R.J.

I can remember last year, every time they'd interview Bobby in a post-game show I was cringing, waiting for him to drop som John Rocker-esque boneheaded comment, or fly into some kind of crazy enraged angry rant, or whatever. It never came, and he couldn't have sounded like more of a complete class act. I was stunned. I also had to keep waiting for his WHIP to rise above 1.50. Never did And he only cost a waiver claim.

I'm sure the Royals and Marlins are glad to hear this.

So uh, how can we spring Urbina from jail before March?

Oh my god, this is the most evil thing I have ever heard. (And I love it.) Seriously, I've known cub fans that have spouted off into tirades such as "this is BS! every time I go to the page it shuts down" or "it won't let the purchase go through!" etc. etc. I chalked it up to raging madness, but now I know the truth.

Rock star Crede >>>>> Clean-cut/10-year-old-looking Crede. Same with Neal Cotts.

Frank wasn't going to take a role as a bench player. Gonzalez will (likely) have to. Gonzalez looks like a better option as 4th (5th w/ Mackowiak in the equation) outfielder than Borchard or Grieve. But he's also the most easily injured player in baseball at the moment. I'd take him on a minor league contract but you just can't expect him to help you.

There's no shade of green suitable for a "yeah, I really like what I've seen from Joe Borchard, he could start" statement. 143:50 K:BB ratio last year. There's not a team in baseball he could start for and stick with, and I'm including the Royals and Tampa. If he's any more than our 5th outfielder, god help us. (Fake Edit: Ok, he'd make the Marlins.)

Oh, I hope I'm wrong too, it would be awesome if he discovered his "single" swing and claimed a spot on the bench for us, but if anybody is expecting that or god forbid COUNTING on it, they're being foolish.

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I can't believe theres anybody who actually thinks that Joe Borchard can be a starter in the majors. What in god's name have you seen from him that would even suggest that? Borchard offers power, and absolutely nothing else. Mediocre defense, mediocre arm, a BA under .200 and more strikeouts that any hitter should even come close to. You start him for a season and he'll K 200 times. He'll be out of baseball before the end of next season.

This sucks. Marte's ceiling is quite a bit higher than Crisp's.

People who are still thinking about Fields starting at 3rd in 2007 really need to find some video of him from last year or at least study his stats. Brutal. He's still a prospect, but he's hardly a sure thing anymore.

This is a truly terrible idea. Bench player or not, if he gets 15 at bats he hurts the ballclub. Maybe this is some kind of joke orchestrated by the Tribune.

Man, I know we have no need for Lidge, but what the hell? Wasn't he a top tier closer as little as, I don't know, 3 months ago? Is his value just tanked now? Couldn't we spin him off to another team in need of a closer? I know I know, a starting pitcher has much more value than a closer, but if the Astros can give us some kind of package around Lidge it'd be hard to turn down.

I was ecstatic at first when it was Duque and Young. I love Young, but Vazquez is worth it. The Vizcaino addition leaves a bad taste in my mouth, though I can't remember a time in 2005 where I said "Vizcaino is pitching? AWESOME." It'd be a very good idea to make a move for a bullpen arm or two. What are we left with? Jenks Cotts Pollitte Hermanson (major back issues) Uhh... and McCarthy it looks like. What the hell? Who am I missing? Yeah, we'll be needing some help.

QUOTE(rcpweiner @ Dec 13, 2005 -> 06:23 PM) Most likely, because he led my fantasy team to a championship that stud season of his years ago. Amen to that. The more I think about Garland for Vazquez straight up the more I like it. People saying that Garland is a "sure thing" have short term memories. Garland is a "sure thing" to win about 14 games and anything after that is gravy. Even if there's the possibility that he'll be a Cy Young winner in 3 years, that shouldn't matter to us in the slightest, because he will NOT be here after 2006. There's still too many hurdles in the way of getting this done though. We've brought up all of them. 1.) Paying 24 mil for 2 years of Vazquez is too much. We could stick with Garland in his last year and then throw 12 mil at a better pitcher if that's our plan. 2.) If Garland is in the deal, he IS the deal. For us to give up ANY prospect, much less Young or Anderson (he's not going anywhere btw), makes no sense in this deal. 3.) Vazquez would thrive in a lot of environments, but homer-friendly U.S. Cellular field probably isn't one of them. Add to that we're in a city that's not all that close to his homeland (Puerto Rico, supposedly the reason he wants to be traded at all), so he might be pouty as his reputation suggests. But hell if it isn't intriguing to think that we could get a pitcher that gets anywhere close to his 3.24 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 241 K season. It might just mean that we should look for a Vazquez caliber pitcher in a trade with another team for Garland. (And on the longshot that the Backs would take Young and Duque, I'm there in a heartbeat.)

The guy's Detroit prediction is more than a little misguided, but I'd listen to what any Sox beat writer has to say.

It does sound like most of these names are writers filling out their column. Nobody has been concrete in reporting who would go, it's just "pitching" or "an outfielder"

Just a little quote from this page to put things into perspective.

Despite the surplus of starters it'd give us (which is not all that bad guys), El Duque + Young would be something we should do. Barring a career renaissance as a middle reliever, El Duque is not going to be of much use to us at all. And god bless Chris Young, he's a fantastic prospect, but we have outfielders all over the place and 3 spots to play them. Garland + Young is absolutely friggin ridiculous. That's a slap in the face.

I have a hard time believing that Garland will pull in any less than $40 million on his next contract. It could go to $45. That plus our tendency to stick to 3 year deals with pitchers, it's basically a forgone conclusion that Garland will seek greener ($$$) pastures. And I love Vazquez. He's a quality pitcher. His 2003 season was unreal. For one thing, he'll strike out about 100 more batters. His potential to win 18 games sounds a bit more likely than Garlands, as crazy as last years number makes that statement sound. But that doesn't mean there aren't downsides to consider. For one he gave up 35 bombs last year, second most in all of baseball, and the cell might be vicious to him. A deal like this makes sense on a whole lot of levels but it isn't without a few significant question marks. Still if something like this increases our ability to hold on to Contreras (and Garcia and Buehrle) then that should be enough motivation.

Vazquez has seemed like quite the head-case since putting on pinstripes, but when he's on he's outstanding and if our coaching staff did anything to the psyche of Jon Garland (12 wins to 18 wins) or Jose Contreras (5.50 ERA to 3.61 ERA) I'd bet they could turn around Javy. However, I think it'd be a PR disaster to trade one of our four horsemen and we'd look like grade-A fools if they put up numbers like they did last year. Garland's steadfast reluctance to negotiate a long-term deal and potential market price in 2006 is the only thing that makes this worth considering.

This is a ridiculously large contract and a ssoon as it was rumored you knew that Furcal just had to jump on it. I don't want to list the things I'd do for $13M/y. You guys are right, the Cubs are going to pull the trigger and overpay for Pierre to save some face from this because every outlet, every prediction, every rumor said Furcal was as good as there. Damon can't be ruled out. This is also going to do horrifying things to the prices of shortstops. Oh my good lord.

PM it to me too if you can?

QUOTE(Wedge @ Oct 29, 2005 -> 05:05 PM) There's two musical parts to it. I have no idea what the first is, but the second is definitely the "He's a Pirate" track from Pirates. The first 2 or 2 1/2 minutes is a song called "Elk Hunt" from the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack. Here's a rapidshare download if anyone is interested: http://rapidshare.de/files/6924851/Classic...k_Hunt.mp3.html

I don't think Ryan Meaux can do that.