jersey cubs fan

Wrong. Nomar's health was becoming an issue before he became a Cub.

Really? I wouldn't label any Cubs acquisition as a big fish. Nomar was closest but he was a banged up shell of his former self, and Soriano was not a top player. The Cubs have been named during rumor stages, but reports of interest aren't meaningful when compared with actually acquiring the players. Ramirez was highly flawed, DLee was a second or maybe third tier 1b. Barrett was a nobody, Fukudome was intriguing, but not a top notch international free agent. Dempster was a rehab project. Seriously, name a big fish he caught. I guess we're just using different definitions of big fish. In my book Ramirez, Lee, Soriano, Fukudome, Bradley, Nomar, and Harden all count. Those guys were all expected to be major differencemakers when they were acquired. Some have been, others not so much. That is a very loose definition of big fish. Ramirez and Lee shouldn't even be debatable, they clearly were not. Soriano was only a big fish because Hendry gave him that stupid contract, but Soriano was never elite and was always a highly flawed player that wasn't going to come close to fullfiling his contract. If you want to include him, go ahead, but he was more like the only fish the Cubs could find in their decrepit pond than a big fish. Fukudome? No, he was an interesting player and a good get, but at the time he was already considered well down the totem pole of Japanese stars coming over. He was a secondary player. Bradley? No way, that's a joke. Harden? Nope, he was as big of an injury risk as there was and the guy I give Hendry most credit for targetting and acquiring, but come on, anybody who can't get a big contract on the free agent market is not a big fish. Vladdy was a big fish. Sabathia, ARod, Beltran, Manny, at one point in time the Big Unit, these are big fish.

Nomar had an .867 OPS in 156 at bats with Boston the year Hendry acquired him. At SS, that's a very good OPS and is indicative of a big fish at the time he was acquired. He was only 30 years old when Hendry acquired him and ended up with an .819 OPS in his first year with us. He underperformed in Chicago, but nobody could have expected it when he was acquired. He was definitely a big fish. Nomar was clearly on the decline from when he was one of the best at his position. And Boston was itching to get rid of him. He was clearly very talented, but as injury prone as Milton Bradley and a defensive liability.

To pee? I always assume those people have deep psychological problems and are probably child molestors.

Really? I wouldn't label any Cubs acquisition as a big fish. Nomar was closest but he was a banged up shell of his former self, and Soriano was not a top player. The Cubs have been named during rumor stages, but reports of interest aren't meaningful when compared with actually acquiring the players. Ramirez was highly flawed, DLee was a second or maybe third tier 1b. Barrett was a nobody, Fukudome was intriguing, but not a top notch international free agent. Dempster was a rehab project. Seriously, name a big fish he caught.

The way I have read it is that it is two two-team trades, not a 3 team trade. One trade is just dependent of another one being completed. They said the Phillies were told Lee wanted Sabathia type money and they refuse to give starting pitchers of his age over a 3 year deal. They weren't going to resign Lee and now have control of Halladay for several years. Plus I would take Halladay in a heartbeat over Lee. And Lee is owed $9m, that's a fairly big amount for any budget. It would be great to keep Lee after acquiring Halladay, but it's not realistic. They upgraded their pitching staff, and partially restocked their prospects.

They've already gotten 2 very good years from him. I meant to see 2-3 more good years. Yeah, I'm hoping for 2 out of 5, I think asking for a third would be greedy.

I really don't understand your confusion.

Maybe. I think he's still behind, as Holliday has had one or two standout seasons to go along with his steadily good overall performance, while Ramirez is about as consistently very good but not elite as you can get.

You'd have to have Michigan/OSU in the same division.

Holliday is a step above Ramirez, and I think Aramis has clearly plataued below the elite level. He's been consistently solid, but he's never broken into the elite.

I think our best hope is they get a better GM, because the talent of the players is much more important than who the manager is. Managers are worthless. I have no idea how Sandberg thinks of pitchers, but unless he's Dusty level reckless, there isn't going to be much difference between him and everybody else.

A whole lot of nothing is Ryno's own words.

I have to agree with most everything, except the part about the suspension. There's no reason why a suspension had to lead to an inevitable trade. Players don't have to get traded after being suspended. There is no such thing as a point of no return. I didn't have a problem with the suspension. I do have a problem with the unprofessional manner with which Hendry has handled the issue since.

I somewhat agree, but I think were better then mediocre and could be pretty good with a little luck. They won 83 games last year. In what make believe world were they better than mediocre?

And you are criticizing him for that?

Why is it weird for Seattle? They were marginally competitive without him, and now they can say they added a Cy Young winner. They still have to work to sell tickets. They signed away a bat from one rival that also lost a big pitcher while the other rival acquired a pretty good one. For Philly it looks like they are getting an upgrade as well as cost certainty for the next few years, as opposed to waiting out Cliff Lee's free agent desires. It's also entirely possible that they were getting the message that Lee had no interest in staying there longterm.

Lackey had to be signed away as a free agent while Zambrano was staying on the same team. Whatever role the economy plays Boston is competing with the Yankees who spent even more on their top of the rotation free agent pitchers in a much more uncertain economic timeframe. I think Lackey certainly compares favorably with Burnett, and while he's not as good as Sabathia, his contract compares favorably.

Yeah, way too much money for Lackey. But ESPN will somehow overlook the amount and say "Theo did it again." Way too much? He's a better pitcher than Zambrano and it's less money. At the very least, it's overpaying a top of the rotation starter, instead of some schmuck. Is anybody signing better free agent pitchers for less?

Lackey is a tough guy to judge. On one hand, he's been worth that much for multiple seasons during his career. But he has been a little less high quality in recent years. Was it a matter of too many high inning seasons in his mid-20's? He's still pretty damn good and even his down years have been pretty good. It's kind of like Ryan Dempster but without the unknown of having never done it before 2008. And it's a better deal than Zambrano.

Their own, I believe. And they were ridiculed because many had them losing 10+ games.

Bizarre. Philly fell in love with Cliff Lee this year.

Two winning years. One playoff series win. An average of 33 wins per season. Three fired head coaches (with time still left for a fourth). If I were listing criteria for something called "A Decade to Forget," that's pretty much what it would look like. I don't think you remember how awful the beginning of the decade was. Yeah, they were overshadowed by the Bears and this was another crappy decade for the Bears as well.

You are supposed to give up that bias when you become a journalist, at least in your work. He covered the Red Sox. That was his specialty. He's not Chris Berman cheering on the Buffalo Bills.

I'd bet he isn't regretting the suspension. He might regret signing him, but I'm sure he's proud of the suspension.