Sammy Sofa

Quiet.

SLG: 2011: .495 Career: .536 OBP: 2011: .371 Career: .364 UZR has him as a very good fielder at second and inconsistent at third. I'll concede this one to you. He's got enough power and patience in a platoon role, however. All numbers are against lefties. he doesn't need a lot of patience if he hits .355 against lefties and he's used exclusively against them. he's a valuable bench player, i have no idea why someone would want to get rid of him. Lets see,his lifetime ba vs lefties is well below .355 (.317) .he is a lifetime .190 pinch hitter,cant hit righties for [expletive], is a rather poor fielder,has no power,never walks,has no speed,and makes over a million dollars per. He would have to improve to be considered one dimensional,right now he would have to be considered 1/2 dimensional at best.Glad you like him,though. You're being deliberately obtuse, right? You can't see the value in a platoon player? Baker's career numbers against LH pitchers: .317 .364 .536 .900 in 535 PA You really can't see the value in that?

Well, he can't be tied with Youk. Because, well, you know...

Yeah, I thought most of the offers were in the realm of 6 years and around $100 million.

Oh, no, that had everything to do with #2-4. Nobody cares about #1, stranger on the internet.

Nobody said that. That's the only way paying an injury-prone 35-year-old OF $12-15 million a year makes any damn sense. After the mess the previous manager left the team in, that's the last thing that the next one is going to want to do. Yeah, I really have zero interest in Beltran given the other FA available who better address some of the team's needs both now and in the long run. Plus guys like Kemp and Ethier likely being available after 2012.

I tried to read all of the thread and jubilation but had to stop at this post. Well said and a much better summary than any other blog or writer so far. In the 9 years Hendry was GM, the Cubs became more successful than any other time during my life. He had some colossal successes and some colossal blunders. However, many of those blunders are now seen with hindsight that I suspect even he would agree with. Looking at a "top 5" list of failures on another site, Hendry's mistakes are poor now but put in perspective of the moves at the time, weren't as poor as they seemed. Zambrano's contract was actually a savings from what the market value that year was (although the no trade clauses he always gave were poor management). Soriano was market value as well and despite many prognosticators being right on the number of years becoming an albatross, that deal was not Hendry's fault. The Willis trade for Alfonseca is hardly a bad trade and was pretty even at the time given Clement's success. I think that for all the jubilation about the dismissal (and justifiably so) we should be fair to the last 9 years and look back on the Jim Hendry era with fondness for all that went right as well as all that went wrong. The last 9 years have been some of the highest cubs fans have ever been and some of the lowest. At least it was always this low Soriano was not "market value." It's pretty well known at this point that Hendry blew away the closest offers at the behest of the owners. Yes, he was the biggest FA in that offseason and Hendry was told to spend, but let's not act like that contract was something he was going to get from another team.

Can you crumple up the list of questions flyseye just gave you, set them on fire and then pee on the ashes?

Green font.

Nobody said that. That's the only way paying an injury-prone 35-year-old OF $12-15 million a year makes any damn sense.

He's been pretty bad this year. Teams taking him on are going to be doing so out of the hope that he rebounds at least somewhat next season. I havn't been following as closely as I have in years past, but hasn's Z actually been pretty close to his career averages but been brought down by a handful of disasterous outings? I'd have to double check. I know that was the case for most of the first half, but not sure if that's carried over since.

He's been pretty bad this year. Teams taking him on are going to be doing so out of the hope that he rebounds at least somewhat next season.

I don't disagree with any of this, hence why I said "past success." Again, my point in this is mostly that it just reflects badly on the Cubs. It's enough of a mess of a situation already without them further dragging through the mud, even if the effect on trading him is minimal.

Why is Beltran only signing a 1-year contract?

If more than one team wants him, then the Cubs aren't over a barrel. If he still has value to other teams, the Cubs can get that value. Relatively speaking, sure. But in the grand scheme of things they're unfortunately over a barrel. They're not going to trade him without either getting a horrible contract back in return, paying for most of Zambrano's 2012 contract or simply getting scraps. Given that he's still 30, his significant past success and his relative offensive value the Cubs shouldn't be in that kind of corner...and yet, here we are.

Hence why I said "shred of leverage." On top of that it just makes the organization look crappy. Zambrano has done more than enough on his own to make himself look like a mess. The organization piling on serves to accomplish...what? Meatballism, rolling merrily along, yet again. Oh, and teams DO want him. To say otherwise is absurd. Teams are always convinced they have the staff or the change of scenery to make a talented but troubled player click. They just don't want him where they have to give up anything of significant value because they know the Cubs are effectively over a barrel right now if they want to trade him. Multiple teams have taken chances on Milton Bradley, and he's an even worse headcase than Zambrano. Teams took chances on seemingly washed up junkie Josh Hamilton. There will be teams that want to take a chance with Zambrano.

Works for me.

I'm sorry, but how do you guys think that this information is finally getting out? People inside the organization are talking, obviously. And how it would be worse if the official word from the top was to not discuss the matter with the press? That should be the standard with these type of issues.

SERIOUS LIST IS SO SERIOUS.

Yes, how dare THE CUBS let anyone know that Zambrano drinks coffee. AND RED BULL TOO! Please, please, please do not confuse "players" talking about Zambrano with "the Cubs." You're grasping at straws you desperately want there but don't know for sure. Makes you look bad. That's never stopped him before. LOL I was using sarcasm to highlight the absurdity of YOUR post. You are the one grasping at straws and looking bad doing so. What, exactly, did THE CUBS leak??? Where could that information have come from except from players or (more likely) other people working throughout the organization? The word to everyone working for the organization, players or otherwise, after all of this went should have been DON'T TALK TO THE PRESS. Is that going to completely keep people from leaking information? Of course not, but otherwise this is fitting right into their too predictable pattern of further tearing down a player on the outs when people have such an obvious abundance of info to work with. And I have no idea how your sarcasm was supposed to "work." It's not like they were leaking basic info about his dietary habits. The coffee and Red Bull came up specifically in regards to how it effects his cramping and his supposed refusal or unwillingness to cut back despite the advice of the trainers/medical staff. Seems like a pretty stupid thing to be letting get out there. Just helps smash any shred of leverage they hope to have in trading him to dust.

Hot damn. What a day.

While I'm all for Fielder or Pujols at any cost, I understand the concern. Looking at some of the massive contracts handed out in recent years, they just don't seem to end well. Soriano gave the Cubs 2 great years before a dreadful 2009 before becoming more productive, but nowhere worth the money in '10 and '11. Big Z was never the ace we paid for. As for other teams, the ink was barely dry on Alex Rios and Vernon Wells contracts before the Blue Jays wanted out. Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand were huge mistakes for the Giants, Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones, and Rafeal FurcalX2 were all awful for the Dodgers. Jason Werth and Adam Dunn have both been beyong awful for their teams in the early goings of their contracts. Matt Holliday has been very good for the Cards so far, but he's only in year 2 in what I believe is a 7 year deal. Looking at all of these contracts, it's easy to see why any team would be hesitant to hand out a 5-7 year contract to any player, unlessit's like the Braun, Tulo, or Longoria ones in which the team is essentially buying out the players primes at a team friendlly price. OR LIKE FIELDER AND PUJOLS? Christ.

The manager is relatively incidental in this kind of discussion.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/7128572-417/carlos-zambrano-and-the-cubs-what-went-wrong.html Sheds a bit more light on some of the private problems the team was alluding to. Oh, shocker that the Cubs are leaking this. Yes, how dare THE CUBS let anyone know that Zambrano drinks coffee. AND RED BULL TOO! Please, please, please do not confuse "players" talking about Zambrano with "the Cubs." You're grasping at straws you desperately want there but don't know for sure. Makes you look bad. That's never stopped him before.

The bold part isn't certain at all. He obviously will be declining at some point in the contract, but your wording makes it sound like he's all but a lock to have career-low WARs each year of his contract.