USSoccer

Nice, Orza. Try and strong arm and threaten MLB players into extending their season and risking injury for a meaningless, useless tournament designed solely to make money in foreign markets. I really don't wish injury on anyone, but what do you think players and GM's around the league are going to think if ARod breaks his hand after being hit by a pitch, or if Dontrelle Willis blows out his elbow playing for Team USA? Do you think they're going to be all ready to send players to this joke of an event next time it comes up? I hate the WBC, and this is coming from a soccer fan who loves the World Cup!

That's really not an argument in favor of Hendry. Hill and Choi were tagged as utility and platoon players, respectively. Also, please factor in that the players that those 2 were benched for weren;t exactly all star producers. That is not true. You're telling me that Hill and Choi weren't put in those roles by Pittsburgh, Florida and LA, and both got extended starting looks? Also, in repsect to Bruce's question about how the farm systems produce for the other 30 MLB teams, the one thing I can say is if you look at the core producers of the most consistently successful teams ocver the past 15 years, you'll see a lot of internal development. Atlanta-Pretty much everyone during their run has been home grown. Oakland-Ditto the Braves: Zito, Hudson, Mulder, Giambi, Tejada, Harden, Street just to name a few. Minnesota: Ditto the Braves and A's. Anaheim: Rodriguez, Erstad, Anderson, Molina, McPherson, Figgins, and if you want to go way back, Edmonds. Florida-Miguel Cabrera, Castillo, Brad Penny, Josh Beckett, and Dontrelle Willis counts as half a prospect for them much like Murton is a half for us. NY Yankees-Jeter, Posada, Williams, Pettite, Rivera Boston-Nixon, Varitek, Lowe, Garciaparra, Arroyo Houston: Biggio, Bagwell gets half credit, Oswalt, Miller, Wagner, Berkman, Backe.

That's really not an argument in favor of Hendry. Hill and Choi were tagged as utility and platoon players, respectively. Also, please factor in that the players that those 2 were benched for weren;t exactly all star producers.

Bruce, Good points, although I will debate one point: At what point does a farm system become useless or wrecked if we never trust the young position players enough to make the system matter? I'm really hoping that Hendry's words about Murton and Cedeno starting ring true. However, we don't have a manager who trusts young players enough to rely on them and trusts them to push through the slumps that will happen. What's even worse is that Baker is in a contract year, so he's more apt than ever to play it safe with veteran options, especially if either Murton or Cedeno start out slowly. As a former farm director, yes, Hendry improved the farm system overall. However, what good will that do us if we cannot develop our own inexpensive position players as Zambrano, Prior, Ramirez and Lee become more expensive? These are good points. Like the trade or not, Hendry used the farm system to get Juan Pierre. There are some very subtle ways a GM can get his manager to play young players. One of these occurred in 2003, when Corey Patterson was still an up and coming young player. Baker had to play him because he had no viable alternative. There is really no viable alternative to Matt Murton, at least right now. And no, John Mabry will not be last year's Todd Hollandsworth _ the organization will not stand for it. Overall, how productive is the Cubs' farm system vis-a-vis the other 29 clubs. I don't know off-hand. Sometimes stuff just happens, too: What happens if David Kelton doesn't get the yips at third base? What happens if Richie Lewis doesn't break a leg? What happens if Felix Pie doesn't get hurt? On top of that, the Cubs concentrated most of their efforts on pitchers over Hendry's years as scouting director. We'll get a better idea _ and very soon _ on the chances of guys like Dopirak, Pie, Harvey, Sing and others. Right now, the Cubs' farm system is reasonably well regarded by Baseball America and very well regarded by baseball people. Stuff does happen, but it happens to every ML club. The key is giving the guys that do make it through the Darwin-like minor league process a fair chance to shine. And that doesn't mean a halfhearted platoon, or a few starts here and there over the course of a month. It means regular, extended play. Murton will probably get that by virtue of his great debut, but how much rope will he have? Worse, the Cubs do have a viable alternative to Cedeno, and he's an alternative that the Cubs overvalue for some reason.

Bruce, Good points, although I will debate one point: At what point does a farm system become useless or wrecked if we never trust the young position players enough to make the system matter? I'm really hoping that Hendry's words about Murton and Cedeno starting ring true. However, we don't have a manager who trusts young players enough to rely on them and trusts them to push through the slumps that will happen. What's even worse is that Baker is in a contract year, so he's more apt than ever to play it safe with veteran options, especially if either Murton or Cedeno start out slowly. As a former farm director, yes, Hendry improved the farm system overall. However, what good will that do us if we cannot develop our own inexpensive position players as Zambrano, Prior, Ramirez and Lee become more expensive? Also, Hendry also gave Baker very espensive security blankets in Rusch and Perez, and opened a dangerous door for another security blanket in Grissom. Hendry is partly culpable for giving Baker the players with which to block the two everyday position players we have that are cheap and have potential to be solid MLB players.

I'm so wary of all of Hendry's potential moves at this point that I'd be happy if he just stood pat. CF-Pierre LF-Murton 1B-Lee 3B-Ramirez RF-Jones C-Barrett 2B-Walker SS-Cedeno P-Z P-Prior P-Williams P-Maddux P-Rusch/Wood RP-Howry RP-Eyre RP-Ohman RP-Novoa RP-Wuertz CL-Dempster B-Hairston B-Perez B-Blanco B-Mabry B-Patterson At this point, fine by me, even though we don't have a 5th hitter. Better that than deal Prior, or absolutely gut the farm system, though. If somehow Baltimore wants to deal Tejada for prospects, fine. Ditto with Dunn or Abreu, although I doubt it happens. Really, though, I just don't see any deal where we get another everyday player coming down the line, so I'd just as soon Hendry lose his cell phone for a couple months. Although, I do see Walker, Patterson and Wellemeyer being dealt. Probably just for prospects or a bench guy or two, though.

I'm sure "revenge" will be their little theme.

The Panthers don't scare me as much as NY or Tampa would have. They have 2 offensive weapons-Smith and Foster. Shut down one. That's it. I think Delhomme is crap against pressure, and can be easily rattled. Their defense isn't as good as Tampa's and their offense isn't as good as NY's. I think if the Bears lose, it will be because they shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers, or Rex gets knocked out a la Jim Miller in 2001. I don't think Carolina can beat us straight up.

Think AA prospects. I doubt we can get better at the moment. Put me down for thinking that Corey goes to Seattle for a PTBNL, and then Reed goes to Boston for Arroyo.

hopefully the final WC game will be a good one. The first 3 left a bit to be desired, although the Tampa game was okay.

I think we match up well enough against them. They key will be if we can force them away from Foster and into throwing with Delhomme. Also, we have to play from the lead. Rex has to take care of the ball and be efficient.

Every year there's some team that dominates the WC game and looks way too good. That very team generally gets demolished in the divisional round. Meet Carolina. I just don't think they pose as much of a threat as Tampa and NY would have.

Yeah, it's Dusty's fault that CPatt had 80,000 ks the last 2 years. The only reason Prior is now the #2 guy is because Zambrano has been incredible. So, does Dusty get the credit for making Zambrano so awesome? By the way, Prior's 3.2 ERA and 10K/nine innings is not too bad, ya know? And if Baker hadn't run Prior and Wood into the ground during 2003, those 3 would be potentially set for 15-20 wins/year. Just because Baker happens to be here when Prior and Z are here doesn't mean he deserves credit for it. If anything, that should be an extra strike against Hendry/Baker. You have 2 young, cheap, dominant starters, and you still underachieve.

Me too! you guys don't think the Bears would completely shut down the run and beat up Delhomme again?

You're probably right, and I've always thought that Hendry would sell Corey for cents on the dollar this winter. It's just tough knowing that the guy has a lot of potential, is fairly young, and if he goes to the right situation, he's going to be productive.

More or less wise than spending $3m on a swingman for the rotation? Or spending $3m on a utility IF? About the same, they're all examples of spending poorly. At least with Corey you have the chance of building up his trade value, or the chance we see improvement for your money. Why sell low?

More or less wise than spending $3m on a swingman for the rotation? Or spending $3m on a utility IF?

When was the last time Hendry paid appropriate value for a bench/role player? Nearly every one over the past 2 seasons has been overpaid. You're right. IMO the last true "quality" bench player we had was Hollandsworth, who was a decent fourth outfielder. I guess when we had Grudz and Walker the bench was solid. I'm just hoping he sees his power bat and brings him in. Can Branyan even play the OF? IIRC he can kind of play LF.

When was the last time Hendry paid appropriate value for a bench/role player? Nearly every one over the past 2 seasons has been overpaid.

I'd be wary of Branyan taking too much playing time away from murton in LF. It's pathetic that our manager's idiotic beliefs result in me writing a sentence like that. If we had a competent manager, imagine the kind of lineup/bench we could have.

The day Hendry realizes he used to be a farm director and gets rid of the manager responsible for torpedoing his roster due to an unwillingness to play young players, I'll give him a little credit. The day he stops overvaluing terrible, old, veteran players and signing them to wildly inflated contracts, I'll give him credit. Til then, no credit is due. A couple of real good trades 2 and 3 seasons ago doesn't make up for a total failure the last 2 offseasons.

Good, I hope they pull the sanction and the WBC gets canned.

Another reason to absolutely despise the WBC. If Ramirez gets hurt during this "competition" I'm going to be seriously ticked off.

In order to claim my cash reward, Tree can select any of the following questions: Jim, Given that there are reports that it is likely that Kerry Wood will not be ready for opening day due to rehab on his shoulder, please justify your decision to allow Kerry to pitch out of the bullpen for nearly 1 month before electing surgery, when it was obvious that at the time a setup man was not going to puch the Cubs into contention. That decision may cost him a month of 2006, and Cub fans everywhere have a right to know why you would risk an already injured pitcher when there was no upside to that risk. Jim, Please explain why a multi year contract was given to Neifi Perez when he produced a sub .300 OBP in 572 AB's. Given that the Cubs had Ronny Cedeno, Todd Walker and Jerry Hairston under their control, what was the pressing need to retain Perez for double his market value for 2 years? Jim, As a former farm system director, please explain why Ronny Cedeno was called up for 10 days to not play in favor of Enrique Wilson in June. Given you managers track record with regularly playing young position players, do you feel your farm system is irrelevant at this point? Jim, If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to see it, why haven't you fired Dusty Baker despite 2 underachieving seasons in a row? Jim, Coming into the 2006 season, your stated goal was to find guys that could "catch the ball". However, our team OBP is still below average, and the offense as a whole is not improved, despite giving long term contracts to mediocre offensive players like Jones and Perez. Please give your organizational offensive philosiphy. I have more, but that should be a good start.

The team I least want to see in Chicago next Sunday is Tampa. Their defense is a match for ours, and I think the offenses are pretty much similar as well. I think if NY or Carolina come to Chicago, you'll see a vicious beatdown of those teams, but Tampa could easily come in and beat the Bears.