As always, thank you in advance for your wisdom.

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Hi, there everybody! Happy holidays to you all.

As always, thanks in advance for your wisdom.

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Once again, thank you all for your wisdom. I tried to look this up but cannot find an answer.

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As always, thank you all in advance for your wisdom.

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Hello again.  I am sure you are all getting sick of my stupid questions.  However, I do always appreciate your input, and at the very least I have gotten over Rondell White.

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As always, thank you for your wisdom.

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Once again, thank you in advance for your wisdom

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Hello;

Once again, thank you all for offering up your wisdom to someone who does not understand everything there is to know about baseball.

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This is from Jayson Stark's article, published earlier today.

Citation:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/page/rumblings110730/atlanta-braves-shopping-outfield-bat

"The Braves feel as if they need a bat -- preferably one who hits right-handed, plays center field and can lead off. But do they HAVE to trade for a bat to win the World Series? No -- because they still run out there a pitching staff that can shut down any team's offense, in October or any other month.

So teams that have spoken with Atlanta, even in the wake of the disappointment in losing out in the Pence bid-a-thon Friday, say the Braves have no plans to do something this weekend that they wouldn't have done last week or last month -- just because Rumor Central readers everywhere think they need to make a deal.

Are they frustrated over seeing Pence go to their division nemesis, the Phillies? Oh, yeah.

Are they aggravated that the price tag Houston asked them for -- reportedly four of their top pitching prospects, two from their "untouchable" tier and two from the next tier down -- seemed as if it was steeper than what the Phillies paid? You bet.

Would they love to find exactly the right fit at exactly the right, affordable price before this deadline? No doubt about it.

But as the deadline draws closer, teams that have spoken with the Braves don't have the feeling they're close to any deal for any of the bats on their list.

They took a run at Marlon Byrd of the Cubs. Not going to be traded."

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As always, thanks again in advance for your wisdom.  Although I am always a fan, I don't have the opportunity to follow the Cubs as closely as most of you as I don't live in the area.  The games I have had the chance to watch, on WGN have been pretty depressing.

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As always, thank you in advance for your wisdom.

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Hello;  as always, thank you in advance for your wisdom.

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Hi everyone.  Thanks again for your input!

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Thanks again for your insights.

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Hi.  Thanks again for your wisdom.

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Hello, all.

Just curious and pardon my ignorance.  How much do the spring invitees/ minor league contracts cost the Cubs?  For example, Chad Tracy, Kevin Millar and the like.  How much payroll do these signings cost?  I would assume they are not completely free, even if they get cut.

I thought they were guaranteed $400,000 but I am not sure.  Does anyone have the information?

If the cost is significant, why not use the money for Nady, Millar and Tracy on something more useful?  By my calculations that is $4.5 million for a 4th OF and two has-beens.

Thanks for your answers.

Hello;  thanks to all of you in advance for your comments.

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It appears the Red Sox are pretty desperate to unload this guy.  Essentially, they have better, healthier players at other positions (including 3B now) and he does not fit into their plans.  That said, he is a proven hitter and veteran who has only won everywhere he's been.

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Once again, thanks in advance for your answers.

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Hi, everyone.  Once again, thank you in advance for your wisdom.

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Hello;  thanks in advance for your input.

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Hello; a few more questions.  Thanks for all of your thoughtful answers the last time!

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Hi, everyone.  A few questions.  Once again, thank you in advance for your wisdom.

I would ask one favor:  instead of putting in a reply such as "already discussed-- move on" or "No, are you crazy?" I'd appreciate a bit more insight.  I don't have the opportunity to read each and every post, so I may not be privvy to prior discussions.  Also, I am clearly not a great baseball mind which is why I am honestly asking these questions in the first place.

Thanks again...

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Hi, all.  Just a few questions.  As always, thanks for your insight.

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I was just thinking about how annoyed I am at all the bad moves Cubs management (yes, that means you Mr. Hendry) have made over the past few years.  Then, I managed to stumble across this.  Having lived in KC, I occasionally follow the Royals. 

Lucky me.  A lifelong Cubs fan, then I live in KC for a few years to watch the Royals and see the Chiefs get dominated by the Broncos.  Now, I live in Cleveland and my AL team is the Indians who just happen to be the team with the longest WS drought in baseball other than... well, you know that answer by now.

And of course I get to watch the Browns.  Lovely.

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As always, thanks in advance for your wisdom.

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As always, thanks for your wisdom.  Forgive me if the questions are inane.  A great baseball mind I am not.

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1.   Did anyone see Gorzellany pitch last night?  What type of pitches does he have?  I wish I had the chance, but we didn't get the game here.  It sounds like he was really impressive.

What on earth were the Pirates thinking giving him up?  Did they like Josh Harrison that much?  Gorz had a great year in 2007, is the same age as Hart, and was doing great in AAA seemingly on his way to becoming the same pitcher he was before.  For a young lefty who is under team control for many more years, it seems hard to understand how they could give him up like that.

Case in point:  how good was Zach Duke the last 2 years?  Wouldn't they want to hold onto him?

2.  2B seems to be a black hole for the team.  Why not consider someone like Jamey Carroll of the Indians?  At least the guy gets on base reliably.  The other possibility would be Omar Infante, although I'm not sure Atlanta would give him up.  Right about now, I really wish we would have just held onto the guy. 

Even Michael Eckstein might be an upgrade... he has actually hit pretty well outside of Petfield (although that's really weird, since he is a slap hitter kind of guy and you'd expect the field shouldn't make that much of a difference).

I was hoping Fontenot would be good on an every day basis, but he has really disappointed. 

3.  As the bullpen is having problems, what about someone like Arthur Rhodes or David Weathers?  I am thinking of people who might actually pass waivers.

It was my understanding that Hendry has some extra bucks to play with (I think we was going after Teahen) and people like this shouldn't cost a whole lot of dollars or prospects.

Thanks for your wisdom, as always!

Hello; hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

1.  How has Fontenot been hitting on days he has played his natural position (2B) vs. 3B? Is there a way to look this up?  I would be very interested to see if perhaps his slump as due to playing a position he was not accustomed to or comfortable with, i.e., being forced into the 3B position because of the Ramirez injury.  Certainly, he seems to be doing much better lately.

2.  Why not take a flyer on Julio Lugo?  His line this year is: .287/.352/.367.  Yes, that's not great, but it beats what we get out of Blanco/Miles.  And he could act as a backup SS which we really don't have, or be an option to replace whoever is slumping at 2B.  It would seem like a very low-risk high potential reward type deal.  I would think the Red Sox would take just about anyone for Lugo at this point since they are on the hook for his salary with no return if no trade gets made.

3.  How has Stevens looked?  I did not get the chance to see him pitch and I have been very excited about this prospect.  He was looking great when we heard news of him here in Cleveland.  I think his first game was Saturday against the Nats.  Was he impressive?

Ironically, the Indians traded exactly what they have needed this year (relief pitching) to the Cubs for exactly what WE needed (a reliable 2B that can play other positions and substitute at 3B). 

4.  Any word on how BJ Ryan has looked?  That's another one I'm very hopeful about (see Eyre, Scott 2008 Phillies.  I still cannot believe we let him go to make room for Neal Cotts...)  Hopefully, he can turn things around like Eyre did last year.

5.  How has Jake Fox looked when playing 3B this year?  I asked this before, after he had only played a couple games.  Now that he has played a few more at 3B how has he done?  Is he a realistic substitute for the position in the future? 

6.  Is Angel Guzman a free agent after this year?  I sure hope this is not his last year with the team and that he tries to rake the team for money when this is the first time he has ever contributed.

7.  Does David Patton need to stay on the roster the entire year or only for 52 games?  I thought he only needed to stay for 52 games to stay with the team.  If so, can't we now demote him to the minors and still keep rights to him?

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Hello;

I haven't been able to keep up as much as I would like, so if these are stupid questions, please forgive my ignorance.

1.  I read that Fox has finally played 3rd base now.  How did he do?  Was his defense awful or serviceable?  Maybe if Fontenot goes back to his normal position, he'll hit better like we all hoped he would.  I had thought this would be a good idea for a while, and wanted to know what you all thought.

2.  As for 2B, why wouldn't anyone consider Ray Durham?  He actually played pretty well last year (I thought so, at least).   At least as a stopgap, why wouldn't the Cubs consider this?  I know there are money issues, but how much could the guy possibly cost?  I mean, it's June and I think he's still not signed.  How much could he possibly be asking for?  And wouldn't he want to sign just to prove that he can still play a la Jim Edmonds (possibly to get a contract for next year?)

For everyone who would note that he would cost $$, I would wonder how much he could possibly be asking for given his situation ($1-2 million?), and that we paid $750K to Paul Bako to do nothing.  Wouldn't Hendry have the flexibility to do this much?!  2nd base is a disaster!

I am still wondering how we could give Miles that kind of money and not at least look into Orlando Hudson.

3.  I am sure this has been discussed before, but I can't find it on the search engine on this website.  With Vizcaino, he was actually posting a decent ERA (the rare times they actually threw him out there) when we released him.  We received nothing in return.  If they were essentially not going to give him a chance, why didn't they just release him before the season and keep Gaudin? Not that Gaudin is any better, but they were sitting there hemming and hawing about Guzman vs. Gaudin at the start of the season.  If you aren't going to give Vizcaino a realistic chance, why not release him and not worry about making a difficult decision between two young pitchers?  Thank goodness they didn't let Guzman go.

4.  Any word on ownership and what is holding this up?  There has been nothing in the news about this for a while.  I thought that JP Morgan/Chase agreed to finance the deal and that this was done.  What is the problem now?

Thanks again for all your wisdom, and sorry for asking things that may very well have been discussed elsewhere but that I can't seem to find.

Nickler

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