MeatampPotatoesMan

I kinda like Vazquez. 9M is a little tough to swallow, but if they threw in a decent prospect...

We'd have to lock up a legit #3 or better option via trade or FA before I'd let him walk. Yeah, I'd pick up the option.

Free Agents do come here because of Dusty and good clubhouse chemistry, e.g. Eyre. I only hope that carries over to keeping Prior and Zambrano. I can't imagine Dempster being a problem if moved to the setup role. Hendry could always ask him and see if he has a problem with it. If he does, he wouldn't chance pursuing a top notch closer. This isn't going to happen anyway as Hendry has said all he wants is one more right handed arm in the pen (looks like howry is the guy) and said that he wasn't interested in ryan or wagner. he deliberately aimed to snag the 2nd tier FA relievers while other teams were dinking around trying to land the big fish (ryan and wagner). i don't agree with that, but it was shrewd, even if he did overpay for Eyre.

Is Philly really that tough of a sports town? I honestly don't know. Anyone? Anyone? Beuler? NY is absolutely brutal.

still rumor

If the Rangers offered Blalock and Danks, as reported in Dallas, I think that was the much better deal for the Marlins. How was it better? I think it would have been an ok deal too, mostly b/c of Danks. Blalock kind of slumped last year. The Marlins already have a stud 3B by the name of Cabrera (he's moving back to his natural position with the exile of Lowell). Blalock would probably only be moderately cheap for a couple more years until he become FA eligible. Still, he's a nice young player.

I can live with Howry and Eyre. It looks like I'm going to have to. :wink: These moves wouldn't look so bad if they weren't preceeded by Neifi and Rusch getting far more than they're worth. Overpaying for two of the better FA relief pitchers on the FA market isn't a horrible idea, but I would have preferred to go in a different direction (like throwing that money at the offense and starting pitching). Call it complaining if you want to. It's my opinion and I'll say whatever I want, thank you very much. Hopefully we are going to have a stud bullpen next year. It's an expensive pen, but hey, as long as they get it done I won't be complaining midseason. We're going to need them if Prior continues his nibbling and Wood's shoulder acts up.

I see Bruce lurking. Any idea how close the Cubs are to inking Howry? Welcome back from vacation. I hope you had a good time. :D

hence the extra million on his contract (reportedly). :lol:

Beane is hilarious. Sure you can have my centerfielder...if you want to get fleeced.

Do you think the Cubs are an Abreu away from winning the World Series in the next couple years? if you say "no" it's "backward thinking." :roll:

I don't really feel that the chances are too great, considering all our hopes rest on Prior/Wood/Zambrano and not on acquiring an impact bat. If Prior/Wood/Zambrano are all healthy for a full season and produce like we know they can, we don't need Abreu to make the playoffs and potentially win a WS. If they're not all healthy, Abreu isn't going to get us to the WS. That is some extremely backward thinking. Prior Wood and Zambrano were all healthy and effective in 2003, and it led to an 88 win team. Why? Because the offense was mediocre due almost exclusively to the low BB/OBP numbers. If you feel the chances aren't great to capitalize on those guys in the next couple years, then you might as well advocate trading them all. That's pure silliness in my opinion. It's silly to say that the success of 2006 depends on our rotation? Abreu isn't the last piece to the puzzle, so why trade away your best prospect for him? his age is the primary factor, IMO. you're basically trading away the future for a shot at the next two years with Abreu. Zambrano and Prior are going to be re-signed long term and they're both young. it would be nice to win in the next two years, but we have too many holes and too many things that can go wrong (and are likely too, like Wood's arm falling off) to take a chance on Abreu, who isn't a long term solution.

I don't really feel that the chances are too great, considering all our hopes rest on Prior/Wood/Zambrano and not on acquiring an impact bat. If Prior/Wood/Zambrano are all healthy for a full season and produce like we know they can, we don't need Abreu to make the playoffs and potentially win a WS. If they're not all healthy, Abreu isn't going to get us to the WS.

Since we're going hypothetical here, I'm assuming Dunn is available... trade for Dunn trade for Marcus Giles (after Atlanta re-signs Furcal for big $) trade for Pierre (realizing he is a rental and a placeholder for Pie) trade/pilage/kill for another #3 or better SP lineup: CF Pierre 2B Giles 1B Lee RF Dunn 3B Ramirez C Barrett LF Murton SS Cedeno

Pujols hit .329/.403/.610 in his first season, a better OPS+ than Abreu has ever posted in his career. Do you expect those numbers from Pie in his first year in the bigs? Do you expect Pie to be a 30/30 guy with an OBP of 330+? In his first year do you expect pie to have a SLG of even cloes to .500? If so, when do you expect him to be and everyday MLer? Abreu brings all that right now. Abreu is 32 years old. He doesn't have many good seasons left. Pie could bring us a many good seasons at a low price or we can trade him for an under 30 year old impact bat.

Which reliever are you referring to? Eyre, whose contract is 2 yrs + option year, or the pending Howry deal? not specking for CPatterson20, but... Eyre's deal is worse than a 3 year deal. It's a player option for similar $ to the first couple years. The best case scenario is he performs above his paycheck and leaves after 2 years. The worst case scenario is he sucks for 2 years and picks up his option for another crappy year at top dollar.

I meant the difference between having a bp as a whole with just ohman/wuertz and eyre/howry/ohman/wuertz. i didn't think that needed to be spelled out as it is logical (since we already have wuertz and ohman). oh, and i have argued the money and inconsistent track records. =P my point is that money could have been spent elsewhere to better effect as we have plenty of decent arms making the league minimum. if we have to use hill as a LOOGY, so be it. the biggest problem isn't the money. it's the years eyre and howry (supposedly) are getting. we're playing with fire.

That's not what anyone argued. The difference between Ohman/Wuertz and Eyre/Howry isn't worth the millions. That's the arguement. We already have the less expensive options. Who brought Bartosh into this argument? BJ Ryan isn't out for the taking. I agree. That decision was made back when we re-signed Dempster to close. I don't agree with it, especially when we run out and overpay on Eyre and howry, but that was the first domino to fall.

If he gets Dunn, I'll love him long time. The avatar will disappear and JH love will flow freely from my fingers. Until then, I'll judge his offseason on what he's done, not what he might do.

Exactly. No. The Mets will have the top payroll in the NL.

Get over yourself and your armchair opinions. What is the difference between opinion and armchair opinion? you're not a GM. however, the logic of saying you can't criticise a GM's moves also means you can't praise them either. :wink: people are just upset that others disagree with their opinions and try to make out with the holier-than-thou attitude.

Didn't need proof. As recently as two weeks ago, Eyre's agent said they had at least been casually contacted by every team in baseball. There is a premium for effective setup men nowadays, Hendry realizes this, took the bull by the horns, and made sure he got his men (if indeed Howry is signed). For once, I am impressed with Hendry's effort, even if some here are impatient for action at the field positions. Nice to outbid the Yankees for a change. It would have been nice if we outbid them for a difference maker. Where does that article say the Yankees made him an offer? The Cubs were the only team that did. Every team called expressing an interest (including NYY). That's a far cry from giving an offer. Hendry just threw out a number that met Eyre's demands. Typically you low ball them and work up to the player's demands (which are almost always higher than most teams are willing to spend). hendry deserves a pat on the back for that? if that was Giles or Burnett, I wouldn't complain. i could stomach the fact that we overspent on the cream of the crop. since it is Eyre, i think i will lodge a complaint or two. :wink:

We don't have "can't miss prospects," but the overall level of talent of our system is fairly high. Of course that means we might get a lot of minimal contributors at the ML level and no studs. I'm really hoping Murton pans out for us.

I'd say the odds of Ramirez producing @ the star level would be 1/5 Sanchez, 1/9 With that being said, they could've gone after some more proven minor league talent who had remarkable seasons in '05 - and not just a bunch of hype. For that kinda deal, the fish should've gotten at least one major league caliber starter to help them out. Lowell isnt bad....has proven himself before and has that same potential....and Beckett is just entering his prime. Give him some of Moises' urine, and he would've thrown for 220 innings this year. What were the fish supposed to do? Keep Beckett? They can't. He's due the big bucks coming up and they can't afford Willis, Cabrera, and Beckett. One of them was the odd man out, and Beckett and his blisters (and shoulder problems) is the odd man out. They certainly can't afford to trade Beckett for another star due large dollars in the next 2-4 years. it's not the organizations fault the fans in Florida don't show. you may think ramirez has low odds of making it, but the scouts call him a future all-star. :wink:

Oh, he has a plan...and it sucks, IMO. Pitching and more pitching? Yeah, I'm loving the Prior/Z/Maddux/Rusch/whoever rotation we're looking at when Wood spends significant time on the DL next year. Hey, I guess we got some expensive pen arms...where we probably needed the least amount of help considering we have Dempster, Ohman, Wuertz, and Williamson.