Backtobanks

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, drug crazed players of today.

Unless the O's want Fuld in exchange for Pie, I can't see it happening.

maybe, but that division sucks so they could still win it. oakland is the only team that looks crappy They can't be crappy because Beane is a genius and has worked miracles with his small budget. :mrgreen:

From MLBTR: ESPN's Buster Olney spoke to several people in the game about the Mets picking up Gary Matthews Jr., and the general thought is that he "can't hit for average, can't hit for power, his defense ranks statistically among the worst outfielders in the majors, and, to top it off, rival scouts have been reporting that in recent years he has been a clubhouse negative." No wonder why they had to pickup $21 million to get rid of him. Great pickup by Minaya. :-))

I'm waiting for someone to post all of the #4 and #5 starters on the other teams we play in April that should cause us to automatically assume we don't have a chance of winning any of those games.

The fact is they are starting the season without Lilly and he's coming off surgery. You prepare for the season that way and go from there. I don't give a crap about going into the season thinking, "hey if all these things workout we'll be alright". Of course if everything works out this team will be fine. But that's not how reality works. They are going into the season in a position of weakness, only 2 dependable starting pitchers, and that is before accounting for the inevitable speed bump. As of now they are last year's team, minus Harden and Bradley, plus Byrd and Silva. I don't see how that is even remotely an improvement. And last year's team was not an improvement from the 2008 team. (minus Wood, DeRosa and Edmonds, plus Gregg, Bradley and Miles). They need to replace Harden just to stay even with last year's rotation. I don't see why a $140m payroll team has to go into a season hoping a bunch of stuff will work out so they can have a chance. This team should be in a position where a bunch of things would have to go wrong to think they don't have a chance, and that's not the case. The only way a team goes into a season "where a bunch of things would have to go wrong to think they don't have a chance" is when the team is the Yankees or Red Sox with their luxury-tax budgets. Most teams don't have All Stars at every position.

Nady is coming off a pretty serious injury and Baldelli has a significant injury history as well. Why not take the healthy player? And although I'd definitely take Nady over Gomes if Nady was healthy, I'm not sure I'd take Baldelli over Gomes even if Baldelli was completely healthy. These guys provide more power off the bench, but Reed Johnson is looking better to me everyday. All these other candidates seem to have a lot of baggage (injury history, can't play defense, etc.).

No team is set with a guy coming off surgery who is going to miss at least the first month of the season. And it remains to be seen if they are set with Randy Wells. He also lists 2 terrible pitchers and an inconsistent one battling for the 5th spot. A quality starter would not be an extravagance. This team wasn't good enough to win last year with Rich Harden on the team, now they have lost him, and added Carlos Freaking Silva, which means they are that much worse. I agree with Crasnick that Sheets is more of an extravagance than a necessity for the Cubs especially with his asking price. Posters who complain about the rotation forget that most teams have question marks after their top 3 starters. Wells got in enough starts to give us faith that he ought to be a decent #3 or #4 starter. Assuming Lilly comes back on time and healthy, the only question mark will be the #5 starter and the Cubs have a lot of candidates for that spot.

From Jerry Crasnick @ ESPN: Conversely, the Cubs' interest in Sheets is overblown. GM Jim Hendry's biggest objectives are finding a late-inning reliever and a bat for the bench. The Cubs are set with Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Ryan Dempster and Randy Wells in the first four spots, with Carlos Silva, Tom Gorzelanny and Jeff Samardzija set to compete for the fifth spot. Sheets would look great in Cubbie blue, but he's more of an extravagance than a necessity.

For all of the Theriot bashing here, I agree that we ought to wait to see if and when Castro (or Lee) is ready before we talk about dumping Theriot. These two look good, but they're still only prospects with no ML track record.

Well, that settles it. Mulder is awful. not really. his son is joe mauer. I wish. =D>

I think all of those soft-tossing crafty lefties own us.

Depending on which young reliever (not Gray or Caridad), I would be all for the deal. I really don't think Colvin is going to end up as a regular with the Cubs.

Ha good luck with that Ben. $6-$7 million with another 3-4 in incentives and a mutual option on a second year sounds about right to me.

From MLBTR: Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times singles out the Cubs and Yankees as "among those interested" in Rocco Baldelli

My son got a hit off of Mulder in HS, which doesn't say much about his pitching ability. I suppose it's a better option than inviting Chad Fox again.

i think the cubs could afford sheets, but his asking price is way too high, especially after coming off of a surgery to the body part where he makes his money and being away from the game for a year. i'd be willing to listen to a 1/6-7 heavy on incentives but 2/14-15 is too risky. but then again if he wants that money we have the gm foolish enough to give him more than he asked for, along with a ntc. I guarantee that if you think he's worth 1/6-7 heavy on incentives, somebody will give him 2/14-15.

I don't think the Cubs can afford Sheets, no matter what happens today. If he's willing to sign a reasonable base/high incentive contract, a dozen teams would jump on that. There are too many teams more desperate than the Cubs for starters so some GM will pay more than he should for Sheets. Unless there's some other reason (he wants to play for the Cubs, he wants to stay in the NL Central, etc.), I can't see him coming here.

Hairston would have been a decent pickup as a 4th OF/platoon.

You want Z to turn into a white guy? :-k

So much for the budgetary constraints of the Yankees. From MLBTR: The Yankees offered Jesus Montero straight up for Roy Halladay, according to Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star

Any interest in Byrnes as our 4th outfielder after he is officially DFAd. We'd obviously get him for the minimum. Byrnes for Silva + $4 million in 2011? :-k

I was for getting rid of the GM who we all knew would target pure garbage in order to get rid of a cheap, productive player. But, alas we couldn't do that. Bradley was traded for reasons wholly unrelated to his cost or productivity. Not sure why you're glossing over this small detail. Hendry was completely wrong in signing Bradley in the first place, but if Milton would've just played ball, collected his money, and not been a total jerk he would still be a Cub.

I was for getting rid of the GM who we all knew would target pure garbage in order to get rid of a cheap, productive player. But, alas we couldn't do that. "pure garbage" - I agree "cheap, productive player" - If you mean Bradley, he wasn't cheap or very productive. I will agree that he was more productive than Silva will be.

false harden is also 3 years younger Ha, Ha. You actually believe that Rich Harden is as good as Ben Sheets i tend to believe the truth Either way they are both very good pitchers. Wouldn't mind having either one. Over Silva? =D>