davell

I'm not upset over missing out on any of the guys that have signed either actually. I guess I'm just pissed at the lackadaisical attitude we seem to have for this hire. Maybe(hopefully) I'll be proven wrong. And unless Cutler truly can't stand Martz, I'm not all that opposed to bringing him in either.

Guys, I've been looking and looking for anything on Bedard's health status. Does anyone have an update? I was thinking he was going to be ready to go in April, until someone said they thought he was out til possibly mid-year. Which, kind of makes sense, given the fact there appears to be little interest in him at this point(on the surface anyway)

I think it's ludicrous to discount the value of taking the job that is offerend instead of waiting to see if somebody else makes an offer. It's asinine to suggest people view Oakland as more stable than Chicago (their head coach was almost arrested this season and almost fired last week). The Bears may be making a mistake by taking their time, but the Bears are taking their time and guys are taking jobs that are offered to them intead of waiting on the Bears. That's not sugarcoating, it's the only rational explanation. From a PR standpoint, the Bears look bad. They are letting other people frame the story instead of finding their guy and signing him. But in the long run the PR story and media's take is meaningless. I'm not sure where I said anything about Oakland being viewed as a better job than Chicago. Earlier, i did say that it can't look anything other than bad that a guy accepted a job there, without even interviewing with the Bears. Anyway, as I've said, I expect us to eventually hire a retread. Lovie, Angelo, and the entire staff get the axe after 2010, and we get to start fresh at that point.

I like the move, assuming health obviously. It wouldn't shock me to see our 4th OFer get 400+ at bats and if he's healthy, I think Nady would do more with those at bats than any of the other guys. Plus, he can give Lee a break as well. Now, go get Bedard on an incentive laden deal, sign a reliever if we feel we have to and head to spring training.

I kind of think it's sugarcoating things to say that guys took jobs while the Bears didn't offer the position personally. Chudzinski didn't want it, Bates and Jackson took jobs before they even interviewed with the Bears and only Zampese kept his name in it for a week, until his window closed with Lewis only giving him a week to accept an offer that never came. The Bears are looking for the best guy they can find obviously, but anyone with a good name that's out there is going to be extremely wary of taking a job that may only be for one year as it is, and it's proving to be true, as we still don't have anyone lined up, or even any good names rumored at this point. Other than Martz, who's probably dying to get the job. Like I said earlier, I expect a retread to be hired and then once Lovie and Co are gone, the new guy will bring an entire new staff with him at that point. But, for now anyway, there's no way it looks good inside coaching circles that these guys are all taking jobs with other organizations, without really even giving the Bears a shot.

Maybe the fact that the Bears haven't made an offer though, is because everyone has told them they weren't really interested in the job, because of the lack of security that comes with it? And if the guy actually chose the Raiders over our OC spot, with what goes on over there continuously, there's no way in hell that can be looked at as anything other than a negative by anyone who we may be looking at for the job.

I read somewhere that Hudson wants 9 mill per year, which pretty much explains why he's still on the market.

I think we will wind up with retreads at both OC and DC this offseason. And then, barring us making the playoffs in 2010, we'll see both Lovie and Angelo get canned. Anyone who considers himself an up and comer isn't going to take a one and done gig and neither will anyone who's established and has the ability to find work elsewhere or already has a job. I doubt we see the Bears spend much this offseason either, basically to allow Lovie and Angelo to finally hang themselves for good. Then, the following year, the new regime will be able to make enough changes to where the job is attractive again. The CBA is the one thing though, that COULD keep this from happening. If there is the potential for a work stoppage(or better yet, it feels like there WILL BE a work stoppage) then we could see Lovie and Angelo back, because once again, it could be very hard to get good guys to want to start their tenure without knowing exactly what they're getting into.

That WOULD ne my perfect scenario, because it would also mean that Baker/Fontenot is producing decently as well.

Castro's not even on the 40 man yet, so they'll definitely be cautious in adding him. An injury to Theriot, where he'd be out over a month, followed by Blanco struggling bigtime for a few weeks, is probably about the easiest way Castro hits the bigs before September. If Fontenot AND Baker both struggle, then it's possible they'd move Theriot over to 2B and go ahead and bring him up as well. My guess though, is unless he's hitting close to .400 in AA or AAA(my guess is he'll start in AA personally, with Barney at AAA) they won't bring him up til September.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy he's no longer an option for us.

I'd take Gomes over Baldelli at this point, because the last time Baldelli had 300 plate appearances was 2006. Too much unknown there, for my taste anyway. Even with acknowledgement that Gomes is Fox-like in the field...... Hypocritical or not though, even though he's coming off TJS, I'd take a shot with Nady over Baldelli, Gomes, or Dye.

It's not about greed, it's just the way the system works. Players have absolutely no leverage whatsoever on their contracts for the first three years of major league service time and so are vastly underpaid compared to their market value. Hell, he's still being vastly underpaid compared to his market value. I agree he's WORTH the money he's asking for, based on production. But, if Theriot was an actual free agent this offseason, you think he would have commanded MUCH MORE than the 3.4 he's asking for? I'll give you the fact that at his age, he'd get a multi-year deal. Probably 3-4 years actually. But, with the market turn we've seen over the last couple of years, I doubt we'd see a team give him more than 3-4 mill per year honestly. That's hard to say. Pretty much everybody was signed before the downturn in contracts, signed a team-friendly long term contract to get some financial security, or is still under team control. The only FA SS who have signed recently have been Marco Scutaro (2 years/12.5 mil, 7.5 WAR over the last 3 years), Cristian Guzman (2 years/16 mil, 5.2 WAR), Edgar Renteria (2 years/18.5 mil, 6.1 WAR), and Rafael Furcal (3 years/30 mil, 6.6 WAR). Theriot has been worth 7.5 WAR in the last 3 years. That's not to say Theriot would get the same contract. It's worth noting that Coletti, Sabean, and Bowden are/were 3 of the dumbest GMs in the game. Then again, Theriot wouldn't have the same warts that all those guys have either... Damn, I guess Epstein must think that 2009 was what 34 year old Scutaro will be bringing to the table, because his other years have been worse than Theriot, for the most part. For him to have gotten his contract, a much younger Theriot would have at least gotten that, maybe more. For some reason, I thought Scutaro had been better than what he was prior to 2009.

It's not about greed, it's just the way the system works. Players have absolutely no leverage whatsoever on their contracts for the first three years of major league service time and so are vastly underpaid compared to their market value. Hell, he's still being vastly underpaid compared to his market value. I agree he's WORTH the money he's asking for, based on production. But, if Theriot was an actual free agent this offseason, you think he would have commanded MUCH MORE than the 3.4 he's asking for? I'll give you the fact that at his age, he'd get a multi-year deal. Probably 3-4 years actually. But, with the market turn we've seen over the last couple of years, I doubt we'd see a team give him more than 3-4 mill per year honestly.

I'm hoping it's the Ricketts philosophy to not invest in longterm deals for pen help, with this possible news coming out. But, with Grabow getting 2 years, I'm not going to cross my fingers just yet on that......Either way, I'd like Calero on a one year deal, even with our plethora of young pen arms.

Flaherty or LeMahieu getting called up would be very interesting. I agree that alot would have to happen for that to occur though. For some reason, I picture Flaherty having a DeRosa type career once he does get the call though. And if he does, I think that LeMahieu will then be the odd man out for us longterm. Castro as our eventual SS, Lee winding up in CF or possibly SS, with Castro moving over to 2B possibly. At any rate, it's very cool to be stacked up the middle right now......

He's been touted by some as the guy who coaxed one great year out of Anderson in Cleveland. That'd be enough for me then, since Anderson, to put it as nicely as possible......Sucks.

That guy may not be a bad choice, but I'd rather find someone who's known for working with QB's than TE's myself......

With Brett as your 2, I'm assuming you see him playing in Tennessee at some point this season, correct? Another question for toonster and everyone else as well is this: Who do you see making it to the bigs this year, even if just for a cup of coffee?

I would take Bedard over Sheets, assuming Sheets wants more money than Bedard does. I may would take Bedard over Sheets with all things being equal actually.

Would the Rockies be interested in Colvin? They have a glutton of OF options, most of which are young and priced controlled for a while. I wonder what the O's would ask for Pie? I think the Cubs gave up on him too soon and sold too low. It seems that the O's have a full OF though, and Pie should be expendable. While I would like to have Pie back, considering we'd have to give up more(probably much more) to get him back one year later than when we dealt him, I doubt we're very inclined to think about it seriously......The egg on Hendry's face would be too much, in this case.

AZ Phil suggested if we offered Colvin and one of our young relievers(ie Caridad, Gray, Maine, Stevens, etc) we could probably get Spilborghs from the Rockies.....

While I guess I can agree that's he's technically worth it, is he actually worth it to us? Between Castro, Blanco, and Barney, I think we could piece together a SS this year that could conceivably be as valuable or possibly even moreso than Theriot. What kind of value does Blanco's defense have if he puts up a pedestrian line of .250/.300/.340? Would that make him as valuable as Theriot at that point? I don't want to rush Castro, so he would actually be my third option in this scenario with the idea he'll go into 2011 as our everyday SS, after having some major league at bats in September......Barney isn't flashy, by any means, but has a better glove than Theriot and it's conceivable anyway that he could put up offensive numbers at least close to what Theriot does...... I understand we're a major market team and don't want to go into the season with a total unknown and that all 3 of these guys would be question marks for us, but I think the odds would be on our side that at least one of them could duplicate Theriot's value in 2010. My guess is most mid to low market teams WOULD have traded Theriot this offseason actually, especially if they're trying to find money for other things, which it seems we're doing right now as it is....... Bottom line for me is this, I guess: We know what we have with Theriot and he WILL be worth the money this year. But, I think we could have saved THIS money, went with a different approach, spent it on something else(which obviously could have been spent on something else we DID NOT need, so for all we know it could be a blessing we didn't go down this route) and came out ahead, assuming the money was spent wisely. Like money going towards keeping Harden, signing Sheets or Bedard, or maybe Hudson on a short term deal...... At any rate, considering Stephen Drew just settled for 3.4 in his first year of arb, I hope Hendry forgets about his perfect record of not going to arbitration, because if Hendry sticks to his guns here, he's going to win at 2.6.......

Glad we got those 5 signed. Seems like fairly team friendly deals for all as well. We have heard rumblings that Marmol could be the first guy to go to arb under Hendry's regime, but his asking price and what the Cubs offered doesn't seem like it's too much to overcome and honestly I don't see that 2.5 is ALL that much for him anyway. Marshall should settle in at around a mill or so and that's a very fair price for him too...... On the other hand......Theriot asking for 3.4? I can't even truly comprehend that the Cubs OFFERED him 2.6 to start out with. Andre freaking Ethier only got 3.1 as a 1st year arb guy last year and while I understand that it's a different position, I think Theriot is asking for too much here. Settling at 2.6 would have been a tad high if you ask me. I wish we would have traded him while he had value, because after this season, with what he'll be getting his other two arb years, he'll have extremely little to zero value, just as Tim said in his article.....

Sickels dropped Vitters from a B+ to a B. Wanted to put Dominguez one spot higher on the overall rankings than Vitters and dropped Vitters down instead of moving Dominguez up. That said, he did say Vitters will be in his overall top 50.