Backtobanks

If that's what he wants to do, that's great, but there aren't too many people that are going to retire in their early 30's who can still earn $20 million per year. Taking 1 or 2 years off would certainly jeopardize his earning ability when he comes back.

I'll believe it when he says no to some team offering him a $100 million + contract.

Holliday in left and Soriano at second would make more sense than Fox at third, but no, ultimately I don't want that. Much like with Fox, I think the severe downgrade defensively would mostly overcome whatever offensive gains we would make. Plus, I think Holliday will be rather expensive prospect-wise. Yeah, with 5+ teams interested he won't be cheap.

LA County: 10M Orange County: 3M San Bernardino County: 2M Riverside County: 2M Ventura County: .8M that's around 18M in the LA Metro area NY Metro has around 18.7M Maybe everything is a small market compared to NY. But having lived in NY, Chicago and California, Chicago is the biggest sports town. The Cubs have a huge fan base, arguably the most popular franchise in the city. It's true that the Cubs have been mismanaged in the past and that led to bad teams. But the fact is that the Tribune has been bad for the team. As Cub fans, we have all been putting money in the pockets of the Tribune for years. It's really telling how the sale has been hung up by this. In the past 2-3 years, the Cubs have actually started spending money. And even that's with the bad TV and radio deals. The Yankees own their own media outlet and have money to burn. The Cubs have been owned by one. Enough said. The Tribune has been essentially money laundering for all these years. If we had decent owners in the past 20 years, we might have a WS by now. Personally, I definitely feel ripped off. That's not arguable at all. It's the Bears, and it's not even close. Yeah, the lead story on the sports pages right now is the Bears' mini-camp. It's even worse when they get to training camp.

Something like Hart alone seems about right to me. Atkins has been pitiful and is being paid a lot of money. Now if they're going to pick up a big chunk of his conract, maybe they should get a second player.

But there's no guarantee Fox can hit. When you're looking at defense that bad, it's especially hard not having any idea whether the kid can hit major league pitching or not. Soriano and Holliday will (should) both produce offensively at a high rate to at least partially offset the terrible defense. We don't know that about Fox. But we won't know unless Fox is given a chance. I agree that Holliday should produce, but he didn't produce anything earlier this season (he seems to be coming out of it now). I guess my point revolves around the cost of acquiring Holliday. If we can get him for fringe prospects, then I would be okay.

If we can get him cheaply, then get him. Right now, starting pitching isn't a problem and it doesn't appear to be too big of a problem next year either (Wells, Marshall, Atkins, etc.). The fact that he's signed for 4 more years could be considered a blessing or a curse, since people have pointed out his throwing motion could lead to injury. Also, he's signed for 4 more years, but not at a bargain-basement salary. Adding his salary to Zambrano, Lee, Soriano, Bradley, Dempster, etc. might cause payroll problems in the near future. So if he falls into our lap at a decent price, I'm all for it.

When I've seen the rumors, that's what would happen. Holliday in left and Soriano to 2B. I know Sori would be awful at 2B, but man would it help our offense. I posted in another discussion that putting Fox at 3B might not be any worse than Soriano at 2B defensively. While I agree that Fox isn't a ML 3B, Soriano has proven that he's not a ML 2B. In any case, using Fox wouldn't cost us the prospects that trading for Holliday would. At least Soriano has played 2B at a major league level. From everything Ive heard, Fox at 3rd would be just as bad as William Perry there. I would hate to see Fox play 3B regularly, but it might be worth it not to give up any top prospects for Holiday and to watch Soriano play 2B. When we're talking bad defense, don't forget that a 2B gets about 70% more total chances than a 3B. If we can get Holliday without giving up top prospects, then I might be okay with it.

FWIW, the baseball rumor sites mention the Cubs as one of the teams looking at Holliday.

When I've seen the rumors, that's what would happen. Holliday in left and Soriano to 2B. I know Sori would be awful at 2B, but man would it help our offense. I posted in another discussion that putting Fox at 3B might not be any worse than Soriano at 2B defensively. While I agree that Fox isn't a ML 3B, Soriano has proven that he's not a ML 2B. In any case, using Fox wouldn't cost us the prospects that trading for Holliday would.

Kenny Williams is probably wondering why he didn't talk to the Pirates.

Aurilia hasn't done much of anything since 2006. Gaetti had at least been decent before landing with the Cubs. While I agree with you, I can see Lou and Hendry being interested if he is released. A veteran who can play 3B and pinch hit without costing us players or much money might be hard to pass up.

I keep reading speculation that the Cubs are interested in Holliday and I don't get it. While I agree that he's the type of player that could catch fire for the second half of the season, he would be expensive (both in prospects and cash). Secondly, where would he play assuming Bradley and Soriano are both healthy (I know that's a dangerous assumption)? At least one of those guys will be on the bench everyday and none of them has proven they can be a productive pinch hitter.

I would much rather use the prospects to go after Cantu or Sanchez who could move permantly to 2B after Ramirez returns and are both young enough to help in the future.

Giants could dump Aurilia? Last week, as the Giants had two roster moves pending and speculation abounded that Rich Aurilia's job was in danger, Aurilia did not give it a second thought - or a first thought. "I kind of totally put that out of my mind," the 37-year-old utility man said Tuesday. "You can't come back to them and say, 'No, you can't do this to me,' so why worry about it?" Well, Aurilia probably had some reason to worry, given his sub-.200 average and the Giants' willingness the past few years to eat contracts of older players who were not producing. But the Giants still see value in Aurilia's ability to hit off the bench and play the corner infield positions. -- SF Chronicle Gary Gaetti part 2?

They wouldn't be bad options in the bullpen, but my main concern is getting a hitter with a relief pitcher added in an expanded deal. Wood might be an interesting option, but I wanted to get someone who is a proven ML hitter. If Wood was successful, we could move him to SS and Theriot to 2B after Ramirez returned.

I think Hendry ought to look at the real needs of this team and make his primary targets Freddy Sanchez or Jorge Cantu. Either one of these deals could include some bullpen help (Grabow, Burnett, Calero, etc.). Since both of these guys can move over to 2B when Ramirez returns, Fontenot would certainly be part of the deal. As many of us have posted, a Peavy deal would be frosting on the cake, but right now there isn't any cake to frost. I think Wells/Marshall can hold down the 5th spot in the rotation for the rest of the year. Of course this screws up the whole "getting more LH" theory.

I think they would. There were multiple teams interested in him at the price Hendry ended up paying at the time the Cubs signed him.. Did his agent tell you that or Jim Hendry? Nobody was signing anybody at the time they got Miles. The only active teams were the Yankees signing the big tickets items, and everybody else was sitting on their hands waiting out the market. And Hendry got aggressive going after an unnecessary utility man who was non-tendered by a division rival that has to actually think when they spend money. The reports that I read said that Miles had an offer from the Cards for about the same money when he signed with the Cubs.

Amen to that. I see articles about other teams and their injuries, but I can't believe any team has been affected the way the Cubs have been. Right now Soriano is slumping because he's trying to play through an injury. You know things have to get better when Theriot, Fukudome, and Hoffpauir have carried the team in the first quarter.

I agree. If they keep yanking him around, he not only will be ineffective, but he will be worthless as a trade chip.

A new world's record: Nine posts before someone blames Hendry. Now we're blaming Hendry for Lou's senility/dementia/bad decisions. be honest- did you even read his post? Yeah, I read his post. The discussion was about Lou's senility, dementia, bad decisions, inability to string together a complete sentence, etc. and H4H blamed Hendry for putting together a weak bench. I don't think a weak bench can be blamed for mental instability.

A new world's record: Nine posts before someone blames Hendry. Now we're blaming Hendry for Lou's senility/dementia/bad decisions.

Rothschild seems to be highly regarded as a very good pitching coach among baseball people. I would imagine his job is as safe as Lou's and Hendry's.

Let's see. - Everyone here knew signing Miles, especially as basically DeRosa's replacement, was a stupid idea. - Everyone here knew that Bradley was injury-prone. - Everyone here, for the most part, could see that Derrek Lee had been declining throughout most of 2008. (I'm glad he's on the uptick right now, but he's got a long way to go before having a productive full season.) - Most here, while glad to be rid of Jason Marquis, thought it was iffy to bring in a nothing reliever for him. - Everyone here was skeptical as to why we were shedding like 5M in bullpen pitchers for no apparent reason less than two weeks in when we weren't exactly loaded with great relievers. - Most here were skeptical of Dempster's contract considering his career numbers. This isn't hindsight. For the most part, these moves were bad even in foresight. Spot on. Miles was signed as a reserve IF and not as an everyday player (like DeRosa). Also, it was pointed out that the Cubs ended up paying him what the Cards were offering. Everyone knew Bradley was injury prone, but he was the most productive OF available. DLee was signed to a large NTC after a great year like dozens of other ML players, some of whom are mediocre at best. Trading Marquis for Viscaino is a perfect example of hindsight, since nobody knew if there were any other offers for Marquis. Everyone wanted Marquis gone and the deal saved app. 5 million. The bullpen has been a problem, so I'll give you that one. Dempster was signed at the going rate for pitchers coming off of a very good season. Not signing him would have left a hole in the rotation that would have meant signing some other pitcher. Given all the the information that Hendry had at the time and the parameters he had to use, I'm sure he thought he was doing the right thing. Of course, in our fantasy-league minds with no information at the time, all of us could have done better.

Unfortunately, Hendry wasn't hired this off season, so we have a lot more than just 2 months of regular season games on which to judge him. You're correct. Check out his regular season record as a GM for the past two seasons and you might judge him to be among the best.