RynoRules

To add to that... He strained his oblique on August 10th of last year. At the time, his line was 261/342/450. At the end of the year, after playing hurt for the final two months, his final line was 249/319/438. So it's entirely conceivable that had he not gotten injured, his numbers wouldn't have been nearly as bad as they would have. And geez TC3, relax man! I did not know any of this. Those nos. are more Reggie Sanders-like. Thanks for the knowlege; its encouraging.

After sleeping on it, I'm still really upset about the signing, but what makes me angry is the length of the deal. If Hendry felt Jones was the best available RF, fine. I disagree, but fine. However, why 3 years? Why lock yourself into mediocrity at best for that long? I really don't care for the signing (I was hoping for someone better), but I also agree that the Cubs can still be good if the starting pitching holds up (not bloody likely, but that's the Cubs the last few years). I don't see the contract as that terrible. Sure, three years is more than I would have liked, but roughly $5M/year is not an unwieldy sum if the Cubs wanted to move Jones in year three to play Pie even if they had to eat a bit of salary. But now you basically are in a position where you have to count completely on health overall, and luck with the pitchers in order to contend. The goal of this offseason should have been to balance the team out, make sure the offense could score 4+ per game consistently, so as to not force the pitchers to throw gems every time out. Agreed. There is a very little room for error here. JH has to be hoping that an impact bat will become available in July (if we aren't sellers by then).

I sure as h*ll would.

After declining Burnitz's option, we likely could have signed him for that or less (some said $4-5 mil). Burnitz is a bit more valuable than Sanders since he is LH and 2 years younger. The numbers are pretty much a wash. It doesn't make sense to let Burny walk to bring in an older guy to do the same things. Wash?: http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/burnije01.shtml I dunno about that.

As would I but he catches the ball with his head and I think that Hendry is leaning towards OF's that use a glove. Is there an emoticon for spontaneous combustion?

Patterson for Garland, straight up. His reasoning: the Sox need a CF (I disagree), and we need another starter b/c Wood cannot be counted on. Flame on! :pistols:

I would rather give Reggie Sanders a one year deal for $5.5 mill with a mutual option for a second at $7.0 mill. Check out his stats: http://www.baseballreference.com/s/sandere02.shtml I think you could count on a .335-40 OBP and an .800-plus OPS, which I could live with in light of the other options.

Agreed...but it sure does not sound good. Who would you rather have, Huff or Jones?

If the Cubs won the Series next season, Hendry would win a permanent place in Chicago Sports lore, and deservedly so. He could be assigned to the GM position for life as far as I'm concerned along with 110% retirement benefits when he wanted to step down. I doubt that. Kenny Williams' work isnt being acknowledged by many and they waited almost as long as we have. the cubs and sox aren't comparable in this regard. most chicagoans would admit that it would be complete and total pandemonium if the cubs won. probably the biggest chicago sports story of the century. I am a Chicagoan. It would be larger scale just because there are more Cubs fans in the area but I dont think there would be pandemonium. I am too. May be pandemonium isjust the wrong word. It would be several times larger than the Sox story.

If the title of this thread were a question, my answer would be: "Bleak". :wall: And if we do as badly as it looks like we might, I think we'll be doing the following towards JH and Dusty: :wave:

From FL's perspective, fixed.

and higher than Juan Pierre's career average. PILE ONNNNNNNN!!!!! :wink: :wink: :wink:

I would not do it - giving up far too much for Burnitz-like nos in Huff, a middle of the road guy in Lugo, and the unproven (but talented) Gomes. I might consider Lee alone for that bunch, but TB would not.

:?: : http://www.baseballreference.com/b/burrepa01.shtml Other than that one season, doesn't look enigmatic to me. I'll take him.

There's always room on the darkside for you RynoRules. Thank you, sir. My patience is waning...

BUMP In light of recent (non)events, I thought it might be fun to bump this thread so everyone who needs to can vent. Here I go: :rant: Darn you, Mr. Hendry. You had the world in your pocket in the form of 20-plus million dollars and yet you have done precious little to add a true impact player to this middling team. If anyone should a feel a sense of urgency, its you. Your franchise has gone nearly 100 years w/out a title, you were recently upsatged (in tems of both success and acquisitions) by your rival and neighbor to the South, your team has regressed for two straight seasons, and your contract is about to expire. Instead of devoting your time, energy and resources to acquiring a unique talent that would provide a true impact to this mediocre club, you have acquired so many spare parts who are a "dime a dozen" (Rusch, Eyre, Howry, and Perez) and one outfielder (Pierre) who you may have grossly overpaid for (largely b/c you made no secret about the fact that you coveted him in the Biblical sense). Now you are intimating that the hole in RF will be filled by a player who was so bad last year that he was sent to AAA for a 1/3 of the season. You have given in to your manager's ma-love for medicore veterans (rumors of people named Jones and Wilson, and a man named Neifi getting starter money :puke: ), refused to annoint Murton and Cedeno as starters, and are apparently working hard to deal the third best hitter on the team (Walker). What gives, Jim? It sure looks like a worst case scenario. Looks my gut feeling was right. Prove me wrong... PLEASE!!!

Not to repeat what has been said in my absence, but what would you prefer that I suggest? What is realistic? I mean, its easy to look back with 20-20 vision now and say nothing was realistic (though I agree that Giles probably never intended to leave teh Coast), but how can I possibly know? Dunn and Kearns were realistic. Abreu was less so, but if JH wanted him, he could have worked at beating down Gillick's door. The Phils opening salvo was Prior. OK, lets make a counter.

Tejada (or Arod) better be at SS if we're going to have to watch a platoon of Patterson/Hidalgo in RF. Agreed. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Jim is crying "uncle". He's overplayed his hand forthe second straight winter, and now he's going to pay for it w/ an OF of Murton-Pierre-Patterson, and a MIF of Cedeno and Perez (he'll find a way to deal Walker for a PTBNL). Ugh. :stone:

you're kidding, right? there are 162 games in a ML season, correct? if you watch the team play everyday and assume that you can learn everything you need to know, you're naive. if you watched the marlins play 162 games in 2004 and watched them play 162 games in 2005, without having any access to statistics, you wouldn't know the difference between pierre 04 and pierre 05. the difference between a .275 hitter and a .300 hitter is like 1 hit a week, how in the bloody heck can you see that by ignoring stats? trusting only in outdated conventional wisdom is foolish. the world is not flat, nor is the earth the center of the universe, and put your torch and pitchfork down. Your point is well taken, but I think the bolded portion is a bit much.

C'mon now. We both know that's it not intended to be a compliment, and it has a negative conotation in light of the general frustration regarding the trade.

:priest: OR :devil:

What would you prefer the measuring stick for performance be? Isn't the goal of every GM to get to the World Series? 30 GM's failed at that last year. So Kenny Williams did a better job than every other GM last year? I just don't believe that. I'll turn it around. Who did a better job last year? I don't know enough about every other team to answer that. But winning the WS doesn't mean that your GM did the best job that year IMO. Empty argument. It has legs, but without support, its empty. How is my argument empty? Because I don't know every move of every GM last year? That's ridiculous. I suppose you think the Astros GM did the second best job last year. I don't. What I do think is the Stros had 3 completely dominant starters that carried them in the second half of the season and on into the World Series. You said that Williams was not the best GM in baseball last year, and that we should not assume that he was simply b/c he won the WS. When asked how you made that determination and who in your estimation was the better than Williams, you answered: This naturally begs the question: how are you to know that Williams was not the best GM in the game in 05' when you, by your admittance, don't know enough about other GMs to make that assessment? Here's why I think he was: he is responsible for the vast majority of the transactions that shaped a team that went from mediocre to WS champs, including the majority of the teams picthing staff, plus he hired the manager who lead the team. And as 05' comes to a close, he has made two decisive moves for impact players, and another for a solid complimentary player.

I completely agree and have been saying for a while that we do not have enough info to fully understand what is going on in the front office. I think it is possible that MacPhail and Hendry are being "punished" and thatteh budget has been lessened. Why would the Trib hand them the keys to the Porsche when they'veonly earned a nice Toyota? I am most intrieged by your final theory - that JH is purposefully "dumbing down" the roster to justify non-renewing Dusty (a la Angelo and Jauron). Its interesting, though not likely. I think it is highly likely that jim is simply gun shy b/c he realizes that its his behind this year; playing not to lose and not being agreessive, and thus nothing is getting done.

What would you prefer the measuring stick for performance be? Isn't the goal of every GM to get to the World Series? 30 GM's failed at that last year. So Kenny Williams did a better job than every other GM last year? I just don't believe that. I'll turn it around. Who did a better job last year? I don't know enough about every other team to answer that. But winning the WS doesn't mean that your GM did the best job that year IMO. Empty argument. It has legs, but without support, its empty.

Why not? Then they can really shine a light on JH's issues...