Magnetic Curses

he's not horrible but what's point? if you can save a lot of money by having him at first is the difference all that much?

hawks sign fernando pisani, one of my personal heroes.

cost-effective option? what the hell are you talking about? he's already on the team. the cost effective option is to move soriano to first and replace him with colvin in left instead of spending the millions an average first baseman that you could be using to make an attempt at a starting pitcher. and fukudome's salary is magically coming off of the books? putting colvin in left IS money off the books.

I don't think that makes much sense. LF is as big of an offensive position as 1B, so if Soriano has value in LF then he should have value at 1B. Besides, it eases the logjam in the OF, which is worthwhile. 1B has a lower replacement value than LF (-12.5 to -7.5). Factor in that Soriano is an above-average LF and would likely be a below-average 1B and you see that he loses almost all of his current value, making him a replacement level player. Soriano currently is not a great LF, but "not great" and "replacement level" are very, very different things. He would be a near replacement-level 1B. And what would we gain out of it? Colvin is having a career year with numbers that seem completely unsustainable and his wOBA is nearly identical to that of Soriano. It's not worth it at all. You're better off signing an average 1B and letting one of those guys sit. so, sign a replacement level first baseman even though soriano would likely be replacement level, neglect pitching and continue to be stupid with money? oh yeah, and i forgot that you should also bench your cheap rookie who just most probably put up a +.800 OPS in his first year, either that or the guy who's making 20 million. yeah, great plan! The bolded words are not the same. I'd prefer making a move for a bigger time 1B, but I agree that Colvin and Soriano should both play. It's not the end of the world if you have Colvin, Fuk, Byrd and Soriano as 4 outfielders again. sure, if you're relatively happy with your pitching staff and have no desire to make a run at cliff lee or revamp the bullpen. getting an "average 1b" would be like throwing money away. if you think 1b is an area of need and you're serious about contending, you go after fielder or gonzalez.

I don't think that makes much sense. LF is as big of an offensive position as 1B, so if Soriano has value in LF then he should have value at 1B. Besides, it eases the logjam in the OF, which is worthwhile. 1B has a lower replacement value than LF (-12.5 to -7.5). Factor in that Soriano is an above-average LF and would likely be a below-average 1B and you see that he loses almost all of his current value, making him a replacement level player. Soriano currently is not a great LF, but "not great" and "replacement level" are very, very different things. He would be a near replacement-level 1B. And what would we gain out of it? Colvin is having a career year with numbers that seem completely unsustainable and his wOBA is nearly identical to that of Soriano. It's not worth it at all. You're better off signing an average 1B and letting one of those guys sit. so, sign a replacement level first baseman even though soriano would likely be replacement level, neglect pitching and continue to be stupid with money? oh yeah, and i forgot that you should also bench your cheap rookie who just most probably put up a +.800 OPS in his first year, either that or the guy who's making 20 million. yeah, great plan!

again, so you're saying playing 2nd base is similar to playing 1st? but regardless of if he's as good an outfielder as he is at first base, playing colvin in left allows a much greater value. or colvin can play first, i don't care. You're subtracting value at one position to add a marginal amount of value at another. Soriano at 1B is essentially a replacement-level player. Making that move intentionally just to get Colvin some at-bats doesn't sound like a good idea, especially since Colvin's numbers have been in a decline recently and he doesn't have the peripherals to indicate that his performance early in the season was anything sustainable. since the corner outfield spots are power positions, i'd say he'd be around what he is now. if colvin doesn't work out in left, fine, but his salary allows the cubs to go spend some money on pitching. for what he's provided this season, he's been a great value, and to not at least give one of your top prospects a shot to start after a pretty good first season is dumb, considering the money he will save you if he sustains a +.800 OPS.

I don't want to see Soriano anywhere near the infield. why? a 1B has to Catch the ball. Soriano can't catch the ball. Problem oh please hang out for a while and post lots

again, so you're saying playing 2nd base is similar to playing 1st? but regardless of if he's as good an outfielder as he is at first base, playing colvin in left allows a much greater value. or colvin can play first, i don't care.

first is where you put somebody to neutralize their deficiencies, it's the least important defensive position in baseball.

I don't want to see Soriano anywhere near the infield. why? He was terrible at 2B and will be terrible at 1B. His defense in LF is certainly not good, but he has been better this year than he was in the past. With Soriano at 1B, Ramirez and Castro may combine for 50+ errors. so you're saying playing 2b is similar to playing 1b? tell me more

I care because if the organization has money to piss away on trades like this with no particularly prominent prospect then they should have had the same money to spend on the draft but they didn't. they're cutting salary because there's no point in keeping it.

I don't want to see Soriano anywhere near the infield. why?

i've been banging the drum for soriano to shift to first for quite some time.

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/4Cup081610.jpg apparently Fred's instincts were correct. dustin byfuglien's grandfather owns byfuglien trucking.

A couple of national/Canadian writers have pretty much been saying the same things that these Wings bloggers did. Ok, so whats your honest opinion then? I'm not a mod but personally I'll give you immunity from being called a troll. Are we in denial, or are the 'experts' overlooking what remains on the Hawks? NUN isn't a troll, he's just a deluded wings fan

Just trying to look at it from the Red Wings perspective, and as one of them mentioned, despite a horrific year for injuries that crippled them for a couple of months, the Wings managed to close a ton of the gap that seperated them and the Hawks when they got healthy in March/April and despite all that happened finished with the 5 seed and got to the 2nd round of the playoffs. And that was a down year for them. So imagine how much better they will be than a weakened Blackhawks team going against probably a much healthier Wings team. I'm not saying I buy all that, it's just the Devil's Advocate viewpoint. a wings team that will be a year older. the Wings have been old since 97 where did i say they wouldn't be good? no one is arguing that. your idiot brethren are saying the hawks won't compete for the central title. sounds like a lot of homer talk to me.

didn't you grow up in boston? no no [expletive]

Just trying to look at it from the Red Wings perspective, and as one of them mentioned, despite a horrific year for injuries that crippled them for a couple of months, the Wings managed to close a ton of the gap that seperated them and the Hawks when they got healthy in March/April and despite all that happened finished with the 5 seed and got to the 2nd round of the playoffs. And that was a down year for them. So imagine how much better they will be than a weakened Blackhawks team going against probably a much healthier Wings team. I'm not saying I buy all that, it's just the Devil's Advocate viewpoint. a wings team that will be a year older.

our first pairing is the best pairing in the nhl, and our second pairing is every bit as good as detroit's first.

Yep and there is some buzz that Jeremy Hollowell could follow suit in the coming week. That would be awesome. Finally some good news for IU basketball! I don't know if I can handle 2 more crappy years though. Patterson, Hollowell, and Jerkin would look nice alongside Watford, Hulls, and Creek. The only problem is that if Watford and Creek continue to develop, they won't be around in 2012 anyway. And if they don't, the combo won't look so nice. Of course that is looking way too far ahead. That combo will look just fine, imo, with or without Watford and Creek (who I don't believe are going anywhere early, btw). They do need a point guard, though. Yogi would be a terrific get, especially if there is anything to the buzz that Gary Harris is also back on the front burner. I don't know if there would be enough basketballs for Harris, Hollowell, Patterson, and potentially Zeller. Good problems to have to think about, finally. Of course, it's all a lot of speculation at this point. BJ Young is also still in that conversation at PG. Although he would come with some risk..........he may or may not qualify. i think that the general consensus is that he will not qualify.

so we've finally got a metric that identifies my team as unlucky.

he also gets run over with regularity by running backs, just like archuleta.

you know, antti is a guy that might not be comfortable playing in a big city, or playing for a contender, or starting, or playing for lots of money. he let his agent talk himself out of a career. i hope people were paying attention.

i thought hanie played really well and he's kind of like cutler without an arm that can make a decent throw.

i'm fine with the corner blitz working for now. that's gotta be something rivera is just monkeying around with and as long as louis doesn't get blown by again, i'll be happy.