davell

It does have something to do with what he'll get. The fact that he's asking for $3.4 million likely isn't what's annoying Hendry. It's probably that he's unwilling to negotiate from it. Hendry has always avoided arbitration by finding a point in the middle of the club's offer and the player's demands. It appears that Theriot won't budge from what he's asking, though. If it goes to arbitration, it'll be the first time a player has gone to arbitration under Hendry and one of the two numbers will be selected. So Theriot's asking price has a lot to do with this. I'll clarify what I meant by that statement actually. Just because Theriot is ASKING for 3.4 this year, doesn't mean he'll be getting 5 mill next year or 10 mill as his 3rd arb year. I really see him losing his case this year personally anyway. And when I saw the numbers exchanged, I thought 2.6 was very fair and I think Hendry SHOULD stick to his guns on this one. I agree with you that Hendry has to be steamed though, since it appears as if Theriot isn't budging from his figure at all. But, it also seemed like Hendry thought the 2.6 figure was extremely fair as well, if I can remember what Bruce had blogged.(could be mistaken, but I got the impression that neither side was going to give in this time)Either way though, Jim has always taken pride in not having to go to arbitration with anyone and this seems destined to do just that. And it probably steams Jim even more that it's Theriot, who has always kind of seemed like a "teachers pet" to Hendry and Lou, at least to me. In the end, I think that the wall is being written on as we speak and ironically, 2010's goat will be Theriot. Castro should be ready by 2011, if not sooner and this could just be the early start of unceremoniously dumping Theriot for next to nothing over the next offseason, or even non-tendering him possibly. It's the Cub way to make guys look bad when they're on the way out the door in most cases and I'm starting to think that this is the start of a year long Theriot bash in the infant stages......

What he asked for has nothing to do with what he'll get though. I don't really think that he'll get 3.4 from arbitration this year. But, unless Theriot wins the lottery, there's no way in hell he's EVER making 10 million in a single season.

source? I could definitely see them trying to trade him, but they wouldn't let him go for nothing. Not over $3.4MM. That was in Bruce's blog actually. Just that they expect this one to go to arbitration is all.

Crap, thought that looked kind of odd. :wink:

Granted this is AFTER 2010, but I was browsing through some of Az Phil's stuff and came across the list of guys we may have to protect or possibly lose after this year. He also has an organizational depth chart, that appears to be a guess on where guys will start the 2010 season.(probably a good discussion for here as well actually, as I'd like to see where we think guys will start off) At any rate, I would think that the fact some of these guys WILL need to be kept and we may not have the room for them, may make some of these guys more likely to be dealt midseason possibly. Or, if they don't continue their progress, we can just keep them them and be disappointed with their play. :( Here's a partial list of guys, basically the ones that I think MAY have to be evaluated, or at least have a cchance to make us have to evaluate them anyway. Chris Archer Darwin Barney Kyler Burke Matthew Spencer Scott Maine James Russell Matt Camp Marquez Smith Alexander Maestri Steve Clevenger Brandon Guyer Tony Thomas Robert Hernandez Craig Muschko Chris Huseby Jeremy Papelbon Alberto Cabrera Hung Wen Chen Larry Suarez Jose Valdez Ty Wright Chris Robinson Marco Carrillo Ronny Morla Brian Schlitter Marwin Gonzalez Casey Lambert I tried putting them in close to the order of which the Cubs probably value them at this point. The only reason I put Barney over Burke was because of how close they are currently to the majors respectively. I'm not sure Burke would be able to be hid on a major league roster all year, even by a small market team, while I think Barney probably could. I DID put Archer the highest, because I think that someone would almost definitely at least take a chance on him. After Spencer or Maine possibly, I don't think that we would have anything to worry about longterm from any of the others, if we possibly lost them, either due to their lack of being ready(almost all of them) or their potential upsides(possible LOOGY's, backup C's or middle INF's for quite a few of them at best) So, I guess the bottom line for me is this: I'd expect Archer, Barney, and possibly Burke, if he does have a solid year at Daytona, which I do expect) to be added to the 40 man after the current year is up. Which could get tricky, as Castro, Cashner, and J Jackson could all push their way onto the 40 man this upcoming year as well.

We seem to have a log jam of guys we're trying to convert to C......We've heard Rosa, Ha, and I think Brandon May as well. Where in the world are they all going to play?

I'm almost at odds with myself for debating this point, because I am a big proponent of having a true 1 wideout. That said, to me anyway, there aren't that many of those guys around. You have Fitzgerald, Moss, Megatron, Andre Johnson, and Brandon Marshall. To me, that's your list of true 1's. Guys that make defense's plan differently and guys that make other receivers better around them. You have your next group of guys who are damn good, but I don't call them elite, for different reasons. Miles Austin hasn't done it long enough yet, but he's got a shot. Same with DeSean Jsckson and even Roddy White, although I'm not sure I see White as a guy who opponents will have a separate gameplan for. I think he benefitted largely from TG being there this past year personally. Sidney Rice has a ton of weapons around him, so it's not like he's getting doubled or anything, plus he needs to do it longer. Reggie Wayne is the guy that I COULD be talked into, as far as being a true 1, but damn.....Peyton makes it easy for someone to accumulate serious stats in that offense. But, Wayne is solid as hell. As for your question about who I think is our 1? First of all, I obviously don't see us as having an elite guy. Secondly, our WR play was extremely inconsistent in 2009. But, I see flashes in each of Knox, Aromashadu, and Hester, for that matter. None of them had much experience, if any, prior to this past year and none of them had ever worked with Cutler before either obviously. WR's very rarely "get it" immediately as it is. If I had to guess, I'm going to say that either Knox or Aromashadu is our leading receiver next year. Does this mean that one or the other will be a 1000 yard guy? Not necessarily, but I think that we will have one next year personally. But, that doesn't constitute being a true 1 either. Aromashadu seems to me like a guy who just needs a shot. He had 22 catches for 282 yards and 4 scores over the last 4 games, once he got a chance. Cutler seems to really like him too. Knox is unrefined and caused some INT's this past year for sure, but coming from a tiny school and having never faced any real comp before, he did a very solid job for us, if you ask me. I expect a big jump from him in 2010. Hester isn't a very smart player, but hasn't played WR long enough yet either, for us to make any real judgments on him. But, I'd put the upside of Aromashadu and Knox higher than Hester at this point and time. I'm not even bringing up Bennett or Iglesias into this discussion, by the way, because Bennett is a possession guy and will never be more than that for us or anyone else and Iglesias hasn't touched the field yet, although I think he was basically on the same plan as Bennett was and probably could have contributed in 2009 some anyway. At any rate, I see him as another possession guy, so he doesn't need to be included here either. Bottom line, the wideout spot IS a question mark for us, heading into 2010. But, I feel much better about WR, than I do with our O-Line, of which we need at the bare minimum, a starting RT and at least one starting OG. I also feel much better about WR than I do our D-Line, which needs at least one starting end and possibly a starting DT as well. Plus, our DB is in need of help moreso than our WR's as well. So, while it'd be great if we could find a true 1, the other holes on our team will prevent us from even entertaining the possibility, if you ask me. Especially since the WR's we have, at least show some true upside. The Bears have to pick and choose where the holes are the worst at, and while there is a hole at WR, there's worse ones in other places. Hence, one of the reasons, we're really not all that good at the moment.

As much as I'm in favor of getting a bigtime WR, I really don't think it is. I think it falls beneath OL, DL, and DB help. As far as Antonio Bryant is concerned, I think he's a much better player than Torry Holt at this point, but I'm not sure he's a better fit for us than Holt honestly. Holt's a consumate professional and I think he could really help our young receivers longterm. I don't think Bryant would be of much help to them and between Knox, Aromashadu, and possibly Hester, I think we've got our longterm number 1 guy already on the team. I don't think Bryant would be as inclined as Holt to show them the ropes, as he probably sees himself as a number 1 himself at this point still......

Of the Cubs questions asked for Sickels, here's his responses so far. Castro could wind up being a 10-15 homer guy, but he's too young to project right now. Lee's upside is a .300 hitter, high OBP, lots of doubles, 10-15 homers, and a stellar glove.(damn, that's pretty good, huh :D ?) As for my question, he said that each of McNutt/Kirk/Antigua/Bristow/Rusin/Searle are all grade C guys(which we already knew). He said McNutt has the best arm and he'd go with him because of that. He then said Kirk and Antigua are better than the rest of those guys. As for Outshined One's question, he dodged it. saying he had nothing to go on from them yet.

I feel pretty sure that the Bulls will make a move before the deadline. If that move hurts this season's team, so be it as far as I'm concerned. It's not like we're a championship caliber team right now. My main worry though, is we put all of our eggs in the LeBron/Wade/Bosh basket and then watch them all re-sign with their current teams and then we overpay for a David Lee or Carlos Boozer type. Bosh is the guy I really want longterm, as i don't see us having much of a shot landing LeBron and am unsure that Wade and Rose can coexist to make us a championship contender. But, you have to take chances sometimes and if it means ridding ourselves of Hinrich and/or Selmons to get some cap space, I'd roll the dice. A team of Bosh/Noah/Deng/Rose as our top 4 would put us in great shape, if you ask me.

There was an article today that mentioned the Bears could bring in Torry Holt as a mentor to the young WR's, especially given his knowledge of Martz' offense. I would be all for this personally. I'd even go as far as to say I'd shop Hester and if we could get a 2nd for him, I'd go ahead and trade him. A WR corp of Aromashadu/Knox/Bennett/Iglesias/Holt would be fine with me, if we can get a 2nd for Hester.

Some dude named Shane Day is our new QB Coach. Not sure how much he'll do, as I'm sure Martz will have final say so on anything Cutler is doing anyway. The guy was evidently a quality control assistant for the 49ers last year and was hand picked by Martz.

Not sure where to put this, but John Sickels is answering EVERY question you can get to him before 4 PM CST. Only one question per poster though and if you're not already a member, it takes a day before you can post anyway. Still, hopefully some guys see this and ask some Cub-related questions...... So far, someone asked about Castro's longterm HR power, upside of Lee, and I just asked for him to rank in order the potential breakout potential of some of our pitching. Bristow, Antigua, Rusin, Kirk, McNutt, and Searle were the guys I asked him about.

I think Lee, Burke, Rhee, Archer, and Antigua have the best chance to break out this year. A couple of others I'm looking forward to seeing are Matthew Spencer, Matt Cerda coming back from injury, Justin Bristow in his 2nd season post-TJS, Sergio Burruel, and Arismendy Alcantara.

The best thing about this question though is while everyone has a guy from our top 6(almost a consensus of Castro, Vitters, J Jackson, B Jackson, Lee, and Cashner) they will probably want to follow more than the rest, there are TONS of guys who we will be following very closely. Outside of our top 6, we've got the first full season of Raley, Kirk, Rusin, and McNutt to look forward to. We have our Korean signings(Kim, Na, Chen, and 2 Wangs :mrgreen: ) making their stateside debuts this year. Rhee coming back from TJS is something we're all going to be extremely interested in. Anyway, my 5 guys I really want to follow closely this year who aren't showing up in most of the top 10 lists are....... 5 Ryan Searle 4 Austin Kirk 3 Trey McNutt 2 Dong Yub Kim 1 Jeffry Antigua

Same here for the exact same reason.

Nah, not with what you just posted. :mrgreen: So, my opinion now is unless we deem Castro ready right from the start of the year, we may as well ride Theriot's averageness out for one more year......

Evidently Bill Simmons is on crack. He's evidently thinking a Bulls superteam with Bosh, Lebron, Joe Johnson, Rose and Noah is possible...... :-))

It's hard to quantify Blanco's defense at SS. He only got 90 innings there last year and hadn't played in the majors since 2006. And even at that, he only has 66 total games at SS in the majors. That said, I don't see it as particularly likely that his glove can cover the gap in their offensive abilities. I didn't even think about him not having a big enough sample size to truly get any sort of real indication. Do we think Blanco could be close to a gold glove caliber SS, given what we've seen from him in the field? If that answer is yes, then does it make it close enough value-wise to pull the trigger and deal Theriot? And I agree with Mojo, by the way. Our chance to deal him at his highest point has already passed anyway, so this question is basically just to learn how much defense COULD matter, in an instance like this....... As for B2B: I said it's conceivable that Castro COULD outperform Theriot in 2010. I also said that we have to evaluate him during spring training to see where he's at. I don't want to rush him, but if he looks like he's ready, then we may as well see what he's got. I'll have to trust Hendry, Lou, and Jaramillo to make the right decision on him, which is all any of us can do. If he's NOT ready, Blanco becomes our best option and that's why I asked whether or not the glovework of him can compare to what we're missing from Theriot's bat, in this case.

Theriot will lose his arbitration hearing. 2.6 is fine for him for THIS year, but considering his salary will be going up from there, trading him is the right thing for us to do, just as Tim has said. He's more valuable right now than he will be at any other point, so the issue is basically this: Do we think that between Blanco, Barney, and Castro, we can make up what we're losing with Theriot right now? I don't want to rush Castro, but it's not inconceivable that he could outperform Theriot in 2010 either. I guess it's going to hinge on where we think he's at come spring training. Barney probably needs more seasoning as well, but longterm I think he will basically become Theriot as it is. Does Blanco's glove make up for Theriot's bat? Especially if he puts up a .625-.650ish OPS? No idea, but Rob or someone else can do the math and see if it works out, numbers-wise....... What can we get for him is the next question and my guess is not a lot. Is he worth some other teams version of Chris Carpenter and Kyler Burke? If we could get 2 guys in that range of prospects from someone, I'd go ahead and make it happen and go with Blanco or preferrably Castro......

I really think it's going to depend on what Cleveland does to keep him personally. If they go and find a way to trade for Stoudemire before the deadline, I don't think LeBron would leave that situation, championship won already or not. And I think Cleveland knows that adding a big piece to their current team will make it harder for him to walk away from too. If I'm putting percentages out there, I'd say it's 60/40 Cleveland to New York. I really don't think anyone else has a shot.

Damn, Reed signed for 800k? With another 250k potential in performance bonuses. At those numbers, you kind of have to wonder if it would have been worth it to try to keep him as well, for the 5th OFer spot.

Here's one thing I won't like at all......Assuming that the top 8 seeds all get byes anyway. We won't have those 3-14, 4-13, 5-12, and 6-11 matchups where it's likely a power versus a mid-major, with the mid-major being the bigtime underdog and fighting like hell to earn some respect and doing it quite often, whether by winning or at least giving the powerhouse team a game for a while. To me, that's one of the best things about the tournament. Under this new format, it's likely to be those same 11-14 seeds as favorites against 19-22 seeds, which are very likely to be also rans from your major conferences. Or lesser mid majors, which just takes the level of play down quite a bit, not to mention the excitement as well....... Take it a step further and realize that those same 3-6 seeds would then get to see their eventual opponent in action right before they play them, the surprise factor leaves us, and talent will probably win out more than it did before. I've never looked at a bubble team that missed out to where I thought "damn, if they had just made it in, they could have won the whole damn thing". To me, it's not worth changing something that has very little to no flaws as it is.

I know I'm guilty of this myself, but the lame duck description is inaccurate. Lame duck suggests gone no matter what. In politics that's a guy with a term limits problem or in sports a coach on his last year of a contract. Since Lovie is signed through 2011, I think the odds are quite high that if the Bears do well this year, Lovie, and most of the staff, is almost guaranteed to return the next year. If the Bears win 10 games, can you imagine them eating all those millions to go out and get a new guy? The McCaskeys let Jauron go after a 7 win season that followed a 4 win season. They let Wanny go after back to back 4 win seasons. They canned Ditka after a 5 win season. Going into this season I thought maybe 10 losses costs him his job. Now, going into next season I think 9 wins might even be enough to save him. 10 wins is almost a guarantee. Think about it, if the Bears win 10 games next year that almost certainly means playoffs. That probably means the defense has stabilized and maybe improved, and that the offense was showing signs of a life. Even if they make the playoffs and go one and done, can you picture them canning the whole staff? I wouldn't bet that way. I'd think they'd be comfortable with the way things are going and actually adding a year. This would have the effect of aligning Lovie and Angelo on similar contract lengths which could make it easier for a clean break after 2011 or 2012 if things stall. You're right. Lame duck isn't really the right wording there. They could turn things around and Lovie could get his final year(maybe even a short extension) possibly. I don't see it happening, but it could very well. My guess though is that we won't be very active in FA, save for adding a few stopgap type linemen, which are hit or (usually) miss. We may add a DB or 2 as well, but I'm not expecting a whole lot. Which then means we'd need to get really lucky through the draft and find some starter types in rounds 3-7. Which at least Angelo HAS done in the past. I hate being pessimistic about the Bears honestly and truly think Cutler was a great longterm move actually. But, I think we'll need this present regime out of here, before we start seeing any real improvement. I hope I'm wrong.

And now Angelo is already concocting his plan for rolling Lovie and Martz if this doesn't work out......All in all though, I don't hate this myself. I think it's as good as we could expect or hope for, considering our head coach's lame duck status.