abuck1220

he went to college, that's why is age is higher than you'd like it to be. i, for one, am kinda glad that dusty wasn't in charge of how he was used when he was 22-23. The problem here is that top college pitching prospects aren't supposed to take as long to be major league ready. (I'm not sure he applies as one, but for the sake of discussion...) The high school guys are considered to be more projects than the college guys. It doesn't apply to all college pitchers, because some of them just suck and aren't good enough for the big show. In Hill's case, it's taking too long for him to be major league dominant. He should be able to have stretches, even when he's still a little 'green' where he can dominate major league hitting. That's if he's as good as advertised. Of course the sample size we have is a bit too small, so the only way we'll know is to put him out there and roll the dice. The downside to that is if he gets man-handled by MLB hitters over the course of a few months - his value at age 26 will be nil. Best bet is probably to trade him now for the best possible MLB talent we can. Otherwise, its ____ or get off the pot for Rich Hill this year. well, i don't think that's the case. there's no doubt that hill's a late bloomer. but you can't argue w/ the #'s he put up last year, and his strikeout #'s have ALWAYS been out of this world. it's not like major league pitchers retire at 28...he's still got some time left regardless of what he does in the first few months of this season. if every gm in baseball was asking him about him at the winter meetings, i doubt it drops to no gm's asking about him in june...even if he struggles.

he went to college, that's why is age is higher than you'd like it to be. i, for one, am kinda glad that dusty wasn't in charge of how he was used when he was 22-23.

yeah, you just sayin' stuff is much more persuasive than stats.

so a full year of sheets, weeks, turnbow is going to equal a four win subtraction? turnbow and weeks should only get better, and i don't think prince is going to be a big dropoff from overbay. they should trade for blalock and sign weaver...they could be a real contender if they made those moves.

the brewers are just as good, if not better, than the cubs...i doubt they're going to start dumping their players. with a full season of weeks, a full season of turnbow as closer and a healthy sheets, they have a good shot at 90 wins. they should look into signing weaver.

why is oakland trying to dump players/salary? they're closer to contending than the cubs are.

Did somebody say they were awful? They're role players, secondary moves, nice additions to a good team, but hardly anything to hang your hat on if you're coming off a losing season and have the holes the Cubs have. Hendry has time to salvage this mess, but it is a mess, it's been a mess for a while, and it will continue to be a mess unless he changes his ways. the problem is, i honestly think that hendry feels as though last year's team needed only minor tweaking. bullpen help, a leadoff guy, john mabry, and i think he thinks the cubs are ready to contend. i think he's fine w/ getting someone w/ burnitz's production for rf.

you want to trade our starting 2b AND a prospect to get a platoon player who will start twice a week? no thanks. wow, does jones suck against lefties. again, how is there even talk of him getting a multi-year deal? he's practically a 4th OF type.

i don't understand how jones is anything more than a 4th OF. his #'s are similar to burnitz's, and nobody's knocking down his door w/ three year offers. if you sign jones to a 3 yr deal and lock up pierre for a few more years, you might as well trade pie or murton. a team w/ one of the highest payrolls in the game should NOT have, hands down, the worst offensive outfield in baseball. that is embarrassing. hendry's going to sign jones, throw up his hands and say 'what else could i do?' as if giles, wilkerson and bradley were not viable options. not willing to overpay for giles, but you're ok overpaying for a guy whose obp is 100 points worse?

wow...worst offensive OF (by far) in baseball. let's hope it doesn't come to that w/ a payroll over 100 mil...embarrassing.

Todd Walker with men on base, 2005: 311/350/451 While not Manny Ramirezian, that's pretty timely. quit looking up stats...that's cheating! you should only judge players based on what they seem to do when you watch them.

First, I was never trying to imply that Hendry is better than KW. This offseason in particular has shown that Williams is a better GM. But your examples are completely flawed. One by one here: DLee - Everyone knew he had the tools. He had a hole in his swing and fixed it. Barrett - Part luck, part talent. Dempster - Should have been closing all along in 05, and it was Dusty's stupidity that kept it from happening. Murton - Everyone knows he is good. Even when we got him in the Nomar deal, a lot of people were surprised that we could have plucked him. Bill Simmons, a Sox fan, expressed shock that we got the best player AND the best prospect in that deal. Ramirez - He had one bad year in Pittsburgh. That was the fluke, not what happened afterwards. my point is, you can say that the cubs were lucky just as easy as you could say the sox were lucky. you're just making excuses for why the cubs' unexpected successes were, in essence, expected. you could do the same for the sox. dye has always had potential, same w/ jenks, same w/ cotts, same w/ garcia, buerhle, hermanson, etc. and if you think bill simmons had one clue about who matt murton was the day of that trade, you're nuts.

so just because you didn't think they'd be good, the fact that they were means it was luck? i don't get what you're saying. i'm really surprised by all the white sox hate here. i don't know how anyone can deny that kw has done better than hendry over the past few years. kw is working w/ a lower payroll, an armpit of a stadium that they can't fill, and a rookie manager. hendry has a huge payroll, one of the most beloved stadiums filled w/ fans, and supposedly one of the best managers in baseball. yet the white sox won the WS and the cubs finished in 4th place. come on...things are looking pretty good for the white sox right now, and the last two years of hendry has been nothing short of a big fat F. and to everybody clamoring about how the sox were lucky...does everyone remember what type of hitter dlee was before he flirted w/ .400 and the triple crown? or what kind of hitter barrett was before he became the best offensive catcher in the nl? or what type of pitcher dempster was before he became one of the best closers in baseball last season? how about murton hitting .320 straight from AA? ramirez going from flop to stud?

why can't someone good :hug: love :hug: to play for baker?

He also loves donuts. and won four world series.

if i had studs in cf and rf, i'd consider non-tendering him...especially if you're in a payroll crunch. of course the cubs look to have question marks in lf and rf, so keeping patterson around as a backup isn't a bad idea...especially if the cubs have the $.

from the trib.

i've kinda given up hope that hendry can pull off a big trade like this one. i hope he proves me wrong, but i can't see him getting drew, abreu, dunn or even wilkerson. if the tejada thing falls into his lap, maybe. but otherwise, i don't think that he sees rf as a big a hole as we do. it seems like he feels as though the 2005 club just needed some tinkering. i honestly think he felt this team was a leadoff guy, 2 relievers and john mabry away from winning the central. i think he'd be fine w/ burnitz-esque production from rf.

interesting stuff from hendry. makes you wonder what hendry really thinks of corey.

who? everybody keeps saying that, but i haven't heard any good suggestions as to who that could be. missed out on giles. bradley in cf, wilkerson in rf could have worked, but both were already traded, and the cubs got pierre. casey's gone, so the reds don't have to trade dunn/kearns (if you consider him to be a big bat). and i don't think the o's or phils are going to just give away tejada or abreu.

the cardinals are lucky, the white sox are lucky...boo hoo, everybody gets the breaks except for the cubs.

6m a year to be a platoon player=horrible option. especially when it will probably take a three year deal to get him.

they should have an awesome view of jacque jones from there.

Or it could be an indication of how little MLB GM's value the addition of Bradley to their team. The mid-level prospect the Dodger's received was probably pretty close to the best offer they saw from any team. Place Bradley's stats, talent and age on any other outfielder and they would offer a much higher return. When considering the baggage Bradley brings along...........the value plummets. I'm glad Hendry stayed away. has hendry proven to be a better gm than beane? i don't think so. Billy Beane hasn't won anything! He's no better than Hendry! Its a good thing you don't run the Cubs! You love Moneyball! DePodesta failed! Riccardi is a spendthrift! Epstein was secretly fired because he was inept! Stop the Beane manlove! Its the standard anti-Beane stuff I usually receive. I thought you might enjoy it, Abuck. i do sleep w/ a copy of moneyball under my pillow.

that's what bothers me about him. 75% of his responses are "never", "no way", "not gonna happen"...just real short, rude, know-it-all, i don't even have time to elaborate because i'm so much smarter than you [expletive].