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Well, maybe. Kendall has a better CS percentage, but you have to remember 2 things about that: 1) It includes pickoffs by the pitcher. Do you really think Kendall threw out 20 baserunners by himself last year? 2) Kendall had a base stolen on him every 10.3 innings while Estrada only allowed a base stolen on him every 13.2 innings, and that doesn't even begin to address the fact that the Cubs and Athletics allowed less people on 1st and 2nd base than the Brewers did per inning.

Maybe he "seems" like that kind of player to you, but virtually no player willfully takes a 50% paycut (assuming that's the difference). Kendall loved everything about the Cubs. I'm sure he'd view playing here as a satisfactory fallback. The Yankees have done this before, so have other teams, coming to an agreement but not signing. Plus, we're talking Jason Kendall, a worthless piece of crap of a ballplayer. Milwaukee could fine somebody just like him in a heartbeat. Kendall was none too happy about being benched in the playoffs. If the Cubs told Kendall that if he accepted arbitration the Cubs weren't going to let him be anything more than a backup who got very little time I doubt Kendall would accept that arbitration. There have been plenty of players who have cared more about playing time than salary especially near the end of their careers, and many players in all sports who have demanded trades and sometimes were even willing to re-negotiate lower salaries (in situations where the union allows them to) in order to increase their playing time. The Yankees and other teams have done it when it actually caused them to lose a draft pick. That's a big difference in risk/reward. Plus, most people may have that opinion of Kendall as a ballplayer, but the Cubs didn't and Milwaukee apparently doesn't either to give him the starting job this early in the offseason.

OJ Mayo > Eric Gordon and its not even close... On the college level, I disagree. Gordon is probably the slightly better player. As far as projectability to the NBA, Mayo is the better prospect because of his size, while the comparisons to Gordon as a "better Ben Gordon" is probably a good one. Gordon will likely always be a very good player but a tweener in the NBA while Mayo has the size and skills to be a superstar. Right now, Gordon's a lot more polished than Mayo is.

The Brewers would be then running the risk that the Cubs would offer arbitration and Kendall would accept. Considering that they just traded their starting catcher and that whole process could take weeks (where most of the other catchers on the market are getting picked up by other teams) it's too risky for the Brewers to do that. Besides, even if for the extra money I doubt Kendall would come back to a team that didn't want him in any form when he has a starting job lined up somewhere else, so he'd probably sign with the Brewers even if the Cubs did offer him arbitration at this point. It's not just extra money, it's most likely a tremendous amount of extra money. I know it's unlikely, but it's what the Yankees would do if it involved the Red Sox. Yes, it is a tremendous amount of money, but remember 2 things. Kendall seems to be the type who would rather be paid 4 million to play than 10 million to go home and sit on the couch. Also, what was reported earlier about a now max 40 percent decline in arbitration means that the club would only have to offer him 7.8 million instead of 10.4 like the 20 percent decline would have been. Still a lot more than Milwaukee probably gave him, but probably not enough to make Kendall go back on his word to the Brewers and come to the Cubs and at best sit on the bench. I'm not sure it would be what the Yankees would do. I think the Yankees would sign him now because they wouldn't want to lose their starting catcher back to the Red Sox when the Yankees wouldn't really have any great options otherwise.

The Brewers would be then running the risk that the Cubs would offer arbitration and Kendall would accept. Considering that they just traded their starting catcher and that whole process could take weeks (where most of the other catchers on the market are getting picked up by other teams) it's too risky for the Brewers to do that. Besides, even if for the extra money I doubt Kendall would come back to a team that didn't want him in any form when he has a starting job lined up somewhere else, so he'd probably sign with the Brewers even if the Cubs did offer him arbitration at this point.

An extra draft pick for the Cubs and allowing Kendall to further decline with our major division rival? Sounds good to me. Well, it does make one good thing now if Matsui comes to town. Every time he gets on 1st against the Brewers, it's an automatic triple. :D

I'm sure Wade thinks that, but I don't know if Stark would go to him for the quote :D. Bowden's a good choice. It sounds like something an experienced G.M. would say (at least in the phrasing and especially the island comment and how comfortable this G.M. is in his job). That throws out most of the G.M.s in the National League. It also has to be somebody who keeps his wishlist from ever leaking out. It also sounds like somebody who the Phillies wouldn't really want to deal with, and that's in the division. So that leaves Minaya and Bowden, and the quote sounds much more like Bowden than Minaya.

Well, let's see here. Last year the Cubs were desperately looking for a CF that could be a stopgap to Pie coming up midseason and so they could trade Jones. Finley, knowing this, made it very clear that he was interested in coming to the Cubs and refused to sign any other offers for months. Every time Finley said he was interested the board predicted that the Cubs would sign him. The Cubs never took a look at him because they weren't interested! So now that they've committed to Pie in CF and Finley has been out of baseball for a year, and now Jim's going to sign him? There are plenty of shots at Hendry that are deserved, but this one really isn't.

The problem with Wood is that his arm is still mostly untested. He has pitched back to back days all of 1 time in his career in 2005. He has pitched 3 out of 4 days all of once in his career, also in 2005. Both on the second day of the back to back, and the 3rd outing in 3 out of 4 days he was ineffective. Now he did have outings in both halves of a doubleheader once this year, which is important to note but hard to translate being able to do that into being able to pitch back to back days repeatedly. Plus, there is that little issue of that there was that somewhat miracle recovery of his arm in the middle of the year when he was experiencing pain. Who knows when that pain will come back because they didn't do anything to fix it. It randomly went away on its own, and it may come back in the same way next year and have him on the DL most of the year. I hope Kerry comes back. He was always one of my favorite Cubs, and the injuries are not his fault. At the same time, the club has to have protection if they are going to sign him. Signing him for 2/10 guaranteed is way too risky, even if that means Hendry turns to another reliever from the outside. At least then it will be a big contract for a guy who likely will not have the flexibility and injury issues with Wood combined with a similar upside to Wood.

LoDuca is a free agent, and the Mets have been trying everything they can to not sign him.

I like the news about Wood as I feel that's a fair offer to alleviate the concerns. The news about Matsui is of course concerning. The worst note I saw in that was the sentence that Fukudome may not decide before the end of the year. If the Cubs have to wait that long for him and then he decides to stay in Japan, I'd be worried about what management would do next to try to fill the hole in January with limited options.

All because he changed his mind on Illinois? How many times did you change your mind as an 18 year old? Meanwhile there are two individuals in Illinois' program who are lucky they are still able to walk. That "decison" was worse than Gordon ever made. i keep telling you, i don't know who that is. even if i did, right or wrong makes no difference to me on this issue. i don't care what the rules say, i don't care what the whole state of indiana says, i'm going to hold a huge grudge and you would, too--regardless of how old a kid is. IU knows the feeling of being deserted after supposedly landing major recruits. May did it, and then Josh Smith did it. So it's not like IU's fanbase is completely foreign to being left at the altar at the last minute. I happen to disagree that there needs to necessarily be a huge grudge towards the kids that do those sorts of things, but to each his own opinion. Good luck this year. The Illini should have the best defensive squad in the conference and that makes them dangerous. If anybody is going to shut down Gordon and White in the Big 10, it will be Illinois.

Williams will know who he is real soon. that's fine by me, without [segment missing], sampson won't have an insurance policy. the sooner that happens, the better. Well, true, there isn't another Gordon (whoops, I mean "segment missing") but Devin Ebanks won't be so bad either. ebanks is a far, far cry from.... I'm not sure anybody knows how good Ebanks is. All we know is that Gordon was ranked around #3 and Ebanks is ranked around #12, so while Gordon is better Ebanks is also supposed to be a prolific scorer. I echo Bruno's sentiment that I hope Illinois destroys Duke. In fact, I hope Illinois does great in the non-conference part of their schedule. It only helps the conference to have its teams do well.

1) I believe the Big 10 awards just focus on what is done in conference games. Hart missed 3 conference games but had better statistics than Mendenhall outside of conference (mostly due to the Illinois-Missouri game, but still). 2) There is the perception that Mendenhall was successful partly because the Illinois running offense and spread attack spaced the field so well (along with a great offensive line and Juice's threat to run), while Hart for a large part of the season had very little around him on offense. 3) The fact that Hart is a senior plays into the NCAA awards whether it should or not.

Why? Because Weis acted like a classless child preseason with his recruiting sour grapes and allegations and now Illinois fan is reveling in ND's utter crapness? That's just karma, son. I'm pretty sure you're kidding, but stealing Arrelious Benn from us has very little to do with it, they just talk waaaay too much. For instance, this ludicrous Illinois/Florida debate. I understand their point that Florida strictly on paper isn't that much better than Illinois but they would destroy the Illini in a game, and everyone seems to think Juice, who has now had one good passing game this season, would shred the UF defense. No offense, but Notre Dame fans have always been the most intolerable (usually without any cause to be) in the entire realm of college sports. None should be allowed to critique the fans of other teams. Ever. You haven't been around enough Michigan fans. FWIW, my roommate, a Purdue fan who grew up in West Lafayette, always tells me that his family sold their lawn for tailgating road fans when the Boilers hosted games and he says that UM fans were pretty nice while OSU fans were truly prickish. Agreed completely with that. OSU fans are the worst (not nearly all of them, but many more than other fanbases). They're loud and obnoxious. I've heard stories that when they come to Bloomington, they'll find out which places IU fans hang out in. They'll then come in and plant their flags over places of business and then fight anyone who tries to take them down. This apparently is not the only place they do things like that in either. They trash Columbus for any big game win or lose. I honestly have never seen a fanbase as close to as bad as OSU, and I have been around 3 of the 4 largest conferences for rabid fanbases (SEC, Big 10, Big 12).

This is awesome news. It opens up the door for the Brewers to sign Kendall to be their starting catcher while at the same time adding a horrible reliever to their bullpen for Yost to bring out at every key situation. This is a win-win for the Cubs IMO.

Is the report true Bruce that Hendry wants Matsui to be the full-time starter at second and move DeRosa to a utility player? Does he want either one of them to be the SS?

You think the Yankees deal with A-Rod will fall apart? Seems awfully far along in the process combined with such a huge contract makes it incredibly unlikely IMO that one side would walk away now.

I'd definitely say Pittsburgh 2004 was more unqualified. Maybe slightly better wins for that Pittsburgh team (although they didn't have any great wins) but Pittsburgh was also 8-3 and had to go to OT to beat Furman that year. Including the Utah bowl game, Pitt played the 66th hardest schedule in the nation and still had 4 losses! Plus a couple statistics that I know you value, they won 4 of their games by only a field goal and a 5th game by only 5. Plus, their Sagarin far right rating was 75th after the bowl game. 75th in the predictor and still in the BCS!

This was coming eventually. The conferences voted to say that if there weren't enough eligible at-large teams in the top 14 at the end of the year to fill all the BCS at-large spots, it would automatically expand to the top 18 to get them all filled. This rule goes into play this year. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3119690

I'd say yes to the Tejada deal and no to the Crawford one. I'd really like the Tejada deal, even though I think he's declining. All 3 of those players the Cubs are trading have talent, but for differing reasons will likely never nail down a job with the Cubs, so trading the 3 of them for a real upgrade at SS would be just fine with me.

Any deal that Hendry makes from now on has to include 1-2 crappy middle IF going to the other team to clear up our surplus. I would disagree that the Cubs have a huge surplus right now if nobody else is signed as is rumored. Let's say DeRosa and Theriot are the starters. Infante is the right-handed platoon partner in CF and the backup to 2B and SS. Cedeno and Fontenot battle it out for the other bench spot, with Cedeno probably winning it. It wouldn't be bad if 1 of the middle IF's left via trade, but I disagree that there is a massive surplus of them. It's just that there's only 1 pretty good one among the group, and a bunch that are struggling to make it to average.

It will take a lot more than that. With their budget, they still have to depend on cheap talent. They have to hire competent scouting and player development people which is only marginally influenced by having such a good understanding of statistics. They might be able to get some free agent bargains with players that are undervalued by the rest of the league, but just about every free agent is becoming expensive these days and there's an increasing number of GM's who are trying to do the same thing. That quote should be encouraging for Pirates fans, but not nearly as encouraging as if they were a big market team that just had to make the correct trades and free agency signings. It still remains to be seen what they'll do with the farm system. I wouldn't even come close to saying that the Pirates will have the sustained success that is being implied in the quote. It will be better than the Littlefield era, that's about all that can be said for now.

It isn't. The winner (Mizzou) is losing to OU. It's really just a game to decide who plays in the Holiday Bowl (we both know the Cotton bowl is taking Texas and OU is getting the only BCS berth if they beat a 1 loss Mizzou) How does the Big 12 not get a second BCS team? Do you really think bowls will pick 2 of 3 of: The ACC runnerup, Illinois, or Hawaii/Boise State over a 1 loss Kansas or a 2 loss Mizzou? That even assumes that Illinois and the ACC runnerup will be eligible, which is not even close to being assured yet.

That sounds like speculation by the writer about teams who may possibly need a 5th starter rather than actual interest, at least to me.