Odds And Ends: Arnett, El Duque, Crow

When Bradley signed, many of us Cubs fans were ballistic. What a terrible move. I would have loved Ibanez or Abreu a LOT more.

Raul and Bobby at least know how to be healthy, and they're both superior in the field by far.

Dempster's solid, he got what would have been the market rate for guys with his 2008 line in most years.

DeRosa should have stayed - all the crack smoked in the world doesn't ruin the mind enough to find since in the Miles signing as a result - and Vizcaino at least deserved more of a chance.

We didn't sell low on Marquis, as Marquis is a bad pitcher going on an unusual and unpredictable good first half. But let's all remember the crap he gives you every year after the ASB.

good lord does bradley look awful right now. i liked it at the time for the upside he offered, but jesus he's been terrible. as good as ibanez has been, i still don't know how his defense would have played in right field.

the cubs' pitching has been nothing short of outstanding this season, and that's with DL time for both zambrano and harden, plus z's suspension. defense has been a big part of that. soriano's obviously a butcher, but the other two outfield spots have been very good. you never know what ibanez would have been like in right, he might have cost some runs, but his offense probably would have outweighed it. all told, bradley's starting to look more and more like a huge mistake.

as for ceda/gregg, i also hated it at the time, but apparently ceda showed up at spring training "woefully" out of shape (so say the cubs TV broadcasters). maybe the cubs were really upset with his offseason training.

and while gregg hasn't been great, he only has i think 2 blown saves and has shown signs here and there of being dominant. i think with consistent work he can be ok. and woody's not exactly lighting it up in cleveland, either. you obviously never want to eat the contracts of somewhat expensive players, but gaudin's been pretty bad in san diego and i have no idea what vizcaino's been doing in cleveland. cubs bullpen's actually been pretty good lately.

i'm starting to be concerned that soriano's decline has started. after a hot april he's taken a nosedive and has shown no signs of breaking out of it. his OBP, which was never anything to write home about, is barely above .300.

"Didn't Bill James come up with this 25 years ago ?"

Yeah, at least.

And the sad thing is that not only was this stuff determined a long time ago, but since then the information has become more detailed and reinforced.

It is now known that hitters peak during their age 25 to age 29 seasons, with the quintessential prime season being the age 27 season.

And they even have thresholds for each statistic that determine how large of a sample size is required for a certain statistic for it to become a predictor of future performance.

I could've told you everything that Levine discovered through his research just if you asked me casually.

"DeRosa should have stayed - all the crack smoked in the world doesn't ruin the mind enough to find since in the Miles signing as a result - and Vizcaino at least deserved more of a chance."

I think that Aaron Miles is the worst player in baseball that's currently under contract for next season.

A career line of .285/.325/.349 shows that he essentially has zero power and mediocre plate discipline. He rarely hits the ball in the air, but he lacks the speed and athleticism to convert those groundballs into a higher BABIP.

And it's not like he's helpful on defense, as he's got a career -1.9 UZR/150 at second, and -17.2 UZR/150 at shortstop.

Basically, you have someone who has a single tool: contact.

He sucks at everything else. I'd rather have Bobby Scales on our bench.

"At least Raul is giving the Philly fans one good season... but he has to come back down to Earth next year, if not sometime this season."

What I think that we're really seeing is a really good hitter going on a hot streak in a hitters park in the easier league, which is a hitting environment that he's never regularly hit in before.

Ibanez's numbers obviously have to go down, but I think that the Phillies may have actually have proved a lot of people wrong with that move. I just thought that it made the middle of their order way too lefty heavy with Howard and Utley.

"Every time I see Aaron Miles in a Cubs uniform, I get a little hostile. I haven't felt that way since we had Ron Coomer."

I feel the same way.

Every time I saw him or Joey Gathright walk into the batters box, I would just walk away because I don't need to watch another strikeout or light groundball to the second baseman.

Moving out Edmonds, DeRosa, Marquis and Wood for Gathright, Miles, Bradley and Gregg really makes me unhappy as a fan.

what about trying to trade bradley to an AL, i.e., Indians, and get back Mark DeRosa.