USSoccer

I believe he's been to the All Star game the exact same number of times as Derrek Lee, and is entering prime age, where he could get MVP consideration if he has a flukey career year like Lee did. Ramirez is one of the best 20 hitters in baseball. He should be retained, and there really shouldn't be much thought about it.

5/$75m is only $15m per.

I'm going out on a bigger limb and say the Cubs were in the top 4 for bidding. So as usual, we will have bid just enough to lose but say we tried?

5/$75, as others have noted, is a bloody bargain for a player of Aramis' age and performance. If that's truly the number, and Hendry doesn't pay it, he's a colossal idiot, and if we then go out and sign mediocre crap to Jones-like contracts, I'm going to snap.

To me, I'd go as high as 5yr/$80-85m

Ditto. The lack of news on this makes me really nervous. It's likely the Matsuzaka saga is delaying the Ramirez signing, if any. That's another big money investment. Naturally fans want both guys, but I'm sure Hendry wants to see who won the bid before commiting money anywhere. I've also read that serious talks won't take place until next week, when the organizational meetings take place. That's ridiculous. If Hendry can't multitask (which he's shown no ability to do in the past) he shouldn't be a GM. There's payroll enough to retain Ramirez at market value and sign other players, so one shouldn't have anything to do with the other. Also, if Hendry is stupid enough to let ARam get to the open market because he wants to wait til organizational meetings, he's going to get himself fired, because we will not win a bidding war with Anaheim or LA.

Yeah, you guys used to throw batteries and bags of urine at him, didn't you? I used to hate him also. Batteries? Yes, someone threw a battery at him. Bags of urine? Come on. Philly fans aren't Mexican National Soccer team fans. THOSE guys throw bags of acid and urine

Ditto. The lack of news on this makes me really nervous.

2 more days to go until I officially melt down and freak out. This deal needs to get done.

12/19/01 Are you referring to the past-his-prime signing of Moises Alou? When was the last time was signed an in-his-prime premiere FA?

19never

I like the move. I also like than Von Joshua may get more time with Pie, Harvey, and some other prospects.

Ryan Adams is pretty cool.

I have to say I disagree with this. Threads over 30 pages should be archived and a new thread started. No one wants to read this whole thing and you end up getting repetitive posts. MOD FIGHT!! Not really... I know. Just bored at my desk.

I have to say I disagree with this. Threads over 30 pages should be archived and a new thread started. No one wants to read this whole thing and you end up getting repetitive posts. How would you eliminate repetitive posts simply by starting a new thread? Yea, how would you eliminate repetitive posts simply by starting a new thread? Good question. That's a great point. Starting a new thread wouldn't eliminate redundant posts.

I have to say I disagree with this. Threads over 30 pages should be archived and a new thread started. No one wants to read this whole thing and you end up getting repetitive posts. MOD FIGHT!!

I think all foreign nationals that haven't played MLB ball signed by MLB teams are treated as free agents. It's never happened before, and this thread is the first place I've ever seen it discussed. But the posting process is an odd wrinkle, so I'm not sure. Irabu's situation was different, then?

I agree. I think because it will be so much more difficult to win sooner rather than later without Ramirez, that Hendry is motivated to resign Aramis, though he won't back himself into the corner of believing he has to in order to keep his job. That said, I think the great likelihood is that Aramis returns to the Cubs. If he isn't signed by the 11th, the chances of that drops, but not the point were it becomes highly unlikely that he returns. I dunno, CW. I agree with XZero that if Anaheim gets the chance they'll throw a ton of money at Aramis. I don't want them involved in any bidding war.

Even if he doesn't suffer as much as Nomar, the notion that the broken bones wouldn't affect Lee was already proven incorrect when he tried to come back this year. It had a much greater effect on his 2006 than many people were willing to assume, both in terms of time missed and how productive he'd be upon return. Nomar was only 28 when he returned, and seemingly still had some upside. Lee is already 31. Anyway, I just think it's important to remember, when discussing Ramirez, that we can't just assume he's nothing more than the 2nd best hitter on the Cubs. He could easily be the best hitter on the team, as he has for 2 of the past 3 years. We can't dismiss Ramirez leaving by saying Lee was the true face of the franchise or franchise player. Lee isn't Pujols. He hung tough with Albert for one season, but he's not the rock solid stud anchoring the lineup that the Cubs need, this is why it's all the more important to have multiple very good hitters. And that means keeping Ramirez, getting Lee healthy and acquiring new guys. You can't just replace Ramirez with a new guy and count on enough improvement to make this team better. Not that I'm saying anything new or anything. Which is why the level of press venom last week was disconcerting. People in the media here are really overlooking how good Ramirez has been as a Cub, and my fear is that Hendry thinks he might be able to get away with letting Aramis walk if he can sign Soriano. Trouble is, it's a less than lateral move. Aramis is literally the only FA this winter worth even close to "Beltran money". If he weren't our FA, we'd be all about signing him. The media here would be all about signing him. Hendry needs to do everything he can to make sure he stays, because as you said in another thread, Hendry's is probably incapable of being abole to compensate for Ramirez's loss.

But Ortiz recovered from his beautifully. still holding out hope We're not so fortunate as to have the kind of luck that Boston had with Ortiz. . Nomar's injury was more severe, I think, but Lee still missed 112 games from a broken wrist. That's a long time for a wrist injury. It wasn't a simple fracture, either.

You would be surprised if he repeats 2004 but don't expect him to repeat 2005? Or you wouldn't be surprised if he repeats 2004? I don't think he'll fall off that much, but I'm not sure he'll outproduce his 2nd best season, 2003. I typed that poorly. I meant to say that I expect a line more similar to 2004 next season. I doubt he comes close to 2005's production. If he repeats 2004, this offense will be in trouble. They need 2003 at the minimum. I don't have a ton of confidence in his ability to recover from the wrist injury to the point where he can get around on inside pitches. If he's even a split second slower, pitchers are going to hammer him with inside fastballs. The fact that Lee will certainly regress from 2005 and end up somewhere between his 2003-4 numbers means that Hendry needs to make sure he retains Ramirez as well as make other moves to ensure that the offense improves.

The odds of that happening are remote. Yeah, no kidding. The Lee issue has really moved to the backburner in discussions, but going into last season, he wasn't a real good bet to repeat 2005. Now, a year older, after a terrible injury for a hitter that ruined an entire season (even though people maintained it was largely harmless and he'd recover quickly), we might be looking at a guy who puts up a sub 900 OPS in 2007. Quality numbers, but not superstar numbers. His OPS+ was 177 in 2005, the next highest number in his career was 135, at age 27. If he's much below his 2005 numbers, the acquisitions will have to be that much better, just to improve upon the weak 2005/2006 offense. If Lee puts up his 2004 line of .278/.356/.504 next season I'd be somewhat suprised. His 2005 was so far out of line, and he's past the age where we can expect him to sustain that kind of production. But his improvement was due to some adjustments, not a fluke. While he won't post 2005 type numbers again, I can't see him regressing to his pre-2005 numbers, at least not in the next year or two. I think a .290/.375/.550 line is quite realistic. Wrist injuries can be tricky to come back from. Nomar never recovered from his.

You would be surprised if he repeats 2004 but don't expect him to repeat 2005? Or you wouldn't be surprised if he repeats 2004? I don't think he'll fall off that much, but I'm not sure he'll outproduce his 2nd best season, 2003. I typed that poorly. I meant to say that I expect a line more similar to 2004 next season. I doubt he comes close to 2005's production.

First half foul trouble, and then Thabo played great in the first half, so Skiles wanted him out there again in the second. Thabo has been very impressive as part of the second unit.

Did anyone listen to WGN radio sports reports yesterday afternoon or Sports Central? My dad was in the car and he thinks he heard David Kaplan say that Aramis will be signed by Saturday after he gets a few more bucks. Can anyone confirm? Somebody posted this in the opt out thread as well. Kaplan was heard to say that Aramis is using Friday's deadline as leverage to get as much money as possible, but that he wants to stay in Chicago and to expect to have a deal done by Friday. If that happens, I'll be so happy and suprised.