jersey cubs fan

ditto

Good call by the voters. Manning flew under the radar until the last couple weeks because the Colts started 3-4 but he was just amazing over the last few weeks. Yeah, the only reason that team is in the playoffs is Peyton Manning. It's a pretty weak safe pick.

Has there ever been an entertaining dry alcoholic? You take the drugs and/or booze away from somebody in the performance business and 10 times out of 10 they are going to lose whatever it was they had before. It's probably best that he remains quiet.

We see similar reports every year. I see no reason to assume they will happen before they do happen. The Cubs are worse right now than they were last year.

Again, the supply is through the roof and there is no demand. In years past he may have gotten that raise, but under current conditions, there was no reason why the Cubs GM had to be the idiot that gave it to him (and then guaranteed a 2nd year). And as I said before, number of positions matters because Hendry is insanely in love with the concept of versatility. Just because he has played other positions doesn't mean he has anymore value. If he's anything other than a backup 2nd baseman he's hurting your team.

No, I'm not. I'm reacting to the silly overreaction that the Cubs are "in trouble" because they've marginally reduced their chances of winning the Central, and marginally reduced their chances of winning the World Series. Again, I'm not justifying any one of the moves they've made this offseason. The signing of Miles -- particularly because I suspect he will play every day while Fontenot again languishes -- is particularly egregious. I don't think the bolded is what will happen, but we shall see. Anyway, I agree with your point entirely. Hell, you could probably argue that the Cubs chances of winning the central going into 2009 are better than they were going into 2008. At this point, they're decreased from what they would have been had we not made these moves, I guess, but I think that's a pointless argument to make when there are still more moves to be made. It matters now, but it probably won't mean a whole hell of a lot come April. Or even next week. I think it's pointless to assume other good moves will be made to make this team better. The only thing we know is what the team looks like today, and it looks worse than it was last year.

I can remember when Pat wasn't really terrible, so I find it hard to be amused at his mistakes too, it's like the worst possible "bad announcer" scenario. You can? Can you name the date? It had to be late 80's at least.

Except he was non-tendered by his team during an offseason in which 170 something free agents are out there not getting deals because the economy is a mess and most GMs don't want to waste millions on replacable crap players. He was nontender by his team because they have money issues, and was probably gonna get a 1m plus raise in arbitration, and the Cardinals couldn't afford Miles at 2.5-3m. They also did try to resign him probably for 1.8-2m per season. But aftering adding Greene to play SS, he become less valueable to them. Aaron Miles would have gotten 1y at 2m this offseason, I dunno about the second year. But he would have gotten some money after what he did last season, and how many postions he plays. I know Felipe Lopez has more upside, but he was worse then Miles the last two seasons, and he signed a 1y at 3.5m with the D-backs. He wouldn't have gotten some money just because of what he did last year. He still had to find a team that was dumb enough to pay him. There was no guarantee that Aaron Miles would get a raise. And what does the number of positions matter? Jim Hendry is probably the biggest sucker in baseball for versatility. The fact is he got his money from the Cubs because the general manager of the Cubs likes to waste money on mediocrity. He's done it every single year. Only a handful of other players have gotten paid this winter. There's an absurd amount of supply on the market and no demand.

good work. Yes, true brilliance.

Except he was non-tendered by his team during an offseason in which 170 something free agents are out there not getting deals because the economy is a mess and most GMs don't want to waste millions on replacable crap players.

I don't know about straight up budget move. But before they had DeRosa, and now they have Miles, 3 relief prospects and $2.5m less dedicated to the 2009 payroll. Hendry likes his relievers. He also likes to blow savings on crappy veterans.

There's a crapshoot aspect to the playoffs, but making your team worse is going to reduce your chances of winning it, regardless.

That role is fine, but with Bradley likely in the fold, Hoff will likely get far more playing time than a 4th OF should get. Hoff won't be a 4th OF and will have a hard time making the team. Soriano, Fukudome, Bradley, Johnson, and Gathwright would be the first 5 OFs with Pie likely to be traded. I'm not sure where Hoff would fit in. True, Johnson will be the 4th OF. I actually might prefer Hoff over Gathright, though. Yeah, but they just signed Gathwright to a deal and Hoff is a career minor leaguer. I don't see that happening.

It came from the DeRosa savings, and they think he can contribute positively. If they were financially strapped, they had no business offering 10m a year for Bradley. How much savings is there from removing Marquis and DeRosa's contract, only to add Bradley, Miles, Gathright and Vizcaino? The Cubs had players to trade to get a lefty bat. Luke Scott, Hermida, Hawpe, Kubel, etc... And they could have made those trades without having to give up DeRosa. Unfortunately it's become painfully obvious they didn't want a lefty bat. They wanted multiple lefty bats at every position. They are going to struggle all year looking for right handed help. Finding another right handed bat will be for next off-season. depends on who wins the world series

It came from the DeRosa savings, and they think he can contribute positively. If they were financially strapped, they had no business offering 10m a year for Bradley. How much savings is there from removing Marquis and DeRosa's contract, only to add Bradley, Miles, Gathright and Vizcaino? The Cubs had players to trade to get a lefty bat. Luke Scott, Hermida, Hawpe, Kubel, etc... And they could have made those trades without having to give up DeRosa. Unfortunately it's become painfully obvious they didn't want a lefty bat. They wanted multiple lefty bats at every position. They are going to struggle all year looking for right handed help.

If they get Bradley, what will the bench be? Assuming fukudome/soriano/bradley OF and Fontenot at 2nd: Johnson, Miles, Bako, Gathwright and......? I have to think that last spot will be an infielder. That's a whole bunch of no production on the bench. I imagine Hoffpauir would be the favorite. And I'm going to start hoping against hope that Pie beats out Gathright. I don't see a recently signed Gathwright failing to make the team. And I would be really surprised if they went into a regular season with only Aaron Miles as a potential back up at 3 of the 4 infield positions.

They got somewhat lucky that DeRosa improved upon his career when he did. But his age 31 career season prior to coming to Chicago was significantly better than Miles season, and that followed up an age 30 season that was a heck of a lot better than Miles. DeRosa's career to that point was not impressive, but it was better than what Miles has done.

I was all for selling high on DeRosa. I didn't think that would mean trading for marginal relief prospects and signing Aaron Freaking Miles.

If they get Bradley, what will the bench be? Assuming fukudome/soriano/bradley OF and Fontenot at 2nd: Johnson, Miles, Bako, Gathwright and......? I have to think that last spot will be an infielder. That's a whole bunch of no production on the bench.

DeRosa was set to make a bit over $5m this year. The team may be in win now, but the owner is bankrupt the economy is a mess, the market is way down and ownership is unsettled. Why is it so hard to imagine finances would be an issue?

Not even close. It's going to take a very good bat to replace the dropoff from DeRosa to Aaron Miles. If Hermida plays at the highest level I could realistically hope for he might make up that difference. I'd feel a lot better if Adam Dunn were being brought in. The dropoff is most likely going to be from DeRosa to Fontenot. I don't think Miles will start over Mike. And I don't think the dropoff between DeRosa and Fontenot next year is that huge. DeRosa and Fontenot did play at the same time a fair amount last year. Miles will start a lot. Fontenot will not play close to everyday (nor should he).

They traded a fairly good bat for marginal minor league relievers, and then they went out and wasted a significant portion of the money saved by signing a really crappy player. Whatever happens from here on out wasn't fascilitated by DeRosa's trade. That deal, in and of itself, sucked. And the entire team has been downgraded to date this offseason. It will probably take Bradley just to get back to their pre-DeRosa trade level of decline from last season. It will take much more to actually improve upon last year's team.

Exciting? They haven't done anything but get worse so far. What's so exciting about taking steps back? Maybe because he likes Fontenot / Bradley better than Fontenot / DeRosa. I don't consider that worse. Bradley's not a Cub yet. Right now it's DeRosa/Fonty vs. Miles/Fonty. That's not better. And even if he was a Cub, that's not the only thing that's happened this offseason.

Bringing in Lou,Lilly Marquis etc. was a big part also. Carlos Lee at 6/100 would have worked also. Lilly? Yes. Lou? Perhaps. Marquis? No.

That's more or less how I thought of it. But, it was because Hendry did such a piss poor job with the lineup in general and the outfield in particular before that. But no, it hasn't come close to being worth every penny and it never will. Soriano hasn't been that big of a difference maker.