vance_the_cubs_fan

Lately, I've been mulling over the idea that Ron-DL While might be a good option for a spot on the bench and as a reserve outfielder. I know the biggest gripe will be that if Ron-DL is on the roster, it will take away time from Murton and that Dusty may start him over Murton altogether. I've thought about that, but I don't think "Dusty-proofing" is a legitimate reason not to acquire good players. Because of his injuries, Ron-DL doesn't seem to be acquiring a lot of attention which is understandable. To pick him up and expect him to start 140-150 games is crazy. On the other hand, he's been relatively productive when healthy. In 97 games in 2005, he hit 313/348/489. For his career he's a 289/343/472 hitter, so it does appear he still has the goods to play when he's healthy. (He even had a 905 OPS against lefties in 2005). If we acquired Cliff Floyd to play rightfield in a deal with the Mets, I think Ron-DL would be ideal to have on the bench as a righthanded compliment to Floyd.

Not taking the bait. I've made my statement. I'll quote numbers and then you'll tell me they don't mean anything and then you'll quote numbers and tell me why they prove Wilkerson is better. Blah blah blah blah. We went through this yesterday regarding Soriano and Walker when you misrepresented some numbers about their difference in OBP. Then we talked about it regarding Wilkerson and Pierre when you initially said Pierre was superior only in stolen bases and then admitted he had better numbers in other categories. It comes down to opinion, and my is as valuable as yours. And judging from your user name, maybe you don't have such a good history of evaluating players. Or in other words, I know I can't compete in this debate so I forfeit. Thanks for playing anyway.

Even if AZ were willing to deal Green, why in the world would you think their GM to be silly enough to take a $2.x million dollar bust for a guy who is capable of being in the top 5 of NL outfielders.. Although, I know Green has a background in Chicago, so that would not be a problem. But anyone who heard Hendry on MLB Radio yesterday knows that Patterson is gone. Because Green is not a CFer and that's where they have him penciled in right now. Right now, the Diamondbacks need to move outfielders. Troy Glaus is at 3rd base and they re-signed Tony Clark for first base. The have Luis Gonzalez in left, Chad Tracy in right, and Shawn Green miscast in CF. They still have no place for Carlos Quentin and Connor Jackson. Trading Glaus would be ideal for them, but as of yet no takers. They'd probably love to trade Gonzalez, but he's old and expensive. Green may be the best trade chip they have unless they want to move one of the prospects. Defensively, they will have problems with Green in centerfield.

We need to deal for someone who makes sense for RF. Luis Gonzalez doesn't have the arm for it. Shawn Green on the other hand does. I would ship Patterson to Arizona for Green but not Gonzalez.

Could Dusty and his girlfriend make-up?

Just a question, but who exactly is now left in that Cardinals pen?

I didn't want Finley for CF. I sure as hell don't want him for rightfield.

I bet he could get a sweet make-up deal in New York!

I just realized with this move that I could move one step closer to curing my profanity habit.

Rubby sends this song: A todos los duendecillos que he adorado antes Que viajó en y fuera mi puerta yo estoy contento que ellos vinieron dedico esta canción A todos los duendecillos que he adorado antes A todos los duendecillos yo acaricié una vez Y puedo digo que he tenido el mejor Para me ayudar a crecer debo mucho sé A todos los duendecillos de que he adorado antes de Los vientos cada vez yo trato de permanecer Los vientos del cambio siguen soplando Y ellos acaban de me llevar lejos A todos los duendecillos que compartieron mi batea Quién ahora es otra persona rameras yo estoy contento que ellos vinieron dedico esta canción A todos los duendecillos que he adorado antes A todos los duendecillos que me cuidaron de Que llené mis noches con la éxtasis que Ellos viven dentro del corazón que haré la parte De todas las chicas que he adorado antes Los vientos del cambio siempre soplan Y cada vez yo trato de permanecer Los vientos del cambio siguen soplando Y ellos acaban de me llevar lejos A todos los duendecillos que hemos adorado antes Que viajó en y fuera nuestras puertas Nosotros Estamos contentos que ellos vinieron dedicamos esta canción A todos los duendecillos que hemos adorado antes A todo el Quién viajó en y fuera nuestras puertas Nosotros Estamos contentos que ellos vinieron dedicamos esta canción A todos los duendecillos que hemos adorado antes

Dunn, please. Pie + Williams + Wellemeyer for Dunn

Wilkerson is going to rake in Ameriquest Field.

Whoa...talk about over paying!

http://www.delafont.com/comedians/Comedian_Images/d-carvey3.jpg PARTY TIME...EXCELLENT!

If that's the case, I hope Jim at least puts in a call. yeah he better...offer him 20 mil and see what he says. Clemens, Zambrano, Prior, Maddux, Wood. I'd love to see Clemens here just for the fact we can have two 300 game winners on the same team and the fact we'd have the best pitching staff ever. We don't have 20 million left in the budget...but I doubt anyone else offers that much either. I'd offer him 10-12 million and see what happens.

The reasons seem to be related to defense, but I'm not convinced.

When I was in elementary school we learned to write a program in basic that made your name run up and down the screen in an infinite loop. That's the extent of my programming ability.

I hate to overanalyze a simple statement like this, but does anyone else interpret this to mean that perhaps Jim doesn't know other teams' systems as well as he should? I heard the interview and the statement came in the context of evaluating Nolasco and Pinto, where the Cubs and Marlins had pretty much the same opinion/rating of the two. i think he was just trying to be complementary. In a different interview on XM 175, he made some of the same points about the Marlins scouting. In that interview, it seemed to be more stating that the Marlins had done their homework in order to maximize the value of the firesale. Hendry was impressed that they rated many of the players in the Cubs system just as the Cubs had them rated.

While reading this article, I found a quote from Clemens's agents to be particularly interesting. If that's the case, I hope Jim at least puts in a call.

Ok...now that I have the chance, I'll try to give a detailed breakdown of Hendry's interview on MLB 175 with Rob and Kevin. Kennedy began by stating the move seemed like a necessity. JH: "Absolutely. It was a great fit for us. We've been calling Larry Beinfest about him for a couple of years...we set out after the post season to get the best lead-ff hitter we could find and we chased after Rafael Furcal, but we would have chased after Juan Pierre even if we had gotten Furcal. We would have loved to have both of them." He went on to discuss that Juan is a great human being and such and then discussed his lack of being able to find a lead-off hitter in other seasons. JH: "It was a definincy on my part that we couldn't get a more appropriate person for that role, and at the same time we asked some of our guys to do some things that they are not used to in that role and they weren't as bad as performers or players had they been in a different role." I found this interesting, because at least Hendry was taking some responsibility for not doing what should have been done in the past. JH: "We're not concerned about his numbers going down. He's 29 yrs old, and from what we've been told you have to slow this guy down or he'll work himself to death. He has an off the chart make-up." There's more, but I'm tired of transcribing it. bout Patterson- "Hard to believe what happened to him last season." "First class guy. Has skills, aptitude." "Unfortunately, we're in a tough spot. In a perfect world, would love to bring him back and see if he could help us out." "I still think he could be a real good player, but we were in a situation to get a lead-off guy so we had to do what we had to do." On the Winter Meetings: "Meet with 6-7 clubs a day." Tueday was a "21 hour chase Juan Pierre day." Rob asked if they still had things in the hopper- "Yeah we have some more things..." "We're going to try to add a rightfielder that can help us and keep augmenting the bench a bit better." It was a decent interview and obvious that Pierre was a target all along. He was also clear that they didn't think it would take three players to get him.

I doubt Clemens would have any interest. I could see him pitching for the Rangers or maybe the Yankees. I still think it is possible he returns to the Astros after May 1. In all liklihood, he retires.

It's nice that you make a lot of points completely devoid of facts or reasoning. I don't know what Kerry did to make you blind to his achievements. I haven't seen such ignorant diatribes against one player since the days of Auggiedoggie. For example, in 2002 and 2003, Wood averaged 212 innings pitched. That's quite a workload. In comparison, the "great" A.J. Burnett has never reached that number of innings pitched who was just rewarded with quite a large contract. Wood has only had 2 seasons in which his ERA was over 4. One of those was last season and the other 2000 when he was still recovering from TJS. While people want to attack Wood for his "lack" of wins, one should realize that he has only had one season with a losing record which was last year in which he went 3-4. In his two healthy seasons in 2002-2003, Wood started 33 and 32 games respectively. In the last five seasons, Wood's BAA has been 215, 244, 203, 221, and 202. Those are awesome numbers. Furthermore, wins are perhaps the worst possible metric which to measure a SP. Once again, Burnett has only won 12 games in his career, so even as bad as Wood is, he's much better than Burnett right? I'm kind of hoping CubbieRich responds so I can laugh some more.

What exactly is the report? Did they say they don't count on him being ready? Did they mention a set-back? I see a lot of vitiol in this thread, but few facts. Has he stopped throwing? From the quotes I've read, it seems that the Cubs are saying that in their plans they can't count on him being ready, but that he still could be ready. I'm trying to decipher is this really anything to get up in arms over yet.

Once again, a decision on Macias isn't made until December 20th. That's an entirely different deadline than this one.

I'm thinking the Devil Rays would ask for Pie and other prospects, so the chances for a deal on Lugo aren't good.