vance_the_cubs_fan

Last year, ITI said the Cubs were signing Furcal and trading for Soriano. They all but guaranteed it. At least, they only missed Soriano by a year.

The best hitting SS on the team is likely DeRosa. Cedeno hasn't shown enough for me to like him as a hitter. He's Shawon Dunston without any power. True, he has room to improve from craptacular to simply awful but making the jump from awful to marginally acceptable isn't likely. Izturis is better than Cedeno, but he's somewhere between awful and craptacular with the bat as well. DeRosa would be the best option at SS and he's a little better than marginally acceptable. We just don't have many options at SS right now. This is why I would like to get Lugo. You know we have problems at SS when I'm reminiscing about the Alex Gonzalez era.

There are reasons not to want Suppan, but basing that on his political views....ridiculous!

I'm late, so I won't pick the early Thursday game. Here are mine. DALLAS (-11) over Tampa Bay KANSAS CITY (-1) over Denver BALTIMORE (-3) over Pittsburgh Cincinnati (-3) over CLEVELAND San Francisco (+5.5) over ST. LOUIS Arizona (+6) over MINNESOTA Houston (+6) over NY JETS New Orleans (+3) over ATLANTA WASHINGTON (+4) over Carolina Jacksonville (-3) over BUFFALO SAN DIEGO (-13) over Oakland TENNESSEE (+3) over NY Giants NEW ENGLAND (-3) over Chicago INDIANAPOLIS (-9) over Philadelphia SEATTLE (-9.5) over Green Bay

I haven't had a chance to follow much all that closely, since I've been busy at work. Is Cleveland rumored to have interest in Izturis or is this just hope on the part of Cubs' fans? Just hope at this point.

I think it would be great if we sent Izturis and a bullpen arm to Cleveland for Westbrook and were able to get Peralta thrown in as well.

Walker's numbers have continued to drop since his hot start.

If we sign Padilla, the Padilla Flotilla needs to come to Wrigley.

thats gotta be depressing... There's a story behind it. We're in the Dallas area for Thanksgiving with my wife's family. Last year, my wife's brother-in-law and I went to the game and were supposed to be home for a 7:30 Thanksgiving dinner. Because of traffic, we made it back at 8:45. Since then, the Thanksgiving game has been a sore subject with the in-laws. I still almost took the tickets though. :)

Time to show this one off! http://www.jonmdavis.net/hendrysoriano.jpg Thanks, Jon.

I could've went to the Cowboys game. Yesterday, I met a guy who offered me two tickets. The wife said no. :cry: I guess I'll watch it here on TV.

That's not really the case. Run production and run prevention are equally important. The thing is, at the major league level, the vast majority of run prevention occurs on the mound, as the difference between the best and worst major league fielders at a given position is relatively small, especially when compared to the difference between the best and worst hitters at the same position. So, when choosing a player, defense should be given some consideration, but much more consideration should be given to his offensive skill set, as that's where he's much more likely to be beneficial, with very rare exception. Warp's post sums it up. Defense matters, but when choosing between two second basemen or two centerfielders, ot two third basemen, or two catchers, the difference between the better hitters is likely greater than the difference between the two defenders. So, when making a choice, I'm likely to look only at offensive production. Moving players to a new defensive position throws a monkey wrench into the whole thing. While in lower levels of baseball, there is a greater descrepancy between defenders and bad defense often makes a larger difference in games. By the time players get to the major leagues, they likely are able to handle the defensive position which they man. If you gave me two players with similar offensive production and one is a better defender, I'd obviously take the better defender. But, on the other hand, if there are two players, one is a better defender and the other is a better hitter, I'll go with the better hitter almost every time. Now, if it involves moving a player out of position, then I might hesitate to take the better hitter over a player out of position.

You want to exclude players because of their political views? If so, that's just stupid!

its better than giving a 2 year deal to jason marquis Possibly, yes.

Bulger.

Furcal would be better than Izturis.

I don't think Maddux would come all that cheaply. He's reportedly looking for a 2-year deal.

Link.

The Cubs get a sandwich pick between the first and second round. do the Cubs lose any picks for the Soriano and other signings? We'll lose our second round pick for signing Soriano.

:lol:

I'm not doubting anyone. But we also only have one source that it is close. It is likely true that the report was on the radio. But there is a liklihood that the "closeness" reported on the radio isn't all that close. If Olney really is the source, one would expect it to be somewhere on the ESPN page. Right now, it is mere speculation.

Link? I'm far too lazy to go digging through a bunch of crap. http://mb9.scout.com/flosangelesdodgersfrm1.showMessageRange?topicID=3775.topic&start=5881&stop=5887[/url] The guy who made the post there has sixteen total posts. It could be a dubious source.

The only thing I can find linking Schmidt to the Dodgers is this blurb from SI. Link.

I see nothing mentioned about Schmidt signing with the Dodgers on ESPN, FOX, or the Giants MLB board. It's also not on Dodgerblues.com. I'll keep checking.

The Astros have upped their offer to Lee to 5/73. Link.