KingCubsFan

Looks like his growth plates finally kicked in. What's the origin of this joke? And also, it actually really does suck he couldn't have been better for us. I remember being pretty excited when we drafted him. He was terrible the whole time he was with our organization, and then as soon as he left he started putting up fantastic numbers.

Too bad Darin Downs didn't have more starts like that for us.

People from Dayton inventing flying machines to get the hell out of Dayton, what a shocker. dayton's also the birthplace of todd hollandsworth checkmate You should have said Dave Chappelle lives there.

at least it's not cleveland Or Dayton, for that matter

He had a good month or so last year. And he's one of the few high ceiling players in the system.

If Dusty didn't mess with him, I'd like to think he'd still be hitting .260-.275 with 25-30 homers and playing great defense.

Peavy for Soriano?

I'd have to think it's pretty likely, particularly if Colvin continues to struggle

Does Quade remember he has a bullpen tonight, or is he going to Dempster Z?

I like LeMahieu quite a bit more than I do Flaherty at this stage. Other than power, I really don't see anything that Flaherty does better than LeMahieu does. And now that DJ has added some weight to his frame, I'm not even sure there's going to wind up being all that big of a difference there. As far as either of them being ready to play 2B next year? In a perfect world, DJ doesn't grow out of the position, but I'm not sure that's going to be possible to control. I think Flaherty already HAS outgrown it, by the way, especially since the Cubs are already supposedly looking at him as a future utility guy. I think that IF DJ does outgrow 2B, they'll look at him as a 3B(even if he's blocked there). i just think it's kind of telling that the Cubs have already made Flaherty a utility guy anyway. But, I'll say this: DJ's bat is probably going to be ready soon and early next year makes perfect sense to me, especially if he adds a little power. I know the guy hits for average and the primary concern about LeMahieu is his lack of power, but what's really starting to bother me about him is his sheer lack of patience at the plate. He hasn't drawn a walk yet this year. Last season, his IsoD was .032, which is pretty awful. I'll give him credit; he doesn't strike out much. He employs an aggressive approach which results in a lot of balls put into play. So far, it's worked for him. He could potentially learn better plate discipline as he moves up. However, I really have to wonder what will happen to his numbers when he reaches AAA and the majors. Maybe the batting average carries over, but if he's not hitting for much power and not walking when he reaches the majors, how good will he be? As his power develops, pitchers will probably stop giving him so many pitches to hit, and hopefully that translates to a bit more walks.

Depends on what they have to give up. He has a very team-friendly contract, but he's really only had one outstanding year.

Though with Prior and Wood you were looking at two guys with immense talent that the organization were counting on being able to build around. Obviously, they want Cashner to be a big part of the team's future, but Wells is Wells. Once he starts getting more expensive his value is going to plummet. I meant in terms of the injury developments, not so much the actual affect it'll have on the field. With Wood and Prior there was always mystery around if and when they would return. This already smells like that. How many times did we hear that Prior would be back? In hindsight, that mystery probably had less to do with Hendry and Cubs management, and more to do with the fact that the medical staff at the time was completely incompetent.

That's putting a lot of pressure on Dempster, considering at least one bullpen arm automatically won't be available for each of his starts.

I think I'd like this more than Diamond. There aren't a whole lot of better options right now. We need him in the bullpen though. Too bad Jackson is suffering from his mysterious injury.

I didn't know the DBacks fans randomly hated us. It's not our fault you can't fill your park. Judging by the crowds so far, neither can we

Szczur, Lopez and Simpson are on Peoria. Gibbs and Silva as well. Overall, that offense is going to struggle.

I wish the White Sox gave up on Beckham. Cubs should be first in line to get him if that ever happened. You'd have an awesome, team-controlled up-the-middle core for a long time (Soto, Castro, Beckham and Jackson).

That wasn't a green light yesterday. Pena admitted he missed the take sign.

Meh, they have some pieces. If Bruce can become a .950 OPS hitter like many think he can be, its hard to beat him and Votto in the middle of the order. Pitching wise they have a few decent starters but nothing dominating. I think they are hoping Volquez can return to the form he had in his all star year, and eventually hope that Chapman can be an ace quality starter. That's gonna give them a good chance to compete every year. Their farm system is decent from what I've read, but clearly not at the level it was a few years ago. Chapman is the best one they have, but they also have 3-4 more guys that would make a top 100 list (Hamilton, that catcher dude, and a first baseman come to mind). Overall, they could end up being a great team for many years...its possible. But I'm not thinking 'the central is unwinnable for the next few years' Plus they have Dusty. Harang is already gone, Cueto is next, and Volquez has always had issues. Bailey is hurt too, but doesn't look like he'll be a long-term answer anyways. I wouldn't be surprised if Dusty panics and puts Chapman into the rotation in the middle of the year, leading to a Dr. Andrews visit next spring training.

I'm not going to give him much credit for getting 2.5 months good months out of Silva (which was completely due to Rotschild and luck). I'm guessing that was the only offer he had for Bradley, so he pretty much had to take it. It wasn't like he sifted through offers and thought "I see something in Silva." It was headcase for headcase. I'm sure the Mariners were just as sick of Silva as we were of Bradley. Fact is, the signing made us worse in '09, worse in '10, and worse in '11 because it was a complete waste of money and took up resources that could have been allocated elsewhere. I'm not a complete Hendry hater, but I don't really see anything positive that he did here. Yes, the Bradley signing was a poor one and screwed us for several years afterwards. No, that does not mean that the Silva trade was a bad one given the circumstances. Past moves necessitate current and future moves. Always. This is the slippery slop I'm alluding to. After an unfortunate signing, Hendry made a solid stop-the-bleeding move that only helped us. Did Hendry do even an adequate job of building a baseball team the last 3 years? No. But the Silva trade was not bad in itself. That's my only issue. EDIT: Just re-read your post and you're almost completely discounting the money factor. None of us can know if Hendry had any other (likely horrific) offers on the table, but at the very least he really did trade a worse/more damaged player for a better one and saved a bunch of money in the process. Given the facts, it should be an unquestioned success. It seems like we're just arguing semantics over what constitutes a "good" trade. To me, a "good" trade doesn't end with paying the guy $11 million to get off our team after he attacks our best player and gives up almost three hits an inning in spring training. Did Hendry do the right thing given the circumstances? Of course. There was no way Bradley could come back to the team, and freed up just enough money to get Byrd. But going back to my original post, the original signing was predictably terrible (much like Pierre and Aaron Miles), and I can't really give Hendry for being lucky enough to find someone just as bad and alienating as Bradley who happened to have a similar contract. And if we didn't have a manager as awesome as Quade, it could have ended up even worse.

As much against the Bradley signing as I was, probably the worst thing that could have happened to Bradley was him being hyped as a big-time power hitting "RBI machine" who would slug like crazy in the middle of our lineup. When healthy he's generally been a very productive player, but more in the Fukudome way and not in the Adam Dunn way. People probably would have been more accepting of him had they expected a better (though less healthy) version of Kosuke rather than the next Sammy Sosa. I don't think it mattered whether the fans accepted him or not. It wasn't the fans that got to him (and if it was, I wish they would have got on him even more because he was really good at home and terrible on the road). The Cubs signed a guy with severe mental issues, so it really wasn't a surprise when he went off considering he was on a losing team with a manager like Lou. It was a gamble by Hendry that, predictably, didn't pay off.

I'm not going to give him much credit for getting 2.5 months good months out of Silva (which was completely due to Rotschild and luck). I'm guessing that was the only offer he had for Bradley, so he pretty much had to take it. It wasn't like he sifted through offers and thought "I see something in Silva." It was headcase for headcase. I'm sure the Mariners were just as sick of Silva as we were of Bradley. Fact is, the signing made us worse in '09, worse in '10, and worse in '11 because it was a complete waste of money and took up resources that could have been allocated elsewhere. I'm not a complete Hendry hater, but I don't really see anything positive that he did here.

It was probably Piniella's, but it doesn't really matter. One of Hendry's weaknesses has always been catering too much to what the manager wants (some might call it a strength, depending on who you talk to). Good GM's tend to have one philosophy and find a manager that agrees with him, or get an indifferent manager that goes along with the organizational philosophy. Instead, we get the "more speed," "more athletic," "more lefthanded," "better chemistry" slogan that changes every offseason.

It was refreshing to hear; I was thinking it was the most outspoken I've ever heard Hendry. However, you really have to wonder how big of a vagina Hendry actually was with Silva and letting him in on this info. I know the Cubs don't owe Silva anything other than his $$, but Hendry's comments really lead me to believe Silva had no chance from the start. Silva's an idiot and I'm happy, but I'd probably be a little pissed if I were him as well. To me, the only way Silva truly had a right to be pissed was if he had came out and pitched great this spring, Cashner didn't, and he STILL got passed over. Then, I could see him having a reason to be upset. But, he didn't.(thank the lord) It all goes back to when we traded a turd sandwich for a giant douche. Hopefully Hendry learned his lesson with that one. What lesson was that? I won't repeat BeertownCubbie, but Hendry did just fine in that situation, given the options he had. It never should have gotten to this in the first place. Along with Juan Pierre, signing Milton Bradley was one of the biggest mistakes ever made by Hendry. He did it out of a need to get "more lefthanded" which was completely idiotic given that the idea grew out of a three game sweep by the Dodgers, and ignored the fact that we were one of the best teams in baseball against righthanded pitching in 2008. It was a mistake the moment the ink dried, much like Soriano's contract.

I wouldn't mind taking a shot. Only problem is that we probably can't carry him on the major league roster if we already have four middle infielders, and I'm guessing they'll be giving Scott Moore a lot of time at 2b in AAA.