ZoomSlowik

Well then we need another starter because HE GAWN!

I think it would be a tough time scheduling for the Cubs to play at U.S. Cellular. I believe that either the Mets played at Yankee Stadium or visa versa for a while and it was brutal. Much as I would like to see Wrigley destroyed, I don't want those punks in our park. Besides, how many of you really think the average Cubs fan would be smart/sober enough to realize which team is on the field? Another thing that I doubt Mariotti would mention(research? what's that?) is that Wrigley has landmark status, so they couldn't destroy it and any additions would be a major pain in the ass because they would have to keep the general appearance of the park the same. The Bears got away with it by basically landing a spaceship in the middle of Soldier Field, but I doubt the Cubs would be able to do that. Plus that area would be a nightmare during construction, it's already gridlock just for Cub games. I don't know where they would end up playing, all of the places with a big enough park have teams that hate them there. The Cardinals and Sox are #'s 1 and 2 on their list, and the Brewers play in their division, so I doubt they would help out. My vote is they would have enough pull to bully one of the minor league teams into allowing them to basically take over their park.

I highly doubt a white flag deal is coming. The only guy that would make sense to deal if we gave up is Loaiza, and Maggs if he were healthy, maybe Valentin. Most of our players are locked up for a while. Obviously the two players I mentioned don't have a ton of value. I guess we could trade guys like Lee, Konerko, and Buehrle, but what sense would that make? They're all locked up for a few years and are producing. This type of team doesn't seem well suited for a salary dump. This isn't a team where everyone has been together for a while, we took our shots and it's going to cost a ton to keep the team together. Freddy hasn't been here very long, and if we sign Maggs all of the key players would be back for another run. I think we're just going to stand pat, maybe add a cheap bat to replace Frank and Maggs, and try to have everyone ready for another chance next year.

My vote is we don't see a ton of changes. If Frank and Maggs did not get hurt, this team is in great shape. With Garcia and Buehrle back in the rotation and Lee, Konerko, Thomas, and Rowand back in the lineup we have most of our key players locked up, with the only major free agents being Loaiza(gone if he asks for too much), Valentin(probably back), and Maggs(almost has to be back after this injury) IIRC. My guess is we see a mid level starter come in to replace Esteban if his price goes to high and another arm in the pen. Maybe if the brass think we saved enough money by letting Esteban go and from Maggs' injury we see a run at a top starter. I highly doubt we go after Beltran, his contract demands are basically going to put him in a Yankees jersey. I'm not sure how many of these guys we can unload without a trade. I think guys like Schoeneweis and Davis are locked up. I agree with the previous post that we should dump these guys with Jackson, but if they are signed for next year we're pretty much stuck with them.

Ace of the staff? One of the most successful pitchers from the mid-90's to present? Are you high? His career ERA is 4.28 and he has had one year with more than 15 wins, even though he's been pitching since 95. His ERA's from 2000 on are 4.45, 3.94, 4.72, and 4.49. He's on pace to beat his career best ERA this year, which was 3.75. Even this year he is only 7-6. He's been a .500 pitcher his whole career. I'd rather have him than Loaiza but it's not like he's a pitching stud. Esteban has as many 20 wins seaons as he does. Besides, if you're going to compare our staffs you'd compare him to Buehrle since they would likely face each other in the second game of the series, where it is much more even.

The reliever comment is interesting, I think Baltimore is trying to deal Julio because of the emergence of B.J. Ryan(please don't butcher me on validity or statistical backing, I just heard it somewhere). I love the Catalanatto idea, and it has been raised many times. I would think if they got two decent major league prospects they would do it. Maybe Munoz/Diaz and some other guy. As long as it doesn't involve Anderson or Sweeney I'd be all for it.

Crawford is a pipedream. There's no way they are going to trade a guy that is doing that well and is still cheap. They might give up Baldelli because he doesn't have a ton of power or speed, and if anyone wanted to take the Josh Hamilton situation off their hands I'm sure they'd listen. But there is no way Crawford, Huff, or Young are going anywhere. They're probably not even dealing Baldelli. I would imagine they aren't desperate to get rid of a guy hitting .287 that is only making $320,000 unless it could fetch them a young stud pitcher.

We might as well throw Valdez in with this comment since he is hitting well at AAA also. I highly doubt we are going to see much from either of these guys because we pretty much got them for nothing. As well as they are hitting, these guys haven't even play 60 games COMBINED. Usually when you get older prospects like these guys there's a reason they haven't been given a shot in the majors.

I think a general problem with this is that the Twins have had better teams the last few years. Milton and Mays are both gone or constantly hurt, and Guardado and Hawkins are both gone. Those are pitchers that really carried them through the last 3 years(The first two in 01-02, the last two in 02-03). Their rotation is a Radke cold streak away from being a joke, and their pen is down to basically two guys that they trust. As for the Indians their bullpen is going to keep them from making a big run. They just can't win close games, which will kill them, and they could really use one or two more starters too. I think your comments on the farm system are a little misguided. Every team has guys that crap out, the difference is what they have produced. Do you really think this team would be anywhere without Frank, Maggs, Carlos, Buehrle, Rowand and to a lesser extent Garland? Look at most of the teams that supposedly have great farm systems. In 2000 we supposedly had the best, but injuries to guys like Rauch and Stewart and Borchard not panning out killed it. Almost, none of the Cubs tauted prospects are doing squat, the only reason they have done anything is they draft high enough to get the superstuds like Wood and Prior. And teams like the A's and Twins(although the vast majority of their homegrown pitchers are doing nothing, much like ours) never had a top system but keep producing guys, it's all just a crap shoot with young talent. The teams that trade of talent like that consistently suck, because eventually they have to bring in free agents to bolster it. Detroit and Pittsburgh have gotten squat out of doing it, and the Expos are almost devoid of talent from such deals. The only team that has done it successfully was Cleveland, and that's because they got a king's randsom for Colon from the Expos. It's a little easier when someone will give you 3 top level major league ready guys to bolster your system, we won't find anyone that stupid. Considering that the highest we have drafted in a long time is #10(Borchard) we've done okay on getting guys. Addingto that, there's nothing that says speed and defense can't flop either, and building around pitching is riskier because of the higher rate of injury. Besides, we've pretty much done nothing but draft pitchers.

I think they know Pavano is gone at the end of the year(actually there has been talk of trading him for another bat), and Penny is due for arbitration, so they're going to need someone to fill in. As long as the Yanks eat his salary people will take a chance because the guy has some pretty good stuff. I would think the Yanks would have to send Navaro or Caro too.

I think we have too many drunken fight incidents at the Cell to become the lovable losers. Besides, we're much closer to first than they are.

God, what does that tell you about Royce Ring if he got sent down because of Darensburg?

I realize that, but people will still spend a ton on pitching. Even with their ridiculous contracts someone still went out and got Hampton and Brown. Was Colon really a $12 million pitcher? Is Escobar really that good? He may have better stuff than Esteban, but he's also been a relief pitcher most of his career and doesn't have that 21 win season under his belt. I'm just saying I feel that someone is going to do something stupid once guys like Pavano, Clement, Radke, Perez, Martinez, and Lowe are signed. Everyone needs pitching, and there aren't enough studs to go around.

You never know. Who would have thought Chan Ho Park and Darren Dreifort were would get that much? People always overpay for pitching. Even if it's mediocre pitching someone will pay if they think he's the best person they can get. I envision Texas or Baltimore giving him some money, especially if he gets hot.

I'd give him a couple of games when Jose needs a day off, or when we clinch the division. Then I'd give him a shot in spring training and see what happens. This strikes me as a classic career year, but maybe I'm wrong and it's a sign of future greatness.

Anderson, Sweeney, BMac, Honel(although he's hurting so I doubt anyone would want him) of the guys who can be traded(Kenny, you trade Gio at any time we're going to have words...). Anyone else I'd deal if it'd help our team.

My vote is send him back to AAA and get him some starts again, and either give Wunsch a shot to get his job back or add someone. Cotts looks like he could be a pretty good lefty starter, so I'd rather not just deal him(unless we get a stud). I'm not so sure about Diaz, but I'd rather have him than not. I kind of hope Kenny doesn't make any moves because unless we get Randy, Pavano/Penny if Florida slips, Kendall, or Cattalanato, I don't see anyone that would make a major impact. Most of those deals don't seem likely.

fung is winning, winning is fung.

How about 4-10-83? That was a hell of a season, so it should have been a winner.

I agree with everything you guys said, but I really wish he had thrown Jones one of those "frisbees" on 2-2 instead of a fastball. I think Jones would have had a pretty feeble swing and grabbed some bench. However, this is the first time I've questioned Shingo in about 3 months, so he's still in my good graces. Besides, he has the best entrance in baseball.

I gotta say, as a long time baseball fan, I see these teams as being even right about now. The Twins are playing a little better right now, that's about it. The Twins have Mauer on the DL, we have Frank and Maggs. If either of them come back ahead of schedule I gotta say we take a decent lead. Santana is on fire right now, and Radke has pitched fairly well. But if you look at the numbers from week to week, the advantage is going to change. Ours was better last week after Buehrle and Garcia smoked the Indians, theirs are better right now. If I ultimately had to pick 2 between the 4 of them, I'd take Garcia and Santana, but I'd rather have Buehrle than Radke. The back end of both of their rotations are pretty weak, but I'd rather have ours. Garland and Loaiza come up with some good starts and seem to have better potential when they are on, while Lohse and Silva are consistently mediocre. Both of their 5th starters blow. I don't think adding Benson to the Twins really changes this, he looks like Ritchie Part 2. I'd rather have our lineup, with everyone healthy or not. Lee, Rowand, Konerko, and Everett give us 4 pretty decent hitters right now. If one of our other guys hits a hot streak we'll do well, and it's a monster with our sluggers back. Many of the Twins are merely mediocre. Mauer can hit but is hurt, which seems to be a regular occurence. Stewart is a pretty good hitter, and Guzman is an okay hitter that is doing well. Ford looks like a fluke, his numbers are still solid, but they are dropping. The rest of their guys are mostly hitting .260-.270, with Jones at .250 and Koskie down around .240. The pens are both pretty medicore. Both teams rely heavily on two guys that are doing well. The Twins have a decent advantage in defense, although I think that drops a little with Morneau replacing Mientkeiwicz(I really don't care if I spelled the prick's name right). To me it looks like it is going to be a close battle the whole way, and I would give us the edge because of our much easier schedule. As for the playoffs, it all depends on what happens to Thomas and Ordonez. All of the AL teams have flaws; none of them are unbeatable.

Reed is hitting .268 at AAA since we traded him. I really don't think it will make much of a difference. Get back to me in 3 years. IMO Reed is going to be Borchard by then, only without the power potential. If not, then tough s***, we still got our ace pitcher.

Is there really that much of a difference between 1 and 3 1/2? Besides the obvious answer(yes, 2 1/2), at this point in the season it isn't a whole lot.

Who are you and what did you do with the real Jeckle? Nice to see you coming around. We're playing like s*** right now, but there is no way the Twins are going to finish 13 games over. Many of the guys in their lineup are hitting like crap. Mauer and Stewart are both decent hitters and are both around .300, Ford is hitting around .300, but that has been slipping. Guzman is hitting like .290 which surprises me a bit. Other averages for everday players. Morneau- .272 Hunter- .269 Rivas- .260 Jones- .251 Koskie- .239 As for their other starters, Silva is at 4.52, Lohse is at 4.87, and they are struggling to find a 5th starter. I know many of our guys are doing about the same, but all we need is a decent streak by someone like Harris or Crede and we're in pretty good shape. Our rotation has been okay recently, not terrible, not great, but decent. We're gonna start facing some weak pitchers, so this should do. The Twins are highly beatable. We just need to beat the teams we are supposed to beat while the Twins play some tougher teams. I'm gonna steal some info from another thread, the Twins have played the easiest schedule in the majors. Even if we only play .500 ball against guys like Detroit and KC, we can probably catch these guys. Our team has enough talent to do that. If we can hang in there until one or both of our sluggers come back, we'll be fine.

Um, have you looked at the numbers? The last two have ERA's over 4, and Romero is damn close(and includes a demotion). Balfour has a good ERA but they must not trust him much if we didn't see him. I like Politte, especially recently, not sure I can say I would trust any of their other guys if I were a Twins fan.