cubsfan26

I do realize that, but he was a bad defensive CF last year. Moving him to RF will improve the defense, and probably still give us better production then we got out of Bradley last year. Especially if we find the right platoon partner for him. For example how would a Jonny Gomes and Fukudome platoon in RF look next season?

You do realize that Byrd had the 3rd best OPS among all major league CFs last season? Now I'm not sure if he will keep that success up. But moving to another hitter friendly ballpark and having the same hitting coach that turned his career around couldn't hurt. Probably the 5th starter, unless Gorzelanny beats him out for that spot.

Rich Harden health was just as much as a question mark a year ago as is Randy Wells having success again. Of course Bradley potential was better, but Byrd will probably give us some consistent play out there. Yeah I know you have your worries. But having the same hitting coach, and moving to another good hitters park. Makes me feel he will do just fine coming over to the Cubs. It reminds me alot of the DeRosa situation in a way. DeRosa also has a simliar career as Byrd, before Rudy fixed his swing. We all expected Theriot fallback last season, and 2b isn't anymore reliable then it was a year ago. We just trusted Fontenot to be better, after the way he hit in 08. Fontenot still here and could be better, but if he's not we have a decent fall back option in Baker. Yes thats really the only thing thats different from a year ago. Soto and Soriano we expected to be good last season and they weren't. So if you guys don't expect these guys to be better then I don't expect you to think the Cubs will contend in 2010. But if they are they most likely will. Those guys struggles mixed with the Ramirez injury is why we basically missed the playoffs last year. Sure their were other factors like injuries to other players, or bad players Hendry brought in like Kevin Gregg, Aaron Miles, Aaron Heilman or even Bradley for what he was getting paid. But the lack of offense we got from those three overall is what hurt us the most.

I have my doubts about that. I think in the majors his batting average would drop a ton, so his OBP would go way down and his power numbers wouldn't be good. The guys not a everyday player or even respectable one. I would much rather go with Theriot and Fontenot/Baker bats then his. Plus the Cubs don't wanna invest in a 2b long term. Because Theriot will be moved to 2b as soon as Castro is ready. I think Fuld would have simliar power to Theriot in the majors. But I don't think Fuld would be able to keep up the same batting average and OBP as Theriot as in the majors. Lets not forget that Fuld only hit 264 and 284 in Double A and Triple A the last two seasons. I don't see that turning out well with him hitting everyday in the major leagues. Especially with a hitter like him depending so much on batting average, when he has no power.

Well I think it depends on who else we bring in. There's no doubt that we will bring in someone else. So it depends on if Hendry goes for the corner outfielder/1b type to platoon with Fukudome. Or a guy who can play all three outfield spots. Because if brings in corner outfielder/1b then Hoffpauir probably won't make the team. But if he brings in the guy who can play all three outfield spots, then Fuld probably won't make the team. I'm sorry but plenty of holes? It's that a bit reactionary due to missing the playoffs last season? This team doesn't really have anymore holes(probably less) then they had going into last season. The fact is if Soriano is better or Soto is better and Ramirez is healthy this team will be contending next year IMO.

Fulds probably not making the team out of spring training. Byrd will get most of the playing time in CF. With whoever they probably bring in as a RH hitting 4th outfielder to play with him at times(when he's not platooning with Fukudome).

When I saw Cubs sign Marlon Byrd to 3 year deal I was about to be pissed. But 3 year at 15m isn't that bad, still I would have rather stuck to a two year deal.

Would anybody be interested in Ryan Sweeney, if the A's were willing to trade him? I like him alot more then Davis, and would only want Davis as a 4th outfielder.

Church is a LH hitter who struggles against LH pitching. Do you realize that the whole reason why they want to add a 4th outfielder is because they want someone to platoon with Fukudome? I'm not trying to pick on you, but I seen alot of people just throw out names like that. Even though those guys aren't good fits for that reason. So If Church is on the team he will be the everyday CF against RH pitching, not a 4th outfielder.

I doubt the Cubs would have much interest in Pie. Just because they will be looking for a guy who has a little more of a track record. Pie hitting well in 140 something AB's isn't gonna all of the sudden change their opinions on him as a hitter. Because it could very likely be a fluke good stretch. The Orioles are smart and trying to sell high on him while he still has value. Especially since they don't really have a spot for him. But for the Cubs he's probably not a good fit, since were trying to win this season. Pie still a project and still gonna have his ups and downs IMO.

So he's either gonna be the Nationals closer or Cubs set up guy? The reason why I believe these two teams are the finalist is probably because they are offering the most money or are some of the higher bidders. I heard Capps wife loves Chicago and really wants him to sign here. Either way I will be surprised if he signs for less then 2y at 7 or 8m. So I'm not so sure that it would be a great idea to sign him at that salary.

Yeah I'm not even paying attention to his numbers of last season. Since it was such a small sample size, and he was most likely pitching hurt which caused the increase in walks. Yeah I'm starting to have some concerns about his health. I heard Hendry get asked about his shoulder. But according to Hendry it wasn't really that bad, and hinted the Mariners shut down Silva more because he was struggling then his shoulder being really bad. But I have read other reports that make it sound like his shoulder could be a cause for concern. Exactly it seems to me that this guy can be a serviceable back of the rotation starter. He's bascially being called terrible because of his 08 season, and his FIP and xFIP show he wasn't that bad. When I think of Silva in the NL I think of a Jason Marquis type pitcher. Silva will probably get hit a little more, but he won't walk nearly the amount of batters Marquis does. Yeah like usual people on here overreacted about something. I agree that Silva could either suck or be hurt most of his time here. But the way I look at it is, that if the Cubs were gonna trade Bradley they were gonna have to eat 15m or so anyways. Like it or not but Bradley burned too many bridges and coming back wasn't a option. So in any deal we made we were going to get a worse player then Bradley in return, and probably had to eat most of Bradley money. At least with this trade there's a chance Silva can give us something. While if we did the Burrell trade, we wouldn't have saved the money we did and would have to pay almost all Bradley salary in 2011. Because we would also have to dump Burrell on someone else and eat most of his salary for 2010 as well.

Getting back on topic here, I have a question for some of the stat guys out there. I just looked at Silva FIP and xFIP from 2008 and they were 4.63 and 4.64. While in 2007 his FIP was 4.24 and XFIP was 4.57. But his era was 6.46 era in 08 compared to 4.19 in 2007. So my question is how much of Silva struggles in 08 had to do with some bad luck? And did he really pitch that much worse in 08 then in 07? Does anyone think that Silva can be a serviceable 5th starter or good long guy and eat some innings? Especially coming over to the NL. Jason Marquis for example had higher FIP and xFIP in 07-08. So maybe Silva can give us Marquis like numbers out of the 5th spot if healthy.

I agree, but the Cubs want to add a CF. After Byrd the free agent market is pretty thin. The guys you might be able to get on a one year deal in January are the Scott Podsednik, Rick Ankiel, and other guys currently asking for too much money. For the postion we need it might not be alot of good low buys later in the offseason. Of course I would go no higher then a 2y at 12m with team or vesting option for the third year. If he wants more or can get more, I would probably wait it out.

The thing is though, if the Cubs get back in the playoffs next year. Hendry job is probably safe for most of the remaining of his contract(3 more years). Like it or not but Ricketts already accepted that the Cubs were gonna have to eat alot of Bradley salary and previous Hendry mistakes. Yet he decided to stick with Hendry and let him try to fix his mistakes. Nothing about this trade has changed Ricketts opinion of Hendry because he already knew this was all going to happen coming in to the situation. Yet he decided to keep Hendry then, because he thought the overall results Hendry got were good enough(even if people on here don't). Ricketts just decided not to give Hendry much money to do anything. So if he fixes the team and gets them back in the playoffs he's gonna have to do it without spending lots of money. But reality is if the Cubs are back in the postseason Hendry will be back. So people who dislike Hendry almost gotta hope that the Cubs do bad this season. You guys pick what you wanna do.

You would think some teams would be willing to kick in 6m over two years to get Bradley. But I'm really starting to believe teams wouldn't even kick in that much. From everything we heard about the Rays, they weren't willing to kick in any money or very little money for the second year. So any money we would have saved in that deal would have been trading Burrell again and eating most of his contract. Sadly I really do think this was the best deal the Cubs could get when it comes to getting money back in return. The only reason why the Mariners were willing to kick in that much was to get Silva off there hands. Hendry knows Silva is a long shot to do anything productive and is basically talking about him like he's a guy he just signed to a minor league deal. I really believe Bradley value dropped to basically nothing. A few teams were willing to try him out basically for free or for very little money. But nobody was willing to invest more then 3m per season for Bradley.

Theriot didn't say anything that others didn't say before about Milton. Just most of those other players were off the record when making those comments. Dempster even said Milton needs to look in the mirror after he got suspend. There's a story out there about Reed Johnson getting in Milton face, and telling him to cut the crap out. We all know about Milton/Lou war of worlds that one game as well. People gotta be realistic, teams don't eat that type of money for a player, unless he was really really big issue. So we gotta face facts and know that Milton was an A-hole to everybody around him basically. The comments he said to the meida about the fans/team and how he treated the media was just icing on the cake. So lets not be naive and think oh everything would have been fine lets just give it another shot. The Cubs knew things would get worst before better, and thats why they ate the money they did. Anybody who disagrees with the move, well all I can say is you weren't there and you didn't live it. Of course I didn't either, but I also know teams aren't eating that type of money, unless things were really bad. The fact that the Cubs weren't the first team to really wanna get rid of Milton should tell you something. We just had the unfortune to try to get rid of him while owing him alot of money.

He might have owed up to it when being asked by the media. But he sure as heck didn't like it was all his fault. Basically when Milton was unhappy, he made everybody around him unhappy. Ryan Theriot was next to his locker and thats basically what he said. So even though Milton stats might have gotten better thought the season. He was still struggling in alot of big spots with guys in scoring postion. Which often made him unhappy and act like a idiot afterwards.

I have heard that a few times from a bunch of different sources. Ryan Theriot was on the radio today and also said how tough Milton made things at times and was very unpleasant to be around. Nobody is making up how awful Milton was to everybody last year. Eating 15m or so isn't a easy thing for any team to do, if Ricketts/Hendry thought there was any way the team/fans could deal with him again, they would have brought him back. The thing is Milton isn't going to change. Sure the team might forgive him for a short time and even the fans might if he's hitting well for a stretch. But the day the guy has some struggles, or makes a big mistake. We all know Milton will go off again, and this will start over again. Not to mention the media will be egging him on and be waiting for him to snap again. So they can get a good story, like they often were last season. Bringing back Milton would have most likely just repeated last season at some point and things could have actually gotten worse.

Why do you assume he will be in the rotation or even on the team if he's pitching bad? Like I said before the Silva part of the trade is very minor and it's silly that fans are freaking out about adding him. He's a guy they will take a look at, and if he can be a respectable back of the rotation starter like he was with the Twins then they will keep him. But if he's getting bombed in spring training, or has a bad game or two in April he will be gone. The whole point of this trade was to get rid of Milton and get the most money back as possible. We never were gonna get equal or decent value in return from trading Milton(the combo of being overpaid, injury prone, and A-hole, and bad PR move killed his value). Ricketts/Hendry decided Bradley could no longer be on the team. They knew going into this thing they would have to eat 10-15m of his contract. Of course they were hoping it would be closer to 10m, but at some point they just had to get a deal done and move on. So this was the deal that got us the most money back in return. Hendry deserves all the blame in the world for signing him in the first place. But Tom Ricketts obviously wants him gone or he wouldn't have agreed to eat so much money.

He wants 3y at 33m, and even the Yankees don't wanna pay him that. Plus from the sound of things I don't think the Cubs are actually looking for a leadoff hitter.

See thats the thing with this trade, it never was going to about the player we get in return. It was about getting rid of Milton and getting the most money back they can. The Cubs decided a while ago that there was no way they could deal with another year of Milton. Ricketts/Hendry thought they owed it to the fans, players, coaches and media to get rid of him. Yes us fans on message boards, rather keep Milton if it means doing something like this. But the Cubs have alot more fans out there that just want Milton gone at all cost. So the way people gotta look at it is, we saved 6m and basically paid 15m for Milton to go away(almost like buying out a contract in the NBA). Any freaking out about Silva or whoever we would have gotten in return in pointless. Basically the Cubs will look at Silva in spring training, and make him earn a spot on the team. If he pitches like he did for the Twins a few years ago, it's only a bonus. But the fact that Hendry hasn't even guaranteed Silva a roster spot. Sounds basically like they are treating him like a guy who signed a minor league deal. If Silva is crap like he has been they will release him and eat the 15m or so. Silva actually has very to do with this trade, and is basically only involved to match salaries with little hope they get anything out of him. It sounds like the Cubs basically feel about Silva as they did about Luis Vizcanio a year ago. But for anybody who thinks this move makes Hendry job in trouble or anything like that is silly. If Ricketts was ok at all with Bradley coming back next year, this deal would have never happen. Sure Ricketts could be pissed at Hendry for the signing in the first place. But he's not any more pissed today at Hendry, then he ever was in the past. Like it always has been, Hendry future will depend on how the Cubs finsh this season. I'm sure the Cubs knew all along that they would have to eat 10-15m of Bradley salary. Silva is just basically a piece they will take a chance on, instead of eating all of the salary right away. If he's bad they will do what they always planned to do and eat the money.

Well I'm glad we saved 6m, so we can use that salary towards add a replace for Bradley. It sucked things happen like this but from what I understand there was just no way Bradley could come back. As for getting Carlos Silva, well thats pretty much blahhh. Hopefully we can turn him around to being a Jason Marquis like 5th starter. If we can't well then I say we should just release him and eat the 17m. There's no need to have Silva on the roster unless he's at least a serviceable pitcher. I doubt Ricketts is gonna give Hendry anymore money. So If Hendry is gonna put a good team on the field, he's gonna need a little luck and need to get some good players without it costing him much money. So basically he will have to replace Bradley production for the amount we saved on him or a little more. So I guess we will have to see what happens the rest of the offseason.

I hope Bruce is right because wouldn't the better move have been just to release Milton if the deal was a straight up swap? Nah if the Mariners send you salary that covers some of a chunk of Bradley salary you still save money. So even if Silva goes to spring training and blows. The Cubs could release him, and still end up saving more money then releasing Bradley from the start. So the key to this deal is the money. If the Cubs don't get any or no money this deal is just horrible. But if we do get a decent amount of money, it might just be ok. Since we could use that money on other players still.

I suppose if we miraculously were to get Morror in the deal, it wouldnt help as much. After all, Bradley has his problems, but is still a good player, and Silva, well, isnt. Nah if we got Morrow in this deal it would be a good trade. Milton might be a good player, but you also gotta consider he has very little value at this point. Morrow would then be the main piece in the deal, and Silva you can let battle for the 5th spot or long reliever spot and if he sucks well then release him or hide him on the DL. That said it's probably unlikely we get him as a throw in this deal. I think more realisticly we would probably get some money in return so we can use on other players.