scenario

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 03:35 PM) Thats actually not what I have heard at all. Towers is in a real tough spot. The owner is the one telling Towers to move Peavy, but supposedly most of the baseball people with the Pads love Peavy(for obvious reasons). Towers and his staff have to find a deal that is an acceptable return, which becomes difficult when every GM across the league knows Towers has been told to trade Jake. If Towers trades Peavy for a bad package, and the team wins 200 games the next 3 years, he knows it's going to cost him and his staff their jobs. When I say he wants to trade him... that's not personal of course. I'm sure they love him down there. Who wouldn't the way he's played for them? But after his rather reasonable 2009 option season, his new 3 year/$52 M contract (incl. $4M buyout) kicks in. Yikes. The way I'm thinking about it is that if Towers is going to get any value in trade, he better do it now. After 2009, whoever trades for him would be much less likely to give up talent, IMO, since they would be paying a much bigger freight.

Table ranking fewest to highest for career Interesting. No wonder Oakland isn't shedding any tears over losing Street.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 03:19 PM) If they trade him to the Cubs, that must mean the financial pressure on Towers is just ridiculous, because there's no way the Cubs have enough to make that a remotely fair deal Nah... Towers wants to trade him. No reason to keep an expensive pitcher on a rebuilding team that is going to suck the next couple of years. You're right about the Cubs not having the players. But he knows the Cubs are hot for Peavey, so they have to get other teams involved to get the talent package he wants.

This comment from Tim Brown at Yahoo sports this afternoon... The Dodgers were to meet later Monday with Rafael Furcal’s agent, Paul Kinzer. It would appear the market has softened for Furcal, who is fending off suspicions his surgically-repaired back could be an ongoing issue. Furcal turned down a lowball, four-year offer from the Oakland Athletics last week and might be having trouble finding anything better. He said immediately after the season that he wanted to return to the Dodgers, where he played the last three years, but the significant early interest in him on the free-agent market caused him to explore his options. Those options may be dwindling fast.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) Is some of the Patterson hate due to a ex-cub factor? I know I was sick of hearing about him 5-6 years ago, but fail to see how he is that much worse than Tavares and he would cost practically nothing. Why not throw him in the mix. Corey hit .205 last year with a .238 OBP and a .582 OPS. They will throw a party in Cincinnati when he moves on to another club to completely eliminate the possibility that Dusty could put him in the lineup. In roughly 3500 career at-bats he has a .298 OBP. What 'upside' do you see? He's horrible. We ought to pool our money together and buy him a one-way plane ticket to Japan just to make sure he doesn't end up here.

QUOTE (103 mph screwball @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 01:53 PM) How about this to ponder. Would you rather trade for Taveres or pick up Patterson and not give up any talent? If the Sox want speed and he dropped Boras, Patterson is a possibility. I think there's a fair chance, if we're willing to wait, that both of them get non-tendered... and then we can have our pick. But given the choice of those two players... or a knee in the groin... the knee is a reasonable option.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 12:58 PM) Is there a team in the NL that MAY be losing a very good corner OF'er, and would benefit from having a vet both in the field, and in the clubhouse? Dodgers if they lose the Manny sweepstakes.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 09:22 AM) Judging by the low bids for free agents this year, I get the feeling that Jon Garland isn't going to get even $10 million per season this off season. Yeah, but wait a little while... The feeding frenzy on starting pitching will pick up again. Position players may feel the pinch, but pitching always seems to get paid... especially healthy arms with decent track records.

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Dec 8, 2008 -> 08:38 AM) Potentially too much turnover from a winning team-ala 2005-took 3 years to recover from that Turnover wasn't the problem. Talent wise we were a better team in 2006 than in 2005. We were one of the best offensive teams in baseball. We lead the AL in slugging (and MLB too I think). The problem was that some of the guys who pitched really well in 2005 pitched pretty poorly the following year.

Seems like several people have their own opinions about his speed, his stuff, and what ails him. Here's a November 2007 year-end report on Bailey that should clear up some of the misinformation... Background: A couple of days after holding the Athletics to two hits in seven innings in his third big league start, he slipped and strained his groin. He tried pitching through it, but after he allowed 14 runs over 11 innings in his next three starts, the Reds shut him down for two months. Strengths: Once he was healthy again in September, Bailey was back throwing in the mid-90s with his fastball and buckling knees with his curveball. They're both already well above-average major league pitches, and he has shown the ability to take a little off his heater. He's also added a high-80s cutter to give him a pitch with more lateral movement. Weaknesses: Bailey has no shortage of pure stuff, but he still has to refine his control and command to get big league hitters out and to work deeper into games. He threw strikes on only 58 percent of pitches in the majors and just 61 percent in Triple-A. His changeup is still below average.

There's a spreadsheet link on this page that lists some more trades too.

It's not that big of a deal actually. Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is a process that a lot of corporations use to help renegotiate debt. The Trib has some extremely large debt payments coming due. That's the motivation I believe. Typically firms in Chapter 11 continue normal operations. You should only be really concerned if they owe you money.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 07:57 PM) Bailey's stuff has significantly deteriorated over the past few seasons. No it hasn't. This has been discussed in other threads. His problem has been lack of command, not lack of stuff.

Anybody thinking we're still looking for a 3B ought to listen to the KW teleconference again. There doesn't seem to be any doubt that Fields is going to be our 3B next year.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 06:13 PM) Who? The 5 guys who have about 15 MLB AB's between them? And after this season they'll have about 615 MLB at-bats between them.

What teams still need shortstops? Baltimore? Detroit? Minnesota The Dodgers Oakland Anybody else? And who's available to fill those slots? Furcal OCab Wilson

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 02:35 PM) Umm, are you sure you know who Orlando Hudson is? Right before he posted this, we were having a discussion of 2B zone ratings in another thread. Turns out Hudson was near the bottom of MLB second baseman this year in that measure. Could have been due to injuries that limited his range and effectiveness. But it does bring into question whether his defense is or will be as good as it was in the past. I believe that's what Chisox2334 was referencing when he made that comment.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 02:15 PM) That could be a great acronym if they're our 4/5 starters and they stink. LOL. Yeah, I can just imagine what will happen. "The back end of our rotation is CR/AP."

QUOTE (chisox2334 @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 01:29 PM) hey scenario do you have furcals stats Look at ESPN's statistics and you can slice and dice by position, sort them by whatever you want, etc. Link

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 01:31 PM) Yet people think that Weeks is a disaster at 2nd base, and Ramirez's numbers are very similar. And people think Iwamura's a pretty good defender and his ZR is lower than Weeks. Which all helps illustrate that ZR alone does not provide a meaningful way to determine whether someone is a good defender. Especially when you use only one year of ZR numbers, because they tend to vary quite a bit from year to year.

Putting those numbers in perspective... there are alot of people who feel Asdrubal Cabrera is a 'defensive stud'. And his zone rating is not really any better than Alexei's. I just did a quick calc to see what the difference is in terms of balls they would get to... Over a full season of play, it's approximately 5. In other words, the difference between their two stats suggests that in a season, ACab would get to approx. 5 balls that Alexei would not.

Here are the zone ratings of all 2Bs in MLB who started over 50 games at second this season... (GS = Games Started) # NAME GS ZR 1 Mark Ellis, Oak 114 .868 2 Adam Kennedy, StL 74 .861 3 Dustin Pedroia, Bos 155 .854 4 Chase Utley, Phi 157 .844 5 Clint Barmes, Col 54 .839 6 Brandon Phillips, Cin 140 .834 7 Placido Polanco, Det 136 .833 8 Mark Grudzielanek, KC 85 .832 9 Alexi Casilla, Min 94 .830 10 Brian Roberts, Bal 151 .829 11 Aaron Hill, Tor 53 .826 12 Asdrubal Cabrera, Cle 87 .823 13 Felipe Lopez, Was/StL 89 .822 14 Joe Inglett, Tor 62 .822 15 Howie Kendrick, LAA 90 .820 16 Ian Kinsler, Tex 120 .819 17 Jamey Carroll, Cle 66 .819 18 Alexei Ramirez, CWS 117 .817 19 Rickie Weeks, Mil 118 .815 20 Mark DeRosa, ChC 80 .814 21 Akinori Iwamura, TB 151 .811 22 Robinson Cano, NYY 154 .810 23 Jeff Kent, LA 114 .810 24 Tadahito Iguchi, Phi/SD 73 .808 25 Kazuo Matsui, Hou 94 .807 26 Jose Lopez, Sea 139 .805 27 Dan Uggla, Fla 144 .803 28 Freddy Sanchez, Pit 131 .803 29 Kelly Johnson, Atl 135 .796 30 Edgar Gonzalez, SD 66 .795 31 Orlando Hudson, Ari 105 .790 32 Ray Durham, Mil/SF 85 .780 33 Damion Easley, NYM 60 .762 34 Luis Castillo, NYM 78 .761 35 Eugenio Velez, SF 50 .760

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 7, 2008 -> 12:44 PM) He was horrific defensively during the 2nd half of last season. You've said that several times in past posts, but I watched all the games and I have no idea what you're talking about.

I like Furcal, but I'm a little concerned about signing him to a 3-4 year deal. (age and health reasons) IMO, Cabrera for 1 year might make more sense than Furcal for 3-4.

Buehrle a question mark??? Except for the second half of 2006, he's been the opposite of question mark.