The difference between Jurrjens H/9 and Marquis H/9 is negligible over a full-season. Marquis also gets ground balls in half the balls in play and has posted extremely low LD% and BABIP over his entire career. He’s not a terrible play especially if the Cubs ate salary.

Is there any reason we can’t get back in on the Peavy talks other than stubborness by two GM’s? Why can’t we go after Burnett and Peavy. I understand that Escobar is a lot to give up, but we are talking about a 27 year old Cy Young winner for the next four years. A starting shortstop is a little easier to find than a Cy Young winner. Am I the only one who thinks Wren should swallow his pride a little and get the Peavy thing going again? Who knows, just maybe that would help swing Burnett our way, too.

Is ubelievable, he still thinks that he has the leverage to get a lot of good players in any deal for Peavey.

He let a really good and overpriced offer from the Braves get away and has been trying to get the best prospects from the Phils and Cubs for Peavey, when he has little to no leverage. If anyone in this saga needs to swallow some pride, it needs to start with Towers.

He has an inury risk pitcher, who has a no trade clause, and a quarter of his payroll tied up. The payroll he has to trim by 24 million, according to reports, and he is still asking for too much in a deal. He is still blabbering on to the press every ten minutes about the details of the deal and the Cubs and Phillies remain quiet.

Seems a lot like the time when he was trying to bend Wren over and take 5 of our youngsters. I think with the Cubs bloated payroll and limited trading pieces, the Towers ends up keeping Peavey and having to trade a guy like Adrian Gonzalez.

Unfortunately, the rules are seriously fucked up. If there was true revenue sharing, the Yankees wouldn’t be able to do what they do. And Boras is just doing his job – getting his clients more money. MLB has $6 billion in revenue, and it has to go to someone. As the kids say, don’t hate the player, hate the game (I’m cool now, right?). Or alternatively, you can protest the massive amounts of money the sport brings in by not going to or watching the games. The decreases the revenue and the player salaries.

Wow, what a terrible news day

The Yanks are seemingly buying yet another title. Not only that, they are overpaying. I hope they choke.

Smoltzy is showing his loyalty to the fans and the club by paying them back for all the paychecks he recieved while sitting on his butt. (Sorry, I’m speaking out of hurt. It seems money rules all nowadays. Even Smoltz)

We will lose Burnett. I agree we need a front of the rotation starter, but not at that price. If we can’t land the people we need at a decent price, then we should get the best cheap talent available and go young with Hanson. All the while hoping others in the organization step up. Throwing an obscene contract at someone out of desperation isn’t the answer for a team without very deep pockets. Yes, it will likely mean another year without a title, however, like the poster above eluded to, better that then giving away our future for one year of contention. We have a group of very talented starters and outfielders on their way. Go cheap with inexpensive veterans and hope to successfully bridge the time between now and then. Hope for the best and build a team aound our youth while simply biding our time.

That, or throw too much money at Sheets and hope he start 25 games for us.

If these numbers are true for Burnett, then there is no way we should attempt to stay in the game. We simply cannot absorb that kind of money and still field a competitive team in the future without turing into the Marlins (salary dump every 4-5 years). There is also no way I would give Lowe the four year deal he is seeking regardless of the money. I haven’t seen too many longer contracts given to pitchers that will be 40 years old at the end work out so well. Now Sheets might actually be worth a 2 year deal. Who knows? I refer back to a point I made earlier, it was a mistake to shut the door completely on the Peavy talks.