Cubs, JP/Closer, Bill Hall - Whats in a name?

- Ross calls the Cubs a poor mans Red Sox and I agree. Wrigley/Fenway, the World Series drought, AL/NL, high payroll vs higher payroll, etc. Well anyway, I was thinking about the Cubs and they have some serious talent this year. If things pan out they could come out of the NL in October. Matt Murton and Jacque Jones are solid role players with some pop at the corner outfield positions. Cubs went out and paid Soriano some serious cash to come play Center Field. He should provide some real power, speed, and production in this lineup. I don't think he replicates last year, but anything close is going to add wins and let you ignore his defense. The middle infielders are nothing special, but Izturis is slick with the glove. If Derrek Lee comes back and picks up where he left off when he was healthy, then you get a top 5 player. Lee is a gold glover and in '05 he hit a ridiculous .335 and cranked 45 dingers with 50 doubles. At third base you've got Aramis Ramirez who started slow last season but came on strong and hit a quiet 38 HR. Aramis has real life power. Hes still young and could always take another leap. Then you got Michael Barrett behind the plate who doesn't mind punching Pierzynski in the temple, or turning into one of the better hitting catchers in the NL. Thats a nice looking team on paper. D-Lee, Soriano, Aramis is a monster 3/4/5 or however they decide to hit them. Wild man Zambrano is a top 10 pitcher and anchors the staff. Who knows what you'll get from Wood/Prior. Keep your eye on Rich Hill though, filthy curveball. He could do some damage in the rotation this season.

- Closer situation for the Sox is still wide open. Piniero has been pitching better but still who knows with his new mechanics and resume of crappyness. Timlin seems like a long shot. Tavarez? Are you kidding me? No thanks. MDC and Hansen need to pitch well in a regular role first.

I wish we had Papelbon back there still. If his health, and the health of the staff, permit it, he could be back closing at some point. Especially if Lester is ready for the rotation. Papelbon can be a solid starter, but he can be a dominant closer for years to come. The kid has the attitude, composure, and explosive fastball to rack up important K's like he did last year. When he is only pitching one inning, he can let it fly and throw 97. (I just picture A-Rod chasing that high exploding heater and love it.) Over the course of 7 innings he needs to pace himself and sit around 92. He still needs to refine his curve and other secondary pitches before he can be lights out as a starter. You'll see some hanging curves get smoked over the fence this season. Its going to be weird to see JP fail sometimes like a normal human. I was always an advocate of moving him back to a SP, but now I would feel more comfortable with him trotting out to slam the door shut in the 9th on a nightly basis. The way you can sum it up is by asking a NYY fan what they would rather have us do. They'll tell you how happy they are to not have to face JP in the 9th. It was a huge mental edge. More so than the stats will show. Quality SP is scarce in the league right now and I'm sure Theo and Co. will figure out if hes more valuable throwing a solid 200 innings as a SP, or a dominant 70 innings as a closer.

Ideally the closer role is filled internally, but don't let the Sox convince you they aren't exploring other options. Nipper was scouting Turnbow from the Brewers and Julio from the Diamondbacks this week. Rumor was that we also inquired about Armando Benitez from SF, Linebrink the Padres setup man, Brad Lidge, and most interestingly Chad Cordero of the Nationals. I really don't know what we are going to do, some bullpen depth would be nice though. I would love to see Cordero in a Sox uniform personally.

- I have a theory on Bill Hall and why casual baseball fans do not even know who he is. Bill Hall belted 35 hr with a .900 OPS for the Brewers last year while playing SS, 3B, 2B, and CF. Someone with that kind of power and versatility must be invaluable right? Well he was only worth a 4yr/24m contract extension. 6m per yr is a lot of money for the Brewers to hand out, but not much when you consider we signed Lugo for 4yr/36m in the same offseason. Remember we signed Lugo for his offense. Lugo had a slightly better batting average than Hall, but didn't share his power (12HR, .762 OPS). So why does Bill Hall fly under the radar? First of all, Hall plays in Milwaukee. Low budget NL teams don't get the same sportscenter burn as the AL East soap operas. Second of all, Hall is labeled as a utility man. Instead of that being a positive connotation, its incorrectly perceived as him not being good enough to stick to one position. Its strange how that works. If he was a full time SS he would have led the league in HR at his position. Third, the fans and people who were aware of and followed Halls big year, think it was fluky. Hall jumped from 17HR to 35HR and ppl expect a large regression to the norm in '07. In reality a small regression is expected, but those 35HR were not luck, Hall absolutely improved. He increased his fly ball rate, stopped consciously trying to hit HR, and hit the same amount of doubles as he did the year before. My last reason why Bill Hall is underrated? Its his name. Bill Hall is a generic, boring, white guy's name. The simple name compounds with the lack of a definitive position to keep Bill Hall from having his own identity. Don't worry though, the Brewers know what they've got. It looks like Hall's bat speed and versatility has won him a more consistent role this season. Hall is penciled in to be the every day CF and cleanup hitter for the Brew Crew. I expect another 30HR and some big numbers hitting in the meat of that order.