BigbadB

Let us not forget that Hendry has been quoted to say that no one will beat his bid for Soriano. Manny and Soriano would be a pretty big score.

Don't have time to read the whole thread and I'm absolutely amazed that every time I walk away from my computer for 5 minutes, more news echoes througout Cubville. I like the move. Aardsma didn't do enough to impress me. He's serviceable, which can be said of just about any reliever. LOOGY's seem to garner lots of attention. If this deal was to set up a Westbrook deal, I'm thrilled. There always seems to be a lack of LOOGY's on the market and everyone wants one. If it can net something good down the road this offseason with Eyre or Cotts, I'm cool.

And your thoughts? What's Marquis' Elias FA rating? A, B or C?

When WJ signs Miles to a 3 yr/13M contract, that might be a valid comparison. Well, you're a little late to the party if you think you are the first person to state that 3/13 is a bit over the top.

Who is Ben Maller? If the East Coast means Washington or Phily, Chicago HAS to be a more attractive option. I would be surprised to see Drew sign that quickly also.

Mark DeRosa career: .273 .331 .404 Aaron Miles career: .280 .322 .360 Don't you have your own crappy players to concern yourself with?

I'm not sure Hendry can get all those guys. There is a limit to how many A/B guys he can sign. DeRosa counts as 1 already.

I'll be happy with just one of them. I prefer Drew. Tremendous score if he figures out a way to get both, however.

Not once last year did I ever hear Hendry express any interest in Brian Giles.

Agreed. If he gets Soriano AND Drew, I'll be jumping for joy. I actually like how he's approaching the pitching. I think improving the offense has to be the main priority. While I agree that it's a very big gamble to end up relying on the rookies in the rotation, these rookies would have a confidence boost with a solid offense putting runs on the board. And only 1 or 2 of them (if any if Miller and Prior end up contributing) would need to step up. I'm still pretty high on Guzman.

Jones should be easy to move. San Diego has NO ONE to play LF. I hear SD is even looking at Bonds, though it's not clear whether they are serious or just attempting to drive up the price. Jones could play CF in Colorado. Jones would make for a nice platoon partner with Wily Mo. Jones could be included in a deal to Cleveland for Westbrook. Etc... If Boston is interested in Izturis, I'd send him there for a bag of balls.

<7/119 for Beltran. Live & learn. Yep, could have had him.

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.