MeatampPotatoesMan

haha, smartass.

Hendry will give him 1 million more per season than any other team offers. Bank on it. Actually, I think San Diego will give him 1m more than what the Cubs are willing to offer. Bank on it. Hopefully.

Hendry will give him 1 million more per season than any other team offers. Bank on it.

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug.

shhh, we're dreaming. it helps numb the pain Hendry will eventually deliver to our doorsteps. :wink:

Michael Young? Yes, please. will he play 2B or SS?

Agreed - with Prior, Wood, Zambrano, Maddux, Williams, Rusch, Hill, Mitre, Guzman and possibly Pinto the Cubs have enough options for SP. The offense is where the upgrade is required. Hendry needs to find a way to make a deal for a stud RF along the lines Abreu or Dunn because personally I don't think Giles will come here unless the Cubs overpay in dollars and years and that is not Hendry's MO. Prior and Z are pretty solid bets to dominate barring a freak injury. Wood will spend significant time on the DL. Maddux will be even worse than in '05. Williams and Rusch play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Hill doesn't have the major league experience to count on when our rotation is trimmed by injuries and poor performance. Guzman can't stay healthy. Pinto is unproven. We need a reasonably dependable starter, preferably of #3 quality or better. Z, Prior, Maddux, Williams, Rusch isn't a great rotation.

I'm sure I could find more examples of my own bitching, but here is one I just dug up: viewtopic.php?t=18057&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=hollandsworth+burnitz&start=60 Dude, Hendry needs to give you a call. His crystal ball is broken.

If we're going to take a chance on talent over injury and throw money down a hole, I want Burnett.

yup. it was his throwing shoulder. rotator cuff tendinitis.

he missed 86 games with a shoulder injury.

our 2005 starting day OF was a joke. anyone who thought differently was entirely too optimistic. cpat might have been expected to have a good season, but LF and RF were a shambles.

wow, that's some bs. as a cubs fan i love it, but man, that's the emotional equivalent of extending Dustbag for 2 years. brutal.

Ok so who should he have signed? Beltan? Lowe? Pavano? Let's face it, last offseason looked promising on paper, but most of them have been busts. And expensive busts at that. I'm d#$@ grateful we didn't get tied down to someone who can't hold their weight now. EDIT: I'm sure glad we got rid of Sosa somehow though. He would have been a nightmare in RF this year. Let Walker walk and sign Kent... Let Nomar walk and sign Eckstein. Deal off Sosa and sign Dye instead of Burnitz and the Cubs offence would have been quite good. Howevah, I'm sure most were thrilled w/ bringing back Walker and Nomar last offseason. Yet they want to nitpick once things don't pan and disregard that their boys (Walker & Nomar) were the big reasons for failure. It's funny that they want to bring both back too! Walker wasn't a big reason for our failure in 2005. Nomar maybe, but the OF doomed us. not having offensive production from SS is a staple on most MLB teams. the freak show that was our OF was a disgrace.

No, we can afford an $8-10M SS easily. But, for the added O that he brings per dollar, you can more easily make that up in the OF for less money. We have so many holes that we need to be frugal (on a 100M team, lol) where we spend it. SS really isn't that important of a position offensively. I won't cry if we get Furcal and not Brian Giles, but I'd rather have Giles than Furcal. I can't see us affording both and Giles would be much more valuable offensively for the dollar (especially in front of DLee and ARam).

He has no power and limited range. I like his plate discipline, but we need a big bat in RF. No power? He had a .553 SLG this year and a nearly .250 IsoP. yeah, i'm wrong. where did this power come from anyways? he never hit above .500 SLG in the minors (or his first year in Arizona). the most HRs he had in a season was 10 before this year. was 2005 an aberration?

:lol: ](*,)

Exactly how is putting on of your top OBP guys leading off, being stupid? Also how do you figure a guy with a .348 OBP is overrated as a leadoff hitter. And -- you consider 46SB's a few more than Cedeno will have, how? Furcal is one of the top five NL leadoff hitter consistently over the last three years, and plays a difficult position with exceptional skill. I realize that Cedeno may be a good/decent starting SS someday, but to say that Furcal is worthless or overrated is just plain uninformed. Judging by the Cub's positional player moves i.e. Bobby Hill, Choi, Brendan Harris, etc., they do seem to have a handle on which players they believe will succeed and which ones they should salvage in a trade. Furcal has a 3/4 SB/CS ratio. That's slightly above break even. you can generate the same number of runs by having someone steal on easy counts 4-5 times a year. That's the value of his stolen bases...not much at all. That's why I call him overrated. As far as defense goes, he was Mr. Error in '02 and '03. you're assuming his defense this year (which was way above career norms for him) is going to continue. It's not. This year was an aberration. If you want to compare him to a known quantity on defense, look no further than our own Neifi Perez, who has a better ZR, FPCT, RF, and less errors per start at SS. You are overrating his defense. No, .348 OBP isn't bad, but isn't spectacular either. It's definitely nothing to throw 8-10 million at when we have the same player OBP-wise in Todd Walker (actually walker is a few points better) for 2.5 million. No, saying Furcal is overrated is not uninformed. I didn't say he sucked. I said people's opinions of him were wrong. The problem I have with your argument is that you have to stretch the statistics to make your point. For instance your argument on SB, You claim: . Over the last 3 years Furcal has attempted 118 SBs and got caught 18 Times!!! That is an 85% success ratio, which is alot different than what you claim. Nobody is arguing that Walker shouldn't be playing in this thread and last time I checked Walker played 2b and Furcal played SS, don't see a conflict there. What is wrong with having two guys that get on base at a .350 clip batting 1st and 2nd? With Lee and Ramirez following those 2, it would make for a pretty decent 1 - 4. I hope you aren't insinuating that Neifi is a bad defensive SS? Problem with relying solely on statistics is that you have no clue under what situations those errors were made. Where they made after he got to a ball that most SS wouldn't have gotten to? How many plays did he make that other SS wouldn't have made? Will he benefit with having DLee at 1b? Yes, I know what Furcal's SB% is. It's still only slightly above the break even point. I don't need to stretch stats to make that argument. If he was anywhere near 90%, I'd pay extra to get him, but he's not. He's regressed in that department anyways, going from 92.6%, 82.9%, to 82.1% the last three years and that will continue to regress as he gets older. BTW, his career SB% is 78%, so I didn't skew his numbers. There's nothing wrong having two guys batting 1 and 2 with around .350 OBP. It is a problem when you're paying one guy 2.5 million to do it and the other 10 million. The only difference between the two players is defense and stolen bases. 7.5 million isn't worth that, especially when we have a better defensive option (neifi for sure and cedeno is debateably better) in house. the stolen bases certainly aren't worth much. he runs himself into outs, which is the most expensive thing you can do when you're trying to score runs. lol, i don't know what kind of situations his errors came in? they usually came on throwing errors from what i've seen, or just flat out bobbling the ball (i watch the braves on TBS every chance i get). it doesn't have much to do with his "extra range." if he is making errors on the fringe of his range, then he shouldn't be throwing the ball, just holding onto it. throwing it into the seats isn't good (he basically negates whatever SB he gets by giving the other team an extra base on an errant throw). Yes, furcal will benefit from having DLee at 1B. Who wouldn't? Cedeno would benefit just as much as furcal would in that department, so i'm not sure what your argument is. Furcal isn't a bad player, but he is one of the favorites of scouts based on "tools" instead of looking at just how much his production helps the team. He is overvalued. I can't beleive I'm saying this, but I'd rather have Neifi at SS (batting 8th of course, lol) and Walker/Murton going 1/2. We can make up production in the OF with the large amount of $ saved by not getting Furcal.

Exactly how is putting on of your top OBP guys leading off, being stupid? Also how do you figure a guy with a .348 OBP is overrated as a leadoff hitter. And -- you consider 46SB's a few more than Cedeno will have, how? Furcal is one of the top five NL leadoff hitter consistently over the last three years, and plays a difficult position with exceptional skill. I realize that Cedeno may be a good/decent starting SS someday, but to say that Furcal is worthless or overrated is just plain uninformed. Judging by the Cub's positional player moves i.e. Bobby Hill, Choi, Brendan Harris, etc., they do seem to have a handle on which players they believe will succeed and which ones they should salvage in a trade. Furcal has a 3/4 SB/CS ratio. That's slightly above break even. you can generate the same number of runs by having someone steal on easy counts 4-5 times a year. That's the value of his stolen bases...not much at all. That's why I call him overrated. As far as defense goes, he was Mr. Error in '02 and '03. you're assuming his defense this year (which was way above career norms for him) is going to continue. It's not. This year was an aberration. If you want to compare him to a known quantity on defense, look no further than our own Neifi Perez, who has a better ZR, FPCT, RF, and less errors per start at SS. You are overrating his defense. No, .348 OBP isn't bad, but isn't spectacular either. It's definitely nothing to throw 8-10 million at when we have the same player OBP-wise in Todd Walker (actually walker is a few points better) for 2.5 million. No, saying Furcal is overrated is not uninformed. I didn't say he sucked. I said people's opinions of him were wrong.

He has no power and limited range. I like his plate discipline, but we need a big bat in RF.

That's good news. I don't want Furcal.

I believe that the Cubs have a club option for 2007 and unless he has an awful season or another major injury I can't see them not exercising the option. No way they let a guy that talented walk. The option is for 13.5 million with a 3 mil buyout. He would have to have one heck of a year to justify $13.5 million. Unless he's changed his mechanics, he'll probably be back on the DL and it won't be too hard of a decision. Just to put this into perspective, San Francisco exercised Jason Schmidt's 10.5 million option for next season. That's how much teams value talent over performance (his ERA was 4.40, WHIP 1.42 this last year).

You want to pay Furcal 8-10M per season for a few steals (his SB percentage isn't that spectacular...slightly above break even point), barely above average OBP, and a drinking problem? I'll take Senor Cedeno as my starting SS if I can't have Nomar. Forget Mr. Overrated (Furcal). We'd be better off batting Walker leadoff. Why throw away 8-10 million dollars that we can use on the OF, bullpen, and another starting pitcher? Because he is a proven leadoff hitter? Sorry, but Atlanta was stupid to have him lead off. Furcal's OBP isn't anything fantastic and Walker will put up better numbers for millions less. We should be putting high OBP 1 and 2, not speed.

so, basically we're going to have the same rotation as last year? brilliant.

DePo is officially gone. Whoever steps in is bound to succeed. If they don't, they don't deserve to be a GM ever again. That farm system is beyond stocked with talent...and their major league club isn't bad either, when healthy.