back2backjax

You'd rather give rusch more innings to do damage? Who said that? (besides you) Rusch has been more productive in the rotation than the pen. He would probably be more productive in the rotation for the Iowa Cubs, which is where he should be. what i hope tomorrow's transaction line looks like: CHICAGO CUBS - Designate P Glendon Rusch for assignment; purchase the contract of P Angel Guzman from Iowa of the Pacific Coast League.

would we be better served by giving rusch's innings to guzman?

Talking about Jacque Jones: "So far, I like his swing. I haven't seen him on off-speed or breaking balls, but I can tell he can hit that fastball, which is where it starts. If you can hit that fastball, you can hit." Hey Dusty, Pedro Serrano could hit fastballs too, but it took Jobu to help him hit a breaking ball!

so what is a fair deal? if they were willing to give furcal $47M for 5 yrs, is lee worth $60M for 5 yrs? yes, i know he's had just one big time year and that he's 30, but he is also an EXCELLENT defensive first baseman, a good runner and seems to be a good guy in the clubhouse. shouldn't we invest in known quantities than take our chances with finding another quality 1B who can hit for power and average?

it's nice to see an optimistic post instead of all the ones from some self-hating cubs fans. every team goes into the season with question marks but for some reason people on here think only the cubs have "ifs" in 2006. take the yankees - their starting rotation sucks and damon has my arm strength to cover a cavernous CF. do you think anyone in NYC truly feels secure that the yanks are going to the WS? yes, we will need good years from murton, cedeno and whoever plays 2B. we'll also need jacque to get some key hits. he can K all he wants so long as his hits aren't the sammy sosa-type: no runners on or the game long since decided. if the rotation is healthy and howry/eyre don't pull a rojas/hawkins on us, then we'll be good enough that a good deadline deal or two could push us over the edge.

"i'll hit 20-25 homers, somewhere around .300 and drive in 80-90 runs" i'm skeptical, but i think if we got that out of him and no MAJOR injuries occur (i.e. lee, ramirez, pierre, prior, z), the NL central is a realistic goal.

Let me preface my comments by acknowledging that Corey has done nothing in 2004 and 2005 to show he's going to become the player the Cubs once thought he would. There are also questions about his attitude, etc. But given the vengeance that a lot of us direct at Dusty and his staff - whether it's justified or not - should we be giving up on a kid who's only 25, a great defensive CF, has good speed and some pop in his bat for just a mid-to-low level prospect or two? If we're not convinced Dusty is a good coach, would it not make sense to hold onto Corey and see if the next staff can unlock his potential or at least give them a chance to do so? Is it a coincidence that he was off to a great start in Dusty's first year and has gone downhill since? And with his value so low because it's become obvious the Cubs are eager to deal him, why not hold onto him for the first half of 2005 and see how he performs in spot duty in LF or as a pinch runner, and if things don't go well, package him at the break in another deal? I was actually a proponent of giving him the RF job, seeing how he does and then acquiring someone at the break if he's a carbon copy of his 2005 self. )Is Jacque really going to give us $2.5 million more than Corey this season?) These are just some questions I have surrounding him and I hope someone can shed light on why it's so necessary to deal him right now.

i just signed on to the message board, saw we invited augie freakin ojeda to spring training and refunded my dinner onto the floor.

no disrespect intended, but i will take it with a grain of salt. i can't see JH dealing hill, walker and patterson and only ending up with ibanez and clement. frankly, i think it's likely jwill will put up better numbers than clement next season, and at a fraction of the cost.

how many prospects would be acceptable to deal to get tejada? if the orioles decided to keep bedard and leave prior/Z out of the equation in exchange for more prospects, who would you be OK with dealing?

i agree with lefty. i don't see dunn coming to the cubs unless hendry offered a deal that simply could not be matched by anyone else, and frankly i'm not sure dunn is that type of player. he Ks a lot and is not the most sure-handed outfielder around. it would make sense that hendry would try to acquire zito to then spin him off for abreu, but if he were going to do this, why sign jones? i think most of us exprect murton to outproduce jones this season so spending $5M on jones for 3 years when you've got murton cheap makes no sense if you're trying to acquire a RF. as for tejada, i think OO makes an interesting point. stockstill could have orchestrated the cubs rumors to get the red sox to up the ante on their deal.

nothing wrong with ST invite imo. agreed. as long as we're not guaranteeing him anything, i'm cool. but i do worry that he'll perform well enough in ST that dusty will fall in love and screw with murton's time in LF. anyone can catch fire for a few weeks.

says the cubs are second in the tejada talks because they won't part with Z. nothing new there. also reports that grissom will be given a non-guaranteed contract to get a look at him in ST. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-051230cubs,1,515246.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines

wilkerson, huff and michaels aren't exactly season changers. and i've read more things questioning beane for acquiring bradley than praising him. even if bradley turns out OK, you also have to consider two things: 1) dusty met with him and something in that meeting could have raised a red flag with him; 2) colletti and dusty may not be on good terms so colletti may not have been willing to deal a player to us that could have helped. you see a lot of GMs ship guys out of the league so they're not constantly bit by that guy's production. there is obviously a reason huff is still in TB. they may be asking too much for him and hendry could be waiting until midseason when their demands lower or until next offseason when he can sign him without giving up any prospects. i just hate this notion that all this talent was available and hendry didn't get any of it. if this were two years ago when tejada was available for a $7M/yr upgrade over alex gonzalez...then yes, complain out loud about his inability to land a big time FA. but wilkerson, michaels and huff and far from big name FAs.

a lot of people on here are complaining that hendry didn't land a big bopper, etc., but i ask WHO SHOULD HE HAVE LANDED? how many big bopping LF, RF and SS have been available this offseason? he went after furcal hard but chose not to overpay for him and i'm glad he didn't. i don't think furcal is worth $12.5 million more than cedeno. so i ask, what LF or RF should hendry have gotten? yes, he is involved in the tejada talks, but it's not like he can snap his fingers and add tejada without giving up something significant in return. is anyone on this board comfortable with Z being exchanged for tejada? i'm not saying he's done a great job, but some on here act like his job was as simple as going to the grocery store to pick up a SS, LF and RF. face it, this year's crop of FAs wasn't that great.

espn is reporting he's more upset with the Os. but it also looks like the red sox have the inside track by offering manny and clement.

agreed, but i'd rather get .275/30/90+ and some Ks from soriano than .260/8/45 from neifi. It's a choice between bad and worse. I'd rather keep Prior and deal with Soriano than have a bad pitchign staff and a slightly better offense. for the record...i never advocated trading prior. i said deal corey, williams and prospects. at least this way bowden gets something for the soriano trade since it's obvious he wont have a W on his hat in 2007. maybe the cubs can dangle 2B in front of him and get an extension signed. my feeling is this: go to battle with prior, z, wood, maddux and whoever else can get guys out and see what's going on at the deadline. in no way should a 25yo star pitcher be traded for a 30yo SS (whose production may decline a bit with the switch in leagues).

burnitz getting $5/$6M per for years from the orioles makes me want to piss my pants laughing. and cubs fans thought we overpaid for jacque jones. at least jones still has time to spike up for a year or three, burnitz is clearly in the autumn of his career and only hit .258 last year while being protected for much of the year by aramis ramirez. his agent should immediately be nominated for agent of the year!

agreed, but i'd rather get .275/30/90+ and some Ks from soriano than .260/8/45 from neifi.

depending on what we'd have to part with, i like this idea. imagine how the offense would look if we got a .275 avg and 25-30 homers from 2B? also consider the speed factor...with pierre in CF, murton in LF, jones in RF, soriano at 2B, lee at 1B and cedeno at SS, that's 6 out of 8 positions with above average speed that can steal bases. whether or not dusty uses this speed properly is another story. let's offer corey, williams and wellemeyer or a higher prospect if we're able to reach a longer term deal with soriano so he's not just a 1 yr rental.

thank u orioles, for wanting the cubs to be good in 2006.

six man rotation???

all we can hope for is that the orioles save us from ourselves.

ok, so here are the attractive FAs (at least to me) that are unrestricted: IF > aubrey huff - why give up prospects for him when we can have him in a year for nothing? > ronnie belliard - live with walker this year and sign belliard next > julio lugo - or, if JH wants lugo so bad, sign lugo next year and move cedeno to 2B COF > carlos lee > jay gibbons > shannon stewart RHSP > jon garland > jose contreras > kelvim escobar > adam eaton LHSP > barry zito > mark mulder doesn't look like next year's crop will be that exciting unless some teams move in different directions and/or decide to trade guys ahead of FA after 2007.

I may be a little off' date=' but I believe the salaries above ARE NOT guaranteed by the Cubs beyond 2006. Of course certain players will be due raises etc., but the team should have $25-30 million to spend on FAs in 2007. [/quote'] Dempster, Rusch, Perez and Jones are all under contract past 2006. duly noted. good catch. ok, so who can tell us what FAs will be out there for the 07 season?