It Might Be, It Could Be ...

[MGrage]

Aloha dudes,

Provided that you haven't been in a coma in the last 24 hours you guys should have heard about the upcoming Sosa deal. So what do you knuckleheads think? While I think Sammy has overstayed his welcome here, the apparent acquisition of Jerry Hairston JR might take away alot of playing time for Todd Walker. ARGH! Now I know what the owners of Willie Harris feel. (Dave, he's a 2B for the White Sox)

The Orioles' farm system sucks for the most part but they do have a couple of pretty good prospects to choose from. I'm really hoping that Nick Markarkis is one the minor leaguers who will come over to the North side, but I'm not going to hold my breath to turn Cubby Blue.

Matt

PS. Oh great. Another Mahlan to contend with this year. There ought to be something in the constitution prohibiting this kind of stuff. Maybe I should convince Steve to take my brother Pete as a co-owner. That'll knock him back down to my level in short order ....

PPS. Just found out the prospects are Mike Fontenot and Dave Crouthers. Color me less than thrilled. Crouthers sounds like Farnsworth v2.0 and Fontenot looks like another Jerry Hairston JR. *bleah*

[Copperfields]

I'm glad to see the situation finally being resolved (hopefully). Though it was very strange to see Sosa in an Orioles cap on ESPN's baseball page. That's going to take some getting used to.

The articles in the Trib this weekend brought back a lot of memories - some of them bad (riding in the van while listening to to Pat and Ron describe Sosa's shattered bat, and hearing Andy say in disillusioned disbelief "I can't believe my favorite player cheated."), but many, many of them good (memories of home runs, several of them clutch; Sosa sprinting to RF carying an American flag (and later in the game, doing the same around the bases after a HR) - cheesy and theatrical, sure ... but it was great theater).

In the end, though, Sosa's become a joke and a parody of himself - a harmful parody, at that. It's sad that it's come to this, but this is something that had to be done. I would have liked to have seen them get more in return than they're reportedly going to get, but you know what they say about beggers. Once it became clear that the Cubs had to get rid of Sosa for the sake of the team, I had pretty much resigned myself to coming up way short on the talent end of the deal. We can only hope that having Sosa gone will raise the level of everyone else's play a bit.

I am rather worried about loss of offensive production this offseason.

David

[Nick's Picts (archived)]

Copperfields said:

I am rather worried about loss of offensive production this offseason.

I'm even more concerned that they're seriously considering bringing in Burnitz. I'd prefer they go with the young'uns. Hey, not bringing in a new OF is one way of forcing Dusty to play Dubois or even Pie.

Figure Hairston + Hollandsworth = 1 FT OF if they can work out some DL time-share agreement and skate along until early June shuffling Dubois and whoever else Dusty gets a yen to play in the other open slot and Hendry has some salary room to pull off a high-impact early-mid season trade--this could work out. I also heard talk about rolling Farnsworth and prospects to TB for Huff on WGN last night. I hope it's more than idle speculation / wishful thinking.

mutter mutter...why the heck did I ever waive Pie from my roster?...mutter mutter

[MGrage]

Ah, it's 2 in the morning and I don't have to go to work until Super Bowl Sundae.

Well, it's now official, Teddy won't have a keeper earning more than 13 cents going into the draft this year. But if I remember correctly, he didn't keep anyone with a contract of more than nine cents last year and that worked out well.

What really surprises me is the dearth of discussion about the whole deal thus far. Two huge Cub fans in Rich and Eric have been totally silent so far. It's been a while since the Perfessor posted anything so that's not too shocking. And I would have thought Steve would have tossed a few verbal cow patties in as well. It's too bad our resident White Sox fans are no longer around to chime in too.

It was weird to see Sammy in an Orioles' cap schoozing the paparazzi yesterday. Though I was convinced that the Cubs would never win with Sosa, it really hasn't sunk in that he won't be patrolling right field in Wrigley anymore. BTW Nick, if you're looking for a Cubs' OF prospect to trade for to replace Pie, I've got a shiny new Ryan Harvey who's available for the right price. Mahalo

Matt

PS. I have a couple of secret weapons I'm going to unveil at the Draft this year which will ensure my triumphant triumph. Be afraid, be very afraid ....

[Copperfields]

MGrage said:

Well, it's now official, Teddy won't have a keeper earning more than 13 cents going into the draft this year.

Wow - your projection/valuation system must not be too optimistic about Jason Bay, Phil Nevin, and Oliver Perez in 2005. I'd imagine them to be good bets to top the .13 level this year.

Regarding the lack of discussion - I think this is simply a deal that's hard to get terribly excited about. The Cubs didn't get jack in return, so you can't be thrilled with the guys coming over, but it was probably a deal that needed to be done, so it's tough to be outraged about the disparity in the talent exchange.

Adding Burnitz into the equation is along the same lines. You want to be pissed that they's sign the slug, but they've got to have somebody in RF and if Mags isn't going to sign for less than 5 years at $10+ million a year, Burnitz may have been the best they could get.

[Demreb]

I hadn't entered my .02 previously because I was sick of the media saying "Sosa's Traded! Here are the details . . . oh by the way, this is official after the players union signs off, Selig signs off, Sosa passes the physical . . ."

Now that it's official, I will steal from Roy Clark -

"Thank God and Greyhound he's gone."

I enjoyed his hop and homers years ago, but quickly grew sick (for the last 4-5 years if not more) of his "me first attitude".

I couldn't be happier. Hairston Jr. may not be much in return, but he falls into the category of "small ball" player. Get on, get over, get in. I don't mind that. I realize that Sosa and Alou won't be protecting Ramirez, Lee and Garciaparra (pray for health), but Burnitz provides us about the same Sosa would, except that Sosa has a bigger reputation. But Burnitz is better in the OF and can provide the same offense (HR and SO) Sosa would if Sosa stays off the juice.

My happiness is more emotional (tired of Sammy thinking he's "the man") but I'm glad he's gone.

It will be hard to replace the production of Alou and Sosa, but how many homeruns do you need from Sosa when you are up by six in the 8th? Alou, admittedly, was more of a clutch hitter, but I couldn't handle another season of him getting doubled off second, costing us as many runs as he had driven in, or throwing his bat down in disgust, pissing off the umpire for future at bats.

It's been said to death, but I think we improve in the clubhouse and in "baseball" approach with addition by subtraction.

[MGrage]

Copperfields said:

Wow - your projection/valuation system must not be too optimistic about Jason Bay, Phil Nevin, and Oliver Perez in 2005. I'd imagine them to be good bets to top the .13 level this year.

In my defense, it was almost 3 am and most of my higher level functions were already shut down for the night. I simply looked at the salary and not the contract so I missed Bay & Nevil. But Perez has a D contract so he'll only be 5 cents for this year so HA!

Well, I guess I shouldn't have used "earning" in the original post. I was just pointing out all his salaries would be 13 cents or less going into the draft. Except for Bay & Nevil now. Though Im guessing he won't sign either for more than two years based on what he did last year ....

Demreb said:

I hadn't entered my .02 previously because I was sick of the media saying "Sosa's Traded! Here are the details . . . oh by the way, this is official after the players union signs off, Selig signs off, Sosa passes the physical . . ."

Now that it's official, I will steal from Roy Clark -

"Thank God and Greyhound he's gone."

Who is this Roy Clark you speak of? Is he Will Clark's dad or something?

BTW, I've decided that I'm going to play Doom3 on my laptop once dropped from bidding on a player. It should make the draft go by much faster this year. I'll be sure to blast my speakers so as to annoy everyone around me like I did with my sound effects in '04.
;D Mahalo

Matt

[Copperfields]

MGrage said:

Well, I guess I shouldn't have used "earning" in the original post. I was just pointing out all his salaries would be 13 cents or less going into the draft.

Ah - that's what did it. I thought you were saying no one would produce .13 worth of value, which I thought was a nasty shot at the Splinters.

MGrage said:

I'll be sure to blast my speakers so as to annoy everyone around me like I did with my sound effects in '04.

You go right ahead and do that. Your laptop will very quickly develop a striking resemblence to Sammy's boom box at the end of last season...

David

[Nick's Picts (archived)]

So he's officially gone . . . and we've officially got Burnitz.

Here's to a full year of Prior/Wood/Maddux/Zambrano because we're going to be needing all the pitching we can get. If only the Cubs had a true closer I'd go long for him. If we win this year there will be few blow-outs and tons of save opportunities, that's for certain.

[Demreb]

"If only the Cubs had a true closer I'd go long for him. If we win this year there will be few blow-outs and tons of save opportunities, that's for certain. "

Oooh, looks like (according to the Picts) the Rebels are in the ol' catbird seat. It looks like the Cubs GRAND PLAN matches that of the Rebels by having The Wonderful, The Talented, The God Isn't He Just Every Bit Of A Stud?, MR. RYAN DEMPSTER cranking in the bullpen to save every game. Now we just need to watch him ride the Cubs straight to the Division Title, and despite his efforts, the Rebels to ninth place (sorry to insult the three teams I would assume to finish behind me).

On a side note, I am truly enjoying reading all these posts and can't wait to see you in April.