BigbadB

does "and" mean hendry would want both? there's no way they could afford drew and soriano... I wouldn't be so sure about that. Trade Jones, one of the expensive relievers and move Izturis anywhere and you have enough to just about cover Drew's money.

I'm much cheerier this morning. The Drew news definitely helped :D B, you've been a fan long enough that you should know not to get your hopes up. Get happy when it actually happens. Not until. You had to read my posts last night to know just how grumpy I was. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I am happy to hear the Cubs being, at least a little bit, associated with JD Drew. I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm just hoping. :D

My concern is that Rothschild really knows what to look for when he watches someone pitch. Considering the Cubs pitching staff walked 687 guys last year under his watch, what exactly did Rothschild see that he liked? A guy who was throwing everywhere except the strike zone? I'd rather see them go get Westbrook or Jennings and sign Igawa and make a huge splash with bats. Zambrano Westbrook Hill Miller/Prior/Marshall/Guzman Igawa Soriano Murton Lee Drew Ramirez Barrett DeRosa Theriot/ anyone not named Izturis

For what it's worth.... DeRosa>Helms

I'm much cheerier this morning. The Drew news definitely helped :D

That won't get him. Soriano wants someone to pay him during his big decline years, and someone will. That teams should be the Cubs.

I could forgive Blanco and DeRosa if he signs Drew and Soriano. Although then you'd have to trade for pitching. That was always more likely anyway. Zito, Schmidt and Mats is not a tremendous wealth of talent to choose from. :D I do like the trade rumors, and there is still Igawa, who I believe would not count as an A/B signing. The trade rumors I like are Jason Jennings and Jake Westbrook. They could still sign Randy Wolf, also. He's probably not an A/B signing. Pardon me if I am incorrect on this one. I could actually live with Izturis (though I would hope they wouldn't hesitate to go to Theriot when it's proven Izturis can't hit his way out of a wet paper sack) if they got Drew and Soriano.

Drew- only costs money A-Rod- will cost Z or something similar Soriano- is second on my wish list directly behind Drew (both would be a tremendous score) Wells- Will cost a lot in talent and is a free agent next year. Manny- Not sure what it would take to land him or if he's even available. Now, some of these guys will take more than just talent and money to get them here. But, that doesn't mean we don't want them. Why trade the entire farm system and pay just as much as it would cost for Drew for Wells when you could just sign Drew? Other pluses of Drew-Sports a higher OBP than some of the other names you mention. Can play any outfield position and probably a pretty decent 1b if Lee had some down time. Hits left handed in what is already a very RH line up. Can be secured for several years rather than just one like Vernon Wells or Andruw Jones. Would I rather have A-Rod or Drew? Probably A-Rod. But, if I have to trade Zambrano to get A-Rod and all I have to do is throw money at Drew, I'd rather have Drew AND Zambrano. As far as Murton goes, even the Yankees find room in their line up for a cheap, productive player (Robinson Cano). Murton- .365 OBP Pierre- .330 OBP J. Jones- .334 OBP Murton is an on base machine, much like JD Drew. That is exactly what this Cubs team needs. The horrible OBP is why they finished dead last in the league in OBP and runs scored. Pierre will cost 10m to be a horrible lead off guy for some team. I'm happy to see it won't be with the Cubs. Murton would be a much more valuable lead off guy than Pierre would. The main job of a lead off hitter is to get on base. Murton does that. Sure, Murton slumped. But, even with his slump he was a much better player than Pierre. I also tend to believe that Murton will eventually (if not this year) be able to provide equal power to Jacque Jones. Jones has become a part time player. Murton can hit righties or lefties. Jones is a worse option at the plate than Carlos Zambrano when a lefty is on the mound. You should be embracing Murton as well. It's not very often that Cubs fans can get excited about a position player who makes it to the big leagues, let alone provides quality production.

Wow. I had a breakdown last night for nothing. Drew is now being discussed. Thanks for reading my posts, Jim Hendry. You obviously got the message. :D

I like Drew more, but if we can get production out of Soriano like last year, I'd be ecstatic.

He definitely isn't holding his cards close to the vest like in previous years. And I find it a bit odd that he's so enamored with Soriano, but there's no mention of Drew. I'm fine with either. I'm not going to complain if he gets Soriano rather than Drew. But, this team is going to end up being very right handed when all is said and done. Murton, Lugo, Soriano, Ramirez, DeRosa, Barrett, Lee. And there's talk of trading Jones, who could also be replaced by a RH hitter. Drew adds that extra dynamic and I'm a bit surprised Hendry wouldn't find some interest in that.

Been sitting here reading too long, I suppose. I've let this "Izturis and DeRosa is our awesome middle infield" stuff get to me. I should just go to bed. Sorry.

Dumb? Wow. Okay, here's his last 3 years: 2006- 54 games, .245 .295 .318 2005- 106 games, .257 .302 .322 2004- 159 games, .288 .330 .381 He's clearly trending downward, etc... WFT, mate? I don't disagree with you at all. My point was that your post showed why it's stupid to evaluate a player based on his career stats. In fact, that's exactly what your post and the ensuing one showing what Delino's most recent season stats were (compared to his career stats) demonstrated. I don't know why you got the impression that I was arguing with you. But thanks for the smart-ass response, :wink: . I liked your first response much better than your edited version. My response wasn't "smart ass". Maybe I took your response out of context, but if you go back and read the part I quoted, maybe you could possibly see how someone could take it out of context? You pointed out that I should show stats for the last 3 years, trends, etc.. and I gave them to you. I thought I was being quite polite with my response considering I thought you were telling me I was dumb for using career stats.

I'm sorry, BBB, but if Hendry fails to bring in some good pitching this off season, I don't think you'll have anyone to argue with when it comes to Hendry's effectiveness. He's going to get some pitching. I'm just not sure if you're going to like what he gets.

IBID I can only see it discouraging young talent like Theriot. Don't you wonder if Lou is sitting down with Jim and helping him. It almost looks like Dusty is IBID? I need to update my computer language dictionary.

Dumb? Wow. Okay, here's his last 3 years: 2006- 54 games, .245 .295 .318 2005- 106 games, .257 .302 .322 2004- 159 games, .288 .330 .381 He's clearly trending downward, etc...

And he had to go to another country to get it.

What is he? Hopefully not the Cubs starting SS next year.

Actually, my purpose was to expose Cesar Izturis for what he is.

Sorry, I'm really bored.

I won't keep you guessing. These are career stats for: A: .256 .298 .371 Jose Macias B: .268 .298 .376 Neifi Perez C: .259 .295 .336 Cesar Izturis D: .252 .283 .344 Ronny Cedeno E: .244 .288 .350 Enrique Wilson F: .246 .289 .310 Rey Ordonez G: .268 .352 .377 Delino DeShields You just picked up a really old guy who put up a .192 .292 .308 line in his final season with the Cubs. Nice job!

Lugo gets on base more than Jacque Jones. But, I don't want him to play CF, either.

This is kinda cool. A: .256 .298 .371 B: .268 .298 .376 C: .259 .295 .336 D: .252 .283 .344 E: .244 .288 .350 F: .246 .289 .310 G: .268 .352 .377 Don't cheat. And you are not allowed to abstain. You must choose one to be on your team. Which one do you want? And yes, the middle column is OBP and the far right column is SLG. :D

I always liked Rey Ordonez' glove too. Not enough to waste a roster spot, however.

You would probably need to explain that OBP is a good thing. The higher the better. Seems they are confusing it with ERA, where the higher it is, the worse it is.