TommyJohn

My favorite part was when he grabbed a bat and bludgeoned the umpire. The ump really should have calmed the situation down and thrown some plantain chips at him.

Damnit. Someone should really tell Quade.

Yes, but he's 27. I think they could do a lot worse than Reyes at SS. Or 2B. Unless he's asking for a jazillion dollars. But surprising they don't take this opportunity of having a few down years and sign him to a reasonable contract now.

Is Beltran a RF now? I know they moved him over to keep him healthy, but are his days over in CF? Even still, shifting Fukudome over to center and calling up Jackson late in the season to split time and ease him in would make this club better. But are the Mets really interested in letting Beltran go? And Reyes has no interest in moving to 2B, does he? I know Alderson isn't pleased with his OBP, but do you really seem them parting ways?

I know it's really early, but where do you think can improve and who's a realistic upgrade? I don't think the Cubs will be as bad as everyone says and will still be in this year during trading time. And if that's the case, don't you see a big trade coming?

Anyone else think Ramirez should be batting 3rd? He's the veteran with the most balanced offensive numbers in terms of AVG, OBP, and SLG. Move Byrd down and shift everyone up. Fukudome Castro Ramirez Pena Soto Byrd Soriano Barney Pitcher

A) I wish we had a young cornerstone leader like Longoria B) Longoria didn't budge an inch. BJ's inyoface act didn't intimidate him in the slightest. and yes, the powder blues are dope It doesn't intimidate Edmonds either. Word on the street is that he likes it!

I would want to trade Silva. His value right now should be the highest since his big signing. I would imagine a team looking to contend and beef up their starting pitching would be interested in trading for him. Trade him for prospects. The salary relief would also be helpful. We should also trade Theriot. I think teams still value him as an above average shortstop and to us he's no better than our other alternatives at 2nd (Fontenot and Baker). We could use a dominant reliever. But if one isn't available, trade both or either for prospects and salary relief. And gear towards making a helpful trade near trading deadline if we're in it.

How is that a good deal for the Mets? The Mets have a lot of work to do this offseason. Ideally, they'd want 2 starters, an outfield bat, and if they trade Reyes, a SS. They have little or no room to add payroll and they'd need to fill these holes than get prospects. Reyes' value in NY is at a low point. There were rumors of managers and front office questioning his work ethic and possibly trading him. He also missed most of this season with an acute on chronic hamstring injury and may need surgery. And free agency is looming. The Mets would be getting a healthy, consistent #2 pitcher behind Santana and a ~.300 hitting starting SS replacement. What are you suggesting is a fair return for Reyes and what the Mets should do?

Too bad a deal with the Brewers isnt likely because I think that Theriot and either Marshall or Gorzalanny for JJ Hardy would be a good deal for both sides. Making that deal would have us chasing the Cards and the Brewers. Someone in the transaction section suggested Lilly and Theriot for Reyes. That would be a good deal for both sides.

That's obviously something they want to check out before hand with doctors and specialist and such, but since he had the surgery done I think he'll get back to 100%, especially considering his age. As far as package goes, that depends on the Mets. I doubt that Minaya tries to sell him off for strictly non-major leaguers, so you could see guys like Lilly, Dempster, Bradley, or obviously Theriot involved, and prospects above A ball like Cashner, Jackson, and Castro could be included as well. Personally, I'd try to sell high with Lilly and see if he and Theriot could get us most of the way to Reyes. Great so we upgrade at SS, lose our most consistent pitcher, send some very good prospects, and still don't have a 2B. If we don't re-sign Harden and trade Lilly, there goes our rotation strength. Moves aren't made in a vacuum. Something like a Reyes deal wouldn't go down until well after the arbitration deadline, when there's a much better idea of what Harden's future is with the Cubs. And I didn't say Lilly/Theriot/multiple top prospects for Reyes. I said to see if Lilly and Theriot gets us most of the way to Reyes, where you only need to add someone like Casey Coleman. And yes, to upgrade from Theriot to Reyes, I would gladly weaken the rotation by giving up Lilly and his potential free agency. I really like this trade. I think Lilly for Reyes would be a good place to start for both teams. Theriot's best value to the team is through a trade as there are some people who overvalue him as a good MLB SS. I'm not sure if the Mets are in that group. And so it might be better to flip Theriot to a 3rd team, but I really like the idea for Lilly for Reyes. :good:

Theriot's best value is in a trade. Surprisingly, there are many people who find him to be a good MLB shortstop. But unfortunately, I think Lou and Hendry are in that group.

This is a poor decision. Imagine if you were working for a company and you were outproducing everyone else and were in line for a promotion. And when the spot opens up and you and everyone thought you would likely be the choice to get the job, they tell you you have to compete with a new guy they just brought in. And then in the end, they hand the new guy the job that you know you could have done just as well if not better. So it's not surprising Marmol feels slighted. And any chance that the Cubs had to signing him at a home town discount for loyalty reasons when he's about to reach free agency is probably 0. He'll likely go where he feels appreciated - that is where the pay is the highest.

From Rosenblog in the Trib: 1. Ryan Theriot (he hit over .300, walked more than he struck out, stole bases, works for me). 2. Aaron Miles (batted .358 in the two-spot last season; that was in front of Albert Pujols, but .358 is .358, pal). 3. Milton Bradley (isn’t this spot in the order the reason you paid all that money for a switch-hitter who gets on base and produces runs?). 4. Aramis Ramirez (27 homers, a team-leading 111 RBIs, and fewer than 100 strikeouts, which is better than anybody else you’d think about putting here). 5. Soriano (he likes leadoff because he doesn’t have to think about actual situational hitting, so this might be the next-best spot to be selfish). 6. Derrek Lee (I’d think about batting him second if he would cut down on the strikeouts and go back to being an MVP candidate). 7. Geovany Soto (this spot seems too low, but if the guys in front of him hit the way they’re being paid, he’ll have another 80-plus RBIs). 8. Someone Who’s Not Kosuke Fukudome (any questions?). 9. Pitcher (But I’d bat Carlos Zambrano eighth). http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/rosenblog/2009/01/just-because-i-can-heres-my-cubs-lineup.html I was bored and posted this response, but for some reason it was never actually posted. The problem with that line up is that only potential lefty bats are together in the 2 and 3 position and don’t really break up the power righty bats. You don’t want the pitcher to get into a “zone” mentally. So by breaking up the righties and lefties, you try to force the pitcher to think more and stay out of the “zone”. The zone, many athletes will say, is the area of high concentration where they don’t feel that they are thinking and everything just seems to go right; less cognitive distraction and higher confidence I guess. So, in putting together the lineup – you take the two right power, rbi bats at the heart of the order and insert the one potential lefty power, rbi bat in between them (Bradley). The RH run producing bats in the order of OPS are Aramis (898), Soriano (876), Soto (868), and Lee (823). I think Aramis is the best all around bat and so I would put him 3rd. I would exclude Soriano because I think he is more valuable at another position which I will get to. And then in deciding between Lee and Soto as the next best RH power bat, I think you can go either way but I’m picking Lee because I still think he can put up better numbers than last year and also to put less pressure off Soto since this will be his 2nd year. So, 3-Aramis, 4-Bradley, 5-Lee, and 6-Soto. Next, the Cubs don’t really have a prototypical leadoff batter. Theriot’s stolen base success rate was 62% and so he should not be stealing bases especially in front of the heart of the order. The only real base stealing threat the Cubs have is Soriano who stole 19 bases last year and was caught 3 times while he had a chronic hamstring injury. While his OPS speaks to put him in the heart of the order, the Cubs have enough RH power bats already and he is the only person I would trust to steal a base to manufacture a run at the top of the order. Also, he states that he is most comfortable in the leadoff spot. For the 2nd and 8th spot, I think you would want your higher obp, situational hitters. The 2nd hitter should have one of the highest obp on the team, be patient to allow the leadoff hitter to steal if need be, be better at hitting fastballs since that is what he will see more often in that spot, and tend to hit to the right side of field to move the runner over (e.g. left handed hitters). The 8th batter should be able to layoff pitches outside of the strikezone since the pitcher knows the pitcher is up to bat next, but be able to put a decent swing on borderline pitches if a runner is in scoring position with 2 outs. Fontenot and Theriot seem more suited to be either 2nd or 8th and I’d put Fontenot and 2nd and Theriot at 8th. So against right handed pitchers you have a line up of: Soriano (344 OBP, 86% stolen base success rate) LH Fontenot (395 OBP) Aramis (898 OPS) SH Bradley (999 OPS) Lee (823 OPS) Soto (868 OPS) LH Fukudome L Theriot Pitcher For LH pitchers, I would substitute Miles for Fontenot and Johnson for Fukudome. The lineup is balanced in that it breaks up the right handed bats. You have good power in the middle and high OBP and speed at the top.

I'm not going to rehash the semantics of what a freak injury is, but in case anyone is wondering and I said this before - I would not say that Milton Bradley is fragile based on him tearing his ACL. It didn't happen because he just stepped funny as one poster suggests. It happened because he was being restrained by his coach and he essentially suffered a clipping injury similar to what wrestlers and football players get. THIS IS A KNOWN MECHANISM TO CAUSE AN ACL TEAR. If it was your knee and it was subjected to a valgus force like that with your cleats firmly planted, you'd probably tear your ACL too. Granted the whole situation was a bit freaky, but again the mechanism and the result was pretty much normal if anything. I don't know the rest of Bradley's injury history to say that he is injury prone or to be concerned about his ability to stay healthy. But that specific incident of him tearing his ACL should not factor in his ability to stay healthy otherwise and play a full season unless he is having signs of instability after the reconstruction or persistent effusion. Furthermore, in speaking in terms of injury history I would be more concerned with chronic or repeated injuries of a similar nature. If someone has several isolated injuries that are pretty different than each other, I would be more apt to saying that he has bad luck than being fragile. Or maybe his proprioception is so off that he can't tell when his body is going to be in trouble - but I doubt that is the case with someone like Bradley.