Backtobanks

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.

As one scout said, referring to the periodic outbursts of Zambrano and outfielder Milton Bradley, "When Lou has the third-worst temper on the team, you know you're in trouble." =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

Except for third, can anyone think of a better way to upgrade the offense than this route? We're not upgrading at catcher, first, short, center, or right. There's just no way. An upgrade at second that simply replaces Fontenot... well, who is out there? Dan Uggla? Moving Soriano back to second seems to be the only way to open up trading possibilities. Since you're going to weaken the defense, why not hand the 3B job to Fox until he proves he can't hit ML pitching. Fox at 3B can't be much worse than Soriano at 2B considering the number of plays each position is involved in during a game. That way we don't have to give up the prospects that Beane would want.

I'll repeat what I posted earlier: It's amazing how smart hindsight makes everyone. All of a sudden everyone knew who would slump this year, what trades (and signings) would be terrible, what players we should have signed, how much we should have payed FAs, etc. None of us have to deal with other GMs involving trades, try to acquire the players that our manager wants on the team, and deal with the agents of FAs all while trying to stay within some kind of bugetary constraints. Looking at deals made and players stats 2 months into the season isn't the fairest way to judge a GM.

And there isn't a person on this board that would have looked at Fontenot's production last year and Bradley's production throughout his career and describe either as "any crappy lefty bat you can scrape up". It's amazing how hindsight makes us all so much smarter.

Can you imagine how many bunts down the 3B line there would be if Fox was at 3B?

All that is well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that a NTC is just a negotiating asset, and a pitcher would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to pitch in SD. One of these days Shark might grow up enough to realize that pitching in setup roles in Chicago might be less fulfilling ($$$$) than starting in SD. When he maxes out at about $3 million and sees decent starting pitchers getting $10-$12 million, he might understand that he could move his whole family out to SD with a few months salary.

It's amazing to me that all of this nonsense is being dumped in Hendry's lap. Lou (and Dusty before him) is the one setting these agendas, by and large. This whole getting more lefthanded business mostly Piniella's idea. Hendry's options are: a) construct the team in the way his manager wants it (what he's doing now), or b) fire the manager and hire one with a different philosophy (what he did when Dusty's gameplan wasn't working). Regardless, the GM and the manager need to be reading from the same playbook, and that comes predominantly from the manager. I totally agree. From the start, it's been Hendry's MO to let the manager run the team on the field. Whatever his manager(s) wants he gets for them even if he doesn't necessarily agree. Hendry always pushed for giving youngsters a chance, but Dusty wanted veterans and played veterans. Lou wanted more LH bats in the lineup and Hendry made it possible by trading DeRosa and giving Fontenot 2B while signing Bradley. Unfortunately, Bradley and Fontenot have slumped and Ramirez got hurt leaving a hole at 3B.

Having Johnson on this team would provide company for Bradley on the DL for 60-80 games. Also, I mentioned tweaking the deal with prospects if necessary. right, but d lee isn't exactly the superman of health anymore why give up more for cantu than lee? why not just get johnson instead? Getting Johnson would still involve getting rid of Lee. I'm sure the Nationals don't want him. Also, we already have a LH 1B in Hoffpauir.