Regarding Hendry

[neely crenshaw]

yeah, he targeted set up men(and got them) when we needed a closer. genius!

 

Following the 2003 season, we were in no need of a closer. Borowski had been performing fine in the role.

 

Of course, he should have been calirivoyant (sp?) and realized Joe would get hurt and lose velocity. :roll:

 

anyone worth a salt could see we needed an upgrade at closer. jobo had a nice year out of nowhere but if you weren't scared every time he took the mound, then you have no pulse. much like we all knew we needed an upgrade at short over gonz.i certainly did want to trot jobo out in the ninth with a trip to the series on the line.

[goonys evil twin]

yeah, he targeted set up men(and got them) when we needed a closer. genius!

 

Following the 2003 season, we were in no need of a closer. Borowski had been performing fine in the role.

 

Of course, he should have been calirivoyant (sp?) and realized Joe would get hurt and lose velocity. :roll:

 

anyone worth a salt could see we needed an upgrade at closer. jobo had a nice year out of nowhere but if you weren't scared every time he took the mound, then you have no pulse. much like we all knew we needed an upgrade at short over gonz.i certainly did want to trot jobo out in the ninth with a trip to the series on the line.

 

I wasn't scared of JoBo in 2003. He was great in 2002 and the same in 2003. They did not need an upgrade at closer until JoBo's arm disappeared in the spring of 2004.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

yeah, he targeted set up men(and got them) when we needed a closer. genius!

 

Following the 2003 season, we were in no need of a closer. Borowski had been performing fine in the role.

 

Of course, he should have been calirivoyant (sp?) and realized Joe would get hurt and lose velocity. :roll:

 

anyone worth a salt could see we needed an upgrade at closer. jobo had a nice year out of nowhere but if you weren't scared every time he took the mound, then you have no pulse. much like we all knew we needed an upgrade at short over gonz.i certainly did want to trot jobo out in the ninth with a trip to the series on the line.

I'm glad you're so claivoyant. I was confident with Borowski at closer. His numbers in 2002 and 2003 were very good.

 

I guess I have no pulse...:roll:

 

I guess no pulse is better than no brain.

[UBlink]

If Maddux is a mediocre #4, then all but 1 NL team has a mediocre #4. Based on qualifying pitchers, Maddux ranks 33rd in ERA. Only St. Louis has more than 3 pitchers higher than Maddux (they have 5 :shock: ).

Maddux would be the 4th starter for Houston, Florida, Mets, Nats and Brewers, 3rd for the Cubs, Braves, Dodgers and Reds, #2 for San Diego, Arizona, Philly and SanFran, and he would be the ace of the staff for Pittsburg and Colorado.

 

If you want other stats there's WHIP (rank = 12th), OnBaseAgainst (14th).

 

I wish my mediocre investments would perform as well.

[NoDak]

I think a big part of why Hendry hasn't targeted the top free agents so far is that he never had an opening at the position played by the top FA. And he wasn't creative enough to move an Alou and sign a Vlad. Or move an AGon to sign a Tejada.

 

Tim, I don't know if I agree that Hendry has a "lack of creativity." I think it is a difference in philosophy. Let me make one thing clear, first of all: Adding Vlad or Giles when they were free agents would have been a good move.

 

At the same time, I think Hendry is gun-shy about signing guys to large/long term contracts. Would CHC have suddenly been a division winner in 04 or 05 if he had made those deals? I think the team was more fundamentally flawed than that.

 

Giles and Guerrero are the kind of players to sign when you are trying to "maintain" a spot at the top of the "success cycle."

 

For instance, Giles was acquired by the Padres at the end of 03 too late to have much effect. The following year they finished 87-75 and 3rd in their division. This year they may win their division, but that is more by "default" than anything else. While CHC is a better team than the Padres, I don't know that Giles would make that much difference.

 

The main thing that went right for CHC in 03 was that they stayed relatively healthy (Wood, Prior, Zambrano, Clement all had 200+ IP/ Lofton played well in CF, Karros was inexplicably effective...) The last two years CHC has struggled with injuries to significant players with them missing great lengths of time.

 

I certainly don't want to pardon Hendry for re-signing Perez (unless he believed that Perez would only be used to give Nomar a break every couple of months and as a "late innings defensive replacement"), or the re-signing of Jose Macias.

 

Again, I feel the claim of being "uncreative" is unfair. He got Nomar and Murton from BOS for Justin Jones, Frank Beltran, KGonz, Brendan Harris. He was creative enough to get 2 young pitchers for LaTroy Hawkins.

 

While Guerrero and Giles would be wonderful members of the team, I don't know that they would have been worth the extra money it would have taken to acquire either of them.

[Tim]

I think a big part of why Hendry hasn't targeted the top free agents so far is that he never had an opening at the position played by the top FA. And he wasn't creative enough to move an Alou and sign a Vlad. Or move an AGon to sign a Tejada.

 

Tim, I don't know if I agree that Hendry has a "lack of creativity." I think it is a difference in philosophy. Let me make one thing clear, first of all: Adding Vlad or Giles when they were free agents would have been a good move.

 

At the same time, I think Hendry is gun-shy about signing guys to large/long term contracts. Would CHC have suddenly been a division winner in 04 or 05 if he had made those deals? I think the team was more fundamentally flawed than that.

 

Giles and Guerrero are the kind of players to sign when you are trying to "maintain" a spot at the top of the "success cycle."

 

For instance, Giles was acquired by the Padres at the end of 03 too late to have much effect. The following year they finished 87-75 and 3rd in their division. This year they may win their division, but that is more by "default" than anything else. While CHC is a better team than the Padres, I don't know that Giles would make that much difference.

 

The main thing that went right for CHC in 03 was that they stayed relatively healthy (Wood, Prior, Zambrano, Clement all had 200+ IP/ Lofton played well in CF, Karros was inexplicably effective...) The last two years CHC has struggled with injuries to significant players with them missing great lengths of time.

 

I certainly don't want to pardon Hendry for re-signing Perez (unless he believed that Perez would only be used to give Nomar a break every couple of months and as a "late innings defensive replacement"), or the re-signing of Jose Macias.

 

Again, I feel the claim of being "uncreative" is unfair. He got Nomar and Murton from BOS for Justin Jones, Frank Beltran, KGonz, Brendan Harris. He was creative enough to get 2 young pitchers for LaTroy Hawkins.

 

While Guerrero and Giles would be wonderful members of the team, I don't know that they would have been worth the extra money it would have taken to acquire either of them.

I notice you avoided my other example of Tejaa. ;)

 

But let's just look at the difference Giles would have made this year. I did this a while ago, so I'm sure the numbers have changed since then. However, at the beginning of September, the Cubs with Giles would have had the third best team OBP in the NL. Instead they were next to last. That's how much of a difference Giles alone would make to this team. Would it have been enough to overcome the injuries & so forth? I'm not sure. But it might have been. And Giles last year certainly would have made enough difference to make up the two games in the standings.

 

The Cubs are not that far off from being a playoff caliber team. It is really 1-2 of the right players and then a bit more health. Adding Giles in place of Burnitz and standing pat at the other positions (while re-doing the bench and adding pitching) would have me very excited going into 2006.

 

People talk about the weak FA class this year. Giles is a bigger offensive difference maker, even at this point of his career, than anyone that was available last year.

[CubfaninCA]

If Maddux is a mediocre #4, then all but 1 NL team has a mediocre #4. Based on qualifying pitchers, Maddux ranks 33rd in ERA. Only St. Louis has more than 3 pitchers higher than Maddux (they have 5 :shock: ).

Maddux would be the 4th starter for Houston, Florida, Mets, Nats and Brewers, 3rd for the Cubs, Braves, Dodgers and Reds, #2 for San Diego, Arizona, Philly and SanFran, and he would be the ace of the staff for Pittsburg and Colorado.

 

If you want other stats there's WHIP (rank = 12th), OnBaseAgainst (14th).

 

I wish my mediocre investments would perform as well.

 

I have no problem w/ Maddux as the #4. Of course, I'd like to pay him $5 million next year instead of $9 million. My problem is going into the season w/ Wood as the #3. He's WAY too unreliable. Essentially, slot Wood as the #5 and have someone in the pen who's basically the long reliever/6th starter.

[Illini Iceman]

I think a big part of why Hendry hasn't targeted the top free agents so far is that he never had an opening at the position played by the top FA. And he wasn't creative enough to move an Alou and sign a Vlad. Or move an AGon to sign a Tejada.

 

Tim, I don't know if I agree that Hendry has a "lack of creativity." I think it is a difference in philosophy. Let me make one thing clear, first of all: Adding Vlad or Giles when they were free agents would have been a good move.

 

At the same time, I think Hendry is gun-shy about signing guys to large/long term contracts. Would CHC have suddenly been a division winner in 04 or 05 if he had made those deals? I think the team was more fundamentally flawed than that.

 

Giles and Guerrero are the kind of players to sign when you are trying to "maintain" a spot at the top of the "success cycle."

 

For instance, Giles was acquired by the Padres at the end of 03 too late to have much effect. The following year they finished 87-75 and 3rd in their division. This year they may win their division, but that is more by "default" than anything else. While CHC is a better team than the Padres, I don't know that Giles would make that much difference.

 

The main thing that went right for CHC in 03 was that they stayed relatively healthy (Wood, Prior, Zambrano, Clement all had 200+ IP/ Lofton played well in CF, Karros was inexplicably effective...) The last two years CHC has struggled with injuries to significant players with them missing great lengths of time.

 

I certainly don't want to pardon Hendry for re-signing Perez (unless he believed that Perez would only be used to give Nomar a break every couple of months and as a "late innings defensive replacement"), or the re-signing of Jose Macias.

 

Again, I feel the claim of being "uncreative" is unfair. He got Nomar and Murton from BOS for Justin Jones, Frank Beltran, KGonz, Brendan Harris. He was creative enough to get 2 young pitchers for LaTroy Hawkins.

 

While Guerrero and Giles would be wonderful members of the team, I don't know that they would have been worth the extra money it would have taken to acquire either of them.

I notice you avoided my other example of Tejaa. ;)

 

But let's just look at the difference Giles would have made this year. I did this a while ago, so I'm sure the numbers have changed since then. However, at the beginning of September, the Cubs with Giles would have had the third best team OBP in the NL. Instead they were next to last. That's how much of a difference Giles alone would make to this team. Would it have been enough to overcome the injuries & so forth? I'm not sure. But it might have been. And Giles last year certainly would have made enough difference to make up the two games in the standings.

 

The Cubs are not that far off from being a playoff caliber team. It is really 1-2 of the right players and then a bit more health. Adding Giles in place of Burnitz and standing pat at the other positions (while re-doing the bench and adding pitching) would have me very excited going into 2006.

 

People talk about the weak FA class this year. Giles is a bigger offensive difference maker, even at this point of his career, than anyone that was available last year.

 

I think Hendry would have been willing to get really creative to move AGon after 2003 but I don't see any way another GM would have been willing to eat enough of that contract to free the money the Cubs would have needed to get Tejada. IIRC it was all about the respect (ie- money) for Tejada so to get him Hendry was going to have to outbid Baltimore.

[CubfaninCA]

When was Brian Giles a free agent last?? If the Cubs had Oliver Perez & Jason Bay in their farm system, guess they could have got him a few years ago.

[USSoccer]

When was Brian Giles a free agent last?? If the Cubs had Oliver Perez & Jason Bay in their farm system, guess they could have got him a few years ago.

 

I don't think Giles was ever a free agent

[BigbadB]

When was Brian Giles a free agent last?? If the Cubs had Oliver Perez & Jason Bay in their farm system, guess they could have got him a few years ago.

 

I don't think Giles was ever a free agent

 

The absolutely sick numbers he's put up in less than stellar line ups (Pirates/Padres) in Wrigley Field makes one wish he became a Cub a long time ago.

[rawaction]

When was Brian Giles a free agent last?? If the Cubs had Oliver Perez & Jason Bay in their farm system, guess they could have got him a few years ago.

 

And the Cubs would be regretting it. As much as I like Giles, Bay is in his mid-20s and is one of the top 10 hitters in baseball. If Helton wasn't playing his home games in Coors, if Derrek Lee comes back to Earth, and if you take away the lineup protection that the rest of the top 10 players not named Pujols enjoy from hitting back-to-back with each other (ARod/Giambi, Manny/Ortiz, Delgado/Cabrera (although Cabrera is 14th).....Bay is easily top 3-5.