CUBZ99

Agreed. Thank you guys for your work. :D

Hey Rangers, Xavier Nady says hi. He thinks Marlon Byrd might be available? Hard to imagine that he could make it through waivers without some team taking him.

Disagree with you. Fuku's contract is a sunk cost. Colvin's contract in comparison is minimal. Colvin is younger, will be cheaper and is under team contract for longer than Fukudome. The team should be thinking about the future not this year. Wow... what the hell were you responding to? 1.) I wasn't trying to say whether benching Fukudome in favor of Colvin was the right move or not, I was just laying out the financial side of the argument. So the argument regarding Colvin as younger, cheaper, etc... is responding to something I never said. 2.) Fukudome's contract is not a sunk cost. A sunk cost is defined when you have no ability to recover any portion of the money. Even the most enthusiastic of Fukudome haters out there have to admit that before the benching, he had some trade value. We would have had to eat some of his contract, of course. But we would not have had to eat the whole thing. Therefore, not a sunk cost. 3.) Playing Colvin necessitates benching Fukudome. Benching Fukudome negatively impacts his trade value. Therefore, playing Colvin over Fukudome has a cost equal to the decline of Fukudome's trade value ... in this case, certainly a few million dollars. We aren't getting increased production out of Colvin, so the only real question to ask ourselves is are we getting our money's worth by getting an extended look at Colvin + any increased trade value Colvin may accrue? Hendry tried to trade Fukudome before Colvin took his job. There wasn't a taker for him at the time. In May and June (when Fukudome lost his job) Fukudome was OPS'ing .715 and .485. The team was in dire need of offense and Colvin was OPSing .1.034 and .780 in the same time period. Once Fukudome lost his job and there was no chance to get much salary relief for him, I'm guessing Hendry was more concerned about salvaging the season, than Fuku's trade value.

Disagree with you. Fuku's contract is a sunk cost. Colvin's contract in comparison is minimal. Colvin is younger, will be cheaper and is under team contract for longer than Fukudome. The team should be thinking about the future not this year.

Not true, he is a horrific base stealer 5 SB, 6 CS so far this year. If both players were making the same money, then it would be a tough decision in regard to who is the better player. On one hand Fukudome gets on base more frequently. Through nearly the same amounts of AB's this year both Colvin and Fukudome have nearly identical hits. (80 to 78). So Fukudome's advantage in OBP is based on the number of walks he draws. (51 to 26). I'm not discounting BB's, but when you consider that Fukudome has only gotten on base approximately 25 more times than Colvin in the same number of AB's, but that Colvin has hit 8 more HR's than Fukudome, I would take the 8 HR's any day of the week. Add in the fact that Colvin is $12MM cheaper, it is a no brainer.

As in he's in a class of his own or he's not nearly as good? I read it as in "he's not nearly as good."

Samardizja is really putting together a solid season as a starter in AAA. His walks are on the high side but he doesn't give up many hits and his 1.27 WHIP is very respectable. It makes you wonder what type of prospect he would be at this point if the Cubs didn't try to rush him and jerk him around the last couple of years. It would be interesting to see if other teams perceive him as having trade value at this point.

So how is being honest with Trammell up front a diss? People are overly sensitive, and apparently Trammell isn't too concerned because he decided to stay on until the end of the year. If Quade is a candidate for manager next year, I like the fact that they are giving him a chance to finish out the season. We will find out very soon whether he has the same proclivities as Lou or how his lineups will work. The few days that Trammell managed in Lou's absence it felt like Lou hadn't left at all. It will be much easier for Quade to shake things up than it would have been for Trammell.

Trammel has been very impressive at the helm.

I don't think that the Diamond experiment is going to last long. His command is terrible and except the first pitch of the game the velocity on his fastball was very unimpressive. I would prefer that they actually move Cashner to the rotation or call up a guy that has a chance at making the rotation next year.

Would be nice if he would get some of his velocity back though.

Apparently Macha called the press box in the 9th inning to dispute Castro's error and trying to get the 27th hit for the Brewers. :lol:

They really did him a disservice by not moving him to the bullpen in Iowa to prepare him before calling him up.

Yeah, I like how you still have the stories up on the front page. You are looking pretty good right about now.

I guess that answers my question. Maybe Rudy J. can work some magic on him.

Interested to know what the scouting report is on him. His numbers look pretty good.

George Ofman Ofman I would hope that it would at least involve a prospect.

I would have traded Lilly for Ramos. :(

Doesn't FIP favor pitchers that pitch to contact? His .337 BABIP suggests that he gets hit pretty hard.

My you're a prissy little one aren't you. I'm not begging for starter help. I'm saying they should leave open the possibility of acquiring a starter. I'd prefer they focus on offense above all, but considering the lack of obvious candidates there, they can use all the help they can get. It's not like this is the greatest rotation in baseball. As for Wells, I thought a lot of what he did last year was smoke and mirrors. I was starting to think otherwise early this year until he started to go off the tracks a bit. He's been okay, but far from anything that can't be improved upon. He's also yet to throw a full season of quality major league innings, and I don't see what's so wrong with pointing that out. You're seriously underestimating what Wells has done this year. He's been very good. A 1.39 WHIP is not "very good." And to look at his other numbers, there is nothing that stands out as very good. Based on WHIP he rates in the bottom 1/3 of qualified NL starters. He consistently gives up more hits than IP, doesn't strike out many batters and overall is not a pitcher that the Cubs should be guaranteeing a spot in the rotation to next year.

Happ is still relatively cheap and his career 1.29 WHIP is not bad. I agree with you overall though. I would like to see the Cubs get a prospect with a higher ceiling.

Levine is reporting that Lee will not waive his NTC.

Cubs will score 10+ with that lineup. :lol:

I've always liked Aaron Cook. I'd be ok with this deal. His stats have not been good at all, his salary is pretty high, and the last thing the Cubs need is another starting pitcher. I can't see Hendry taking on a guy like Cook in this trade, unless is plan is to flip him to another team.

White Sox? I can't even see anyone claiming him on waivers.