JUGGERNAUT

Where did you read that? When I called the CWS ticket office they told me that Pepsi was still if the fold for sponsoring 1/2 price tuesdays.

Actually it's in the next player thread. Anyways Soriano's expensive. He earned 7+M last year. Whomever trades for him will likely want 72 hrs to negotiate a multi-year deal. TEX is going to try & fleece HOU but that doesn't change the fact that they are working on a multi-year deal with Soriano as well. They have little to no chance of landing Delgado. It seems it's betw the Mets & Marlins.

He's better than Harris. A much better improvement. Take a look at the next player thread.

The CWS does not need Byrnes so the only thing making sense to me remains a swap of OFers (giving Beane the cheaper option) or a 3rd team wanting Byrnes & willing to give up a middle IF. But again that makes no sense because that's what the A's are looking for. This looks like a lame rumor at this point & we should just ignore it. Can someone answer this? Rowand & the CWS avoided arbitration & Rowand remains unsigned. How is that possible? How can he remain unsigned & not a FA? It was my understanding that as a RFA if the CWS do not offer arbitration by the deadline Rowand becomes a FA.

We're not getting Vazquez. All reports indicate he wants to play in the NL & on the E coast. The Marlins are now talking to AZD on acquiring him. He has expressed an interest to play for FLM. AZD received $19M in the deals & FLM will be asking for a good chunk of that.

I think we can put the Vazquez rumors involving the CWS finally to bed. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-mar...ports-headlines Vazquez has been quoted as saying he wants to play on the E Coast & remain in the NL. This opens the door for the Marlins. With the cash AZD received for Vazquez they can reduce his cost to $21M/3. That's what the Marlins intended to spend on Pavano. The Marlins have the talent AZD wants to get the deal done.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/teams/page/CHW Jan 2, 2005 --OF Aaron Rowand and the Sox are still talking about getting a multiyear deal done before arbitration this spring. Both sides have indicated that they are close, but the final numbers are yet to be agreed on. I hope KW wasn't looking at swapping Rowand for Byrnes.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=34478 This explains it all. They picked up a guy in the Hudson trade they feel is ready to start. Byrnes is due a heafty arbit amount (a few mil at least) & Beane would like to save those millions. It looks like Beane is looking for middle IFers so I think the AZD make more sense to land him than the CWS. I don't see what we could offer to get him & I don't know what we would do with Pods or Rowand if we did.

I can't understand why Beane would want to trade him now. He's got to have a few arbit yrs left on him because nobody goes from league min to 5M+ in one yr. So the only think I can think of is Beane has someone whom he feels is better & ready to play that position. I don't know how he could know that but Beane never surprises me. He seems better at evaluating CWS talent than any fan or member of the CWS is. If that is the case (it's the only one that makes sense) then I have to believe Beane will be asking a high price for Byrnes. He doesn't have to trade him. He's probably just thinking he's got really high trade value right now & he can make do w/out him if he can get something really good in return. That leaves me to believe Beane is looking for a power hitter or power pitcher in return for Byrnes. We can't spare either.

It's a well known fact that Lee's value was high enough to fetch a #1 or #2 pitcher for the CWS. This was written up by Gammons himself. Think about that in terms of what we got for him. As someone said above Lee's value was higher than that of Koney's. So if this was a salary dump why not Koney over Lee? Look at all our 2B options we are discussing now. Any one of those players would have been thrown in with a relief pitcher & a PTBNL for Lee. That was likely the starting price for Lee.

Boone 04: $8M April .255 .284 .449 .733 +29 May .195 .303 .338 .641 +108 June .213 .290 .303 .593 +77 July .313 .366 .509 .875 +53 Aug .259 .308 .426 .734 +49 Sep .247 .345 .495 .840 +98 Look at his patience value. It jumps when he can't hit & then shrinks when he's hitting. That's just like Harris. Not worth the 8M.

Byrnes only made 328K in 04. That can't be ignored. That's the cheapest option of the 8. I said Rollins, Polanco, Castillo were essentially unknowns because there weren't enough ab's vs the ALC to consider it a factor. That's also why I substituted Milwood for all 3. Anyways I have broken down all 8 options (9 if you include Harris) in detail in the next player thread. With respect to price vs performance Eric is my first choice. I know he sucks vs ALC but I'm willing to overlook that because of his price.

Harris 04: April .254 .299 .324 .623 +45 May .384 .439 .438 .877 +55 June .182 .316 .197 .513 +134 July .188 .333 .229 .563 +145 Aug .288 .347 .379 .726 +59 Sep .218 .291 .295 .586 +73 Harris shows great patience when he's not hitting & poor patience when he is. He is by far the worst option of the 9 choices for the CWS at 2B. Cora is a great improvement over Harris. Look at his numbers above. Cora shows patience whether he's hitting or not.

BA, OBP, SLG, OPS for 2004 Eric Byrnes 23 #5 April .327 .386 .500 .886 - #1 +39 May .281 .373 .438 .810 - #2 +92 June .248 .291 .446 .736 - #8 +53 July .294 .364 .647 1.011 - #1 +70 Aug .311 .344 .437 .781 - #6 +33 Sep .267 .347 .419 .767 - #5 +76 Jimmy Rollins 26 #4 April .183 .263 .268 .530 - #8 +80 May .280 .325 .364 .689 - #6 +45 June .320 .376 .492 .868 - #3 +56 July .283 .333 .392 .725 - #5 +50 Aug .298 .389 .553 .942 - #1 +91 Sep .310 .352 .504 .857 - #3 +42 Polanco 30 #6 April .241 .337 .337 .674 - #4 +96 May .172 .200 .241 .441 - #8 +28 June .300 .329 .438 .767 - #6 +29 July .275 .350 .308 .657 - #8 +75 Aug .327 .355 .584 .939 - #2 +28 Sep .342 .368 .505 .872 - #2 +36 Ray Durham 23 #3 April .284 .338 .446 .783 - #3 +54 May .261 .320 .304 .624 - #7 +59 June .339 .431 .559 .990 - #1 +92 July .221 .297 .423 .720 - #6 +76 Aug .234 .333 .477 .810 - #5 +99 Sep .374 .467 .571 1.039 - #1 +93 Luis Castillo 36 #2 April .261 .307 .304 .611 - #7 +46 May .290 .383 .366 .749 - #4 +93 June .296 .350 .398 .749 - #7 +54 July .341 .423 .390 .813 - #4 +82 Aug .238 .366 .274 .640 - #8 +128 Sept .323 .417 .344 .761 - #6 +94 Alex Cora 32 #1 April .213 .284 .344 .628 - #6 +71 May .369 .468 .538 1.006 - #1 +99 June .340 .450 .400 .850 - #4 +110 July .256 .340 .354 .694 - #7 +84 Aug .233 .349 .342 .691 - #7 +116 Sep .208 .310 .333 .643 - #7 +102 Barry Larkin 22 #7 April .273 .325 .338 .663 - #5 +52 May .308 .345 .462 .807 - #3 +37 June .341 .429 .488 .916 - #2 +88 July .296 .342 .479 .821 - #2 +46 Aug .333 .412 .400 .812 - #4 +79 Sep .000 .227 .000 .227 - #8 +227 Alfonso Soriano 22 #8 April .341 .381 .432 .813 - #2 +40 May .235 .279 .426 .705 - #5 +44 June .325 .358 .487 .845 - #5 +33 July .239 .292 .523 .815 - #3 +53 Aug .286 .333 .518 .851 - #3 +47 Sep .254 .301 .522 .824 -#4 +47 There are two rankings here. OPS & OBP-BA. OBP-BA is a measure of how well a guy can get on base w/out a hit. Ranking OPS, OBP-BA: Ray Durham 23 #3 , Eric Byrnes 23 #5 , Jimmy Rollins 26 #4 - Ray is the best, but Eric & Jimmy are very close. Alex Cora 32 #1, Luis Castillo 36 #2, Polanco 30 #6 - Alex is the least likely to hurt you if he's in a hitting slump. Barry Larkin 22 #7, Alfonso Soriano 22 #8 - Both of these guys for the most part need a hit to get on. Ignoring price I would choose Ray first, Eric second, & Jimmy third. If I couldn't get any of them then I would chose Alex forth, Castillo fifth, & Polanco sixth. If none of them, Soriano 7th & Larkin last. In terms of price: Soriano 7.4M, Ray 7.2M, Castillo 4.7M, Polanco 4M, Jimmy 2.5M, Cora 1.3M , Larkin 700K, Eric 328K Factoring that in, then the pecking order is: Eric first, Jimmy second, Cora third, Durham forth, Castillo fifth, Larkin sixth, Polanco seventh, & Soriano last. Lastly it all depends on what we have to give up. We should give up the least to get Soriano & give up the most to get Eric. That's how I read it.

On the one hand you have the unknown & the other hand you have proven success or failure. You are going to put more stock in proven success than the unknown. No matter how you look at Ray's stats there is a bigger upside in his at bat for the CWS than that of Polanco, Castillo, Rollins, or Byrnes. You can do the same thing for the NL. Look at how well each of them did against the best pitchers in the NL. Ray still comes out ahead. Now D the other 3 guys might be better & a guy with great range to his L & R might be worth sacrificing some power at the plate. But let's not forget the loss of Maggs & Lee in the 3-6 spot. It's foolish to believe that the Rowand-Thomas-Koney-Dye is going to generate the same runs as Thomas-Maggs-Koney-Lee. Ray would help make up for that loss of power.

It's really not hard to look up. Ichiro vs ALC: vs. CLE .360 .383 .459 .842 vs. DET .345 .385 .482 .867 vs. KAN .313 .389 .465 .854 vs. MIN .306 .324 .352 .676 Ichiro vs West, CC : 733, 1160 Ichiro vs Mor, Joh : 619. 1166 Ichiro vs San, Rad : 500, 885 The difference with Ichiro is his BA is good despite a low OPS. vs West he hit 286, vs San he hit 250. Great fit.

Go to ESPN & look up pitcher vs batter. Those teams still have Sabathia, Westbrook, Moroth, Johnson, Santana, & Radke as their front men. Ignoring the facts is idiotic.

There is nothing different about Radke, Santana, Silva, Lohse, & Mays. If you don't have players who can hit against them you can't win. Ray can. Much better than Rollins, Polanco, Soriano, Or Castillo can expect to. You need to face reality. For the past 3 yrs we've had guys who can't hit the top pitching in the ALC. You can't expect to win a division with that.

This would look better: Pods Durham Thomas/Rowand Koney Rowand/Dye Dye/Everett Uribe AJ Crede Take a look at Rays numbers vs the ALC & Westbrook, Sabathia, Moroth, Johnson, Radke, & Santana. He's exactly what we need.

More reasons to vote for Ray: 02-04 team vs: vs. CLE .300 .380 .450 .830 vs. DET .395 .448 .663 1.111 vs. KAN .266 .365 .406 .771 vs. MIN .391 .459 .594 1.053 He owns MIN.

Look at his numbers vs the ALC. They're bad & I don't mean good.

If you're going to look at it as 5 for 1 then throw all the $ on the table. Could the CWS have done better than Hernandez+Vizc+Pods+AJ+A mler for Lee+(9M). The total of those contracts = 9M. +1M over the cost of Lee. I believe they could have.

Ray's monthly avg's: April .284 .338 .446 .783 May .261 .320 .304 .624 June .339 .431 .559 .990 July .221 .297 .423 .720 Aug .234 .333 .477 .810 Sep .374 .467 .571 1.039 Ray's 3 yr monthly avg's: April .301 .385 .437 .822 May .282 .368 .376 .744 June .297 .398 .410 .808 July .257 .321 .482 .803 Aug .273 .359 .500 .859 Sep .304 .387 .498 .885 Oct .308 .308 .615 .923 Ray's post-season avg's w SFG: 02: .333 .417 .762 1.179 03: .235 .316 .235 .551 - no one could hit Beckett Ray has success vs our greatest nemesis, finishes strong, & avg's 250+ month to month. No serious downside risk. He's also avg'd close to 14 SB a yr so he still has speed. I don't know what SFG want for him but if they throw in some cash he's definitely worth the price.

I prefer Durham over Boone.

No it's not. You don't look at stats close enough. Why has the CWS lost the div 3 yrs in a row? Because the top 6 ALC pitchers have shut them down. They own winning records vs the CWS. Anybody can hit the weaker pitching but can you hit the best pitching of your rivals? Those are the guys you need to win. Period.