nilodnayr

Pierre- .292 .330 .388 3 HR 58 SB Soriano- .277 .351 .560 46 HR 41 SB Ohh, I didn't realize that every player repeats their numbers from the previous year. Thanks for letting me in on that secret. Jeez, that makes a GMs job so much easier. I would say that our team is looking pretty good now...except I predict its really going to hurt us when DLee breaks his wrist. And too bad ARAM won't step up when we need him. Hey, lets trade for Suppan at the deadline, he won't have a ton of value at the time but I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess that he will do really well in the playoffs!!!! Man I bet the Rangers are pissed that that this rule that you have wasn't in effect when they trade for Sori. Thanks for the update!

I think a good barometer to how good of a signing this is, is to see all the "now if we just trade for manny", or "now if we just signe drew" posts in this thread....it might just be a reflection of crazy optimistic posters, or it might be a reflection of how unsure we are that Sori ias actually going to be a significant upgrade. Color me the later.

I'm much more worried about his sucking at the age of 31 relative to that deal. Maybe he will. But on the other hand, maybe this is a sign that he's learned his lesson relative to guys that seem to have an injury bug following them around re: JD Drew. Soriano and Drew were the two guys that gave us the best chance to win now, and getting one of them would be a great accomplishment. So you are ignoring Sori's 2004 and 2005 seasons, yet harping on Drew's injuries from 4+ years ago? If Sori does not reproduce his 06 season then he isn't going to give us the best chance to win now, definitely not as good as if Drew reproduces his 2006, 2005, 2004, etc. Drew played 72 games in 2005. These issues aren't miles in the past. I'm not saying I'd rather have Soriano than Drew, but I'm psyched that we managed to get one of them. If Cal Ripken Jr. got hit on the hand by a pitch and broke a bone he would miss time too.

I think he smashed his piggy bank to do this. Somewhere Carmen is crying..... And so are all knowledgeable cubs fans. One advantage to this I suppose is if Drew does go to Boston Manny going to Chicago is a decent possiblity. I don't know if we can add 18M a year after supposedly just adding 17M a year. That right there puts us over 115M without doing anyting to the rotation. I'd much rather have let Sori sign elsewhere, Drew sign with the BoSox, and us trade for Manny.

I'm much more worried about his sucking at the age of 31 relative to that deal. Maybe he will. But on the other hand, maybe this is a sign that he's learned his lesson relative to guys that seem to have an injury bug following them around re: JD Drew. Soriano and Drew were the two guys that gave us the best chance to win now, and getting one of them would be a great accomplishment. So you are ignoring Sori's 2004 and 2005 seasons, yet harping on Drew's injuries from 4+ years ago? If Sori does not reproduce his 06 season then he isn't going to give us the best chance to win now, definitely not as good as if Drew reproduces his 2006, 2005, 2004, etc.

I think he smashed his piggy bank to do this. Somewhere Carmen is crying..... And so are all knowledgeable cubs fans.

It depends how much it would cost us. The article mentions for relief help. They missed out on Speir and are considering JoBo for their closing jobs, so that how desperate they are for relievers. If they want Dempster then I pull the trigger immediately. Coco suffered through a thumb injury all last year and it showed. I would expect him to bounce back to his 2004 and 2005 production which was pretty good for a CF. Similarly to Pierre he has a low IsoD so his OBP is very batting average dependent. Also he has a very very weak arm. But he is fast and has good range. He doesn't steal as many bases, but has improved his %. He provides pretty good pop too. He'll make 15.5M over the next 3 years. So if in this market that gets you DeRosa or AGon, hes has excellent value. The problem is that CF is our position of improvement, be it Sori or Drew. Coco is not the guy who is going to push us over the edge. Depending on who we would have to give up he most likely will be better than signing Lugo to a 4/32 and throwing him in CF.

What are you, deadspin? :)

Missing games? Who are we talking about, Alou or Drew? Would you like Drew if he stopped walking? I'd like Drew with he played more games. He's as soft as Charmin. Here's a guy who just doesn't fully use his talent. Incorrect

Good for him, he beat the system :)

are you kidding? marginal relievers were the key to them winning the division and...ohh wait.

I think the whole reason everyone is so excited about the proposition of trading for Westbrook is that no one thinks it would cost a significant player like Murton. No, Shapiro is not dumb. However, in this offseason relief pitching is becoming ridiculously expensive. Shapiros job may depend on how the Indians bullpen holds up next year since he cleaned it out last year. If he was smart he probably wouldn't tinker with it much because we all know that on paper that bullpen should be good enough and year to year success is unpredictable. However, if he is risk adverse, he would do something to try to solve the problem. It may not end up working, but at least it would be an effort. Westbrook is going to be a FA, so Shapiro might as well get something for him now. We all thought Hendry was crazy for overpaying for relief pitching last offseason and that definitely bore itself out on the field as it doesnt really matter how good your bullpen is when you are usually losing when the starting pitcher leaves. But, maybe he was crazy like a fox because the relief pitching market has just exploded this offseason. In a market where Jaime Walker can get 12M and you absoutely have to upgrade the pen, it may not be fair to call Shapiro stupid for trading Westbrook for relief pitching.

Sorry Tim, it wasn't a mocking of Dusty's racial quote. I was mocking the anecdotal perception that the reason Pierre had a rough start last year was that he was slowed by the cold weather because his legs were not warm enough. Which lead to him getting thrown out by half of a step on all of his ground balls to the MIF. There was extensive conversation regarding it, citing track stats, etc. Nothing to do with Dusty or race.

Pierre's speed should come in handy getting to the Giants' GM first. Unfortunatley its winter so its pretty cold, meaning Pierre will miss by a half step.

The Book disagrees

See Abuck's post

I would have to think that the BoSox would prefer someone with a better upside than Hill in our minors as signing Mats (when they do) will pretty much complete their rotation. Hopefully we could do this without giving up Paw or Veal.

I hate that guy! Only because he sucks yet always kills the cubs - or so it seems. well, he hit that weak grand slam off prior anyway . . . If he was used properly he could be quite productive. OPS vs righties 04- 843 05 - 734 06 - 877 Even in his bad year thats pretty decent for a backup who made 1M. He doesn't really fit that great on our team, but hes good, cheap insurance.

Since very few posters gave him props for signing his own free agents (ARam, Wood, and Miller), I would think he should be ahead of the GMs that couldn't even sign their own free agents (Soriano, Drew, Schmidt, Zito, CLee, etc.). Evidently you missed the ARAM getting resigned thread. You have to go to page 2 to see it, but I think the last 30 or so pages of the thread are the vast majority of posters giving props for resigning ARAM. There were some props being given, but nothing compared to the beating he was taking saturday night/sunday morning. That thread was about 25% speculation, 25% worry, 40% Hendry bashing/drunken vitriol and 10% tepid foot-in-mouth praise/relief. The deadline had passed, there was no reason to believe that he would be signed as a cub the next afternoon. To say that the beating Hendry took on this board saturday night was unjustified is ridiculous (im not saying you said it was unjustified). BTB said that very few posters gave him props for signing his own FAs. I think if you go back to those three threads after the respective announcements had been made, you will find very little other than props.

Are you talking offensively, defensively or both? value to the team. If you are referring to their salaries in relation to what they can provide to the team, then you must know what the Cubs payroll limits are. Without knowing how much Hendry can spend, it is impossible to say with any level of certainty whether Blanco's 2.5 mill is going to impact his ability to sign anyone else. If you look at performance alone and you factor in that the Cubs are trying to win now, resigning Blanco over playing Soto is a no-brainer. Soto's bat is untested at the major league level. His glove and arm and game-calling ability can't be any better than Blanco's, so how would he be an improvement? He wouldn't. He's only cheaper. I like Soto, I think he's got a chance at being a really good back-up catcher in the majors, but I don't want to find out in the next two seasons while the Cubs are trying to win it all. I want to be able to count on a proven commodity for the bench player who under normal circumstances will start more games than any other bench player, my back-up catcher. If Barrett goes down to another injury, do you want a rookie in your line-up during a pennant chase? If the Cubs are out of it, who cares, right? But at least Hendry is planning on being in it. And until someone can show that spending 2.5 mill on Blanco is affecting Hendry's ability to sign a big name FA, then the least we can do is be glad the Cubs have one of the best back-up catchers in the business in the fold. If signing Blanco does inhibit us from spending the extra couple M per year to get a Drew or Sori then it wont matter if Barrett gets hurt or not, we will not have a chance to win. If signing Blanco doesnt inhibit us from spending the extra couple M per year and we do acquire a Drew/Sori and Barrett gets hurt then the difference between Soto and Blanco will be nominal enough that with the lineup we would have built it wouldnt matter.

Nope, just park adjusted and league adjusted I believe. Here are their lines Aurilia 06 - 300/349/518 DeRosa 06 - 296/357/456 Aurilia 05 - 282/338/444 DeRosa 05 - 243/325/439 In 05 Park Adjusted leage OPS was a whopping 22 points lower in the AL and 25 points lower in the NL than in 06.

99 and 98...guess which one was DeRosa and which one was Aurilia. This game is fun.

No, same Alex Gonzalez...I have been talking about the expo/marlin/bosox one. If you remember, Hendry has wanted him since when he was on the marlins. Leading up to the trade deadline he had talked about acquiring him from the expos many times. Yet somehow he wound up in boston and we got nomar. Not that it worked out the way it should have, but it was still a great trade. The Alex Gonzalez this thread is about never played for the Expos. He played only for the Marlins and then the Red Sox. In that trade, we traded our Alex Gonzalez to the Expos. The guy you are probably getting confused with is Orlando Cabrera, who went from the Expos to the Red Sox in that trade. Most Cubs fans thought Hendry would nab Cabrera, not Nomar. Ok, yeah thats the sign its getting late and I should go to sleep because I have to wake up for a flight in 4 hours...I was thinking of OCab. Damn you RedSox for acquiring crappy shortstops that confuse me. You can make it up by taking Izturis off our hands!!! And we'll only take a half of a bucket of balls in return!

I think your guess at Hendry's thinking is probably accurate, but still doesnt excuse the fact that Loretta, Belliard, Kennedy, Aurilia, and Giles (through trade) are probably all better alternatives to DeRosa and will most likely get similar salaries, especially considering the fact that there are not 5 other teams in need of second basemen. Not to mention that all of the options I listed (except Belliard) are better options at the top of the order, which supposedly is such a concern of Hendry's. The only thing that DeRosa has over those players is outfield experience and my opinion on that is whoopdeefreakindoo. Aurilia? Otherwise, I agree. 2006 ops+...112 and 106. Guess which one was DeRosa and which one was Aurilia.

I think your guess at Hendry's thinking is probably accurate, but still doesnt excuse the fact that Loretta, Belliard, Kennedy, Aurilia, and Giles (through trade) are probably all better alternatives to DeRosa and will most likely get similar salaries, especially considering the fact that there are not 5 other teams in need of second basemen. Not to mention that all of the options I listed (except Belliard) are better options at the top of the order, which supposedly is such a concern of Hendry's. The only thing that DeRosa has over those players is outfield experience and my opinion on that is whoopdeefreakindoo.