The Chicago Tribune is reporting today that a Cubs’ “source” has confirmed the team is interested in acquiring Preston Wilson from the Rockies to play left field and strike out like a banshee.
At first, I was excited about the possibility of the trade, after all “Sullivan’s Travels” is a great movie. But then I remembered that was Preston Sturges, not Wilson.
Preston Wilson. Oh, yeah, the guy from “The Music Man” and “Mame”, right?
No, that’s Robert Preston.
Both Preston Sturges and Robert Preston are dead.
They’re also both better left field options than Preston Wilson.
It’s true, the Cubs haven’t had a dead left fielder since Ozzie Timmons, so maybe it’s time to try that again? Or maybe not.
A quick glance at Preston Wilson’s numbers and things don’t look so bad.
He’s a .266 career hitter with power and some speed. He even has some nice career Wrigley Field numbers (but doesn’t everybody?).
And this year he’s off to a pretty good start. A .274 average with 11 homers, 35 RBI and an .851 OPS. OK, he’s no star, but those numbers would make him the best Cubs outfielder (which, these days is much like being the prettiest pig in the poke).
Except for one thing. He plays his home games at Coors Field and that’s where he’s done almost all of his…no, scratch that, all of his damage.
Home: .310 batting average, .371 on base average, .602 slugging, 8 homers, 26 RBI.
Road: .219 batting average, .280 on base average, .384 slugging, 3 homers, 11 RBI.
Ouch.
OK, now would be a good time to point out that playing in Coors Field almost always artifically inflates your home numbers (unless you’re Mark Bellhorn and then you play there for half a year and never hit a homer) and deflates your road numbers. Even a great hitter like Todd Helton sees a serious depression in his road numbers. Good hitters who’ve left Coors Field have almost always settled in somewhere between their home and road splits from their days in Colorado, instead of just reverting to their road numbers.
Jeromy Burnitz is yet more proof of that. He’s not as good as his Coors numbers showed him to be last year (which we all knew), but he’s been better than his road numbers from last year.
OK, so Preston’s not going to hit .219 if he gets traded to the Cubs. Besides, he had one huge year and two other good ones (plus one lousy one) in Florida when he was a Marlin and Derrek Lee can tell you it’s more fun to hit at Wrigley than Joe Robbie Pro Player Blockbuster Dolphins Field or whatever that is now.
Wilson’s Colorado days can be broken into two parts. In 2003 he was healthy and did what the Rockies expected him to do. He hit lots of homers (36) drove in lots of runs (141) and struck out a lot (139). He had two knee surgeries in 2004, a minor one in April that didn’t work, and then one to fix the problems the first one caused in September, and he was a mess all year. He missed so much time the Rockies played Jeromy in center for a while (wow.)
So IF he’s healthy, you can just throw 2004 out the window. But that’s a big if. He wouldn’t be the first player to have a productive offensive career sidetracked by a knee injury.
The Rockies and Nationals apparently were close to a deal that would have sent Zach Day and Ryan Church to Colorado for Preston. Day still has plenty of potential, but I’m not so sure about Ryan Church. He’s had a nice year for the Nats, and since he’s hitting at home (and nobody hits at RFK) maybe he is going to turn into a nice offensive player. I would think the Cubs have more attractive prospects than him.
One thing we know, if Jim Bowden wants Wilson bad enough, he’ll overpay to get him. This is a guy who couldn’t throw enough money at Cristian Guzman. You had this picture of Guzman sitting in a hotel suite with Bowden tossing $1,000 bills at him until Cristian finally said, “OK, OK, now this is too much. Thanks!”
Another thing we can probably surmise is that Wilson will be a flop at RFK. That’s not a park you want to play in if you’re an all-or-nothing homer or strikeout slugger. I forsee a Nationals future for Preston that includes lots of flyballs to sort of deep left field.
If the Cubs go after him seriously, he fits with Jim Hendry’s targets of trade deadlines past. His team doesn’t want to pay him anymore, he’s near or at the end of his contract (his deal ends this year at $12.5 million) and if the Cubs will eat more cash than their competitors they won’t have to trade as much talent to get him.
While the Gary Sheffield stuff could have been pure fiction, this seems all too real.
Yay?
————————–
The Cubs called up Rich Hill yesterday and he made an unspectacular Major League debut in a game that just never happened. OK. It never happened. The Cubs did not come off a 14-0 win by falling behind 15-0 yesterday. It didn’t exist.
It leaves the Cubs with four lefties in their bullpen, if you believe the tale that Jerome Williams is going to join the rotation Tuesday night in Milwaukee, it means that before Tuesday one of the lefties needs to go away. The smart money is that Cliff Bartosh has pitched so poorly the last few times that he will safely clear waivers and go back to Iowa.
But I think it’s just as likely that Mike Remlinger is traded before Tuesday night and that Williams replaces him on the roster. The Cubs’ 40 man roster is full right now (and with Chad Fox, Nomar and Scott Williamson on the 60-day DL it’s really at 43), and general managers hate to have full 40 man rosters. So a trade that sends Remlinger away and brings back a prospect who doesn’t need to be on the 40 man seems like something Jim Hendry would want to pull off.
Besides, Nomar will be back (right?) and Williamson should be sometime late this season, so you’re going to need two more spots anyway. And it’s not like you can just waive Enrique Wilson or…oh, wait, OK, there’s one.
Fine. What do I know?
———————–
Chris Berman is hosting ESPN’s coverage of the US Open today and tomorrow. Honestly, doesn’t anybody at that network have enough sac to tell him, “Sorry Boomer, you’re too f#$%ing loud, you’ll sweat too much and you don’t know a damn thing about golf?” Of course nobody does. This is the same network that can convince ABC to let one-eyed Stu Scott be a second sideline reporter during the NBA Finals. That leads to exchanges like this.
Al Michaels: We go to Stu Scott with some news on Ben Wallace’s wife. (Mutters to self: Holy shit, is that what he’s going to talk about?)
Stu: Thanks Al, I was talking to Big Ben and he said that his wife tried to lock him out of the house because he was playin so weak. Ben told her ‘Hate the game, not the player, baby!’ But the wifey say…
Al Michaels: Are you done yet, Stu? You know the game is going on.
Stu: She say, “You not playin’, baller! You gots to play!”
Al Michaels: Can we turn his mic off, please?
Stu: ‘Cause as you know, Al, if mama’s not happy, nobody in the house is happy! Back to you!
Al Michaels: Thanks.
Hubie Brown: See here, if you’re Stuart Scott you have got to know when to be quiet. Like right, HERE! Or maybe right NOW! You’re a big-time personality on ESPN, you make a lot of money and you have no tangible skills. You need to learn to turn it off and cash the check.
Al Michaels: F#$% an a, Hube. That’s right.
You think I made Stu’s part of the conversation up, right?
I didn’t.
Ouch.
How come no mention of my assist last night?
Dinosaurs ain’t real you bitch ass faggots…shit…I hate Wrigley and all of you. Fans ain’t shit, I gots me a phd in badassedness.
No mention of my dominance? Typical.
I like how at the end of the Prince Fielder article they managed to squeeze a piece on Peter King fellating Brett Favre in there. Man, King is relentless.
It’s official: WSCR now stands for White Sox Central Radio as they announced a five-year deal to have their radio rights starting in 2006. Ugh.
Sorry, Royce wasn’t paying any attention, and don’t plan to.
No point in listening to me now.
Andy,
You must be thrilled to share Roz’s space with such greatness as me,
“Greg Couch spun the big wheel of column styles and landed on pointless today.”
Frame it. That’s great stuff, Dolan.
Dolan, you’ll have to pick up the pace to make the Wizard’s column as often as luminaries like us.
No you can hear about how great I am and how the Cubs trading me was one of the worst deals ever.
I am the smartest person not working in baseball, dub dub sir.
Don’t blame me for Chipper. I like to hit the sauce and the Chip Caray sentence in Seattle was one long blackout.
Don’t get too comfortable with the Roz Dolan, that’s my show. Dub Dub, sir.
The picture of Maddux at the top of the Dose where Greggie looks like he’s gonna puke sums up his performance uesterday.
Thank God. I hate when I turn on ESPN 1K on the drive home and the Sox are on. Since I never listen to WSCR, this is an early fathers day gift.
Wilson, on the other hand, is a bad move. He’s got sore muscles everywhere and is mostly broken. unless there’s a Miracle Max available, I’d expect maybe 12 HRs and a line at or below 260/320/450. You could prolly get the same outta DewBoys.
Did someone say sore muscles? The Big Skirt abides…now where are my roids?
You guys are crazy, I had good stuff yesterday.
You mean there is a reason to finally listen to me?
Nice move by WSCR. This allows them to paint themselves even more as the “Rage Against the Machine” sports station in Chicago. Not sure how Mike Murphy feels about it, though.
Wheeeeeee!
“Cubs manager Dusty Baker introduced Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Royce Clayton to the lively bar scene at Le Colonial”
…then he hasn’t been discovered yet.
And if he is, he better stay away from me.
I’m pretty big
Hey, if it’s sore muscles that are keeping Preston and Big Frank down, get some of my Super Blue Stuff!
Mouse over the Greggie photo, Andy captioned it for you. (Doesn’t work in Firefox, I don’t think.)
In firefox, Right click and chose “Properties”. The alt= text shows up in a dialogue box.
Nancy Reagan says to Say No to Preston Wilson. So does the Runaway Bride, and every other bitch with propped open eyelids
If Corey Patterson can pull his head out of his ass [and I don’t think that’s out of the question] then he is Preston Wilson. I’m not going to go off and trade for a guy who is essentially already on the roster and makes thrice as much money as the guy we already have. Let’s just go out and get someone, you know, better.
Shit, I’D be a better option in center.
Of course, what do I know about better options in center, since I selected my Latin buddy Carlos Lezcano over the obviously superior Scott Thompson in 1980 to play center?
Worked out so well that I was canned before we even played 100 games.
Hey, I was better than my deformed little brother.
Now we call all listen to the Score defend itself against being a North side homer radio station. Hot dog boy North can tell us how he loves the Sox, always has always will and maybe now that Teabagger Telander has been launched we can somehow get hawk and wimpy to commit a muder suicide on air. hen we’d have some progress at WSCR.
I love it when you analyze.
I haven’t taken my name out of the draft yet. I heard the Grizzlies were looking for a one-legged point guard.
Please tell me if the Cubs go out and get Preston Wilson that Korey Patterson would be the one traded, not Dubois and other prospects? If that’s not the case, this trade would be worthless. You would be getting an older righthanded hitting Patterson? One version of Korey on this team is way more then enough.Hendry can do better then this.
I think moving up Williams is a must and Bartosch is out. Although I do like the idea of trading Greybeard for a prospect. You could always pitch Bartosch in mopup duty.
You just have to hope Hendry will pull something here soon. Korey isn’t going to get any better. I think Hollandsworth and Dubois are at their pennicle right now too. The Cubs definitely need another stick for some offense.
GO CUBS!
Baker Basher
Wouldn’t want to trade me. I’ve got superstar written all over me!
Hey Everett, come here you motherfucker, I got something for ya’.
Who is the babe who does the Mercury commercials?
I just can’t figure this team out. I get pessimistic about them, and then Sergio Mitre pitches a shutout in a 14-run win. So, then, I want to be optimistic about their chances, but then you have the non-existent game from yesterday… It’s just all so confusing…
Unless the NL adopts the DH, which according to Jim Palmer on a telecast from earlier this week they should, I should be dangled out there in any package.
It’s true, a few nights ago I said that the NL is boring and it’s no wonder that they can’t fill their parks, or keep their fans awake, then to be funny I said “yawn”. Seriously me and my partner ripped the NL on and off for a few solid minutes. I think Carl Everett and I should be banished to Siberia, or worse, Wisconsin.
Someone should tell Jason Dubois about Grandpa Mosies’ urinary batting techniques. Corey could swim in piss, but I don’t think it would help. Corey should bat right-handed and check swing everything to third.
If the White Sox don’t win the World Series this year, we can all look back at this tragic outburst from Carl Everett as being the reason why. Gotta go, its time for Will and Grace!
All-City catcher poll shows Hank White with 2 votes out of 393. Total bullshit. A call to arms, VOTE HANK!!!!!!!!!!
And I’m third.
Vote for me! Please?
Vote for me!
Listen, I beat the Chisox with my bat! I slap Carlos around to keep him in line. And I don’t knee trainers in the balls.
Vote for me!
Listen, I beat the Chisox with my bat! I slap Carlos around to keep him in line. And I don’t knee trainers in the balls.
Hank you just matched your vote total in posts.
Yeah, we need the designated hitter in the National League. Also aluminum bats and celebrities singing “Take me Out To The Ballgame.”
Remember me? You all were living in a different universe on me. It was before Hendry was the G.M., before Bruce Kimm was hired, before that lackwit Mohamed Atta and his fag buddies decided to jack a couple planes and kill thousands of people one morning. Yeah things were just different then.
The Cubs, were near the top of the Wild Card Race and for them, that was very good considering how late in the season I am. They trailed the leaders in the Central by just 4 games. There was no such thing as a gurgling shit drain named “Baker Basher”, back then he was known as “Baylor Basher” but he hadn’t yet learned to read and write.
Very late in my evening the Cubs were enjoying a whopping lead over the Florida Marlins. The game wasn’t available nationally so all over the country, Cub fans huddled around radios and computers to take in the action. Most of them, heh heh heh, had no inkling of how doomed their team was. The Cub lead was seven runs when the bullpen got involved and by the time Flash Gordon came on in the ninth, most of it had been squandered by the likes of Jeff Fassero and Kyle Farnsworth. With two outs and two on, Flash needed just one more strike against… of all people… Preston Wilson. That’s right, Preston, Restin’ Capital P Rest-on! I can’t remember how many 2-strike breakin balls old Preston fouled off. It was a lot. He wasn’t having the best of years, had plenty of K’s but I can still recall Steve Stone filling in for Ron Santo in the booth that night saying, “He still has PRODIGIOUS Power.” And how!!!
Flash finally had spent his wad of curveballs and with a full count elected to go with a fastball, down and away. He through it to the right spot but Preston didn’t miss it. . .
Pat Hughes: (sparse crowd going berzerk) “Now Wilson drives one in the air, deep to right, Sammy going back, still going, at the fence, and that, is, a, home run.”
Ah, that had to smart didn’t it? I really was a bad day for most of you but not nearly as bad as I was for Tom Gordon, who never pitched another game for the Cubs that season. His continued ill health in the offseason led the Cubs soon-to-be GM to trade Dontrelle Willis for… eh, you already know all that shit.
I was the beginning of an unfortunate series of events that led eventually to “Baylor Basher” renaming himself to, “Bruce Basher” after the unfortunate lackwit Bruce Kimm.
And you know on Kimmie’s first day as manager of YOUR Chicago Cubs, the damndest thing happened. Do you remember what it was?
Santo: “Uhhhh…”
I’ll tell you! The Cubs trailed (who else?) The Marlins (!) by a couple in the ninth but rallied to load the bases. Angel Echavarria came up and boy did he give one a ride to DEEP center. Ol’ Preston, bless his heart, he was on his horse I tell you. He tracked that ball down and at the last possible instant made a Mays-esque grab before face planting into what his successor in Florida would later call “Ivory”. Well you and I both know that is nothing but a bunch of pretty green leaves with a brick fucking wall behind it! BOOM!!! YOUR boy Preston hit that barrier and the ball, well, it squirted away…
Hughes: “CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! Wilson drops the ball… Patterson scores… Bruce Kimm wins his first game as Cubs manager!”
Santo: “All Right!!”
I for one hope that Preston does somehow become a Cub, just like some of my brethren longed for Neifi and Moises Alou to one day sport Cubbie Blue so they’d be even better remembered and more often mentioned by you.
Remember, I don’t hate you. God does. So remember me fondly in a couple weeks when you look up and see Preston and his doo rag roaming the knee-high grass in Wrigley’s outfield. And remind him, “Look out for that ‘Ivory!'”
Heh, heh, heh! (sigh) Gotta go back to my home in a place you all know as, “Infamy”.
9/5/01
Why can’t someone write something as eloquent for us like someone (my guess is Mike D.) wrote for our neighbor in infamy, Sept. 5, 2001?
I don’t know a Mike D. Is he a good writer?
Um, I’m the day the Great War (aka WWI) ended. Why am I a date of infamy?
Where the hell is everyone? I thought we had a game today…..
In all this excitment, I dropped my toothpick. I’m going to Subway….
I’m a Mike D! I’ll write about you Jan. 28, 1986 and Nov. 22, 1963! Let’s see… Nov. 22, 1963, I practiced with the Bears to prepare for the big game in Pissburgh! I had a great game that coming Sunday! And on Jan. 28, 1986, it was the day after the parade down Michigan Ave., and I was blotto by 10 a.m. and on a plane to a golf course in Florida somewhere by 10:30. Oh, and I was probably drunker earlier because Buddy Ryan made it official in Philly that day! What a momentous day!
Anything else happen on those days?
Some historians suggest the end of my prequel helped make me inevitable. I think madmen like Hitler and Mussolini might have been more responsible for me, but maybe that’s why it’s a day in infamy.
Hey Jan. 28, 1986,
I made my bones writing about you.
Wasn’t me.
But now my sack itches from having re-read an account of the that game. Tom Fucking Gordon can blow me, that worthless sack of rhinoceros dung.
You want a date in infamy?
Take your pick. Garvey’s homer on Saturday, or Sutcliffe’s 15-game winning streak ending at the worst possible moment Sunday.
Oh! I do love a party! I hope one of you bastards remembered to bring the Old Style!
None of that shit ever happened! Tom Gordon never pitched for the Cubs! None of you fuckers know shit! So shut the fuck up and drink your beer bitches!
I’m a Mike D., too! Maybe I can write about Nov…
Wait. I need my pudding before I can get started.
Here’s a day the Gladiator might want to forget.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B06030CHN2003.htm
Check the play by play in the bottom of the first, if you’ve forgotten.
St. Louisans treat me as the No. 1 Day in Infamy, even more than the day the tarp machine ate Vince Coleman.
After McKeon left Burnett in to give up five runs in the seventh.
AJ Burnett
“Thanks for leaving me out here you pudding eating, pitcher killing, motherfucker.”
St. Louisans and Joe Morgan hate this day as well.
I’m back, bitches!
We met El Guapo. Not only was he famous, he was so famous, he was infamous.
“The Cub lead was seven runs when the bullpen got involved and by the time Flash Gordon came on in the ninth, most of it had been squandered by the likes of Jeff Fassero and Kyle Farnsworth.”
This certainly didn’t happen on me. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B09050FLO2001.htm But I still suck.
Yeah, it’s hard for me to keep all my facts straight. The events six days later should have wiped me from all living memory but there is a lackwit out there somewhere who can tell you exactly where he was when both Wilson’s homer and the World Trade Center were hit. He can also tell you that Mabry’s single was the sorriest Texas League bloop possible and that D. Lee was hit by a two-strike pitch. That person has some issues, I can tell you.
I remember much of that game pretty well. I also can tell you that on Sept. 10, 2001, I celebrated Jon Lieber’s big win with a night out on the town, banged three chicks and went on a coke and hookers binge. I didn’t show up to the ballpark for nearly 2 weeks, and didn’t even get fined!
I am acutally the date of Bruce Kimm’s first HOME game as manager of the Cubs, and Preston Wilson hit a home run off of Kerry Wood, struck out four times and crashed into the centerfield wall on me. What a day I was. I bet you all thought you were going to get better with Baylor out of there, didn’t you? Heh heh heh!
The game on me was actually 16 innings long! And you’ll never guess who gave up the winning run!
CARL PAVANO!!!
God this is so fucking sureal! Something weird is going to happen soon.
Wilson just has to become a Cub. It IS YOUR DESTINY!!!!!
I … must … kill … Carl Pavano.
No me gusta Preston Wilson.
C’mon, I have only 16 votes! Get out there and vote for me, gang!
Hey, I’m a Mike D., and I’m eloquent too. What’s more I’ll grope, set fire to the clothes of, and batter the first cunt that says otherwise.
“You look at it in reverence but not in awe,” Baker said [about Yankee Stadium]. “Look at the monuments but don’t adhere to it too much.”
Inference doesn’t have any of these, where Dusty uses the wrong word with the wrong meaning, and the press just prints it without correction or comment. Dusty does this a lot, as do some other baseball people. Yogi Berra was one.
How about a crazy trade like this……Cubs send Patterson, Dubois, Remlinger, Brownlee, and Wellemeyer to Seattle for everyday Eddy and Ichiro.
Wouldn’t it be funny if we got run over by a bus?
I’m hurt, bitches. Can’t trade me with a pooch arm.
It doesn’t matter Brownlie, you cheat, I’ve seen.
I hope Buerhle gets traded to the Cardinals and faces me in his first start. I will KILL him. Happily kill him!
Oh yeah, Carlos?
MB55!
Gus, if you asked me “best American movie actor”, I’d be stuck between Ed Harris and Robert Duvall (probably Duvall). And to me, the greatest movie star of his generation is either Sean Connery or Clint Eastwood; I prefer Connery. But if you’re talking the guy who’s been in the best movies, I think you have to go with DeNiro. Paul Newman’s always the best thing about his movies, but he’s costarring with, say, Kevin Costner; DeNiro’s getting cast with Al Pacino, Robert Duvall or Dustin Hoffman, and he’s being directed by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, or Michael Mann.
DC Exile, you best recognize, I am one of the most underrated directors around. Slapshot, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, tell me you’ve seen these dude.