BigbadB

Triple B, Vance, Hoops (and anyone else) - The price of poker is going up because of the weak free agent class and because all the teams have money to spend (even KC and Pittsburgh). Assume Giles won't come to the Cubs under any circumstances (I know you don't agree with this premise but just humor me). Also assume it would cost you $60 milllion to get Burnett (5 x $12 million) and the Reds won't trade within the division. Finally, assume a 20% premium over market value for the remaining free agents, that other teams will only make trades (fair for both sides) with the Cubs and that you don't want an "overpriced" Furcal. How would you make the Cubs pennant contenders? If Giles won't come to the Cubs under any circumstances, then Furcal it is. I think that's the part that people don't see when I say forget Furcal. Once I've heard that Giles absolutely will not come to the Cubs, then we move on. The money is there to overpay for Furcal. After Giles, the next options for RF become fairly cheap, whether it be Mench, Bradley, Wilkerson, etc... The Abreu, Ichiro, Sheffield, Ramirez ideas just fall too far out of the scope of reason, whether it's if the teams would honestly trade these players, whether it's if the Cubs actually have value to send back or if the Cubs are willing to take on the entire salary of the players listed. If Giles is not an option, I'd contact LA and work a deal for Bradley. He's cheap, versatile in the outfield, has decent power and speed. I would then throw how ever many players necessary to get Aubrey Huff from Tampa. Not "good" players. Just players. They won't get Rich Hill or Felix Pie. But, I'd send Novoa, Mitre, and a few others if need be. I'd then get Huff locked up. Bradley won't get a deal because of his "past". With Pie coming, we wouldn't want to block CF anyway. Furcal Bradley Lee Huff Ramirez Murton Walker Barrett If Walker is being traded no matter what (though I really don't understand why they would do that), then stick Cedeno in at 2nd and call it a day. That's a good line up, either way. Who knows, it might even be better to go this route than sign Giles. It's a younger team with good balance throughout. Nice job. However, what if Furcal's agent wants the Cubs final offer in a week and the Giles situation (with several more teams interested) is not finalized. What do you do? Make Furcal an offer or take a chance and don't make an offer and save the $ with the hope that you can use it to beat out all the other competitors for Giles? Then I suppose you have 1 week to make an offer attractive enough to sign Giles. Of course, this whole scenario is different from your previous one. The previous one clearly states that Giles is uninterested in the Cubs entirely.

Forgive my lame analogy, but if the Cubs don't get Furcal, they need to "Hit one out of the park" when finding a RF. I could live with Pierre (although I think they could do better) but if he's in center and Cedeno is at SS, presumably batting 8th, then the probable batting order is going to look like this: Pierre Walker (assuming he isn't traded, which is unlikely) Lee Mystery RF Ramirez Barrett Murton Cedeno That's not a bad line up, actually could be pretty good. But it hinges on the RF. With the money the Cubs have available, and considereing this everyone but Pierre (who will probably be replaced by Pie next year) and Walker figures to be around for at least a couple of years, they need a star. The have the talent in the minors to get one too. The question is, who is it? Unfortunately the team the Cubs match up best with is the Reds and they supposedly won't or don't want to trade within the division. But if it was me, I'd ask for Dunn and make it awful difficult to say no. They have the talent to offer a stud pitching prospect and with an outfiled that young - Murton and Pie would be cheap for years, they could lock Dunn up for a long time so they can afford to deal Harvey as well. You tell me, if you're the Reds does Harvey and Guzman for Dunn interest you? Heck, throw in Mitre if you have to. It would be difficult to watch another Cubs prospect take off with another organzation, but a shot at the WS would soften the blow. Get in Dunn. You need to take Guzman out of the proposal. I don't see any team gambling on him after his last few years of injury plague. And that's fine by me.

Huff had the arm to play 3rd, so we probably rule that part out. Defensively, I don't know how good of an outfielder he is. I'd still consider it if Hill had to be one of the prospects included in the deal. Sing or Doparik might be of interest as well. Tampa rejected a Gil Meche straight up deal for Huff. Meche makes almost 3m though, so I believe the money was probably the biggest reason that deal fell through. Mitre, Novoa and Welly? Mitre, Novoa and Scott Moore? The one thing the Cubs have right now is commodity. Whether Tampa would rather have one really good prospect rather than 3 or 4 mediocre prospects, I don't know.

Triple B, Vance, Hoops (and anyone else) - The price of poker is going up because of the weak free agent class and because all the teams have money to spend (even KC and Pittsburgh). Assume Giles won't come to the Cubs under any circumstances (I know you don't agree with this premise but just humor me). Also assume it would cost you $60 milllion to get Burnett (5 x $12 million) and the Reds won't trade within the division. Finally, assume a 20% premium over market value for the remaining free agents, that other teams will only make trades (fair for both sides) with the Cubs and that you don't want an "overpriced" Furcal. How would make the Cubs pennant contenders? If Giles won't come to the Cubs under any circumstances, then Furcal it is. I think that's the part that people don't see when I say forget Furcal. Once I've heard that Giles absolutely will not come to the Cubs, then we move on. The money is there to overpay for Furcal. After Giles, the next options for RF become fairly cheap, whether it be Mench, Bradley, Wilkerson, etc... The Abreu, Ichiro, Sheffield, Ramirez ideas just fall too far out of the scope of reason, whether it's if the teams would honestly trade these players, whether it's if the Cubs actually have value to send back or if the Cubs are willing to take on the entire salary of the players listed. If Giles is not an option, I'd contact LA and work a deal for Bradley. He's cheap, versatile in the outfield, has decent power and speed. I would then throw how ever many players necessary to get Aubrey Huff from Tampa. Not "good" players. Just players. They won't get Rich Hill or Felix Pie. But, I'd send Novoa, Mitre, and a few others if need be. I'd then get Huff locked up. Bradley won't get a deal because of his "past". With Pie coming, we wouldn't want to block CF anyway. Furcal Bradley Lee Huff Ramirez Murton Walker Barrett If Walker is being traded no matter what (though I really don't understand why they would do that), then stick Cedeno in at 2nd and call it a day. That's a good line up, either way. Who knows, it might even be better to go this route than sign Giles. It's a younger team with good balance throughout.

3.6m a year is sort of its own no trade clause.

It's not that we don't want them to spend every dime of their budget on the team, it's how they spend it that concerns people.

I'm sorry. I was under the impression that he would be 37, 38, and 39. That's cool. Go ahead and jump on the "Sign Giles" WGN. Honestly, I don't think we've seen the best that Giles can be. He had no one hitting around him in Pittsburgh (other than Aramis), and he played in an extreme pitchers park in SD with no real offensive threats around him. Imagine what he might do with Lee and Aramis protecting him. :wink:

The Vikings offense scored 3 points last week. Go Bears! I'm calling the upset.

Don't be baffled, it happens to others that USED to post here regularly. The funny part is all the name calling and second guessing of Hendry, people still wonder why he won't post here or answer questions on the site. My question to you is, if you were Hendry, would you? You know, i was just wondering why hendry doesn't post on this website. There are so many GMs that post on so many fan sites throughout sports, and I was wondering why hendry hasn't joined them. Keep the thread about the transaction. Leave out all the personal stuff and the sarcasm, please. I'm trying to. i don't exactly enjoy the fact that because I've hated the past two seasons and hated the signings so far this offseason (much like most of the other posters on the board), i and these other posters get attacked with the "culture of negativity" argument. I feel like people should stop attacking the posters that are being negative just for being negative and instead take a look at why they are down on the Cubs. I'd certainly like to not be pessimistic about my favorite team, but I don't see much reason not to be. $3.66 mil a year for 3 years on a semi-reliable reliever coming off of a career year, and whose best use is already provided by a player at one tenth his cost that the Cubs already have under contract, is not a good use of resources. It probably is frustrating for anyone who really likes this deal. The negativity gives the appearance that everyone is against this signing. I don't think any person here was against signing Eyre. The money and the years is what is really perplexing and causing the angst. The bullpen definitely needed to be addressed. Personally, I felt it could have been upgraded via trade. We have Patterson, Hairston, Walker, Novoa, Wuertz, Wellemeyer, Mitre, Ohman and minor leaguers galore that could be used to get a couple of really good bullpen arms from small market teams that didn't want to shell out the money to arby eligible bullpen guys. I'm very upset about the 10.5m spent so far this offseason. Mike Fontenot or Ronny Cedeno would have made decent infield back ups at the league minimum for next year rather than resign Neifi at 2.5m for 2 years. Neifi, excluding Eyre and Rusch, probably wouldn't have made me blow a gasket. Glendon Rusch as the long man at 3.5m is money not well spent either when you add in Neifi and Eyre. Mitre or Hill at league minimum is a ton of savings for a guy who basically gets a spot start or saves a starter on a bad day. Without Neifi and Eyre, it's not the worst signing in the world and didn't make me blow a gasket. Eyre is a good pick up, excluding Neifi and Rusch. I could deal with a 3.6m LOOGY if we didn't have a 3.5m swing man and a 2.5m bench guy. Ohman makes league minimum. Someone could have been brought in via trade at a much lower cost than Eyre. Eyre by himself wouldn't have made me blow a gasket. Relievers are a crap shoot to begin with. No one knows yet who will be the most effective guys in the pen next year, but when they have that good season, teams will be knocking on their doors next offseason. Most fall back to their career norms. I'm not saying we should have gone cheap with the league minimum at every one of those positions. But, when you've spent most of your available money on guys who aren't the guys who will have the most impact on the team, where will the money be when it's time to get the impact players? That 10.5m, or most of it sure would have been nice for applying to the woeful offense this offseason. I think we can pretty much forget about another starter at this point, especially if he's going to sign another free agent as a set up man. What exactly are they going to do with all of these guys (Novoa, Ohman, etc...) that no longer have jobs? You can't exactly trade them for major league talent with no room on the roster. I'm really baffled.

Makes you wonder what in the heck is Rusch and his 3mil going to do now that Eyre has been signed... Well, Hendry seems to love having that "swing" guy. Unless that means he really don't want to rely on Wood staying healthy to have 5 good starters. (not calling Rusch a good starter). I'm not responding to you just to pick on you. You bring up things that kind of boil my blood a little bit. Swing guy is another one that bugs me. When does the long man come into a game? When the starter gets hurt or if he's getting whacked around. Since the starter isn't getting hurt early in games all that often, it's really when the starter is getting beaten up. In those games, aren't you pretty much toast anyway? Why pay a guy 3m+ to save the bullpen some innings? Take a guy like Mitre who makes league minimum and see if you can get any trade value out of him in a roll like that. Rusch wasn't exactly effective as a swing guy either. He struggled when left in the rotation too long, and he didn't seem to grasp switching to pitching every other day too well, either.

Hammond got 2/4.6m after a 0.95 ERA in Atlanta, from George Steinbrenner. Enough said.

Mine (or any other mod) was the only one you need to worry about. Done. Good point brought up by Sarcastic. I do worry about going after relievers. What teams had the best relief corps last year? A guy who is great one year, can stink it up the next. Scott Hammond was insane in his only year in Atlanta (coincidence?). He hasn't come close to that level since. Nor was he anything special prior to that. Even the Yankees only gave Hammond 2.2m after a season of 0.95 ERA with Atlanta. And the Yankees only gave him 2 years. Think about that.

The Choi/Hill stuff was toeing the line. If we are done with this, let's get back to talking baseball.

Seanez only made half a million last year. Granted, a small market team.....er well, a team that pretends to be small market, but it's more than a 3m difference.

Mocking people is a good way to get a 1 way ticket out of here. Please stop.

No. If we can't afford Giles and Furcal, how do we afford Abreu and Furcal? No way will Phily trade Abreu and pay any part of his salary. They might as well keep him if they did that. Giles might end up being cheaper than Abreu. And if you are going to trade for Abreu, why not just sign Giles? You don't lose a thing in trade.

The way we are going, the other teams won't need a LOOGY when they face the Cubs. Barrett, Lee, Aramis, Murton, Cedeno make up the heart of the order. Not a lefty in the bunch. Add Mench in right and the LOOGY won't even have to make the flight to Wrigley.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I want solid pitching, but I want a major improvement in offense as well. With 100m payroll, there really is no excuse to not have both.

If they are going after Howry or Looper, does that mean they aren't bringing back Williamson?

3.6m for a LOOGY. I guess he'll need to fork out 5+ for a set up guy. This is insane. Linebrink made less than a million last year. I guarantee if you throw Novoa and a starting pitcher at SD (Pinto?), they gobble up that trade. Not that I'm advocating that trade, but we have guys that can be traded to fill holes. Why waste all that money bidding on free agents??????????

Correct me if I'm wrong, does that put at 10.5m so far on the money spent on Rusch, Perez and Eyre?

Wow. 11m? [-(

Thomas has been playing hurt since he was 27. Bad example. Bagwell has a degenerative shoulder. Bad example. Palmeiro had a .571 SLG at age 37. Bad example. Griffey posted a .576 SLG this past year, at age 35. Not to mention he's been battling injuries since he was 31. Bad example. Bonds....did you see what Bonds did at age 39? :shock: Horrible example. We aren't asking Giles to play into his 40's. He'd be 35, 36 and 37 over the life of his contract. How many people screamed to have Alou back after he turned 37 in the '04 season? Not me, but many did. He had a pretty snazzy year at 38. McGriff put up a pretty good season for the Cubs at the age of 38, offensively anyway. I left out Sosa. His skills are definitely declining. I won't deny that. There is definitely something different about Sosa's decline. I'm not going to say steroids, but there is something really weird about his decline. He started his decline at the age of 33. Giles takes care of himself. He isn't one of the oft injured guys like you mentioned above. He's in incredible shape for his age.

Yeah, I agree. IMO the huge dollar figures being bandied about for Furcal are only appropriate for players who have been kicking ass consistently for a long time. To be fair, Furcal has been more consitant than Beltran and far more than Beltre. If Renteria os worth marktet value, so is Furcal. Renteria is overpaid too. And look how his production dropped off after he signed the fat contract. Like I said, I can go on and on. I just grabbed Beltre and Beltran out of the air.

A few fans? Cub fans have been suffering since 1908. Many have died without ever knowing the feeling of winning it all, unless they are Bear fans like me. If he doesn't care, then it's high time to replace him with someone who does. A 100m payroll even tells me that The Trib cares about winning.