srbin84

I believe he is on track to make his first start on the 17th. Unless the Cubs skip someone on the offday, and Z is first up the game after, the 17th is Marshall's start, and the 18th is Guzman's.

Isn't Wood in line to make his first start on the May 18, the game we are having our meetup?

I don't think there is anything wrong with asking a major league baseball to hustle. It's a general post on the Aram bashing I have observed lately, but I doubt people would be complaining about his hustle or calling him a lazy bum if he had a .900 OPS or above.

What's the difference between the Braves signing Andruw Jones to a huge contract and the Cubs signing him to a huge contract?...unless you're saying to get rid of guys when they reach a certain pay rate.

Excellent news on Wood. I can't wait to see him back in a big league uniform.

I can't believe the negativity being directed at Aramis. Yeah, he didn't come up through our minor league system, but he's done so much for this team. He's had a slow start, so what. Show the guy a little loyalty.

Since when is an ERA around 4 terrible?

I admire little Z's effort, especially if he was pitching through this last year because he had a pretty decent season.

Keep Z, Lee, Murton and Cedeno + good young players. Trade the rest in a Marlins type firesale for the ages. Go low payroll next year and play the superstar prospects we get like the Marlins are doing...two years if needed. Then use all the saved money from having low payrolls to sign all the good ones to long term deals and fill in a player or two here and there to complete the 2008/2009 team. Then enjoy the dynasty for years to come.

I think anti-Pierites would like to see him traded and replaced with someone else or Pie.

I'd rather overpay for a guy who underperfoms and is a good player instead of a great player than for a guy who is an bad player instead of an average player.

In in familiar summary, Jones has an inadequate bat that only looks good with Hendry's "career view" sunglasses; and his defensive value is worth less to the Cubs in Wrigley (and with a high K pitching staff). Maybe we should buy the Cubs management a BP subscription for next year. Well, no use in arguing about it. I hated the move too. I wanted Kevin Mench, and I said it on this board many times somewhere, although at the time, it was for a platoon with Jones since there was nothing that could be done about the fact he was on the roster. Looks like I would have made a good move. Too bad Hendry is too dense to have come up with a similar idea. IIRC, Mench was there for the taking.

Well, he could, he'd just drop it a few times first. Well done. :lol:

I thought criticism of Macias was always overblown....Baker for starting him too much, yes, of course. The guy had a respectable average with us and could play a number of positions...more worthy of the 25th spot that most Cubs who have filled the position past and present....not that I would have had him on the team if I was the GM.

I'm not so sure about that. Seems to me yet again that many people had more realistic expectations for Jones than Hendry apparently did. More realistic than Hendry, yes, so did I....but .700 OPS or below...I don't know about that. Did anybody say Jones will ahve a .700 OPS this season?

I've always been of the opinion that if the team is doomed, I hope they lose as many games as possible in the most embarasing way possible. It's the best hope for major changes to be made in management and with the roster.

i don't know if that's the case. his 2006 numbers aren't that far off his 2005 numbers. factor in that he's coming to a new league and has the security of a three year deal, and his 2006 numbers really aren't that surprising. Well, if he continues with these numbers, he'll be the next Todd Hundley by the allstar break.

Agreed...I think he was trying to find his own Ryan Freel or Figgins. Those guys are pretty rare and the best way to get one is to trade for one. I would fully endorse overpaying for one of these players because they are extremely valuable to a good team.

As if the ball isn't bouncing 15 times with the guys we have now? seriously. jones has rolled four or five throws into the infield. must have caught something from pierre. nomar in rf (if he could handle it physically) would be better than jones, regardless of whether he's an injury risk. if he gets hurt, then you throw pie, mabry, hairston, or even patterson out there and you'll likely match jones' "production." even if you only get two months of nomar, two months of nomar + mabry/pie/whoever > an entire season of jones...especially when you consider the albatross of a contract they gave jacque. Maybe. Obviously Hendry assumed Jones would at least match the last few years production. Those numbers aren't great, but who knows for sure what 4 months of forcing bench players to start would do to the overall production. We all saw the Lenny Harris situation and others like it. Right now, def. doing the Nomar+reserves seems like it would have been the better plan; but realistically, nobody could have predicted Jones to be this bad.

I'd also like to add being braindead with regards to the closer situation and thinking Hawkins would be effective in the role.

That statement is ridicilous. Hendry knew both Wood and Miller wouldn't be back until May at the earliest. And I don't know how you can possibly call Miller the 3rd best pitcher when he hasn't thrown one inning in a Cub uniform. The Lee injury just magnifies the ineptitude displayed this off-season. I don't think I am some sort of baseball genius, nor do I think others who post on here are any smarter than Hendry, but many, many of us dearly wanted Hendry to do something to address the offensive shortcomings of this team. Instead, he over-paid for middle relief, traded three decent pitchers for Slappy, and signed JJ, Neifi, and Rusch to contracts. It wasn't hard to predict what is happening now. Not hard at all. Hopefully for all our sakes, Hendry does something smart to address the Cub's needs in June well before the trading deadline. He can't afford to wait. I was talking about Wood and Prior as top 3 starters, unless you think Prior is a number 4 or 5. My only beef with him is not trading Prior. He screwed up majorly there and messed up the whole season by doing it...if there was a chance to get Abreu or Tejada for him that is. I'm not going to blame him for not giving Furcal 13-14 million a year or signing Giles when I don't believe we ever had a chance to sign him. I don't know what else was out there. Last year, I had a long list of complaints though. This year, there wasn't much out there offensively and he blew the one opportunity he had to get it (trading Prior).

I can't blame Hendry this year. Two of his top 3 starters haven't even pitched yet, and we don't even know if/when they will. So it's not really a 100 million dollar team nor a very talented one, despite the names we control. This year is just a continuing downward spiral from the previous two. Hendry resigned Neifi for two years. Signed Rusch for two years. He traded for Bynum? He traded for Hairston whom, I'd never have thought possible, has sunk below Neifi in the talent department. He was trying his hardest to trade Todd Walker (imagine this team without Walker...shudder). Jones, Pierre... Imagine this team if he would have seriously went after Tejada and Beltran in the free agent market after the 03 and 04 season. Yes, Beltran had adown year last year but he's looking pretty good lately for the Mets. I totally agree with you on Tejada. I thought that contract was a steal when it was signed. Beltran is overpaid, but the Cubs need to make a move like that at some point. It's frustrating to watch a bad GM because you know you're baseball smarter than him, but there's nothing you can do about it. Hopefully he gets fired next year.

Agreed. This thread would have been much more timely last year, when there was still a Hendry love fest going on amongst most Cub fans.

I can't blame Hendry this year. Two of his top 3 starters haven't even pitched yet, and we don't even know if/when they will. So it's not really a 100 million dollar team nor a very talented one, despite the names we control.

We already had one. Todd Walker. He should have been leading off last year because he was the best player we could have put there, but I personally don't think Walker is a good leadoff man. A .333 OBP playing in one of the best offenses in the history of the game doesn't cut it for me.