erik316wttn

This really doesnt sound realistic. Theyd essentially never be able to afford another free agent. Are they deep enough at 1B to afford losing Fielder at the moment? I knew LaPorta was the heir apparent at 1B as talk was they were going to trade Prince in his contract year.

This.

Kerry should be at untouchable status. Not because of his talent, but merely because I never want to see him pitch for any other team other than the Cubs.

Great call leaving Garza in there, just like I said. ;)

Yep, awful news that the 1st Cubs GM to bring the team to consistent respectability would get an extension. Worst. News. Ever. Not saying I agree with everything he does or even his overall philosophy, but, hey, we could have Ed Wade or Ned Colletti. Hmmmm....consistent respectability. That's quite a standard of success. Hendry has basically been given an open checkbook since he started and the Cubs have one playoff series win to show for it. If "consistent respectability" is what Cub fans are looking for then I guess Hendry has done a great job. "Consistent respectability" is a lot better than watching the Cubs of the 50's and 60's go through 20 years of 4th and 5th (and lower) place finishes. To be honest, a GM can only put together a team that is strong "on paper", the performance is basically up to the players, coaches, and manager. According to the "experts", Hendry put together the best team "on paper" in the NL (and maybe in all of baseball). The players slumped at the wrong time (or choked) and the Cubs lost 3 in a row, but it doesn't diminish the fact that Hendry assembled a 97-win team. .....which means absolutely nothing. He may have "assembled a 97 win team" in the regular season, but somehow his handpicked "best team "on paper"" can't quite make that leap in the postseason. I don't want to be one of those Cub fans who 30 years from now is still waiting for a World Series win and I'm not going to give Hendry any props until it happens. He has had a financial advantage that no other Cub G.M. has ever had, so back-to-back division titles sure isn't much of a return on the humongous amount of money he has been allowed to spend. The playoffs are a crapshoot. You can't blame Hendry for what happened. He put together a great team, and that is all a GM can do. I just wonder if all the people who are lessening the Cubs loss in the playoffs by calling it a crapshoot would be doing the same thing had the Cubs gotten to the World Series. Would it be a crapshoot then?

Garza is gassed, and has been since last inning. Maddon is going to regret leaving him in here, I think.

Wilken would be in that running as well. Hendry has earned a multi-year deal as Bruce had mentioned the positives outweigh the negatives. There are some flaws with him (free agent age regression is one of my main beefs still), hopefully those exposed flaws early in his tenure have become items to have been learned from. He really got me on board this year with the Edmonds, Johnson, and Harden acquisitions. I was so/so on him at best until then, thinking he merely got lucky with the Aram and Nomar trades. My biggest concern about him was listed upthread, as I think he gives his manager far too much say in player acqusitions sometimes. That's what a non-control freak GM does as far as listening to his manager, good or bad. It's fine that he's not a control freak. But he has to put his foot down sometime. We all know how Dusty felt about his "toys" (Neifi, Macias, Bynum, Ordonez, etc) to the point where it got ridiculous. Hendry needed to step in and get rid of those guys because Dusty's continual overuse of them really hurt the team. But he didn't. He let Dusty do whatever the hell he wanted even though people like my wife, who know crap and a half about baseball, asked me why Dusty kept playing those "crappy" guys. It's the same with the Eyre/Howry situation. You just know Lou had his ear in releasing Eyre, even though he was clearly the better of the two, because Lou had a thing for Howry. It's one thing if a manager wants a player, and he is even entitled to some mistakes in personnel decisions. However, continual misuse of a player or players to the point where it's a clear detriment to the team deserves intervention by the GM, something we have not yet seen Hendry do.

Wilken would be in that running as well. Hendry has earned a multi-year deal as Bruce had mentioned the positives outweigh the negatives. There are some flaws with him (free agent age regression is one of my main beefs still), hopefully those exposed flaws early in his tenure have become items to have been learned from. He really got me on board this year with the Edmonds, Johnson, and Harden acquisitions. I was so/so on him at best until then, thinking he merely got lucky with the Aram and Nomar trades. My biggest concern about him was listed upthread, as I think he gives his manager far too much say in player acqusitions sometimes.

The biggest benefit would be to get out of Soriano's contract and the ability to sign a LF that could be just as if not more productive. I won't argue that Drew is better than Soriano. But Drew's contract is a better contract. The Cubs could use the savings to improve the line-up. But it would be throwing money away when Drew spends half the year on the DL. His games played the last 4 seasons have been 72, 140, 146, 109. If he could stay healthy, he'd be one of the premier players in the game. However, that's a big if. All that talent does you no good if it's sitting on the bench injured.

And more ability and a better contract. Drew makes Mark Prior look like Cal Ripken.

At least he'd waive his NTC to come here. That's at least a start. I'd trade anyone in our system for him, and if we can get him without giving up Marmol, I'd be giddy. Peavy/Z/Harden? Yes, please.

you, me, and every Cub fan alive today.

Ok, who didn't see that one coming?

That sounds uncomfortable.

They had 86 years of bad mojo. They're due for some good mojo. I just wish they'd send some our way. :(

I'm a lot higher on Hendry than I've been in the past. I think it was the Harden deal that proved to me that he at least had some measurable brain activity. However, how do we know he won't fall back into the bad habits he did when Dusty was here? He strikes me as a guy who lets his manager pretty much run the entire show, and he'll go out and get the players his manager wants. Which is fine to an extent, but there are times he just has to put his foot down and say no, and I don't really know if he did that much with Dusty.

care to elaborate? They each have four limbs, have both had major league hits, and are both carbon-based life forms.

They showed Game 6 on ESPN Classic earlier today.

That's a kickass uni. I'd like to see that one again on throwback day.

So I was thinking about Swordsman the other day...... ;)

You know how you don't think about someone for years, and then they just pop into your head for no reason one day? I thought about Kevin Foster last week out of the blue and thought "Whatever happened to that guy?" Wish it would have turned out better for him. :(

Sabathia. just as likely to get hurt IMO. and will cost probably double the amount. Doesn't Sheets have some sort of muscle tear in his arm? Doesn't sound too good to me. I'm thinking a trip to Dr. Andrews in in Sheets's future.

It was more a case of the writers hated Ted Williams.

I love Demp, but I'm thinking this year was a fluke. Nothing in his career to this point says he's capable of doing it again.

Fixed. I don't think Fred Armisen has ever made me even crack a smile when he's been onscreen. He's probably the least funny SNL cast member I can ever remember, and that's saying something.