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Dusty did what everyone knew Dusty would do. One of my biggest surprises in looking over yesterdays box scores was that Ozzie had Swisher leading off.

Soriano was the best available. The problem is that the Cubs are trying to win a crappy division instead of winning a World Series. Truthfully I am pretty sure almost any GM can outspend the NL Central right now and win with the Cubs. However they are not even close to competing with the Tigers, Indians, Red Sox, Angels, and Yankees. Truthfully the Cubs are not even better than the White Sox. I dont think players like Murton will help you compete with these teams. However at least he isnt making 18 mill. while being a middle of the road LFer. So its not so much of who is better. The question is could the Cubs have been more patient and found a better player at a position of bigger weakness to sign with that money? Maybe not last offseason but this offseason or some sort of trade maybe. We arent outspending the Red Sox and Yankees and we dont produce players through our system as well as they do. How are we ever going to beat them? Worse of all we give out too many slaps on the back for being the worse team in the playoffs last year. So yes I would just assume we had a $48 mill payrole and were playing Matt Murton in left. At least we would have more flexibility to actually try to win a World Series. As opposed to this $120 million pile of mediocrity with very little room to improve. That is a ridiculous statement. You must have forgotten already that the Cubs were one of the hottest teams in baseball over the second half of last year, and many people were predicting that they would go to the World Series when the playoffs started. The fact they got swept by the Diamondbacks was unfortunate, but even a great GM can't prevent his team from slumping at any given time. I'm not saying Hendry is a great GM, but he is far from terrible. In regard to your waiting for the right person, Jim Hendry is probably like the rest of us and doesn't have a crystal ball to tell him which players are going to want to come to the Cubs. We have found out over the last few years, not every player in MLB fantacizes about being a Cub or playing in Chicago. That leaves Hendry with option to take a player that wants to come or sit around and wait for players that may never come. In regard to Murton, sure it sucks for him personally that he got sent down to AAA. The fact that he is just a call up away is a great thing for the organization to have. Most people complaining about this move are saying he is a Major league ready OF, etc..... They should be ecstatic, that if Soriano or Fukudome is out for a prolonged period that Murton will be able to fill in and according to those people the Cubs lose little production. Sounds like a nice problem to have. So basically I said that the Cubs are not an elite team. They dont have much payroll flexibility to improve. That is a ridiculous statement! When you pay an above average player(Soriano) elite player money, that is bad unless you are the Yankees. Also wasting ABs on the likes of Reed Johnson or starts on Dempster and Marquis is not smart use of resources. So basically the only reason that the Cubs are a playoff team is because they play in a crappy division. I think most of the pictured GMs could easily do the same job that Hendry has done.

Soriano was the best available. The problem is that the Cubs are trying to win a crappy division instead of winning a World Series. Truthfully I am pretty sure almost any GM can outspend the NL Central right now and win with the Cubs. However they are not even close to competing with the Tigers, Indians, Red Sox, Angels, and Yankees. Truthfully the Cubs are not even better than the White Sox. I dont think players like Murton will help you compete with these teams. However at least he isnt making 18 mill. while being a middle of the road LFer. So its not so much of who is better. The question is could the Cubs have been more patient and found a better player at a position of bigger weakness to sign with that money? Maybe not last offseason but this offseason or some sort of trade maybe. We arent outspending the Red Sox and Yankees and we dont produce players through our system as well as they do. How are we ever going to beat them? Worse of all we give out too many slaps on the back for being the worse team in the playoffs last year. So yes I would just assume we had a $48 mill payrole and were playing Matt Murton in left. At least we would have more flexibility to actually try to win a World Series. As opposed to this $120 million pile of mediocrity with very little room to improve.

That's exactly what's going to happen. Since everyone knows this to be true, why are the Cubs even wasting their time?

How old is he? He's always been a solid goalie. Solid? Ok..he sucks. I'm still bitter over 95, all right! :cray: I thought I was over it until you brought it up again!!!! I Hate Brodeur

I hate the Cubs. Is there any other team in baseball that would have a guy pitch as well as Sean Marshall did last year and not even get a chance to start this year? Especially since the other options are Leiber, Dempster and Marquis. Personally I would rather have Marquis than either Dempster or Leiber.

He chose Michigan St!!!!!!!!!! oh OSU is even below MSU in academic standards

I really felt bad for him. It was a very sad ending to a really entertaining game.

If he would have asked, How do you defend yourself from a man attacking you with a banana? That would have even been funnier.

For some reason in Hockey there is a tremendous amount of value placed on guys who have "won the Cup" I think LaPointe is a solid 3rd liner. Which is what he was when he won the cup in Detroit. 2.4 million in the Salary Cap is pretty extreme though. I didnt realize that was how large his salary was. That being said, I would say that the Blackhawks did well just to get rid of that contract.

Isn't Martin LaPointe worth more than a 6th round draft pick?

You and me both brother....that crushed me when I was a kid. Add to that I hated Murcer with a passion during his days as a Yank. Have you ever noticed how many bad Cub trades involve trading younger black players for over-rated white players? Madlock did a Wrigley no-no. He was uppity. I dont mean this to sound racist. The Wrigleys really struggled with Black players who didnt fit into the Banks type persona.

I agree with what he said. I also dont think Choi helped himself too much either. Yes he was jerked around, but he didnt respond well to it either.

Wow fighting over whose school is better between Kansas/Missouri. I think this in one that I should get Michigan St involved in!!

I would say somewhere in the middle.

Finally get to watch a Wings game today and the ending was very frustrating

I am watching Detroit/Boston on Yahoo. I dont know who these Boston announcers are. They are not homers though. Its almost refreshing watching a non-national broadcast with announcers who are level headed.

I dont know what the Yankees are paying him. I think there are worse players sitting on benches in baseball that are probably getting paid more. I guess I think its a decent gamble.

I find it really sad that I could watch the AHL all star game but not the NHL all star game. I dont care about hockey all star games that much, but its just the point of the matter

As a Red Wings fan I have to tell you there was a very good reason that the Wings had absolutely no interest in resigning Lang after this season. Dave Tallon has done a terrible job signing free agents. Almost all of them if not all have been huge letdowns, especially Khabibulin. Instead of signing Lane and some other smalltimer centers they should have opened up the checkbook and signed one of the top 3 centers available this past offseason. Lang is a very good centermen the 2 times a month that he wants to play. Well worth the contract if he played with that intensity every game. Towards the end of the playoffs last yr he was getting about 5 mins a game.

As a Red Wings fan I have to tell you there was a very good reason that the Wings had absolutely no interest in resigning Lang after this season.

watching Anehiem is like watching the Charleston Cheifs

I am not sure the Cubs are a better team than the White Sox.

I always wanted to make a energy drink/laxative called "momemtum" "When you cant go, get the MO"

i couldn't even read the rest of your post after this. Mr. Stats/Math guy evaluating someone by their HEART? what's his grit rating? I think it does apply more in Football though. There isnt any in depth statistical analysis that proves this that I know of. I just think things like grit and attitude apply more in football than baseball. Especially college. Usually by the NFL you better have the physical attributes. As for Tebow in the NFL, I actually thought linebacker or TE. However I wouldnt rule out QB.