Jehrico

I don't think Dusty deserves to be bashed over this one. He's 20 years old, the arby clock could be of a consideration, and he hasn't looked great in ST. Maybe he needs more ABs to get his timing down, or maybe he's pressing, and a more gradual approach would work. I don't know. Let's also keep in mind that while he may be the best prospect in baseball right now, that alone doesn't guarantee he'll have the type of numbers that ARod or Miggy had as 20-21 year olds. 20 year olds who can't benefit from a little extra time in the minors are extremely, extremely rare. That said, I will say that I'm so confident that I'd be willing to bet money that Dusty will give us some fodder over Bruce over the next year or two. I'm sure we'll hear his worn out lines as to why Bruce isn't his starting CFer in August after putting up a 1.400 OPS in AAA. Afterall, isn't one of Dusty's mantras that you can't teach an old dog new tricks? If that's so, there's no reason to believe he'll manage the Reds prospects any different than he did ours.

I dunno, I think we could get an autographed toothpick thrown in to sweeten the deal. That might be the dealbreaker for Dusty though.

:-k I wonder what could possibly be the reason. :wink: They'll get plenty of playing time. After their traded for an aging player to be named later. Lieber?

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/9E04A758BD1CF235862573AC0018F0A8?OpenDocument Let's hope they do. They'll win 75 games instead of just 70, and have an even more bleak future. Mozeliak is oblivious. I'd love for them to trade Rasmus and Reyes for 2 years of Bedard. ...while watching Rasmus become the next Haren for Baltimore.

Unless, of course, they grossly overpaid for him and he emerged an enormous flop. Of course, we have the same risk...

Ugh. dag nabbit. It's a BS post. The link is bogus.

Izturis' name was noticeably omitted. Perry is the second worst sports writer in the industry. He's such a homer, he's probably applauding the Izturis signing.

I think people who overvalue EPatt don't like that trade. I don't think EPatt's ceiling is anything above mediocre middle infielder. I'd do that deal.

Marshall for Kearns?

I think we all know MacPhail overvalues prospects he was involved in drafting when he was here. He may be willing to overpay for Marshall, Cedeno, and EPatt. I think we need to do what we can to exploit him. I wouldn't be surprised if we could put together a package and fleece them out of Bedard.

How close would Gordon, Noce, and the 9th pick get you? I would think you'd have a good conversation at that point. Balancing the salary would be difficult.

He's 18 and posted an .894 OPS at low-A as a 17-year old last season. Thank you. I think most people fail to understand how incredible that is. Scouting well and at least holding his own in leagues way too advanced for his age is a great combination. So Zambrano for Milledge and Martinez, with Milledge or Pie then going to the Marlins with Veal, Murton, and anyone else they want for Cabrera. entire cubs organization minus eric patterson for cabrera have you seen cabrera recently? dude is FAT 320/389/571 He's have to become so fat that he had his own gravitational pull before I'd turn someone down with those numbers. I'd be concerned. Acquiring Cabrera with a long-term "win tomorrow" approach is risky. Even Cabrera isn't going to get us to the WS this year. You'll have to give up a ton of prospects, so it's not really a solid "win tomorrow" long term move. I think he's a risk because he's not taking care of himself. Griffy got criticized when he was in Seattle because he didn't take care of himself like they wanted him too. Granted, he never got fat, but not taking care of himself contributed to his injury proneness. I'm afraid that Cabrera not taking care of himself is going to start showing by the time he's 28 or so.

I don't think you let Z feed what its like to be on another team. If you want him, then you'll have to pay him in FA. All he knows is the cubs, and I'm sure on some level he likes that comfort. If you let him go to a playoff team for a run, he'll want that. that's probably true for almost any player who has only known one organization. Considering Z's emotions and competitive nature, he'd be a goner for sure, no doubt about it.

Fixed.

Really? I Know our outfielders are bad, but come on? Pagan has never shown any promise. That's why we were able to buy him from the Mets for cents on the dollar. Who do you want out there? "Swingin for the Fences Every $@%#ing AB" Jones? Murton, who cant even catch an easy pop-up? Or a disabled Cliff Floyd? I'd put Sori in RF, Pie in CF, and Murton in LF. That's the best overall offensivedefensive arrangement we could field in the OF.

When did it become okay to actually call a strike on Barry Bonds? (He's actually been K'd looking quite abit this year.) And was Barry paid the last few years for calling his own balls and strikes? Or for that matter, when did it become okay to stand with your toes in the middle of the plate instead of in the batters box?

What's the over/under he had more than 10% of that left?

I'd be pissed if someone did that to me in the middle of a messy divorce. It's a quote from his mom, so who knows if it's 100% accurate, but it fits with the next piece of evidence. Mrs. Dukes allegations may/may not be true, but she's certainly a gold digger. I'll wait until I see some hint of evidence that her allegations of death threats are true. There is nothing to substantiate her claims as far as I can tell. I wonder what kind of bonus he got when he signed? When you look at Stephen Drew, his salary is already listed at around $1.5 mil because of the initial contract he signed. Dukes lists league minimum, so it wasn't a major league contract like some guys get. There might have been a nice bonus, but this guy strikes me as the type who would have wasted it all already. Up until this season, he was in the minors and not making very much, and he had 5 kids with 4 different women. He's got 3 months of big league paychecks under his belt now, so I can't imagine that he had THAT much money in the bank, not enough to get pissed enough to threaten her over. I could easily be wrong though. Either way, if you know things are rough, and you leave all of your money in a joint account, you should know it's fair game for either side. He can use that against her when they split property at the divorce, so in the long run, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. If his short term finances were hit that badly, take out a freaking loan. As far as evidence of the threats, wasn't she granted a protection order based on the voice mail and the picture he sent her? I didn't think there was any doubt that the evidence existed, but I didn't particularly pay that much attention to that aspect of the story.

Is Angel Hernandez as incompetent socially as he is as an umpire?

fixed.

Agreed. But what would you do?

Similar sentiments from the Daily Herald.

Yeah right. I can just see him now. Man 13 rows up wants a dog. Jacque throws it into the ground about 9 rows short. Yeah, Jones wouldn't be good at that job. How would the Trib be able to afford keeping the payroll with all of the lawsuits? Think about it...Jones's lack of range isnt' due to his weak arm. He'd be beaning people 4 rows in front of him with 90 mph brats. Looking at the bright side, the local EMTs would have good job security...

Here's the quandry I think we're going to be facing in another month...I predict we're going to be below .500, but we'll still have a very possible, highly legitimate chance at winning the division and making the postseason, especially if we can make one very good deadline move. The question is, if that's the case, should we look to be buyers, or should we sell anyways? Even if we win this pathetic division, our chances in the postseason are not good. Should we further leverage the future for the bat to get us to the postseason just to likely be eliminated in the NLDS? That seems foolhardy. We have some pitchers doing very, very well, and starting pitching will always fetch a premium at the deadline. As pleased as I am with Marquis's performance, I don't expect him to repeat what he's doing three years in a row. Lilly I'm a little bit more optimistic about, but I'd still look at moving him for the right deal. Z is the tough question...I think the Z of old is finally coming back around, but there's always the uncertainties about his contract with the sale of the team. On the other hand, with one solid move, we should be at least as good as the Cardinals were last year, so there's always the school of thought that you should never throw away a realistic shot at the postseason. What would you do?

People keep saying this and it's not true. Neifi was dumped last year. Latroy was dumped. Remlinger was dumped. Borowski was dumped. Matt Lawton was dumped a month after he came here. Neifi wasn't dumped. They found someone dumb enough to take his contract and give us a token prospect in return. Same with Lawton. Remlinger was only dumped late in the last year of his contract when it was obvious we we out of it (ironic how we get rid of crappy players once they've taken us out of the race, not when we're struggling to stay in it....). Borowski wasn't physically right, I don't recall if he had two years or one year on his deal when they cut him. They're nothing physically wrong with Eyre, he's got 1-2/3 season remaining on his contract. I don't think any of the aforementioned moves qualify as precedence in their willingness to cut Eyre. Borowski is the closest one, but that's the only one. Our best hope is that Hendry can trade him. That might seem like impossible, but for all of Hendry's shortcomings, he has been able to pull off a couple of deals that are really mindboggling looking back (see: finding someone to take Neifi with two years on his deal, and actually getting a good return on Todd Hundley, both we thought were impossible). I don't think we should count on another Neifi/Tigers type deal. That was astoundingly good luck. Maybe once every few years you get a gift like that. More likely scenario for Eyre is that he'll have to show he can still pitch before someone takes him. He's been so bad that he really does look washed up and not just slumping. He's awfully expensive too. I would agree that we shouldn't count on it, but we are Cubs fans, and as such, we're defined by the type of blind faith and optimism that makes me disagree with you. :wink: