jersey cubs fan

I think I read somewhere that he thinks soccer is dumb. That's worth another $10 million onto the backend of the contract.

He's no McGriff.

90 wins as the bare minimum every year for 5 years? That's a ridiculously high standard. The only teams to pull that off in recent memory were the Braves (with one of the greatest GM/manager combos in history) and the Yankees (with twice the payroll as the Cubs). Not saying Hendry's done a great job, but considering the injuries we've had to deal with from our best players basically every year, I don't think anyone could have pulled 90 wins every year in the past 5 years. Quit with the injury excuse nonsense. Hendry shouldn't have built a team that could only win if young pitchers stayed healthy to begin with, and he shouldn't have let a manager like Dusty Baker manage them if that's what he wanted. Who said anything about bare minimum? 90 wins should be expected year in and year out. 85 wins should be considered a disappointment. 95-100 should be attainable on occasion. There's no excuse for sub .500. I'm not saying fire a guy the first time his team goes under 90 wins. But I'm not interested in C students running the ship. Excellence should be the only accepted performance level, and Hendry hasn't even come close.

Getting these players wouldn't be a step backwards. But, to finally address this problem 5 years later is rather pathetic. And, while it's all nice that they are talking about Roberts and Fukudome, neither has a Cub jersey of their very own quite yet. That he is still around to make these decisions is the biggest problem of all. You shouldn't get as many chances as he's been given. If they managed to finish with back to back .500 seasons for the second time under his leadership, he should get a lifetime contract. You know very well I never stated such a thing. I take a more moderate view rather than extremist and I get labeled a Hendry supporter. The majority of Hendry's mistakes have been minor, even if too numerous. He hasn't made any tragic, residual mistakes with the best talent in the system, like a Kazmir, and that's important. The parts he traded away, once the Cub-obsessed hyper-evaluation is removed, have been average major leaguers at best and non-factors at the majors at worst. He has brought in talent that is the current face of the team, with deals that seem like absolute highway robbery in retrospect. So I could give or take Hendry. You could do better, but you also could do a lot worse. If he wants to keep his job, he will need to pull the trigger on several of these good looking rumors without stripping the farm and the future of the franchise, and that's something he shown he can do. All that proved was that he was as bad a minor league coordinator as he has been a GM.

Absurd. Ridiculous. Got it. You honestly don't think 2007 was an improvement over 2006? Where did I say that? What I said is it's absurd to give credit to Hendry for that improvement when it was only an improvement because of how god awful the team was the year before. The team that he put together. Who cares that they went from worst to first? The problem is they were the worst to begin with. 85 wins should be considered a big disappointment to a Cubs fan. There is absolutely no excuse for this team to ever be below .500, and they should be able to hit the 90 win mark every season. It's called setting your goals low enough so that when you achieve them some people are impressed. Don't get fooled into thinking that an improvemetn from 2006 to 2007 means anything. It would have been damn near impossible for that team not to improve.

Interesting first post. You blast a reporter for not revealing his sources and for implying there is no way Cubs fans could actually be requesting Fukudome jerseys because he doesn't have an official number yet. Yes, interesting. Reporter? Kaplan only knows what Jim Hendry tells him to say. His constant references to his free golf games, free dinners and having guests on to get free stuff is a little much. To tell me that Kerry Wood is some kind of hero because he re-signed with the Cubs, when the guy had no firm offers on the table from any other club, is laughable. But Kaplan thinks it must be important to promote Wood all he can to us fans. Wow, you really hate Dave Kaplan.

Getting these players wouldn't be a step backwards. But, to finally address this problem 5 years later is rather pathetic. And, while it's all nice that they are talking about Roberts and Fukudome, neither has a Cub jersey of their very own quite yet. That he is still around to make these decisions is the biggest problem of all. You shouldn't get as many chances as he's been given. If they managed to finish with back to back .500 seasons for the second time under his leadership, he should get a lifetime contract.

Wow, were you ever late to this party. :D I didn't realize a Theriot clinic thread would veer into such utter nonsense.

Interesting first post. You blast a reporter for not revealing his sources and for implying there is no way Cubs fans could actually be requesting Fukudome jerseys because he doesn't have an official number yet. Yes, interesting.

Wait. Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. Wait. Wait a minute. Is somebody giving props to Hendry for moving the team in the right direction from the lows of where he initially brought them? That is just absurdity at its finest. What a ridiculous notion. Hendry is why 85 wins looked halfway decent this year. 85 wins should be a disgusting disappointment by now. 5 years into a string of extremely high payrolls when you already had lots of talent on hand should be giving you 90 wins each and every year, with 95-100 on occasion. Going from worst to first is only good if you ignore the fact that he brought them to worst in the first place, and first was only first because the competition was so weak.

I'd definitely be up for moving DeRosa if they find a suitable second baseman replacement. Not sure if LA would actually view him as a 3B though.

I believe less than half are on WGN now, and that station is a lot less super than it once was. I doubt there's much of a Cubs fanbase at all. Sosa was a hit over there, I believe. But while the Cubs have ignored the Japanese market for many years, other teams have built up long standing relationships.

Many people, especially those who aren't used to it, are absolutely disgusted by the 95 degree and 95% humidity from mid July to mid August. I know it. I've seen it. I don't at all get it. I'll take that weather all year any day over having to put up with all the ice, short days, and all the other garbage that winter brings. That said, watching the Bears play the NFC Championship game in the snow from inside my warm house was pretty cool. Well, we aren't talking about picking between summer in Chicago and winter in Chicago. We're talking about the spotty weather early in the season and late in the season, plus the disgusting heat and humidity in the middle of the season, compared to San Diego, where it'll be between 75-85 every day with very little humidity, if any.

YES, BUT HOW MUCH CSHORTER WOLD IT BE? CONSIDEREING TRANS-PACIFIC FLIGHTS FROM CHICAGO/MPLS FLY OVER THE POLAR CIRCLE, THOSE FLIGHTS AR IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF 14 HRS. I WOULD THINK FLYING DIRECTLY OVER THE PACIFIC WOULD BE VERY LONG, AT LEAST 12 HRS?? When I've flown to India via Japan, we've always flown over Alaska. Obviously it takes longer to fly that far north from LA or San Fran, but I would think it's still shorter by a few hours at least. 11:30 to 13:10 going west. 9:50 to 11:45 coming back. That's not much of a difference. He'll be flying first anyway, and it will just mean a couple more hours of free booze and sleep.

Many people, especially those who aren't used to it, are absolutely disgusted by the 95 degree and 95% humidity from mid July to mid August.

There are no non-stops from San Diego to Tokyo. You'd have to connect through LA or SFO, or drive to LAX. ORD has plenty of non-stops. Plus you are barely talking about a 2 hour flight difference. Shouldn't really be an issue. I just hope that if/when he shows up in Chicago, he avoids the Matsuzaka/Costanza puffy coat.

Check this site from last year. http://sturgeongeneral.wordpress.com/page/2/ It has Fuku at about .308/.375/.507 with 16 HR, 110 K, 60 BB and 40 2Bs. Would you guys be happy with these number? I like the 308. 40 doubles is solid, but 110/60 ratio is not that disiplined. I would be extremely pleased with a RF who offered up that high OBP 882 OPS.

Why assume that Hendry will be gone? What if the new owners actually like him? Well, I said "is likely", and didn't just assume he will definitely be gone. However, very few GMs last 8-10 years on the job, going through 3-4 team presidents and an ownership change. For Hendry to be around in a theoretical 4th year of Fukudome's contract, he would be going into his 9th year on the job.

To Chicagoans, great rationale and well put. To mild climate localities, political-like propaganda. Are the 1.5 - 2 months just April/May and late September/October? Because a case could be made, especially by Whale's Vaginaians, that July and August can be miserable as well. Late May through early July, and late August to early September may be the only good weather times in Chicago, especially for baseball.

Although if one teams offers a 5 year contract with an opt out, that could tilt things in their favor. Years 4 and 5 at big money provide the cushion against potential decrease in his market, ie., if he's not all that good. If Hendry offers a 5/75 contract that pays just $39m over the first 3 years, that means $13m per year, and gives him the choice of opting for free agency after 3 years, or settling for 2 more years at $18m. If the competition is inching up from 3/30, that could be a way to avoid having to go to 3/45 right off the bat. And Jim Hendry is likely long gone by then and not having to deal with the $18m price tag if Fukudome does stay.

he's a baseball player, not a samurai. You don't know that.

.380 .610 .812 I'll take it. 1422 OPS with an OBP over .600, that's pretty solid.

Urbon: "And the best part, its the Cubs, so you really dont have to do much for the money." Kosuke: "I will be home every October."

Every few days, we hear "it'll be another few days." Japanese Thanksgiving is tomorrow, right?

:-k