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frostwyrm

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Everything posted by frostwyrm

  1. frostwyrm
    Why would Z feel compelled to take that? Oswalt is clealy underpaid in a market in which Gil Freaking Meche gets 5/55. Even if Z has a down year or gets hurt he'll still be in line for a huge payday, as evidenced by Jason Marquis getting 3/21 after putting up a 6.02 ERA. Z would have to have a totally catastrophic injury not to get more than what Marquis got. IMO Z was correct in his initial assessment that he should demand what Zito got. Somebody will give it to him if he just stays firm in his demands. I don't think Z will take that, but I do see a 5 year deal for him. Hendry probably won't want to go over 5 years, and Z is on record saying that he will accept 5 years. He might me willing to go for 5 for 82-85 million. If Z is serious about taking a 5 year deal then 5/90 might do it. It's a big contract but still a discount compared to Zito's deal, and for the sake of his job Hendry really can't afford to let Z walk because he wouldn't go 5/90. Z will have a ton of leverage if he insists on that figure.
  2. frostwyrm
    I'll never understand how Hendry could justify going into 2005 with the OF he had, which pretty much guaranteed Burnitz would get a ton of playing time. He was, uh, hamstrung by the sosa situation. Which is why we had to have Burnitz instead of Beltran. Or something like that. Yeah but we had this dude named Matt Murton who could have used some more starts but Dusty just had to play Burnie damn near every day. It was like Burnie was some indispensable superstar and not a washed up geezer who wasn't going to be on the team the next season. No way did he need or deserve to get 155 starts. Wasn't this the year where we were all pleading for DuBois? Yes it was. Murton was in the minors for most of the season in 2005.He came up on July 8th and played very little until mid-September. Meanwhile old man Burnie continued to start almost every game. Would've much preferred to see Murt get some of those starts, or anybody else who wasn't washed up and who already had his bags packed. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?statsId=7597&year=2005
  3. frostwyrm
    Why would Z feel compelled to take that? Oswalt is clealy underpaid in a market in which Gil Freaking Meche gets 5/55. Even if Z has a down year or gets hurt he'll still be in line for a huge payday, as evidenced by Jason Marquis getting 3/21 after putting up a 6.02 ERA. Z would have to have a totally catastrophic injury not to get more than what Marquis got. IMO Z was correct in his initial assessment that he should demand what Zito got. Somebody will give it to him if he just stays firm in his demands.
  4. frostwyrm
    I'll never understand how Hendry could justify going into 2005 with the OF he had, which pretty much guaranteed Burnitz would get a ton of playing time. He was, uh, hamstrung by the sosa situation. Which is why we had to have Burnitz instead of Beltran. Or something like that. Yeah but we had this dude named Matt Murton who could have used some more starts but Dusty just had to play Burnie damn near every day. It was like Burnie was some indispensable superstar and not a washed up geezer who wasn't going to be on the team the next season. No way did he need or deserve to get 155 starts.
  5. frostwyrm
    I'll never understand how Dusty could justify giving Burnitz 155 starts in 2005. He just had to have that .757 OPS in the lineup every stinkin day.
  6. frostwyrm
    Only in baseball do players of Womack's quality stick around this long. In any other sport a guy like him would have been put out to pasture long ago.
  7. frostwyrm
    Besides his obviously poor offense, one reason for sticking Izzy at #8 is that he's going to be hurt a lot. I'd rather see the top spots in the lineup go to good players who won't constantly be on the DL or playing at less than 100%
  8. frostwyrm
    I've always liked that Z has confidence bordering on cockiness. That's a good thing in an ace. But now I think he's getting a little too zany. He's buying into too much of his own hype.
  9. frostwyrm
    Dusty never accepted blame for any team failures and never admitted a mistake, but was always willing to take credit for any team success. I like that Lou is willing to shoulder some blame when things go badly. With Dusty it was an endless parade of excuses and finger-pointing at anyone but himself and his cronies.
  10. frostwyrm
    With their payroll if the Cubs fail to contend in a league this crummy then Hendry should be shot out of a cannon
  11. frostwyrm
    Someone needs to get on Scott Eyre. Expensive relievers who allow an .800 OPS haven't earned the right to be as fat as Eyre is.
  12. frostwyrm
    Its not insulting. I don't understand this. IIRC, you are one of the guys here (a list that includes myself, BTW) who generally gets on Jim for spending his money foolishly. Z has several miles on his arm at a young age, and his mechanics ain't exactly what you would call Seaver-esque. Giving him - or any present day pitcher - a 7 yr deal is crazy, IMO. I like that Jim (apparently) recognizes this and is at least attempting to structure the contract in a way that makes sense. And please do not compare the Z offer to Soriano's deal. Soriano was on the open mkt. I wouldn't give Z 5/90 and certainly not 7/126, but given the current market 5/90 is a very low offer. Even 7/126 is most likely below Z's market value.
  13. frostwyrm
    I wouldn't quite go that far: Soriano's best 3 OPS+ Numbers 132, 131, 128 Matthews 119, 109, 101 I'm not trying to compare which one is better-it is obvious that it is Soriano. Soriano's 2006 campaign was not nearly as much of an aberration as Matthews though-in fact, Soriano has had 2 other years that were very close to it in OPS+, while Matthews was much better than any season previously. Any way you look at it's $136M for a 31 year old with a career .835 OPS. Even if he spontaneously morphed into a defensive wizard at SS or C I wouldn't pay him $136M.
  14. frostwyrm
    5/90 is a lowball offer and rather insulting. Zito got 7/126 and everybody knows Z could get that or more on the open market. There's no reason for Z to accept 5/90 unless he's extremely scared of getting hurt this year.
  15. frostwyrm
    Dumb list. Soriano is only "wildly productive" if you ignore his entire career except for 2006. If we were going to think that way we should have tried to outbid the Angels for Gary Matthews jr.
  16. frostwyrm
    The one thing he has to consider is injury. If he doesn't sign before the year starts, and he blows out his arm during the season, that's a ton of money blowing out the window. Isn't that what every player in Z's position has to think about? They might sign with their current club for many reasons, but the biggest one is because they can get a little less guaranteed right now-----if they play Russian Roulette with their arm and come up lame, that's something that haunts them for the rest of their life. I don't think Z has anything to worry about because Hendry is in a horrible position. He either re-signs Z or loses his job. I foresee another heavily backloaded deal.
  17. frostwyrm
    Z is not going to take less than Zito. He's been very clear about that. His threat to leave the Cubs is a somewhat tactless but perfectly effective way to underscore the seriousness of his demands. My strong feeling is that Z regards this as the payday of his life, and anything else he earns in his lifetime will be gravy. That's how I'd play it if I were in his place. I don't see any credible incentive for him to take a short deal and walk away from a $120+ milion payday just in hopes of getting a bit more in a few years. Z isn't dumb enough to take that risk.
  18. frostwyrm
    It could be argued that Z taking the same contract as Zito would constitute a hometown discount, since Z is better and younger than Zito.
  19. frostwyrm
    There not a chance in hell Hendry trades Z for prospects. Hendry has gambled his career on winning now. Acquiring prospects is the last thing on his mind. I also fail to see why Z would give us a hometown discount. He surely knows this is the payday of his lifetime and he has stated he wants Zito's deal and has backed up his demand with a threat to leave if he doesn't sign before opening day. I don't blame Z for putting the screws to Hendry. Z is holding all the cards and he knows it.
  20. frostwyrm
    I don't think panic about losing your best pitcher in over a decade is over-reaction, especially seeing as this demand is coming after some really questionable spending has been made. Had this demand come in November, he'd be locked up by now. But with the stupid contracts given to Lilly, Marquis, DeRosa, etc with almost no thought about locking up Z long term I think this is a perfect time to panic. It really is. If you look at the budget crunch that looms in 2009 it's hard not to attach some major urgency to keeping Z. This is a team that has to do whatever is necessary to win now.
  21. frostwyrm
    Collateral damage from giving away Ricky Nolasco for peanuts. Marquis most likely wouldn't be here if we still had Nolasco. Nolasco as a starter 9 10 4.96 22 119.2 Marshall 6 9 5.59 24 125.2 Why would nolasco have prvented them from bringing in Marquis? Nolasco would definitely have Marquis' spot in the rotation. Nolasco's ERA was somewhat skewed by a few meltdown games but the bulk of his starts were quite good. His season numbers will get a lot better if he can can cut down on those occasional disaster type games. More experience should help in that area.
  22. frostwyrm
    Collateral damage from giving away Ricky Nolasco for peanuts. Marquis most likely wouldn't be here if we still had Nolasco.
  23. frostwyrm
    Hendry simply cannot afford to let Z walk if he wants to keep his job. If the money is not available now Hendry will just megabackload the deal, which is what he likes to do anyway. I fully expect to see Z getting over $20M per year in the 2nd half of his contract.
  24. frostwyrm
    Hendry would have had a lot more leverage in a trade if Z had been shopped in the fall or better yet at last summer's deadline. It's mid-February now and the contenders have their major pieces in place for next season. At this point Z would be a last-minute type of addition. Obviously he would still be attractive but it would have been better for teams to have time to plan around Z.
  25. frostwyrm
    I still think Z will be resigned. He obviously is playing hardball with the negotiations. He's on record as wanting a Zito type deal and he just wants to show he meant what he said. In the end Hendry will have to give Z what he wants. The Cubs are a team built to win within the next 2 years and if Z leaves the whole plan collapses. I'm sure Hendry knows that would cost him his job.
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