goonys evil twin

That was the same BS line in 2004, they went from 88 to 89 wins. I'd say the odds are very strong the Cubs are at 89 wins or below. Again, define good chance.

Define good chance. They have a slight chance at 90 wins. They are likely an 82-85 win team. The lineup will be no better than middle of the road in the NL, and could easily be in the bottom third if Neifi plays and Walker is gone. The pitching staff is possibly top 5, but probably not top 2. That doesn't equate to a good chance for 90 wins in my book. If both your hitting and pitching are top 5, then you have a good chance for 90, but that is not close to the case with the Cubs.

Mike Kiley wrote that Walker is behind Neifi on the depth chart right now. I really think people have to come to terms with the idea of Neifi getting 500 plate appearances, or more. This lineup will not be good. It might not be terrible, but it's certainly capable of it.

Is it not justified? Jones has had plenty of time to prive himself. Just like Rusch, just like Neifi, Jones has proven that he's not good. He doens't help this team. This isn't a great team that needed to fill a little hole with a warm body. That RF position was going to be the 4 or 5 hitter on this team. They signed a 7 hitter, and they gave him too much money. What is the point of being so negative? It's not like any of us set out to be negative. It's not like we were dying for a signing like this so we could vent our anger. Hendry made the worst possible decision, and it pissed many people off. What are we supposed to do when we've been begging for months for him not to sign Jacque Jones and to acquire a good RF? Despite all the moronic claims that this board is run by group think and everybody is giving up on the 2006 season, that is not the case. This signing is obviously bad. When a move is made that is obviously bad, the vast majority of people will hate it. Some of it is overly dramatic, but you can hardly blame a Cubs fan for being overly dramatic when the GM makes an awful move. I am among the loudest opponents of this stupid move, and most of this terrible offseason. But I've pointed out many times I don't think 2006 is shot. I think this is a .500 team right now. If everything goes right, they can flirt with 90 wins and contend. I just think it's asinine to run a baseball team so that success can only be achieved if everything goes right. And I think it's incompetent to field a team with a $100m payroll that finishes under .500, and then try and fix that team but putting together a team that needs huge luck in its favor to finish significantly above .500.

Did you take a second to consider that the person who started this thread, started out by trying to ridicule the comparisons and characterizations of Jacque Jones that have been laid out by other posters? You seem to take offense to people ripping apart his argument. But his entire post was based on ripping apart other people's arguments? Do you expect him to be able to write whatever he wants, and not have people refute any and all claims they felt were inaccurate? Because if you do, then you better chastise everybody who is happy with this deal that tries to rip apart the remarks of those who are unhappy. If you see a "mob mentality" on a Cubs related topic, and disagree. Feel free to state why you think everybody else is so wrong. But don't be surprised when your claims are ripped to shreds, especially when they contain some rather dubious claims.

I'd rather have a good hitter than a stereotypical leadoff hitter.

And who in their right mind was expecting big production out of Sosa in 2006 anyway. I was righting off 2005 already. 2004 was a steaper fall than expected, but this didn't come out of nowhere.

For what it's worth. This move does not mean the Cubs have no chance to win next year. What it does mean is they have very little chance of having a decent lineup next year. They still have a chance for the playoffs if the pitching is ungodly good. That's just not a smart way to go into a season. Trade for Tejada and there is some hope.

I'm kind of glad there's still some undying support for Hendry. It was weird having everybody agree for once.

They aren't good drafters anyway. They have a new scouting director. Who must not be very smart if he chose to come to this organization in the state it's in. Either that or the Cubs overbid again.

4/$55-60m extension this season. *that is my prediction of what Hendry will do, not what I would do. That would be the best move in the past 2 years. It might be. But it's generally not wise to give a big raise and extension to a guy coming off a career year if you don't have to.

No, he's the big protector for the middle of the order. Neifi is 2nd.

They aren't good drafters anyway.

4/$55-60m extension this season. *that is my prediction of what Hendry will do, not what I would do.

KC, and thanks to Dusty's wonderful skills, he only had to pay $1m more than the Royals offered.

Start a campaign similar to the one in Detroit about Millen. :) Personally, I want to organize a day where we get as many people as possible to not buy tickets to one game as a protest...anyone interested in joining me? I can print out flyers at Kinkos for free Start a thread on the front of baseball discussions, I'll do my part.

but hello to a pretty sweet first round pick for the next 3 years.

I didn't take offense to your jab. It was soft enough, and absolutely freaking right.

I don't think it is. Now Hendry has several options: 1. He can trade Pie as part of a deal for Tejada and have all three OF positions set. 2. He can platoon Jones and Murton if Pie is playing for the Cubs in 2007. 3. He can platoon Jones and Hairston or another rightie this year. Having the OF filled with living human beings does not equate to having the OF "set". This OF sucks, big time. Whenever Hendry has had an option this offseason, he's taken the wrong one. I take that back, at least he didn't overpay for Furcal.

Is it okay yet for me to say the Cubs aren't having a good offseason? Or is it still only December freaking 20th?

That's the way many thought it was. But to be fair, I think we might have just heard that he can void it if he becomes arbitration eligible after 2004. I don't think we heard if he becomes arbitration elibigle in 2004 only, and not after 2005. In fact, in my first rough drafts of 2006 payroll, I was assuming Prior would be arb eligible and would get $4-6m instead of 2.5-3 or whatever he's guaranteed now. If I'm Hendry, and try and sign both Zambrano and Prior this offseason to contracts that would take away their first free agency season, hoping that the higher guarantee now would satisfy them more than the hope for greater money in 2008 or 2009.

My response when your posted this elsewhere was that we did hear about this before. It just wasn't clear for when and how he got that option. I don't know the final answer. But it's not true that we haven't heard about this before.

But that upgrade has to be worth the cost. Neifi is Neifi and always has been Neifi. We know Neifi will suck and has no chance to earn his 2 year $5m deal. As small a chance as it may be, at least Corey, at his age and with his skills and brief flashes of solid play, has a chance to live up to a $3m 1 year contract. But isn't the rumored deal for Jones roughly 1 year/$3 million? Even if it's a bit more, I'd pay an extra million bucks or so to have Jones instead of Corey. I want no part of Jones, or Corey, in RF next year. So it's hard to have this discussion. Something to remember is the Cubs do have the money to spend, and this wouldn't keep them from getting somebody else, because they apparantly aren't getting somebody else. Plus, Corey isn't a bad option to throw out there in LF if Murton goes down for a little while (he's at least comparable to Hairston and Mabry). If my options were 1/$3 on Corey or 1/$4 on Jones (first I'd fire myself for getting in that position), it would be tough. On the one hand, Jones could outperform Corey this year, which makes my team better. But on the other hand, if he's my starting RF, my chances of success aren't great, so marginal improvements don't help much. And, with Corey there is still that glimmer of hope that he salvages his career. I probably prefer Corey in that situation, but it may or may not be influenced by emotion. I wouldn't be happy either way. But I'd rather pay Corey $3m to be the 4th OF than to just give him away for crap.

But that upgrade has to be worth the cost. Neifi is Neifi and always has been Neifi. We know Neifi will suck and has no chance to earn his 2 year $5m deal. As small a chance as it may be, at least Corey, at his age and with his skills and brief flashes of solid play, has a chance to live up to a $3m 1 year contract.

Bring back Sosa to platoon w/ Jones. ;) Sosa's 2005 vs lefties - .288 .370 .471 2004 - .253 .393 .442 2002-2004 - .293 .402 .497 (probably irrelevent since he's fallen off the cliff). Jones at $5m and Sosa at $1m could give you 825-875 OPS at relatively fair cost. But of course, that couldn't happen given the messy divorce and baggage.