CP_414

That might be enough to get Hollandsworth back. Maybe Jaime Navarro. Oh, I forgot...........when posting a trade I should overvalue whoever the Cubs are trading for and undervalue the Cubs prospects......... my bad! Jerome Williams is a 24 year old that has MLB experience and decent stuff. Angel Guzman is a 24 year old that has MLB experience and GREAT stuff. Theriot is a good player. He's also young and cheap. Berg is a 22 year old with decent upside. Atlanta develops their prospects as well. What do some of you guys/gals think it will take? I can't wait for the Prior/Pie/Guzman/Brownlie/Petrick/Veal.........etc. Williams can't crack the Cubs rotation that has started 6 rookies this season. Guzman has to prove he can stay healthy to be a great prospect. I don't view theriot as more than a potential solid back-up, or ok starter on a bad team. I don't know enough about Berg to comment. I don't think those guys net you an "Andruw Jones" type player.

Of course Prior hasn't looked like himself, he's been injured most of the season. They need to give him time. I know that Cubs fans would regret giving up another great pitcher for a short term player if Prior, as he easily could, even partly regains his old form. I do think they should go after Jones, but not if the price is one of our best hopes for the future. Some people have given up on him, but I don't think he's done yet. If he can't manage to throw a full season by the time he is eligible for free agency, they could give up on him, but before then, he's just got too much promise to let go for a short term player. I'd prefer to keep Prior, but wouldn't let him stop the trade. It's not just this season. He's been on the DL for a decent amount of time the last 3 years. He hasn't really resembled the 2003 Prior at all except for a few flashes last season last season. I like Prior as much as anyone, and I hope he rebounds to 03 form, but if I can get a potential NL MVP for him I do it. Jones can hit 50 HR's, hit clean-up all year, and play solid D in center. I really don't know what to expect out of Prior at this point. I don't think this is a factor though. I think Prior wouldn't be able to get through waivers to the Braves. Pie, Marshall, Mateo could get it done. With Marmol, Hill, Gizman, Gallagher we can afford to give up the Marshall and Mateo for a guy like Andruw.

I would do Prior for Andruw if we could have a window to negotiate an extension with Jones. Prior hasn't looked like himself at all, and who knows when or if he ever becomes that player again. I think Hendry probably regrets not taking the Tejada trade, and wouldn't let that happen again. Why would we not claim Jones? Even if we don't think we can work out a trade by 1pm tomorrow, wouldn't we want to try to work it out? Plus, we can prevent a team like St. Louis or Houston from getting him before his 10/5 rights if we put a claim in now. I don't see what the downside is to claiming him and I would be very disappointed if Hendry didn't.

Good team, but what in the world has Prior done to warrent a raise from $3.7M to $7M?

I changed it. I had added the Jones part after the original post.

Per Buster Olney on ESPN News Reyes has agreed to a 4 year/$23 Million extension with the Mets. Olney also said Andruw Jones was put on the waiver wire, and the Braves might try to deal him before he gets 10/5 rights on Aug 15th.

So would I. Knowing that....what would it take to get Elijah to the Cubs org? Cubs are a family organization. Absolutely no way this happens. Ever. The Cubs drafted Ben Christiansen and considered bringing in Milton Bradley so I'm not sure they're all that "family" oriented. Not to argue, but I'm fairly sure the #1 reason why we ended up not signing Bradley was due to the off-the-field problems. Sad truth is the Cubs care about ticket sales over anything else. I'm sure the #1 reason is we didn't offer Andre Either in a trade like Oakland did.

Radke announced he is hanging it up after this season. I thik Wilson and Catalanatto will get starting jobs somewhere. Is Grudz a free agent?

I don't make $12M a year and fail to be able to perform my job for all but a few weeks a year. I like Kerry a lot, but he doesn't deserve more than $2M +incentives. If I were in his shoes I would feel in debt to the Cubs organization that paid me so well to sit on the DL. I would gladly accept a $1M + incentives deal to prove I can be a dominant relief pitcher and show gratitude for the Cubs. I'm not saying he will do that, but I sure woud.

Don't worry. You don't want to see how it ended. lol, uh... does any one know the time for tommorow's games? Game 1 at noon. Game 2 after that one ends.

There you go; I think you answered your own question. It's the same stat he brought up when they signed Jeromy Burnitz. As you say, the stat is entirely random and varies from year to year with each player. All I can do is keep beating the OBP drum and maybe talking with some of their inside people about this silly notion. I did hear the interview today on the way to the park. In my opinion, Bruce, the SLG drum is just as important. Hendry also touched on this today(you probably heard), saying that they used to have a team that led the league in HR, but that didn't get them anywhere in terms of winning a championship. Well, that's true, but that offense('03-'04) sure did score a lot more runs than this one does. He was in rare form today. It's absolutely shocking that a GM could be so clueless as to what attributes lead to a good offensive team. Why did Hendry change his gameplan on how to build a team. The 2003 team was built around power on offense and ptching. They were 5 outs from the WS. The 2004 team had the same idea, but was even more talented than 2003. They won 1 more game than 03, and should have made the playoffs. Then in 2005 he let a lot of power go in Sosa/Alou and he didn't replace it. Now in 2006 there is almost no power and it is all speed and defense. What the hell happened? It can't all be the White Sox, because this trend has been moving this way for 2 years now. Not to mention the fact the Sox led the Al in HR's last year. Hendry had the Cubs going in the right direction in 03-04, why did he change course?

Don't worry. You don't want to see how it ended.

I believe he's sincere in what he said last night and for the last year or so _ that he wants to remain a Cub. What I think will happen is that the Cubs will attempt to restructure the deal to sweeten it and keep him off the open market. Aramis and Jim Hendry have a good relationshp, and the agent, Paul Kinzer, appears to be a very reasonable guy. My gut feeling is that he stays. This makes sense to me. The Cubs will have money to spend in the offseason, and the fallout from letting him walk would be very ugly, considering that the offense is already the worst in baseball. I really hope that they don't think people will consider keeping ARam as a successful offseason, but who knows. They've shown very little interest in making their constituents happy. I think you're overestimating the fallout from letting Ramirez walk. It seems the collective masses think that Ramirez isn't "clutch" and that he can't be counted on because the worst two months (arguably) of his career coincided with Lee's injury. Indeed, virtually everyone I talk to about Ramirez bemoans the fact that he's only performing now that it "doesn't matter." Obviously, all of that is utter nonsense. But I think that's what the masses generally believe. And that means that ditching Ramirez wouldn't generate much of a backlash, except from the folks that have been engaged in a constant backlash for the last 24 months (at least). And we know how effective that's been. Now, if I was a betting man (who I am kidding with that phrase) -- As a betting man, my sense is that he stays. I just don't think it would create a huge stir if he left. I agree, and that's what worries me. I couldn't count the number of times this year I've heard that he's not "clutch" and is "lazy". While the later may be true, it's the least of out concerns at this point.

2003...the good old days. That team had some fight. Now they are pushovers.

It has been widely reported the O's turned down Ervin Santana for Tejada. It has also been reported they turned down Roy Oswalt. We have nothing to offer them for Tejada. Angelos is crazy and thinks Tejada is Babe Ruth or something. He's not gonna get traded, baring a major change in philosophy from the old man in Baltimore.

The Brewers announcers literally have not stopped talking about the humidor since this series started in Colorado 3 days ago. I don't care anymore!

Carlos Lee has been "the man" in Milwaukee since he got there. This is the 1st time in his career Soriano has been the best player on his team.

You briefly mentioned it on TV, but do you expect Aramis to use the opt out clause? Even if he does were talking 90% chance he resigns here, right?

They were just in Vegas. How can you expect him to fly to Iowa and pitch and not get hurt?

Are those stats real or did he just make them up? JP, Barrett, and Aramis are over .400 the last 2 weeks? It sound like he was making them up on the spot, but maybe not.

At least Dusty knows his own stats. Now let's see if he can figure out his teams numbers.

Dusty is looking forward to abusing Hill's arm.

Lets play 2 tomorrow!

Wow, it got nasty out there.

Ronnie has a glove on!