frostwyrm

When has everything ever worked out for the Cubs? It is technically possible, but I'd have to agree with BP that their chances of making it are about 1%. 0.72791% as of this morning.

Venice is largely a theme park. I've seen historical areas of German cities and I like how they were restored, but I wasn't familiar with them before the bombing in the 40's. As for New Orleans, maybe I'm cynical, but in America in the year 2005 I can't see any rebuilding project not having a cheezy commercial flavor. I've been to NO before the flood and even then I thought it was already overly commercial and touristy.

It was also a Friday night and a west coast game, so that probably explains some of the inactivity. There are some good college football games today too, lots better than any Cubs game. Or not. I'd think a guy named after J.R. Ewing would be looking forward to Texas vs. Ohio State. OOPS! Wrong thread. How embarrassing. :oops:

It was also a Friday night and a west coast game, so that probably explains some of the inactivity. There are some good college football games today too, lots better than any Cubs game.

How bad was Cedeno hurt?

I've given up on Murton. He won't get a fair shot to start while Baker is here, he'll just face lefties. I say trade him while his value is high.

Baseball Prospectus gives us a 1.03662% chance at the wild card, but not to worry. Last year, with about 10 days to go in the season they gave us a 70+% chance at the wild card, so what do they know. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/ps_odds.php

In honor of BP for a good article: http://www.butterfatmastermind.com/auctions/images/sempron/macias.gif

Baseball is weird. Only in baseball would someone as useless as Jose Macias last long enough to become a veteran. BP asked some good questions: "Do teams overstate the importance of late-inning defense, especially when compared to the cost of carrying a below-replacement level hitter for the season? Why is the ability to play six positions badly viewed as a skill?". In a sensible world Macias would have been out of baseball a few years ago. It still blows my mind that Hendry paid 825K for him.

Just as soon as we're out of the wildcard race.

Back-to-back against 2 lefties. Don't worry, we have righties coming up.

I don't mean to denigrate your sentimentality or nostalgia, but if the city is rebuilt I really think a lot of people like you will be disappointed with the finished product. It will have just as much of a phoney Disneyworld flavor as it will have of the old New Orleans.

Our window won't be open much longer, and Burnett and Giles could put us over the top. I say give them their fair prices. Cedeno and Murton won't hurt us at 320K apiece. Bring Walker back and get a stopgap CF and you have a good team. With Burnett on the team we could use Wood as the closer.

Ginger for me. I want a more glamorous lifestyle.

As a refresher, here is what Beane got for the other two of the "Big 3" Hudson: P Juan Cruz, P Dan Meyer, OF Charles Thomas Mulder: P Danny Haren, P Kiko Calero, C Daric Barton Of those 6 players, Haren (12-10, 3.86) has had the most success. Calero has been a good reliever, Cruz has been terrible, Thomas is hitting .109 in limited AB's. I haven't looked up the minor league stats. So what would be the Cubs equivalent of thos prospects? In asking that question, you can't look at what those prospects or players did this year, but how they were viewed prior to being acquired. That was their value (or perceived value) at the time of the trade. Hudson: Cruz (had completed a season as a top flight reliever). Dan Meyer (top pitching prospect in Braves system) and OF Thomas (4th OF with nice tools) Mulder: P Danny Haren (top pitcher in Cardinals system), Kiko Calero (serviceable reliever) and Daric Barton (top minor league hitter in Cardinals system) Applying that equivocation to the question, to get Zito, the Cubs would likely have to include a package of Rich Hill, Roberto Novoa, and Ryan Harvey. That's too steep in my opinion. Yeah! It's like internet stocks in the late 90's. At the time they were worth a lot of money, only later was it clear they were overpriced. At the time Hudson and Mulder were traded Beane got a high price for them.

I'd respect Dusty a lot more if he would just shoulder a little bit of blame every now and then. Nothing is ever his fault.

Maybe Corey wants out of Chicago. If he refuses to play winter ball he's gone, and I bet he knows it too.

To me Burnett is vastly preferrable to Zito, because Beane will demand and get a high price in prospects. We won't have to give up any prospects to get Burnett, we just have to pay him his dollar price, which will be very high of course, but Zito will be just as expensive in 2007 if he has another good season in 2006. One year of Zito at 7.7M is not worth gutting the farm. I say sign Burnett and keep the prospects for other needs.

Murton will NOT start next year. I guarantee it.

So after tonight Murton will have started 1 of the last 6 games. Does Hendry actually approve of this?

Dusty will never come out and say it, but the reason the kids don't play is that Dusty doesn't want a losing record on his stat sheet. It's all about his personal rep, but since he can't say that he makes up ridiculous crap about Steve Garvey's migraines or "respecting the game". We could use a long losing streak to put .500 out of reach. Then Murton might play.

Exactly, good example. That's what I was trying to get across in my post on the last page outlining some of the bureaucratic/political/technical junk that has to happen. By the way, I heard some NO residents on public radio who were evacuated to Texas saying they are staying there permanently. Barbara Bush also meant a bunch of people in Houston who said they are staying. Wait till the rebuilding drags out a few years. Even some of the diehards will start losing interest.

That was a weird one all right. Every other team just plays their kids when they're out of the race and it's a no-brainer as far as they're concerned. Then there's Dusty, who uses Steve Garvey migraine stories to make decisions.

That will be expensive but worth it. If we also want to get in the bidding for Burnett it is imperative that we don't waste money on Furcal, and we have to get Murton ready for opening day. It's driving me nuts to see Burnitz still playing every day and Murton stuck on the bench.

Dusty bent over backwards to defend Shawn Estes. He kept saying Estes was unlucky.