TCR Friday Notes
I'll make this brief and please continute to use the "Blue Christmas?" thread for the Prior/Tejada trade talks.
- The Jones signing does nothing for me, just like every other move the Cubs made this off-season beyond maybe Juan Pierre. As has been mentioned numerous times, if this is piece #1 of a right field platoon where the short end of the platoon is filled by Craig Wilson, Kevin Mench or some other masher of lefties, then it's brilliant. But Jones isn't going to sign with a team that is going to platoon him, Dusty will doubtfully platoon him and Hendry will most likely not provide a platoon partner. So barring further manuevers, this is another ho-hum move by the Cubs this off-season, that does very little if anything to make them better for next season.
- Troy Glaus has been rumored to be on the trading block all off-season and it appears that talks have heated up with a rumored unnamed team from the NL in the works. I'm a big fan of Glaus, he's got unreal power, a great eye, and one of the smoothest strokes for a right handed hitter in the game. Sure he K's a lot, but I think the rest of his game offsets that and although his defense has taken a bit of a knock lately, it's still better than what we currently have manning the hot corner. So I ask, why not try and use Aramis Ramirez as the trade bait for Miguel Tejada? It appears the O's want a big bat to offset losing Tejada if they move him and no doubt that Ramirez would fit that bill. Glaus has a hefty contract, but not one that he can opt out of after this season like Ramirez. I do try and avoid these types of shenanigans, but I can't resist:
O's get Aramis Ramirez, Ronny Cedeno and maybe Jerome Williams
D'Backs get Corey Patterson, Rich Hill and Todd Wellemeyer
Cubs get Troy Glaus and Miguel Tejada
The D'Backs from what I can gather are looking for pitching and a center-fielder and have expressed some interest in Korey in the past. Ideally, they'd like to find a new CF, shift Shawn Green back to right and move Chad Tracy back to third while unburdening themselves of Glaus's contract. The Cubs take on a whole lot of salary and honestly I'm not sure if their budget would allow it. I would prefer just to part with Cedeno and Ramirez to the O's and see if that would suffice in getting us Tejada. If Ramirez/Cedeno would suffice, then use Williams, Hill and Korey to land Glaus. I'm not sure what the O's do with Melvin Mora, although he's certainly capable of moving back to the outfield. There's also the potential of Tejada requesting a trade after the 2006 season (I believe he has that right), which could be a bit sticky. There's some problems with the deal and it's all hypothetical, but I like Glaus/Tejada/Prior on the team more than I like Tejada/Ramirez/Some other SP. Dream lineup:
CF Juan Pierre
SS Miguel Tejada
1B Derrek Lee
3B Troy Glaus
RF Jacque Jones/ Should be platoon partner
LF Murton
C Barrett
2b Neifi/Hairston
- Happy Holidays to all the TCR faithful. Thanks for reading and look forward to another fun year in 2006.
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