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I'm not sure if this is the right area for this topic, but it's speculative or wishful transactions. Let's say that Ricketts fires Hendry day 1 on the job and hires you as the GM. You are given a budget of $145 million. What are your ***REALISTIC*** plans for this offseason.

What is your definition of a good GM then? Everyone seems to want to pick up on irrelevant little mistakes by Banks (like Beane not writing Moneyball), instead of addressing the argument. I don't blame them, it is much easier to mock someone and take the attention away from the valid points they make, rather than disputing them. You are right, Beane has a lower payroll. But, you seem to be implying that as long as you are in a small market team it is ok to lose season after season. I disagree with the premise that small market team GM is automatically given a pass. In last three years, Hendry run teams have made it to the playoffs 2 of 3 times or 66.667% of the time. Beane run teams have made it 0 of 3 times or 0% of the time. Yet somehow Hendry is a terrible GM and Beane is a good GM? There seems to be a disconnect. Do you measure a good GM by wins? Playoff appearances? Surely you would agree that even small market teams have to have some sort of criteria by which to gauge effectiveness. I agree with you and I think Beane gets a pass because of his past. If the losing continues then of course he gets axed and he would deserve it. If he were the Cubs GM the last three seasons with that record, I would say he deserves to get fired. When your team is poor and doesn't provide you with the resources needed to stay competitive, I think you deserve a few more years of bad play to get it all together, but you do not deserve a free pass forever because you are a small market club. My definition of a good GM is someone that consistently makes smart, efficient moves. Of course some moves aren't going to work out, but if there is a consistent pattern of good moves it will show. Hendry consistently makes terrible moves when it comes to payroll. Neifi Perez, Jose Macias, Mike Remlinger, Kevin Gregg, Aaron Miles, and Joey Gathright to name a few. Just looking at these guys and ignoring the big contracts of our current OF shows that he doesn't spend money wisely. VORP is a good statistic to keep in mind when looking to sign a bench player. Is his value really worth 2 years for 5 million or can you bring up a AAA player for the same production and make better use of the money? Then you cannot look at a GM of a baseball team without looking at what the farm system has done while under his control. There is no other way to put it than the Cubs have completely failed in that aspect under his control. People will talk about Hendry's good trades for Ramirez and Lee. He took advantage of poor teams inability to keep their own players and he deserves credit for that. He did determine which players had high value and didn't give up much to get them. But he also deserves blame for trades that didn't work out well and for the lack of a quality farm system. With Beane and Hendry it is unfair to look at only the past 3 seasons as they have both been in control for significantly longer. Since 2003 (Hendry's first full season) Beane's A's have gone 594-539 while Hendry's Cubs have gone 587-545. Beane has lost key players through that entire time and had significantly less money to work with. The bottom line is that Hendry's body of work is not impressive when you look at the financial advantage he has had over the competition. The Cubs MUST compare themselves to the Red Sox an Yankees because the payroll is closer to those teams than the Marlins and A's. If Hendry had a 587-545 record as GM of the Yankees in 7 seasons of work there wouldn't even be a question of if he will still have a job. He would have been canned a while ago. The Cubs spend like a winning organization, so the results need to reflect that.

I think it's comical that people want to point out Beane's record since Zito left. How about the fact that other GM's in baseball now abide by the same philosophies? The fact that Theo Epstein looks at the same numbers, just as one example, but has far greater resources available makes it even harder on Beane. The book Moneyball was an attempt to explain how the A's were competitive in an unfair game. Since that book was written, statistical analysis in the front office has become much more accepted and much more common. The tools that Beane was using to give him an advantage over teams with money don't work as much now because other teams with more money will pay more for guys that Beane would target. It is absurd to think that teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers don't have an advantage over the competition simply based on the idea that they can buy the players they want. The Yankees and Red Sox keep developing talent from their system in addition to spending in free agency which is what has really made those organizations so great on a consistent basis. Sure a Tampa Bay can be good and catch lightning in a bottle every once in a while, but without financial resources the window is small to remain that competitive. I won't say that Beane would be a great GM here for sure because he has never had a big payroll to work with and I don't know how wise he would be with the money, but Hendry has played with a HUGE advantage over the competition and doesn't have the results needed to keep his job. The Cubs past history shouldn't come into play here because until recently the Cubs did not play with the advantage that they do now. Are you ok paying such high prices with such poor results?

Hendry has ZERO business still having a job. He has a huge advantage over his competition and consistently makes terrible decisions. Not offering arbitration would just continue a trend that Hendry has set. He doesn't know how to utilize all the tools that are available to build a great organization. He failed as a GM. Time to move on.

I cannot stand anything about the way this team is run. I certainly hope Ricketts doesn't stand for this nonsense. This management group is TERRIBLE. The team WILL NEVER win it all with the status quo. It is incredibly frustrating that Jim Hendry is allowed to make decisions while we await the ownership change. He has already hampered the future because of ill advised decisions and I don't have any faith that he has the ability to make a good decision.

I wrote an article delving into this topic. I wrote how the Cubs can keep Crane Kenney but still bring in another guy to run baseball operations. I think it is very important for the Cubs to bring in the right pieces now and not wait so they can begin to fix the enormous problems that are facing the organization. It will be VERY easy for the next GM to blame the mess on Hendry to get some slack from the press. He can simply point to untradeable contracts and a lack of organizational depth and there is nothing the media can do to prove him wrong.

Bill Hall along with any other player that falls off a cliff like that are going to face speculation that they were PED users. I don't know if he did it or not, but I do think it is fair to speculate because if he didn't he should have lobbied like hell (and he didn't) to have his union out the guys that did.

Here is an interesting take on starting to fix the problems that have come up. Clearly it doesn't address fixing the roster problems, but it could start to address what is the core of the problem (overspending, lack of organizational talent, and no elite talent from within own system). Getting a new GM and director of player development (potentially the guys mentioned in the article) would certainly be a way to begin addressing the issues. The hard part is going to be turning over the talent that is currently on the roster. There are untradeable contacts and players with no trade clauses.

I wrote about this here, but Jake Fox needs to not only stay on the roster, he needs to play. I think the three moves that make the most sense are sending down Fuld (Johnson takes his place as 5th OFer) Hart, and Shark. We can go 11 man pen until the break and then they will decide which position player goes.

I would be happy with this trade. Mets have to get pitching so that's why they do it, and we get rid of the bad Fukudome contract. I like Lilly a lot, but think the Cubs would be OK without him. Beltran playing in Wrigley would be VERY good. Would leave us with 2 really bad contracts left to get rid of. Lee and Soriano. I can't see the Cubs being able to get rid of either of those players barring a major injury with a contending team.

Yeah I like that one. I think about writing it pretty much everyday. One of my big additions to what you have already written is that they gave a pretty big contract to Ryan Dempster which essentially was the money they needed to have Peavy in Chicago.

Hey everyone! I run a blog and was curious if anyone had any ideas on certain Cubs topics they would like to see written about. I have a post that I am currently working on about Z's planned retirement, but if anyone else has some ideas please share. Sorry guys took down the link so as not to make it about advertising. Just looking to find something to write that would resonate well with educated fans. Thanks!

It's sad to know that Hendry would pass on a lineup that looks like this: Hanley Ramirez - SS Placido Palanco- 2b Albert Pujols - 1b Alex Rodriguez- 3b Magglio Ordonez- RF Matt Holiday - CF Vladimir Guerrero - LF Russell Martin - C I based this lineup on two things. The players must be right handed hitters only with no switch hitting ability. These are all the top players at their position based off of last seasons VORP (given that they only hit right handed). Hendry would hate this because the team lacks in speed, the defense isn't good enough, and there is no left handed bats. I'm not saying he would dislike the lineup, but I think he would rather have a guy like Pierre in CF to add speed and range in the OF which is a terrible terrible thought.

You seem to have a pretty set way of thinking so I'm not sure if you would be interested, but I would like to suggest a couple of readings merely to broaden your thoughts on the game. The first book I would suggest is "Moneyball" which is certainly not new reading material, but it is a very simple read that does a good job of introducing statistical ideas. If you feel like reading a book that is a little more advanced in sabermetrics, I would suggest "Baseball Between the Numbers" by the basball prospectus group. I feel that I am much more knowledgeable having read these books as well as others. I'm not saying it's what I would qualify as the only way to think about the game, but it certainly does suggest ideas that are worth thinking about and studying. It's not too long ago that I thought the Cubs needed a player like Juan Pierre and now I cringe at the idea that I thought things like that.

This is all fan perception and not what team scouting departments and front office members are saying. When it really comes down to it, what the fans think means nothing. I hate admitting this because I like to think my opinions and thoughts have some value, but honestly if it was all about fan perception, the Cubs could have traded Corey Patterson for just about anyone or anything when he was first coming up. They probably could have traded him for a lot, but you know GM's like Billy Beane would have been skeptical of players like that. Simply put, we don't know what scouts think about Murton and Jackson they could see them as virtually the same "players with some good potential, but haven't really displayed if they can do it consistently or not" or they might see them as on different levels. It's probably pretty safe to assume most teams wouldn't look at things the same as all other teams.

That's great news which pretty much everyone has figured would be the case. Thanks for the update Bruce.

How is he an upgrade over Murton in RF? Come on, you guys no better than this. In the last three years Church has had 268, 196, 470 ABs respectively. In the year he had 470 ABs he posted his worse numbers and he doesn't walk. Besides the salary savings I really don't see the benefit of Church. I just don't get the fascination. Doesn't walk? He's got a career IsoD of 77. Yes, 2007 was his "worst numbers", but they were better than any Cubs OF other than Soriano. I wouldn't call him an improvement over Murton, but I do think he'd be an improvement over Murton alone. In other words, he could at least spell Murton from time to time in right, without coming with the cost of a guy like Jones or Floyd. He's also excellent insurance for Pie, if Felix can't come through in 2008. I think your hangup is a lot more about religion than baseball. Exactly not only is Church an upgrade over Jones, but he costs significantly less and shedding payroll this offseason in the form of a Jones might give us the flexibility to add the money it would cost to bring in a player like Rentaria. It's not that I see Church as this great player or anything like that. But he has shown similar flashes to that of Murton and unlike Murton, Church can play CF if things with Pie went south. That gives us some insurance there which is always a good idea because even if Pie figures things out, if he gets hurt I don't want to see Theriot as our everyday CF. I think it's wise to get players who don't cost that much but have nice upside as opposed to just not making the move because Jones is just about as good. That line of thinking makes no sense. Does adding Church make the Cubs the World Series favorite? Absolutely not, but it does make them a better team if you simply subbed Church in for Jones and that is something worth doing if the cost isn't too high.

If we could get Church I'd be happy, if we can also get Renteria, I would be very happy. This would definitely be a fairly cheap upgrade of the offense. I would probably keep Jones for the first half of the 2008 season, unless a team really, really wanted him, which I don't see as being realistic. Maybe this offseason, Perry and Jones can help him find the power swing he somehow lost. It will be a contract year for him. Another season like this one, and he'll find himself unemployed. A good first half might improve his trade value a bit. Pie could probably use some time in AAA again, after sitting on his butt most of the 2007 season. The only problem is that Church is no better than Jones. If you look at the stats, Church is actually much better than Jones. His ops was 70 points higher this season and two seasons ago Church posted a ops+ of 128 which is higher than any season Jones has ever had. He had both a higher obp and a higher slugging percentage. Add into that Church is 3 years younger than Jones and it makes complete sense to make the swap. Pie doesn't need more time in AAA it's time to find out if he can hit or not. The guy absolutely killed AAA pitching and has nothing left to prove there. We need to find out what he can do at the big league level. So Pie needs to start in CF next season and the Cubs need to solve the RF equation. Church would be a nice addition to the club that wouldn't cost you what landing someone like Dunn would.

With the cubs needing to make some moves I was wanting to bring up some smaller moves that could be made. I'm not sure what it would take to get these players, but I think the value they could bring to the team could be very good. The first is Ryan Church. His ops has been over .800 and he can play all three outfiled spots which makes Jones dispensable which is something most here would like. So Pie could come up and take over in CF and if he falters to a point where he is really hurting the team Church could take over in CF from his spot in RF. At SS we need to upgrade and Rentaria would be very nice but might come at a steep price. Other options would include Nioka from the Giants in Japan. That would involve some risk, but it's the type of move that the Cubs have generally stayed away from so it could be time for them to try something outside the box. Soto will start behind the plate which should give the Cubs a nive boost at that position. They can let Kendall walk. A lineup next season of: Soriano Retaria Lee Ramirez Church DeRosa Soto Pie I think that would be an improvement, and then if the power struggles of this season were showing up again with this lineup, the Cubs could try to make a midseason trade for another player. Another thing they could do if Pie blossoms is hit him leadoff. He's not an obp guy and probably never will be but Soriano likes him and might like moving towards the middle of the lineup if it meant something good for Pie. These are just some thoughs and I'm not sure exactly how feasable they are, but I know landing Arod is a long shot and these are ideas I just wanted to float out there.

ok I can only realistically see 4 potential places that A-Rod would end up playing. The first and probably most realistic would be him staying with the Yankees. I say that this is the most likely destination because Torre is going to get fired and the boss understands how much A-Rod means to the Yanks. If Alex leaves the Yankees, there is a VERY good chance they will not make the playoffs next season. Boston is a better team with better young players that should win the division next season if the Yankees were without their best hitter. The next place that I could see A-rod going is Anaheim. This works because they have long been looking for another big time bat at 3rd base. Last offseason they were willing to give big time money to bring Aramis to town, but he chose to stay here. They will have to up the amount of money they would be willing to give in a contract, but they have the money needed to bring a player like A-Rod to town, and it might be appealing to him because it is much less high profile where he would be constantly scrutinized in the middle of an MVP caliber season. Next option would be Boston. Nothing would send a message to New York that Boston is the team to beat more than taking away their star player in the middle of his prime. This would also one up New York taking away Damon because A-Rod is clearly a far superior players. The question would become which position would they want A-rod to play. Lowell had an excellent season but is not getting any younger. At SS they have Lugo who did not have a good season at all, but he did play far below his career averages which suggest he should at the very least rebound some next season. The fourth team that potentially has a chance at Arod is the Cubbies. It's highly unlikely though that Hendry will be given the financial flexibility to bring a player like Arod into town in the midst of the sale of the team. That being said Boras knows the game well and took advantage of a new owner last time Arod was a free agent by getting the Rangers new owner to sign him to the record contract. New owners like to make a big splash when first taking over and nothing would set Chicago into a craze like signing Arod. He could get to move back to SS which I think he would like to do since it's his natural position and he still is athletic enough to play there. The other major positive the Cubs have in the favor is old man Lou. Arod has said on many occasions how much he loves Piniella and how much his career has been impacted by having played for him. It's highly unlikely but if the Cubs could get him it instantly turns them into the NL favorites.

There are conflicting reports. Hendry's own comments ommit any involvement of Zell, and it seems unlikely that the owner of the Trib would personally reject a trade over a matter of a few million dollars. I could envision a scenario where Zell told McDonough and Hendry, "Sure, do the deal. But then don't expect me to approve any deadline aquisitions. You have an allowance and you will have spent it." It would have to be much more indirect than that, because Zell cannot have any direct influence in the operation of the Cubs. Since he is a partial owner of the White Sox, he cannot influence anything that the Cubs do directly. I really think baseball should have said that the Tribune must sell the Cubs separately and that Zell cannot have anything to do with it because this could get pretty messy and he has no interest in protecting the Cubs in the transaction.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing with Spiezio, he's not all that big. I mean sure he's not little, but have you ever been to a college rec center. There are guys that big everywhere, and you know they aren't all juicing.

Thomas was there for the World Series and Thome was not, so your a little off, but I am with you in the respect for what he has done.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2675583 didn't see it anywhere sorry if already posted

What about the possibility of getting Andy Marte from Cleveland? What would it take? He's struggled in his ML appearances so far, but I know the Tribe could use some pitching and maybe we could send them Marshall or Guzman plus something else in the farm and maybe it could work out. Things are clearly not working over there as they continue to get worse even though expectations seem to be rising every season. He's young and has a lot of potential which is a word that I don't really like at times because too many of those guys bust, but I think it would be better than bringing in say a Derosa or someone else like that.