BigbadB

Only if they've completely forgotten what made them such a good team throughout the entire '90's and halfway through the '00's. I honestly can't figure out what they are trying to do. If there really was a huge window of opportunity right now, I could see going for it. But, Philadelphia is coming off a World Series victory and should be even better in '09 and you know the Mets will be spending freely this offseason with a pretty strong supporting cast already in the fold. It just doesn't make sense.

That's some imagination you've got there. So you hate every GM and not just Hendry? Did they kick your dog? Consistency is a virtue.

Go Braves, Go Braves!!!

I will go ahead and agree with Goony that a monkey could have put a competitive team on the field 5 out of 6 years, along with making the postseason 3 of those 6 years, given the resources Hendry has had to work with. Payroll has nearly doubled since Hendry took over and he already had a fairly stocked team of regulars and a highly rated farm system. What I have found to be the most troublesome with Hendry's tenure as the Cubs GM, is his constantly changing philosophies of building a winner. To me, he's been extremely narrow minded with what type of player can help him now and in the future. He gives the perception of tunnel vision when it comes to "getting his man", even if a better man is available and at his disposal. The lame quotes like "guys who can catch the ball" and "left handed power hitter" are only the tip of the iceberg with the problems I've had with Hendry over the years. I won't call it all bad. I like a lot of the players Hendry has brought to this team. At times, he's looked like a magician. However, over his full body of work, he just isn't getting the job done. Winning divisions when 4/5 of the teams in your division are crappy small market teams going nowhere ever isn't really the best indicator of your body of work. Switch us with Boston and Boston is winning more than 100 games a year while we are struggling to break .500. Epstein is a good GM. Hendry, not so much.

I guess there's always hope for improvement. At the same time, I've said from day 1 that he shouldn't bat any higher than 8th in the order. If he's a high risk to be caught stealing, do it from the bottom of the order. If he's a high risk to hit into a GIDP, let him do it from the bottom of the order. If he's got a respectable OBP, let him get on base in front of Soriano.

If Marshall ends up in a package to the Padres, I think Samardzija is in the Iowa rotation to start '09. Possibly Gaudin, also. I don't think you can go into the '09 season with so little depth in the starting rotation. If the Cubs get Peavey and they don't deal Marquis they will be fine even if they have to trade Marshall. Z Harden Lilly Peavey Dempster ---------- Marquis Gaudin I'm not sure what to make of Samardzija as a starter, but I think he'll be needed in the bullpen with Wood gone. Well, from everything we have been reading, the Peavy deal is contigent on the Cubs freeing up money, which means Marquis is gone. That leaves Samardzija and Gaudin as your only real options to fill in if someone in the rotation gets hurt. Guzman is done as a starter. Veal will be on some teams 25 man roster for at least a few months, if not all year as a LOOGY. I would guess Gaudin will be the long man in the pen and Samardzija will be getting stretched out in Iowa. I'm sure the Cubs can find someone off the scrap heap for dirt cheap, but I wouldn't expect it to be anyone decent enough. Maybe a Jerome Williams type guy.

I don't really see all that many "middle range FA starters" as being available. Even guys like Oliver Perez and Jon Garland are going to command dollars that small market teams can't afford. I suppose there could be a few nontenders out there, but it would be a real shocker that teams are so fruitful with starting pitchers that they can afford to nontender one. A guy like Randy Johnson isn't going to sign with KC. He'll get a deal with a team that has a reasonable chance to make the playoffs, or he will take his toys and go home.

If Marshall ends up in a package to the Padres, I think Samardzija is in the Iowa rotation to start '09. Possibly Gaudin, also. I don't think you can go into the '09 season with so little depth in the starting rotation.

You make it seem like getting rid of Marquis and a majority of his salary will be easy. Who is going to pay $9.875M for a back of the rotation starter next year? I'm assuming the the Cubs would pick up some, but I would think the team trading for him would have to pay him at least $7M next year. How much is a league-average starter worth for a one-year contract? Maybe not $7 million in this market, but it can't be that much less. You forgot to include the word durable. Marquis is a durable, league average starter. And there is definitely a market for that. Not at the price the Cubs are going to have to pay, but if they pick up 3 or 4m of that contract, you will definitely have some teams interested. Especially small market teams that don't have a shot at the higher end starters.

I don't buy this at all. The reason Mike Hampton and Jeremy Affeldt are the only ones to sign so far is because teams are no longer willing to cough up draft picks on players before the arbitration deadline, especially if they don't have to. Anyone who believes the Giants would sign Bob Howry before last night isn't facing reality. Anyone who believes that Bob Howry would go anywhere but Chicago if the Cubs offered arbitration is not facing reality. Now that the arbitration deadline has passed, teams will be much more willing to start negotiating with players (especially the players who were not offered arby). Rafael Furcal has been one of the most talked about free agents this offseason. Why? Because he's not going to cost anyone any picks. Sure, Tex and Sabathia are hot commodities as well, but those are two guys that teams are willing to cough up draft picks to land. After that list, everyone else is a gamble. Kerry Wood would have been a gamble worth taking, IMO. I'm fully expecting the Texas Rangers to offer Kerry a 3 or 4 year deal this offseason. I think they still would have done it even if the Cubs offered arby, but now they stand to sign him without costing any compensation. And this is where I think Hendry really screwed this up. Yes, there is always that gamble that Kerry doesn't attract the interest he desires and he accepts arbitration. But, if that day comes, you figure out a way to make it work. It's a one year contract. Bottom line, there are teams out there looking to spend money to make their teams better. 4 teams have expressed interest in Marquis. If the Angels lose out on Tex, they might have interest in Derrek Lee. If the Angels did get Tex, San Fran might have some interest in a guy like Lee, especially when they lose out on many of the free agents they are interested in. Lee for Nate Schierholtz and a pitching prospect would be a huge savings, and I think Schierholtz could match Lee's production right now. I don't think Wood accepting arby messes up the chances to get Peavy. The Cubs have plenty of trade pieces to reduce the payroll if put in a pinch. This is just a bad move by Hendry. Pure and simple.

Wow, they sure didn't baby Blyleven. By the end of his age 25 season, he had already amassed almost 2000 major league innings pitched. :shock:

How wrong would it be to move Mike Brown to OLB? Then you could go with Payne and Steltz at safety. I'd rather see Brown covering tight ends or backs on short pass patterns than Hillenmeyer or Roach.

The stories themselves change over time, and that's why reporters have to revise what they've reported. The market is moving very, very slowly right now. The Cubs still like Peavy, but there's no movement anywhere from any team on getting a deal done soon. With players such as Abreu and Ibanez, much will depend on the kind of money they're asking. That's also been slow to develop. As of now, I can't see the Cubs signing Abreu. I can see them making a run at Ibanez, again, depending on his asking price and how much the Cubs have to work with. Part of that will depend, too, if they're able to move a guy like Marquis. Right now, not much is happening anywhere. That may change once teams decide on arbitration for their own free agents. I would also have to imagine that these player's value to the Cubs decrease if they are offered arbitration by their previous clubs. The Cubs need to restock their farm system, especially if Peavy ends up coming over in a deal. As tricky as the Wood situation is, I think they need to offer him arbitration. Someone will give him a 2 year deal, especially a team like Texas. I think they should avoid Ibanez and Abreu, since both could be too expensive and cost draft picks. Milton Bradley won't cost picks. He's the guy they should be courting to play RF.

Renteria did some stuff against the Cubs that probably hasn't been too quickly forgotten in the Cubs clubhouse.

Theriot's AVG and OBP were definitely good last year, but in the big picture, it's really not all that good. Just to give you an idea how hollow those stats really are, here are a few comparisons for you: Theriot had 24 XBH's in 2008 The extremely hated Juan Pierre had 32 doubles, 13 triples and 3 HR's in his only year with the Cubs. That's twice as many XBH's as Theriot had this past year. One of the things that ate Cub fans alive was Slappy's inability to hit for extra bases. Yet, he had TWICE as many as Theriot had in '08. Neifi Perez had 45 XBH's in his final full season with the Cubs. The lack of power is staggering. If his batting average was sustainable, he wouldn't be completely worthless, but there aren't many here that believe he can sustain that level.

I thought the defense looked a little better last night than they have been. I think Graham earned a starting job for next season. I thought the safety play was pretty decent. I'm really starting to like Payne as a nice complement to Brown. With that said, I think they only need to focus on the defensive line and a little depth at the linebacker position this offseason on the defensive side of the ball. Hunter Hillenmeyer and Rashied Davis are guys I wouldn't mind seeing released this am or yesterday. They offer this team nothing at this point.

Unfortunately, it would seem to me that a better trade partner for the Twins is the Padres, themselves. The Twins have been in dire need of a 3b in forever, and are about to offer a ridiculous contract to an ever aging Casey Blake. Meanwhile, the Padres have 2 3b's, one of which is not that far from becoming expensive. A straight up trade of Delmon Young for Kevin Kouzmanoff would seem pretty fair, IMO, and it would make a lot of sense. Or toss in a prospect from one side or the other to make it fair. I don't know what we could really give the Twins that could turn Peavy into a Cub.

As the Cubs lead off hitter in '08: Reed Johnson: .302 OBP, 17 runs in 88 plate appearances, or about 1 run per 5 plate appearances Ryan Theriot: .419 OBP, 5 runs in 74 plate appearances :shock: , or about 1 run per 15 plate appearances Alfonso Soriano: .350 OBP, 76 runs in 492 plate appearances, or about 1 run per 6.4 plate appearances. Realistically, if a guy can average 1 run per 6 plate appearances, he's going to score 100 runs in a season. Just for fun: Brian Roberts: 107 runs in 702 plate appearances, or 1 run per 6.5 plate appearances. Roberts doesn't really generate anymore runs than Soriano. It's simply a myth.

The latest report has the Padres and Cubs taking a 10 day hiatus from trade negotiations. My guess is that they will resume talks on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Why don't they just ask for Soto and Marmol, too.

Good to see the Bears with over 200 yards on the ground.

Is Petersen just getting reps that Jones would normally get today? I don't have the game on tv, so I'm trying to figure out of Forte is alright.

Here's the next big NFL trade I'd like to see: AP- Arizona and St. Louis agreed in principle to trade team nicknames, since neither one of them currently make sense for their respective regions.

You must have missed the memo. MLB announced earlier today that Thanksgiving is getting pushed back 10 days, also.

I really hate being a conspiracy theorist, but I do have to wonder why there has been absolutely no talk about Jake Peavy lately. The Braves seem to be talking to the Rangers about Padilla and Millwood. I was reading an Oakland A's blog (clicked a link on MLBTR) and it was a pretty well documented article that explained (in the eyes of the blogger) how poorly Kevin Towers has handled this whole Peavy fiasco. Granted, Peavy has tied the hands of Padres ownership with this NTC, but because everyone knows this, everyone is walking on egg shells as far as what they are willing to offer. At the same time all of this is going on, Padres ownership spit in the face of their HOF closer Trevor Hoffman with their poorly executed negotiations. The latest rumor I've heard was that the Padres may now put the originally offered contract back on the table for Hoffman as a way to save face with that relationship. Meanwhile part deaux, The Padres picked up the option for Brian Giles, the biggest contract the Padres were shelling out for the '09 season. The Padres could try to trade Giles, but Giles has already stated that he will not waive his NTC to go ANYWHERE. To trim the payroll in half as Moores has pretty much eluded to, Giles, Hoffman, Greene and Peavy needed to be traded or let go. Peavy was the only one with a guaranteed contract of the 3 for 2009. Giles did hint that he might be willing to go to a team that has a chance to win, but it sounded more like he was talking about 2010 rather than 2009. So, just for fun, I offer this crazy little trade, since it doesn't appear as though the Padres will get anything significant for Greene or Giles, and not enough for Peavy. Cubs get Peavy, Greene and Giles (approximately 25m in payroll for 2009) Padres get Marquis, Theriot, Pie, Marshall, Castillo and Hart (Cubs pick up 3m of Marquis' contract). Soriano Giles Lee Ramirez Soto DeRosa Fukudome Greene Bench: Johnson, Fontenot, Cedeno, Hoffpauir, Blanco/other backup C SP Peavy Zambrano Harden Dempster Lilly With this trade, the Padres fill all their roster holes. LF Headley CF Pie RF Gerut 3b Kouzmanoff SS Theriot 2b E. Gonzalez/Antonelli 1b Gonzalez C Hundley SP: Young, Marquis, Marshall, Baek, 5th starter from a plethora of choices within their crappy system. Cubs add 20m to payroll and Padres skim 20m from payroll. And the savings from last year's payroll of Edmonds, Maddux, Iguchi, Hoffman, Wolf, Bard and Barrett, they should reach their goal and they'd actually have some money to spend to fill a hole or two where it is warranted. If Greene and Peavy were going to be traded, it's possible that Giles might be willing to waive his NTC to be a part of the trade. The Orioles turned down Khalil Greene for Garrett Olson. In other words, Towers has played all of his cards and no one is taking them seriously. But, from everything we have read, Hendry has been the one guy who has continued to show interest, even if it appears as though he too has started to move on. Cubs don't seem to be big players for Furcal. Nor do they seem to be enthralled with any of the FA lefty hitting outfielders, especially if they cost draft picks. Wood has already been shown the door, and Peavy has been rumored to favor pitching for the Cubs. Do the Cubs have 20m lying around? I'm guessing they do if they move Marquis. Greene and Giles only have contracts through this next season. That's my crazy trade thought of the day. I'm sure I'll sour on it in an hour or two.