frostwyrm

Marquis has been lousy in 3 of his last 4 starts. He could still be a whipping boy. Izturis has been shockingly durable. No DL time yet. Still a bad player, but there are worse problems. Eyre is an aging overweight pitcher who was bad last year(.800 OPS allowed) so I expected he would suck again but jeez has he ever been awful. Sori is still my whipping boy though. He's no better than average for his position both offensively and defensively and his contract is a franchise crippler. He's 31, so he'll most likely get worse rather than better. Players like Eyre are minor problems compared to Soriano.

This is correct. This season is likely to be another where the Cubs should look to the future and don't. I can't wait till we trade Gallagher for a middle reliever in July. the Cubs would be in last place in the NL West and in second to last in the AL East, AL Central, AL West and NL East In the AL the Cubs would have several fewer wins due to the superior competition. They'd already be planning the firesale.

At this point would you give away a top prospect for a partial-season rental of a slumping Barret or a slumping Z? Who would do such a thing? Even if they were performing a lot closer to expected levels it would still be unreasonable to expect a top prospect for them at this late date. They should have been traded in the offseason or better yet in June 2006. Then we could have gotten top prospects.

I think the Cubs' situation coming into the offseason was totally begging for a rebuilding year like few I have ever seen. Look at all the factors -- the utter putridity of the 2006 team, the thin and obscenely overpriced FA market, the lack of much immediate help from the farm, and the uncertainty involved with the sale of the team. You could argue that the increased payroll and lameness of NL Central were enough to justify going all out to win in 2007, but the counter-arguments are far more compelling to me. Just looking at all these bloated multi-year contracts handed out by a desperate GM is sickening.

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.

Then it's McDonough's duty to order Hendry to cut him. Eyre must go, period. And after that it's McDonough's duty to forbid Jimbo from giving out anymore big relief contracts. His track record with relief contracts is so bad he could very possibly have gotten better results just putting names of FA relievers in a hat and picking them at random. Restricting him to medium-priced relievers won't guarantee increased quality of bullpen performance but it will guarantee a reduction in wasted resources.

The Brewers are sinking like a stone. The Cubs would be in a deep hole in a real division but they still have as good a chance as anybody to win the NL Central. It might actually be won with a losing record.

He just started throwing a week ago so he has to build up arm strength from zero. Even with no further setbacks he's still a long way off, and you have to expect setbacks in his case. IMO he's a longshot to do more than throw a handful of innings this year, maybe 10 at most. He probably won't pitch at all.

His market value just fell to zero. Only thing to do now is release him.

He hasn't rarely batted leadoff. In fact, he has batted leadoff most of his career. He has 2186 at-bats in the leadoff spot, and the next highest number from any spot is 630 from the 3rd spot. Oh, I guess I overlooked the Yankee years. But are where are those stats from? There are a lot of hitters who would bat better in the Yankee lineup, regardless of where they hit. I still think its absurd. There is plenty of protection in the lineup from Lee and Ramirez. There's just no need to put a pitcher and #8 hitter in front of him. 2004(Texas): .907 OPS batting leadoff(~75 PA's), .808 OPS total 2005(Texas): .781 OPS batting leadoff(~110 PA's), .821 OPS total 2006(Washington): .956 OPS batting leadoff(~675 PA's), .911 OPS total 2007(Chicago): .859 OPS batting leadoff(~145 PA's), .817 OPS total This is one of the reasons I don't like Soriano's contract. He is being paid huge $$ largely for his power, yet he bats in a slot that greatly devalues power. It's just not a good allocation of resources to pay a guy $17M per year for a bunch of solo HRs.

This makes no sense. A new owner is going to come in and slash payroll by at least $20M? For what purpose, to alienate the fans of the team that was just purchased? The Cubs sell out most games and have big media deals; they're not going to shrink their payroll into the territory into the area of a team like the Blue Jays or A's. I understand your role on this board is as unbridled pessimist, but at least try to make some sense while playing this role. [sarcasm]Yeah, you've convinced me. There's absolutely no chance the new owner puts the payroll at $80M.[/sarcasm] BTW, I didn't say it was definite or even likely that the payroll would go to $80M, I just pointed out that it's a possibility. And I don't mind being called a pessimist anymore. In the great majority of the times I've been called too pessimistic my negativity proved entirely justified over time, not that I'm happy about it. I just haven't liked the way the Cubs have been run in recent years and can't find much positive to say about it.

Even if Hendry leaves today we'll need a lengthy recovery period because of all the long backloaded deals. The hangover from huge contracts continues even after they expire because you still have several years of dealing with the negative effects of not having the players you could have signed if big money had not been tied up in bad contracts(see: Vlad Guerrero). I'd say it will probably take til 2012 to fully dig out from under Hendry's legacy. But then it could be worse if the new owner reduces payroll. With an $80M payroll that $19M per year for Soriano becomes crippling, and he gets paid throught 2014. http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/4707/picture2lb6.png

There's no logical reason unless you believe a player's defensive position affects his offense. I think it could in some cases but I have a tough time believing that moving from one corner OF spot to the other would do it. or if you think he'd be better defensively in RF Maybe Lou thinks the hammy will be less stressed in LF, but I doubt it. Lou is probably thinking Soriano had a career year in LF so leave him there. Just seems like something an old fart like Lou would do. Of course we all know RF is where Soriano really ought to be tried. Any player with good athleticism would have to be horribly psychologically fragile to let a move from LF to RF screw with his hitting. Maybe some unathletic types might get frustrated in RF, but Soriano is not unathletic.

I was gonna say - maybe you're onto something here. I say keep him in the rotation except when his special time of the month comes, then give him a bottle of Midol and a "Steel Magnolias" DVD and put him in the bullpen.

There's no logical reason unless you believe a player's defensive position affects his offense. I think it could in some cases but I have a tough time believing that moving from one corner OF spot to the other would do it.

yep...very baker-esque. Maybe he is menstruating. He's in his prime child-bearing years.

Unless he's menstruating the cramps thing is BS. The Cubs just want Guz in the bullpen and had to find an excuse for taking him out of the rotation.

There are very few "top hitters" as unproductive as Soriano. Most top hitters maintain solid numbers and get their great numbers out of streaks. The problem with Soriano is he's not a top hitter. He needs his hot streaks just to keep his numbers out of the trash bin. It all depends on what you call a "top" hitter. You get past Bonds, Pujols, Cabrera, and a few others and the most of therest of them are really streaky. We are in an era of guys who hit 40 HRs and strike out 180 times and are considered "top" hitters. and soriano's probably not going to hit 40 homers. Yeah, I think not hitting a single homer in April pretty much tanked any chance at 40 homers. He's also sitting at 9 walks, so his chance at equaling last year's 67 walks is gone too. Soriano must have read my post. He walked 3 times last night, so now at 12 on the season. Still don't think he'll get back to 67.

Murton is finished here. Even before Soriano showed he couldn't stick in CF the Cubs weren't showing much faith in Murton as an LF. Now Murt is restricted to RF, a position for which Hendry and Lou surely don't view him as a longterm solution. If I thought Murt was going to end up trade bait before Soriano failed in CF and Eyre/Howry bombed, now I'm even more sure of it.

Predictable. I posted a couple days ago that I thought Hendry would try to fix the bullpen by throwing more money at it in the near future. Murt on the block for a pricy veteran reliever doesn't surprise me one bit.

That's how I see it too. His contract is a colossal blunder if we don't get superstar production NOW, particularly if he's going to stay at LF for the whole duration.

Wind schmind. What was his excuse in 2004 and 2005? OPS barely over .800 for 2 years in one of the best hitters' parks, and he was on the young side of 30 then too.

There are very few "top hitters" as unproductive as Soriano. Most top hitters maintain solid numbers and get their great numbers out of streaks. The problem with Soriano is he's not a top hitter. He needs his hot streaks just to keep his numbers out of the trash bin. It all depends on what you call a "top" hitter. You get past Bonds, Pujols, Cabrera, and a few others and the most of therest of them are really streaky. We are in an era of guys who hit 40 HRs and strike out 180 times and are considered "top" hitters. and soriano's probably not going to hit 40 homers. Yeah, I think not hitting a single homer in April pretty much tanked any chance at 40 homers. He's also sitting at 9 walks, so his chance at equaling last year's 67 walks is gone too.

:-k Umm. Small sample size is in play right now. Over the course of 600+ at-bats we'll be able to better judge Soriano's value to the team. Not buying the small sample argument. He put up an .808 and .821 OPS in the 2 years before 2006, and that was in a good hitter's park. Add all of 2004-2006 together, plus the quarter season he's played in 2007, and you have a big enough sample. Or you could just look at his career numbers. 2006 looks like a major outlier. Unfortunately Hendry gave him a contract based almost entirely on his 2006 numbers. Big mistake.

There are very few "top hitters" as unproductive as Soriano. Most top hitters maintain solid numbers and get their great numbers out of streaks. The problem with Soriano is he's not a top hitter. He needs his hot streaks just to keep his numbers out of the trash bin. He needs the Pittsburgh Pirates to stay out of the trash bin. 24 of his 72 total bases are vs. Pirates pitching. That's one third of his production. This is pretty silly. What are you trying to say here? Soriano can only hit against the Pirates? He's played 17% of his games this year against the Pirates and he played well in those games. It's not surprising that his stats are a little skewed. This doesn't really shed light on anything. Soriano may hit against non-Pirates in the future, but the thread asked how he has done so far. He had a nice hot streak vs. the Pirates. That's about all he has contributed so far.