C.C.

Prior no surprise, Wood shocked me.

My friend is a trader and this is going around Wall Street right now. Wall Street usually gets a hold of stuff before the masses.

Same list I got. See above.

Someone just dropped this into my mail box: "Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Aaron Boone, Rafaeil Bettancourt, Bret Boone, Milton Bradley, David Bell, Dante Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike Cameron, Ramon Castro, Jose and Ozzie Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford, Wilson Delgado, Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsoworth, Ryan Franklin, Troy Glaus, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Troy Glaus, Juan Gonzalez, Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Jose Guillen, Jay Gibbons, Juan Gonzalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia, Jr., Darren Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Mark McGwire, Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez, Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero, Albert Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Scott SChoenweiis, David Segui, Alex Sanchez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Tejada, Julian Tavarez,Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams and Kerry Wood."

I'm just curious to see if he winds up in Cincy. What will that say about Dusty being the one ( or part of the problem) that destroyed his career.

N00b Rage!!!!

I watched Mike and Mike the next Morning and they never even touched on it. Pretty surprising.

Exactly...Look at Kerry Wood..Loyal, Dedicated guy...Mark Prior...Bottle and bib.. Yeah, heaven forbid a guy doesn't have loyalty for as team that fanned rumors of his "wussiness" which ended up delaying a surgery he needed for two years. The guy wants more money..for doing what?...Kerry Wood needed the surgery and time too..Came back like a man and said "I love this team and I owe them something" and took way less money..If Prior wants to sabotage the team,The big market team that drafted him, paid his dollars and has been loyal to him,through thick and thin,and then called himself " just an "employee" ..He can take freakin hike..Bottom line, he has hard personal feelings towards the Cubs and does not want to be here..Not anyone in the Cubs orginizations fault. You do realize Kerry Wood took the best contract offered to him this offseason? Neither of them owed the Cubs a thing. And I don't see how Prior wants to sabotage the team. No he didn't. Kerry had two year deals on the table from other clubs. He showed loyalty to the organization that paid him to do nothing. Prior on the other hand, didn't. Which is fine, not everyone is as great a person as Wood and wants to be a Cub. If Prior doesn't want to be here, screw him. If you spent three years with an injury that needed surgery to repair and the "boss" told you that you were a head case and weren't hurt, would you be very loyal? Cubs spent three years telling this guy there was nothing wrong with him when he knew he was hurt and was willing to have surgery if need be. They called him a head case and mentally weak (where do you think the media got this). Man, that is impressive insider information you got there. Just curious, do you work for the Organization in some kind of capacity?

I'm going to venture out and say HELL NO! He'll never wear a Cub Uni again.

Huh? Why are replacements needed for Howry, Dempster, Eyre, Blanco and Ward? Each is under contract for 2008. Also, Hendry may have spent $12MM on Fukudome, but he also saved $3.5MM in cutting Prior, another $3-4MM ( we don't know the exact figure) in cutting Jones, and with Barrett/Kendall out of the picture in favor of Soto, yet another $4MM (roughly). Granted, raises are due to some existing players already under contract, but those are sunk costs. So far this offseason, Hendry hasn't spent a single NEW dime of the new owners' money. He was talking about the 2009 budget and none of Howry, Dempster, Eyre, Blanco and Ward are under contract for that year. They are for 2008, but not 2009. We not wait to cross that bridge? We may not want some or all of them.

Perhaps he didn't want to stick around?

you must really hate mark prior. i hope the reds sign mark prior. i hope he goes on to dominate the cubs every time he pitches against them. i'll probably go up to GAB to watch his first game. i'll cheer him on for the rest of what i hope will be a productive career. to everyone that keeps calling him a wuss and all that: i'd love to see you pitch in a slow-pitch softball league with the shoulder injuries that mark prior had. You must really hate the Cubs.

As much as it sucks it feels right. Prior never seemed right in Chicago. It's time we set him free... I guess we finally and forever have moved passed 2003. Thank god! On to the next chapter!

Hendry said he tried to gauge interest at the winter meetings in a Prior trade and there was none. I thought the Rangers and Padres had/have interest? Reds did. No way Hendry trades him within the division and risk having him pitch well against us. Or let him hit the free agent market and get nothing in return, while still going to a divisonal team. I think the odds are like 2-1 if he hits the open market he ends up in Cincy. Why would he? Dusty the idiot that screwed him up in the first place.

How do you figure? Bedard struck out almost 40 more batters in 13 fewer innings last year, against much tougher hitters. How so? AL hitters- .270/.338/.423 NL hitters- .266/.334/.422 What about the East numbers Vs. the Central.

$12M per year seems a bit low considering Hunter and Jones each got $18M per year. I didn't expect Rowand to match that but I figured he would get at least $15M per year. That does seem a bit low. I thought it would be 5/70 at least.

I consider them to be winners in this saga, not signing Rowand or Hunter. Who plays CF. Owens? does it matter? they probably weren't going to contend next year and getting rowand or hunter wouldn't have changed that. not getting one of those two (add jones to that list as well) is a good thing considering the price. Might as well clean house now.

I consider them to be winners in this saga, not signing Rowand or Hunter. Who plays CF. Owens?

That was posted already. Man, that song is terrible.

I'm guessing 5/70.

A smile just crossed my face.

+1

I'm in there with you. Rich Hill and Erik Bedard are the same guy stat-wise (w/Hill actually a bit better) through age 27. Hill probably won't match Bedard's age 28 season, but then he may pitch after August as well. Hill is a year younger, has a healthier history with no past abuse, has two more seasons under the Cubs' control, and may end up just as good or better the next 3-4 years. I'd be all for getting Bedard, but using Hill to do it would be a step backward. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it looks like Bedard trumps Hill in every category last year, and Bedard is pitching in the harder league. I don't get why dealing Hill for Bedard would be a step backward?

It's the first year I'm not going in 6 years. Bummer...

I think more likely the wrench comes from the Orioles side. On one hand, it's been said that Andy needed to trade other guys before he could trade Roberts. On the other hand, once Angelos gives the OK for trading Tejada and Bedard, he can probably justify saying, okay, that's enough, we have to keep Roberts for PR reasons. Is Roberts that popular in Baltimore? Yes. He is a hit with the ladies and he also does a ton of work in the community. They love him in Baltimore. Thanks. I had no idea.