Cubs apparently sign Reed Johnson for some reason

[Sammy Sofa]

Debatable.

[jersey cubs fan]

Oh man, I can't believe they signed a marginally useful bench player to continue being a marginally useful bench player.

 

Debatable.

 

Debatable, but not worth debating, because it's Reed Johnson and it makes nary a dent on the overall team salary. It's inconsequential.

 

He's one of 25 guys on the team. It's hardly inconsequential.

[Rob]

Are we even certain Reed got a major league deal?

[jersey cubs fan]

Are we even certain Reed got a major league deal?

 

Not that I know of, but if he signed a minor league deal already, after last season, he should consider firing his agent.

[Guest]

Last year the Cubs gave nearly 5% of their plate appearances to Reed Johnson. This isn't the minor league roving infield instructor, it matters.

[JoshiQ]

I've never understood the whole "It's a small decision, so even if it was a bad one, it doesn't matter." Why not make as good as possible decisions all the time? Or is that expecting too much?

 

And yes, I still have faith in Theo and haven't given up on him already.

[WilcoFan]

Five pages of OH NOES! for the signing of a fifth outfielder? Jesus.

 

This place has gone off the rails.

[JeffH]

Reed Johnson is the kind of guy who might be able to get you another team's Kyler Burke or Lendy Castillo at the trade deadline.

 

Is that worth a million dollars? I don't know.

[Guest]

Five pages of OH NOES! for the signing of a fifth outfielder? Jesus.

 

This place has gone off the rails.

 

Signing bad old players is completely indefensible and therefore deserves criticism by all, even if it's fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme.

 

It's a bad move any way you look at it and I don't understand why they intentionally made a bad move.

[JoshiQ]

Five pages of OH NOES! for the signing of a fifth outfielder? Jesus.

 

This place has gone off the rails.

 

It's Cubs news. What else should we be doing? Sitting around and reading old game threads?

[Guest]

Five pages of OH NOES! for the signing of a fifth outfielder? Jesus.

 

This place has gone off the rails.

 

I'm not really excited one way or another, but locking up your 5th outfielder before you fill the gaping hole at 1b is reason enough for me not to blast fellow NSBBers for being a bit agro about this offseason.

[C.C.]

I'm calling it now - The Theo era is a complete failure.

[Four and Twenty]

I'm calling it now - The Theo era is a complete failure.

 

We down to 15% yet?

[RynoRules]

I'm calling it now - The Theo era is a complete failure.

 

Yup. We should definitely storm the castle soon.

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GZAB_enUS443&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=Uk4NjuiF1tZgkM:&imgrefurl=http://www.vinegeek.com/2010/02/mourvedre-monday-7-grosnore-2006-bandol/&docid=jpFembmo5fSNVM&imgurl=http://www.vinegeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PrincessBride_HaveFun.jpeg&w=720&h=395&ei=_zfyTtbNO4eFsgKfr6TbAQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=172&sig=116655767877162051678&page=1&tbnh=99&tbnw=180&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=136&ty=44&biw=1091&bih=491

[CyHawk_Cub]

Just piling on, but seriously? Flaherty was left unprotected so Reed Johnson could be signed??? Really Theo/Jed???

[Little Slide Rooter]

Just piling on, but seriously? Flaherty was left unprotected so Reed Johnson could be signed??? Really Theo/Jed???

 

Don't be silly. Jeff Bianchi got Flahertys spot. Johnson gets Marwin Gonzalezes.

[17 Seconds]

when is the press conference

[jersey cubs fan]

Five pages of OH NOES! for the signing of a fifth outfielder? Jesus.

 

This place has gone off the rails.

 

There's a hell of a lot of douchebag "oh my god you guys are freaking out over nothing" posts contributing to that total.

[Clem Fandango]

Oh man, I can't believe they signed a marginally useful bench player to continue being a marginally useful bench player.

 

Debatable.

 

Debatable, but not worth debating, because it's Reed Johnson and it makes nary a dent on the overall team salary. It's inconsequential.

 

He's one of 25 guys on the team. It's hardly inconsequential.

 

He's probably capable of putting up at least a .700 OPS as a bench player. Last year was obviously smoke and mirrors, but as a 25th man he's not going to destroy the team. Could you have filled the spot internally? Sure, saving you about $1 million, but the minor league filler has no guarantee they'll even be able to hit their weight, and you probably don't want to waste a minor leaguer's development by not giving him regular at bats... so you could spend that $1 million extra and get a guy you can probably predict will give you exactly that much value ($1.5 million) and not have to worry about it. It's a nothing move and certainly not anything to get worked up over.

 

If it doesn't work, trade him for minor league filler or cut him and his paltry salary and be done with it

[WrigleyField 22]

Reed Johnson's skill set make him a good 5th OF. I think the concern is that he'll be paid more like a 4th OF. And he'll probably actually serve as our 4th OF. That part I can deal with if he wasn't goin to get a million or more dollars.

[CincyCubsFan]

Reed Johnson in a useful piece on a competing team. He's not as useful on a team destined to be in the basement of the NL Central next season.

[jersey cubs fan]

He's probably capable of putting up at least a .700 OPS as a bench player. Last year was obviously smoke and mirrors, but as a 25th man he's not going to destroy the team. Could you have filled the spot internally? Sure, saving you about $1 million, but the minor league filler has no guarantee they'll even be able to hit their weight, and you probably don't want to waste a minor leaguer's development by not giving him regular at bats... so you could spend that $1 million extra and get a guy you can probably predict will give you exactly that much value ($1.5 million) and not have to worry about it. It's a nothing move and certainly not anything to get worked up over.

 

If it doesn't work, trade him for minor league filler or cut him and his paltry salary and be done with it

 

This attitude makes very little sense to me. It's convenient to label him as the 25th man, but reality probably has him much further up the chart than that. He's a garbage old veteran who does nothing for the team now or in the future. Nobody is labeling this a franchise killer, it's just an annoyingly worthless signing in what has been a horrible offseason for anybody who actually cared about how well the Cubs perform in 2012.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

He's probably capable of putting up at least a .700 OPS as a bench player.

 

I'll take the under on that. I don't think people are really taking in how bad his 2011 peripherals were and how amazingly fluky his BABIP was.

 

He's a 240/290/390 hitter at this point in his career. And that's assuming his age-35 season doesn't get even worse.

[Clem Fandango]

He's probably capable of putting up at least a .700 OPS as a bench player. Last year was obviously smoke and mirrors, but as a 25th man he's not going to destroy the team. Could you have filled the spot internally? Sure, saving you about $1 million, but the minor league filler has no guarantee they'll even be able to hit their weight, and you probably don't want to waste a minor leaguer's development by not giving him regular at bats... so you could spend that $1 million extra and get a guy you can probably predict will give you exactly that much value ($1.5 million) and not have to worry about it. It's a nothing move and certainly not anything to get worked up over.

 

If it doesn't work, trade him for minor league filler or cut him and his paltry salary and be done with it

 

This attitude makes very little sense to me. It's convenient to label him as the 25th man, but reality probably has him much further up the chart than that. He's a garbage old veteran who does nothing for the team now or in the future. Nobody is labeling this a franchise killer, it's just an annoyingly worthless signing in what has been a horrible offseason for anybody who actually cared about how well the Cubs perform in 2012.

 

The Cubs current depth chart has Blake DeWitt and Brian LaHair as backups for our outfielders. The only legit OF backup we have on the MLB roster besides Campana is Reed Johnson, since we traded Colvin. There's no way they'll use Jackson as a backup OF, so he'll either start in the minors to get AB's or they'll move Byrd so he can start. In that situation then without Reed Johnson, Campana is the only other OF backup, and he kinda sucks something fierce.

 

The AAA options we have are Lou Montanez, Brad Snyder, and Matthew Spencer (going off their AAA roster). Snyder and Montanez have a combined MLB OPS of .485 in their limited trials, Spencer has zero MLB experience and doesn't appear to be fit for a MLB team whatsoever. Snyder might have been the best internal option

 

If Johnson ends up with a .680 OPS, what are the odds that it will be better than anything Montanez or Snyder or Spencer could put up? It could possibly be much better, which is depressing.

 

Reed Johnson is a necessary evil, and his cost is not a burden, and as such people should just accept the fact that he's there and that it really won't make a huge difference one way or the other because whether you like it or not, sadly, he's more of a safe bet than our alternatives, and maybe Theo & Co. view that as a worthy of an extra million to gamble on.

[jersey cubs fan]

Reed Johnson is a necessary evil, and his cost is not a burden, and as such people should just accept the fact that he's there

 

He's absoulutely not necessary in any way shape or form.

 

And that next line is BS. It's stupid. Why do we have to just accept the fact that anybody is here if we don't agree with that player being here? If the team signs Niefi Perez and you don't like it, you don't just have to accept that he's here. It's a freaking message board dedicated to the Chicago Cubs. The very reason for this site's existence is for people to discuss the team and it's players, good or bad. If management signs a crappy old veteran to a guaranteed contract (not confirmed as far as I know) then we have every right to bitch about it.