Bull

This part isn't really true. The NL has better #7 and #8 hitters than the AL #8 and #9 hitters. Even when you compare it 7 and 8 to 7 and 8 it's close. The worst hitter besides an NL #9 hitter is an AL #9 hitter, and it's not particularly close. The NL does seem to put poor hitters in the #2 spot though. Here's last year OPS advantages: #1 spot- NL by 11 points #2-AL by 62 #3-NL by 12 #4-NL by 33 #5-AL by 22 #6-NL by 3 #7-AL by 9 #8-AL by 5 #9-AL by 164 Total: AL by 20 I was surprised to see from how much we talk about sluggers going to the AL that the NL led in both the 3 and 4 spot last year, and by a decently large margin in the 4 spot. Oh well. I'd still rather have the DH. And does this track back consistently? I looked at the last 3 spots in the lineup for the last 6 years and with some normal statistical variation, yeah (sometimes the AL had a larger advantage in one spot, but for example in at least 2 of those years the NL 8 spot was better than the AL 8 spot). I wonder if the AL advantage is truly to the DH or because AL teams are in better markets/have more money than the NL. If there was the same amount of money available, then the AL spending big money on DH's should be able to be counteracted with the NL having more money for other positions. I don't think adding the DH will help the NL's imbalance much at all. I wonder how much the bolded will be offset by the Astros moving to the AL.

The point is, the same players would be an improvement, so long as they didn't underperform again. On paper, they haven't really gotten better. You mean they haven't really gotten better than the projections...which were better than the actual performance. So they've improved from the actual performance of last year. they project to be improved from the actual performance. :) And they kind of are immune to the injuries to the back of the rotation. That's the whole point of going 7 deep.

Tony Pena First person to pop into my mind when I saw the video. I caught like that in high school. It helped throwing out runners. Or at least that was the idea.

Damn. That's gonna happen all the time isn't it. I got the over under set at 46 1/2. Why the heck is Campana hitting instead pinch running for whoever walked?

It's been mentioned. But there isn't much information to go on. I think if there is no reliable testing in place, then you just have to assume someone putting up big numbers is juicing. Just like MLB in 2003. And it would clearly affect his value. Bigtime. I suggested it 10 pages ago and was basically ignored. I wasn't sure if that's because people didn't know what to say, or they thought I was stupid. Maybe everyone just has me on ignore? My interest is diminished in him after seeing the comment about increasing home runs in that league. I agree it diminishes his value.

Kevin Goldstein @Kevin_Goldstein So they NEED OFers. RT @SplittinAdam: @Kevin_Goldstein They have DeJesus, Johnson, Jackson, Sappelt, Campana and more I love Kevin Goldstein. If I were a twitterer, I would happily follow him. I like how he didn't list Soriano

why does that make the purchase weird? Sullivan is apparently desperate for something to write about. And you are clearly pathetically desperate for news since you posted it. I am obviously ridiculously pathetically desperate for action on this board, as I commented on it.

sullivan - PWSullivan Paul Sullivan Sveum sez Cubs have had no conversations with Prince. Retweeted by Buster_ESPN

Does anyone have any concerns with PED's with him?

That was before he found his lucrative job on the oil rigs. 10.0 trying to figure out the reference, I foundthis. So, um, what's the reference?

Retweeted by Ace Maybe I'm just stating the obvious but my thought was he was talking about the chances of getting theo when the GM search process started. But then if he's saying that, he's saying the Cubs have a better than 2% chance of getting Darvish? Maybe somebody who's paid to write should learn how to write. I assumed that's how he meant it as well. Sort of like, nobody thought they'd get Theo back in September. I think its abundantly clear. Doesn't seem likely, but neither did Theo, so you never know.

There was an old conversation here about tomorrow's dollar being worth less than today's dollar, and that fact leading to backloading deals. Has that changed with the economic lull, and will it "unchange" with the recovery? Does this make a longer deal at less per year more palatable?

Because the runs he actually produces are real, while the theoretical ones he costs us are not nearly as quantifiable in real life. Right! He plays 1B, who gives a [expletive]! Anyone who wants Castro to have less than 500 errors next year. 1b defense is underrated, imo. A great defender at 1b changes the whole infield. I think the positives outweigh the negatives in this case, but to completely dismiss them is ill advised.

seconded. reminds me of burgoo.

This is what America has become. I was talking to a Christian friend who finds evergreens at Christmas offensive, because they were originally pagan symbols. Both equally laughable imo. Its a tree.

Remember Buehrle only got 4 because of how weak the rest of the SP market is. In the 2012 FA class I doubt he'd get that. Isn't that backward? if there's a shortage, that should give the player more leverage, no?

Wright and Youklis have club options. After them, there's a whole lot of bad unless youre interested in a 38 year old Scott Rolen. Some nice outfielders with Hamilton, Ethier, and Victorino, but the 2013 FA class is all about pitching. That's why this would be the year to make that offensive splash. Well there were no 3B this year either. Exactly, which is why it's well worth the risk. It also gives us another year to see if Vitters can still be the 3B of the future or if we need to look elsewhere for a long term answer. I am rather excited to see how Vitters responds to the "Cub Way".

No that's exactly what he said. Nothing wrong with playing the game the right way. I just prefer that he play the game the right way and produce like Ryne Sandberg and not like Augie Ojeda.

What did jersey say? What did I say? [expletive] I read the last couple pages backwards. A couple pages ago you said something about not being upset if we don't get prince or Albert but that doesn't mean you are cool with not trying this year. he says a lot of things.

Coincidentally, he is also very, very, very good at baseball.

you underestimate the stupidity of baseball people.

the opposite was true of derosa. coming off a career year, which he basically duplicated

where's the source of that quote? Bruce Levine wrote the article: http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/7294530/chicago-cubs-sign-david-dejesus Considering the way many in the media butchered quotes we all heard in the press conferences I'm going to hope this is Levine, athough maybe it's just a stumble by Hoyer. nope. earlier in the article Levine notes that DeJesus hits left-handed.

if you can trade Soriano and clear $1 more than DeJesus' contract, you come out ahead IMO.

There are lot of media guys who seem to think that we're a lot more cash strapped than we are. We really only have 2 big contracts going right now, 1 of which will be up after this year. Ricketts even said that they have the money to spend on the right guy. Even if they were short on money, which they arent they could do some mild backloading. nothing wrong with appearing cash strapped so Boras can't use you to raise the price tag on every free agent.