BigbadB

I'd also prefer Bradley as the back up plan to getting Giles in RF. To me, that makes Bradley a necessity rather than a "back up plan". If the Cubs ended up with Pierre, Giles AND Bradley, then they have some really nice depth in the outfield. Bradley can platoon with Pierre and/or Murton. If one of Giles or Pierre doesn't come here, then Bradley can play either position.

Are you saying that Greenburg can't hit or you don't want to offend me? :D I think the kid can be a 275/350 hitter that can play 2 OF postions and pinch run. Granted he has no pop but if he is used correctly I think he could be a 4/5 OF guy out there. He'd have to prove he could hit at the major league level before getting bumped from 5th OFer to 4th OFer.

I've said all along that Giles will not be back in San Diego. San Diego burned that bridge by lowballing Hoffman, lowballing Giles and showing no interest at all in retaining Ramon Hernandez. They had the money this offseason to bring all three back. The hometown discount ticket is not only burned, but burned beyond repair. San Diego is more interested in putting a nice shopping mall next to Petco than putting a team on the field. Hoffman didn't just roll his eyes when he was lowballed by San Diego. He cleaned out his locker. Something he has never done with San Diego before.

Whoops. I've been away for the last week. Mota was a truly hot commodity while he was in LA last year. Now, he's a throw in. I rest my case.

No offense, but I wouldn't rate Greenberg any higher than a 5th outfielder at this point.

When you look at all the relievers who ever played the game, there are very few that stand out as being good year after year after year. A few years ago, Mike Stanton, Tim Hammond, Paul Quantrill, Steve Kline, Ray King, David Weathers, Scott Sullivan were the hot names being tossed around as the can't miss relievers to give 3 year deals to. How many of them would you want now? Steve Kline might have been the hottest middle reliever available last year. What did he do this past year? His ERA was 2.50 WORSE than his previous year. He had a 4.28 ERA last year. Name just one guy who is a true "middle reliever" that has been good every season. It's not that the Eyre and Howry signings were not good. It's the money and the years that is ever so ridiculous. The Ryan deal and the Farnsworth deal do NOT make the Eyre and Howry signings look better. Let's break down Paul Quantrill. I liken him to Howry. He was quite successful with Toronto, but was going to start to be too expensive to retain, so Toronto looked at a way to trade him for something in return instead of leaving via free agency with basically nothing more than a draft pick. They traded him to LA along with Cesar Izturis for Luke Prokopec and another minor leaguer and neither was ever seen or heard from again. Quantrill was lights out for 2 years in Los Angeles. Along came the big money Yankees after Quantrill's best major league season ever (in his free agent year) for a 3 year deal worth nearly 10m. What did Quantrill do for the Yankees? His first year with the Yankees, his ERA went from 1.75 to 4.72. The next year, his ERA was 5.35 with 3 different teams, and New York picking up most (if not all) of the tab. He probably won't be back on a team in 2006, but he'd only be 37 next year. My point in all of this is why lock down a guy who you should have a pretty good idea will be inconsistent for 2/3 of his contract. Why waste a roster spot with a guy who may not be any more consistent than a guy you have down on the farm making much less money. Howry is currently twice the pitcher that Novoa is. However, Novoa has just as good a chance of being the better pitcher of the two in 2006. The same could be said about Wuertz. When I look at these relievers, there is nothing that sticks out as consistent with these guys. One year they are lights out, the next year they are horrible. Look at what Felix Heredia did in his years following the disaster known as his tenure with the Cubs. He was lights out for the Yankees, and then he sucked again. What the Cubs should have done was wait for teams that needed to shed payroll and deal prospects to fill relief holes. The Florida Marlins are now talking about trading Mota. Houston is talking about trading Lidge. Otsuka has been mentioned in trade rumors in San Diego. We have all these guys being unprotected in the minors and instead of using a couple of them to get a Howry or Eyre-like replacement at the major league level, we are throwing money at them like there is a never ending budget. If the Cubs end up with Preston Wilson or Juan Encarnacion or Jeromy Burnitz or the like in RF in 2006, I'm going to be extremely LOUD each time I see Scott Eyre or Bob Howry give up a lead or each time Burnitz strikes out with runners on base, knowing all along we could have had a GOOD RFer rather than another mediocre bullpen arm. If Hendry shocks me and gets Giles or the like, I'll shut up and applaud his offseason. But, at this moment I'll just wait and see what happens.

FYI, Lofton is a FA I honestly thought he had another year left. Well, I change my question to: do you think Lofton will find a starting role somewhere next year? He deserves it. Lofton just finished up his 2 year/6m deal he originally signed with the Yankees. He definitely deserves a platoon at the very least. He's the guy I thought would be a good fit to platoon for the Cubs next year as he keeps the seat warm for Pie. I still think it would be the right way to go if they sign Furcal. Save money and prospects by signing Lofton rather than trading for Pierre. The savings could provide a better return on a RFer. I scratch my head with all these Abreu rumors. Why is Phily even considering trading Abreu? With Thome gone and Wagner nearly signed with the Mets, why dump a premier talent like Abreu? And why on Earth do you also pay part of his salary to move him? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see him wear a Cub uniform. I just don't get the thought process of Philadelphia entertaining any trade proposals for him. I will predict that if Giles finds a more friendly hitter's park to play half his games next year, he'll have a better year than Abreu in 2006. It's just a shame that it likely won't be in Chicago.

I can't say much about the Lawton deal, other that too little, too late. It was a nice effort, but we needed someone in June or July. I will say that Lawton was a guy I was thilled getting when he did finally arrive. Unfortunately, it didn't work out.

Jose Macias has no business holding a 40 man roster spot. Period.

If you are asking me (you didn't specify who you were talking to), I never said anything about Greenberg starting. If a team would rather have Greenberg on their roster than say someone like a Charles Gipson or a Ramon Nivar, the Cubs could lose Greenberg.

Somehow, I don't think that'll be happening. :wink: I still do that too. By the way, last week was the first time all NFC North teams won on the same weekend since the inception of the NFC North. Scary!

.264 .316 .391 in 2005, .237 .269 .379 in 2004. .260 .310 .380 from 2002-2004. You can't find somebody to give you that line with 200 at bats for a 1 year $400,000 deal? GM's are always whining about trying to find payroll space, yet they repeatedly overpay for garbage. What is the point of giving him a 2 year deal? Anderson is the type of guy that should be getting spring training invites, or at the most, 1 year $500,000 contracts. He's eminently replacable. The sad thing is, he's significantly better than Macias: .254 .274 .316 in 2005, .268 .292 .376 in 2004, .252 .279 .350 from 2002-2004. I don't have the energy to complain about other teams moves, so..... \:D/ =D> :lol:

The only problem with Hendry's theory on gambling with Greenberg is that CF is a position of great need for many teams. Whether any teams feel that Greenberg would be better than the guys who get juggled around the majors year after year are better than Greenberg at league minimum is not clear.

I can't answer the Reyes question as far as why they protected him, but if Soto is the only catcher on the 40 man roster outside of the 2 in Chicago, it would make sense to save that spot in the event Barrett or Blanco see any DL time.

Well, I meant LF with Murton. Personally, I'm not advocating this scenario. Just get Giles and be done with it already.

Other than the fact that I don't see Jones signing onto a plan like that (and that there's no way Dusty would sit Jones for Murton), it's an interesting idea. Looking at the numbers more closely, I guess I'd want someone other than Burnitz, but the other three absolutely. Jones' split against RHP: 814 OPS. Murton's split against LHP: 1006 OPS. Mench's split against LHP: 980 OPS. Those are some fearsome numbers. Who could the 4th OF be, a lefty bat, instead of Burnitz? Stick Walker out there. He'd be cheaper than Burnitz.

Why is it frustrating? Why should it matter? A, B, C...the Cubs weren't going to offer Nomar arbitration anyway, so it's all a moot point. If the Cubs offered Nomar arbitration he'd most likely jump on it in a heartbeat, and the Cubs certainly aren't going to risk arbitration and pay Nomar another $8MM or whatever he earned last season. If by the slightest chance some team felt desperate enough to sign him before the deadline, we could have received compensation.

Well, if the Dodgers take him, it probably won't matter. I doubt the Dodgers fall in the bottom half of the first round. My frustration is that Nomar isn't a type A. My other frustration is that we didn't just bring him back.

I'd be fine if LA wanted to throw Drew in on a Bradley trade. :D To get Drew, we'd have to get a 3rd team involved. They aren't going to trade an impact bat unless they get an impact bat in return. Cincinnati sends Dunn and/or Kearns to LA, LA sends Bradley and Drew, Cubs send pitching prospects galore to Cincy. Something of that nature, I would presume.

What a joke these lists are. Royce Clayton is a type A while Nomar is a type B. Just for fun, lets look at what Royce Clayton and Nomar did just last year: Clayton had more than twice as many at bats as Nomar, yet had a lower AVG, lower OBP, lower SLG, and lower OPS. Nomar wasn't that far behind him in XBH's in half the at bats. Wilson Alvarez is Glendon Rusch in LA. Part time starter, part time long reliever. He's a Type A and Kevin Millwood and Jarrod Washburn are type B. Okay then. I could go on, but now I'm even more frustrated that Nomar won't even land us a decent compensation pick.

With the restructured contract of Chipper Jones, I'd see if Atlanta would rather just resign Furcal and trade Chipper to the Cubs. Cedeno plays SS since he is one.

You don't need an actual answer to that question do you? No. I know the answer, but I really don't understand it.

We don't need anymore Eyre threads at this time. Feel free to engage conversation in one of the other two that are open.

I've said it before.... Mench would be a good PH/4th outfielder. Nothing more. Speaking of PH and the love of catching the ball, the 3m that Patterson would probably cost next year fits right in with the amount Neifi is getting to "catch the ball" in the infield. Why are they attempting to dump Patterson while treating Neifi exactly the opposite?

We could move Cedeno in the 2-spot then, and slide Bradley to sixth to give the line-up a little more balance. We don't know if Cedeno will hit like Neifi Perez or Milton Bradley. Isn't Murton the better option to hit 2nd if you slid Bradley down? If you are giving up prospects to get a RF, and Aubrey Huff is available, why not trade for a lefty bat rather than a righty?