BigbadB

I would have loved to seen Mackowiak as the Cubs utility man.

The quote I recall from Hendry was "we are not going to get into a bidding war for Giles". That's it. Didn't need to be a bidding war. Offer him 15m a year for 3 years, take it or leave it. Press catches wind and publishes it like just about every other rumor. I think the real factor is that Hendry didn't want to spend 15m on a RFer because then he couldn't get the guy "he" really wanted, and that was Furcal. I think he placed more value on a young lead off SS than a aging power-hitting RF. One can't say Giles was realistic or not, one way or another. All we can do is speculate. I happen to believe Giles was realistic. "Was" being the key word at this juncture.

I didn't know Dusty did that. Coreyie, Kerryie, Derreky, Aramisy, Moisesie, . Sounds like fun. :D

"Slappy" is derogatory and unfair, yet "one-pitch, once-around-the-league, too-old prospect" isn't? Okay then.

so just because you didn't think they'd be good, the fact that they were means it was luck? i don't get what you're saying. i'm really surprised by all the white sox hate here. i don't know how anyone can deny that kw has done better than hendry over the past few years. kw is working w/ a lower payroll, an armpit of a stadium that they can't fill, and a rookie manager. hendry has a huge payroll, one of the most beloved stadiums filled w/ fans, and supposedly one of the best managers in baseball. yet the white sox won the WS and the cubs finished in 4th place. come on...things are looking pretty good for the white sox right now, and the last two years of hendry has been nothing short of a big fat F. and to everybody clamoring about how the sox were lucky...does everyone remember what type of hitter dlee was before he flirted w/ .400 and the triple crown? or what kind of hitter barrett was before he became the best offensive catcher in the nl? or what type of pitcher dempster was before he became one of the best closers in baseball last season? how about murton hitting .320 straight from AA? ramirez going from flop to stud? Nope. You missed it entirely, my friend. I said that the Yankees, Boston and St. Louis were better teams than the White Sox last year. That's it. Nothing more. That's still giving them credit for having the 4th best team in baseball. That's nothing to sneeze at. I gave KW credit, and I said he's had a great offseason so far this year. And it had very little to do with luck. I have a question for you. Going into the 2005 season, could you honestly (and I do mean honestly) tell me that the White Sox starting pitchers (Buehrle, Garland, Contreras, El Duque and Garcia) were going to have a better season than (Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright and Shawn Chacon) or (Curt Schilling, Matt Clement, Wade Miller, Tim Wakefield and David Wells)?

I don't know why, but I call Cleveland.

Am I sensing sarcasm? I did stress "team".

You originally said 3 games. March 18-20 or March 18 and 20? I'd go up to $50 a seat, no more. I was kind of hoping to NOT show my support for Petco/Padres this coming season, but I suppose WBC isn't really related.

Well, at least Hendry has sent a message to teams thinking they could pick him up for next to nothing after a nontender that they are barking up the wrong tree. I'd rather keep him too. I'm not so sure about playing RF. But, he can catch the ball.

Team. I don't have to define the lack of a CF or pitching staff. I said better "team". The Yankees had A-Rod, Sheffield, Matsui, Giambi, Posada, Jeter, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera, etc... Overall, the Yankees had a better team than the White Sox. Sorry to burst your bubble. I could do this for each of the teams I said were better, but I'm not going to waste my time. I gave the White Sox credit for a good season and having a good team. Why can't you be happy with that? I'm not going to change my mind. And just for the sake of argument, how many people here would have predicted that the White Sox would have a better team ERA than either the Yankees or Boston prior to the start of last season? I sure wouldn't. And I woudn't predict them to do it again, either.

Can we even talk to Grieve prior to May 1? Do we have rights to him in anyway? Where is he? I'd probably rather have Grieve than Mabry, but if it came down to Grieve or Patterson in RF, I say neither. If those are the choices, just fire Dusty and bring up Pie.

When are the games and how much do they cost? I haven't given it much thought, but I'd probably go if someone else did all the legwork for the tickets.

I haven't figured McCourt out. He's been crying poor ever since he bought the Dodgers. Now all of a sudden it's like they struck Texas Tea. They're like kids in the candy store. They want one of everything. I don't get it. Maybe they raised the price of Dodger Dogs. :-k

I'd love to have Drew, but did the Walker/Bradley deal fall through because of a stormy relationship between Coletti and Cubs management? If so, how do they repair it quickly enough to bring me Drew? I'd take either Penny or Lowe along with Drew.

Sosa's skills were declining. He wasn't a RFer anymore. He would have been fine in LF for his final years (didn't realize the next year would be his last at that time) while Alou either played 1st or more likely got shipped off to San Fran for Durham or Alfonzo, etc... I don't know what Vlad's deal was, but with only 1 year remaining on Alou's deal and Sosa obviously needing a switch to LF, and the long term ramifications of Vlad if they could figure out a way to land him, they should have tried every avenue. Not sure if they'd let him get involved with Manny, but I would hope they would. As crazy as it might sound, I do like Tejada better. The contract is better and he plays a more difficult to fill position. At least I thought it was more difficult to fill. Maybe RF really is the hardest position to fill. :D

And which team was better? The Sox had the second best record in baseball (only one game behind the Cards). They were four games better than the next three teams in the AL during the regular season (Yankees, Angles, and Red Sox). Two of the three teams they easily beat in the playoffs losing one of eight games. They then swept the World Series. To me that's a pretty convincing argument that they were the best team. The White Sox had a much softer schedule than some of those teams. If you don't see that, we'll have to agree to disagree. What teams were better? The Yankees, Boston and the Cardinals were all better teams than the White Sox as much as I hate to admit it. Of course, I don't really take any joy in saying the White Sox were good either. :D

Well, that's plausible, but the Maddux deal is nothing to write home about and I can't fault the Cubs for signing Sosa for 4 years. Altogether, yes he hasn't bogged down the franchise w/ any horrible deals like the AGonz deal. Signing Jacque Jones for 3 years would be AGonz Part Deaux! That being the case, you don't go anywhere near a deal like that. Hendry definitely isn't a "big" gamble man. He could have gotten involved in the Vladmir Guerrero sweepstakes and he could have gotten involved in other big deals as well. There was NO excuse for not attempting to get Guerrero. If Guerrero came to Chicago, one of Alou or Sosa played 1st base or got traded. San Fran would have been happy to take Alou for the last year of his contract. It's called being the big player. The Mets are the one's going after Manny Ramirez, and we are hoping for their spare parts (Floyd) if that deal goes down. We should be the team standing right next to the Mets asking about Manny, not Anaheim. Speaking of Manny, wouldn't Boston just love a package of prospects like the one's we are offering Baltimore for Tejada? Get creative and make something happen. Tons of money, some trade commodity and players that are available in trade. Don't sit there and do nothing.

Well, they are stuck with the decisions they made. Are they going to sit Mike Mussina and his 19m price tag on the bench in favor of someone like Millwood? No. They'll go to war with that group. The difference between them and the Cubs is those teams have depth. Where they are weak, they are strong elsewhere, so they can be weak here and there like Bubba Crosby in CF. With Cedeno and Murton (two virtual unknowns production wise), you can't afford to have a weakness elsewhere. I'm not so sure it's a good idea to even start two rookies until I've seen more of what they can do. That does not mean Neifi F. Perez gets the nod, however. It's not too late. Hendry could pull a miracle out of his butt and save the offseason by landing a combination of Huff, Wilkerson, Floyd, Green, etc... If he can do that, he will have a competitive team. I don't know if it will be playoff caliber, but it will be competitive. At least do that since the opportunity to land impact players was on the bus Hendry missed.

I hope that is sarcasm.... If I were the Cubs i'd just play the rookies, Cedeno, Pie, and Murton. If they put up the numbers Bill Jame projected i think we have a very good chance of making the playoffs. If not by 2007 they should all be ready for a big years. I got this from Gammons...Cubs CF Felix Pie to hit 21 HR and an .874 OPS; Cubs INF Ronnie Cedeno .310 with an .800 OPS; Murton .318 with an .859 OPS. I'm going to take a wild stab and say Gammons has probably never seen Pie play. If Pie has an .874 OPS, I'll assume that he will have to hit somewhere between .330-.350 to have that high of an OPS considering he has a walk rate that hovers right around where Corey's is, and he has yet to develop the power Corey had in 2003 when Corey's OPS was .840. Basically 3 rookies that will all hit .310 or better? I want some of what he's smoking.

Yankees: Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Shawn Chacon, Chien-Ming Wang, etc.... Boston: Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Matt Clement, Wade Miller, Tim Wakefield, Bronson Arroyo, David Wells, etc.... Are you sure you meant rotation? They look plenty deep to me. The only thing the Yankees need is a centerfielder, and Hideki Matsui said he'd be happy to play there. Between Matsui, Crosby and Bernie Williams, I think they'll be just fine. Boston only needs a SS. Realistically, they could just stick Alex Cora, Kevin Youkilis or Andy Marte there and they'd probably be just fine. Assuming of course they resign Damon, which I have no doubt will happen. So, each of these two teams not only have in house alternatives, but they could both open the season as is and be playoff caliber. Can we say this about the Cubs? Not a chance. We have Jerry Hairston Jr., Corey Patterson and John Mabry in RF. The Cubs have a lot of work to do to be "playoff caliber".

The best team doesn't always or automatically win the World Series. The best 8 teams make the playoffs. Any one of those 8 could win a short series against one of the other teams. The White Sox had a good team last year. They were NOT the best team in baseball.

There are 20 teams that are in desperate need of a RFer? :shock: Kinda makes me wish Hendry put a little more priority in filling that spot.

Rangers typically like to draw the short straw.

If what you are saying turns out to be true, then Hendry is probably waiting until Dec. 20 to see who gets non-tendered: maybe the Jay Gibbons/Craig Wilson platoon will be cheap. He can't afford to go cheap in RF at this point.

I really don't think that Giles was an option at all. It seemed like almost everyone knew he was going back to the Padres cause he didn't get barely any offers. Was it that Giles wasn't interested in going anywhere but back to San Diego, or is it that no one offered enough money to justify a move? I think it's that no one would cough up the 15m a year it would take to make him move. The Cubs had the money, the hole in the outfield, the hole in the middle of the order and it was a perfect fit. For the money it would have taken to sign Furcal (if he signed the Cubs deal), Neifi and Rusch, they could have had Giles. That's my opinion. That, coupled with Hendry's mad love for Pierre to hit lead off, which he was still able to make happen whether he got Giles or not fixed that spot as well. Furcal was not someone we HAD to have. Giles, in my opinion, WAS! We heard about LA's offer of 13m a year for Furcal. Where was the Cubs offer of 15m for Giles? Giles might have told Hendry from day 1 that he wasn't interested in leaving San Diego, but I still would have thrown out a 15m a year offer to see if he'd change his mind. And if he turned down 15m a year, I'd shut up about the whole thing. Money and baseball players have always gone hand in hand. I'd have a tough time believing that Giles was so enamored with staying in San Diego that he would toss several million aside to stay. Especially considering SD not only lowballed him on a contract, but Hoffman as well and made NO offers for Ramon Hernandez. I won't believe Hendry made an attempt to contact Giles until I hear he did. I won't believe Giles wanted to stay here in San Diego all along until I hear he rejected big money elsewhere.