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Illini Iceman

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Everything posted by Illini Iceman

  1. Illini Iceman
    Maybe Weber can pull a Zook and lose every game after the Ohio State upset and give the new AD the easy excuse to can him well.
  2. Illini Iceman
    That might as well have read "Someone with an agenda on the subject makes an uneducated guess." FIFY The reasoning is so ridiculous because if Selig wants to stop executives with time left on their contract from leaving all he has to do is tell the teams with those executives to not give them permission to leave. Seems that everyone arguing the "major compensation is due" angle completely misses the point that if the RedSox wanted him to honor the contract they just had to tell Rickets he couldn't meet with Theo and the whole thing never would have happened. They act as though the Cubs did some kind of stealthy kidnapping of Theo and he was gone before the RedSox knew what was going on.
  3. Illini Iceman
    The rumor I heard on XM MLB Radio this morning is that he told the Phillies he wanted 1 year / 4 M and the Phillies were backing off on that. My guess is that he wants the Cubs to pay closer to the $4M than to the $1.5M he got last year. This is not a huge money difference when you consider they gave $1.15M to Reed Johnson without much hesitation so IMO the delay still probably has more to do with giving them time to make another move to clear the 40 man spot than it does with a sudden reluctance to sign him.
  4. Illini Iceman
    yes, if he hit like he did when he was a few years younger in his prime, playing half his games in the best offensive environment in baseball, during an era where offense was significantly easier to come by, and the past two years of bad production are not a signal that he's no longer good, then it could be a huge win. assuming that his defense is not too wretched to give away most of those positive offensive contributions. That's why you give him a minor league deal with invite. Looks like you kind of, sort of, but don't really agree with me but I'll take what I can get. It just seems like it never ends....
  5. Illini Iceman
    If they move Byrd, Garza and Soriano by the end of this month then that activity combined with the Zambrano and Marshall trades will have been a house cleaning of epic proportions. I don't put anything past this front office but personally would be surprised if any more than one of those guys is gone by February.
  6. Illini Iceman
    That article is proof that Rogers doesn't think like our new front office. Soriano for Roberts in a trade of over the hill overpaid players would have been something Hendry would be interested in. When (if) this gets done it I have to think it will look more like the Zambrano deal where the Cubs eat a lot of cash and get some younger player(s) back in return.
  7. Illini Iceman
    It is possible they are close to making another trade and need to wait for that to happen in order to clear the 40 man spot. Otherwise there are no obvious guys that can be dropped unless they try to put someone like Casey Coleman through waivers. Not sure how much interest there were would be in him and whether Theo and Jed would even care if he was claimed. Could they remove Jeff Bianchi? He was claimed on waivers from KC so does he have to stay on the 40 man roster? The front office liked Bianchi enough to pick him up off waivers so I doubt they waive him so quickly to add another pitcher. If they have to drop someone from the 40 man roster to make room I have to think it most likely would be a pitcher. Either someone they think they can safely get through waivers or someone they wouldn't care if they lost.
  8. Illini Iceman
    Are you hendry's son or something? You go above and beyond to defend him. Management didn't tell him to buy a winning team, they gave him significant financial resources and he did not build a consistent winner. His superiors didn't tell him to give soriano or zambrano those contracts, or to not develop a consistent star-level player in almost 10 years. nor, I suspect, did ricketts tell theo to completely rebuild. I would assume that if theo went and said "pujols is my guy" or "we need to bid very big on darvish," I'm confident that ricketts would have green lighted competitive offers. this is theo's choice on how to turn the franchise around - which, I will remind you, is necessary because your boy left things a mess. If the reports are true (from people like Bruce Miles), they did on Soriano. But I agree that Hendry wouldn't have done this type of rebuild. He would have tried to limp along with the current core while continuing to build up the farm system. And the Zambrano deal didn't seem such a bad idea at the time since he was locking up a guy that seemed like he might be a top of the rotation stud for quite a few years. But we have Theo and Jed now so all that is history and I am just enjoying watching them do their thing.
  9. Illini Iceman
    It is possible they are close to making another trade and need to wait for that to happen in order to clear the 40 man spot. Otherwise there are no obvious guys that can be dropped unless they try to put someone like Casey Coleman through waivers. Not sure how much interest there were would be in him and whether Theo and Jed would even care if he was claimed.
  10. Illini Iceman
    We're essentially eating an entire $18m contract and getting a garbage player back. Also, there really won't be anyone left in the locker room who knows who Zambrano is-what, like 4 guys at this point? This is stupid. Theo would have eaten the entire $18 million contract and gotten nothing back if it had come to that. He didn't want him Zambrano in his clubhouse. Clearly no one other than Guillen did either.
  11. Illini Iceman
    Seriously, the LoMo for Zambrano conjecture is almost as foolish as the Red Sox fans that thought they were getting Garza for Theo. Just makes no sense.
  12. Illini Iceman
    Epstein wants him off the team and Volstad is better than just outright releasing him. Most likely the Marlins are the only team that are interested and only because they think Guillen can keep him in line all year.
  13. Illini Iceman
    http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22475988/34155140
  14. Illini Iceman
    I just can't fathom that they would go into the season counting on LaHair as the every day first baseman. Maybe they give him a shot as a bench guy but they have to be too smart to think he is a decent option as a the starter.
  15. Illini Iceman
    BOBBY HILL IS NOT NOTHING!!!!!!
  16. Illini Iceman
    The end result numbers were good, but the underlying peripherals suggest he got lucky as hell and it would be unwise to expect anything close to similar next season. If you're a contending team looking for a 4th outfielder or platoon guy, Reed Johnson isnt a bad pickup. If your'e a team with no intention of going anywhere, may as well just hand out a bunch of spring training invites and pick someone from the the bunch. I don't think Theo is necessarily conceding 2012 like a lot of people think he is. Plus Reed is a fan favorite and as much as it pains some people to think about the business side of it there still needs to be some effort to appeal to the casual fan. For the million dollars or so difference the signing might be worth the good publicity. It is not like Johnson's signing alone is going to sell tickets, but there is probably some segment of the fan base that would see letting him go and bringing a bunch of non-descript NRI's as another reason not to be interested.
  17. Illini Iceman
    I like the idea of getting Wood instead of a top 10 prospect since we know based on his 2010 season that he is capable of being a useful big league pitcher. He also seems to have enough upside that he could develop over the next year or two and be a solid rotation guy for a while. If you listen to what Theo said when he was hired all the moves have been consistent with his philosophy. Stewart, Wood and to some degree DeJesus are talented guys who have the potential to be major contributors. I don't think he is punting on 2012, just would rather roll the die with players more in the mold he likes instead of trying to tweak what he feels was a flawed 2011 roster. Hopefully he can still make one big splash. It does kind of suck to lose Marshall, however. It was nice knowing we had him back there to make an easy 8th before the inevitable Marmol heart attack ninth. I hope Russell, Samadzija, Carpenter or someone else can step up and take over that role successfully.
  18. Illini Iceman
    I thought Reed did a good job in his role last year so don't really have a problem bringing him back. If used correctly I think he can be a relatively useful member of the team. Not sure how the payroll is stacking up this year but all else being equal I would rather have him on the bench than Luis Montanez or someone like that.
  19. Illini Iceman
    It is a good set. It is a nice treat to get to hear Vin Sculley as the broadcaster on the SF playoff game and also fun to listen to Harry again after all these years.
  20. Illini Iceman
    You realize this means in addition to the Big East winner, we're going to get one more team in Houston that doesn't deserve it get into the BCS this year, right? Can't be any worse than having Boise State get in.
  21. Illini Iceman
    He was pushed
  22. Illini Iceman
    National League won the All Star Game this year, that proves the NL is the better league, duh!
  23. Illini Iceman
    That makes me a bit sad if they're seriously interested. It may (hopefully) just be an exploratory type discussion, though. Of course they are interested. That rotation was a problem last year with Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon having better years than they could be expected to have in 2012. I think they will pay whatever it takes and they only way they don't get him is if he decides he doesn't want to go to New York (for non-monetary reasons).
  24. Illini Iceman
    Only if you trust Selig not to screw us if the RedSox dig in their heels until Nov 1.
  25. Illini Iceman
    Red Sox guy is obviously a homer, piecing together the bits ans pieces he liked. Such as pointing out Henry saying he'd like Theo to be his GM for 20 years, and leaving out the rest of what he said, where he acknowledged it had become impossible for that to happen. And how virtually every source close to the situation will tell you Epstein's relationship with the rest of the FO, particularly Lucchino, is broken. And that Theo told them he was leaving after next year anyway, and allowing this to happen will save them 6.5 million dollars and a whole lot of headaches. And yes, Epstein is Ricketts' guy and it would indeed be a big disappointment and slight to moderate setback, but he fails to see that there are Friedman, Hahn, Coppolella, Byrnes, and even Cherington all waiting around to be hired. None of those are Epstein (though Friedman might actually be better), but they represent plans B, C, D, E, etc. I get your point but I don't think Friedman could be fairly characterized as "waiting around to be hired". It probably would be harder to convince him to leave the Rays than it was to convince Epstein to leave the Red Sox.
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