jersey cubs fan

I'm guessing that the people in this organization that want Chone are the same ones who keep pushing the versatility story. Their dream team would be a Jack of all trades and a master of none.

If the general consensus in baseball circles was that you were terribly underappreciated and better than people give you credit for, you might think you deserve a similar contract.

Not sure it will be that big of a difference, at least over the next 3 years. If he establishes himself as a superstar, then yes. I'm not so sure there's going to be a huge ad campaign built up around a non-english speaking first year player. But the real money is going to be when he signs his 2nd major league contract. He's got to go where he thinks he can build up his value highest for that contract. It makes me want to cry that an athlete wouldn't consider a $40m contract "real money". Well, obviously it's real. It's just that the reason it's only 3 years is because he wants to sign a big longterm contract after establishing himself as a legit major league star, but before he's 35 or something. Actually the more this number climbs, the more he might consider going longer term. I think there was some early talks of 3/24, but it was 3/30 pretty quickly, and then talk about 12-15m per year popped up as soon as guys like Guillen signed. If he can get 15m this time around, I'm not sure he'll make considerably more after everybody sees exactly what he is as a major leaguer.

Not sure it will be that big of a difference, at least over the next 3 years. If he establishes himself as a superstar, then yes. I'm not so sure there's going to be a huge ad campaign built up around a non-english speaking first year player. But the real money is going to be when he signs his 2nd major league contract. He's got to go where he thinks he can build up his value highest for that contract.

Really really good.

It shouldn't be surprising, because of the markets involved, but it's nonetheless a bit interesting how little attention is being paid to this. Cabrera is a pre-prime superstud, and he was just traded to a World Series contender. Man I wish the Cubs could have given up the farm for him.

No we don't. At least I don't. I'm not sure he knows what a good deal is. I've seen enough of his crap to know he's crap. I don't care if he's being nice, I want him to be a good GM and actually make moves that make this a very good baseball team. There's no excuse for this team to be anything short of excellent, absolutely no excuse. But it's extremely far from it, and the GM doesn't seem to know why.

That's because every team uses about 6 or 7 starters, some many more. Of course you can find worse pitchers. But the only way you can be satisfied with the numbers Marquis gave you is if he was a 25 year old making his debut in the majors. You cannot seriously be satisfied getting those numbers in the first year of a three year contract of a guy with Marquis's track record.

Because when Hendry farts during the winter meetings it sends shock waves all across the world. I think many people are parsing every little thing Hendry says into way too much a deal. Or maybe Jim Hendry is a really bad GM doing a really bad job generally managing the Cubs, and people are sick of him making the same stupid mistakes year after year, ignoring the same glaring holes year after year and saying/thinking the same stupid crap year after year. And they are sick of all the ridiculous "let's just see what he has up his sleeve for the rest of the winter, I mean spring, I mean June, I mean trading deadline, I mean waiver deadline" when we've seen all this BS before.

It worked out well last year. This year probably not so much. It did? An ERA near 5 and a WHIP of almost 1.4 is working out well? It worked out well for about 1 month(April) and then it was all downhill from there Yes, they may not be sexy numbers but they are still very decent numbers for a back of the rotation pitcher. No, they are not.

It worked out well last year. This year probably not so much. It did? An ERA near 5 and a WHIP of almost 1.4 is working out well? It worked out well for about 1 month(April) and then it was all downhill from there Back to back years of being an afterthought when his team reaches the postseason. Marquis didn't work out well last year, and there is next to no hope for him to work out well later this season. If he is ever moved, it will probably be done Jacque Jones style.

Another example of Hendry bashing. When Hendry dismisses a player, he gets criticized and if he talks up a player, he gets criticized. Nobody is burning up the phone lines asking for Fuld, so what's the matter with building up the kid's ego. As for whether Hendry believes this, I don't think any of us know what he believes. Bruce Miles has pointed out that the Cubs are very tight lipped about what their plans are, but all of us "experts" know what Hendry's inner most thoughts are. how much longer does hendry continue to get the benefit of the doubt? people act like this is his first offseason or something. Well, here in St. Louis you have an opposite situation where everybody thought "Jocketty has always pulled these guys off the scrap heap and had success, no reason to doubt he'll do it again this year" when he signed Kip Wells last year. He ended up with an awful lineup full of guys who couldnt hit and couldn't pitch. Until Hendry does something monumentally stupid this off season, I say cut him some slack. He made some moves last year nobody liked (Marquis, Lilly, and DeRosa) and those turned out pretty darn well for the amount of money spent. I'm no Hendry apologist and think he certainly needs to do a better job and have a little philosophy change, but let's wait and see, because like Bruce said, the Cubs have been tight lipped about their plans, and who knows, maybe the Matsui thing was just a ploy to drive up the price for Houston. I say that's pointless. His slack was cut years ago. It's absurd to give him the benefit of the doubt now, when he's still got a mediocre team and very little hope for anything better. By the way, this is nothing like the Yankees. They don't take non prospects and call them untouchable. The put together a great lineup, then let the likes of Melky Cabrera come in and play some rather average ball, and get hyped into something more than what he is. Melky is nothing special, but Fuld is no Melky.

So dumping Dempster's 5m will all of a sudden afford the Cubs Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts, Raul Ibanez and a soon to be very expensive Erik Bedard? The Cubs decided to go big on Ramirez, Lee, Soriano and Zambrano. In doing so, they've made it pretty necessary to go cheap at many positions. There is no way the Cubs could afford to go big at every position unless they completely blew the budget out of the water. To be fair, he's dealing away Dempster's money along with Marquis's. After those moves, the Cubs could probably afford bringing in what those guys will cost.

Unfrozen caveman beat reporter? Celebrity gossip columnist?

Different administration. Same owner though, right? I'm curious what kind of money Jim is going to offer Fukudome, if he's truly planning on blowing him away to eliminate the competition. 3/45?

I would agree with your point. But my point would be that focusing on one specific "side" is even dumber when you consider it's the side they may even need a little less.

To be a bit fair, Teahen played against tougher pitching in the AL, especially considering how utterly putrid the pitching was in the NL Central was this year. Also, it was kind of an outlier year for Comerica this year, but since it's inception it's always been one of the ten toughest parks for hitters. Isn't his home park a hitters park?

I don't think there is a good bet with the unfrozen caveman center fielder. He's falling apart, and old. He's a tremendous financial burden and a huge question mark in the outfield. I don't believe he offers nearly enough upside to justify all the downside risk.

2007 Cubs: vs. RHP: .274/.335/.419 = .754 OPS vs. LHP: .263/.325/.431 = .756 OPS If they had problems with left-handers then you can just as easily say they had problems with right-handers, as well. Whaaaaat? I guess I never did see stats to back it up, but it seemed obvious that they struggled more against lefties. That's a little bit mind-blowing. I think it helps to look at how they ranked compared to the rest of the league. They were below average against LHP, and slightly above against RHP. Plus, the OBP difference is significant, on a team wide scale, more important than the SLG difference.

Damon isn't good. He's probably going to get worse as he enters his mid 30's, given his health issues.

It would be a nice move if the Cubs would then trade for Matt Murton to platoon with him in RF.

I disagree. Willis has a perceived value that would likely net them some young talent. I think they could get more by dealing them separately. That perceived value is why he is going to make a ton of cash in arbitration. Cash Florida probably has very little interest in paying.

I am attacking the argument. The argument is that Prior is a wuss that was never really injured and just didn't try, and was a steroid abuser. Now Cuse claims it's business. I don't believe that is true. His business decision is based on that very lengthy history of personal distaste for Mark Prior.

I just think it's important to be honest and point out the very obvious personel vendetta you have against Mark Prior and his so-called lack of toughness, when you try and claim it's just about making a smart business move.

Because he needed surgery, most likely as a result of the completely incompetent manner in which he was handled by Baker and company.