Andy

He would've been top of the list if he was still a free agent. Well, Dusty's list, anyway, and that's all that matters.

I hate SAS. The reason ESPN exists is for the Rome-Horn-PTI block from 4:30-6 each weekday.

Looking @ it from an optimistic perspective, it gives the Cubs the ability to use Jerome Williams, Rich Hill & Cedeno in a trade or trades, which can net a starting pitcher or OF. Combined they'll likely make about 1/5th of what Rusch/Perez will. Overpaying and bidding against yourself doesn't excuse anything. You want to use Williams, Hill, and Cedeno for trade? Great but, that doesn't excuse kicking yourself in the groin in the process. Everyone focuses on which role they play under Baker, look at what they are making and what their past production merits. To me, they're both severely overpaid, regardless of roles. Where do you get "bidding against yourself???" It's what we mean by Hendry giving Neifi much more money than anyone would have offered him. A much lesser offer would have landed Neifi, but Hendry topped that, ergo "bidding against himself".

Is Augie available? can he play RF? Can he catch the ball?

Unfortunately, no comment from Steve Phillips about how good Furcal is at catching the ball.

Depending on the off-seasons the Reds and Pirates have, a 6th-place finish is not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Fixed :(

For the last time, it's not just about Neifi. It's about Neifi at the cost they paid, at the expense of a cheaper alternative, at the possible cost of being able to sign Giles because they think HE will be overpaid. It's about paying Neifi and Rusch $6m for next season, when neither of them are worth close to it. It's indicative of a lack of coherent direction, because we now have Cedeno, Walker Hairston and now Perez for basically the same role. No we don't. The Cubs will probably be unloading the best two of those (Cedeno and Walker) before the season starts. I hate this team sometimes.

There are lots of places to look, but in the interest of promoting this site, why not look at They Call It Small Ball For A Reason written last year by one of our own regulars. Now the data in the article shows definitively that small ball is questionable in any situation other than 1-run games. But it supports usage in one-run games, even despite the fact that the article is clearly arguing against the usage of small ball. Personally, I promote responsible usage of small ball, which is sparingly and just the situations described previously. I also promote OBP and power. Unfortunately, in my experience, the anti-small ball crowd dismisses this combination and assumes for some reason it's impossible to have balance, and never appropriate to play for one run. This isn't on Hendry though. The GM has to assume the manager is responsible and only plays for one run in the late innings. And btw, I watch baseball daily, and I rarely ever see what you're describing, except for the last week of the season and the playoffs when desperation and pressure sets in. Apparantly, you didn't watch many Cubs games when Baylor was managing. The Cubs had 117 sacrifces in 2001. 117. Fifty of those came from non-pitchers. There were numerous occasions where Ricky Gutierrez was called on to bunt after a lead-off double by Eric Young. Nobody out, man on second, early in the game, and the Cubs were bunting. Jim Leyland is another manager that likes to bunt...a lot. Bunting in 2001 was a smart move. I think Baylor knew as much as anyone that there was no way in hell the Cubs were scoring many runs if they tried to outslug teams so he played some small ball. It worked out pretty well, didn't it? A very mediocre Cub team talent-wise nearly made the playoffs.

If Carpenter wins it I will lose my mind. D-Train maybe over Clemens, but definitely not Carpenter.

Yeah, but how many years will it take to undo the damage that Baker and Hendry could do? And moreover, how many World Series could this team have reasonably competed for behind the Wood/Prior/Z/Lee/Ramirez core with a competent GM?

And high-fiving. And just like the other NBA GMs with Isiah Thomas, they'll be offering him terrible trades as jokes just to see if he takes them.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Unsurprisingly, no quotes from Hendry in the Cubs.com article about the signing. Even the editors knew "I like guys who can catch the ball" was a miserable excuse for a signing like this. Well I would be too for being given 5M for sucking.

Hendry doesn't have a plan. He's doing whatever Dusty Baker tells him to do at this point. It won't be long now before we announce a lifetime contract for Dusty as Cubs manager.

I change my vote to No. Dusty Baker has emasculated Jim Hendry and made him his personal lapdog.

After the ROYs, they were due to screw something up. This should have been Mariano Rivera IMO.

You know, it'd be funny if Phillips actually said the Cubs signed Neifi because we like guys who can catch the ball. Then when ESPN guys ask him seriously why the Cubs did it he will say "No, seriously, Jim Hendry said he liked guys who can catch the ball" and everyone will laugh and Hendry will be shamed into being a competent GM again. Hopefully.

Well this ought to be interesting for Phillips. I wonder how he will rationalize the Neifi signing in his fake press conference.

That was Jim Hendry rationalizing giving Neifi about 2.49M more than any other team was going to give him for 2006. I think we should put CuseCubFan's new team motto on the shirt. "Cubs Fever 2006...Catch It!"* *and if you can't catch it, you'll be traded

Cubs fever...catch it!!! Thanks Cuse for the highlight of a crappy day so far. That's my motto for next year's team. :lol:

It's looking like this for 2006: C Barrett 1B Lee 2B Neifi SS Furcal 3B Ramirez LF Macias/Murton (mostly Macias) CF Patterson RF Encarnacion Season over. :cry:

My buddies and I have gone to a few Cubs games consecutively together the last couple of years and the intention was to make it an annual tradition, but if Hendry has no annual commitment to putting together a winning team then why should I have an annual commitment to going to Wrigley? I'm curious as to whether ANYONE would have signed this waste of space if we had not donated 5M to the Neifi Perez Charity. And we all know where this is going. Ronny Cedeno will double Neifi's BA in spring training and field better but Dusty will say he needs "veteran leadership" and Neifi will start all season. Ronny gets 70-90 AB in the 1st half of the season and is included as a throw-in in a deadline deal to get some overrated past-his-prime OF. Ronny goes on to be a multiple All-Star with his new team. I hate this organization.

I thought USC was the best team in college football after the 2003 season and after the 2004 season. The fact that LSU played Oklahoma and not USC for the 2003 title was a joke. You should not be allowed to play for a national title without winning your conference title and the Sooners did not.

Isn't that what happened two years ago? It's exactly what happened two years ago. Thanks to SC not losing since 2003, no one even remembers that technically LSU won that year's national title. They didn't win technically. They got the effin trophy. What does USC have to show they won it? I still don't understand why Auburn didn't get a split last year. It was the exact same scenario as '03. I hate USC. It was a much different scenario from 2003. In 03, the Number 1 team going into the title game (Oklahoma) lost, otherwise we never have this discussion. Logically the Number 2 team in the AP poll, which was USC, hopped past Oklahoma. In 2004, the Number 1 team in all polls going into the title game (USC) won, and won in absurdly decisive fashion, 55-19 over Oklahoma. What possible evidence was there that Auburn deserved to leapfrog USC after the title game was played?