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As Bruce stated in his article this morning, there didn't seem to be much interest from other teams in terms of trading for Prior. Because the Cubs made it painfully obvious they were going to give him away for free. And we all know that all 29 of the other teams can sign him. I'm sure no team ever trades for a guy in July that is going to be a free agent the next season either. They wouldn't if he was going to be a free agent on August 1. I'm glad you can make not only all the decisions for the Cubs but for all of baseball too. Are you telling me guys that are going to be non tendered never get dealt now? You're letting emotion control you now. Craig Monroe is one example of that. The Cubs made it even more clear with Monroe than with Prior that they were going to non-tender him, and they still were able to trade him. Prior's medical reports must have scared away more teams than San Diego.

I don't think it really says anything other then he thought he could re-sign Dempster and Miller after their rehab, but he doesn't think he can re-sign Prior.

From what I have read he will not be healthy until mid-season. Then I would expect him to be very rusty and most likely not of much use to the major league team this season. If he wouldn't agree to a contract with a club option for next year then he can walk after this season anyway. So from the Cubs perspective they pay him a pretty good salary for another year just to get him rehabbed so he can cash in as a free agent in '09. If he would not take the two year contract then I can see why the organization decided it was better to cut him loose now. I would be very surprised if whatever team he signs with does not either get a two year deal (or one year with a team option for '09) or pays a lower amount in a one year deal than what the Cubs could have forced him to take. A rusty Mark Prior is still better than the back end of our rotation right now. Even if he only pitched half of August and Sept, he'd be well worth the money (which wouldn't be all that much). A month and a half is 1/4 of the overall season. For Prior to be worth 3 million over that time, he'd have to pitch like a 12 million dollar pitcher over that month and a half, which is a 4 ERA or a little better in the current market. I honestly don't think he'll be throwing that well until 2009 even if he does regain his form eventually. It will take quite a bit of time for his velocity and command to go back to what they once were. That's JMO though.

Even though I've reluctantly had to advocate this move, that doesn't mean that I'll miss you any less Prior. You gave us a great year (and some other great partial years) and will remain my favorite player from the 2003 team. I wish it could have worked out in Chicago, and wish you the best in all your future moves. Please go to the AL so I can root for you without having to worry about how it affects the Cubs.

BTW, one of the posts of the year over there: To say NSBB would explode would be the understatement of the year if ever a deal like that went down! I mean, he's completely serious with that post. I, uh, don't know what to say.

Let's see what happens with this deal. Before DeRosa plays 2nd on normal days Murton fills in at RF when either Fukudome or Pie need days off (Fukudome moves to CF and Murton in RF when Pie needs a day off) When DeRosa plays 3rd, 1st, or has a day off, Cedeno or Fontenot play 2nd. After Roberts plays 2nd DeRosa is the primary backup at 2nd, 3rd, RF, and CF (Fukudome moves to CF and DeRosa to RF when Pie needs a day off) The 200 to 300 at-bats that would go to Fontenot are gone. It's definitely an upgrade. If this deal goes through, I hope the Cubs could find a right-handed masher for the bench which would make the bench DeRosa, Ward, right-handed power hitter, Cedeno, and Blanco. The two biggest parts of this deal is how good do you feel about Aramis's health and can DeRosa also play some SS. If DeRosa is needed at 3rd or SS specifically for more than 40 games this year, then Roberts is enough of an upgrade overall to make that deal. If they don't feel DeRosa can play any SS at all and feel Aramis should remain healthy, then stand pat with what you have.

I think it's clear Hendry has no idea how to haggle. Why would you say that? That's significantly less than Baltimore was asking for at the beginning of negotiations.

It should be noted that James had even better predictions for Hill last year than those predictions.

The Cubs have been shopping him hard the last couple of weeks. If they can get anything at all for him, they'll deal him before the deadline.

Murton really has value. I wish he would play here, but I get why they are dealing him. He'll likely be part of the package that lands Hendry Brian Roberts. This seems less likely with the Orioles' acquisition of Luke Scott. The Orioles might use the Murton/Scott platoon that some of us hinted at (for the Cubs). If they do it will probably end up .290, 30 hrs, 100 rbi, .375 obp, .650 slg and cost them $1 million per year. I think you might have had a little misprint on the SLG there :D

On ESPN.com they have something that is kind of fun to play around with. You can rank any of the top 25 teams and organize them into a Sweet 16 playoff. You can then simulate the games using Accusore and see who wins each round, and then can re-do it over and over again if you want. One of my simulations wouldn't make meph very happy. Kansas, Florida, Missouri, and Hawaii were in the semi-finals. Then Kansas beat Florida, and Hawaii beat Missouri :D (Kansas beat Hawaii for the national title). Here's the link if anyone wants to use it: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls07/bracket

No kidding. Easily above average at all 3 OF spots, the best defender in the game at SS, an elite defensive 1B, and above average D at 3B and C. Did you really just call Alfonso Soriano "easily above average" at playing defense? Easily?!? He's not pretty out there, but you can't really argue his range (when healthy) and arm. Not so good going back in the LCF gap, though. I probably wouldn't quite say "easily" either, but he's above average. Yeah, it's the "easily" that I am incredulous about. The fact that he's a LF plays a big part in it as well. If he were a RF, he probably would be average or maybe slightly above. As a LF, a lot of his competition are some pretty horrible OF's. Carlos Lee, Adam Dunn, Pat Burrell, Barry Bonds, Chris Duncan, Luis Gonzalez are great examples of players who Soriano is much better than in the OF, and there are many more.

It's more of that the Cubs could afford to overpay for Tejada because a SS might be the missing piece to a long playoff run. The Astros aren't going anywhere with Tejada, and so they basically traded away a few possible promising prospects for a couple of mediocre seasons and maybe 1 lucky playoff berth. Who's to say they are done dealing? Maybe the since the Cubs have stepped it up they might too. The Astros have used up many of their pieces just in this deal however. They probably don't have enough left to make any more than 1 major trade without tapping into their current major league roster (which of course would be counterproductive to being better next year). Their farm system was terrible to begin with, and they just gave up a few of the more attractive pieces of it.

It's more of that the Cubs could afford to overpay for Tejada because a SS might be the missing piece to a long playoff run. The Astros aren't going anywhere with Tejada, and so they basically traded away a few possible promising prospects for a couple of mediocre seasons and maybe 1 lucky playoff berth.

I doubt it. It will certainly raise suspicion about his 2005 numbers, but it's not like there will be a suspension coming for the people on the report.

Theriot. Khalil Greene will start No offense to you in particular, but why is everyone so nuts about the average SS Khalil Green? I think because he's the only SS that people think they can realistically trade for that would be an upgrade to Theriot. I don't think SD is going to trade him though, so it seems more like very wishful thinking than anything.

Scott and Murton would be quite a platoon in RF. If the Cubs gave up both Pie and Gallagher though, they shouldn't have to give up anybody else. That would be a much better offense though overall. Soto should be an upgrade at C, Scott/Murton should be a little better overall production than Floyd/Murton, and Fukudome is a big upgrade over what Jones and Pie combined to do last year. Also, the bench highlighted by DeRosa, Ward, and Murton is probably the best I've ever seen on the Cubs. That would likely push them into the top 5 of the NL in offense, and as long as the pitching didn't collapse (which is possible considering the depth if multiple injuries happened) that team would win a lot of games.

Hmm, that's an important point in this Prior debate. First, we hear a couple weeks ago that Prior hasn't started throwing off a mound yet, which means he is behind schedule from what he was hoping originally. Now, the Padres see the medical reports and aren't pleased with them. He could be even further behind at this point.

Adam Everett should have been out of the job even without the Tejada trade. adam everett is leaps and bounds ahead of theriot. hes an average shortstop. yes average, not bad. basically who is the taller midget? They are both utter garbage. did you not read half of my post?h I'd like to know on what planet Everett is considered an average SS? Everett is considered to be the only SS who is so far ahead defensively that it makes up for his bat. If I remember right, he's been +25 to +35 runs in some years.

Patton and Albers were the 2nd and 3rd best prospects in the Houston system going into 2007, and Luke Scott is of course Houston's Matt Murton. Michael Coztanzo was a 1st round pick in 2005 that has been decent in the minors, and Dennis Sarfante has a good arm but hasn't been able to harness his control in the minors. While the Astros didn't give up any absolute sure-fire stars, they gave up a lot in this trade.

All of this is incorrect. All of it. Hendry even came out once in 2004 or 2005 and ripped Prior for coming out of a game when "nothing was wrong with him". They waited until 2007 (!) to have his shoulder properly examined and operated on. First off, I don't remember that Hendry quote-I'd love to see it. Second, the Cubs were the ones pushing surgery for years. Prior was the one who decided to go the non-surgical route in order to hopefully get back to pitching more quickly. It was not the Cubs fault whatsoever that Prior didn't agree to do exploratory surgery until 2007.

I won't boo him at all. The Cubs treated him like garbage. How? Any insinuations that he was soft either came from secondary sources or was hinted at by people like Dusty because Prior refused to tell anyone what was wrong with him. The Cubs gave him every chance and shielded him from a lot of media scrutiny. Wait, what? Prior refused to tell anyone what was wrong with him? So now he gets blamed for his injuries AND his doctor's diagnoses too? The only possible justification for letting Prior go is if Hendry has information that has only been leaked to the public as unsourced rumors but that many people seem to believe anyway that Prior: 1) Hates the Cubs so much that he was determined to leave after this year regardless, or 2) Didn't recover well from his surgery and will have serious lingering issues for the rest of his career. If either of those were the case, there's no good reason to resign him. But I think it is more likely that Hendry is just being stupid. The information we do know: Hendry wanted to sign Prior to a 2 year deal. Now that he couldn't, he doesn't want to sign him at all. That pretty much tells you what Hendry believes about Prior's chances of re-signing with the Cubs after 2008, and it's perfectly reasonable to think that some of his opinion came from things that the Prior camp has told him.

What next, are you going to talk about his VORP? Are you freaking kidding me Jim? Did you finally realize the Damien Jacksons and Neifi Perez's of the world have a fundamental problem with them. I don't understand why everyone is going crazy over that quote. Hendry has repeatedly used on base percentage and plate discipline in many of his quotes over the past year (after rarely using it before that). He used those concepts in talking about the Kendall deal (if I remember right, he said that Kendall "always has had a high on base percentage" and that was a main factor in getting him, Pie getting sent down (specifically to work on his plate discipline and drawing more walks), and many other random interviews through the year. What is significant here is that he actually acquired a player who is going to help significantly in that department rather than just saying OBP is important, because he has been saying that consistently for almost a year now.

It's in between the level of the majors and the level of AAA.

True, but think about how mad all of us would have been last year when Furcal was making 13 million dollars while putting up a OPS of .688. It goes both ways. He wouldn't have put up a .688 playing most of his games in the NL Central. It's hard to say. He certainly was hurt by the pitching in the NL West. Furcal actually was helped by Dodger Stadium though, not hurt. He had a .765 OPS at Dodger Stadium and only a .608 OPS on the road. His numbers at NL Central parks this year: Pitt-.764 OPS Cin-.599 OPS Hou-.368 OPS Stl-.333 OPS CHC-.216 OPS Mil-didn't play Even with limited at-bats overall (about 80 or so between the 5 different parks) that's still pretty horrendous numbers for Furcal on the road against the Central. I'm not sure if he would have really improved last year moving out of Dodger Stadium which was the one thing propping up his numbers.