Tarver

It's embarrassing that we've argued this for going on five years now. I really wish Piniella would've finished the season.

It's taken much too long. He shouldn't have survived '06.

Wilpon must hanging around Jim Dolan too much.

Yes, I'm aware. So you'd be comfortable giving Beltre multiple years at $10 million + annually?

Totally bogus content, but it's good to see that the morons are (finally) souring on Hendry.

Beltre's a free agent.

Still young, but it's remarkable how much this guy's stock has fallen.

Geoffery Loria blows goats. I have proof

Nashville's alright, but the Christian Conservatives are confined to one out of the way county up here. Too prevalent down there. http://www.steelequipment.com/images/pittsburgh.jpg

"The Best Fans in Baseball" [expletive] aside, at least these rednecks down here know baseball. When I was in Brooklyn, I caught a ton of [expletive] about my Jenkins jersey, but the most lucid insult I heard was "'86!" Down here, they argue why Santo can't be inducted because Boyer isn't, all the while buying drinks.

Only thing Milwaukee has in it's favor over StL is that it's 200 miles closer to Chicago. And for those arguing Dallas, I might agree. But KC or Houston? No way. StL at least has half decent mass-transit. Houston is almost as bad as Atlanta and KC's inferiority complex (and shitty strip clubs) screw it up.

All of that is true.

Nothing against Ramirez specifically, but after this season and last, I'm ready for a radically different Cubs team. I like Ramirez, Z, Lee, etc. but it's time for a new direction. Out with the old, in with the new -- manager, GM, and core group of players. While I'm in total agreement on a new direction with new management and a core group of players, I don't see a reason to do anything with Ramirez. No team will want to give up much for him if 2012 vests at 16m. He's coming off a rough season. That's also ignoring he can still block any trade he wants to. I think the team would be better off showing support and not putting him on the market. Maybe he comes into 2012 better prepared and wanting to impress under new management. It is a free agent year, afterall. You are correct that the guy has virtually no trade value due to the 2012 vesting clause. The tide has turned in baseball such that $16M has become an enormous burden again. Ideally, Ramirez would opt out of his deal this fall, and the Cubs would then say thank you and good luck. Short of that I guess you just let him play it out next year and then move on. Or ideally we find a spot to keep him and his bat healthy. Aram can't stay healthy at 3rd, put him at 1st, grab Beltre or see if Znik in Seattle will give away Figgins + $. If we're keeping Hendry let's at least see if he can strike gold twice.

And while Atlanta is bigger, and much more relevant, having spent too much time on that dumbass [expletive] they call mass transit and highway infrastructure I'll take the StL version any day. Least Cervantes and Bosley had some sense.

Chicago is a capital city. It's the third biggest media market in the country. You can't compare the two. Chicago will always win over StL. But I'll take St louis over Detroit, Cleveland, Indy, Louisville, KC, Cincy, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, OKC, SLC, Buffalo, Houston, San Antone and maybe Dallas any day of the week. StL aint that bad.

He knew in April that the team was going nowhere. Dunn now or wait for Gonzalez?

That's just a negotiating ploy.

It would be pretty hard to give up less than Hendry has in trades. The list of players who have not fallen apart after leaving the Cubs is pretty small. Hendry's bad trades have usually involved acquiring the wrong player rather than giving up the wrong player. Sosa, Farnsworth, CPatt, Hill, Wuertz, and Pie all had more value (either real or perceived) than what he got back. At least he got value for Hawkins, but it's Sabean, so he can't get too much credit for that. PR moves yes, but Jim proved he could handle those situations with the Hundley deal. What happened with the above? Perceived value is incredibly hard to quantify and that's especially true with damaged players. Sosa for example seemed to not have any more perceived value because the Cubs spent half the offseason looking for a deal for him. Hill ended up being traded for just cash so its hard to argue that his perceived value was higher than that (if anybody had offered anything the Cubs would have taken it). CPatt and Farnsworth were both terribly inconsistent and in Farnsworth's case the Cubs actually did get a decent return back. The Wuertz trade was definitely the worst one of those listed. His only knocks on his perceived value were his frequent arm troubles and the somewhat lucky 2008. And he's certainly provided lots of actual value that the Cubs could have use. So you think the Braves would've traded Miner for Novoa?

It would be pretty hard to give up less than Hendry has in trades. The list of players who have not fallen apart after leaving the Cubs is pretty small. Hendry's bad trades have usually involved acquiring the wrong player rather than giving up the wrong player. Sosa, Farnsworth, CPatt, Hill, Wuertz, and Pie all had more value (either real or perceived) than what he got back. At least he got value for Hawkins, but it's Sabean, so he can't get too much credit for that. PR moves yes, but Jim proved he could handle those situations with the Hundley deal. What happened with the above?

It's just interesting that Hendry has this "trader Jim" stigma when his southside counterpart wheels & deals just as often and usually gives up less. Either way I don't think either GM deserves his job. At least we can point at the Cardinals, no reason why the Sox shouldn't be perennial preseason picks.

I didn't say it made sense. I'm guessing this: http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2010/07/19/diary-of-a-losing-team-batting-champs/ already got posted here somewhere.

Gordon isn't a 3B anymore.

Gonzalez, Rowand, Wells, Reed just for well known examples. The verdict's out on Tyler Flowers, but it's not like AtL got a haul for Vazquez. And Olivo has bounced around as much as Patterson. Don't get me wrong, a lot of his trades seem downright laughable. I used to think of him as an incredibly, incredibly lucky version of Bowden. But it's happened too often to be ignored, so either he has some of the best scouts in baseball, or the [expletive] should just invest in lottery tickets.

A major thing to Williams' credit is he seems to know when to trade guys at the peak of their value. The return may be questionable, so he should be criticized for not maximizing the opportunity cost, but he seems to always get what he wants and doesn't seem to ever get burned. Maybe Ricketts should look into sniping some Sox scouts.

The more stories that emerge about his random, unheralded acts of philanthropy and kindness the more I wonder how he couldn't come up with someone more qualified to extort Winfield.