It's time for me to give credit to Hendry for the offseason.

[abuck1220]

marquis is a signing that should have been made. hes not really an upgrade over say marmol in the rotation.

 

depends on your assessment of Marmol. I've thought for at least a year now that Marmol's repertoire was better suited for the bullpen, so I'd have put him there coming into this year. The alternates for the rotation would've been (for me) Guzman and Gallagher.

 

couldn't have said it better myself. marmol's performance this season has made a strong statement that his career will be in the bullpen, and it looks as if it will be a pretty successful one at that.

 

marmol's performance has made a strong statement that a young guy will need some time to adjust to the majors. he's not a one-pitch guy or someone who doesn't have any stamina...he could be an effective starter.

[TruffleShuffle]

marquis is a signing that should have been made. hes not really an upgrade over say marmol in the rotation.

 

depends on your assessment of Marmol. I've thought for at least a year now that Marmol's repertoire was better suited for the bullpen, so I'd have put him there coming into this year. The alternates for the rotation would've been (for me) Guzman and Gallagher.

 

couldn't have said it better myself. marmol's performance this season has made a strong statement that his career will be in the bullpen, and it looks as if it will be a pretty successful one at that.

 

marmol's performance has made a strong statement that a young guy will need some time to adjust to the majors. he's not a one-pitch guy or someone who doesn't have any stamina...he could be an effective starter.

 

his changeup is pretty lousy, and his control can be spotty - which would lead to high pitch counts. He doesn't have a big frame or thick lower half, so I could see him tiring fairly easily. If he learns an effective change, I'd give him another shot in the rotation, but at this point it ain't broke, so don't try to fix it.

[baseball7897]

marquis is a signing that should have been made. hes not really an upgrade over say marmol in the rotation.

 

depends on your assessment of Marmol. I've thought for at least a year now that Marmol's repertoire was better suited for the bullpen, so I'd have put him there coming into this year. The alternates for the rotation would've been (for me) Guzman and Gallagher.

 

couldn't have said it better myself. marmol's performance this season has made a strong statement that his career will be in the bullpen, and it looks as if it will be a pretty successful one at that.

 

marmol's performance has made a strong statement that a young guy will need some time to adjust to the majors. he's not a one-pitch guy or someone who doesn't have any stamina...he could be an effective starter.

 

his changeup is pretty lousy, and his control can be spotty - which would lead to high pitch counts. He doesn't have a big frame or thick lower half, so I could see him tiring fairly easily. If he learns an effective change, I'd give him another shot in the rotation, but at this point it ain't broke, so don't try to fix it.

 

Jack McDowell says hi.

[SouthSideRyan]

for what it's worth i also said it wasn't bad. i said it was useless and overkill. if we're going to upgrade spend the extra few million and do it right. the expected difference between theriot and derosa was about 10 runs. the expected difference between derosa and durham was about 20 runs. the upgrade from derosa to durham wasnt expensive. ss was the big glaring hole and we did nothing to close it. not one damn thing.

Duh, we traded Maddux for Izturis. How much more do you want?!?

 

Julio Lugo.

[Guest]

 

injury risk?

 

Care to acknowledge a point against you for once?

 

Yes! I was waiting for someone to say that. I agree that it is there. Now if he misses exactly half the season and the other half we let Theriot play. Using just projected EqA.

 

RART (Runs Above Ryan Theriot)

42.7 470 out season by Durham

34.2 235 outs by Durham + 235 outs by Theriot

8.3 470 out season by DeRosa

 

Of course there is defense.

I guess you must have just missed it the first three times. ;)

 

I'm not sure what you were using to generate your forecast. I was a bit more pessimistic on Durham than most because I worry about the kinds of leg injuries he's had sapping players over time (Aramis says hi). I wasn't thrilled with DeRosa, either, because I figured that if his adjustment was the reason for his production that his bad second half averages (I recognize the good august, but his overall second half was bad) reflected that it was more of a lucky first half than a true breakthrough.

 

Bottom line is that I wasn't really high on either one.

 

btw - I actually wanted to sign Soriano and put him back at 2B.

[Guest]

for what it's worth i also said it wasn't bad. i said it was useless and overkill. if we're going to upgrade spend the extra few million and do it right. the expected difference between theriot and derosa was about 10 runs. the expected difference between derosa and durham was about 20 runs. the upgrade from derosa to durham wasnt expensive. ss was the big glaring hole and we did nothing to close it. not one damn thing.

Duh, we traded Maddux for Izturis. How much more do you want?!?

 

Julio Lugo.

Yeah, I was in favor of Lugo for SS.

[Mephistopheles]

i musta missed it. or it was in a part of a post i didnt read. it was me vs like 3 guys at one time.

[Jazz]

for what it's worth i also said it wasn't bad. i said it was useless and overkill. if we're going to upgrade spend the extra few million and do it right. the expected difference between theriot and derosa was about 10 runs. the expected difference between derosa and durham was about 20 runs. the upgrade from derosa to durham wasnt expensive. ss was the big glaring hole and we did nothing to close it. not one damn thing.

Duh, we traded Maddux for Izturis. How much more do you want?!?

 

Julio Lugo.

Yeah, I was in favor of Lugo for SS.

 

were you in the pro lugo at CF? egh what an idea.

 

i was pro kenny lofton though as a pie stop gap.

[Guest]

for what it's worth i also said it wasn't bad. i said it was useless and overkill. if we're going to upgrade spend the extra few million and do it right. the expected difference between theriot and derosa was about 10 runs. the expected difference between derosa and durham was about 20 runs. the upgrade from derosa to durham wasnt expensive. ss was the big glaring hole and we did nothing to close it. not one damn thing.

Duh, we traded Maddux for Izturis. How much more do you want?!?

 

Julio Lugo.

Yeah, I was in favor of Lugo for SS.

 

were you in the pro lugo at CF? egh what an idea.

 

i was pro kenny lofton though as a pie stop gap.

Nope, not in CF.

 

And I wanted no part of Lofton.

[Guest]

i musta missed it. or it was in a part of a post i didnt read. it was me vs like 3 guys at one time.

Are you admitting difficulty arguing against three mere mortals at once?

 

What type of demon are you, anyway?

[UK1679666180]

 

 

yes scouting....the only business in the world where there's no accountability.

 

 

Ask the White Sox.

[Mephistopheles]

No it's not difficult. I just don't care enough to read everything.

[RynoRules]

No it's not difficult. I just don't care enough to read everything.

 

"You are wrong! I have no idea what you wrote, but I am sure it is wrong!!!"

 

Back on topic, I think Marquis has pitched like a 4th or 5th or starter, which is fine with me for now. Lilly, on the otehr hand, has shown himself to be at least a no. 3, or a solid no. 2.

[Backtobanks]

As I've said many times before, Hendry is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. When he signs somebody, he overpaid. When he trades, he gave up too much. If he doesn't trade or sign somebody, then he's not doing anything. He has paid a ton of money for many players, but how can we be sure that wasn't the going rate. All we know are the rumors and speculation that we read as to how much a player is worth. Let's be honest, most players (and especially) free agents are vastly overpaid. Batters hitting .240 and pitchers who average 10 wins a year are the big names in the free agent and trade markets.

[oldcubsfan]

Skipping both Zito and Schmidt were outstanding moves, even though he was blasted for both non moves in the offseason.

[Guest]

Skipping both Zito and Schmidt were outstanding moves, even though he was blasted for both non moves in the offseason.

I thought the prevailing sentiment was to stay far away from Zito, though he certainly had supporters.

 

Given the differences in opinions by the people here, nothing Hendry does will go un-blasted.

[Danny82]

I can't believe all of the bandwidth that was wasted on the DeRosa vs. Durham discussion. Even if the Cubs had targeted Durham over DeRosa, there's no saying he would have wanted to come to Chicago. This is real life with 31 other major league teams potentially in the mix and just because you want one guy over the other doesn't mean you are going to get that player. Durham had played in SF for the past few years and they gave him a nice contract, I'm guessing there's a fair chance he wasn't going to leave. Unless the Cubs gave him a much heavier contract than the Giants did. Then Cub fans would be upset over that.

[JonnyRed]

Marquis sucks. Get it through your heads, he sucks. No one, not even I, said the Cubs didn't improve themselves significantly this winter. It's just that it could have been done at a fraction of the cost and Hendry isn't smart enough to do it. Hendry deserves ZERO credit. NONE. It's that simple. Try and argue with me again. You won't win.

 

It's easy to criticize, but much harder to offer solutions. So, what would you have done "at a fraction of the cost" to put the Cubs in the same position they are currently in?

 

(If Marquis sucks with 6 wins and a .367 ERA, then there are one heck of a lot of terrible pitchers in the game today.)

[Mephistopheles]

ooooh wins!

 

ooooh his era is a rising disaster.

[BigbadB]

DeRosa was a good signing, plain and simple. He wasn't on my radar in the offseason, but when you think about his ability to play many positions and tie that in with how limited the Cubs have been in overall depth, DeRosa was a good pick up. I will hold out that I didn't feel like the Cubs would or should go into the season with DeRosa set as an everyday player. That offsets the value of the signing, IMO.

 

Derrek missing several months last year had Mabry and Walker playing 1b. Aramis being injured had next to no one available to fill the hole. There was no outfield depth until they got Nevin, and the season was pretty much done already at that point. Looking back at previous years, you had a good bench guy starting in LF (Hollandsworth) and no one decent as a back up. The last time the Cubs had any decent depth was in 2003.

 

What DeRosa provides is quality bench depth, yet the Cubs didn't really sign him to be bench depth, and I think that's where the deal looks bad.

 

I would have been much happier with Durham or Giles AND DeRosa. Of course, that's ignoring the fact something drastic needed to happen at SS as well.

 

Overall, I gave Hendry an (A) for his offseason moves. I felt he did enough to go out and win the division in the NL Central. If this team played in the AL East, the team he assembled wouldn't be good enough.

 

I wanted Lugo, Schmidt and Drew. I admit it. I also wanted Lofton as bench help, although Lofton wasn't interested in being a bench guy.

 

It's the kids who are making the difference, however. Guys who were not expected to step up have done just that.

[Bluescale]

(If Marquis sucks with 6 wins and a .367 ERA, then there are one heck of a lot of terrible pitchers in the game today.)

 

Wow...Marquis is having a better season that I thought, and his run support must be worse than I thought...

[Guest]

Here's what I wanted to do this past offseason: Article

 

I do kind of wish we had won the bidding for Iwamura, though.

Edited July 15, 2007 by Tim

[abuck1220]

Skipping both Zito and Schmidt were outstanding moves, even though he was blasted for both non moves in the offseason.

I thought the prevailing sentiment was to stay far away from Zito, though he certainly had supporters.

 

Given the differences in opinions by the people here, nothing Hendry does will go un-blasted.

 

when you have a payroll nearing $100 mil and you struggle to reach .500, the gm is going to get blasted...deservedly. i have a hard time feeling sorry for hendry given how the team has performed since 2004.

[BigbadB]

Here's what I wanted to do this past offseason: Article

 

I do kind of wish we had won the bidding for Iwamura, though.

 

The linky no worky. Iwamura would have been good, too. I had a big list of 2b's I wanted this offseason, and DeRosa wasn't on it.

[Guest]

fixed