Backtobanks

I'm not to big on Soriano, but option a. and b. sound good to me. I like Corey, but he has worn out his welcome in Chicago. He would not be any help sitting on the bench.

Personally, I don't understand all of this man-love for Furcal. He is "okay" as a leadoff man, has speed, and has good defense. To me that's not a $9 million SS. Lugo from Tampa Bay is comparable, but not a free agent. I hope the Braves decide to sign him and we go after the younger Giles or Castillo at 2nd. To me spending $9 million on a guy because he's better than what we had last year makes no sense. $9 million ought to get you a star player at any position.

I really don't see a $9 million difference between Furcal and Cedeno. I think Cedeno will match Furcal within 2 years. Of course, that's assuming Dusty will play him.

Playing in the weak AL Central and having their starting pitching, they should have a good shot at 90+ wins. Of course, they did have career years out of 6 or 7 players, but their pitching should decrease the chances of a huge regression.

Any deal with Cabrera in it would have to include Zambrano (or Prior) and Pie for the Marlins to consider it.

With everyone healthy, Zambrano, Prior, & Wood are all #1 or #1A starters. Of course, using the name "Wood" and the word "healthy" in the same sentence is ridiculous.

Lee for Manny? No thanks. The Cubs spend a whole lot more money, and don't get any better than the 2005 team. Depends on how much money you get from the Mets. Whether or not you improve from the 2005 team or not, Manny is a likely step up from what Lee will provide offensively next season. Just throwing it out there. Our best chance for landing an impact bat might be trading Lee + prospects for said impact bat and another quality player. Lee is an impact bat. I don't think he'll repeat his numbers, but I think he'll be a 900+ OPS hitter. That "quality player" would have to be another 900+ OPS hitter to justify a deal. This team needs to get better than they were in 2005. They couldn't take advantage of that career year by Lee, I don't see any way they'd win if they simply traded Lee for another impact bat, without acquiring a 2nd impact bat. Think of it this way. Once Giles is gone, the quality bats in the OF are nonexistent. So if the Cubs were to trade Lee and prospects for Manny and say, Milton Bradley(not a .900 OPS guy, and I have no idea of how that trade would work out), then they still have money to go out and sign Konerko to play 1B. So now they have someone who's just about Lee's equal offensively next year, plus Manny and Bradley, and the only real tradeoff is prospects plus the increase in salary. Just trying to explore all the possiblities here. First, Konerko is going to look for $50 million over 4 years and secondly, the only way he is Lee's equal is if Lee regresses to his previous career averages.

As long as we are ranting, the media overkill is mindblowing. The Tribune is running 8-page sections (separate from the sports section) daily. Today's Tribune had an article "grading" the facial hair of some of the Sox. The newscasts spend the first 10-15 minutes on the Sox. Now before anyone accuses me of sour grapes, let me say that I wouldn't read 95% of the articles even if they were about the Cubs in the WS. I'm a Bear fan, but the overkill about the 1985 Bears was (and still is) incredible. The 2-week period before any Super Bowl is the worst time in the world to read a sports section. I'm just tired of reading about the left-fielder's second cousin.

I just hope that some of these "fans" stay caught up in hooplah and buy tickets to the Cell so that there will be more tickets available at Wrigley for the real Cub fans.

Why don't we ask the Mets to give us Cameron ($6M), Floyd ($6.5M) and Glavine ($9.5M) in a pure salary dump move for some prospects? With the $22M they save here, and the $15M freed up with Piazza as free agent, the Mets can trade for Mannys' $20M and Delgado's $16M. We fill the needs for CF, RF and a >200IP/<4.00ERA SP. And, all 3 guys we get are free agents after 2006. That's a good thought. Only trouble is that, unless CPatt were out of the picture, would it give Dusty an excuse to bench Murton? Put Patterson in the deal to the Mets. The Mets can then deal Beltran to Boston for Manny, and Kris Benson to Miami for Delgado. What's their rotation look like after dealing Benson and Glavine?? Pedro, Zambrano, Seo and?? Seems they need to pick up someone like Millwood in free agency to make all this work. Looks like they would have the money to do that after this particular sequence of deals. I really doubt that Minaya would be so bold. Nor am I sure that I'd want Glavine, Floyd, and Cameron. You're not sure you want Glavine, Floyd, and Cameron. Well, we could go with Rusch, Burnitz, and Patterson.

I think Pie is about as untouchable as Zambrano and Prior. I'm sure every GM is asking about Pie, but I think Hendry feels Pie is a future superstar and isn't going to trade him. As for Cabrera or Arod, I think those kinds of trades are only in our minds.

Why don't we ask the Mets to give us Cameron ($6M), Floyd ($6.5M) and Glavine ($9.5M) in a pure salary dump move for some prospects? With the $22M they save here, and the $15M freed up with Piazza as free agent, the Mets can trade for Mannys' $20M and Delgado's $16M. We fill the needs for CF, RF and a >200IP/<4.00ERA SP. And, all 3 guys we get are free agents after 2006. I like your idea. Dump Cameron and Glavine after the season and re-sign Floyd if he stays healthy and produces. With Cameron, Glavine, and Maddux gone after 2006, the Cubs should have enough money to go after other free agents.

Of course, it doesn't help when the temperature is the same as your age.

There's no such thing as a safe prediction for the WS, but it I would think that it might set records for the lowest scoring series. Very good pitching and mediocre hitting on both teams. Also, I would expect the national TV ratings will be pretty low, except for Chicago & Houston.

Konerko will probably get $50 million over 4 years from someone, so he would be crazy not to test FA. I think his departure will really hurt the White Sox next year since he is what holds their offense together. Many of their other players had career years, while Konerko has proven tobe pretty consistent.

In 1945, when the population of the US was 140 million, we had 16 teams in MLB. There were no blacks in MLB then, no Asians, and few Hispanics. Today, with a population of approx. 280 million, there isn't a reason in the world why we couldn't support 32 good, competitve teams in MLB. Of course back then you didn't have all of the other sports bombarding you on TV, cable, and satelite on an hourly basis. If baseball was going to expand, there would have to be some sort of financial considerations. Right now you have a handful of teams that aren't being supported while the Yankees are spending over $200 million. Baseball is having trouble calling itself "the National Pastime" and I'm not sure they could support 2 more teams. Look at what happened to the NHL with expansion. Scoring records that were sacred for decades fell to mediocre players. Defensemen started scoring 40+ goals per year.

What opportunity? Nobody had the opportunity to get Mazzone out of Atlanta except his lifelong friend. Quit blaming Hendry for options that aren't available.

Yeah it would have been nice to see the CUbs at least try to get in on this but it would appear it wasn't just about money for Leo as he turned NY down. This is all purely my opinion but in addition I think it was either working with Perlozzo or staying put. He grew up in Maryland and has wanted to work with Perlozzo, who remains his best friend from childhood, for a long time. I don't think we had any shot at getting him. Yea, one of them was best man at the other's wedding. Nobody had a chance of getting Mazzone to leave Atlanta except his best friend (Perlozzo) or a ridiculous offer from someone like Steinbrenner. With Steinbrenner's reputation for overpaying, I'm sure Mazzone had to at least listen to the Yanks' offer.

Today's Tribune has a chart comparing the last time the Sox were in the WS and this year. This year's WS ticket costs $140 while the 1959 ticket was $7.20. I know I'm not a spring chicken anymore, but I have a hard time believing that $7.20 was a lot of money for a WS ticket when I was 12 years old. Of course, I still wouldn't have spent the money since I was a die-hard Cub fan.

Except for the ones that are 1-0

There are a lot of reasons not to re-sign Nomar, but I just have this terrible feeling that he will go somewhere else and hit .310 with 25 homers and play 140+ games. Health is a gigantic question mark, but if by some miracle he is healthy, he ends up being at the top of the free agent class.

I think Hendry has targeted certain free agents and players to get in a trade regardless of the Sox' success. I do think that if nothing is happening for the Cubs during the off season, the success of the White Sox may pressure him to make a trade later (spring training).

probably rests somewhere in between fluke and genius, much closer to fluke than genius. i also love your term "on base percentage average", i've never heard of that one. And whoever said that Podsednik is a good leadoff hitter probably needs to re-think what skill sets make a leadoff hitter a good one. Podsednik had a RC of 62. The exact same number as Neifi Perez. I agree that he rests somewhere between a fluke and genius. The Sox played great ball all year, but they did get "career years" out of 6 or 7 players. Also, they had a lot of luck and breaks throughout the year and the playoffs. Finally, let's not forget that the perennial division winners (Twins) had a horrible season and the next best team (Indians) were too inexperienced to win it at the end. Good teams take advantage of everything that happens and the White Sox did that this year.

Astros are coasting through the NL too. Made quick work of more balanced teams then the White Sox have to face. Astros in 6. They are a better pitched team and the White Sox will struggle in Houston. I'm sure the networks aren't too excited about an Astro/White Sox series. It might be a great series if you love 1-0, 2-1, and 2-0 kind of games. I give the Sox credit for having a great season and taking advantage of every break and piece of luck that they got. That's not sour grapes because that's what good teams do. I've posted in an earlier thread that the Sox could be in trouble next year if they lose Konerko and don't get the "career years" out of the 6-7 players that had them this year. Congrats to the Sox and hopefully the WS can end quickly so the Hot Stove can get heated up.

S.D. is in the driver's seat, in my opinion, but I'm not sure how much money they will or will have to spend. Giles has been critical of PETCO and while he may want to stay home, he may want out of that park as well. Anaheim could go after him, but will he be their main target. They already have Finley, Vlad, and Anderson for the OF and numerous young candidates for DH. They will be losing Salmon money, so they could afford Giles, but he may or may not be their primary target. Boston won't do anything until they move Manny. That could happen, or it could not. Right now it's just a lot of speculation. Even if Boston has its eye on Giles, if there's a delay in dealing Manny, it could hinder any efforts to sign Giles. LA is likely the one I'd fear the most, but they signed two big contracts in Kent and Drew last season. Also, is McCourt cutting payroll? That could play a huge factor in what happens. St. Louis will no doubtly place an offer. I think if we wanted, we could siginificantly outbid anything the Cardinals offer. I think if it's between the Cubs and Cardinals, he'll go with the highest offer. Unless he'll play for 6-8 million, he's not going to Houston. I've detailed the Astros finances in another thread, so I won't do it again, but I don't see the Astros adding any big name signings this offseason. The cash isn't there. The main hinderance I see in the Cubs getting Giles is that I don't think he's Hendry's main target. Because of that, I figure we'll be in the discussions, but may not make the final push needed to land him. If th Cubs fail to land Giles, I think it will have more to do with the fact that Hendry pursued other needs moreso than because of other teams winning more. I think he will stay on the West Coast, but he would fit right in with the Cards and he's their type of player.