RynoRules

they have a bias against teams that do dumb stuff. some of their writers are even cub fans. Like sign Esteban Loaiza? i dont know if you read bp, but most of the writers there did indeed criticize the a's for the move. IMO the reaction would have been much more critical if Hendry had made the same deal. that's because hendry would've given him 12 :roll:

I'd give it a C: good pick ups in Eyre, Howry, and Pierre. Bad job with Jones, failure to build quality depth in rotation, and giving Neifi 100 billion dollars!!!! :devil:

I dislike Grieve b/c of one game. In 04', I attended the entire meltdon series at Shea. In Game 3, with Cubs down a run and Nomar on second, Grieve came up to PH with 2 outs. He left his bat on his shoulder and watched three consecutive Looper fastballs go by. I admit it: I have never forgiven him.

I appreciate the follow up. I still think this whole thing was blown out of proportion. But did you really think those steadfast that it wasn't a direct quote would come out and say they were wrong? Why wouldn't they? I've been wrong and admitted on this site before. I don't think anyone on this site thinks that they are perfect, do they? Wow - silence on that one was deafening.

Myth? It's been shown to be true over and over with this group. They didn't want to get in a bidding war with Giles. They didn't want to add Tejada with AGonz around, they didn't look at Vladdy because they thought their OF was settled. Compete for the division is not the same as win the WS. It's not. It's a clear difference in strategy. The Cubs want to win enough to be in the playoff hunt late in the season, and hope for the best, instead of try and dominate and maximize their chances for the WS. They want several stable mediocre veterans who they know will give you mediocre performances, instead of aggressively adding difference makers to the roster. This is no myth. It's their stated plan. Didn't Billy Beane say its his job to get a team together that makes the playoffs, and the rest is dumb-luck? if you subscribe to that philosophy - and I believe that many on this bd. do - how can you fault JH for focusing on winning the div. as opposedto the WS? Not saying I agree, just wondering.

I'd be quite happy with Pope. The Bears need to add another dimension to the offense. Clark was a huge non factor all year. I think the biggest reason he caught that touchdown pass against Carolina was because he was such a non factor all year, Carolina paid him no attention. A good hands TE for those 3rd and longs can sustain more drives rather than turn them into punts. 5 or 6 throws to the TE will also open those receivers up a little more. Now, if the good hands, good blocking TE is available via free agency or via trade, then I could see going after something other than a TE in the draft. Or if the top 2 or 3 TE's are off the board (unlikely) by the time the Bears draft. So which other teams do you think might be drafting a TE? Kiper thinks St Louis at 11 and the Panthers (somehwhere behind us). Pope: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=133497 He is huge.

Cue the music!!! : "He's Da-Brick....Shaw!! He's my-tay-my-tay, and lettin' it all hang out!!" :hsughwiggle:

On a different subject, I was at the DePaul-Marquette game last night at the Allstate. It was a fantastic display. If Marquette were not so young (and thus inconsistent, as evidenced by their near collapse in the second half), I would label them a dark horse to make the Final Four. Novack and James are sensational players. DePaul, though they fought valiantly in the second half, did not impress me.

If true, yes it good news, and very relieving. It's also interesting that Hendry and Prior are meeting today. The most important thing Hendry can do right now is make sure the core (Z, Prior, ARam, Lee and Barrett) stay intact and content. I am also very happy to read that the Cubs want to keep Ronny. I want to see him in our MIF for years to come.

Just a thought - I am surprised that more people are not posting their reactions to this news. I realized after I posted it that it has been briefly discussed in the Lugo thread, but I think its a big deal. EDIT: In addition, I thought that most of the above should be considered good news, especially by the membership here. It seems that the vast majority of us were against trading Prior for Tejada, and many were upset that Prior might feel slighted and decide to leave the Cubs (a la Maddux in 92') As such, there was much preemptive flaming at Hendry. Isn't this good news in an otherwise disappointing offseason?

In this morning's Trib. Quick summary: - Prior: "I have no desire to leave. There was a report that I wanted to jump ship and go to the west coast. I have no desire [to go]." - Prior was not offered by the Cubs. The O's asked for him. (per Baker) Prior is set to meet with Hendry today. - Walker is considered the starting 2B and no. 2 hitter. (Baker) - D Rays want Cedeno in return for Lugo; Cubs do not wish to trade Ronny. - Baker undecided about who will hit second (?), fifth, and eighth. - Cubs may not be done dealing. - Baker and Hendry were received mostly with cheers; some boos. I think we can relax and lay off Hendry a bit with regard to the notion that he is looking to deal Prior / screwed up his relationship with him.

Why do you "hate to say it"? Is having a positive outlook that out of style? I think you are correct, BTW, I just am not counting on it.

I'm asking for a world series championship. I am too, and I'm gonna hold Hendry's feet to the fire for most everything he did this off season to make us worse. But I'm not going to hold his feet to the fire for not coddling one of our players before entertaining offers for him. Prior is a professional, and trades are part of professional sports. I don't think Hendry acted unprofessionally at all regarding Prior. To be fair, I have read literally dozens of posts on this bd that state that we should worry less about coddling vets and mnore about improving the team's OBP, pitching, etc. Example: when BJ Ryan signed with Tor., another member and I got into it re what effect signing Ryan would have had on Dempster. His/her argument was essentially, "tell him to get over it; he's a pro."

How am I paranoid? What does paranoia have to do with stating that Baker did not say it? Baker could very well say that or say the opposite of what was written in the article. I do know that Baker didn't say that, which was originally implied with the 1st couple of posts in this thread. I think "paranoid" was the wrong word or term. What we are doing is "assuming the worst" (at least from a certain point of view).

It is. If Mark says "The Cubs disrespected me; I hate Hendry and Dusty; I want out.", or something approaching that, then flame away. I'll join you.

Amen.......also we got to post season because the Astros completely collapsed. Beating the Braves in postseason was with the help of great game by Wood in Atlanta and the hugely dissapointing Braves (Sheffield being Mr Choke #1). I know, in sports people always win partially because the other guy fails and eventhough I found it to be a very exciting few months in 2003, I never felt like it was a team effort, but always a matter of a solid pitcher and one or two guys having a big night on offensive. While Sosa had some great nights, I also remember him tring to go for the homer, while just a rbi single would have been enough. Ever since Baker joined this team the inconsistent performance of the team has been very clear. And everyone with a bit of common sense should be able to agree that Baker did a very risky thing by overusing Prior that much. No manager should put the health of a player on the line for short term gain...... Look, I am as frsutrated as anyone with how 2004 ended (I was at Shea Stadium for all 3 games), how 2005 went, and how this offseason has gone. But to say that the Cubs lucked into the playoffs in 03' and only beat the Braves b/c the Braves stunk it up is nonsense. The Braves bowed out to several eventual WS teams during the 90s, and lost several WS's themselves. The Yanks beat em' twice; the Twins beat em'. You could argue that they played poorly in parts of those playoffs as well. Does this mean that the Yanks and Twins lucked into those titles? If you want to kill Dusty and Jim for 04'-through the present, I'll understand. But for the love of Steve Trout, you don't haveto savage everything this org. has done, b/c it hasn't all been bad.

Is this true, honestly...where have you read this? And when did the Cubs label him as "injury-prone" or "mishandle" him? Honsetly, can we stop riding Cubs management for every single nonsense rumor? Hold their feet to the fire, sure. But this junk hasn't even been picked up by the local media, who if they thought it had any value, would ride it like a horse with the Convention starting today.

Abreu is much much better offensively, it's not close. And he's has greater value relative to the Cubs needs.

A while back I speculated that the Philly deal for Abreu b/c the Phills would not include pitching with Abreu in return for Prior. Looks like that has some legs.

Do you really believe that Jones is going to digress that badly? No I believe Patterson isn't nearly as bad as some believe. Patterson's career numbers are worse than Neifi Perez's. I would say that qualifies as being pretty bad. Having seen Jones play at the Metrodome and being familiar with his attitude, I think he will suprise many on this board. Hope you are right.

What holes are left to be filled? The OBP is still lackluster. RF is still a joke, the middle infield is very questionable, and Hendry appears to want to make it even worse. ***And I forgot to mention that the bench really sucks*** Just because you have players who play those positions doesn't mean holes were filled. It means positions were filled, not holes. The Cubs spent so much time and effort, not to mention money and talent, trying to fill the leadoff roll with a stereotypical leadoff man, that they completely ignored the much bigger problem of RF/5th hitter. Jones is a pathetic option for both slots. He hits like a mediocre CF who should be in the 7 or 8 hole, but he plays a position where you need big offense and ideally a 3, 4 or 5 hitter. He's been mediocre his entire career, and, on the wrong side of 30, he's not going to change for the better. A full year of Williams suddenly makes the pitching better? Right now Rusch is likely in the opening day rotation. That's bad. Jerome is a good 5th starter, and an acceptable 3 or 4 on a team with good offense. He's not spectacular, but he'll win games if you can score runs. Unfortunately this team has a run scoring problem, the same problem they've had for years (they don't take walks, so their OBP is low, so their runs scored is low), which will make it hard for Jerome, Maddux and Rusch to win more than they lose. Prior and Zambrano should be pretty good. But Wood is a huge question mark, thanks in no small part to the ignorance of management when they allowed him to keep pitching in meaningless games long after it was determined he needed surgery. Hendry pretty much did everything I'd fear he'd do, and he likely set this very expensive team up to be very average, once again. If all goes right they'll be above average with a shot to contend. But you don't field a $100m payroll just hoping to contend. You have to build a sure fire contender that would be a surprise if it only won 85 games. And you especially don't settle on this mediocrity that Hendry has put together in his 4th offseason. He's not walking into a strange situation. He built the mess that was 2005, and he's done very little to correct it. In my opinion, he did very little to correct it because he saw very little wrong with the flawed team he put together last year, and mistakenly believes that minor upgrades is all it will take. He made that mistake in 2004, 2005 and is in the process of making it in 2006. There's no excuse for this team not to have already had a 95+ win season, and there should be no excuse for them to fail to reach that level this year. Unfortunately Jim's wheelings and dealings have all but guaranteed this won't be a great team. I agree with much of what you said, sans the bolded portion. I think JH understands that the team needs/needed to be upgraded. I believe the lack of upgrade was caused by poor planning.

looking at positional holes is primitive and too conventional. you must look at what team holes he needed to fill, mostly OBP, which he did not come anywhere near upgrading enough. this is a team that will hit for a decent average, not get on base any other way besides hitting the ball, and finish in the bottom half of the league in runs scored. did he upgrade the bullpen? maybe, but that wasn't the area we needed to upgrade. a team that leads the NL in hitting should not finish 9th in runs scored, that's pitiful and hendry's a freaking blind man if he can't connect the dots. I know you and I have disagreed on that issue before, but for the record, let me just restate that I disagree with you. O:) And I think he/she meant that the team is good enought to contend in our division, not that they are good enough to contend in a good division.

Bill Madlock came up through the minor league system of the Washington Senators (Now the Rangers). He was part of the trade for Ferguson Jenkins after the 1973 season. As Tim pointed out above, there was Grace and Palmeiro in the 80's. You could possibly add Shawon Dunston from that same time period, although many would question him. Going back before that, you have Brock, Hubbs, Williams & Santo from the early 60's..... and that about sums it up for the last 45 years. [sigh] And Joe Carter. Too bad we cut bait, but at least we got Sutt in that deal. I love The Red Baron.

I'd agree Hill is vastly overrated but don't agree he needs to be worked in as a regular in 2006. I don't want Hill anywhere near the Cubs rotation as he throws nothing more than batting practice fodder. It is time for Guzman to either pitch or go away. Pie, after the CPatt debacle, I'm not in favor of bringing him up until after Dusty Baker is gone...hopefully around the All-Star break. So we shouldn't rush Pie but we should rush Guzman?

Here here.