Rusch signed through '07 (Cubs.com)

[USSoccer]

Maybe it would have been wiser to move with an entire offseason in front of you than to do what they did and have to settle for what's left at the last minute. Also, Sosa didn't prevent them from paying Nomar $8.25m. Could there not have been a cheaper SS option, such as Eckstein for $2.3m or trading for Lugo?

 

Making decisions sooner allows you time to adjust your plan. Going by your logic we were not serious players for just about any FA. What of the logic that tells you it's smart to go into a season with a grossly inadequate offseason?

[Illini Iceman]

Maybe it would have been wiser to move with an entire offseason in front of you than to do what they did and have to settle for what's left at the last minute. Also, Sosa didn't prevent them from paying Nomar $8.25m. Could there not have been a cheaper SS option, such as Eckstein for $2.3m or trading for Lugo?

 

Making decisions sooner allows you time to adjust your plan. Going by your logic we were not serious players for just about any FA. What of the logic that tells you it's smart to go into a season with a grossly inadequate offseason?

 

It is not a question of planning but of differences in opinion regarding player evaluation.

 

Clearly Hendry thought Nomar, Burnitz, Holly/Dubois was better than any other combination of SS, LF, RF out there that he could put together within his budget. If Nomar was healthy and Dubois was the hitter a lot of people though he would be it may have been a good plan.

 

However, on Nomar he was unlucky and on Dubois and Burnitz he was wrong. He has this offseason to fix the problem or he may be back to scouting. That's the nature of his job.

[CubfaninCA]

Maybe it would have been wiser to move with an entire offseason in front of you than to do what they did and have to settle for what's left at the last minute. Also, Sosa didn't prevent them from paying Nomar $8.25m. Could there not have been a cheaper SS option, such as Eckstein for $2.3m or trading for Lugo?

 

Making decisions sooner allows you time to adjust your plan. Going by your logic we were not serious players for just about any FA. What of the logic that tells you it's smart to go into a season with a grossly inadequate offseason?

 

Sure, but Eckstein was coming off 2 subpar seasons of .325/.650 & .339/.671... Yes, they could have gotten Kent, but he may have preferred coming home to SoCal and joining a playoff team. Hendry just failed in the crapshoot of free agency. I mean who foresaw Jermaine Dye posting a .846 ops after averaging .767 from 2002-04?? Fortunately, Hendry foresaw the ability of Lee, Barrett and Ramirez.

[SouthSideRyan]

The Wilkerson deal never existed. The rumor was the Nats were willing to take Sosa if the Cubs picked up the full salary and they didn't give up anyone of significance. Wilkerson was a pipe dream. And all the talk about talking down Sosa in the media hurt his value, please re-read my post on page 8 I believe. How in the hell were you gonna get somebody to take Sosa with a 2 YR/40M deal in a trade?

[YearofDaCubs]

Many were ticked about Burnitz and rightly so, but what were the options for rf given the budget?? Slim and none??

 

This is the same budget that was dictated by the Sosa debacle. There were limited options at the time b/c free agency was coming to an end and all potential options had already been signed. Had the Cubs used any foresight, they would've known if they had to trade Sosa it would've been key to find a RF'er ASAP once they made the decision they were going to trade him instead of few possible options such as Burnitz.

 

Hendry had to sign Burnitz, he had to sign him b/c the Cubs waited so damn long in trading Sosa and deciding not to sign anyone until after the trade was completed likely b/c of budget constraints and potentially eating more than they already did.

 

The flaw isn't in signing in Burnitz, it's waiting till he's the last avail. option.

 

Actually, I think the budgetary concerns were nonexistent. We picked up most of Sosa's salary anyway-did Hendry think he was going to be able to unload all of it on some other team, especially considering the hackjob the Tribune pulled on Sosa.

 

If Sosa's 18m was a hinderance to singing a top flight RF, it would have been a hinderance if he were traded or not, so what's the difference? Beteween Hairston, Burnitz and Sosa's salary we ate, we lost money on that deal.

 

 

I think the team uses Sosa's trade as an easy out to the question of: Why didn't you sign a FA OF? At the very least they could have brought back Alou. He signed, what, a $7m contract with a $6m option for 2006? The excuse for not bringing him back was that Hendry wasn't sure he could move Sosa, so he didn't want to commit money to Alou just in case. Then he signed Burnitz for $4.5. Hendry couldn't have found an extra 2.5m somewehre in the budget to accomodate that? It's in that chain of events like overpaying for Macias, Perez and, to a lesser extent, Blanco came back to bite Hendry. As irritating as Alou was to us (especially Tim), an Alou/Patterson/Whoever OF would have been light years better than the one we ended up with.

 

At that time, they were coming to an end financially. They had to have known they'd be eating most if not all of his contract. But, the 7 or so mil did help land Burnitz and I don't think they would've been able to if they didn't get Balt. to pay part of Sosa's '05.

 

We ate, IIRC, $13m of the $18.5m of Sosa's 2005. Hairston made $1.8m last season, and Burnitz signed for $4.5m. At best, that's a wash. The budgetary issue is a total red herring for a complete lack of planning from the second the final out occurred against Atlanta last October.

 

Say what you will about the results that Hendry has produced but saying that he has a "complete lack of planning" is absurd. From all accounts Hendry is one of the hardest working GM's around, so I seriously doubt that he just sat around all winter without thinking about the direction of the ballclub.

The difficulty in moving Sosa is highly underestimated. I think Hendry probably worked daily in trying to get this done. It also seems to me that he had a unofficial agreement with Burnitz that he would sign him as soon as he found a taker for Sosa that would free up the position and the necessary cash. Otherwise it makes no sense that Burnitz would be the only guy still unsigned considering the numbers he put up the year before and the fact that he did get interest from other teams.

Hendry had been interested in Burnitz since at least two years ago when he was with the Dodgers. I can respect the argument that Hendry overvalued Burnitz and that was an error in judgement by him, but I don't buy this hyperbole about Hendry not having a plan.

 

Hyperbole indeed. Hendry had a good plan for 6 of the 8 positions. Unfortunately, Nomar and Patterson were brutal. He had a so-so plan for LF, which failed miserably, until Murton came up and looked real good in September. He tried to fix the LF problem by trading for Lawton @ the end of July, but that flopped too. The plan for RF sucked, but AGAIN, what was out there?? If people think Burnitz was bad, look @ the alternatives..

 

Drew 72 games.

Ordonez 82 games and a .795 ops.

Sosa 102 games and .671 ops.

Huff .749 and would have cost multiple prospects.

Yes, they could have went w/ Alou in LF & Holla/Dubi in RF, but Alou missed 40 games and cost SF $13 million over 2 years and did Alou really want to come back or play for his father instead??

 

Unfortunately, Ichiro, Vlad, Giles, Sheff and Abreu weren't available. Shawn Green could have been had, but does anyone want to pay him what AZ did?

 

Sure Hendry could have been creative and picked up a bat, but that would probably have meant dealing off Pie & another prospect. Of course, then he'd get ripped apart for not giving the kids a shot.

 

The bottom line is that the season was over when that line drive hit Prior and Wood went down. An extra bat wouldn't have got the Cubs into the playoffs.

How quick we are to deflect blame from Hendry. He is the GM and he is responsible for all of these moves. Even with Wood and Prior out which by the way both of them missed significant time the year before the offense regressed from 2004. What exactly did Hendry do to improve the team? Trade Bear Bay for a scrub? Try to improve the OF the day of the trade deadline which turned out to be a bust? Let Sisco walk? Sign Burnitz as our RFer? Hendry's gameplan was to get rid of Sosa. A lot of the blame SHOULD go to Hendry because he did a terrible job. No escaping it..we miss the playoffs next season and Hendry should be fired IMO.

[CubfaninCA]

Many were ticked about Burnitz and rightly so, but what were the options for rf given the budget?? Slim and none??

 

This is the same budget that was dictated by the Sosa debacle. There were limited options at the time b/c free agency was coming to an end and all potential options had already been signed. Had the Cubs used any foresight, they would've known if they had to trade Sosa it would've been key to find a RF'er ASAP once they made the decision they were going to trade him instead of few possible options such as Burnitz.

 

Hendry had to sign Burnitz, he had to sign him b/c the Cubs waited so damn long in trading Sosa and deciding not to sign anyone until after the trade was completed likely b/c of budget constraints and potentially eating more than they already did.

 

The flaw isn't in signing in Burnitz, it's waiting till he's the last avail. option.

 

Actually, I think the budgetary concerns were nonexistent. We picked up most of Sosa's salary anyway-did Hendry think he was going to be able to unload all of it on some other team, especially considering the hackjob the Tribune pulled on Sosa.

 

If Sosa's 18m was a hinderance to singing a top flight RF, it would have been a hinderance if he were traded or not, so what's the difference? Beteween Hairston, Burnitz and Sosa's salary we ate, we lost money on that deal.

 

 

I think the team uses Sosa's trade as an easy out to the question of: Why didn't you sign a FA OF? At the very least they could have brought back Alou. He signed, what, a $7m contract with a $6m option for 2006? The excuse for not bringing him back was that Hendry wasn't sure he could move Sosa, so he didn't want to commit money to Alou just in case. Then he signed Burnitz for $4.5. Hendry couldn't have found an extra 2.5m somewehre in the budget to accomodate that? It's in that chain of events like overpaying for Macias, Perez and, to a lesser extent, Blanco came back to bite Hendry. As irritating as Alou was to us (especially Tim), an Alou/Patterson/Whoever OF would have been light years better than the one we ended up with.

 

At that time, they were coming to an end financially. They had to have known they'd be eating most if not all of his contract. But, the 7 or so mil did help land Burnitz and I don't think they would've been able to if they didn't get Balt. to pay part of Sosa's '05.

 

We ate, IIRC, $13m of the $18.5m of Sosa's 2005. Hairston made $1.8m last season, and Burnitz signed for $4.5m. At best, that's a wash. The budgetary issue is a total red herring for a complete lack of planning from the second the final out occurred against Atlanta last October.

 

Say what you will about the results that Hendry has produced but saying that he has a "complete lack of planning" is absurd. From all accounts Hendry is one of the hardest working GM's around, so I seriously doubt that he just sat around all winter without thinking about the direction of the ballclub.

The difficulty in moving Sosa is highly underestimated. I think Hendry probably worked daily in trying to get this done. It also seems to me that he had a unofficial agreement with Burnitz that he would sign him as soon as he found a taker for Sosa that would free up the position and the necessary cash. Otherwise it makes no sense that Burnitz would be the only guy still unsigned considering the numbers he put up the year before and the fact that he did get interest from other teams.

Hendry had been interested in Burnitz since at least two years ago when he was with the Dodgers. I can respect the argument that Hendry overvalued Burnitz and that was an error in judgement by him, but I don't buy this hyperbole about Hendry not having a plan.

 

Hyperbole indeed. Hendry had a good plan for 6 of the 8 positions. Unfortunately, Nomar and Patterson were brutal. He had a so-so plan for LF, which failed miserably, until Murton came up and looked real good in September. He tried to fix the LF problem by trading for Lawton @ the end of July, but that flopped too. The plan for RF sucked, but AGAIN, what was out there?? If people think Burnitz was bad, look @ the alternatives..

 

Drew 72 games.

Ordonez 82 games and a .795 ops.

Sosa 102 games and .671 ops.

Huff .749 and would have cost multiple prospects.

Yes, they could have went w/ Alou in LF & Holla/Dubi in RF, but Alou missed 40 games and cost SF $13 million over 2 years and did Alou really want to come back or play for his father instead??

 

Unfortunately, Ichiro, Vlad, Giles, Sheff and Abreu weren't available. Shawn Green could have been had, but does anyone want to pay him what AZ did?

 

Sure Hendry could have been creative and picked up a bat, but that would probably have meant dealing off Pie & another prospect. Of course, then he'd get ripped apart for not giving the kids a shot.

 

The bottom line is that the season was over when that line drive hit Prior and Wood went down. An extra bat wouldn't have got the Cubs into the playoffs.

How quick we are to deflect blame from Hendry. He is the GM and he is responsible for all of these moves. Even with Wood and Prior out which by the way both of them missed significant time the year before the offense regressed from 2004. What exactly did Hendry do to improve the team? Trade Bear Bay for a scrub? Try to improve the OF the day of the trade deadline which turned out to be a bust? Let Sisco walk? Sign Burnitz as our RFer? Hendry's gameplan was to get rid of Sosa. A lot of the blame SHOULD go to Hendry because he did a terrible job. No escaping it..we miss the playoffs next season and Hendry should be fired IMO.

 

Jmo but once you start laying out alternatives given the budget then you'll have something. Alternatives such as "being creative" and "getting more for Sosa" don't cut it. About the only solid solution I've seen is bring back Alou, sign Eckstein and sign Kent instead of signing Nomar, Walker & Burnitz. Of course, who knows if any of the 3 would have signed w/ the Cubs.

 

Altogether, what happened last offseason is nothing to get all bent out of shape over.

[HoopsCubs]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

[USSoccer]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

 

Oh well. I don't think that's $3m well spent, but it's over and done with, and at least it wasn't spent on Perez.

[RynoRules]

Jmo but once you start laying out alternatives given the budget then you'll have something. Alternatives such as "being creative" and "getting more for Sosa" don't cut it. About the only solid solution I've seen is bring back Alou, sign Eckstein and sign Kent instead of signing Nomar, Walker & Burnitz. Of course, who knows if any of the 3 would have signed w/ the Cubs.

 

Altogether, what happened last offseason is nothing to get all bent out of shape over.

 

Agreed. I go through fits where I get down on JH for his moves (or lack thereof) last offseason, but they might look very different if Nomar's groin didn't self-destruct in St Louis.

 

I am not obsolving JH, but I think more of the blame lies in the dugout as opposed to the owner's box.

[MeatampPotatoesMan]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

 

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug.

[YearofDaCubs]

I dont care if Nomar was healthy for the entire year. Chances are we still would have lost. Besides, how can you count on so many injury prone players to stay healthy? Fact of the matter is our lack of discipline at the plate probably cost us more than anything. Our OF and Baker's lineups were pretty bad as well. Those 3 IMO cost us a playoff berth.

[YearofDaCubs]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

 

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug.

Not only that, but this also means we go back to a 12 man pitching staff, unless of course we shake up the starting pitching which IMO wont happen.

[jtownie]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

 

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug.

Not only that, but this also means we go back to a 12 man pitching staff, unless of course we shake up the starting pitching which IMO wont happen.

 

Perhaps I have mis-interpreted some info but aren't most teams going with a 12-man pitching staff these days?

[YearofDaCubs]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

 

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug.

Not only that, but this also means we go back to a 12 man pitching staff, unless of course we shake up the starting pitching which IMO wont happen.

 

Perhaps I have mis-interpreted some info but aren't most teams going with a 12-man pitching staff these days?

We did it last year and we had players who wouldnt pitch for weeks. Most teams go with a 11-man staff and have more bench players.

[BigbadB]

I'm not fond of the 12 man pitching staff. Everyone gets less work. Dusty doesn't seem to like having that many options either, as he tends to only use a couple of them.

[E.J.]

I'm not fond of the 12 man pitching staff. Everyone gets less work. Dusty doesn't seem to like having that many options either, as he tends to only use a couple of them.

 

I think we should ask Bartosh or Welly how they like the 12-man pitching staff.

[JeffH]

The key is to have 12 pitchers that Crusty trusts. If the 12th guy is Wellemeyer, Fuzznuts isn't going to use him.

 

If Wood is in the rotation, 12 pitchers is going to be an unfortunate necessity.

[YearofDaCubs]

The key is to have 12 pitchers that Crusty trusts. If the 12th guy is Wellemeyer, Fuzznuts isn't going to use him.

 

If Wood is in the rotation, 12 pitchers is going to be an unfortunate necessity.

Signing Rusch makes it an unfortunate necessity because of the DL we can always add a pitcher after Wood goes on it. Now, with Rusch here you know the 12man staff will be here because we cant stick our 6th SP in the minors.

[jtownie]

The key is to have 12 pitchers that Crusty trusts. If the 12th guy is Wellemeyer, Fuzznuts isn't going to use him.

 

If Wood is in the rotation, 12 pitchers is going to be an unfortunate necessity.

Signing Rusch makes it an unfortunate necessity because of the DL we can always add a pitcher after Wood goes on it. Now, with Rusch here you know the 12man staff will be here because we cant stick our 6th SP in the minors.

 

Wasn't Rusch quoted as saying he wanted to be a SP next year regardless of where he went? I'd have to find the article but I am almost certain that quote became the subject of a thread here.

[BigbadB]

I think resigning Rusch was an alright move. He can be traded later on and he is protection in the event that Williams and/or Hill are traded for offense.

[CubinNY]

The key is to have 12 pitchers that Crusty trusts. If the 12th guy is Wellemeyer, Fuzznuts isn't going to use him.

 

If Wood is in the rotation, 12 pitchers is going to be an unfortunate necessity.

Signing Rusch makes it an unfortunate necessity because of the DL we can always add a pitcher after Wood goes on it. Now, with Rusch here you know the 12man staff will be here because we cant stick our 6th SP in the minors.

 

Wasn't Rusch quoted as saying he wanted to be a SP next year regardless of where he went? I'd have to find the article but I am almost certain that quote became the subject of a thread here.

 

I don't think it was direct quote. I think it was more of a gist from one of the sports writers.

[jtownie]

The key is to have 12 pitchers that Crusty trusts. If the 12th guy is Wellemeyer, Fuzznuts isn't going to use him.

 

If Wood is in the rotation, 12 pitchers is going to be an unfortunate necessity.

Signing Rusch makes it an unfortunate necessity because of the DL we can always add a pitcher after Wood goes on it. Now, with Rusch here you know the 12man staff will be here because we cant stick our 6th SP in the minors.

 

Wasn't Rusch quoted as saying he wanted to be a SP next year regardless of where he went? I'd have to find the article but I am almost certain that quote became the subject of a thread here.

 

I don't think it was direct quote. I think it was more of a gist from one of the sports writers.

 

Ok, so I guess I can't make any assumptions towards him being signed to be a starter then. To this point I'm indifferent towards the signing. I have no idea what direction Hendry is going in regards to the pitching staff with signing Rusch.

[Backtobanks]

Heard on ESPN Radio AM 1000 on 10/31 8:20 AM CST: Bruce Levine has confirmed that the Cubs and Glendon will agree to a 2 year $6M deal.

 

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug.

 

Well, until all of that talent in our farm system proves something at the major league level, you better have a backup plan (Rusch). Hill, Mitre, Koronka, and Welly weren't used much and sometimes weren't used in the right situations, but none of them have shown me very much. Guzman, Nolasko, Pinto, etc. have potential, but let's see how the perform at the major league level. If they show something, Rusch (a veteran lefty starter making $3 million) can easily be traded to at least 12-15 teams.

[Lefty]

ESPN reports it done.

[E.J.]

Done Deal

 

Meh.