Backtobanks

Hopefully Hendry isn't going to offer Floyd enough money that he has to "free up" some to get him. I wouldn't mind getting Floyd, but he should not be thought of as a regular, but rather a bench bat with some part-time platooning (250 ABs).

After 8 years of screwing up the country, he could screw up MLB.

This has always been a topic for discussion because the sportswriters have different opinions on what the MVP stands for. Some view it as the best player in the league while others view it as the most valuable person to a team. I think they should limit the MVP to the 1st & 2nd place teams in each division and then have a "Player of the Year" award open to all players. Using the Cubs as an example, Banks won the MVP in 1958 and 1959 while the Cubs were in last place.

Yes, but it needs to be done. 4/60 for Schmidt is insane. It seems like every signing this offseason has been insane: Soriano, CLee, Pierre, GMJR, etc.

I'm wondering why LAA would trade Santana and how in the world the Cubs could get involved, seeing as how they don't have much to deal. Well, the Angels have talked about moving Santana to a few teams and I agree the Cubs don't seem to have anything the Angels would need, but if the deal happened with the White Sox, the Cubs might have something the Sox would need. I mentioned Jones, Izturis, and young pitching in my original post as some players the Sox might want. The Sox could end up with Figgins (speed, leadoff man, CF), Jones (LF with power to help replace Crede's numbers), Izturis ( a defensive SS to solidify the infield), a young pitcher (to offset the loss of Santana), and a couple of million in salary relief (to help fill any other holes) for trading Crede and Garcia to the Angels and Santana to the Cubs. Obviously, McCarthy steps into the rotation to replace Garcia and Fields replaces Crede.

Sorry for the misleading title. The thought of having Zambrano, Santana, and Hill as your 3 top starters for the next 7-8 years affected my ability to come up with a title that didn't mislead other posters.

With all of the talk about the White Sox-Angels swap of Crede plus Garcia for Santana and Figgins, I was wondering if there was a way of getting the Cubs involved so they could end up with Santana. A young, cheap, and experienced pitcher would make me happier than those $10 million mediocre #4s that we've been talking about. The Sox might want somebody like Jones for LF to help replace Crede's power numbers. They might want Izturis for his defense while the rest of their big bats could cover his weak offensive skills. If they want a young pitcher, we have a ton of them. I'm not great at figuring out possible multi-team trades, but I'm sure someone out there could figure it out. Put on your thinking caps.

According to benmaller.com : "The Chicago Cubs have talked to the Cleveland Indians about a deal for pitcher Jake Westbrook, according to baseball moles. The Tribe would get pitcher Ryan Dempster among others in return for Westbrook (15-10 4.17era)." Sounds like the begining of a good deal.

Maybe I'm naive, but I tend to believe Hendry when he really praises Murton and says Pie is untouchable. I suppose he might change his mind for Miguel Cabrera, but I do think Pie and Murton aren't going anywhere.

Strong class. Gwynn and Ripken will get in on the first ballot. McGwire might have to wait a few years. Blyleven, Smith, and Gossage might get in if there's a weak class some other year, even though they are deserving. Trammell deserves it, but played under the radar for most of his career and might not make it. I'm not sure Belle will make it because of the being-a-jerk factor. Rice has had some chances, but I think he will continue to fall short unless there's a weaker class coming up. I would love to see Dawson get in, but I think he won't make it.

I would think Ramirez is about as untouchable as you can get.

They save him to face the Cubs.

Thanks for the breaking news. good job missing the point. what game are you watching anyway? If you don't enjoy the statistical evaluation why do you assume no one else does? If you don't want to read it, don't. I don't read anything baseball### posts because his opinion doesn't interest me. I suggest you and he do the same with posts you aren't interested in instead of retorting with sarcasm. Just because you don't want to follow logical and mathematical arguments doesn't mean you need to denigrate the posters or act as if you are sooo put out by having to read them. It seems that you're the one who missed the point. My point, at least. I'm not saying that I'm anti-stats, or whatever. Stats are a great way to tell a lot about a player. What bothers me is when people use stats, and only stats, to evaluate a player. Statistics are great, but I have no interest in looking at a stat that takes 10 pages of paper to compute. Does that make me ignorant to these "new age" stats? You bet it does, and I'm completely fine with that, as I don't need all those to evaluate a player. And I never acted as if I was put out by reading anyone's posts, so you can cancel that little theory. I learn a lot on this site. It's just that some people seem like they'd rather study a stat book than watch an actual baseball game. And I don't have a particular person in mind when I say that, so if you're reading this and happen to think that I'm talking about you... I'm not. Your basic point is one that I've brought up a few times and gotten jumped on for mentioning it. It seems like any player mentioned brings out 3 pages of stats comparing him to some other player and pointing out how great (or lousy) he is by using statistics that were invented in the last 10 years. Somehow I grew up watching Clemente, Aaron, Banks, Mantle, Mays, etc. without knowing what VORP, Isod, etc. meant, but I knew they were great players by watching them.

He's going to love the short LF fence. He should have a couple of great seasons until he eats himself into a trade to the AL as a DH.

I really think Hendry is a good GM. He was considered a real up-and-coming GM for the first year or so and then things kind of fell apart. Injuries should not be an excuse, but you must admit the Cubs went through far more than their share of injuries to key players for the last few years. Look at Kenny Williams. For years he was considered a joke as a GM, then a few good moves and some luck and now he's considered a "genius". I think Hendry is making some very good moves and with a little bit of luck and health, he will get the reputation as a good GM.

Amen! Here we go again trying to find something bad to say about Hendry. As I've stated before, Hendry is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't with some posters. He signed ARam for probably $30 million below market value and ARam insisted on the out clause and a NTC. Hendry did what he had to do to keep ARam and did it very in a way that saved the Cubs $30 million.

Angels signed him to 5 years/$50 million. WOW!

Unfortunately, the Cubs have shown themselves to be an irresponsible, and poorly run orginization. We need players, we have money. Thats a good mix. Unfortuantely the results are disturbing. Overpay for our role players, and then sign a big name but not great player to a franchsie record contract. Next we might make a run at Schmidt or Zito. Zito isn't even that good. Schmidt has declined in both performance and stuff, and he's been hit with injuries lately. Risks are everywhere, these are just far bigger, more expensive, and older risks. Yea, that's so 5 years ago. They now boast arguably the top pitching prospect in the game, have a top OF prospect on the rise, and have invested in young pitching in the farm system. Look at the teams on the rise. The Brewers have built their whole team from the farm system pretty much. The Marlins brought in a whole lot of good, young talent and were far better than us last year and for years to come. There are examples everywhere, far more than for the spend a ton group. And yet go out and buy every available free agent that they can get.

Pretty funny seeing as he hit a would-be World Series winning homerun off of Curt Schilling. Isn't that true of most hitters? Hitters hit pitchers' mistakes. Bad pitchers make more mistakes than good pitchers. If every pitch was thrown where it was supposed to be, there would be little to no offense.

Building from the draft and developing a great farm system takes time and when you have basically a loser for 100 years, you become impatient. The Cubs farm system seems to be doing okay with pitchers, but has been horrible at developing position players. As for the Yankees, they probably have one of the worst farm systems in baseball because they continue to trade prospects for the established stars that they didn't buy through free agency. The ideal situation is to have a strong farm system, develop your own players, and then fill in a few spots with trades and free agents. That is the exception and not the rule in baseball in 2006.

Apparently all the money they made last year didn't make they play hard.

Could it be an ego thing where Hendry doesn't want any hurt feelings.

Everything in the paper points to him playing CF.

That's why I keep saying that you have to build a team good enough to get to the playoffs because everything after that is a matter of who gets hot when.

I don't think you have to worry about Zambrano's extension. With the way Hendry is throwing around money and trying to build a winner, there's no way he lets Zambrano leave.