Back Up the Truck

[SweetZombieJesus]

This team won't go anywhere without Steve Stone and Ryan Sandberg as GM and Field Manager. Bank on it.

 

Perhaps we can get Cesar Izturis for Chronically injured Aramis Ramirez?

[thefranchise]

What's Shane Andrews or Cole Liniak up to?

[Old Style]

I'd like to see Carmello Martinez in a Cubs uniform again.

[Benchwarmer]

Yeah..yeah. Take your shots. I'm tired of Hendry going after these bums, offering them long-term, high $$$, no trade contracts. And his fascination with signing Domer pitchers who are lousy. Anyone think the Shark was worth $10M bonus? Kenny Williams shows this guy up all the time and I freakin' hate Kenny Williams. Hendry has no plan and doesn't have the ability to recognize talent. Gary Hughes(he of the stupid Hawaiian shirts) is supposed to be such a great talent evaluator and he's overrated.

 

You're darn right I'm pissed.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Just relax, its just a matter of time before Ryan Harvey and Mark Pawalek are called up. Hopefully as soon as September. I cant help but notice that I havnt heard much about either this year though.

[CubColtPacer]

Yeah..yeah. Take your shots. I'm tired of Hendry going after these bums, offering them long-term, high $$$, no trade contracts. And his fascination with signing Domer pitchers who are lousy. Anyone think the Shark was worth $10M bonus? Kenny Williams shows this guy up all the time and I freakin' hate Kenny Williams. Hendry has no plan and doesn't have the ability to recognize talent. Gary Hughes(he of the stupid Hawaiian shirts) is supposed to be such a great talent evaluator and he's overrated.

 

You're darn right I'm pissed.

 

The question becomes how the team would be helped by releasing some of the names on that list.

 

For example, Fukudome. Why would you want to get absolutely nothing back for one of the best CF's in the league this year?

 

Harden and Gregg are both free agents after this year and both might bring the Cubs back draft picks in free agency. Losing them for nothing could only hurt the Cubs at this point and not help them.

 

Fontenot is at worst a cheap backup at 2B and still has 1 option left to be sent down to the minors. With both those options at the Cubs disposal, why should they lose him for nothing instead?

 

Bradley and Z I can sort of see, although Bradley has been turning it around quite a bit and Z has been consistently good year after year and that's a hard thing to replace in a rotation. Injury risk does come into play here though.

 

Heilman is also a free agent after the season and likely will not bring back anything in return. It doesn't really matter either way if the Cubs lose him through the waiver process or not.

 

Soriano I would agree with that I would give up for nothing. He'll likely produce in the next couple years better than this year, but having his money available for other things would still be much better than having him for the next 5 years.

 

And I don't think you'll get any argument on the benefit of losing Miles for nothing. Getting out from under his contract would help next year's club slightly.

 

So there's a few names on your list that would be fine for waiving in that fashion, but there's also several names where it would be absolutely ridiculous for the Cubs to do that move. And the Cubs cannot force another team to put in a claim for their obvious bad contracts (Soriano, Miles).

 

How would it help the 2010-2012 Cubs to let go of the rest?

[TruffleShuffle]

Anyone think the Shark was worth $10M bonus?

 

he didn't get a $10M bonus.

[Tracer Bullet]

Anyone think the Shark was worth $10M bonus?

 

he didn't get a $10M bonus.

 

No let facts get in the way of random venting

[Little Slide Rooter]

The only guy Id actually waive is Soriano. While he does frustrate the hell out of me, Im still pretty sure he has more left in the tank, but not 18mil/5 years worth. If we did put him on waivers, and some team was dumb enough to make the claim, Id suggest letting them have him, and the only thing Id want in return is for them to take Aaron Miles with him. That money could be huge for the team in the off season.

 

I highly, highly doubt any team would claim him, but you never know. If teams caught him going through waivers, they could claim him to block another team, and bam, snap the trap, and it would be Jim Hendrys greatest move since the Ramirez trade.

[Wheelimus]

What we're missing is grit. I wonder how much it would take to get Augie. Straight up for Zambrano maybe? :-))

[C.C.]

Kenny Lofton is still out there.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It's easy to poke fun. But take a look at this list:

 

Big Z, Harden, Bradley, Soriano, Miles, Fontenot, Fukudome, Gregg, Heilman

 

If you could dump all those contracts, would the Cubs be better or worse off in the long run?

 

Harden, Gregg and Heilman are gone at the end of the year regardless.

 

So now we are looking at losing Bradley, Zambrano, Soriano, Miles, Fontenot and Fukudome.

 

Fontenot is more or less a non-entity at this point, you can go ahead and not lose any sleep over losing him.

 

So now we are looking at losing Bradley, Zambrano, Soriano, Miles and Fukudome.

 

The Cubs would unquestionably be in a better situation if they could dump Miles and lose the Soriano contract, which we all agree now is horrible.

 

I'd put Zambrano on the list of contracts I wouldn't mind losing. His option has little chance of vesting, so he's basically got 3 years, $53.7 million left on his deal. That is a ton of money for a guy I wouldn't consider in the very top tier of starting pitchers.

 

Bradley is looking at two years, $21 million left on his deal. He's been decent enough this season that I'd probably keep that.

 

Fukudome has been awesome for the Cubs, but he's got two years, $26.5 million on his contract. That's about a wash. I'd like to keep it, but I wouldn't cry over losing it.

 

All in all, I'd lean toward the Cubs being better off in the long run if all of those players were waived and picked up by someone else. I'm not a big fan of trying to buy a bunch of players in one or even two offseasons, but with that kind of money you should be able to get some real impact players.

 

Edit: Reading this back over, it seemed like a good idea to start with and just got weaker and weaker. Never mind.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Hairyducked Idiot

[SouthSideRyan]

Kenny Lofton is still out there.

 

What the hell are you talking about?

[Benchwarmer]

Yeah..yeah. Take your shots. I'm tired of Hendry going after these bums, offering them long-term, high $$$, no trade contracts. And his fascination with signing Domer pitchers who are lousy. Anyone think the Shark was worth $10M bonus? Kenny Williams shows this guy up all the time and I freakin' hate Kenny Williams. Hendry has no plan and doesn't have the ability to recognize talent. Gary Hughes(he of the stupid Hawaiian shirts) is supposed to be such a great talent evaluator and he's overrated.

 

You're darn right I'm pissed.

 

The question becomes how the team would be helped by releasing some of the names on that list.

 

For example, Fukudome. Why would you want to get absolutely nothing back for one of the best CF's in the league this year?

 

Harden and Gregg are both free agents after this year and both might bring the Cubs back draft picks in free agency. Losing them for nothing could only hurt the Cubs at this point and not help them.

 

Fontenot is at worst a cheap backup at 2B and still has 1 option left to be sent down to the minors. With both those options at the Cubs disposal, why should they lose him for nothing instead?

 

Bradley and Z I can sort of see, although Bradley has been turning it around quite a bit and Z has been consistently good year after year and that's a hard thing to replace in a rotation. Injury risk does come into play here though.

 

Heilman is also a free agent after the season and likely will not bring back anything in return. It doesn't really matter either way if the Cubs lose him through the waiver process or not.

 

Soriano I would agree with that I would give up for nothing. He'll likely produce in the next couple years better than this year, but having his money available for other things would still be much better than having him for the next 5 years.

 

And I don't think you'll get any argument on the benefit of losing Miles for nothing. Getting out from under his contract would help next year's club slightly.

 

So there's a few names on your list that would be fine for waiving in that fashion, but there's also several names where it would be absolutely ridiculous for the Cubs to do that move. And the Cubs cannot force another team to put in a claim for their obvious bad contracts (Soriano, Miles).

 

How would it help the 2010-2012 Cubs to let go of the rest?

 

I stand corrected on The Shark-it was a 5 yr. $10M deal, with a $2.5M bonus. But he's just a thrower, not a pitcher. Hendry's love of Notre Dame has yet to pay off on anyone from South Bend.

 

If you can trade any of these losers and get some salary relief, I'm fine with that. The problem is that Hendry doesn't have a plan how to rebuild and he'd just go out and sign similar players to the same type of contract. I just want them out of here. That includes Larry Rothschild. A decent pitching coach would be working with Marmol on control and pitching approach. I'd move The Riot to second and get a bona fide SS in there.

 

Fukudome has been a bust. Zambrano is a joke. He's no 'Ace'. Why sign Bradley, a player with a long, long history of blowups and attitude problems. Get them outta here.

[Connor McConnor]

Larry Bittner......please.

[imb]

Fukudome has been a bust. Zambrano is a joke. He's no 'Ace'. Why sign Bradley, a player with a long, long history of blowups and attitude problems. Get them outta here.

 

Hahahahahahahahahaha

[Keener98]

Yeah..yeah. Take your shots. I'm tired of Hendry going after these bums, offering them long-term, high $$$, no trade contracts. And his fascination with signing Domer pitchers who are lousy. Anyone think the Shark was worth $10M bonus? Kenny Williams shows this guy up all the time and I freakin' hate Kenny Williams. Hendry has no plan and doesn't have the ability to recognize talent. Gary Hughes(he of the stupid Hawaiian shirts) is supposed to be such a great talent evaluator and he's overrated.

 

You're darn right I'm pissed.

 

The question becomes how the team would be helped by releasing some of the names on that list.

 

For example, Fukudome. Why would you want to get absolutely nothing back for one of the best CF's in the league this year?

 

Harden and Gregg are both free agents after this year and both might bring the Cubs back draft picks in free agency. Losing them for nothing could only hurt the Cubs at this point and not help them.

 

Fontenot is at worst a cheap backup at 2B and still has 1 option left to be sent down to the minors. With both those options at the Cubs disposal, why should they lose him for nothing instead?

 

Bradley and Z I can sort of see, although Bradley has been turning it around quite a bit and Z has been consistently good year after year and that's a hard thing to replace in a rotation. Injury risk does come into play here though.

 

Heilman is also a free agent after the season and likely will not bring back anything in return. It doesn't really matter either way if the Cubs lose him through the waiver process or not.

 

Soriano I would agree with that I would give up for nothing. He'll likely produce in the next couple years better than this year, but having his money available for other things would still be much better than having him for the next 5 years.

 

And I don't think you'll get any argument on the benefit of losing Miles for nothing. Getting out from under his contract would help next year's club slightly.

 

So there's a few names on your list that would be fine for waiving in that fashion, but there's also several names where it would be absolutely ridiculous for the Cubs to do that move. And the Cubs cannot force another team to put in a claim for their obvious bad contracts (Soriano, Miles).

 

How would it help the 2010-2012 Cubs to let go of the rest?

 

I stand corrected on The Shark-it was a 5 yr. $10M deal, with a $2.5M bonus. But he's just a thrower, not a pitcher. Hendry's love of Notre Dame has yet to pay off on anyone from South Bend.

 

If you can trade any of these losers and get some salary relief, I'm fine with that. The problem is that Hendry doesn't have a plan how to rebuild and he'd just go out and sign similar players to the same type of contract. I just want them out of here. That includes Larry Rothschild. A decent pitching coach would be working with Marmol on control and pitching approach. I'd move The Riot to second and get a bona fide SS in there.

 

Fukudome has been a bust. Zambrano is a joke. He's no 'Ace'. Why sign Bradley, a player with a long, long history of blowups and attitude problems. Get them outta here.

 

Please tell me how Fukudome's .851 OPS as a CF is a bust? Im going to guess thats at least top 5 CF in all of baseball. Bradley is getting on base at a .400 clip, and has been on fire the entire 2nd half. Zambrano may not be an "ace" but hes a damn good pitcher when healthy.

[dew1679666265]

Please tell me how Fukudome's .851 OPS as a CF is a bust? Im going to guess thats at least top 5 CF in all of baseball. Bradley is getting on base at a .400 clip, and has been on fire the entire 2nd half. Zambrano may not be an "ace" but hes a damn good pitcher when healthy.

 

Kosuke's .850 OPS is good for third best center fielder in the majors this season (with a minimum 300 PAs).

 

Bradley's .398 OBP is good for third best among all right fielders in the MLB this year (again, with a minimum 300 PAs).

 

Both of them and Z have been quite good for us this season.

[Burtonbell]

What's Shane Andrews or Cole Liniak up to?

 

I have a Cole Liniak jersey sitting in my closet, just waiting to be used. This would be super sweet! Make it happen!

[Burtonbell]

Please tell me how Fukudome's .851 OPS as a CF is a bust? Im going to guess thats at least top 5 CF in all of baseball. Bradley is getting on base at a .400 clip, and has been on fire the entire 2nd half. Zambrano may not be an "ace" but hes a damn good pitcher when healthy.

 

Kosuke's .850 OPS is good for third best center fielder in the majors this season (with a minimum 300 PAs).

 

Bradley's .398 OBP is good for third best among all right fielders in the MLB this year (again, with a minimum 300 PAs).

 

Both of them and Z have been quite good for us this season.

 

It has been amazing to watch the games and see Bradley's OBP rise just about every game he has played in the second half.

[dew1679666265]

Please tell me how Fukudome's .851 OPS as a CF is a bust? Im going to guess thats at least top 5 CF in all of baseball. Bradley is getting on base at a .400 clip, and has been on fire the entire 2nd half. Zambrano may not be an "ace" but hes a damn good pitcher when healthy.

 

Kosuke's .850 OPS is good for third best center fielder in the majors this season (with a minimum 300 PAs).

 

Bradley's .398 OBP is good for third best among all right fielders in the MLB this year (again, with a minimum 300 PAs).

 

Both of them and Z have been quite good for us this season.

 

It has been amazing to watch the games and see Bradley's OBP rise just about every game he has played in the second half.

 

Yeah, more slugging would be nice, but I won't complain about a nearly .400 OBP.

[Monco]

Soriano and Miles,yes !!!!!!

 

I would explore trading Zambrano and definitely trade the Dumpster(how was he forgotten?).

[Rob]

Bradley's OBP by month:

 

April - .333

May - .348

June - .377

July - .457

August - .488

[Ding Dong Johnson]

it'll be over 650 by October

[TruffleShuffle]

bradley is also 19th out of 27 RF in SLG and 17th in VORP. his second half numbers have brought him up to "all right" for RF, but he hasn't been "quite good"