Jehrico

Yep. Let's have Hendry evaluate these guys correctly and make these types of deals. Have we traded a prospect at his highest value? The only one that I can think of that's even close would be Hee Seop. Scott Downs for Rondell White Miguel Batista for Henry Rodriguez Harris/Beltran for Nomar Harris/Beltran for Nomar/Murton! :P Bobby Hill and junk for Aramis and Lofton!

What all have we gotten in exchange for our talent in the last 3 seasons? Lets see, we've added Zambrano and Prior to the roster three years ago, we traded for Aramis, DLee, Nomar, and Murton as well. We've gotten a pretty decent couple of guys who look like they can contribute to the bullpen for several years to come in Ohman and Weurtz. Cedeno looks like he could be in the top third of all shortstops in MLB in a couple of years. That's 5 all-star caliber players, and another who may be some day added to the team that our farm system has produced in the last three seasons. How many teams have gotten that much from their farm in the last three years? Compare that to the entire decade of the 90s...how many productive players did our farm system net then?

That sounds like a Dusty quote. Taking a chance and giving a few promising rookies in the lineup some playing time seemed to have worked out alright last year for Atlanta. The only difference is that the guys that we're suggesting to put in there hit over .300 in their first year in the majors, albeit in limited playing time. I would feel more comfortable with both of them in the lineup if we had good to great production in those other positions, but I wouldn't say that I don't like having them both in there if we don't. If we don't have good to great production in those positions, it's likely we won't contend anyways, so why not give the kids some playing time and let them develop?

I'm resigned to the fact that Corey is probably going to be traded, and that he'll be the next Lou Brock.

Vizquel got it by name as Jack Wilson was more deserving. Wilson had Vizquel by high margins in Range Factor and Zone Rating. He also was involved in a whopping FORTY-FIVE more double plays than Vizquel. My ballot at SS would have been: 1. Jack 2. Neifi 3. Vizquel I would have given it to Khalil Greene. That guy is a human vacuum cleaner whenever anyone hits a ball between 2nd and 3rd. He made quite a few errors this year, if I remember correctly. His error count isn't fair. Due to his absolutely incredible range, he gets dinged with errors for plays that *hes* expected to make, even though it's likely no one else could have made them. That likely does work against him in the GG race, but he's my favorite defensive SS in the game.

Vizquel got it by name as Jack Wilson was more deserving. Wilson had Vizquel by high margins in Range Factor and Zone Rating. He also was involved in a whopping FORTY-FIVE more double plays than Vizquel. My ballot at SS would have been: 1. Jack 2. Neifi 3. Vizquel I would have given it to Khalil Greene. That guy is a human vacuum cleaner whenever anyone hits a ball between 2nd and 3rd.

He's not the answer. Hence, plan C vice A or B. There are more worse corner OFers on the market this year than there are better than him. If we don't get Giles, I can't think of a better corner OFer on the FA market. You'd have to work a trade, which is harder to do than sign a FA.

Doesn't anyone remember his use of steroids? I'd be afraid of a dropoff. I don't want anything to do with any known roid users.

I wouldn't mind Encarnacion as a Plan C. I think he is entering his prime, his best years ahead of him, and he's relatively cheap. I think he's one of the more undervalued guys in this underwhelming class of free-agents. However, I'd like to see Giles signed or a trade for a bigger bat before I went with him.

hyperbole If Prior, Z and Wood are all healthy, the Cubs can beat anyone. That's proven to be a big if. very big if. It's also a very big if that Rolen and Edmonds will stay healthy for an entire year or that the Cards' bullpen will remain solid. Or that the Cards rotation will remain healthy for that matter. I'd just like to remind everyone that Rolen was injured because of a freak collision. He is NOT an injury prone player. And while Edmonds had a down year compared to the last two years he still played in 142 games and put up a .918 OPS. Rolen had back problems on a couple of occasions in Philly. Once someone has had back problems, they're always susceptible to more.

I don't think there's much of a chance he goes to St L. Both us and St L will have to significantly top any offer that SD extends to him. I don't think the Cards will be able to offer him above and beyond what SD is likely to offer him. We will be able to, but the question is, will we? I put the likelihood of him going to the Cards at about 5-10%.

I agree with you Vance. You have to look at the total result. I would take Furcal over Pierre, but taking into account Furcal might get $40 million over 4 years makes it questionable. Actually, neither one excites me very much. Trading for Lugo, M. Giles, or Castillo would be better and cheaper options. Would you do Cedeno for Lugo? TB might bite on that...

Heresy, I tell you. Absolute heresy.

If Maddux decides to retire, I hope he does it within the next week, or not at all. Worst thing that could happen is he makes up his mind in January or February, when all of the FAs are off of the table, and most teams that are looking to trade pitching have already done so.

Our team really isn't that indisicplined, top to bottom. It's more a problem of a few incredibly bad players killing the team OBP. Out of DLee, TWalk, ARam, Nomar, Barrett, and Murton, that's 6 out of 8 starters who are fairly disciplined, none of them are easy strike outs. Corey, the black hole in RF, and the bench are just so bad that they make the whole team look bad. Is anyone else scared that RF after Sammy is starting to look like 3B after Santo?

Very little credibility. I don't think there has ever been a major rumor that he has reportered (whether it involved the Cubs or Pete Rose being reinstated) that has turned out to be true. Will Carroll also isn't a beat reporter. He doesn't try to break rumors or news. He's always been more of an analyst than a reporter. I don't think it's fair to say he has very little credibility because he's never broken a major rumor that came true. Well, let me put it this way then, when it comes to rumors of this sort, Will "Pete Rose will be reinstated" Carroll has little credibility. Rumors of this sort? The Pete Rose piece was not based on inside information...it wasn't a breaking piece, it wasn't based on supposed inside information, it was an editorial, based on his opinion, given what information was publicly available. He thought Rose would be reinstated, and was wrong. Big deal, the man's credibility shouldn't be affected by anything such as that. Offering an opinion in an editorial has no bearing as to his credibility when he says he knows something happened. Also, judging a writer on one wrong guess is a little myopic. If he says he's involved in the appeal process for someone that tested positive, there's no reason to doubt him. I sincerely doubt he's making the whole story up. Maybe two different articles are being discussed. There's no question that Carroll learned from sources that Rose was to be reinstated and he wrote an article breaking the story. Here's the opening paragraph from the article dated August 12th 2003 That may have been a follow up article I never caught, he had opined prior on the issue. Regardless, that article was probably based on something he was told by someone on the inside that turned out false. I don't think that by any means gives reason to believe he's making the whole story about the AL outfielder up.

you can always count on Baker to play the worst lineup possible. You almost need guys like Melvin Mora, Michael Young, Jason Kendall, etc on the bench and better guys starting to keep Dusty from putting a bad lineup in the field. Unfortunately, guys like those wouldn't sign with a team to sit on the bench.

Very little credibility. I don't think there has ever been a major rumor that he has reportered (whether it involved the Cubs or Pete Rose being reinstated) that has turned out to be true. Will Carroll also isn't a beat reporter. He doesn't try to break rumors or news. He's always been more of an analyst than a reporter. I don't think it's fair to say he has very little credibility because he's never broken a major rumor that came true. Well, let me put it this way then, when it comes to rumors of this sort, Will "Pete Rose will be reinstated" Carroll has little credibility. Rumors of this sort? The Pete Rose piece was not based on inside information...it wasn't a breaking piece, it wasn't based on supposed inside information, it was an editorial, based on his opinion, given what information was publicly available. He thought Rose would be reinstated, and was wrong. Big deal, the man's credibility shouldn't be affected by anything such as that. Offering an opinion in an editorial has no bearing as to his credibility when he says he knows something happened. Also, judging a writer on one wrong guess is a little myopic. If he says he's involved in the appeal process for someone that tested positive, there's no reason to doubt him. I sincerely doubt he's making the whole story up.

IIIIIII kkkkknnnnnoooooowwwwww.....rrrrreeeeeaaaaaddddd tttthhhheeee pppppoooosssssttttt mmmmooooorrrrreeeee cccccaaaarrrreeeeffffuuuullllyyyy, IIII aaallllrrreeeaaaaddddyyy sssaaaiiiddd ttthhhaaatt. I also asked who else we might have to offer for him that the Mets would be interested in too.

Would anyone trade Kerry Wood to the Mets for Millege and maybe Cameron (I know, assuming Woody would approve the deal)? They traded Kazmir for Vic Zambrano. Wood's way more valuable than Zambrano was, I bet we could get Millege and then some out of him. I only throw Cameron out there as someone who could keep CF warm for a year for Pie, not that I particularly want him. If not Wood, then who might they give Millege up for that we'd be willing to trade? Thoughts?

Of all of the starting AL OFers in the playoffs, who besides Damon and Sheff were in a contract year, and might have been tempted to give themselves a boost going into the offseason?

I agree with you. His numbers as a reliever ranged from good-excellent across the board. His stuff is just fine. I think there is just an inordinate amount of people around here looking to throw stones at Hendry. He could bring Brian Giles in for $1 mil and trade Welly, Mitre, and Leicester for ARod with the Yanks picking up half his salary and people would still complain about him. The only major thing he's done wrong so far, IMO, is stick with Dusty for so long.

Not likely. I'm not a huge Rusch fan by any means, but I don't think Mitre would be within a whole run ERA wise of Rusch next year. Same for Hill, he doesn't have enough quality pitches to start at the ML level. He needs to be converted to a reliever and forget this starting business. Relievers can live with one exceptional pitch, starters can not. Williams, on the other hand, I'd rather have him penciled in as the 5th starter over Rusch.

i'd demand a bag of baseballs or less. I'd settle for a half-eaten cheese sandwich and a cup of cold coffee. So would I, but that's not the point. If they want him, we have the right to see what we could get out of them. They're also in dump Bradley mode right now, and they want to shed Lowe's salary. I don't think they expect to get anything good in return for those two. We might be able to get one of them (I'd take Bradley, not Lowe) in return if we asked.

Not unless you want to give up Pie, Williams and Hill. And that might not even be enough. Who cares. We gave up Garland, Willis, Joe Carter and I'm sure many others. Who did we get in return? My point. If we are going to give up top prospects, at least get an All Star in return. Manny would be a huge boost to the offense. Prospects are just that, prospects. Use them to your advantage. Dont get me wrong, i would not make a habit of doing this, I dont want this to be like the Yankee farm system, but this is Manny. I want to win, and the only way to do that is to take some chances. That's what the Sox thought when they got George Bell. :wink: I wonder what the Phils thought when they traded Sandberg to us...