nilodnayr

That is not even close to the truth. Look, I'm not a Soriano fan. I was initially intrigued when all he was was a name with the hype in the minors. But after seeing his game, I quickly soured, and his change of age didn't help matters. However, last year he hit .268/.309/.512, in 2004 it was .280/.324/.484. For his career he is at .280/.320/.500. Now, none of this is amazing, worthy of $10 million or all the hype he has received. But, he is nowhere near horrendous or very bad. He's a good baseball player who can help a team if used properly. He's no leadoff hitter or top half of the order guy. He is basically Corey Patterson if Corey hadn't fallen off the cliff. Throw him in the 6 hole with a decent threat behind him (Barrett or Murton) and he could help the Cubs. Interestingly, in 2001, at the age of 25, Soriano put up an OPS+ of 92, the year before in limited duty he was at 35. In 2005, Corey, at age 25 put up an OPS+ of 56, the year before he was at 92 (116 in 2003). Juan Pierre was 84 last year, and is just 87 for his career. He has Willie Wilson written all over him. Willie had some decent years in his mid 20's, only to turn into a has been pretty quickly. Only Willie actually had some good SB skills, maintaining an 80+% rate throughout his career - Pierre is well below that benchmark. If the Cubs can't get Wilkerson or Bradley for CF, I think they have to consider that their best option might be to try and go big in RF, and settle on Corey with competition in CF, batting 8th. Have Hairston and Greenberg ready to step in anyday, with Pie as the carrot on the end of the stick. two words: road splits... 2005: 224/265/374, he was an extreme liability to his team for half the games 2004: 244/291/444, less so, but still a liability to his team of half the games He would have been a good player if used properly those years...that is benched when on the road.

NO SCHEDULED PRESS CONFERENCE

By all reports Hendry is one of, if not the, hardest working GMs in baseball. I'm sick and tired of people making snide remarks about his inactivity at the winter meetings.

Or loyal. He's from Joliet, Illinois, I'm pretty sure the story when he re-signed was that he didn't want to go anywhere else, he wanted to try and make it with the Cubs, and that he knocked back offers to see that happen. If I'm remembering this completely wrong, someone please point it out. Of course, ideally, the Cubs would repay that loyalty. I remember that as well.

Well I'm surprised no one pointed it out, but when I read that quote the first thing that jumped out to me was that hendry said "Hairston played well in the second half last season". I thought to myself, well it sure didn't seem taht way so I looked up his numbers... Pre ASB 276/361/400 Post ASB 241/303/329 His pre ASB stats are right about where I would have expected him to be, which are numbers I can be happy with. But he stunk it up big time the second half. This truly makes you wonder what Hendry uses to evaluate players. I guess he must have missed 2 less signs in the second half or something.

How about taking Soriano off the Rangers hands. If you haven't notice...the Rangers are desparately trying to move Soriano, seeing as this is an arbritration (sp?) ready to happen, and he is going to make over $10 mill next yr...unless he is non-tendered, if that's possibly. I rather trade Williams and Mitre for Kearns and ptbnl. Soriano was absolutely horrendous last year, and very bad the year before. Plus hes a butcher defensively. All he has going for him is 2 good years that are completely based on his batting average and home runs totals which can be attributed to the fact that he was thrown balls very much over the plate considering Jeter and Giambi were hitting after him.

See slightly earlier in the thread for evidence of Kearns over mench.

Are you serious? Hendry is a damn fool!!! On top of the fact that we didnt offer any prospects Hendry is offering Walker to free up 2B for Neifi!!! YOu have go to be kidding me!! This organization is pathetic! All reports were under the pretense of Hendry signing Furcal and moving cedeno over to second.

All the love is a result of the seemingly most plausible alternatives of Wilson or Jones.

I think that theres a solid contingent (with obvious exceptions) of frequent/veteran posters who all share a sabremetrically inclined direction that the cubs should be headed. This sometimes is construed as groupthink. However, when a group of people have a similar way of analyzing the game, it shouldnt be a surprise that they target the same players or agree with others of the like mind. However, thas been an influx of new posters whos opinions very often diverge from many of the more outspoken, established posters. For example, there are many who now think the sky is falling because we didn't get furcal, however there were just as many who viewed furcal (even at 10M per) to be extremely overpaid and a move that would hinder signficant improvement of the team.

Ehh, IMO Tillman has significantly regressed this year. Leading the NFC in tackles from the CB position is nothing to be proud of, all it means is hes playing soft and giving up receptions, his tackles arent on running backs. He might be up there on passes defensed, but thats only because hes getting thrown to a ton. But yes, he does have big picks which makes everyone forget about the many many many 8-18 yard receptions hed given up.

Plus it will be acceptable to sign over the hill, crap veterans. Hendry/Baker for DeJesus!!!!

link Maybe the Cubs can swoop in and give them what they want without the complication of three teams. Don't hold your breath. Most of the Cubs "prospects" are "untouchable", haven't you heard? Oh, but Hendry thinks he's going to get something of value for Fez and Welly, cool huh? While lugo is and has been on my wish list, talks of marte or Estrada and prospects are a whole heck of a lot more than I would spend for a 1 year rental. Bradley and Wilkerson are much better options.

Denver Post reported a few days back that the Rockies offered Bigbie for Welly. While not a significant move, bigbie is infinitely more valuable than waiving welly, which is what we will have to do. In 03 and 04 he put up 800+ OPS against righties, plus he can adequately fill in at all three OF positions. He'd be a definite plus as a backup outfielder and is only first year arbi eligible.

Yeah, right. You expect us to believe that you didn't recognize Julian Tavarez the moment you saw him? Naw, it was Ray King...she thought he was on the professional eating circuit. :D Hmmm, ok for real, a cards pitcher that some one who works for the cards doesnt know is a cards pitcher....this is tricky. My guess is Tyler Johnson.

Considering their ages and length of the deals I will humbly disagree. I agree with your disagree....circle gets the square!!!

I dont think hes going to net much in a trade considering hes a free agent. He won't get them anything. Since he's a free agent he can't be traded, since nobody owns his rights to trade. Duh hickey...sounds like some one needs to go to sleep :D

Yep. I'm pretty sure Bowden will at least inquire about Cedeno. If we sign Furcal, Hendry might consider dealing him, but I'd rather not. I'd try to interest the Nats in some of our pitching prospects instead. Jerome Williams also would look nice pitching in that park. I'd try to swing a Williams and Ryu deal for Wilkerson if possible. I agree, ss and pitching is what the nats should be looking for, but with bowden thats a big should. However it seems like Church is really disliked by robinson (God only knows why). Id be quite happy trying to flip patterson for him as part of the deal.

The nationals should be pretty set with Sledge, Church, and Guillen in the OF. If I'm bowden and im talking to Hendry about Wilk, the conversation begins and ends with cedeno.

Under a proper manager he'd be well worth it.

The problem with trading our prospects to the A's is that very few in our minors are sabre type players, we are much heavier on the tools than production.

I dont think hes going to net much in a trade considering hes a free agent.

You'll just have to take my word for it. That's really Bruce. It was really Len Kasper, too. And Jim Callis. And, well, you get the picture. But how do we know you're really Tim? :wink: How do you know you are really you? I wear a nametag at all times We are really desperate for anything to happen now. We have gone down to the depths of not knowing who anyone really is. How do we know that everyone on this earth is not just multiple personalities of a single person and that everyone we see is just a figment of that person's imagination? SCARY really if you think about it... Not that it really matters, none of this is real, its all a computer program to keep us happy. :D

I would be extremely happy to have him in CF, not in RF. But Bradley would be infinitely cheaper and would most likely have better production and can hit at the top of the order and improve our OBP. But Pena compared to Pierre is no comparison.

He only played 7 games at short, only started 5 of them. He now has 3.136 years of ML service time, meaning he is eligible for arbi for the first time. Yeah...I wasn't exactly sure how long he'd been up to the big leagues......and regardless of how many games he had at short, a statement of "he ended up playing both 2B and SS for the A's this past season" is an accurate one. However "he was signed on as the backup for Crosby on the 05 season" is not. He was signed on as the starting second baseman (to split time with Keith Ginter), Marcus Scutaro was the backup shortstop from day 1.