goonys evil twin

Why not Karonka? Left-handedness, and recent fall success outweigh Aardsma's right-handedness and complete meltdown since he's become a Cub. That said, I wouldn't bat an eye if Koronka was dropped. Assuming that meant Macias was still on the roster, I will do more than bat an eye.

Walker's pair of 1-yr deals. ;) Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. I was suprised they signed him for what he originally cost, and shocked he came back at his current deal. When 2B was talked about after 2003, many had Walker at about a 3/12-15 year contract.

Ideal, or good? I really liked the Lee and Ramirez contracts. What gets old is the Cubs making the same old mistakes and ending up with the same old results. Money matters. The contract details matter. Contracts signed today will be used as excuses for contracts not offered in the future, that's just a fact. And for the record, I don't believe I've said one word about Howry's supposed contract in this thread.

In the NFL, with the salary cap, sometimes that is a choice that has to be made (although there have been quite a few teams that were quite good on both sides of the ball in recent years - New England, Philly, Pittsburgh [while they may not throw, they run like no other], Denver and quite possibly this year's Colts. And if you are a lower payroll baseball team, this might also be a necessary approach. But if you are a baseball team with a top 5 payroll, you simply don't have an excuse not to be a top 5 team both at scoring and preventing runs in your league.

Wow, that was a ridiculous thing to say. This has hardly been 18 pages of complaining. I've seen a lot of the space used for questions, clarifications and praise. But it's good to see the spirit police spring into action to try and haul in those evil people who have the audacity to question a move made by the impeccable Cubs management team.

That's part of what makes it overblown. If you hate a person because he cheers on another team, you need help. The other part is how much it's shoved down the throat of the national audience.

Not really. The pitching was near the top of the league. Certainly good enough to make for a 90+ win season. The offense was mediocre. That's the reason they failed to win 90 wins. You can't really snicker at a top 3 pitching staff, or expect much more. You can expect more than a 9th ranked scoring offense, especially when you have a top payroll.

I think signing Giles makes a heck of a lot more sense than trading away your best prospect, and I have a feeling that Hendry has as much interest in trading Pie for Abreu as he does for signing Giles. That's true. But then again, Pie is only the Cubs best prospect because they are so bereft of top flight prospects after slowly falling down the list of top farm systems. He's got some pretty large flaws for all the we can't trade him for a current start talk. I'm not advocating trading Pie instead of signing Giles. I'm all about Giles. But if the GM won't open his eyes to the obviousness of signing Giles, he has to trade for an impact corner OF someway and somehow. And I'd like to see them trade prospects other than Pie to get that corner OF. But I would not let Pie and his slim chance for greatness stand in the way of making a trade, if he was a dealbreaker. He's not worth it.

Yeah, I wouldn't. Offense is so much more important than the bullpen. Why is there such blatant disregard for offense? I have a theory that it's a backlash for the increased importance that offense took on in the 90's and early 00's in many sports, and how all leagues worked to make offense more important. The decades long mantra that defense wins championships, and the insinuation that scoring and offense was far less macho than preventing scores started to take hits when teams like STL won the Super Bowl and even when the Red Sox won the WS. Much like the backlash against sabermetric ideas in baseball, and a more analytical approach to roster moves, the backlash against offense has been led by the it was so much better when crowd. Offense matters. The Cubs bad offense is the reason this team hasn't won 90 games despite being among the top payrolls the past 3 years. Bullpen improvements would be nice, but not nearly as effective at improving this team as the major upgrades needed on offense.

Do you think the Cubs are an Abreu away from winning the World Series in the next couple years? Yes. It wouldn't guarantee, but it's the closest thing to it. The Cubs have been a top pitching team in 2 of the past 3 years. They've been a mediocre or worse hitting team every year. An impact RF to go along with Aramis, Lee, Barrett and whatever top of the order player Hendry gets (assuming that player is competent) would put them as close to the WS as any team in the NL. Is the difference between Giles and Abreu over the next couple seasons worth giving up Pie? You're talking to the wrong person if you're advocating signing Giles. Giles is atop the list. But Hendry doesn't seem to have any interest in the most obvious solution, therefore it's time to look into the next best options, and trading for Abreu is clearly in that group.

I don't really feel that the chances are too great, considering all our hopes rest on Prior/Wood/Zambrano and not on acquiring an impact bat. If Prior/Wood/Zambrano are all healthy for a full season and produce like we know they can, we don't need Abreu to make the playoffs and potentially win a WS. If they're not all healthy, Abreu isn't going to get us to the WS. That is some extremely backward thinking. Prior Wood and Zambrano were all healthy and effective in 2003, and it led to an 88 win team. Why? Because the offense was mediocre due almost exclusively to the low BB/OBP numbers. If you feel the chances aren't great to capitalize on those guys in the next couple years, then you might as well advocate trading them all. That's pure silliness in my opinion. It's silly to say that the success of 2006 depends on our rotation? Abreu isn't the last piece to the puzzle, so why trade away your best prospect for him? his age is the primary factor, IMO. you're basically trading away the future for a shot at the next two years with Abreu. Zambrano and Prior are going to be re-signed long term and they're both young. it would be nice to win in the next two years, but we have too many holes and too many things that can go wrong (and are likely too, like Wood's arm falling off) to take a chance on Abreu, who isn't a long term solution. You are saying two different things. You are saying the team needs the pitching to be healthy to win, but then you are following that up with a "we shouldn't waste our time going after an impact bat because it's all about the pitching and offense doesn't matter." It makes no sense. It's silly. If this was Pittsburgh, and they didn't have the money to go after an impact bat, and had to rely on career years from pitchers, well, then just sit back and hope for those career years because your options are limited. But this is not the 1999 Cubs, when it made no sense to trade prospects for bats, because that team was so bad. This team does not have so many holes that an impact bat couldn't make a difference. They could conceivably be better in 2005 at every single offensive position except 1B, depending on who Hendry gets for the OF. Last year's pitching decline hurt, but it was sharp decline from the success of the early 2000s. It is quite possible to improve the pitching with minor tweaks, but impossible to improve this offense with tweaks. They need an impact bat. And Pie is not untradable. I was a staunch "keep them all" guy in the late 90's and early 00's, but keeping that same attitude now, when the window of opportunity is closing on the "our best pitchers are outperforming their contracts" era would be quite foolish. Pie is no better prospect than any of the top prospects of the 97-02 hayday of Cubs prospect lists. Sure he's got value, but much of that value is what he can get this team via trade. He won't contribute to this team for at least a year, and even then probably won't be all that good. Now is not the time to be concerned with the 2008-2012 Cubs. As long as Hendry doesn't completely handicap this team's future with a list of asinine deals, those teams will take care of themselves. 2006-2007 matter most of all right now, much more than 1999-2002 mattered going into those seasons. If you don't want to trade Pie, fine. But don't make up some goofy excuse that pitching health is the only thing that will helpl this team win, therefore they shouldn't make a move to fill the biggest need on this team.

Do you think the Cubs are an Abreu away from winning the World Series in the next couple years? Yes. It wouldn't guarantee, but it's the closest thing to it. The Cubs have been a top pitching team in 2 of the past 3 years. They've been a mediocre or worse hitting team every year. An impact RF to go along with Aramis, Lee, Barrett and whatever top of the order player Hendry gets (assuming that player is competent) would put them as close to the WS as any team in the NL.

I don't really feel that the chances are too great, considering all our hopes rest on Prior/Wood/Zambrano and not on acquiring an impact bat. If Prior/Wood/Zambrano are all healthy for a full season and produce like we know they can, we don't need Abreu to make the playoffs and potentially win a WS. If they're not all healthy, Abreu isn't going to get us to the WS. That is some extremely backward thinking. Prior Wood and Zambrano were all healthy and effective in 2003, and it led to an 88 win team. Why? Because the offense was mediocre due almost exclusively to the low BB/OBP numbers. If you feel the chances aren't great to capitalize on those guys in the next couple years, then you might as well advocate trading them all. That's pure silliness in my opinion.

Plus add a RF, but I'd be happy with that and think that's the way it's going. I think it's way to early to criticize the moves that have or haven't been made. But Hendry has been making the moves for years now, and his moves have brought the Cubs to where they are now, a sub .500 team coming off back to back seasons that finished up in various forms of disaster. It's last call for Hendry. He's got to acquire some very good players and turn this team into a championship caliber team, quickly. I don't think it's too early to criticize the direction of the team over the past few years, and it's certainly not too early to criticize the organization's blatant disregard for the one problem that has consistently haunted this team for several seasons in a row; that is the lack of walks taken by their hitters which leads to a low OBP which leads to fewer runs scored which leads to fewer wins.

Pujols hit .329/.403/.610 in his first season, a better OPS+ than Abreu has ever posted in his career. Do you expect those numbers from Pie in his first year in the bigs? Do you expect Pie to be a 30/30 guy with an OBP of 330+? In his first year do you expect pie to have a SLG of even cloes to .500? If so, when do you expect him to be and everyday MLer? Abreu brings all that right now. Abreu is 32 years old. He doesn't have many good seasons left. Pie could bring us a many good seasons at a low price or we can trade him for an under 30 year old impact bat. I'll take that under 30 impact bat please. But assuming that player isn't available, I'll take Abreu.

Pie has more than 1/2 of a good pro season. He was good in 2004 and was pretty good in 2003. He also had a great debut in rookie ball. You could say he's only had 1/2 a great season above rookie ball. But that's hardly a knock. Plus, Pie's resume is pretty similar to Cabrerra as of this stage in their respective careers.

So after all this, have we determined the answer to the question on the thread title is no, Howry hasn't signed?

Which reliever are you referring to? Eyre, whose contract is 2 yrs + option year, or the pending Howry deal? Eyre's option is a player's option, which means it's almost certain to be exercised, which is a negative.

Define "implosion." If Dempster just su-ks, but converts 80% of his saves because that's what happens, and Baker keeps trotting him out there to "protect" three-run leads, are we better off? Converting just 1-2 of his first 10 save opportunities would be an implosion, imho. Or converting his first 8 save opportunities but doing so with an abysmal ERA and peripheral numbers. Save % doesn't tell you much about how the guy is pitching, or how he's likely to pitch in the future.

I think the Cubs need to act as broker in this deal, getting Abreu and greasing the skids with pitching prospects and/or a young bat or two.

Why are people dissing Ramirez? He's Boston's Felix Pie. He's only 21, plays a premium position, has a career minor league average over .300, with an OBP around .350-.360 and a SLG of .442. He's got a much better K/BB, is a more prolific and efficient base stealer and has proven himself with more pro at bats.

Maybe Hendry shouldn't have wasted a talented prospect in that worthless trade for Bartosh, or given up on Farnsworth for the lesser Novoa.

Not in my mind, at least as far as the offense is concerned. Do you see them bringing back Mueller and Millar? I think Millar is as good as gone, and Mueller may leave as well. If they keep him, Lowell should just start at 3B. You don't think the offensive lift from Mueller/Millar/Youkilis to just Youkilis and Lowell is enough for them to feel better about moving Manny and signing Giles? I'm not sure Lowell is a lift from Mueller/Millar, at least not enough to offset whatever concerns they had with losing Manny. The Manny deal has to be based on who they can get for him and who they can sign for his money. Lowell isn't going to offset the loss of Manny, not by a longshot.

I am not a big Pierre or Soriano fan, but depending on the pitcher, I probably wouldn't be all that upset. Neifi can be the 8th hitter on a team with a very good lineup and solid pitching, but that is all he can be. Who would backup at SS?

Not in my mind, at least as far as the offense is concerned. Do you see them bringing back Mueller and Millar? I think Millar is as good as gone, and Mueller may leave as well. If they keep him, Lowell should just start at 3B.