BigbadB

I'll probably get assaulted by Vance, but I see Mench as a 4th outfielder. Good thing I have mod powers. :P

Hollandsworth was a good bench addition. Period. Nothing more. Dusty did not see it that way.

I could live with that lineup, though I'd prefer a more predictably productive OFer than Guillen. Still, its a realistic scenario. Actually, that would be a best case scenario lineup. Cubs will be lucky to add 3 big additions in an offseason lacking of available talent. I don't agree with that. With Walker, Patterson and Williams on the major league roster available in trade (and quite possibly Cedeno as well), and a whole bunch of guys who cannot be protected on the 40 man roster and with 30+ million to spend on free agents, there is plenty of ammo to give this team a whole new look this offseason. I think you will see new people in CF, RF and SS, and quite possibly 2b as well. I wouldn't classify Guillen or Pierre "big" additions.

The Cubs have been at or near the top in HR's each year for the last umpteen years. What has it gotten them? They have 2 guys with 40 HR power already on the team. What they need is a lefty complement between them. It doesn't have to be another 40 HR guy. Just a guy with good OBP and a decent SLG. I'd take Bradley, especially if they are just giving him away. He can play center or right. What I really want more than anything is a whole line up of guys who can get on base at a .350+ clip. If you just went with speed and OBP to fill all the spots, I'd be fine with it. For example, I could deal with this line up: Furcal SS Castillo 2b Lee 1b Bradley RF Ramirez 3b Murton LF Pierre CF Barrett C You have potentially 5 guys who can steal 20+ bases. You have 8 guys who can all get on base at a .350+ clip. You have improved the defense tremendously in both the infield and the outfield. I'd rather have Giles in RF, but if you fill the line up all the way through with .350+ OBP, I think you have a team that scores 800+ runs throughout the season. Bradley is a hard read. He hasn't played a full season. His last 2 seasons were in a pitchers park. It looks like he was on pace for a 30 HR season in LA. Not bad. Put him in the hitter friendly NL Central and watch him go. It might be a good idea to pick up a little insurance in case we need to TO Bradley. Maybe Pie would be ready by that time, or maybe someone could be picked up at the trade deadline. It seems like Hendry likes youth and speed more than aging and risk. As long as that youth and speed can also get on base at a good clip, I think he can come out all right on this.

Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger, Jose Cardinal, Randy Hundley, Fergusen Jenkins........ I loved watching these guys play together. I was officially hooked the day Milt Pappas threw a no hitter. I had never seen one before and I had never yet seen a guy get picked up and carried off the field in such jubilation. Some of these guys didn't actually play together, but that was the era that got me hooked on Cubs baseball.

Perhaps Hendry intends to trade Williams for that very reason for an OF bat because of the thin FA pool. ON that level bringing in another SP makes a lot of sense. It seems like Hendry subscribes to the notion that great pitching will win despite lousy hitting. He could cite the 2005 Astros as an example. Not saying I agree with that philosophy but Hendry's "guys that can catch" line sort of supports that. The problem is that Hendry has the available resources to have good hitting AND good pitching. Why let either of them suffer when you don't have to?

I disagree. While it is true that several people predicted that Hollandsworth wouldn't produce anywhere near the numbers he put up in '04 before he got injured, no one predicted that he would be so far under his career averages. And no one predicted that Hollandsworth would start the year the way he did. No one. Hollandsworth would have been just fine if they only used him for what he is good at. Coming off the bench.

so, his points don't count but he does count as one of your ten major league keepers. I believe that makes me quite legal, since I only have about 5 ML keepers. When are the winter meetings?

I never tire of seeing that picture. :D

I'll just randomly repeat the quote above in case it gets lost anywhere in this thread. Look at those numbers closely. Yep, that was our first bat off the bench in '05. Macias had twice as many PH at bats than any other Cub player last year.

Hasn't Hendry already commented that Giles will be out of the Cubs price range? That's not my idea of a savvy.

I'll just randomly repeat the quote above in case it gets lost anywhere in this thread. Look at those numbers closely.

My apologies if this is incorrect. But, here is where I'm confused. F. Prospects will be cap-exempt for three years starting the year they first appear in a major league game. This is copied from the Rules that are stickied above. I need confirmation before I actually drop him. I was also told by Poudre that he was exempt from counting towards the cap. Are you just picking on the new guy or what? :D

Actually Gammons said quite the opposite. According to him, the Cubs asked Nomar if he'd consider coming back to play LF, and Nomar said no. His willingness to shift positions is contained to 3B. What respect does Gammons deserve on this site? None! The quotes came from Nomar. Believe them or not. It was listed on Rumor Central on ESPN Insider for quite some time. They are no longer there now since there are a lot more fresh rumors than that one.

Of the 3 names listed (Castillo, Kent and Soriano), only Castillo would make sense. Kent and Soriano are worse with a glove than Walker. Kent will be LA's 1b this year. Book it.

If the Cubs don't get Furcal, there's still backup plans left. It appears that Castillo, Kent and Soriano will all be on the market. They can just go w/ Cedeno/Neifi @ SS. Of course, Sori and Kent aren't leadoff men tho. Going to need to get someone from CF in that case. You may have missed it somewhere, but I'm not willing to hand Cedeno an everyday job, either. Unless of course we have ++ offensive production from CF, RF and 2b. And I don't see that happening. Of course, with Hendry's philosophies of wanting to improve defense, I think it will be especially hard to find ++ offensive production AND good defense from all 3 of those spots. With just 80 major league at bats, we don't know whether Cedeno is a better or worse hitter than Neifi. Fact! I sit and think about all the different scenarios that have played out. I still think the best option would have been to invest their attention on resigning Nomar, getting Giles, keeping Walker and signing Lofton while spending any remaining cash on the pitching staff. Option #2 would have been to get Furcal instead of Nomar, sign Giles and Lofton and retain Walker, with the rest being spent on pitching. In these scenarios, Cedeno is the back up.

There should be no reason to bring Macias back, so I'll assume he won't be. PH splits for one Jose Macias in 2005: .185 AVG/.207 OBP/.448 OPS

I'm not behind the scenes, so I really don't know how everything goes down. But, if I'm Nomar, I see the writing on the wall. The Cubs have been courting Furcal since the offseason began. It's Furcal this and Furcal that. The only blurb I've seen about Nomar is that Nomar would love to come back to Chicago and would even be willing to switch positions. But, in that same blurb, it said that it is assumed that the Cubs don't appear to be interested in bringing Nomar back. This makes it an easy decision for Nomar. See what he can get on the open market. Since LA seems like the hot destination, I wouldn't be surprised. With or without Nomar, I already have LA penciled in to win the Western Division in 2006. With him, it should be even easier. Meanwhile, with Ronnie Cedeno at 2nd and Neifi Perez at SS, the Cubs fall into 5th place after losing their 7th game in a row with a 2-1 score. Great defense and excellent pitching, but Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez are the only offense on the team.

I'm sure Atlanta is just trying to drive up his price. But, if we end up with neither Nomar or Furcal, I am not going to be very happy with Cubs management. And I'll be even angrier that Neifi Perez is on the team.

I'll take a wild guess that the labels idiot, stupid and moron have been used over 100 times in the this thread. There's no decorum today. Hmmmm guess it's just your typical Neifi/Dusty thread. ;) Since Neifi being signed was announced, Hendry was called an idiot, stupid, or a moron 5 times total, by a total of 4 posters. Maybe even 4 and 3 if you don't consider this: "If Neifi Perez is our starting shortstop or second basemen next year, I might just have to take a season off of watching baseball. Just, jesus, how can you be so stupid? " to be calling him stupid. Without looking it up, I would wager that there are more people are calling the signing stupid then there are calling Hendry stupid. Calling a decision stupid and calling the person that made that decision stupid are two completely different things. Nicely put, Grass! =D>

I would rate Furcal the 2nd best option Hendry has this offseason. As far as production, Furcal could end up being much better over the life of his contract than Giles, but I'm in the Giles camp. If there is one thing that this team could use, it's a spike in OBP. Giles has the best OBP on the market, but he brings a lefty bat and power AND fills a huge hole in RF, where we have NO ONE! Furcal is a lead off hitter. He's not the best lead off hitter, but he is one and we know Dusty will use him there. That is probably the 2nd most important need for this team. I can't see anyone getting down on Furcal unless Furcal joins the rest of the team in "enjoying hitting" much more than watching pitches. In other words, if Furcal's OBP falls below .340, World War III will be within arms reach.

Why should Nomar consider staying now? The Cubs have been courting Furcal since the season ended. The home discount is gone, folks.

It sure appeared as though Baker loved his lead off men last year, since they batted there day in and day out. Why didn't Murton bat lead off? Why didn't Walker bat lead off? Either and BOTH would have been better options than everyone except Hairston. The good news is that I can't see how Dusty could possibly mess it up if he has Furcal on the roster. But, am I convinced Baker still hasn't learned his lesson with Perez batting 2nd? Heck no.

I'd love to see what Neifi's incentives were for last year. I'm not going to say he didn't deserve them last year, because he really did. It was Baker's fault he batted at the top of the order. But, if Cedeno did more sitting toward the end of the season because Baker was helping Neifi get incentives added on to his contract, I won't be happy. I assumed it was because Baker was trying to help his own cause (reach .500) and he just couldn't trust a rookie to help him.

I believe I'm legal now.