E.J.

Slow news day so I thought I'd post this. Rotoworld has a new article up where they predict who's available this offseason and which teams might be making trades. The only trade they predict the Cubs to make is for Pierre: I'd still like to see the Cubs take a run at Chad Tracy for RF:

I'd call this a big game, since the outcome determines the winner of the Big Ten... there's certainly more on the line than OU-TT, for example. Michigan State has been pretty awful the past couple of weeks. PSU is going to kill them.

Looks like the Dodgers might have offered the GM job to Theo Epstein

Garciaparra free to find better fit I guess that pretty much closes the book on Nomar. I guess technically the option is still open, but it doesn't even seem like Hendry is even considering him for SS.

Actually, surprisingly, it looks like the Dodgers will be making an offer to Giles. From Rotoworld:

Wow. Just saw the Bears highlights on NFL primetime. I can see why you guys were screaming at Wade all day. :x

Wow. And they're raising ticket prices. LA Times Talk about a slap in the face to Dodger fans...

Here are their FA's this year: LOS ANGELES (6) -- Paul Bako, c; Elmer Dessens, rhp; Darren Dreifort, rhp; Olmedo Saenz, 1b; Jose Valentin, 3b; Jeff Weaver, rhp.

Just wait til they try and hrie Jim Bowden away from Washington. and bring in Dusty to manage the team.

Doesn't involve us at all, but I thought this was interesting. They've been averaging right around $100 million for the past couple years. A drop of $25 million would be drastic. Wonder what will happen. http://dodgers.scout.com/2/466166.html Could you imagine the backlash if the Cubs dropped the payroll by $25 mil in one year?

He's old and homosexual. I don't think that comment was necessary or factual. There's no need to bring up someone's sexuality. Sorry if it was inapporpriate, but i'm pretty sure he's admitted he is. And if he were, does that somehow make him less of an athlete? The comment was uncalled for.

Why don't we just bring in Carl Lewis to play RF? I hear he can run pretty well.

They are sort of direct opposites of each other. Wilkerson has power, not a lot of speed, has difficultly making contact, limited defensive range in CF but a really good arm. Pierre has no power, a lot of speed, rarely strikes out, has great range in CF but has no arm. They both bat lefty and have pretty good career OBP, but other than that, they are completely different, but both fill needs that the Cubs have. I'm sort of torn between the two at the moment, but you seem clearly against Wilkerson. Help me out. Whatcha got? Wilkerson's OPS nose-dived last season (by about 100 points). I wonder why. It wasn't obviously park factor IMO, even though RFK was definitely not a hitter's park. Wilkerson's home/road splits for 2005: home: .236/.367/.395/.762 away: .257/.337/.414/.751 Home was a little tougher on Wilkerson in some respects, but it seems like he just flat out lost the ability to hit the longball. His SLG is what really dropped and he had similar numbers of XBH compared to previous years, but a monster drop off in HRs. He could come back strong next season (bad season at an unlucky time), but the steroid issue makes me wary. If we're talking about Wilkerson of '02-'04, I'd take Wilkerson over Pierre easily. Dusty had better not bat him leadoff if his power returns. IIRC, Wilkerson was dealing with a sore shoulder most of last year. I don't know if he's healthy now or not. he missed a couple of games with forearm problems in May and a couple of games in August with shoulder soreness. i don't think the shoulder started acting up until late August, so the effect on his season's numbers wasn't that great, although the injuries certainly did hurt his numbers somewhat. Oops. :oops: Thought he was dealing with the shoulder injury most of the year. You'd also have to expect that getting him out of the cavern that is RFK would help his numbers. I'd love to have Wilkerson on the team. I just don't see Hendry getting him. I think we're seeing this "Cubs have interest in Wilkerson. Cubs have interest in Bradley" to help bring down the trading price for Pierre. Pierre seems to be Hendry's #1 choice.

NY Daily News Looks like the Daily News is making up stories again... Let's hope. how is it fair to give Furcal 5 years and Ramirez 4? i thought you had to earn things in this organization. I don't think there's any way Hendry gives Furcal a 5 year contract. Maybe a 4 year contract with a team option for a 5th, but that would be the max.

NY Daily News Looks like the Daily News is making up stories again...

That's what Hendry re-signed Neifi for... *ducks*

They are sort of direct opposites of each other. Wilkerson has power, not a lot of speed, has difficultly making contact, limited defensive range in CF but a really good arm. Pierre has no power, a lot of speed, rarely strikes out, has great range in CF but has no arm. They both bat lefty and have pretty good career OBP, but other than that, they are completely different, but both fill needs that the Cubs have. I'm sort of torn between the two at the moment, but you seem clearly against Wilkerson. Help me out. Whatcha got? Wilkerson's OPS nose-dived last season (by about 100 points). I wonder why. It wasn't obviously park factor IMO, even though RFK was definitely not a hitter's park. Wilkerson's home/road splits for 2005: home: .236/.367/.395/.762 away: .257/.337/.414/.751 Home was a little tougher on Wilkerson in some respects, but it seems like he just flat out lost the ability to hit the longball. His SLG is what really dropped and he had similar numbers of XBH compared to previous years, but a monster drop off in HRs. He could come back strong next season (bad season at an unlucky time), but the steroid issue makes me wary. If we're talking about Wilkerson of '02-'04, I'd take Wilkerson over Pierre easily. Dusty had better not bat him leadoff if his power returns. IIRC, Wilkerson was dealing with a sore shoulder most of last year. I don't know if he's healthy now or not.

Man, if I'm Furcal I fire Kinzer immediately. He's making Furcal look like a fool.

Ah, gotta love the Hotstove offseason and rumors made up by people on other websites. Didn't have much faith in this one anyway. I still see us probably getting Pierre, but I don't think anything will be done anytime soon.

Wow. I think you can say there's been a momentum shift in the LSU/Bama game. LSU is dominating after coming out of halftime.

Does Mr. Miles answer the bat call during the weekends? :D

I was searching for rumors on mlb4u and this made me cry:

Looks like the Yankees interest in Furcal playing CF might just have been a joke: http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/1105/12furcal.html So the Yankees probably don't have any interest. The Mets only have interest if he's willing to move to 2b. The Braves are starting to focus their interest elsewhere? What other teams would be interested? Me thinks this is why the agent came out and said Furcal was worth 5/50 and that there were at least 5 teams willing to pay that much.

I was thinking the same thing. It would be one thing if there were a huge market for Furcal, but there don't seem to be that many teams interested in him (and both NY teams want him to change positions). I don't think it's too smart for the agent to come out and say Furcal could maybe get 5 years and $50 million because he might scare away the only couple of teams that actually have interest in signing Furcal. Stupid move IMO.

Can't see Nomar being a DH. He doesn't provide enough power to be a DH. I could see Frank Thomas going to the Twins though.