MeatampPotatoesMan

I love Dunn, but dream on...

I've never booed a Cub. I don't like several of our players as players, but booing goes beyond commenting on performance. If the guy just beat up a hospital room of cancer patients and went 0 for 5 with 4 Ks...well, then maybe. Get behind this team? Of course. * * Dusty and Hendry aren't part of the "team" IMO, they're saboteurs.

just outta curiosity, where did you read this? i didn't know he had the ability to hit 99 to begin with. if that's true, this is outstanding. His fastball was 90-96 mph when healthy. I'd really like for him to be healthy this season. If that happens he'll be in the show.

It's pretty easy when all you have to do is spend a ton of money on long term contracts.

That's good news. I'm hoping Hendry "gets stuck with" Walker. He's far and away our best offensive 2B. Defense shmeefense. :D

When I think firesale, I think of teams dumping salaries to save money. Pittsburgh sent some cash along in that deal, so I don't think it's fair to say that Hendry took advantage of a firesale in that instance. The trade was a pure salary dump. The cash going the Cubs way was a small amount (<< $1M). The Pirates didn't have to pay the remainder of the 3M due Ramirez that year or the 6M for the next season. Lofton at 1M (up to 1.5M in incentives) was also a sizable amount. Considering that the cash going the cubs way was way less than 1M, let's not go praising Hendry for getting some cash and thereby making a fleecing out of a salary dump. The cash sent the cubs way was about the same amount as the difference in Lofton's and Hernandez's salaries. The Cubs were not the only team to make lopsided deals with the Pirates that season. Scott Sauerbeck and Mike Williams were dealt for used jockstraps. That is what makes what the Pirates did a firesale. Hendry does deserve all the credit in the world for putting together the package to get Ramirez/Lofton, rather than letting them slip by. Great job, Jim. I'm just saying that the ARam/Lofton deal wasn't the fleecing everyone thinks it is only b/c it is was a firesale. In the Hawkins deal I thought Hendry was dealing from the position of least advantage and pulled off a lopsided deal in our favor. I expected a used jockstrap for Hawkins after the way he pitched.

Everything I have heard has said that as soon as Wood is back Williams will likely be the one moved out of the rotation. Yeah, I've gotten that impression too. I'm just wondering why Williams is the odd man out when he's better than Rusch and a good deal cheaper. I guess he has value, unlike Rusch, lol.

I think Williams/Aardsma for Hawkins was the best midseason fleecing. Hawkins's value had tanked and Hendry still got a quality player (Williams) and a project in return. Getting ARam and company is less of a "great move" as all Hendry did is take advantage of a firesale in Pittsburgh. There's no doubt the inequality of player calibers exchanged in those deals favors the ARam deal, but that is no surprise. It's usually not a "fleecing" if it's a firesale.

Why would Rusch be starting over Williams anyway? I'm assuming neither is traded or injured to start the season. ...b/c Rusch sucks in the pen? That's a great reason to put him in the rotation, lol.

The likelihood of Cedeno bombing is quite high (over the course of a full MLB season). He just doesn't walk enough. He doesn't have the power to make up for the hit in OBP even if he does manage to hit .280 (unlikely). With the crappy OF we have, taking an offensive hit at SS is going to hurt that much more. I can't wait to see Neifi in the every day lineup again. You think the Cubs paid Neifi 2M+/year to ride the pine or "compete" for a 2B job with Hairston/Walker/whoever? Hendry knows Ronny isn't a sure thing. It's sad that plan B is Neifi again, especially when the odds of plan B going into effect are high.

hey, at least we "got out of the gate" well. :roll:

i agree with you're ideas here, except that corey isnt a good hitter, we saw glimpses of what he could be if left alone with his abilities in 2003... .298BA, .320OBP, .511SLG.corey was over coached and forced into roles he was never meant to play, it screwed with his approach so much that he just lost it New roles shouldn't mean that plate discipline (if he ever had it) goes out the window. Strike zone recognition shouldn't change that much depending on the hole you are in. He's always been a free swinger and if you get down in the count like he often does, it's no wonder that he bombed. Pitchers found a gaping hole and exploited it with 2 strikes (high fastball). His inability to adjust to that one pitch is baffling. His success in '03 was also in only 329 AB.

Hendry is a moran. There's your explanation.

*rips rjchapma apart* just kidding. i agree that it seems prudent to wait until Pierre performs a little before offering him a long term deal.

Cause the arbitration process is based on service time. Comparing arbitration guys to free agents isn't remotely fair. I'm completely with Hendry on this one. You have to make an example at some point otherwise, players (knowing that the Cubs won't go to arbitration) will keep pusing up their requests knowing they'll just get the halfway point anyways. Arbitration money and free agent money are worth the same. I don't see how willingly throwing away millions of dollars is a different ballgame than worrying about a couple of hundred thousand for a guy who actually deserves it. One could pretty easily make the case that budging on arbitration numbers for a guy making less than a million isn't going to hurt the team nearly as much as the kinds of free agent contracts Hendry has signed in the past couple of years. The difference to the organization was chump change. I guess team chemistry isn't that valuable after all. :lol:

Do you know the specifics? At least on Pierre? Pierre agreed to a one year $5.75M deal (halfway between what Cubs offered and he wanted). Ohman agreed to a one year $610k deal (less than halfway between what Cubs offered and he wanted).

You can't please everyone. A run in or two was due sooner or later, but the Clement situation was pretty ridiculous. It is pretty stupid to potentially piss a guy off b/c of a few thousand bucks when you just threw away 5M on Rusch and Neifi (just for '06). It's pretty selectively "fair" to get caught up in the "principle" of the thing when guys are pretty much indentured servants until they hit FA (looking at market value).

lets trade some prospects for Graffanino. you can never have too much depth.

if we're "trading him for crap" in the future, we're going to be eating some $$ as well. he's left his cheap years far behind, unlike Patterson. ever heard of negative value? the only reason CPat brought anything is age and potential. if he was Jones' age, we couldn't have given him away. How did the baseball world value Jermaine Dye this time last year? About the same way it did Jones this year. Don't look now, but Dye's being rumored to be a key piece of a deal for Bobby Abreu. Any reason why the Jones signing is such a sure bet to turn out so much worse than the Dye signing? Heck maybe come July, we'll all be talking about Jones and Miller/Williams/Guzman/Hill/whatever for Abreu. What are the odds on Jones kicking it up 3 notches like Dye did? ...and being on a winning team that gets him a lot of good pub driving up his value? not good. we can play make believe if you want, but the Jones signing was bad. it was so bad that we're reduced to conjuring up hypothetical scenarios involving increased trade value in the future just to make us feel better.

I find it fascinating that fans think they have any inkling of how much work or preparation Hendry does. Don't you think you should have more than just the tip of the iceberg showing to make that sort of judegment? It's just that option C was far worse than option A for Hendry. It usually is worse, but there's no reason to shoot yourself in the foot with a 3 year deal to Jones.

The fact that the Cubs gave Jones 3 years/$15 mil, and the Astros inked Preston Wilson, who's basically a right-handed version of Jones with more power, for 1 year/$4 million, doesn't make me happy. Plugging a hole with a mediocre player for one year is fine if you can't land an impact player. It gives you the ability to go after better options the following offseason. Handcuffing yourself with a three-year deal for a mediocre player isn't a smart move. If he's bad, you can always trade him, but you'll get crap in return. I would have preferred a deal for Mench over this. Hell, I wouldn't even complain that loudly about a one-year deal for Jones. But three years is just stupid, when a player who is very similar offensively gets one year at less per year. How is giving Wilson a 1-year deal and then letting him walk superior to giving Jones 3 years, but trading him after one (even if for crap)? It's the same principle that was behind tendering Patterson and then trading him for scraps. Scraps are better than nothing at all. if we're "trading him for crap" in the future, we're going to be eating some $$ as well. he's left his cheap years far behind, unlike Patterson. ever heard of negative value? the only reason CPat brought anything is age and potential. if he was Jones' age, we couldn't have given him away.

I'm usually forced to mute ESPN's baseball coverage, but hey, the pictures are pretty.

:lol:

Contreras and Dye for Abreu? Where does Kenny Williams sign? Hey, how about they throw in Floyd too. :?

Blanco is worth $1.5M IMO, but the rest is wasteful. How is Walker wasteful? If he's not starting this year, I'd agree. But overall, 2.5 mil for Walker is a solid price. Walker isn't wasteful by himself, but paying 2.5M+ for each of our 2B is (all 3 of them, lol).