BigbadB

Does a posted Japanese player count as a FA signing?

I would like one of: Iwamura Soriano Durham Loretta Giles Lugo Belliard at 2b in no particular order JD Drew in CF Matsuzaka or Schmidt at SP

Wha??? It's his first article in eons. He can't take it down without a replacement. I'm sure he had a victory speech written up for this monumental occasion. Right, Tim?

I'm glad you were right. But, we reserve the right to disagree with you on all future free agent dealings, trades, signings, promotions, firings, etc.... And he reserves the right to disagree with us, in turn. ;) So, how many people went and got drunk for naught last night? Not I. And I'm glad I didn't sit here waiting it out. I admit that I read every post in this thread, but I would have gone nuts sitting there waiting for the final hour. The wife and I went furniture shopping and then we watched the Star Wars marathon on Skinemax.

I'm glad you were right. But, we reserve the right to disagree with you on all future free agent dealings, trades, signings, promotions, firings, etc....

They should be able to provide some sort of evidence that they agreed to this deal prior to the deadline to save the extra free agent signing. If not, Hendry is an idiot. :D

I guess Tim and I can continue this discussion in 5 or 6 years. :D

Let us all hope that Tree did not already shoot heroin into his forehead. Edit: I was about 30 seconds too late on this post.

Cool. Back to just being horrible rather than despicable. Now, get to work and get JD Drew, Durham and some pitching Hendry.

I have never known A-Rod to be a guy that would want to play on a bad team. When he was traded to Texas, they had a very good offense. They didn't win enough for him, so he demanded to be traded to a team that did win more often. I know A-Rod said something before about Chicago being a possible destination, but the Cubs are going backwards in a furious way. I can't see A-Rod waiving his NTC to go to a perennial loser.

Yeah, we can go back and forth on this all day, but we pretty much agree that this Aramis deal isn't the deal breaker with Hendry. It started well before this. And the list of failures is way too long to bother with right now.

I'm not comparing Aram to Manny, per se. I'm just giving an example of a guy I considered to have comparable issues as Aram, yet has continued to stay productive in his mid 30's. Mike Lowell isn't enough of a comparison for me to label Aramis as a lock to drop offensive production significantly. Just as Mike Lowell's recovery from cancer isn't a lock that all baseball players can lead a productive baseball career after a major recovery from cancer.

Yeah, we agree on that. I've been calling for Hendry's head for over a year now. You are well aware of that. Trading 3 prospects for a 1 year rental like Pierre was beyond stupid. The failure to recognize how far his value had decreased in making such a sizeable offer is inexcusable.

Fair enough on the leg issues. However, Aramis' leg issues have been different. The one that knocked him out in 2001 was a foot problem. A hamstring problem like the one he had in 2004-2005 seems to have resolved itself. I've heard of a few guys who never got over hamstring issues. But, I've seen a lot more get over that issue.

Manny Ramirez has a bad work ethic, can quite often be considered lazy and is well into his 30's and still putting up quality offensive numbers. I'm not here to label Aramis as the Cubs savior or worthy of every dollar he would earn in a long term contract. However, Hendry put himself in the position that he had to give Aramis what he wanted. And I've seen teams be competitive even though they were hampered by bad contracts. And because Hendry put himself in the position of having to give Aramis the world and didn't do it, now the Cubs are even more worse off. Wow. In 2003, I was so optimistic of the direction this team was headed. BEFORE THEY EVEN MADE THE PLAYOFFS. I was excited about the farm system. I was excited about the money freeing up to spend on quality talent. I was excited about the increased money being made available to add quality players. I even uttered "dynasty" a few times when I viewed the future of the organization. My how far we have fallen. Thanks, Jim Hendry.

It wouldn't matter to me if the MLB rumors were true. I wouldn't care if Aramis refused to offer a "home town discount". If he leaves, it's because Aramis wants to play for a team that has a chance to win, which would still make this Hendry's fault for making the poor decisions the last few years to make this team a team that has no chance of winning.

Well spoken. Instead, we can trade Felix Pie and Donald Veal to the Tigers for Neifi Perez and only pay him 7m a year. Just look at the wonderful savings Hendry will be giving the Cubs.

Well, I suppose McDonough should hold off for at least a month or two on announcing the ticket price increase. Aramis will not be back. If the Cubs couldn't work out an arrangement that made both sides happy during an exclusive negotiating window, they certainly won't work it out now. How much more time will Kinzer and Aramis want to waste with an organization that isn't serious about retaining his services? With Aramis leaving, free agents are not going to want to join a team that finished in last place and then just gave up their best player by pinching pennies. A trade for A-Rod is not the slightest bit reasonable after Aramis leaves. A-Rod would have to waive an NTC to join a team that doesn't have the parts necessary to finish .500, let alone challenge for the division title in the weakest division in baseball. It's not going to happen. It's funny that Hendry can pay Neifi 5x more than his value, but Hendry can't take the money he would have given Neifi and add it to Aramis' contract. 5 years? If it's truly years that held up this deal, Hendry has no business being a GM at a used car lot let alone a baseball team. You could give Aramis a 10 year deal and it would still be a better deal than letting him leave for another team. Signing Aramis might have helped lure other free agents here. Letting him walk discourages other quality players from wanting to play here. Just wow!

Exactly. I mentioned it above. He hasn't lived up to his salary. Possibly not Pudge, either. But, are Detroit Tigers fans running around griping that Maggs isn't worth the money, or are they excited about being in the World Series and getting even more excited watching Detroit make moves that might help them get there again next year?

From Rotoworld: "The Brewers will keep trying to find a taker for Jenkins and they may non-tender Mench. Corey Hart is the favorite to start in right field, and the team is likely to sign a center fielder to play over Brady Clark. Gabe Gross, Laynce Nix and Tony Gwynn Jr. will be candidates for bench spots." Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

And the aforementioned gambles helped them do what? Meanwhile, Tiger fans can ask Cub fans how the view from the bottom is. I sure wish our GM had the audacity to go out and get the players necessary to at least threaten to win a division.

And that's why those deals are considered gambles..... They're also looking at Aubrey Huff, Nomar and Shea Hillenbrand at 1b. I think they'll be fine at 1b with all the pop they have at other positions.

The Tigers also gambled on Maggs (16m+ in 2006) and Pudge (10m+ in 2006) and an argument could be made that neither provided the production worthy of their salary. However, would the Tigers have been in the World Series in 2006 without those two players? Maggs was interested in playing for the Cubs the year Detroit signed him. He was definitely a huge risk. Probably more of a risk than Sheffield is right now. A lot of people screamed that Pudge's contract with the Tigers was just crazy. At that time, many believed Pudge was a broken down former shell of himself. He's caught an amazingly high number of innings over his career, which made him a big risk as well, though maybe not as risky as Sheffield. The Cubs were unwilling to take that risk, and a mediocre team got worse rather than better.

We, as Cub fans, are used to having Cubs management go out and buy the absolute best big screen tv and the best DVD player and then signing guys like Jeromy Burnitz instead of JD Drew. That's probably a more accurate analogy. :D

Boston is paying Manny between 18-20m a year. They still seem to be able to afford other big contracts as well. There is no reason/excuse why the Cubs can't come up with a contract that would secure 3b for the next 6-7 years.