Backtobanks

I'd rather have Byrd with his contract than 2 years of Damon.

In this age of cynicism, can we be sure Thomas (or anybody else) is absolutely clean? I'm not saying he used, but others have talked about Bagwell (who Tim mentioned). As for his "holier than thou" views, how many ultra-conservative, right-wing Republicans who speak out against gay rights have been exposed as closet homosexuals? The sad part of this whole steroid era is all of the suspicion about anybody with extraordinary stats.

I assume Hendry is waiting because their demands will fall as the time for spring training nears.

I'll go along with the consensus that they should be a contending team. I do expect rebound seasons from Soriano, Soto, Marmol, and Zambrano. I think Byrd will be a pleasant surprise and Baker/Fontenot will be a solid platoon at 2B. The back end of the rotation could be a slight problem, but the bullpen will be outstanding. Obviously, there's no way to predict injuries, but the usual suspects (Soriano and Ramirez) seem to be covered by Nady and Baker/Tracy. I do get upset with so many posters predicting a serious digression by DLee and Wells. DLee continues to impress after recovering from his wrist/hand injury and I see no reason to expect less than a solid near-.900 ops from him. As for Wells, he did get enough action that teams saw him more than once, so there's no reason to think he can't pitch like last year. 85-90 wins and make the playoffs. After that it's a crapshoot.

It's not inconceivable, but it's unlikely. We won't know whether Soriano or Soto are as bad as last year until at least midseason, so meanwhile you have to go with Theriot.

He probably won't make the HOF, but I can't believe he won't get enough votes to hang around for a few years.

From MLBTR: Nomar is "widely expected" to retire. If he does, he'd bow out at age 36 with a career line of .313/.361/.521. The injuries hampered him throughout his career, but the numbers look worthy.

The Cubs aren't a contending team. They are a high salary team that is mediocre. There are more questions on this year's team than any team since 2006. Lilly won't be back until May and may never be the pitcher he was in the first two years. Big Z has a lot of wear. Dempster needs to bounce back. Will Wells be as good as he was in first 10 starts? How may starts will Carlos Silva have? Lee is getting old, Aramis's shoulder is still a concern. Soriano has shown he can stay in a slump with the best of them. On and on. For the Cubs to contend this year everything will have to go right for them and they will still need some help. I guess you can look at the dark side of everything: 1. There's no reason to think that Lilly won't be the same pitcher he was for the last 2 years. 2. Zambrano has a lot of wear as opposed to Carpenter and Penny on the Cards? 3. Dempster has been pretty consistent with the exception of his time with the broken toe. 4. Can Wells repeat his success? Can Wainwright and Franklin repeat theirs? 5. Silva won't get many starts unless he earns them. 6. Lee had one of his best seasons ever and showed no signs of aging last year. 7. Ramirez came back and eventually returned to his old self. 8. Soriano was playing on one leg for quite awhile. I've said all along that the Cubs will probably be co-favorites with the Cards for the NL Central. The only teams that don't have many questions going into spring training are the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Is there any SP, reliever, or 2B the Cubs haven't been linked to?

First you say you don't want to rush Castro (or Barney) and then you're willing to turn over the starting SS job on a contending team to him. I don't have a problem trading Theriot when we have a capable replacement. I'm not sure you would be able to get much for him with the marketplace the way it is and capable FAs floating around.

Next offseason at the latest. By then his value will be much less. He'll have played his age 30 season, he'll be making millions and due for another raise regardless of performance. If you want to get any value out of Theriot, you trade him within the next 6 months. Castro may be ready before then, and there's enough depth to hold ground without him for a bit. I repeat the message in my earlier post, how much value does Theriot have? Teams haven't exactly been lining up to jump on the Hudson, Kennedy, Cabrera, and Lopez bandwagon. If we could get somebody in return that would be a reasonable upgrade to the Cubs current roster, then great, but to trade the starting SS on a team that hopes to contend because some posters don't like him and he's asking for $800,000 more than the team is offering is ridiculous. The idea is that because of youth and inexpensiveness he would command quite a bit in a trade. I don't necessarily think so, but wouldn't be opposed to shopping him around to get an idea of his value around the league. I wouldn't trade him for peanuts, however, and I don't think too many others on here have supported that. The Theriot-haters claim that he's soon to be on the wrong side of 30 and that he's making too much money. As for "trading him for peanuts", I'm not sure how much he would be worth. I agree that Hendry might want to float his name around to get an idea of what someone might be willing to pay for him, but in this marketplace I can't see how we would get too much.

Next offseason at the latest. By then his value will be much less. He'll have played his age 30 season, he'll be making millions and due for another raise regardless of performance. If you want to get any value out of Theriot, you trade him within the next 6 months. Castro may be ready before then, and there's enough depth to hold ground without him for a bit. I repeat the message in my earlier post, how much value does Theriot have? Teams haven't exactly been lining up to jump on the Hudson, Kennedy, Cabrera, and Lopez bandwagon. If we could get somebody in return that would be a reasonable upgrade to the Cubs current roster, then great, but to trade the starting SS on a team that hopes to contend because some posters don't like him and he's asking for $800,000 more than the team is offering is ridiculous.

The key words in that sentence are "prospects" and "ideally". Until Castro or any other prospect can prove themself at the ML level, we need a ML level average SS. I really hope Castro is the real deal, but we've gone through decades of hype about positional prospects without much to show for it. Also, everybody jumping on the "Trade Theriot" bandwagon needs to realize that Hudson, Kennedy, Cabrera, and Lopez didn't get any teams too excited about signing them.

With everything neutral, I would think the Cubs would be co-favorites with the Cards for the division. If most things go right (rebounds by Soto, Soriano, Fontenot, Marmol, etc. and health for Aram and Soriano) the Cubs are better, but if most things go wrong like last year (a ton of injuries to key players and off years from others) the Cards are better. I was amazed that Tim Dierkes from MLBTR thought that the Cub injuries in 2009 weren't out of the ordinary. I agree that the Mets' injuries were extraordinary, but the Cubs had their best hitter out for half a season, their power-hitting left fielder playing on one leg (and their reserve OF out with a broken leg), their catcher out for weeks, and two of their starting pitchers out for quite awhile. I wonder what the Cards' record would have been with Pujols out for half a season, Holliday playing on one leg, Carpenter and Wainwright missing multiple starts, and Molina missing a few weeks.

Do you think he'll wear a Cub hat when he get's into the HOF? =D>

With the budget leash that Hendry has, I'm sure he checked the medical records carefully. There would be no reason to take on a serious injury risk with Gomes, Dye, Baldelli, and Johnson available.

ESPN's Keith Law ranks the farm systems, from the Rangers at #1 to the White Sox at #30.

Great signing by Hendry. Compare the numbers of Bay and Nady from 2007 & 2008 seasons in Pittsburgh: 2007- Nady .278/.330/.476/.805 Bay .247/.327/.418/.746 2008- Nady .305/.357/.510/.867 Bay .282/.375/.519/.894 Bay .293/.370/.527/.897 in 49 games with Red Sox after trade. Obviously things happened after 2008, but for those 2 years together in Pittsburgh you could make an argument for Nady being as good as Bay.

From MLBTR: Twins, Mariners Are Atop Washburn's "Wish List" By Mark Polishuk [January 26 at 6:29pm CST] With the likes of Ben Sheets and Jon Garland now signed, FOX Sports' Jon Paul Morosi provided an update on Jarrod Washburn, one of the few high-profile arms left on the rapidly dwindling free-agent pitching market. Morosi quotes a source who said that Garland only wants to play in “a limited number of places,” namely Minnesota and Seattle. The Twins have made one attempt to sign Washburn: an offer worth roughly $5MM that was rejected earlier this month. Given Minnesota's signing of Carl Pavano to serve as the veteran anchor of their rotation, Washburn would've been a luxury that the Twins may feel that they can live without. As for the Mariners, we've heard some whispers that they might be interested in bringing Washburn back to the city where he pitched from 2006 to last year's trade deadline. The M's have already spent a lot of money this offseason, but Washburn might be enticed to return to a familiar situation for a contract akin to the one he turned down from Minnesota. Then again, Washburn is a Scott Boras client, so a bargain could be hard to come by. Another source tells Morosi that six teams "have inquired" about Washburn. Aside from Minnesota and Seattle, we've heard Washburn linked to such suitors as Milwaukee (who are probably out of the running after signing Randy Wolf and Doug Davis), Kansas City and the Mets. Morosi also points out that the Cubs could join the Washburn sweepstakes in the wake of missing out on Sheets. Can't see how the Cubs would get involved, especially since they didn't seem to be serious suitors for Sheets. Another case of idle speculation by a sportswriter.

Since he hasn't pitched in quite awhile, it would have to be a very low base with incentives.

From MLBTR: Padres Agree To Deal With Jon Garland By Mike Axisa [January 26 at 4:19pm CST] The Padres have agreed to a deal with free agent righty Jon Garland, reports MLB.com's Corey Brock. Financial terms are still unknown, though it's a one-year deal and is still pending a physical. The 30-year-old Garland earned $7.25MM with the Diamondbacks and Dodgers last year, when he made 33 starts with a 4.01 ERA. Moving to Petco Park will certainly help boost his overall numbers. We heard that San Diego had about $5MM left to spend last week, and they wanted someone durable that would contribute sure innings. Garland definitely fits that criteria, having made at least 32 starts and thrown at least 191.2 innings every year since 2002. The Mets and Dodgers were two other teams connected to Garland recently

From MLBTR: Twins Agree To Terms With Jim Thome By Mark Polishuk [January 26 at 5:05pm CST] Charley Walters and Kelsie Smith of the St. Paul Pioneer Press are reporting that the Twins and Jim Thome have agreed to a one-year contract. LaVelle Neal of the Star Tribune (via Twitter) says the deal is worth $1.5MM, with an additional $700K available to be earned in incentives. Hope it leads the twins to the AL Central title over the WS.

I love posters who overreact to some rumor. We should have fired Hendry when he signed Ankiel, Posednick, Contreras, etc. As I 've posted before, Hendry gets bashed whether he makes a move or not. It's not a matter of whether he gets the deal done. The idea that these are the players he deems worthy of pursuing is very troubling. Though even that would be too presumptive, perhaps. First of all, the rumor may be somewhat (if not entirely) fabricated by some writer assumes the Cubs could be interested. Secondly, it's like reading too much into the waiver wire in August -- "Who was put on waivers!?!" -- many players are, and little is actually intended by the GM's action. Likewise, Hendry probably "shows interest" in a great number of free agents he has very little interest in actually signing. You need to feel out the market and inquire on demands. Plus the rumor was from just one guy . . . on Twitter . . . maybe I should have started and stopped with that one. I was just ready to post basically the same thing you posted. Hendry contacts dozens of agents to get a feel as to whether their client can help the team and fit into the budget. As for these sports writers, most of them just make up everything based on who's available and what a team needs. Go back and look at the predictions as to where FAs would sign and check their accuracy (or lack thereof). Most of the speculation on NSBB is just as accurate as the "experts".

So what makes you think Ernie is senile? The fact that he's happy, positive, and optimistic? I became a Cub fan in 1954 and Ernie was my favorite player throughout the years. His attitude and outlook hasn't changed in those 56 years, so I don't know what you're basing your comment about senility on. He certainly is an improvement over the sullen, greedy, media-hungry, steroid crazed players of today. The fact that he's always walking around somewhere in his own damn world. Sure, he's a happy, positive guy. But he's also pretty far out in left field most of the time. Edit: Also, "Drug crazed players of today?" Really? I should have used steroid-crazed instead of drug crazed. As for being "pretty far out in left field most of the time", I think most people today would think a person who is happy, positive, and optimistic all of the time is "pretty far out in left field".

I love posters who overreact to some rumor. We should have fired Hendry when he signed Ankiel, Posednick, Contreras, etc. As I 've posted before, Hendry gets bashed whether he makes a move or not.