LuckyPup

Mr Hendry please get involved here- a 3 way with the O's would be nice- O's get- Sexson+Izturis+Marshall Mariners get- Tejada+J.Jones+ Cubs get- Ichiro+R.Lopez+Penn sign schmidt, Floyd, and call it an offseason

If Hendry honestly loses Lugo because of Izturis i may kill him-

LaTroy in Coors-ewwww......... better get the whiplash insurance ready in Colorado- yikes

Signing Floyd does a couple of things- 1. gives us a formidable lefty bat off the bench 2. If a platoon is in place then we have Murton coming in to PH as well- signing Floyd makes us stronger in 2 areas- power and bench- i would like the signing, even though Floyd is injury prone we would have Murton as insurance-

I think the biggest part of the Soriano signing, love him or hate him, is this sends a huge message tot he FA market- With re-sign Aram and now Sori, this shows the Cubs as an organization will do whatever it takes( including overpaying) to field a winner- I like the move- Soriano is a great asset and for a guranteed 5 years, i can live with that-

Ramirez is only about 2M up from what he was budgeted to make this year so dont know if the entire 14.6 should count against- just guessing about that though- some estimates have us around 100M spent- i could see the payroll going upwards of 125M-

smoke screen on the jones to center thing- he's gonna be moved for pitching( with bullpen arm)- I just dont think Hendry wants him- we'll see- i must say i will not be surprised by anything else this offseason-

Maybe we could explore a deal centered around Barrett and Peavy? What could we package together- Barrett+Jones+Marshall+Gallagher+Cedeno? Sign Molina Gives SD a starting LF, and C- also not locked into Barrett so Kottaras can spend the full year in AAA-

Hoops, get on this- i mean, do you realize how important you are to all of us this time of year- GET ON THE HORN and get some info:)- Seriously though, you are hearing 2 and 30M? i would be open to that deal with an option year tacked on-

What I don't understand is why anybody would want DeRosa. never said i did, just saying that this is the going rate, i would be willing to bet that urham gets at least 5-6 mill. what happens if derosa splits with jones? pretty good production in rf for less then 10 million. my whole point is you can't tear apart moves without knowing the ral meaning behind them. i will let the offseason play out and judge from that point on. What does that even mean? Knowing the real meaning? I think the real meaning is pretty clear. Hendry's scouts fell in love with DeRosa and, Hendry being Hendry, he ignored thinks like DeRosa's poor seasons past, his lack of every being a regular, and his age, and he focused only on the upside. He was his first target in free agency, and he got him. Now he's the starting 2B. Sorry Goony, we usually agree but thats kindof a knee jerk reaction- i mean, didnt we hear that we were talking to Durham as well, what if Durham told hendry " Aint coming to your last place team for less than 3 years and 23M"-this moves gives Hendry versatility and keeps his options open because DeRosa can play multiple positions. Maybe Hendry is thinking of DeRosa as a utitlity guy as he declines in the next couple of years so he doesnt block Epatt- i dont know- dont get me wrong i am not enamored with the signing(especially the years and money) but i will hold out judgement until the offseason is done.

Give me Durham+Westbrook and Padilla and I'm ok- pretty smart thinking on Hendry's behalf- i have begun to get cautiously optimistic about the offseason-

Gah Hoops, your are such a tease- so, um, if you ah, you know, heard anything, you ah, would ..like um, tell us right?....

great move by the Yanks, not very good for the tigers- they got alot of young, impressionable guys- i dont think i would want Sheff anywhere near them- plus i have set an over/under on the first Leyland-Sheffield war of words- 60 games- i'm taking the under-

maybe we could get involved as a middle guys with them and the Orioles- Yanks get - Benson+Eyre+Cedeno Cubs get- Tejada Orioles get- Sheffield+Izturis+Jones+Marshall the O's get 3 ML starters and 2 young arms-plus money is about the same, The Yankees get a starter in benson but really get stronger in the pen with Eyre and add Cedeno for bench depth- THe Cubs shed some payroll but pick up Tejada-

thats what i'm saying, i dont blame Ramirez for trying to get every penny he wants- i was saying how unfair it is going to be when the papers try and sway public opinion that he is a greedy bastard that doesnt care about the Cubs-

the real annoying thing is when Ramirez leaves the local papers will smear him as greedy, while the blame really falls on poor management and leadership in the front office- Ramirez did a lot and was extremeley productive as a Cub and will not deserve the criticism if he leaves, he's just making the best business decision for him and his family-maybe the Cubs should have made a better "business' decision 2 years ago- Nice opt out clause morons-

has this thread been yanr'ed?

Boy, Barry Zito eyes just lit up-Dollar bills ya'll-he's a lock for 15M per-

according to ESPNews Guilermo Mota just got suspended for 50 games for roids- maybe now would be the perfect time to offer 2 lesser commodities for Heilman- maybe Novoa+Ohman? or just offer Dempster straight up-the Mets are going to need bullpen help for sure now-

oh, i agree blowing it up would be the best option but it really is not an option for Hendry-realistically he just cant-

I for one believe Ramirez is gone- It breaks my heart, but i dont think it cripples us- (of course if we dont add anyone it will most definitely do that) i think with the right moves we can be competetive even if we lose Ramirez- if he leaves that frees up another 12/13M next year- Sign Schmidt-4/50 with option( 12,12,13,13) Sign Padilla-3/26(8,9,9) Sign Lowell-2/14 w/ mutual option(6,8) Sign Lugo-3/21(6,7,8)-basically Pierre's money Sign Lofton-2/9(4,5) Re-sign Wood-1(2) w' incentives trade Izturis(4.3)+Prior(5)+Marshall+Marmol to Orioles for Tejada- this frees up money for them to pursue Soriano-we only take on 3M next year with tejada on the books- at this point we have spent 41M- now estimates are with Ramirez off the books we have close to 50M to spend leaving us another 9M to work with. Trade Jones(5)+Dempster(5)+Novoa to Dodgers for Drew(11)+Broxton- this deal saves the dodgers alot of money in the long run- cuts a year off the Drew deal as well as adding strong bullpen help and adding Jones in RF stills gives you production close to drew's( more power, less OBP, also less of an injury risk)-Cubs add minimal money to the payroll- spend big money on your bench with Branyan, Helms, Theriot, Pagan, DeRosa, Blanco and go- Cf-Lofton 2B-Lugo 1B-Lee RF-Drew SS-Tejada 3B-Lowell C-Barrett LF-Murton Z-Scmidt-Padilla-Hill-Mateo/Guzman/Veal What would be your plan assuming Ramirez walks? I know many will say "blow it up" but that isn't an option with the Piniella hire and Hendry in the hotseat-

The only problem with trading Z is you cant get value for him- i think the possibility of resigning him is getting slimmer by the passing day- judging from his comments in the papers he expects the Cubs to open the check book HUGE-which i wouldn t blame them if they did- but there are a couple of scenarios that would be hard to refuse, especially if Hendry gets the feeling Z won't resign- (in this scenario Aram is resigned) Would you accept any of these deals? Zambrano+Jones+Dempster+Novoa to the Dodgers for Drew+Lowe+Billingsly+Broxton? Zambrano+Izturis+Dempster+Moore to Orioles for Tejada+Mora+Bedard? Zambrano+Murton+Marshall+Dopirak+Pie for Willis+Cabrera?

Drinking this early on friday=not good:) Upping payroll to 115M if necessary=VERY GOOD I think the brass at the tribune realize a winner increases the value of the Cubs even more so they will give Hendry every chance to bring a winner in- if not he is toast and he knows it- i think he will re-up Ramirez sign a marques starter( Zito or Schmidt) trade for another starter(maybe hudson) maybe trade for Tejada( or Arod if the deal is feasible)- possibly A. jones in the deal for Hudson- sign one impact FA hitter-Soriano Rotation of Zambrano Zito Prior Hill Hudson they would win a few-

i think a team looking to rid themselves of a longer term deal would take him- look at the dodgers- they would love to rid themselves of the 3 yrs 33M left on Drew's deal-2 years at 10.5 saves them 23M and gives them a servicable reliever/4-5 starter- Jones+Dempster for Drew saves them roughly 12M and cuts a year off- that type of scenario would be the only way you could move Demp i IMO.

i would start with pitching-after watching Detroit just dominate the yankees, i'm convinced pitching is the ticket to spend on. I dont re-sign Blanco- i let Soto backup Barrett-saves me 1.5. Also, i believe Rusch will retire thus freeing up another 3.25M-thus i have 27.75M to spend Sign Schmidt 4/48( 11,12,12,13) Trade Jones(5)+Novoa+Ohman(1)+Ryu to Dodgers for Drew(11) Re-sign Wade Miller 1 yr@ 2.5M( mutual option for 2nd year with 1M buyout) Re-sign Woody-1 yr@ 1M plus incentives+3M buyout) money spent=18.9M Sign David Dellucci to 2 yr 5M deal (2,3) to play OF and the bench 20.9M spent......leaving 7M to spend-(soto costs me 300k) Sign Lofton to 1 year 2M deal Trade Marshall(350k)+Murton(350k)+Izturis(4.3)+Dempster(5)+Marmol(350k) to Baltimore for Tejada(12)-only 1.65M goes against payroll- leaving me 3.35M Sign Mark DeRosa to 2yr 5M(2,3) Sign Miguel Cairo to 1 yr 1.35M theres 23M spent- CF-Lofton(2M) LF-Dellucci(2M) SS-Tejada(12M) 1B-Lee(13M) 3B-Aram(11M) RF-Drew(11M) C-Barrett(4.3) 2B-Theriot(300k) total=55.6M Zambrano(10) Schmidt(11) Hill(350k) Miller(2.5M) Prior(4.2M) total=28M Bench- Soto(300k) Pagan(300k) Moore(300k) Cedeno(300k) DeRosa(2M) Cairo(1.35M) total=4.55M Wood(1M) Eyre(3.5M) Howry(4M) Wuertz(350k) Aardsma(350k) Guzman/Mateo(350k) total=9.55M total payroll of=97.7M i'd take that team