, Hank Blalock Texas gets: David Bell, Padilla, Pie (cash from Phillies) Hendry would never let this deal happen, as Texas would be getting away with murder here. Blalock's away averages at home: .243/.300/.407. Obviosly since he got alot of hype from the All Star Game, his stock would be high but Im not sure he constitutes that kind of return. Id look somewhere else for a 3rd wheel team, try this: Cubs get: Abreu, Michaels Phillies get: Mueller, Hill, and Williams Red Sox get: Patterson, Harvey, and Ohman/Novoa Michaels has no room with the addition of Rowand, so he wil prby be ousted somewhere, in this deal, you can switch Michaels going to the Red Sox as well and save trading Patterson and Harvey, but id take the cost to get him as well. The Phillies get one of the top 10 3B's in the MLB, a suitable option for this year, as well as 2 fillers for their rotation, and cut costs enough to go after FA pitching. The red sox makeout with a good haul just from Mueller, and all should work out financially in this deal with the cubs eating all of Abreu's contract. The Red Sox give up Mueller, get patterson, harvey, and ohman or novoa in return? Wow, I'd do tha in a heartbeat if I were them. I think Philly would want harvey and ohman or novoa out of that one in addition to what they are already getting.

"Almost" is the key word. Trading Juan Cruz for slugs like Pratt and Lewis was pretty dismal and qualifies for "fleeced" status in my books. Especially when you consider that the Braves were able to use Cruz as part of a package to land Tim Hudson. I think it's a fair distinction that when Hendry is trading "to get someone", he does a pretty good job(Nomar, Ramirez, Barrett, Lee). When he is trading "to get rid of someone", that's when he screws up(Cruz, Sosa, Farnsworth; Hawkins is the exception). What has Cruz and Sosa done since we traded them? Hairston did better last year than Sosa. Cruz hasn't done anything since we got rid of him, even the Braves didn't hold on to him that long. Hard to say we got fleeced. Farns, I dunno. We got shorted on that one, but not as badly as some make it out to be. If Moore tears it up again at a higher level next year, I wouldn't get to bent out of shape over that one.

Wouldn't Sweeney replace what Holla should have been, while Mabry would be more of a Macias replacement?

Dempster made his first appearance from the pen on Wed 11 May. dates Bullpen ERA 04 Apr - 10 May 4.243 11 May - 02 Oct 4.258 Interesting, that's worse then I thought. Thanks! That's not really a fair way to put it. He took awhile adjusting to the pen, and didn't become the closer until quite abit later. I don't have the breakdown, but once he adjusted to the pen and closer role, he was lights out. I don't think he allowed a run, earned or otherwise, the last 5 or 6 weeks of the year, or something like that.

Don't forget Bartosh, who I don't think has a chance at making the team. He's likely trade bait as well, don't know if he has any options left. I agree on Ohman and Wuertz. I think Novoa has a fine future ahead of him as a middle reliever, but I'm not so sure he's going to be in the pen this year. I'd give him a 50/50 chance. I think Mitre, Welly, and Bartosh are certainly gone via trade or ???. Koronka and Hill likely will be gone, JVB back in AAA to close.

I bet if they did the same study with other stats, they'd find the same correlation though. WHIP, hits, walks, would all have a similar correlation as strikeouts, perhaps with a slightly higher standard deviation. I agree that high K rates are a good predictor for future success, but pedestrian K rates isn't necessarily a good predictor of future mediocrity. Maddux was only putting up around 6-7 Ks/9IP during his cy young years. Phil Niekro is in the Hall of Fame with pedestrian K rates throughout his career. Baseball history is littered with examples of guys without the stellar K rates that excelled. Some guys don't have the ability to make guys miss all of the time, but they know how to get guys to take defensive swings and put the ball in play without getting good wood on it. That is a valuable skill set that some pitchers have, some don't.

Gathright could be a decent leadoff man with a couple years of refinement (note the key word "could"). He's got a long ways to go, and I don't want him growing up and taking his lumps under Dusty.

Dayn Perry is horrible. I hate his columns. He is Foxsports version of Phil Rogers.

After a discouraging first year in Florida, where he won't hestitate to leave once the offer was on the table! Question is, who would we have to send to FLA as compensation after this season... Neifi. :lol: I don't think that'd be enough. Throw in Macias (assuming he isn't cut when we sign Mabry). Other than that, where do we sign?

I don't know if rebuilding is even the word, as it doesn't sound like they're willing to put a little extra money in the team in the next 5 years if these prospects do pan out to put them over the top. If they're going to hold the budget down until they move to another stadium, I wouldn't call what they're doing rebuilding. They're going young and they're probably going to stay young for awhile, they may not keep all these guys around for a title shot as they start to mature and make a little more money.

COuldn't Adam Dunn fit that description?

After a discouraging first year in Florida, where he won't hestitate to leave once the offer was on the table! Question is, who would we have to send to FLA as compensation after this season...

IIRC, Delgado had no interest in playing for the Mets. Delgado showed no interest in wanting to be traded this year either. Should be interesting to see how this plays off. Could he cause some problems in that clubhouse? posted before I saw this. I wonder if he'll demand a trade next year, wouldn't surprise me. I know I'd be pi$$ed off if I signed a multiyear deal with a team just to get traded a year into it to a team without a clue that I had absolutely no interest in playing for in the first place. Mets could end up with a one year rental when it's all said and done.

and now they're paying more for him than they offered at the time. it's hilarioius. i'm sorry, but OM is a moran! a moran with a lot of cash, but still a moran. Or maybe Delgado wasn't that interested in playing in NY last year...

I don't think so. Ramirez hasn't done THAT great the last couple of years in the minors. He's been their "top" prospect for quite some time now. He's such a great prospect, they went out and signed a FA SS to a 4 year deal last off season. His numbers in the minors compare favorable to Hill's when Hill was on the verge of breaking through. The only place he might have additional value over what Hill did have at one time is that he's a SS, while Hill was primarily a 2B, and SSs have more value.

Or covered maybe $3 mil...

Why can't baseball players just come out and say it? This is ridiculous. He makes over 9 mil a year, I'm not sure Chicago is any closer to PR than Arizona, even if it is, I doubt there's any money consideration in terms of cost to visit home. I have little respect for people that can't come out and say what the mean or what they want. Why can't he just come out and say "I didn't sign with AZ, I don't like the direction the franchise is going, I don't want to play here anymore."

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