jersey cubs fan

And he was actually talking about playing young guys like Phillips and Edwin E. and the like :shock: I did a double take. I had to make sure it was Dusty talking Dusty has always talked of playing young guys.

I switched over to espnews to see if they were doing any hot stove talk. Was nice to see they now have a PATRIOTS category right between NFL and NCAAF on the ticker.

Their preference for different cats makes them perfect trading partners. All this talk about Hendry's individual deals makes me wonder why so many people try and judge him on any specific trade. The bottom line is Jim has been in the Cubs organization for 12 years, he's been GM for over 5 years now. His signature is on every level of the organization, from the farm up to the manager. And the bottom line is the Cubs have been hugely disappointing. The results on the field have not come close to matching the resources allocated to the product on the field.

I had no idea he was that young. I also have no idea what kind of contract he might want. He's never played a full season in his career, so maybe he wants something like a one year make good contract with incentives and a significant player option for 2009 that can be achieved with 2008 playing time. I'd love to get 4 months of Bradley, even if he's nowhere near his 2007 level.

DRAFT TEX

Why do I get the impression that Baker still thinks he won the World Series and never missed an October?

I might settle for simply an average SS if he's still inexpensive. But then again, average would be a difference maker for the Cubs.

No doubt there's an element of risk, but you're overstating it with that comparison. Career numbers in Japan, 10 season sample for each: .305/.397/.543 Fukudome .277/.333/.387 Taguchi Everything I've heard is a lesser version of Hideki, perhaps with better defense. At least, that's what I'm picturing. Hideki came over on a 3/21, then signed a 4/52, which is an even $13m per year. Would it surprise anybody if Fukudome signed 3/39 right off the bat?

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?