BigbadB

Cleveland says they will play Nomar in RF if they get him. And why didn't the Cubs think of that? Or did Nomar flat out say no to the Cubs yet it is an option for the Indians? You can't ask me that question, because I can't answer it. My first offseason move was to get Nomar back as cheaply as possible.

I believe the compensation the Cubs received for Grady Little was the cold shoulder for Milton Bradley.

I think the asking price would start at Juan Pierre and Aramis Ramirez, meanwhile we take on Mike Lowell's contract along with Manny's. I would gut the farm system for him, and give up CPat Hairston, and the usual pen suspects, but Aramis stays. Would love to have Aram-Lee-Man-Ram..........Sound familiar?.........Edmonds-Pujols-Rolan And my guess is Boston would hang up the phone as soon as you said Aramis wasn't available.

Circumstantial evidence also points to the fact that there is no need to pick up and move your family if Team A is offering the same amount of money Team B is offering.

Pudz? I need help with that one.

Cleveland says they will play Nomar in RF if they get him.

I'll retire. Winning a WS in '06 would be exactly 1 more WS title than I ever expected to see out of this franchise in my lifetime. My grandfather (huge Cubs fan) passed away a few months ago at 85, and he never saw one. If they win a WS next year, I could care less if they fielded a team of 64 year old women in 2007. I'll always have the memory of 2006. My grandfather is 84 and they aren't sure he will make it to his 85th birthday. He loves his Cubs, as do most retired senior citizens in Illinois that don't like soap operas. :P

I think the asking price would start at Juan Pierre and Aramis Ramirez, meanwhile we take on Mike Lowell's contract along with Manny's.

Those are the kinds of moves we could have made instead of trading for Pierre. It seems lead off guys were all over this place this offseason, which makes offering 1 of them 10m a year for 5 years comical. Especially since we already have a prospect shortstop. If Hendry made Giles his major priority, he could have locked up the most difficult position to fill, which was also the biggest position of need, and cut costs elsewhere like lead off by working moves for CFers like Lofton, Michaels, Crisp, Gathright, Dave Roberts, etc....

We have nothing to offer for Manny straight up that Boston would want. I'm not sure we have what other teams would want in a 3 way, either.

I don't believe he signed with San Diego for considerably less than he was being offered from other teams. I believe all the offers were pretty much the same. There was a rumor about Toronto, but Toronto is not only in another country, it's in another league, it's in a division that has the Yankees and Boston, and it's about as far away from San Diego as he could possibly get. And, Toronto did deny the offers. I think Giles would have left San Diego for Atlanta, St. Louis, LA and/or Chicago or another team for a significant increase, like 15m. No one offered him that. We were one of the teams that could offer that. Apparently LA could have as well, but even they didn't have a significantly higher offer on the table. At least nothing like what they offered Furcal when they lost out on Giles.

Have 2, their small. They also have an infielder by that name.

I'm sure you've been to Petco, but seats anywhere are decent. Wherever you want to sit is fine with me. The seats 6 rows from the dugout when the Cubs were here last year were pretty good. :D The Padres local tv station zoomed in on the 4 of us with our Cub gear on late in that game while all the season ticket Padres fans were already gone, and stayed on us for about 30 seconds. Being in the bar business and the game televised in all those locations, I thought I'd never hear the end of the "hey, I saw you on tv. You were at the game" comments. That was months ago, and I still run into people who saved that line for me.

Sounds great. Let me know if and/or when you need some cash. Go Liechtenstein!! They are in it, right? :D

Ha! Are you implying Tejada is something less than "someone decent"? That's the way I read it. :D

How exactly will this be going down? My wife would kill me if she didn't go to any of the games. If the games aren't that far apart on Saturday, I'd like to go to both of them. I can probably move any tickets you buy that you can't use. I've been to games with Tim, so he can vouge for me as far as whether I'm good for my part of tickets. Heck, if I have someone to go to the games with, I'll go to all 3. I don't care. Get 3 or 4 tickets per game together. We can sort it out later. Do season ticket holders get any special deals on tickets? I have friends with season tickets to Padres games.

Higginson's contract is done, finally. I think his career is done as well, though.

I loved reading Royko. Peoria Journal Star had a guy who was quickly gaining popularity for telling it like it is in a Roykoesque sorta way, but unfortunately he (Rick Baker) passed away in a car accident just as he was hitting his prime.

You think it's drivel, I think it drives home a point. It was a sarcastic response to some pretty insincere words coming out of Hendry's mouth. Why do you pretend like there isn't a problem with the Cubs right now? Do you really think everything is fine? Many teams have spots to fill. I'm a laid back guy w/ patience. A laid back guy whom with every opportunity you get defend Hendry and the organization and keep waiting for the big trade or signing to happen. Time is ticking as far as I'm concerned. How is giving Hendry a B- a defence @ every opportunity?? Also, I've said he's done enough to get canned by the end of this upcoming season, if they don't contend. Sounds good to me. Although considering the holes we still have a B- is generous. :P I take the last 3 1/2 years into consideration. The team far exceded expectations in 2003. They underachieved a little in 2004, but had major injuries to Prior & Wood and still won 88 games. Last year was a major disappointment and Baker's infatuation w/ Perez reached epic proportions. Hitching his wagon to Baker for a 4th season makes me questions whether Hendry's fit for the job, as he's a pretty stubborn man. I'll give him one more year. Do you think Hendry salvaged Baker's final year because he stands to make 4m in that final year? Do you think that the Tribune would be happy with Hendry if he fired a guy Hendry hired, who still had 4m to go on his contract? Then also knowing that someone would have to be hired to replace Dusty, would Hendry's own job become more unstable? I'm wondering if that had anything to do with Baker still being here. The rumors of extensions kind of shoots that theory out of the water. But, Baker has been absolutely horrible (in my mind) with filling out a line up card, from preventing clubhouse chaos, etc... He hasn't been a man worthy of a 4m paycheck, IMO. Will it be easier for Hendry to fire him this year knowing he's now in the last year of his contract, meanwhile an interim manager wouldn't cost anymore? Or at this point, will Hendry just be sent packing too (assuming that he doesn't improve the team)?

Are Novoa, Wuertz, Ohman, Wellemeyer and Bartosh off limits as well? Do we still have Bartosh? With Dempster, Eyre, Howry, Williamson and Rusch in the pen (assuming Williams is in the rotation and Wood is indeed ready to go at the start of the year), aren't some of these bullpen arms available? Bartosh doesn't have much value, but he IS a lefty. :twisted:

Hey, while we patiently wait, I have a fun piece history to share. Not sure if it's a record or not, but......... Herb Washington appeared in 105 regular season games and another 5 playoff/world series games over a 2 year span with the Oakland A's in the early 70's, and not once did he ever come to the plate for an at bat. And he wasn't a pitcher. I remember him. I always thought he was Claudell Washington's brother. However, I'm not sure whether he really was or not. He was fast. That's it. However, he was not so good at stealing bases. 31 steals in 48 attempts. A "player" who never pitched and never came to the plate in his entire career with a World Series ring. Guess we couldn't have been so lucky if the Cubs won the World Series with Jose Macias on the team. :D I do wonder if this has happened to anyone else?

A little more perspective: Cardinals were coming off 4 out of 5 years of playoff appearances on December 18th of last year, including a 1st place finish and a trip to the World Series. It doesn't kill their fan base to hold out for something better to come along. They also followed up the moves after December 18th with another 1st place finish. The Cubs lost more games than they won last year.

Should we be patient? Good question. Considering at this point in the offseason, we could potentially hide a Rule 5 draft pick in RF all season long, I think the time to be patient has passed. :wink:

With Walker's attitude problems, he might even ignore Dusty's call from the dugout to bunt Pierre down to 2nd. :wink: :D

No, the Cardinals wouldn't be better by your standards either, because they couldn't even finish higher than Houston in the playoffs. I guess I can't put as much weight on a playoff series as I would on a full season. I also can't give as much weight during a full season to a team that had an easier schedule to reach the wins they did. Would the White Sox have won the division with 99 wins if you switched them with Boston or New York in the NL East? I don't think so. How about this? Boston, New York and St. Louis all had better teams than the White Sox last year, but the White Sox played the best baseball during the playoffs! Does that let me off the hook on this subject? :D