BigbadB

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?

If the pitching is better than last year, I think it's a pretty decent team. But, I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of having right handed hitters 3-8.

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.