BigbadB

If Hendry wastes money on LoDuca, I won't be happy. Just sign someone off the scrap heap that won't cut into Soto's playing time.

I know this guy, who knows the owner of this business, who has an employee at this business that sometimes stops into this one shoe store to buy shoes, and the salesman at the shoe store knows the brother of the best friend of the guy who made that post on Cubs.com, and he confirms that the story is legit. Can we officially move on to something else a bit more interesting now? Like Jake Peavy's shoe size or how often he mows his lawn?

It's too bad that Soriano has that NTC, otherwise I'd love to see this 3 way deal: Baltimore gets Michael Young and Felix Pie Texas gets Alfonso Soriano Cubs get Brian Roberts and Garrett Olson Baltimore can afford the contract and aren't they in dire need of a SS? Texas must be able to afford the contract, since Young's contract practically mirrors Soriano's. Cubs sign Roberts to an extension and then include Olson in a deal for Peavy. There's just this one slight problem. Soriano's NTC.

Unless you can stick at that position as a starter in MLB, you probably don't have much of a career in the big leagues. Utility infielders need to be able to play more than 1 position.

And your point would be?

Heilman would immediately be the Padres #2 starter in a deal for Peavy.

This thread is now complete.

I find it rather humorous that you used the word "horses" in relation to a team that Dusty Baker manages. That is all. Carry on.

In a perfect world, we trade Joey Gathright, Aaron Miles, Kevin Gregg, Paul Bako, Luis Vizcaino, and the trio of minor leaguers we got for DeRosa for Peavy. :D

Do they make out charts for pitchers? It sure seems to me that Hoffman got a lot of warning track fly ball outs in Petco. He still has one of the most wicked change ups in the game, but little else. His fastball is one of the most crushable pitches in MLB. I may end up being wrong, but I don't think this will have been a good signing by the Brewers.

You say that now, but will you still be saying that when in the bottom of the 9th of a crucial 3 game series with the Cardinals, Gathright is called on to pinch run for Paul Bako and in his attempt to steal 2nd base, a Ferrari Testarosa makes a sudden stop right in the middle of the base path.

I think this really comes down to Peavy. The Padres dangled him and I think he officially wants out. Peavy's contract extension was based on the Padres staying competitive. I wouldn't be surprised if Peavy forces the trade to the Cubs. I've held firm all offseason that this deal will happen. I'm also expecting it to happen sooner now than later. Both teams still have work to do if Peavy isn't going anywhere, and less and less players will be available to either team the longer this deal takes. How would he do that? By taking his gripes to the front office. He can express his disappointment with the organization for having a fire sale when his contract extension was based on the team staying competitive. Peavy acted in good faith to the organization and they crapped all over him. Granted, he can't actually force a trade. But, I would imagine the proper thing to do when you have burned that bridge is to trade the player. Kinda hard for Peavy to take a "you owe it to me to trade me" stance when he's got a NTC that he's using to tie the Padres' hands. I'm sure if Peavy was willing to waive the NTC then Towers would be more than happy to accomodate him. I would agree with you, except for the fact the Padres gave him that NTC. By trying to trade him when they know full well that he has an NTC, they've basically burned that bridge, not Peavy. Would Peavy have given the Padres that very fair extension if he knew that less than 12 months later, they were going to have a fire sale? If I was a betting man, somewhere in the extension negotiations, Peavy and his agent made it clear that the contract extension signed was based on the team staying competitive. Peavy has honored his end of the deal and the Padres have not.

Haha. You kicked Tyrant's butt with that one.

I think this really comes down to Peavy. The Padres dangled him and I think he officially wants out. Peavy's contract extension was based on the Padres staying competitive. I wouldn't be surprised if Peavy forces the trade to the Cubs. I've held firm all offseason that this deal will happen. I'm also expecting it to happen sooner now than later. Both teams still have work to do if Peavy isn't going anywhere, and less and less players will be available to either team the longer this deal takes. How would he do that? By taking his gripes to the front office. He can express his disappointment with the organization for having a fire sale when his contract extension was based on the team staying competitive. Peavy acted in good faith to the organization and they crapped all over him. Granted, he can't actually force a trade. But, I would imagine the proper thing to do when you have burned that bridge is to trade the player.

I'd take Rocco Baldelli over Joey Gathright every day. I'd take Rocco Badelli over Joey Gathright even if he wasn't misdiagnosed.

I think this really comes down to Peavy. The Padres dangled him and I think he officially wants out. Peavy's contract extension was based on the Padres staying competitive. I wouldn't be surprised if Peavy forces the trade to the Cubs. I've held firm all offseason that this deal will happen. I'm also expecting it to happen sooner now than later. Both teams still have work to do if Peavy isn't going anywhere, and less and less players will be available to either team the longer this deal takes.

I never said he sucked, but I did say they aren't comparable. Buckner was a mid .450 SLG guy while Pods is a mid .350 SLG guy. A perfect example of how they aren't comparable can be found in your own post. Buckner: 1200 RBI Pods: 200 RBI Buckner played most of his games at 1b. I liken this to comparing Juan Pierre to James Loney. Simply not comparable.

Bill Buckner and Maury Wills? Are you seriously comparing Scotty Pods to these guys? They played in a completely different era and completely different ballparks. Maury Wills' career was played entirely during a dominant pitching era. Buckner was nothing like Podsednik. Period.

I think they could have possibly gotten one of those guys for DeRosa. But, we don't have DeRosa anymore, so no.

You would be wrong. Most people here were fine with trading DeRosa while his value was high. However, the return he got for DeRosa was as if Hendry was pawning DeRosa off as if his value was low. I guess that's what you get for being in the same rut of trading players while their value is at an all time low. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who is giddy about Stevens, Archer and Gaub. And if that's really all the team could get for DeRosa while his value is at an all time high, then we might as well have kept him. If Peavy isn't in Hendry's sites, or if the Cubs miss out on Peavy, I will look back on this offseason wishing that Hendry didn't make any changes, rather than making a bunch of changes for the worse. As it stands: DeRosa, Marquis, Wood, Howry, Blanco>>>>>>Luis Vizcaino, Milton Bradley, Joey Gathright, Aaron Miles, Kevin Gregg Hendry currently needs to trade for Peavy at this stage to change my offseason GM grade from an "F" to a "C".

Huh? Peavy isn't a free agent, what does his agent have to do with whether the Cubs can get him? And Sheets is a free agent, so Brewers wouldn't exactly be giving him to the Cubs. I could be wrong, but isn't a player's agent still heavily involved in trade talks? You're right about Sheets, but it would be a huge slap in the face to Brewers fans if he went to the Cubs. To the extent that Peavy has a no-trade, his agent will talk to the owners. But Axelrod has already been pushing for him to go to the Cubs and had nothing to do with the Padres high demands. That, and maybe convincing his client to make the team getting him guarantee that last year in his deal.

Magic? Wizard? Interesting choice of words. Certainly not the words I would use.

That's probably right. I also seem to recall Bruce Miles mentioning that DeRosa was one of the few RH hitting guys Hendry could actually move, due to NTC's. Soriano, Lee and Ramirez aren't going anywhere, for the most part. No team in the world has enough to give the Cubs for Geovany Soto. If the Cubs were going to get more left handed, the only positions they could do it were 2b, RF, CF and SS. Oddly enough, this team isn't really going to be anymore lefthanded in '09 than they have been in the last few years. '08- Edmonds, Fukudome, Fontenot, Pie, Hoffpauir '09- Bradley, Fukudome, Fontenot, Gathright, Bako, Hoffpauir???? Fontenot will get more playing time than last year, but it appears he'll be platooning with Miles. Edmonds' 08 and Bradley's '09 will probably be pretty close in at bats. Fukudome may end up with quite a few less at bats if he doesn't turn things around. If you ask me, that's a lot of offseason moves just to upgrade from Jim Edmonds to Milton Bradley.

I just noticed on Milton Bradley's baseball reference page that he was traded by Cleveland for Franklin Gutierrez and Andrew Brown. Later, he was traded from Oakland to San Diego for Andrew Brown.

The sneeze analogy perfectly illustrates what I've been trying to explain. People sneeze all the darn time, and nothing comes of it. Just like as dextermorgan has explained, professional baseball players step awkwardly on their leg all the darn time, and nothing comes of it. So if throwing your back out sneezing is a freak injury (since you've sneezed countless times with no injury occurring), then by the same logic, tearing your ACL stepping awkwardly is also a freak injury (since you've stepped awkwardly countless times with no injury occurring). Except people almost never get hurt sneezing. That's why it's a freak injury. People get hurt by twisting their legs. You're leaving out that very huge difference. Also, I'd say that there's a pretty big difference between a sneeze and a twisting of your leg. One is a natural thing that the body does by itself. The other is something that your body is put through due to a mistake. Your definition of a freak injury is: something people almost never get hurt doing (reference the bolded statement above). You've told us over and over and over again how baseball players step awkwardly on their leg all the time without getting hurt. Therefore by your own definition of the term, when a baseball player gets hurt stepping awkwardly, it's a freak injury. To resolve the whole freak injury discussion for good, I will finally explain the true definition of what constitutes a freak injury. Freak injury = WHO FREAKING CARES? Are any of you honestly listening to yourselves argue about what adjective should be in front of the word injury? Absolute nonsense. Bud Black should have manned up and helped Milton Bradley punch that umpire in the face repeatedly until all racial prejudice seeped out of his pores. If Black would have done that, Bradley may never have blown out his knee.