Video Mailbag: Capuano, Sabathia, Pierre

I sure could use some subtitles so I could watch these at work!

pierrre is not a bad player, but 9 million is way too much, thats my opinion.

and yes it was kinda funny hearing tim say suh-bay-thia

Kind of a weird question, but any clue as to how available Cody Ross (FLA) is? He can play all 3 OF positions, is decently young and has some pop.. he might be a fit in NYM.. not a great matchup though as I'm sure Florida would want prospects back and NYM's farm is basically devoid of such players.

correcting the pronunciation of sabathia? look i have no life and im telling u to get a life. i like the video mailbag. i think audio would have worked just as well but very good. as far as fmart, he has talent no question but he is raw. ive seen him play a few times and he makes great plays and then makkes great mistakes. like he said hes only 19. as for pierre, i knew that was a bad contract when they gave it to him. so did everybody else. its amazing how these people get very important jobs in their organization when they do things like that. how bout the marquis contract. matthews jr. silva. anyone with half a brain knows these were horrible decisions yet well paid baseball officials are signing these guys. it just drives me crazy.

Tim, what little hope I had of the Dodgers trading Pierre has been squashed thanks to you. Now I am depressed.

Good progress from your previous entries. You got a lot of info and opinion out and it moved along quite quickly without seeming rushed. About a minute per question seems appropriate.

The only criticism, and it is a minor one, is that it's clear you're not wearing a mic. We could hear you fine, though the audio sound did 'dirty.'

Good work!

Nice video tim. It needs to be longer!

Joelcards, exactly how is Marquis contract horrible? Considering wins and losses his contract is a bargain! Last year Marquis got paid $395,833 per win. Zambrano $688,888 per win, Lilly $400,000 per win.
Cards got a bargain with Looper $375,000 per win but took a beating with Carpenter and Mulder $13,000,000 combined and no wins. So explain to me how Marquis' contract is horrible? We cant predict the future so this years pay raises can't be considered.

i cant believe u r defending the marquis contract. his contract is backloaded so those stupid stats will be changing for this year and next. also he had an era over 6 in 06. since when does that get you a 3 year 21 million dollar deal? he actually had a decent year last year and he still doesnt have a rotation spot this year. what does that tell u? marquis is a headcase and a bum, plain and simple. and to insult the cardinals for the carpenter and mulder signings is pure garbage. they got hurt buddy. mulder was one of the best pitchers in the game before his injuries and i shouldnt even have to tell u how good carpenter was. he was the second best pitcher in baseball for 3 years and he certainly wasnt the second highest paid so u have no point. the cubs r just tossing money around trying to buy a championship. who r they the yankees? i guess next u will tell me how good of a signing fukudome was right. there is a big difference between making good decisions and having guys get hurt over making bad decisions and hoping to get lucky. look at ted lilly. he had a career year and he still doesnt look like a good deal. what does that tell u?

im still fuming over that comment. u compare marquis and his dumb contract to two guys who got hurt? wtf. look at all of the cardinals big contracts over the past 10 years. you wont find many bad ones. i cant remember a bad contract since the ron gant deal. what was that 12 years ago? the cardinals sign position players who can hit and field. pujols, rolen and edmonds are(or were) two way players. they dont pay pitching usually because its too volatile. look at suppan last year or weaver. these guys were very healthy and not very good. the cardinals arent spending money and thats there problem, that and 17 million(encarnacion and carpenter) is hurt. thats bad luck. cubs pay derek lee after his career year(steroids anyone), pay ramirez to hit homers in a bandbox, and overpay their pitching. the cardinals are a class organization, just too cheap.

Regarding the pronunciation of C.C.:

It's pronounced Suh-fatass-i-a

I agree that Marquis contract IS bad...and you can't really argue with Carps...no one saw that coming.

However, the cards should have just let Mulder walk...the contract they gave him was dumb from day 1. I personally think they gave it to him because him getting better was the only real justification to trading Haren...but now they lost that anyway and Walt is out of a job. Well...a gm job anyway.

Unfortunately my crystal ball is broken. Using my 20/20 hindsight though, I can tell you that Marquis saved the Cubs season during the first half. We would have been finished without him. Joel, your crystal ball must be working if you can name the Cubs complete starting rotation.
That being said, can you please tell me when/if the Roberts trade will take place?

Juan Pierre is so bad it hurts. Hopefully people will realize how utterly useless speed is when you can't hit or field. Teams would be hiring Olympic track stars if speed was that important.

And, yes, batting anyone behind Pierre will reduce the number of double plays they ground into. You can't ground into a double play if Pierre isn't on base.

Did the Cubs spend their money wisely on Marquis ?Probably not . He made 4.75 mill. and he went 12-9 4.60 era . Compare that to ....Padilla 9 mill. 6-10 5.76, Millwood 7.5 mill 10-14 5.16 , Mussina 11 mill 11-10 5.15 , Pavano 10 mill 1-0 4.76 , Contreras 9 mill 10-17 5.57 , Willis 6.45 mill 10-15 5.17 , Colon 14 mill 6-8 6.34 , Glavine 7.5 mill 13-8 4.45 , Eaton 6.87 mill 10-10 6.29 , W Williams 6 mill 8-15 5.27 , M Morris 9.5 mill 10-11 4.89 , Loaiza 6 mill 2-4 5.79 , Schmidt 12.5 mill 1-4 6.31 , Zito 10 mill 11-13 4.53 . My favorite is Boston spending 57 million last year and a ton of perks for 15-12 4.40 era on Matsuzaka . Of course 51 mill should be spread out for the rest of his contract , but still 6 mill for 15-12 4.40 . I'll take Marquis' contract after all .

im done with u inok. call me when the cubs win the series if were both still alive. anyways about this comment from hawkeye. u take the worst pitching contracts in baseball and use that as a defense for the marquis contract? what? just because other teams also made bad decisions doesnt mean marquis was a good one. marquis had an era over 6 the year before he got his contract. these other guys had track records that would indicate success. marquis was coming off a year when his era was over 6. what kind of dumb logic is that? so i guess with that logic, if i buy a hamburger for 10 dollars, but someone else paid 20 for the same hamburger than i got a good deal. uh no. we both got ripped off, just him more than me. i rest my case.

Please, please, please do not use wins to justify a contract. This isn't 1985. We have plenty of other good measurements to determine how effective a pitcher is.

Marquis wasn't a bad value in 2007. However, as Joelcards has pointed out, his performance better improve dramatically or this will turn out to be an awful contract.

My theory is , the more money you have to spend , the more risks and higher the risks you can make . Every contract is a risk or a gamble . Some have better odds , some don't . When Hendry signed Marquis he went by the advise of Rothschild that Rothschild could fix Marquis' problems from the year before . Rothschild probably didn't think his problems were psychological and tried to fix his mechanics .With the high rise of contracts , Hendry took a gamble that Rothschild had fixed the problems and Hendry signed him .If Marquis had pitched all year like he had in April , May , and June Marquis would have been a slight bargain .

Marquis' CONTRACT is not so far as huge and a risk as some of them . Is Marquis better than all those guys I mentioned above ...no . But his contract , which is what I'm debating about isn't as bad as other Gm's have made .If I'm going to judge a pitchers contract , I'm going to judge it by wins and era . Strikeouts are good , but you don't have to be a strikeout pitcher to win . The Cardinals won the world series off of pitchers who kept the ball low and used their defense . They didn't blow away the other teams .I'm not judging how good a pitcher is by his wins (offense has too much of a play there ) but if I'm going to judge a pitchers contract I'm going to look at innings pitched , era , and wins .

i meant strikeouts, not era.