BigbadB

I'd want to entertain Abreu or Dunn as well. But, I'd also like to secure a good outfield and not fall short if none of those guys end up being available.

If Bradley is locked in, I'd work on Huff, Gathright and Lugo. If we only got Huff and Lugo, I'd still look into Wilkerson. Wilkerson, Murton and Huff can platoon. An outfield of Wilkerson, Bradley and Huff looks pretty good, especially with Murton as the 4th outfielder. Heck, if you went that route, you wouldn't need Lugo. They could just stick Cedeno at SS with Walker at 2nd.

I'll ask this hypothetical again: Bradley is a little injury prone. If the odds of him having a meltdown or getting hurt next year are 50/50, would you rather have Pierre than Bradley? I'd rather have Bradley. And it's not close. I think I'd rather have Gathright over Pierre. Pierre is a one year rental at best, and Gathright could be Pierre's equal. Gathright would come cheaper in trade, cheaper on the budget, for a longer period of time.

I didn't have a problem with Lee finishing behind Pujols for MVP. Arguments can be made for either player. However, I did have a problem with him finishing behind Jones.

I like Bradley a lot. I'll be pleased with this particular move, provided we didn't give up too much to get him.

Expected post - My complaining was premature. If Boston had injuries to Manny & Ortiz, like the Cubs have had to Prior and Wood, they'd be in the same boat as the Cubs. Few teams can survive such injuries. It's just the way the ball bounces sometimes. Agreed, but they did lose Schilling and Foulke and they still made it to the playoffs in a tough division. No team is healthy for an entire season. Good teams overcome injuries. Excuses are for losers. Did you just steal your own sig? :D

Wrong! It's okay to call Moneyball stupid and it's okay to call Hendryball stupid. What is not okay is to insult the posters who praise Moneyball or Hendryball, etc.... It's really that simple. What's the definition of insult? insult n 1: a rude expression intended to offend or hurt; "when a student made a stupid mistake he spared them no abuse"; "they yelled insults at the visiting team" [syn: abuse, revilement, contumely, vilification] 2: a deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of an affront; "turning his back on me was a deliberate insult" [syn: affront] v : treat, mention, or speak to rudely; "He insulted her with his rude remarks"; "the student who had betrayed his classmate was dissed by everyone" [syn: diss, affront] It's not just insults, it's attacking, labeling, grouping, or insulting the poster for his/her opinions rather than simply debating the post. "Daily whiners" is an insult, among other things. I'm not going to sit here and spell out 100% what is or isn't acceptable to post here. Be intelligent enough to know right from wrong. I know you are, but you seem to prefer challenging authority rather than doing the right thing. And I don't understand why.

Hendry won several titles in the 2000s? I take back my complaint, I was under the impression that the team Hendry put together actually came up well short. Cmon you're mischaracterizing what I wrote. The way Hendry wants to build this team has been ripped a many occasions. And until there are acceptable results from the way Hendry has built this team, he will likely continue to get ripped.

Wrong! It's okay to call Moneyball stupid and it's okay to call Hendryball stupid. What is not okay is to insult the posters who praise Moneyball or Hendryball, etc.... It's really that simple.

I wouldn't do it, but Hendry might. He's a lot more enamored with Pierre than I am.

No, they don't NEED to trade him, but they WANT to trade him. Even with Thome gone they still have a big payroll and they now have a logjam in the OF. Abreu is an obvious trade commodity on a team with few others (that they would consider parting ways with). Abreu will be gone, but I doubt to the cubbies. I still like the idea of taking the money set aside for Furcal and going after MANNY. New cubs motto: "you liked Sammy? You'll LOVE Manny" They are not only out from under Thome, but Wagner as well. They were able to go cheap to fill both of those spots. I think they are simply dangling Abreu to see what's available. Prospects wouldn't do it. I do agree that Vazquez would have been perfect. Vazquez to Phily, Abreu to Cubs, Cubs send prospects (possibly Williams) to Phily and prospects to Arizona.

Some people like to hurl blanket insults about to make their points. I can't stand it either. Hey, we're only talking about baseball here. It's up to you if you take things personally. Oh, just wow. :shock: I guess lessons will have to be learned the hard way. [-(

Didn't the Marlins sign Willis through his arbitration years and/or beyond? I'd offer A LOT for Cabrera. Not sure if we have what they would want, though. Other teams could offer much more, like the Dodgers.

Who appoints the manager? Exactly, you can't blame Dusty for the way things have gone, without looking at why is there. If Hendry had fired Dusty after the season, I would not have the same feeling I have towards in right now. I'm NOT getting into this argument, but I will say that while Baker was hardly impressive last year - his main problem was just pitching management. Losing Prior and Wood to injuries, and Corey imploding upon himself like the sun - that's what made us lose. He got signed to a three year deal, let him finish it. If we suck this year, can him. Hard to blame him for last year though. Bobby Cox himself couldn't help Hollandsworth either if you noticed. Dusty was signed for 4 years. Baker's main problem was actually plural (problems). Line up cards were, IMO, by far his worst problem last year.

There are so many chuckles in this story, it's funny. I don't know what's worse, the comments, the timing of the story (handing out grades in the middle of the offseason), or the grade itself, because with the moves or nonmoves made so far, I would have given them an "F".

And that's truly sad. I was an optimist about Hendry and this team in 2003. I felt he was brilliant with the farm system and I loved what he started off doing as a GM. While I didn't like a few of the offseason choices (Alfonseca, Estes), I liked the direction the team was headed. Somewhere between 2003 and now, Hendry seems to have a totally different philosophy on how to build a winning team. I believe Baker probably has something to do with it, but putting all that trust in Baker could likely cost both of them their jobs before the end of next season if they don't right the ship soon. I'll never understand the rostering of Jose Macias. I'll never understand the love for Neifi Perez and the ridiculous contract they gave him. I'll never understand their desire for "speed" at the top of the order rather than OBP. I'll never understand their belief that defense is more important than offense. I'll never understand their recent desire to devalue players they wish to get rid of, prior to getting rid of them. The offseason is not over. I expected Hendry to use all that available revenue, along with a plethora of trade bait and put together a strong team this offseason. I never would have guessed that on December 6th, 2005 that John Mabry would be our RF. Not only our starting RF, but our back up RF as well. (Why did Nic Jackson have to get hurt so much?) I'm holding out hope. But, Hendry has frustrated me to the point I have a tough time offering him any support. I've forgiven some of his previous bad choices. This offseason will determine whether I forgive him ever again.

I'm going to assume that the Padres feel that Josh Barfield is ready to be promoted. I'm also going to assume that they didn't believe he was ready to be promoted until Brian Giles signed for 10m a year for the next several years, which in turn makes Barfield's league minimum wage look a lot better than Loretta's 3-4m, or however much it is. Not to mention the fact that Wells will be making more for the Padres this year than they were willing to give him last year.

It's definitely going to to take 3 teams to get Abreu to the Cubs. I don't see Phily trading Abreu for unproven prospects. They will trade Abreu if the right deal comes along. They don't NEED to trade him.

Yes. I have a thread floating around here somewhere about how badly SD botched the whole, Dave Roberts, David Wells, Woody Williams circle of fun.

I was just going to ask you the same thing. They obviously aren't signing Giles tonight, so feel free to get some rest. :D

Whoa, wait a minute..... Furcal is going to make more than Tejada? :shock:

Other than the fact Deivi Cruz is about the size of Macias and Neifi put together, I know of no difference.

I haven't any idea what happened to him. But, given what he was capable of at 20, I wouldn't give up on him quite yet.

You had me interested until I saw Neifi batting 2nd in your line up. :D Wilkerson, Walker and Murton would all hit there before Neifi would. At least on any team not managed by Dusty. Hendry seemed pretty interested in Furcal, and appeared eager to overpend to get him. Other than that, who knows? Good first post. Welcome to NSBB.

Edwin Jackson has basically lost all of his prospect status, for whatever reason. That might not be enough right there. It's probably a bit early to be giving up on Edwin Jackson. He just turned 22 a few months ago.