apete6

I couldn't agree more. If he didn't trade Jacque, what's JJ going to do, sit out? Trading a guy who demands a trade=50 cents on the dollar...even if that dollar is worth as much as an Iraqi dollar, you're still not getting back what you should. Terrible move from Hendry. I can see it now "Fukodome to stay in Japan, Cubs sign Luis Gonzalez" Yuck.

Are we trading D. Lee, Aram, Soriano, and Zambrano? You're right, Zambrano of the over 4.00 ERA (Hell, Lilly was better than him last year), DLee of the 20 homers and declining skill set, Soriano of the terrible defense (assists are a product of everyone thinking you suck and can't catch the ball) and awful RBI and OBP numbers for $136M. Ramirez is the only one who you could really argue. Please explain this Just look at last year when Soriano got on and was useless because his leg was hurt. Also, how many DPs did we ground into in the playoffs because we had no one who could steal besides Theriot (who was never really on base a whole lot) Is that a compliment? Um, yeah. For as much as we all hated 4-3 when he was here. Imagine if he was actually able to hit for power AND steal as many bases, only in like 75% of the attempts. Oh ya, and if Pierre didn't have a noodle arm in the outfield. That guy would have been a pretty damn good player...and very Carl Crawford like. oh yes..they are. You're right, he's not going to be Rickey Henderson, but he's also 26 YEARS OLD and signed to a team friendly contract for a decent amount of time. But, you're right, we should spend $50 million more to get a Japanese guy who could be a total bust or could be average (besides Ichiro, which Japanese player has been a superstar?) Matsui has been very good, but he was also the BEST player in Japan for a while...and he's helped by batting 6th on the Yankees.

Carl Crawford would be the best player on the Cubs for the next 5 years (minimum) if he gets to the north side. The guy is an incredible athlete who completely changes the game with his speed. He's a rich man's Juan Pierre. Rickey Henderson comparisons aren't that big of a stretch in my opinion. I'd give up any 3 players outside of Zambrano, Lee, and Ramirez for him. (Hill, Marmol, Pie MIGHT be the only exception).

HUGE game for DePaul and Wainwright. If they lose, it'll be another unexciting year and likely NIT berth. Standard issue DePaul basketball unfortunately. However, if they can beat Creighton and then Northwestern next weekend, they will be 4-0 heading into Kansas...where Wainwright beat Kansas with his undermanned Richmond squad.

Did Marshall sleep with Hendry's wife AND daughter or something? He's essentially been benched for Steve (6.00 ERA) Trachsel and Ryan (Haven't started in 3 years) Dempster. What the hell did Marshall do wrong? Is getting people out the wrong thing to do in baseball now?

I'm going out on a limb and saying he doesn't get more than the yankees offer (8/240, i think). It would be great if that's correct. For our sake, I hope its because he wants to take less money and go to the Cubs.

LOL, Ausmus is worse than Blanco, LOL

I counted 16, perhaps you thought of the other A-gon. Doesn't really matter though :) Point is, none of these guys should be Cubs by opening day. :crosses fingers: I assume he meant Alex "Thank heaven for Steve Bartman" Gonzalez, because the other one isn't a free agent. ah, that must be the case, then. I assumed he couldn't mean A-s-Gon since he retired a year or two back, but I suppose Walker's on the list too Ya, that's who I meant. He was on some FA list I saw, said he was on Toronto last. They're retired from MLB the same way I am--because no one wants me on their team :D

So did Soriano, but both will get contracts they don't deserve.

Did you just name drop Billy Joe Tolliver? My god, that would have ended the name dropping thread if it were on the first page. Nice work. BTW, what in god's name do you think Billy Joe and AROD talk about when they hang out? Pretty soon, someone's going to tell me that Jon Kitna and Carl Everett are going to church together.

1. David Eckstein 2. Torii Hunter 3. Jason Marquis...oh, wait, that was last year 4. Overpriced Aaron Rowand (as opposed to actually a decent player when he's not making any money Aaron Rowand) 5. Antonio Alfonseca 6. Brad Ausmus 7. Jason Kendall 8. Steve Trachsel 9. Paul Bako 10. Michael Barrett 11. Armando Benitez 12. Joe Borowski 13. Shawn Chacon 14. Matt Clement 15. Jeff Conine 16. Darin Erstad (should probably be #3 on the list) 17. Eric Gagne 18. Alex Gonzalez 19. LaTroy Hawkins 20. Cesar Izturis 21. Jason Jennings 22. Ray King 23. Scott Linebrink 24. Rob Mackowiak 25. Kaz Matsui 26. Trot Nixon 27. Russ Ortiz 28. Corey Patterson 29. Neifi Perez 30. Mike Piazza 31. Carlos Silva (the overpriced version) 32. Shannon Stewart 33. Julian Tavarez 34. Brett Tomko 35. Juan Uribe 36. Jose Valentin 37. Tim Wakefield (debatable) 38. Todd Walker 39. Scott Williamson 40. Preston Wilson 41. Tony Womack

So take a pay cut and then give him an incentive that relies greatly on the other 24 players around him? Nah, I don't think that will happen. and how pissed would the other 24 players be when he gets $100M for his WS share? Hey, just thinking outside of the box. AROD already has more money than God. Maybe he opted out because he didn't want to be a Yankee. We all know that it's going to be very tough for anyone to beat the Yankees financial offer without being creative. And, it's not like he's getting paid 0, its $20M/year for 5 years with a chance to cash in again in 5 years when he's getting ready to break all of the all time records. Remember, 7 years ago, the guy signed a contract that no one thought he would ever opt out of, now he has a chance to make even more than the $252 million (he already turned down a larger contact with the Yanks) And...if the other players on the Cubs won the WS, I'm sure they wouldn't be hurting financially at all. Look at all of the fringe 85 Bears and the endorsements that they got. Guys like freaking Emery Moorehead got rich by being on that team. I'm sure Zambrano and Lee would have no problem making millions off of endorsements and I'm sure they all have clauses that get them at least some sort of a payout if they win the WS.

You think AROD would have any interest in a 5yr/$100 contract with a $100 million dollar bonus if the Cubs win the WS when he is on the active roster (ie: not injured)? Not only would he still be getting $100 million over 5 years, which isn't terrible (not to mention all of the endorsements), but he has the chance to make essentially $40 million/year if he can deliver the goods.

DePaul Blue Demons--Big East Last Year: Very disappointing. Should have made the NCAA tourney, but advanced to quarterfinals of NIT, losing @ Air Force by 1 point and missing out on a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT final 4. Key Losses: Wilson Chandler (1st round pick, NY Knicks), Sammy Mejia (2nd round pick, Detroit Pistons), Marcus Heard (Europe) Key Additions: Mac Koshwal (6'10" PF), Dar Tucker (6'4" SG/SF) Matija Poscic (6'11" C) Best Returning Player: Draelon Burns (6'5" SG). Deadly 3 point and FT shooter with unlimited range...and poor shot selection. Should lead team in scoring and chest bumps. Could average over 15PPG and capable of several 25+ point efforts when he's on fire. x-Factor: Wesley Green (6'10", 285lb Sr. center). After fighting injuries and weight problems, Green will have a chance to salvage his disappointing career at DePaul (top 50 recruit out of HS) Projected Starters: Will Walker, Draelon Burns, Karron Clarke, Mac Koshwal, Wesley Green Projected Finish: 17-13 Reg Season, 10th in Big East (out of 16), NIT berth If the Demons want to make the NCAAs: Burns needs to be huge and make good decisions on his shot selection. One of the "point guards by committee" has to step up and make good decisions distributing the ball. Wes Green needs to be a low post presence on offense and defense. Freshmen and juco transfers need to live up to their Top 15 recruiting class billing. Coach Wainwright needs to get the team off to a good start following 2 consecutive years in which the team has suffered NCAA-crippling losses in the first month of the season. If the Demons want to actually make noise in the NCAAs: Mac Koshwal has to be THE MAN. According to scouts, Mac could be one of the DePaul greats...or he could follow Wilson Chandler and Quentin Richardson in the "2 years in college group" that make a bigger impact on the NBA than in college.

If it did, I would have to buy 2 authentic jerseys (Santana and Arod) and thousands of dollars of World Series memoribilia...and my wife would probably divorce me. Although that team would probably be worth it.

We haven't won the WS in almost 100 years, why not sign Satan himself (Bonds) to captain the ship towards baseball hell? Brilliant. Sign me up. If there's anywhere Bonds can still play the outfield, its Wrigley... Then trade Jones & Gallagher for Renteria + prospect. Here is your lineup: Soriano RF Renteria SS Lee 1B Bonds LF (Murton when Bonds needs rest) Ramirez 3B DeRosa 2B Soto C Pie CF The only thing is, if you trade Jones, you need someone on the bench who can play CF if/when Pie is sucking. (Pagan???)

I was in West Virginia for work and saw him play as a member of the West Virginia Power (Brewers class A affiliate) and he hit 2 homers in the game, including 1 that would have gone well over 400 feet to left field had it not slammed into the scoreboard and broken one of the lightbulbs. Very impressive. He was playing left field that night and let's just say that he made Adam Dunn look like a 1993 version of Barry Bonds. I'm sure the kid will get much better, however, and if he keeps his power coming, I'm not going to be too thrilled with a Braun-Fielder-LaPorta middle of the order for the Crew in the future.

The real question is: What trade value do Eyre, Howry, and Dempster have? Guys like Wuertz, Marmol, and to a lesser extent, Hart, really stepped up last year and make 1/10th the money of those other guys. If we are looking to beef up our offense and get some spare payroll, look at trading the veterans first...although bullpens are so fickle that all of those guys could tank next year and we could be back in the market for "veteran bullpen guys"

Honestly, it would be Zambrano (and 1/2 salary) as well as Pie and 2 other top prospects.

You save 21M by trading for him and just extending him because TX would still be on the hook. Ramirez and Prior for AROD and Philip Hughes. AROD signs 10 year/$200 million dollar contract, which is really like 10/$179 if you count Texas' contribution. I buy AROD jersey and then AROD proceeds to die in freak car accident and millions of Cubs fans committ suicide. Oh ya, then Prior wins 10 consecutive AL Cy Youngs and Ramirez wins 10 consecutive WS MVPs.

See, I'd bat Soriano between Lee and Ramirez. How many people would risk walking him with ARAM on deck? He would see a ton of fastballs with men on base. Murton Lee Soriano Ramirez DeRosa Jones Soto Theriot When Pie starts, just put him #1 instead of Murton OR you could put Riot #1, Soto #8 and Pie #7 so Pie can swing away and Soto (and his better OBP) can bat in front of the pitcher.

Theriot didn't start his Cubs career batting like .174 in the first 2 months, either. Everyone, myself included, was CRUNKED to have him on the Cubs before last season, despite how "much" we gave up to get him. I saw several Pierre jersey Ts in the first few weeks of last season. After they were 20 games out...not so much.

Much worse than Sosa's. We only had to eat 1 year of Sosa's contract. Even his "bad" 2004, he gave us 35HR and 80RBI, both higher than Soriano's totals this year. Granted, Soriano had a much better overall impact on the team this year than Sosa did in 2004, but that was also his 1st year of an 8 year deal, not the 3rd of a 4 year deal. Bottom line is that Hendry should never have been give the OK for Soriano's contract. He did what was best for him, but the man in charge let him do what wasn't best for the organization. That's what you get when you have a marketing guy in charge of baseball operations. I honestly think Soriano's contract will be one of the top 5 worst contracts in the history of sports, along with the Mike Hampton, Chan Ho Park, Darren Dreifort, and Vin Baker (basketball). Carlos Lee got a bad contract, but you know what you're getting with CLee, and that includes 100 RBI until he officially eats himself out of baseball.

Just to think that $136 million could already be contributed to the AROD contract makes me sick. Also, Soriano has a full no trade, so even if we wanted to trade him to the Orioles for a bag of balls and a few Sosa jersey t-shirts, we couldn't even get out of the salary albatross.

See, I called this morning as well and they said that I had to mail back any tickets (I had NLCS game 1) and couldn't drop them off at the stadium. I think I'm just going to wait a week or so and see if my account is credited before I go and spend another $5 to mail them back with delivery confirmation and all of that BS. Also, my 4 SRO tickets cost $100 face, but the charge was $157 (including $15 for 3 day FedEx). So, basically, I spent $57 for the right to have tickets to an unplayed game. What a bunch of garbage.