BigbadB

Amazing is somewhat fitting. They never sieze to amaze me how......

Why spin Zito off for Tejada? What if Hendry can trade for both without losing Prior or Z? The longer this circus goes on with Tejada (because you know he's going to continue to throw a fit), the more likely it is the O's would be forced to lower their demands...What an offseason that would be! That would be awesome, but I doubt the Cubs could afford the 20m in salary it would cost to add Zito and Tejada. And I'm not sure we have enough good prospects left to get both.

How did Hendry miss Pokey?

That doesn't sway my opinion at all. Call me stubborn. That reads to me your generic form letter "I'm at the place I always wanted to be". You know you aren't going to read "I wanted to play elsewhere for a bunch more money, but nobody offered as much as I was hoping for".

No thanks, then. I don't do any trade with Pie that nets a 1 year rental.

Oakland has been interested in Frank Thomas. Trading for Zito would free up the cash to add him. That would then make their outfield crowded, which could make one of Kotsay, Bradley, Kielty or Payton available in that same trade.

I know Manny wants out of Boston, but why would he agree to Baltimore? It is still in the Northeast, and is a bad team. He would have no hope of winning there. Tejada's complaints don't make it seem like a very desirable place to play. I agree that it doesn't make sense, but if your main desire is to play for a winning team, why leave Boston?

We'll probably never really know. So it's not ridiculous to trade for Abreu and the 15m he's owed for the next two years, but it is ridiculous to offer Giles 15m. I don't get it. Giles did test the market. He filed for free agency and didn't sign a contract until just a few days before the arbitration deadline. If he waited until after the deadline, he was at risk of not being able to re-sign with San Diego unless they offered arbitration. Working a deal was probably not likely, since they were only offering 7 or 8m a year with their first offer. San Diego offering arby was not a guarantee either, since they would have lost big time if it went before an arbitrator, and San Diego would have had to known that Giles would probably accept arby rather than sign a 10m a year deal with some other team. I'm guessing. I could be wrong. But, that's all anyone can do here is guess. There were several teams that showed interest and some made offers. NYY, LAD and St. Louis were some of the teams making offers. Toronto made an offer, but considering the different league, different country, I don't know how seriously they were going to be taken by Giles. What it came down to, IMO, is that no team offered up enough cash to inspire Giles to leave. He really got short changed with his last contract considering his production. I'd bet if a competitive team offered up enough, he would have signed. Honestly, there really weren't many teams that could afford to give him what it would have taken to pry him away from San Diego. Until San Diego upped their offer, it didn't appear as though Giles had any intentions of returning. Same can be said of Hoffman.

Well, what's the likelihood Hendry would have any interest in Abreu anyway? He had no interest in Giles. Maybe once he trades for Zito, he'll shop for a another outfielder and call it good.

Halftime of the Holiday Bowl on ESPN mentioned that there was now a very hot rumor regarding Manny and Tejada.

I guess Hendry does read my material. :D Actually, we should still be very afraid if he is honestly pursuing Zito. Would it be Zito or Prior that Hendry would send to Phily for Abreu? Who would Phily covet more? Zito, in the last year of his contract, or Prior who has several years before free agency? And we all know how Hendry likes his lefties.

I'm not down on Murton at all. But, all it takes is 1 injury (nah, Cubs never have any of those) and now Hairston or Mabry is playing everyday. Who do they have after Hairston and Mabry? Pie is the only option remaining. Unless Nic Jackson somehow reclaims himself as a prospect, there is just nothing left on the farm. Murton was in AA just last year. We really don't know what we have in Matt Murton. The small sampling he gave in the bigs last year is just that. For every prospect that came up and did what Murton did last year, I can find a whole host of other players that did the same thing Murton did, and never amounted to a thing in the big leagues. I hope he's everything we all hope he'll be. But, if he isn't, I'm not willing to see Jerry Hairston or John Mabry gobbling up all the playing time in LF if he fails. Thank Dusty for doing everything he could to slow the development of Murton and Cedeno last year. Because he did that, we have less information to come to any real conclusions of what kind of player Murton or Cedeno might become.

Do you have any idea what Giles stood to make in arbitration? If the Padres would have offered it, he surely would have accepted and made at least 13m in 2006. I'd venture to guess closer to 15m would be what he would have gotten. San Diego lowballed him big time with their initial offer. That's why I don't think they would have offered it. Even at the salary he signed to stay in SD, the Padres have been dumping salary ever since. They traded Eaton who was about to get a decent jump in arbitration. The traded Loretta for a back up catcher. They let Ramon Hernandez walk. Instead of attempting to get David Wells back, they are looking at cheaper options like Pedro Astacio or Dewon Brazelton. To come to my conclusion that Giles would have made at least 13m, I compare Giles numbers offensively as very close to Abreu, and he makes 15m.

I would imagine you would agree that we can't go into the 2005 season with this for an outfield: (assuming Patterson will be traded) Jacque Jones Juan Pierre Matt Murton Jerry Hairston John Mabry That might be one of the worst outfields ever assembled.

Where were the Trib higher ups when a lot of money was being handed out to a crappy ballplayer? 15m is what they gave a crappy ballplayer just last week.

What, I'm not supposed to throw out figures now? This is a message board for cryin' out loud. What are we supposed to talk about? While Giles was my favorite direction this offseason, I didn't say it was the ONLY direction. I would have been fine with a combination of Wilkerson, Bradley, Michaels, Huff, Floyd, etc... Guys who can get on base at a healthy clip. Spread it around if need be. Don't give a guy 15m if you know you can get 3 or 4 guys with "good" OBP's rather than 1 awesome OBP. I really don't care. But, to fill your line up with Neifi Perez, Jacque Jones and Alfonso Soriano, the team is just falling into the same trap they always fall into. Lack of plate discipline and lack of OBP.

They were together in San Fran, weren't they? Interesting. Drew is the one I'd be most interested in now that Bradley is gone. Jose Cruz is another one I like.

No one is saying that the Cubs shouldn't have addressed the pitching staff this offseason as well. That's the major difference between Houston, the White Sox and the Cubs in 2005. Our pitching was mediocre. They had stellar pitching. If we are going to throw out a mediocre to poor OBP team offensively again next year, the Cubs need to figure out how to send a stellar pitching staff out there next year if the want to compensate for the lack of offense. What the Cubs should have been doing this offseason was improving OBP as a team offensively, and bulking up the pitching. Fine, improve the defense too if you wish, but it's the least important of the 3. Houston did have a worse OBP than the Cubs, but they also scored less runs. The White Sox did have a worse OBP than the Cubs, but they made the best use of the little OBP they had by putting good OBP front of their most productive hitters. Therefore, the +30 run differential. In other words, if the White Sox would have ran Juan Uribe (.301 OBP) and Joe Crede (.303 OBP) out there in front of Konerko all season, their runs scored would have dropped significantly.

You can compare them one on one, but it doesn't really tell you all that much. Both teams had a .270 AVG as a team last year. The Cubs out hit the Cardinals and outslugged them as well. Here's a real intersting stat. The Cardinals struck out more often than Cub hitters last year. But, what makes St. Louis better offensively is their ability to get on base, which is really the truest indicator of run production. The Cubs had 36 more doubles than the Cardinals. The Cards had 3 more triples than the Cubs The Cubs had 24 more home runs than the Cardinals. The Cubs had 46 more hits than the Cardinals. You would think the Cubs were the better overall team just looking at these stats. But, the most important element that is missing here is the ability to get on base via the lousy walk. You know, the guy who comes around to score nearly every time you watch one of our relievers give up a lead off walk. It's because a walk is not an out. A walk rarely drives in runs, but it sure is responsible for a lot of runs scored. Here's the real difference between offenses. The Cubs had a team OBP of .324 last year. The Cardinals had a team OBP of .339. Those 15 percentage points has a lot to do with the fact the Cardinals scored more than 100 more runs than the Cubs did last year. 102 to be exact. How many more runs could the Cubs have scored with all those extra doubles, and single's and Home Runs they hit over the Cardinals if they just found some guys to walk their way on base ahead of those hits? Same problem every year. Cubs management doesn't believe in clogging bases with walks. Get up there and swing away. Let's see how few pitches we can see while some guy named Casey Daigle throws a 5 hit shut out in under 80 pitches. Horrible philosophy. It's not completely about OBP. But, until Cubs management recognizes the value of the walk, and quit signing guys who don't know how to walk, this team will never surpass the Cardinals in offensive production.

I suppose that depends on what you define as "good" OBP.

We do need to win now. If the Cubs went out and won the World Series this year or next year, would we really care if Giles turned into a Luis Gonzalez production wise outfielder for his final year? If it appeared he was going to turn into that type of player, couldn't the Cubs have picked up 5m or so of his final year and shipped him back to San Diego? We don't know if he would have signed with the Cubs. At 13-15m a year for 3 years, I think he would have. No team offered him that much. He signed so quickly with San Diego because if he didn't, he wouldn't have been able to go back if the Padres didn't offer arbitration, which I doubt they would have. They came up with that offer at or near the final days that he could still return to the Padres or wait until May 1. The offers entertained didn't appear to me to be any better than what San Diego finally matched. I don't blame him for staying if the club you are now with in the town you'd prefer to be in is basically offering up the same deals that have been offered elsewhere. Sure, he could have gambled that some team would have coughed up 13m eventually, but since no one had done it yet, why risk not being able to resign with the Padres? Surely, it was a gamble to pay top dollar for Giles considering he'd be 35-37 over the life of the contract. But, Moises Alou didn't completely disappoint (some were more enamored with him than others) over the life of his contract, and he was also 35, 36 and 37 during that contract. Heck, he was even better at age 38 last year.

Texas is the only hitter's park in that division. The NL Central is one of the best hitter's divisions in baseball. I don't think you'd see much of a drop in his production if he came to the Cubs. But, guys like Jacque Jones, Alfonso Soriano are guys that I have never felt were a good fit for the Cubs. The emphasis should be on adding players with a history of good OBP. Why management doesn't see this is beyond me.

After the run support he received in Houston last year, why on Earth woud he want to subject himself to that kind of run support again pitching for the Cubs?

A 3 year deal for Giles would have ended during his 37th year on Earth, not 38. He'll be 35 in January. That makes him 35 in 2006, 36 in 2007 and 37 in 2008. I could care less how he plays when he's 38.

I'd like to know why the Orioles would be opposed to trading Tejada to an AL East team when they would be getting a player in return that can do more damage with a bat than Tejada can. (Manny).