jersey cubs fan

I'm all for speaking the truth to Hendry's incompetence as GM, but I can't comprehend why this is an issue. There's no logic behind the notion that Hendry needed to cut loose Wood, or Prior for that matter, in order to somehow move forward. Kerry Wood is an asset to the ballclub. No sane GM just cuts assets loose.

I like the idea of Cameron, but if you trade Pie, who plays CF for 25 games? I don't think it's likely they put Fukudome there for the start and then move him back.

That reads like a preliminary listing to me. Fukudome's contract details are pretty spotty compared to the others listed on that page. I wouldn't worry about it until more information on the agreement is made available. During the conference call to announce the signing, Joe Urbon stated that Fukudome would be in Chicago for a least the next four years, and no mention was made of an out clause after three. It took a while for things like Ramirez's original out clause to become public knowledge, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this sort of clause existed without being reported until after the official signing. With reports that Hendry was toying with the idea of going up to 5 years at $15m per year, and his obvious tendency to hand out player friendly clauses and highly backloaded deals, I think this could be a realistic scenario. But obviously the details aren't fully available right now.

yeah, my favorite part about yet another terrible game from him is that they kept playing the citizen eco drive commercials that said something like "eli manning is unstoppable, just like the citizen eco drive." right! Unstoppable. Eli Manning is. And so is his citizen eco drive watch. I love that there is a huge Eli citizen echo billboard in Philly, off 95 I believe. Last night wasn't really his fault though. Winds were crazy, and he was hitting hands and shoulder pads all night. Giant receivers were awful. Yesterday I was a Jets, Miami and Philly fan, so I enjoyed 2 out of the 3 games. Having the Jets cover on the easiest bet of the week (why were people insisting New England would win by 40 even when it became obvious the weather would be terrible, as early as Thursday?) was almost a moral victory. The Miami win was a lot of fun. I enjoyed pausing it when the big fat man in the stands held up a sign that just said, "HUGE", and again when the server in Huizinga's box was picking her ear.

I'm not sure a thread about getting rid of Edmonds is the right place to talk about them getting worse. This move probably makes them better, addition by subtraction. And I'm not sure who I'd rather see on the Cards, slappy or Rolen.... Rolen could be real bad hobbling through the last few years of his contract. That said... I think we can agree its going to be fun how bad they should be... 4th or 5th in the division seems a given. Yepper, paying $1m for the concussed one to play for somebody else is better than paying $8m for Jimmy to stink it up for them for 100 games.

That would make sense, considering all reports said he only wanted a 3 year deal, but then why sign him to a 4 year deal at all? Strange. That language suggests the contract is actually a 3 year $48 million for all practical purposes. If "before 2011" means there is a deadline of December 31, 2010 to sign him to an extension, and they don't extend him by then, they would have to "release him", which requires them to still pay him the money. In a sense, that's just an extremely backloaded deal that will pay him $12m, $12m and $24m, in 2008, 2009 and 2010. It will be in Fukudome's best interest to not sign an extension, take the last $12m owed to him for 2011, and go through free agency in the winter of 2010/2011. It doesn't say anything about voidable years, or an opt out by the player. "Before 2011", "release him" and "free agent" are the key words. The way it's presented on the website, if it's accurate, would mean the Cubs are going to have to offer him a fairly large extension in 2010 to have any hopes of keeping him and not losing him. Although one thing that would be confusing is how the waiver system would work in any such release. Could a team claim him and then get their own window to negotiate an extension, removing the financial obligation for that "release money" from the Cubs.?

Who is the 4th?

I'm sad about it. I think it was a mistake. But I just don't have the energy to be angry about it. I think it's just so much drama that's gone into the whole Prior thing, that while I'm upset about the decision, there's still a certain amount of relief that it's over. That's how I feel about it too, which is why I provided sad and angry as separate choices. I see the people who are happy about it are finally starting to crawl out of the woodwork. :D Me too, I was more or less resigned to it. I didn't even react when I turned on the TV and saw it on the ticker.

Well, there's an idea. Jim should get on that one right away. I would be in favor.

Are they just directly controlled by the Cubs themselves? It would make sense as the rookie league team where they send almost everybody at one time or another and they play where the team trains, correct? My understanding is virtually nobody goes to Mesa games, whereas the rest of the minor league affiliates are all money making ventures that rely on crowds.

If I'm trading Marmol, I want something more than another reliever who is going to cost $40-50 million next year.

I think they need a RH bat. Assuming Murton is dealt or somehow starting with Fukudome in center, they will have no RH bat on the bench. Blanco will be there, but he's not a bat. If Cedeno or Theriot is the backup, that's not a legit bat. Ward at least provides one legit bench bat from the left. If Murton is gone, they won't have any RH bat. I'm sure they hope DeRosa will be that guy. He's still probably going to start more often than not.

I think they need a RH bat. Assuming Murton is dealt or somehow starting with Fukudome in center, they will have no RH bat on the bench. Blanco will be there, but he's not a bat. If Cedeno or Theriot is the backup, that's not a legit bat. Ward at least provides one legit bench bat from the left. If Murton is gone, they won't have any RH bat.

Good catch. I didn't see him in the bullpen part of the write up and just assumed Tim chose not to write about him. He's got Demspter in the bullpen with Wood, Marmol, Wuertz, Lahey, Eyre and Cotts. I don't think Dempster will be in the pen, and I don't think Cotts should be in the pen. Lahey is an extremely longshot, who they might have to end up trading something for to be able to put him in AAA. I think the Cubs can throw a bullpen arm into a trade to sweeten an offer. But think the pitching staff is most likely going to be Zambrano, Hill, Lilly, Marquis, Dempster, Hart, Wuertz, Eyre, Howry, Marmol, Wood, with one wild card spot available for Lahey/Cotts or a youngster.

Darren Rovell was on CNBC naming names that were mistakenly named yesterday, including Nomar, Sosa, Wood and Prior, and apologizin.

Depends on what you want to see. The team as is probably wins 82-88 games and "contends". A signficant upgrade to SS could push this team into 90 plus territory. Personally I want a team capable of winning 95, without needing everything to go right. It's been 19 years since they've won more than 90 games in a season. Failing to win 90 is putting yourself behind the 8-ball when trying to win a World Series. For this team to be great, they either need most everything to go right (Zambrano an ace, Lilly and Hill remain solid, 4 and 5 don't implode, bullpen stays solid and healthy including Wood and Marmol, Pie/Soto really do well, Lee/Ramirez/Soriano stay healthy and very productive, Fukudome meeting expectations, and a bench player or two having a career type year), or go out and get somebody who significantly upgrades the lineup and possibly the rotation. I'm going to assume something goes wrong in the ideal scenario, and that they will need to upgrade some more to makes up for that likelihood. This team still took the 2nd fewest walks in the league last year, and gave up the 4th most. I don't see that improving from the pitching side. And as for hitting, Fukudome will help, but he's replacing 2 guys, Murton and Floyd, who combined for 61 walks last season. 20 more walks would have left them at 12th out of 16 teams last year. 40 puts them at 6th. If they can find a way to improve both these numbers, I think they can go a long way to being a solid all around team. Colorado and San Diego were both very good at this last year, whereas Philly and the Mets at least took walks, although they gave up almost as many as the Cubs. These were the class teams in the NL, I believe. And the walk remains the largest single simple aspect of the game the Cubs have struggled with consistently this decade.

the players aren't children. they're responsible for their actions, and they clearly deserve most, if not all, of the blame. I don't deny that they are responsible for their actions and should be getting the most blame but if others knew of an illegal activity and didn't report it, aren't they breaking a law (rule) as well? No, not at all.

A lot could happen, but that's very likely not enough time to stretch him out into starting. When was the last time he even pitched 5 innings? I'm sure he'd love to start one day, but I can't imagine that day being in 2008.

GMs are being discussed, but the fact remains the players deserve most of the heat. They took this stuff. There wasn't a heck of a lot GMs could do. They were under a mandate to field the best team possible, not be rogue steroid prosecutors.

It would be a gamble, but Wood has said in the past that he would like to start. . Wood has said repeatedly that he is a reliever now, and he will be a reliever at least for the immediate future. I see zero chance of him moving to the rotation until, at the very least, he's gone several months of showing he can put up significant innings without being hurt.

I can tell you that the media in NY is ripping him to shreds. Local tv news is always the most tame, but they talked about it. Radio guys are shredding him. All the blowhards who blew hard on Bonds are blowing just as hard on Roger. So far. Good. I admittedly haven't heard much because I'm busy at work- but on the way in this morning Peter Gammons, in the portion I heard, is very slow to judgemnent, almost blowing off Clemens' culpability. But, I didn't hear the whole thing either. It would be one thing if Peter was regularly ripping Bonds, but then went soft on Roger. But Peter has been among the more levelheaded in this entire debate. Cuse, Pettite has taken a back seat, but he's being talked about. Mets fans are sending all sorts of "we got cheated in 2000" emails about all the Yankee pitchers on that team that juiced. It's going to hang around awhile.

Yeah, I've been assuming that as well. I think it would be interesting to see them go with a sort of combo platter in the 5th slot, mixing and matching Marshall, Dempster, Hart and Gallagher. You can plan to give one of them 4-5 innings, and then go to the other. If the opposition is heavily RH that day, go with the righty. On the days those guys aren't starting, they are available for long relief. It could be a good way to actually use all 12 pitchers they are likely to keep, instead of wasting a roster spot on a guy that never pitches.

I can tell you that the media in NY is ripping him to shreds. Local tv news is always the most tame, but they talked about it. Radio guys are shredding him. All the blowhards who blew hard on Bonds are blowing just as hard on Roger. So far.

No, I don't think that.

Wont he be a FA after this season? Yes he will. So you could make the same argument with Santana in that you're not going to trade too much value as you can get him as an FA the following year. I agree that he's not a need, but man that would be a great bullpen. But then the argument would diverge into it being really smart to give a great starting pitcher big money and not really smart to go out and spend huge on free agent closers.