Light the Hot Stove fires

St. Louis has the best PED program in Major League Baseball so I'm sure all three will have abnormally good years if they sign there.

 

Six World Series champs the last six years.

 

The Cubs announced today that they have hired former Cub and Phillies shortstop Ivan DeJesus as a special assistant to Lou Piniella.

This move not only brings a former Cub home to coach for his old team but it also means that he is the second best shortstop on the Cubs' ML roster behind only bench coach Alan Trammell.

Trivia note: DeJesus was one of the players dealt to the Phillies for Ryne Sandberg.

 

So what you're saying is Shawon Dunston could still start for the cubbies?

 

Yes. Don Kessinger would look pretty good too.

 

Only because the Yankees keep screwing up despite their built-in advantage.

 

So, following in your line of reasoning, the Red Sox, Mets or Dodgers must have won the World Series if the Yankees didn't, right? Time to stop whining.

 

It's a snide comment, not whining. And it's reality that baseball's system is imbalanced. The fact that some teams overcome the imbalance while others fail to take proper advantage of it doesn't change the fact that it exists.

And I'm not whining. I'm a Pirates fan, but I have written on this board that they suck mostly because they have been badly mismanaged for a long time, though baseball's system is a factor.

 

As opposed to football's system where everybody spends relatively the same amount of money yet certain franchises suck every year and most teams are mediocre every year and the product gets more and more watered down every year and the owners make more and more money every year.

 

Yeah, who wants to copy all that success

 

A couple things:

Liriano was not rushed. He was -- if anything -- babied. Bad luck, is all.

And it would be impossible to replace Liriano for any amount of money. There are no free agent pitchers who come close to his numbers from last year or potential.

That said, the news that he wouldn't be available did lead the Twins to VASTLY overpay for Carlos Silva. Aaron Gleeman made a fairly compelling case that Silva was one of the worst starters in the majors through the totality of last season, and the Twins gave him 4.3 million.

Ouch.

 

Liriano might be the most irreplaceable player in baseball when you consider his projected stats-salary ratio for 2007. There are no other pitchers with his talent and experience level and, if there were, they'd be protected anyway.