davell

I took his comments to mean that he basically wants to see some improvements made before he commits another year to the Cubs. I'm quite sure he won't get more money than what he'd get from us next year, but if there is a 3rd base job open that he'd like on a team he deems a contender, I could see him taking less money to go there. And I Wwouldn't blame him, because it doesn't really appear as if we're going to be a contender next year and in the Cubs perfect world, Vitters would be their 3B in 2012.

Actually, it's Todd, not Tom. Nice catch. I really don't think Todd Ricketts would need a disguise. Yeah, I kind of thought the same thing. Tom is the only one I'd recognize anyway.

Actually, it's Todd, not Tom.

I think Archer, Guyer, and Chirinos are all 100% keepers. I'd venture to say Cabrera is likely kept, same with Smith. I certainly think Smith would be taken if he were exposed and could probably make an entire season on a major league roster. Hell, I'd put it at 50/50 he spends the year on OUR major league roster next year. I'm thinking our IF backups next year could be Chirinos, Smith, and Barney, all of who can play multiple positions, which provides some value in itself. It won't surprise me if we sign a vet, knocking one of these guys off, but if we are truly money crunching, this may be the way we go.

By no means do I think Chirinos has ANY trade value at this point, but I do think he'll be a solid backup for us next year. Plus, he at least does have added value because he can play more than just C. He could be a late bloomer, who knows? But, I'm not upset he's not called up right now, it just doesn't matter to me if we see him or Castillo get 10 at bats or so at the major league level over the rest of the season. Personally, I think Chirinos wins our backup role next year, but we'll find out in ST...... As for Marquez Smith, same thing applis to him as it does to Chirinos. No trade value, but he'll get his true shot to win a job in ST. Snyder won't get much chance either, but I think he's a legit option to be our 5th OFer next year. Especially if we go out and make a splashy trade/signing or more. We're going to have to fill in with cheap minimum salary types at quite a few spots.

With the year Soriano has had, (better than Marmol's) he's in line for a VERY nice payday to be someone's closer. My guess is we'd have to overpay quite a bit to get him to take a setup position. And I don't want to have our setup guy making over 10 mill a year personally. There's enough quality relievers out there this offseason that Hendry should wait around and see who is still sitting out there in January and sign someone on the cheap for once, instead of setting the market for these guys. If that doesn't work, we've got enough guys around right now to fashion an average pen anyway, if you ask me.

There's definitely going to be some logjams for some of the squads pitching-wise next year, but the main thing to keep an eye on, is who has to move off a position at Tennessee next year between Vitters, Flaherty, LeMahieu, and Lake. My guess is we'll see some combo of Lake and LeMahieu at 2B/SS and Flaherty being moved to either LF or possibly just a flatout utility guy who finds a way to be in the lineup almost every game.

With a man on first and one out yesterday, Castro hit into a fielder's choice. But, he then left first and headed for the dugout, thinking it was the third out of the inning, hence being called out of the baseline, even though there was no play at first. A day off can't exactly hurt things, but more than one seems excessive, if you ask me.

Get less crappy? I think if you go out and get a Dunn or someone better to man 1st base, and a solid arm or two, and some bench help than I don't think you really need to go out and "rebuild". With guys like Zambrano, Aramis, and Fukudome proving that they aren't completely worthless if they just play even close to their career norms the cubs have a chance to be decent next year. The thing I'm most concerned about is the rotation. Do you go out and get a top of the line starter or just maybe an innings eater and hope Z and Demp can be a good enough 1/2 for us? In my opinion, we DEFINITELY need a front of the rotation type starter. Dempster is not a one, under any circumstance and neither is Z. Over the course of a full season, I can see them as a 2 and a 3, but that's about it. We can't count on Silva having the same season he had this year and I'm not sold on Gorz or Wells personally, although I may be in the minority on that one.

Yeah, it goes without saying that Raisin and O_O do a phenomenal job here. Thanks a ton, seriously and to everyone here actually, because I doubt a single morsel of something to do with our farm system can't be found here.......

I can't remember why we missed out on Matt Capps(I think it was the refusal to offer a 2nd year?) but I can't help but think if we HAD signed him, Andrew Cashner would be in a rotation somewhere right now, whether it would be Chicago or Iowa may be up for debate, but I think this is the ONE time I would have been happy with Hendry actually paying solid money for a bullpen arm, in retrospect....... As it stands though, I'd have to figure Hendry goes out and sets the market again this offseason with a very early signing of some sort of right handed set up guy.Hopefully not though, because there actually seems to be a very solid amount of right handed relievers who are decent out there for once. If we HAVE to sign one, I'd like to see Hendry wait it out and get a guy who is basically running out of options at that point. But, if we didn't sign a single guy for the pen, I'd be perfectly fine with it. We've got enough guys that have the ability to fill bullpen roles, that I'd take the odds of us finding 2-3 from our system anyway........

Hence, the reason I put "potential" in front of that. But, I do think he's young enough to get better and leaving the AL East should help quite a bit as well.

So, what are we thinking Hendry THINKS we need? A lefty power hitter at 1B seems fairly predictable and I suspect we'll wind up with Dunn or Pena, possibly AGON, if he's actually made available(I doubt it personally). But, what else? You think Hendry goes on the look out for a speedy leadoff hitter again? Unfortunately, I do. Maybe some semblance of a Figgins for Fukudone swap with some money coming back to us near the end of the deal? I could see it happening anyway, not that I'd like it. Does Hendry think we need an ace or at least a front of the rotation type starter? I sure hope so. I don't see Cliff Lee in our sites or in our price range, so he's out, in my opinion. But, how about Greinke? 2/27 isn't bad for his talent level. But, would we want him over a Matt Garza? He'll be hitting his 2nd year of arbitration, probably making somewhere around 6 mill or so and doesn't have the issues Greinke possibly could either.......Not sure what Tampa would be wanting for him, but since they're supposedly going to be cutting payroll, he's rumored to be on the block. Doing the math, by signing Dunn(backloaded a tad, as usual), trading for Garza, and Hendry going after Figgins and getting him(saves us money next year actually) we'd be looking right at 130 mill, with no other moves. Other than the nontendering of Hill, Baker, and Guzman. A lineup of this: 2B FIGGINS SS CASTRO 3B RAMIREZ 1B DUNN CF BYRD RF COLVIN LF SORIANO C SOTO with a rotation of this GARZA DEMPSTER ZAMBRANO SILVA/WELLS GORZELANNY You'd have Chrinos or Castillo as your BU C, DeWitt as your BU 3B, Barney as your BU 2B/SS, with probably Snyder as one of the BU OF'ers and in need of another still. Your pen would have Marmol, Marshall, Cashner(who I'm convinced won't be given another shot at starting) Grabow, Samardzija, Russell, loser of Wells/Silva, plus one or maybe more of the plethora of arms potentially ready that have already made appearances in the majors, or possibly one of David Cales, Jay Jackson, or Chris Carpenter.......Of course, to get Garza, I could see us giving up Cashner and one of Jay Jackson or Carpenter possibly. If that's the case, maybe we go out and sign one of the closers out of this year's FA class, you can't find a job closing....... Anyway, we save around 15 mill off this year's payroll, add a bigtime power guy in Dunn and a potential bigtime SP in Garza. Don't like the Figgins move, but it saves us some cash THIS season and at least he'd be able to play multiple positions.......It's the best I can think of anyway, to where we are lowering the payroll down somewhat anyway.

So long to Lou, although putting someone else in charge could make us play harder. On the other hand, it could mean that we're going to play rookies from here on out and Lou didn't want to do that? Technically, I guess it's possible anyway. I thought it was weird how they handled Trammell. Not sure if he wanted it to come out that way and he's a complete lame duck at this point. I'm not so sure Ryno is a lock to come here though. I don't think the Yankees would really care all that much if they lost Girardi personally. They can go get Donnie Baseball from the Dodgers if they want to. In the end, since it's an open competition, I'm putting my vote behind Freddie Gonzalez, followed by Bobby V. Then, I guess I'd want Girardi, if we don't have to give him some megadeal to leave New York.

Greta news for McNutt and Carpenter, they both deserve it. McNutt is definitely on the fast track. It's quite an accomplishment to go through Peoria AND Daytona and wind up in Tennessee all in the same year. As far as who gets promoted to Daytona(congrats to Kirk as well, another deserving promotion) my guess would be Wallach. And on the off chance they shut Rhee down for the rest of the season, Struck could move up as well.

Feel sorry for him why? He made his own bed. If he was satisfied with being great rather than obsessed with being the best (and specifically focused on one-upping Sosa and McGwire), his HOF ticket would've been guaranteed. To me anyway, the fact that he got caught up in having to be the best IS what I'm sorry for, I guess. He was a 500/500 guy most likely without the roids and would have gone down as one of the all time greats. But, seeing other guys passing him was too much for him to handle. Especially 2 guys like McGwire and Sosa, who weren't HOF caliber players without the juice most likely.

Archer is at 89 pitches thru 6(57 strikes) so I'm figuring he's done. Very solid outing, other than the homer and a few less K's than what we like to see from him. :D 6IP 4H 2R 2ER 1BB 3K

Obviously, we have ZERO idea as to when a player started using or how long he used for. That said, even though Bonds was a gigantic douche, part of me feels sorry for him, since he would have been a HOFer with or without the roids, in all likelihood. Since it appears at least that he didn't start juicing until Bonds and Sosa started with the 60 homer seasons.

Rhee gave up 2 more runs somehow(maybe there was a HBP) and Siegfried gave up 6 more to allow a 12 spot in the 1st.

Well, that will keep him under 50 innings and he'll be a ROY contender in 2011 anyway. I think I'd probably find a way to keep him IN the rotation though and make someone else move to the oen personally.

Rhee pitched one third of an inning, giving up 4 hits, 4 runs, all earned and a walk before being replaced by Siegfried. He's still responsible for one more run. Archer gave up a 2 run homer in the first, but right now stands at 4IP 4H 2R 2ER 0BB 2K.

Oh well, even we can't lose them all.

They still have the 9th anyway.......On the other hand, screw us for not stretching out Cashner. He's not exactly been looking great as a reliever, to say the least.

Eh?? I guess I'm figuring those guys as being the vets that are disappointed in the team's direction. Plus, I'm also figuring in Soriano and Ramirez' recent comments. Soriano about possibly playing 1B and Ramirez saying he doesn't have time to go through a rebuild at his age. Plus, I just count Z since he's considered to be the clubhouse cancer guy of the year anyway..... :lol: I'm not figuring Byrd as a guy who would show himself as disgruntled, even if he is disappointed. Same with Dempster. But, I could most certainly be wrong and that whole part of my original post was totally presumptious to begin with. I guess I just figured with Bruce's comments about tensions being high in the lockerroom and some of the recent comments, that this was probably happening. That said, I DEFINITELY don't know that this is the case. Maybe just kind of hoping, so we can finish out as poorly as possible. :D Dempster was specifically mentioned in the story about the disgruntled clubhouse. Lee was his best friend on the team. Cool. I'm all for the disgruntled at this point, no matter who it is.

Which of these guys would hurt baseball more if we found out they used steroids? Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr, Greg Maddux, or Cal Ripken Jr?