abuck1220

i hope the red sox did win it...maybe it will keep them from going after drew.

I think they would also need to pick up one of the many 2b options available this offseason also. The list is long at that spot: Soriano Kent Durham Giles Loretta Lugo Walker Iwamura I'd be very happy with Loretta, Lugo or Giles if we sign Drew and move Jacque to CF. drew would likely be the one to play cf.

unfortunately, you're probably right. maybe boston will win the mats bidding and they won't be able to afford drew. i'd rather have drew + schmidt than pierre + mats. of course, i'd love drew + mats.

doesn't sound like la is too anxious to re-sign drew...

fortunately weaver and suppan are both FA's. i'm assuming you'd want to sign them both.

yeah, what a failure all those division championships with a 50 mil payroll have been. obp....yuck!

i'd probably rather have drew than mats.

exactly. hendry couldn't have lucked out any more than this. exactly the type of player the cubs need, and he's there for the taking. he could put up huge numbers playing in the NL central, by the way.

forget soriano for cf...GET DREW!!!!! this could not have fallen into hendry's lap any better.

i really hope that the cubs wouldn't add the 'take it or leave it' language at this point.

He's actually performed at a high level before, none of those guys have. Career ERA+ of 112. You might be lucky to get 100 innings of 90 ERA+ out of any of those other options. Miller might be able to give you 150 inning at 100-110, and it wouldn't be ridiculous if he gave you 190 innings at 120 ERA+. yeah, i recently looked at his numbers and was surprised to see that he was quite good and healthy in 2001 and 2002. since then, however, he's either been average or hurt. i don't get my hopes to high for a guy when the last time he was worth something was 2002.

1. because the cubs have the money 2. because the cubs suck, and they will suck even worse without him 3. because there's nobody else worth spending the money on

i swear, hendry has it in his mind to build a team based around a bunch of 2-3 year deals worth between 2 and 8 mil a year. that type of attitude is not going to build you anything. it's not gonna get you beltran, ramirez, drew or anybody like that. yeah, sometimes those contracts will come back to haunt you in year 5 or whatever, but i'd rather have 4 good seasons/1 bad season from ramirez at 15 mil a year than a string of 5 bad seasons from john mabry, wes helms, tony graffanino, neifi perez, and gary gaetti at 2-3 mil a year.

let's face it...over the past three years hendry has made overspending a habit. for once, i'd like to see him overspend on someone that's good.

is it possible that the amount of the winning bid could be announced, but not the team making that bid?

Jim Rome just made a funny comment on the hiring. He was basically debating the Padres position and had this to say: "Hmm, let's see... should we hire Bud Black or bring in Dusty Baker to shred Peavy's arm with pitch counts of 140 every outing?" Hammer, meet nail. did he follow that up with 30 seconds of silence, which was then followed by him saying the exact same thing but worded slightly differently, which was followed by 30 more seconds of silence?

it's kinda weird to see young guys/prospects traded for each other like that.

i want the cubs to get him mainly because i'm bored with the cubs.

good luck with that.

welcome to the 2000's, jim hendry!

How about a 30 million dollar bid with a 4/30 contract with a player option for the 5th year? works for me as well. Question is, how much is boras going to want to string out of the winner. Considering the "window" for the winner of the bid and Boras/Matsuzaka would have when talking contract. Boras can't really afford to "string out the winner." Right now, if the Cubs win the bid....I would offer Boras/Matsazaka a "generous deal" of 5 yrs $50 mill (as someone allude to earlier) at the start of the negotiations, and tell Boras that the deal won't change much up or down. The franchise that wins the bid, wins all together, whether they signed him or not. Is there anything to stop a team, say like the Orioles or Blue Jays, from bidding some outrageous number (with no intention of signing the player) so that the Yankees don't win? Because, as I understand, if the teams don't come to a deal, the team gets its bid money back. I think all of MLB would hate that team, so maybe that's the answer to my question. Yes there is...In fact it was answer earlier in the thread. The cliff notes version of the answer would..if a team is proven o only make a bid (and low ball in neg....), just to keep him away from another team, Selig would pretty much step in, and void the deal. The rights to Matuazaka would go to the 2nd highest bidder. how do you prove that? you've already sunk $30 M into the player, would 5/40 or 5/35 really be lowballing? thats 14 or 13 per year. what a dumb process. edited for spelling. smrt poster! they would get the 30 mil back if they didn't sign him.

to make the fans think you're trying. like they did with beltran.

did this guy sleep through last season or what?? Unfortunately, far too many people still think that. They see the stereotypical leadoff man, and decide he's a perfect fit, without putting a second of thought into the stats (besides low K and high SB). For some reason, it's been a lot easier for many people to overlook Pierre's overall weak numbers by dismissing his poor April and May to a fluke, than it has for them to accept Ramirez's overall good numbers, because of his poor start. To her credit, Muskat seems to think Pierre ain't all that. that's an interesting point. didn't couch's article that ripped ramirez advocate re-signing pierre? i think, for those people, the fact that pierre hustles leads them to make excuses for pierre and hate ramirez.

from a muskbag... did this guy sleep through last season or what??

Based on what? His history of signing mediocre players. Name me the last signing of Hendry where you said "Wow, that was proactive. Hendry was really a step ahead of everyone else with this one." That is exceptionally selective memory on your part. Every year Hendry has made a proactive attempt to fix the bullpen through FA, with names like Hawkins, Howry, and Eyre. All three were solid, proactive signings to fix an annually ragged bullpen. Alfonseca wasn't the best acquisition, but at the time (without the value of hindsight), he was expected to be solid. that's not forward-thinking at all. that's looking at the list of available FA middle relievers, picking the one with the best era the previous year, and then throwing a bunch of money at him. that's the definition of playing it safe...there's no advanced philosophy at work there. Thanks for quoting only half my post and omitting all the other examples, that's a fine way to present a case. The question posed was to list acquisitions that made you think the GM was proactive, and I answered it. The Cubs bullpen was a major issue in 2005 and the GM went out and addressed it immediately the next year. That is pro-active in my book - identify the problem and waste no time addressing it. The challenge before that was to suggest signing/posting a Japanese player was too forward-thinking for the GM. I answered that as well, and my answer went completely ignored, probably because there isn't a valid counter argument that will stand up to scrutiny. Folks can continue to pick one example out of the context of the enire issue if they want to, but it does nothing to answer the original question and my original response - why is signing a Japanese player too forward-thinking for the current GM? sorry, i didn't know i had to fully address everything you said in a post in order to respond. anyway, i don't care how you slice it, going out and signing recognizeable names to huge contracts the year after your bullpen sucks is not, in any way, proactive, forward-thinking whatever. and the problem wasn't addressed when he signed remlinger, hawkins, eyre or whoever was the middle reliever coming off the best season because the bullpen still sucked, and in most cases the specific guy he got sucked or was average at best. an example of a forward-thinking, proactive move would be to build your bullpen through the farm system or get guys like howry, remlinger, and eyre just before they have their big season instead of letting them cash in at your expense.