USSoccer

The difficulties in moving Sosa would have been somewhat alleviated had the Cubs not made it clear that they *had* to move him through the PR job they pulled. If you want to trade a guy, you don't torpedo his value by proclaiming what a bad guy he is and that you need to get rid of him. Next, I think moving Sosa became such a priority publicly (thanks again to the PR job) that Hendry spent far, far too much time trying to do it. Hendry may work hard, and I'm sure he gave the direction of the ballclub plenty of thought last winter. It was the execution, or the plan itself, that was severely lacking. Severely. The plan for moving Sosa, for instance, was fatally flawed from the start. Similarly, the idea that Burnitz was a suitable replacement and that Hollandsworth and Dubois were starters on a championship club were also very bad plans. And again, as I pointed out, you could have brought back Alou with, at worst, minimal impact on the payroll even before December of 2004, with plenty of time left to deal Sosa. So there too was a lack of planning, or a lack of logic, if you prefer,as Hendry publicly stated that it was fear of getting stuck with Both of them led to Alou not coming back. Salary wise, that should not have been the case. *edit #1* Perhaps I shouldn't say "lack of planning", and term it "poor planning and execution". But I think that's splitting hairs in the context of this discussion. *edit #2* I'm not saying I wanted Alou back. At the start of last offseason, I wanted him gone, but in hindsight having him here would have made a very big difference in our season, and the fact that Hendry's logic in not bringing him back was faulty is what I'm criticizing. I don't think the whole Alou issue can necessarily be hung on Hendry. If management gave him a budget and he could not fit Alou and Sosa into that budget then his hands were tied. He couldn't make an offer to Alou until he had moved Sosa if he didn't have the financial OK to potentially be stuck with both salaries. He makes some moves that are head scratchers but as a whole I think he does a good job. The Hundley, Lee, Nomar and Hawkins trades were all excellent IMO so that buys him some benefit of the doubt from me. That being said, this is a BIG offseason for him. Alou signed for $7m with a $6m option for 2006. As I pointed out earlier in the thread, the money you spent on Hairston and Burnitz would have nearly paid for all of that. Would Alou have taken less than $9m to stay here? Maybe not, but then you don't go and sign Macias and Perez to a combined $2.5m. Then you would certainly have been able to fit Alou in with or without Sosa. Numbers are numbers. You can't get around simple math. Proper money management or a simple realization that Sosa would be hard to move and they would have to make do somehow could have netted us a much more productive OF. I'm only pressing this home because I think it's a sign of a greater problem with Hendry than just his love of toolsy players and possible overreliance on Gary Hughes' advice.

CubfaninCA, I think that if you just look at last season's numbers, you may be right that those players you listed may not have been all stars for us. However, the idea was to not just think short term but also think long term. For instance, Carlos Beltran may never live up to that insane contract he signed, and he had a down year last year, but wouldn't we all feel better about our OF if he were in it going into this year and next? Magglio was not likely to put up big numbers after missing nearly a whole year, but this coming year he may have a breakout year. JD Drew got hurt, but if he were here he'd have been playing a corner OF spot and not CF, so he may not have gotten injured. Why just look at the OF, too? What about Jeff Kent instead of Walker at 2b? I don't know-there are a lot of variables when you play the "What If" game, but I'm positive that Hendry should have played his cards a whole lot better than he did.

Why would the Rangers be giving up on Blalock? Do they have a prospect at 3B that's close to ML ready?

The difficulties in moving Sosa would have been somewhat alleviated had the Cubs not made it clear that they *had* to move him through the PR job they pulled. If you want to trade a guy, you don't torpedo his value by proclaiming what a bad guy he is and that you need to get rid of him. Next, I think moving Sosa became such a priority publicly (thanks again to the PR job) that Hendry spent far, far too much time trying to do it. Hendry may work hard, and I'm sure he gave the direction of the ballclub plenty of thought last winter. It was the execution, or the plan itself, that was severely lacking. Severely. The plan for moving Sosa, for instance, was fatally flawed from the start. Similarly, the idea that Burnitz was a suitable replacement and that Hollandsworth and Dubois were starters on a championship club were also very bad plans. And again, as I pointed out, you could have brought back Alou with, at worst, minimal impact on the payroll even before December of 2004, with plenty of time left to deal Sosa. So there too was a lack of planning, or a lack of logic, if you prefer,as Hendry publicly stated that it was fear of getting stuck with Both of them led to Alou not coming back. Salary wise, that should not have been the case. *edit #1* Perhaps I shouldn't say "lack of planning", and term it "poor planning and execution". But I think that's splitting hairs in the context of this discussion. *edit #2* I'm not saying I wanted Alou back. At the start of last offseason, I wanted him gone, but in hindsight having him here would have made a very big difference in our season, and the fact that Hendry's logic in not bringing him back was faulty is what I'm criticizing.

This is the same budget that was dictated by the Sosa debacle. There were limited options at the time b/c free agency was coming to an end and all potential options had already been signed. Had the Cubs used any foresight, they would've known if they had to trade Sosa it would've been key to find a RF'er ASAP once they made the decision they were going to trade him instead of few possible options such as Burnitz. Hendry had to sign Burnitz, he had to sign him b/c the Cubs waited so damn long in trading Sosa and deciding not to sign anyone until after the trade was completed likely b/c of budget constraints and potentially eating more than they already did. The flaw isn't in signing in Burnitz, it's waiting till he's the last avail. option. Actually, I think the budgetary concerns were nonexistent. We picked up most of Sosa's salary anyway-did Hendry think he was going to be able to unload all of it on some other team, especially considering the hackjob the Tribune pulled on Sosa. If Sosa's 18m was a hinderance to singing a top flight RF, it would have been a hinderance if he were traded or not, so what's the difference? Beteween Hairston, Burnitz and Sosa's salary we ate, we lost money on that deal. I think the team uses Sosa's trade as an easy out to the question of: Why didn't you sign a FA OF? At the very least they could have brought back Alou. He signed, what, a $7m contract with a $6m option for 2006? The excuse for not bringing him back was that Hendry wasn't sure he could move Sosa, so he didn't want to commit money to Alou just in case. Then he signed Burnitz for $4.5. Hendry couldn't have found an extra 2.5m somewehre in the budget to accomodate that? It's in that chain of events like overpaying for Macias, Perez and, to a lesser extent, Blanco came back to bite Hendry. As irritating as Alou was to us (especially Tim), an Alou/Patterson/Whoever OF would have been light years better than the one we ended up with. At that time, they were coming to an end financially. They had to have known they'd be eating most if not all of his contract. But, the 7 or so mil did help land Burnitz and I don't think they would've been able to if they didn't get Balt. to pay part of Sosa's '05. We ate, IIRC, $13m of the $18.5m of Sosa's 2005. Hairston made $1.8m last season, and Burnitz signed for $4.5m. At best, that's a wash. The budgetary issue is a total red herring for a complete lack of planning from the second the final out occurred against Atlanta last October.

This is the same budget that was dictated by the Sosa debacle. There were limited options at the time b/c free agency was coming to an end and all potential options had already been signed. Had the Cubs used any foresight, they would've known if they had to trade Sosa it would've been key to find a RF'er ASAP once they made the decision they were going to trade him instead of few possible options such as Burnitz. Hendry had to sign Burnitz, he had to sign him b/c the Cubs waited so damn long in trading Sosa and deciding not to sign anyone until after the trade was completed likely b/c of budget constraints and potentially eating more than they already did. The flaw isn't in signing in Burnitz, it's waiting till he's the last avail. option. Actually, I think the budgetary concerns were nonexistent. We picked up most of Sosa's salary anyway-did Hendry think he was going to be able to unload all of it on some other team, especially considering the hackjob the Tribune pulled on Sosa. If Sosa's 18m was a hinderance to singing a top flight RF, it would have been a hinderance if he were traded or not, so what's the difference? Beteween Hairston, Burnitz and Sosa's salary we ate, we lost money on that deal. I think the team uses Sosa's trade as an easy out to the question of: Why didn't you sign a FA OF? At the very least they could have brought back Alou. He signed, what, a $7m contract with a $6m option for 2006? The excuse for not bringing him back was that Hendry wasn't sure he could move Sosa, so he didn't want to commit money to Alou just in case. Then he signed Burnitz for $4.5. Hendry couldn't have found an extra 2.5m somewehre in the budget to accomodate that? It's in that chain of events like overpaying for Macias, Perez and, to a lesser extent, Blanco came back to bite Hendry. As irritating as Alou was to us (especially Tim), an Alou/Patterson/Whoever OF would have been light years better than the one we ended up with. Hendry completely jacked up last winter in nearly every respect. The only thing that saved it was the extension Ramirez signed, and even THAT has an out clause in it after this season! Hendry needs to really play catch up this winter if we're going to maintain our window of opportunity.

No, they wouldn't IMO. Nomar in the OF?... Nomar in the OF is a virtual lock to be a disaster.

cERA is an overrated stat. I've been critical of Barrett's game calling this past season, but he has gotten better at it, and is still a very young catcher.

I can't imagine why the Cubs would want Soriano - the exact opposite of the kind of hitter we need. Because he is the type of player the Cubs seem to covet. Soriano is exactly the kind of player the scout in Hendry would love. Speed and power.

So in a perfect world, Macias and Perez are replaced by Hairston and Cedeno? I like that.

I'm starting to warm up to Furcal. Bottom line is he will help the Cubs win more games than any other available option at SS. Nomar's likely to get hurt again. Cedeno's a good, cheap option, but isn't gonna be on Furcal's level right away. The price tag is scary, but the Cubs can afford to pay it and still fill the other holes on the team. In a perfect world, we could sign Furcal and have Ronny play the Neifi role in 2006 of backup 2B, SS and 3B. Perfect would be a trade for Lugo. Keep him for 1 year, have Ronny play the super IF sub role and then be able to take over SS in 07 with little dropoff. Yeah, that would be better. You're right.

Vance, don't the Cubs have to wait a few weeks before Hendry can begin negotiating for Giles? I thought there is a 2 week window after the WS where current teams have exclusive negotiation rights to their own FAs. :? Right. 14 days after the W.S. As soon as that window opens, though, I'd have my offer ready and pick up the phone. Would you start at 4/50? I wouldn't. I'd be willing to go there no problem, but I wouldn't start there. I would, only because it lets him know we are dead serious about signing him.

I'm starting to warm up to Furcal. Bottom line is he will help the Cubs win more games than any other available option at SS. Nomar's likely to get hurt again. Cedeno's a good, cheap option, but isn't gonna be on Furcal's level right away. The price tag is scary, but the Cubs can afford to pay it and still fill the other holes on the team. In a perfect world, we could sign Furcal and have Ronny play the Neifi role in 2006 of backup 2B, SS and 3B.

Isn't it "play for the tie at home, and the win on the road"?

I think this is a bad decision. They have 2 TO's, Show some confidence in Orton.

Tough run by AP...

clutch throw...

They have RW one on one with Moose.

Sooo...do we have another 90-odd yard drive in us today?

Methinks you're psychic.

Bad Punt.

Because one penalty is for 10 yards and the other is for 15 yards on a dead ball foul... 10-15 = 0 I'm not thinking clearly today.

How is a personal foul offsetting, especially if it's after the fact!?!?

KICK rw OUT OF THE GAME!

If Harrington is coming in, that only means good things for us.