BigbadB

I bet it'd be close enough to not make it worth them to fight him in arbitration. I bet he'd get the raise and then some (and as you said, the arbitration fight could make later negotiations even more difficult.) Agreed. I haven't been a strong advocate for Hendry over the years, but one thing he has been able to do is sign players on the cheap that were deserving of much more than what they signed for had they hit the market. Picking up the option is a sign of respect to that player, and in future dealings could impact a cheaper contract than if you disrespect the player by trying to negotiate a much smaller raise.

Henry Blanco started 28 games this year. That accounts to more than $100,000 per game started. I like Hank White as much as the next guy, but come on. If they can't resign him to a million or so, it's time to bid adieu. The only teams that should be able to afford a 3m back up catcher are the Bosox and Yankees. That money would be better spent elsewhere. There are plenty of cheap catchers out there that could provide a better bat for pinch hitting purposes. I certainly wouldn't expect Blanco to reproduce the numbers he put up this year.

He's signed through 2010. Ah. Gracias.

With the other Cub fan friends, we have yet to even make "eye contact" even though we've been within a few short feet of each other. To the fans of other teams who are friends and know my passion for the Cubs, they've been as respectfully quiet as possible, or a few of them shared in a respectful way their frustration. To the fans of other teams who are not close friends, but acquaintances who know my passion for the Cubs, they have each said "what happened to your cubbies", to which I quickly and loudly said I'm not talking about it. I'll talk to you about anything else, but not that. They quickly adhered to my request.

Wait a minute. You want Chone Figgins, who had less XBH's this year than our starting pitchers, batting right after Ryan Theriot at the top of the line up? And you want to trade Derrek Lee for him? Long season, he we come.

This is still being discussed? WTH? How many more years does Lee have on his current deal? 1 year? Who is going to give up decent value for a guy with 1 year left on his contract? Why would Lee give up his NTC to go to San Francisco? The simple fact that you have to get someone like Tex before you even consider packaging Lee makes this even more unrealistic. Sign Tex, move Soriano to RF and put Tex in LF while Lee plays out his contract. However, I'm not convinced that the Cubs will be the top bidders for Tex's services. I'd expect to see a trade for a lefty bat, one that likely won't involve Lee.

I've grown a bit tired of the matter-of-fact-prediction. Maybe Dempster and Stoney can take their act out on the road together. I hear Solomon Torres is looking for a headliner for his wonderful routine.

blaming Lee's GIDPs on Theriot being on first base is kinda like blaming rape victims for looking too good It is kinda like that. But it's a bit different. It's more like blaming rape victims for looking too good and laying down naked in a park at night with their hands tied to the ground and a blindfold on. Yes. This. Except you forgot about the sign she's holding that says "me so horny".

To expound on my own quote, here are a few stats to further prove that Theriot is a bottom of the order hitter. #1. 24 XBH's in 661 PA's. That's an extra base hit every 27.5 times he comes to the plate. Remember how badly we despised Juan Pierre at the top of the Cubs order? As bad as he was, he generated twice as many XBH's for the Cubs that year than Theriot had this year. #2. Theriot scored 85 runs this year, mostly batting at the top of the order on a team that led the league in runs scored. 661 PA's and 85 runs scored is not impressive by any means. That's actually called not making much happen. Sure, he can get on 1st base with the best of them, and if getting to 1st base put runs on the board, he's an all star. Realistically, Theriot is part of the reason Derrek Lee finished the season with a ridiculous number of GIDP's. Corey Patterson scored more runs than Theriot in 2004 than Theriot did this year. #3. Soriano drove in twice as many runs as Theriot in many, many fewer at bats. The Cubs had the luxury of having quality hitters throughout the entire line up, which gave Soriano plenty of RBI opportunities hitting at the top of the line up. Soriano missed 53 games, which is nearly 1/3 of the season. Had he played in those games, his RBI total could have broached 111 for the season, good enough to tie Aramis for the team lead. There is something to be said about giving your best hitters the most at bats. I'm curious how many more runs this team could have scored if they let DeRosa hit second all year. DeRosa led the team in scoring (103 runs scored) batting in the bottom half the order all season. How many more runs could DeRosa have produced if 1) he hit at the top of the order all season, where he would have had a whole lot more at bats 2) would have got on base in front of much better hitters all season? Ryan Theriot is not the definition of a table setter. A table setter is someone who can get in scoring position a high percentage of the time. Digest this one just for the fun of it: Theriot in 661 PA's this season= 24 XBH's Cubs starting pitchers in 331 PA's this season= 18 XBH's Argue against Soriano at the top of the order all you wish, but the results will always come out way better than Theriot hitting there. Theriot doesn't belong in the discussion. Period.

Totally disagree. The Cubs led the league in runs scored this year with Soriano hitting at the top of the order. 3 playoff games doesn't change that for me.

I agree that he was a cheapskate when he first bought the team, but that's because the purchase of the team was a tremendous burden. He has since shown that he is willing to spend some money. They overspent for Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre, and they signed Hiroki Kuroda, Furcal and Jason Schmidt, then also traded for Manny (not sure how much LA was on the hook for with that deal). The investments have been rather curious, but he has started to spend. I just don't see them keeping both. I really don't. The Dodgers are not the Padres or Devil Rays. They are a HUGE market team competing against another team in their market. If they want both of those players back, they have the capability to do just that. And honestly, if they were going to keep just one of them, I would think Furcal would be the high priority keeper. They don't have a fall back option at SS. And seeing that the Cubs ownership is currently in flux, I don't see Hendry having the resources to sign Manny. And to add to that, I'm not sure Hendry would target Manny. He's had opportunities in the past to do just that and he didn't go for it. One thing that the Cubs do have in their favor is that Hendry does like to mimic World Series champions, and if the Dodgers win it all, Hendry might decide that he needs some Dodger players at whatever cost is necessary.

I would agree with this. The sting has not subsided at this point, so I'm not really thinking about the future right now. But, a baseball season is very long, and at the very least, the Cubs have put together playoff caliber teams, which is much more than they were doing for the biggest portion of their history. The playoffs are a crapshoot. The frustrating part of this playoff season is the Cubs played embarrassingly rather than fighting a good fight to the end. I'll take a team that wins 90 games over a team that wins 60 all day long. I want a World Series win as much as the next guy, but you have to get there to even have a shot. And they have been putting themselves in a position to get there recently, so there is hope.

I agree that he was a cheapskate when he first bought the team, but that's because the purchase of the team was a tremendous burden. He has since shown that he is willing to spend some money. They overspent for Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre, and they signed Hiroki Kuroda, Furcal and Jason Schmidt, then also traded for Manny (not sure how much LA was on the hook for with that deal). The investments have been rather curious, but he has started to spend.

Can they sign both Manny and Furcal? My guess it's going to be either or and my guess is Manny is more important then Furcal. Since they are getting lots of extra playoff revenue (thanks to the Cubs), I predict they sign both of them. They can probably get Manny for a 1 or 2 year deal. After that (and possibly before that), Manny will be nothing more than a DH if he wants to drag out his career any further. Furcal has been a very good player for the Dodgers. And they have NOTHING even remotely close to being good as a back up. Hu is nothing more than a defensive wizard who cannot hit. They have money coming off the books and Andruw Jones only has one year left on his contract. Jeff Kent won't be back. Between Kent's contract and the insurance money the Dodgers SHOULD receive for Jason Schmidt, they can afford Manny's salary in 2009, and they were already paying for Furcal, so I don't see it as being a problem for them.

I'm trying to understand why everyone thinks the Cubs have a chance to get Rafael Furcal this offseason. Did anyone happen to see what the Dodgers were throwing out there at SS when Furcal was actually hurt? Nomar, Angel Berroa and an assortment of other trash. The Dodgers are a big market team that is going farther into the playoffs than the Cubs. If there is one player that team will do everything in its power to keep this offseason, it's Rafael Furcal. The Dodgers might be willing to trade Andruw Jones or Juan Pierre to the Cubs if the Cubs want some Dodger players this offseason.

yes i did...it is called personal superstition... what does fth mean? when we were having our craptastic september slump...i burned two hats and another shirt...and they started winning...i burned the last piece of that fukudome shirt last night before the game...it was the front cubbie bear that was attached to my backpack... i guess my burning luck has run out or it just doesn't work in the playoffs :banghead: Am I reading this right?

My chaotic schedule lightens up dramatically after this weekend and the temperatures are dropping from 100 to about 80. I think I'll get busy on the courses again very soon.

While we can't actually pick up free agents right now, you should probably be aware that there is a new feature at Roadkill called "new additions". When you hover over "Players", there is a drop down box that includes "new additions". CBS now lists all new players that are newly added to the player database. The week these players get added, they must be claimed through the waiver process. After that week ends, they become free agents. This nice new feature allows you to add players without having to hunt through the entire database.

Alonzo Spellman, Tank Johnson, Tommie Harris..... Long live the crazy eyed Bears Defensive Lineman!

I think it creates better relations between managers. Well, Abuck and I fight more now than we ever did, but I know he still loves me and I, well, uh, nevermind. :wave:

No one is going to trade for Howry, so I guess you're stuck with him. \:D/

The rules should be here since Roadkill has morphed into mostly an NSBB member league. You can sticky all the rules and then you can discuss important procedures, policies, timelines, etc.. in the discussion forum. Part of playing fantasy baseball is interacting with the other league managers, IMO. We're not asking anyone to become a Cub fan and post in Baseball Discussion or Cubs game threads. Just be a member and check into the Roadkill forum. Does anyone know what's up with Chris? If he doesn't have time to deal with his team, we might need a new owner for his team, too.

I think one thing that would improve the league is if everyone had the same IM service. I have 4-5 messengers downloaded that I only use to talk to fellow managers in Roadkill. That being said. I use MSN (Windows Live) Messenger the most, I have Matt as a contact and I don't know that I've ever actually talked to him. I just send him an IM and hope he responds via CBS which he has a couple times. I would like to see an agreement on a IM service that allows IM, voice chat, etc. That's another way we can communicate, but it doesn't resolve the issue of the Roadkill rules being posted in the Roadkill forum on NSBB.

The Peavy trade is a good point, except for the fact that Peavy's former owner is no longer with us. Are there any NSBB members who are also Roadkill team owners who are not enjoying the league? I realize that this league didn't originally come from NSBB, but it's sort of transformed into an NSBB league, and I don't think it's asking all that much to require people with teams to check in once a week on the Roadkill forum on NSBB. If Roadkill had a better means of communication than NSBB, I could see just doing that. But, it doesn't. Many rules are only posted at NSBB. Many discussions on how to better the league are only posted at NSBB. If everyone kept up withe rules and joined in on discussions, I think it would be more fun for everyone. And maybe I'd stop getting frustrated when I see people like Miguel Montero listed as a minor leaguer when he's burned two years of eligibility.

Dusty Baker is still a major league manager. Hello! Duh! :grin: