cubsfan26

I think it's more likely that Ricketts would give in and pay more of Bradley salary then he wants to then have him back. But if Ricketts is forced to do that, it will put even more heat on Jim Hendry I think. Which basically means the rest of the moves Hendry makes this offseason better work out, and the Cubs better be back in the postseason next year or he will be gone. I doubt Ricketts is gonna be very happy with Crane Kenney or Hendry going to him and saying were gonna have to put in more money or it won't work. From everything I have heard though, there's no chance at all that Bradley is back. I doubt at this point they would change there minds after all the trade stuff this offseason. Especially when the plan is to move Fukudome back to RF and get a new CF. So what will end up happening is Ricketts will eat more money then he wanted to, and be pretty pissed off about it. I also bet it will be a while before Hendry goes to Ricketts and asks him to sign off on a big deal on another teams free agent.

Ok well sorry right now I don't have the time to do the research to give you the information you want. If you don't wanna take what I say seriously well thats up to you. Early today I had more time to do research and I showed people that Hendry has done a decent job during his reign as GM. When before that people were calling it bad. Sorry I couldn't give you anymore info at this time.

There not locked into anything they just don't want Milton around anymore. Most of the players hate him, most of the coaches dislike him and the common Cubs fan hates him as well. Having Milton on the team is just bad PR and will make them look bad next season. Plus I think they really wanna improve the outfield defense, and that includes moving Fukudome back to RF and getting a new CF. But when it all comes down to it, Ricketts doesn't want Bradley on the team anymore. Otherwise I don't think it would be a must like it is.

Yeah we will be ok if Ramirez is mostly healthy, and Soriano or Soto hit better. Especially if we ever dump Bradley and are able to sign someone like Mike Cameron. Well I don't believe Zambrano pitched much different then he did in 07-08 last season. He just didn't get wins, due to the subpar offense at times and bullpen blowing games. Dempster struggled a little early in the season. But pitched very well the final 3 or 4 months of the season. Some believe his struggles had to do with his daughter being sick. Randy Wells is a bit tricky, I was waiting for him to lose it all season long and he never did. But it's not like Wells just pitched well the final two months of the season. He was tied for the third most starts on the team last year and was only one away from second on the team. Now there's no way he's going to be that good next year. But personally I like what I seen out of him and I do think he could be a solid 4 or 5. The fact that he probably had his best start of the season in his final start was also encouraging. Since I was starting to think the league was catching up to him. I'm not as concerned about Lilly as some, but like always health is gonna be a big key. Lilly has been pretty durable over most of his career, so hopefully hes back on time. Other then that we just need Gorzelanny or Marshall to take that 5th spot and we will be fine. I have always liked Marshall as a 4 or 5 starter, and feel the Cubs have screwed around with him too much. But Gorzelanny is the guy I hope takes that spot. I think he could possibly become a Ted Lilly type pitcher for us. Hopefully working with Rothschild and even Lilly can help him figure it out.

Thats true, but this knowledge comes from the players and from a recovery standpoint. Of course like anything some guys can adjust to it better then others. But alot of pitchers need to be a on a regular routine to have the most success. It's a bit different then some 45 year old reporter saying Derrek Lee isn't a good middle of the order hitter, because he's only had over 100 RBI's twice in his career, or some garbage about Zambrano being bad because he had only nine wins last season.

He did for a few starts in 08, but not so much last season. He didn't have alot of those chances in 09 though. Even though Marshall pitched pretty well as a starter last year before getting pulled from the rotation. Which was basically because Wells was pitching well, and Marshall was LH and the Cubs needed a LH pitcher in the pen. Well I guess we can look over Rich Harden starts last year and look the effect they had on the team. But right now I don't have the time to do it. Overall though it's pretty common knowledge that it's pretty hard to shuffle players around. Especially pitchers who's arms get use to throwing 1 or 2 innings, and aren't often stretched out enough to just go out there out of the blue and throw 5-6 innings. Of course if the Cubs have a really good deep pen, and have a good young starter they wanna keep waiting in Triple A. Then the domino effect isn't as bad with having a guy like Harden on the roster. But if you got young struggling relievers in your pen, and gotta shuffle guys back and forth from the pen to the rotation. It does have a pretty big effect on your team as a whole.

Which is a big difference then being in the rotation on a regular schedule every five days. Then having guys like Gorzelanny and Marshall having to go back and forth from the bullpen. It's not easy if you pitch in the pen for a month or two, then go out and start 4 or 5 games in a row. Again people aren't paying attention to the human factors involved in this thing and just looking at stats. Yes but how much better overall? Since Marshall, Gorzelanny or Shark are more likely to pitch better when they are in the rotation consistently every 5th day. Sure they won't pitch better then Harden. But If you have Harden then one of those guys would have to jump from the pen and make a bunch of starts in a row and more then likely going to struggle. Due to not being stretched out and not being on a regular routine. So you gotta factor in Harden, plus having to throw in one of those guys in out of nowhere with it likely they won't pitch as well. Compared to one of Gorzelanny or Marshall every 5th, with one of them hopefully pitching like a solid starter. You are still probably better with Harden and one of those guys struggling in some of his make up starts. But I dunno if they will be 7.5m better. Plus it's a waste to have both Marshall and Gorzelanny on the roster unless you are gonna give one of those guys a spot in the rotation.

your whole pov here is just ridiculous Why? If you feel that way then you must believe that baseball shouldn't be played on the field with people and has no human factors involved. Or believe t oh Harden will skip a start here, and we can just start another guy it's so easy. Or oh shoot Harden on the DL for a month, lets just move Marshall to the rotation from the pen even though he's no stretched out. Or oh Harden leaves the game in the 4th inning, we can just put someone else in the game it's all good. Who cares if it tires out the whole bullpen for the next few days. There's a domino effect of having a pitcher like that on your team, if you cant' see that then I don't know what to tell you. So sorry I rather pay a pitcher more that can stay healthy, and give me innings. I can't help it that I can see the dropbacks of other much less talented pitchers having to fill in on the spot and expect to perform at a good level. Unless your lucky and find a bunch of talented young relievers and have a talented starter in the minors waiting in the wings. It's gonna cost you alot of games.

Safe bet is going a little far, but that would be possible. Still ask your self who pitches in those other 10-16 starts? What does it do to your bullpen when Harden leaves the game in the 3rd or 4th inning? Stop just looking at Harden numbers and thinking would be worth it, and consider what it does to your team. Who said Penny wasn't overpaid? But at least he will give you 170-200 innings. When Harden isn't pitching that means something else needs to start. If that guy isn't good it pretty much takes away any postive Harden brings.

Which isn't enough, not to mention that K/9 is one of Harden issues. Striking out all of those hitters usually makes him throw tons of pitches. Which is why he struggles to give the team innings even when healthy. You need to have money to be able to do that. People on here are really overreacting about that. Harden is very injury prone and the Cubs would be risk paying him 10m. Which is WAY too high for a pitcher who might pitch 140 innings, and could be alot less. IMO this is about the same as Kerry Wood last season. It would have been nice to offer him it. But at the same time I don't wanna get stuck with him accepting it either. You aren't paying enough attention to the lack of innings and the lack and the injury risk involved with Harden. Paying him 7.5-10m is a risky price not a reasonable price. The Cubs have been able to patch together pretty good rotations over the last 7-8 years(besides 06). I would give them the benefit of the doubt when putting a rotation together. Remember Randy Wells never should have done what he did last year in the first place. I think we would all agree he's not that good, but that doesn't mean he can't be a serviceable 4th starter. He wouldn't be the first guy who got by with average stuff, because he threw strikes and knows how to pitch. Same with Gorzelanny and Marshall who both have had success in the past.

This Bradley stuff is so annoying. It's like the reverse effect of the last two offseasons with Peavy and Roberts. Because I want him gone as much as I wanted those guys here. But at the same time I didn't want the Cubs to get ripped off to much to get a deal done(I really would be happy if we saved 7-10m of Bradley remaining salary at this point). Not to mention just like those trades, this one is taking forever to get done.

Well I don't think he's as good as those career numbers show, at least not at this point of his career. Plus I was kinda saying the guy is almost never healthy. Since he's basically pitched 3 and half seasons over seven years. So you barely get to enjoy that type of pitching out of him. We were very lucky as is to get as much out of Harden as we did. I think the Cubs realized that and thats why they weren't interested in bringing him back at that price. I understand that, and I would much rather pay 16m a year for 200 innings out of Harden. Then 7.5m for 140 innings, because I think having a part-time pitcher like that on your staff has a bad domino effect on your team. That doesn't show up in the stats when you are considering having Harden on your team.

If you look at Grabow numbers, they would tell he's been above average at letting inherited runs score. He was actually one of the best in the leage a few years ago. I'll give you this, but if you look at the game logs Grabow usually was put in games for full innings. Or usually came into games to get the final out or two in a inning. He was rarely pulled in a middle of a inning after having guys on base. Well I disagree with it, but maybe it's because Harden left a bad taste in my mouth from last season. I think going forward he will be alot closer to the pitcher we saw last season, then in 08. Fangraph and how much salary it claims guys are worth is one of those stats I don't pay attention to. When a guy pitches 5.1 of less in 11 of 26 starts(averages 4 innings in those games), it really hurts your team. You also gotta factor in human factors of due to Harden needing to skip starts and miss starts. We need to have other guys replace him and sometimes at the last minute. Who might not be ready or stretched out enough to start that soon. I guess it depends on what happens from here. If he can't make some smart smaller moves things aren't gonna get better. But if we are back in the postseason next year Hendry isn't going anywere and deserves some credit. Or would at least deserve to get people off his back. But as a person you claim blindly defends Hendry, I will say right now if he doesn't fix the mess he created, then I want him gone to. I don't really think the Redsox have spent all that more wisely then the Cubs. They have gotten better in recently, but overall it's pretty close. The difference is what the Redsox have gotten from there farm system compared to the Cubs. The Redsox farm system has covered up alot of the big mistakes.

The Dodgers actually spent more money during that span(the West has been worse then Central during that time as well). It's true that over that span of time the Cubs spent 45-55m more then the Braves and Phillies. The Cardinals spent probably 70m or so less during that time. But most of the difference in the salaries is over the last two years. Since the Cubs payroll has raisen alot while those teams have stayed the same. It doesn't mean that other teams ranked below the Cubs haven't spent more money though. For example the Mets. To not call what Harden has done in his career a small sample size when comparing to those guys long careers is embarrassing. Harden basically pitched enough for three and half seasons.

Thats because I don't agree with it. A pitchers job is not to allow runs to score. If a guy does a pretty good job at that, he's doing well and helping the team. Especially a guy like Grabow who usually pitches decent to good with other guys base runners on base as well. I still think it's a little high, for the amount of innings we get. . It's not special and I never said Hendry was doing a GREAT job. But overall he's done a solid job and gotten good results. Of course it could be better, and I think if it doesn't get better soon he could be gone. But when people start acting like Hendry is this bad GM or so awful. When this team overall has gotten pretty good results during his reign. Which is a very small sample size when comparing it to the other guys numbers. jesus!!

Those are beauiful small sample size stats. But when looking at those stats you also need to look at these. 09-26 starts- 141 innings 08-25 starts- 148 innings 07-4 starts(7 games)-25.2 innings 06-9 starts-46.2 innings 05-19 starts(22 games)-128 innings 04-31 starts-189 innings So when you start talking about paying a guy 7.5m -10m for one season when at best your most likely going to get 140 something innings probably isn't worth the risk. Especially considering nobody factors in you need to have better pieces around Harden. Otherwise it's gonna take away alot of the good he does when he does pitch. Plus that 6th starter or better relievers could often be used as resources in other trades. But you would have to keep them around just to help Harden out.

Those are beauiful small sample size stats. But when looking at those stats you also need to look at these. 09-26 starts- 141 innings 08-25 starts- 148 innings 07-4 starts(7 games)-25.2 innings 06-9 starts-46.2 innings 05-19 starts(22 games)-128 innings 04-31 starts-189 innings So when you start talking about paying a guy 7.5m -10m for one season when at best your most likely going to get 140 something innings probably isn't worth the risk. Especially considering nobody factors in you need to have better pieces around Harden. Otherwise it's gonna take away alot of the good he does when he does pitch. Plus that 6th starter or better relievers could often be used as resources in other trades. But you would have to keep them around just to help Harden out.

It's hard to stay consistently good. That 40 game over 500 that you claim is bad. Is 5th best in the NL over that 7 year peroid. Only behind the Cardinals, Braves, Phillies and Dodgers. I know how to look at the stats, I just don't agree that stats are everything and I think there's human factors that don't get included. Like if a guy has a high WHIP due to walking too many guys, but didn't allow many runs to actually score. Instead of calling it good luck or bad luck. I look why Grabow ERA improved over the last two years, despite the WHIPs. Well thats because teams only hit 215 and 233 off him the last two years, and it appears he gives up less hits with guys on base. Can he keep it up? Who knows but I think he can as long as he stays that hard to hit. From playing baseball and watching baseball for alot of years I realize that stats aren't everything and baseball has alot of human factors involved. I do read all the stats and alot of the advance stats. I just believe that people get too caught up in them when most of those systems are quite flawed. I don't need anybody to explain it to me I know who it works. I just don't agree with it all of the time.

Then you haven't been paying attention. I defend a few things he's done, and say overall he's done a decent job results wise during his reign. Then people freak out and act like those comments are insane. Even though if you look around baseball, you would realize that very few GM's have been fired with what Hendry has done W/L wise and how many times he made the postseason. Think whatever you want I say your wrong. Yes the 03 might have only went 88-74, but the team at the end of the season with Lofton/Ramirez/Simon added to it was pretty darn good. There overall record just wasn't that great due to a 500 first half when they had injuries and no Lofton/Ramirez/Simon. Is a GM job getting his team to the postseason and giving them a chance to win the World Series? I don't care if every move Hendry made was good or if most of his signings were good. If his teams weren't good for the most part he would have been gone. And I have said many times that Hendry had a VERY bad offseason last year. The only move to somewhat work out for him was resigning Dempster. Everything else was pretty much crap, and worst offseason Hendrys ever had. There's no blind defense, I mention a few things I like or don't mind that he's done or that overall he's done a decent job as the GM results wise and people go nuts. Yes last night I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Because I watched people on this board in 07-08 bash just about every move he made, and ALOT of them worked out. So when everybody on here were going nuts I was just saying lets give these moves a shot and wait and see what happens. Because you guys were basically saying he's an awful GM before you knew how these moves went yet, after many of his moves worked out in 07-08. Thats all I was doing, and this offseason he gets no benefit of the doubt. I mentioned that I thought Hendy overpaid Grabow. But just because I want Grabow back and was ok with giving him a two year deal. That doesn't mean I'm blindly defending Hendry. Grabow pitched well the last two seasons and I like that he's a LH pitcher who can pitch to both RH and LH hitters. I think alot of people these days just look at numbers and stats and don't pay attention to human factors enough.

Thats because you believe Grabow got lucky the last two years to get the RESULTS he did. Like it or not but the Cubs needed relief help more then starting pitching help. They pretty much had Guzman and Marmol, with Guzman being a major injury risk. Mixed with a bunch of guys who never pitch in a major league bullpen for a fullseason. If Hendry didn't sign Grabow and he pitched well somewhere else. Then the Cubs went with all there young pitchers and the bullpen stunk. Then people would be saying wow Hendry is a idiot to build the bullpen like that. It works both ways, but fans never mention what they wanted when that plan goes wrong. Remember Hendry had a massive payroll in 08-09, before that he had a higher payroll but it wasn't toward top in baseball and often was around the same as St Louis or Houston. Plus don't you realize that you are also making tons of excuses. By blaming the division for being bad, but overall during his reign it's actually been kinda tough. Yes in 06 it was bad, which had no benefit to the Cubs at all since they sucked. In 07 we did get lucky that the division was bad, but we also got unlucky in 04 when the division was pretty tough. Well the division stuff is an excuse, because the division has been just as good as other divisions overall. Yes he should have done at least a little more then make the playoffs in 3 times in 7 years. But GMs's who are almost 40 games above 500, and make the playoffs three times in seven years most of the team are seen as doing a sold job. Of course Hendry had to make a mess of the payroll to do all of this. So right now he's in a bad spot, but now he has to work himself out of it and if he can't then he will be gone.

When did Grabow get 7.5m for one season? Over two years he will come close to that actually though. Yes they are, GM's get fired because teams do good or bad. Not because of bad free agent signings or trades that people disagree with. Usually those bad signings and trades lead to a team losing though. Also from 03-09 the Cubs are 587 and 548, so thats a little better the barely 500. Like it or not but that record with three playoff appearances don't get GM's fired. Bunch of excues, because if made in 2007 due to weak competition, then I can say they didn't make it in 04 due to tough competition. Plus I assume your trying to say that a team that was five outs away from going to the World Series wasn't a playoff worthly team? The 03 team that was in the playoffs was pretty darn good, so was 04 and 08 IMO.

When deciding if something is a horrible move you have to factor in the teams money situation. If you don't realize that then you are clueless. Yes it's Hendry fault that the Cubs are in the postion they are in. He gets blame for the shape of the payroll and he's done a bad job with the last few years. But allowing Harden to accept arb, and using all of his free money so they couldn't add anybody else would be a bad move, not doing it is a good move. Get it? So say this sucks we couldn't do it because what Hendry did to our payroll. Not that the move itself in our situation is a bad move. I know people get hard ones here for bashing Hendry, but there's no doubt that this board goes WAY overboard with it. Plus it's VERY debateable if a pitcher like Harden is worth 7.5-10m in the first place. When you consider what you need to have him around him to make up for his lack of innings and all the starts he needs to miss. Nope thats not the reason,making the playoffs 3 of 7 years is the reason. Gm's may get judged by fans on the moves they make. But when it really comes down to if a GM is doing his job or not is winning or losing. Hendry teams overall have done a decent job at that. Sure with the money he's spent they probably should have done a little better. But thats why Hendry is probably on the hot seat this season needs to make small smart moves to make up for his poor ones. Look I'm not gonna sit here and defend Hendry when he doesn't deserve it. Last season he deserved a benefit of the doubt and now he doesn't. I'm giving him this season to turn things around and if he doesn't I want him gone as well.

He probably doesn't sign a 7.5m deal then. Since he probably would have gotten a few more million by accepting arbitration. I wish luck to Harden, and he does well and finally reaches his potential. But 7.5m is too much for a pitcher who only throw about 150 innings once in his career 5 years ago. Especially when last season he pitched 5.1 innings or less in 11 of his 26 starts. With the Cubs money issues, Rich Harden just wasn't a good risk anymore.

No thanks on Pineiro last season numbers seem kinda like a fluke. Compared to what he was doing in previous seasons before. Thankfully I don't have to worry about the Cubs signing Pineiro. Because some teams probably gonna give him 7-8m per season for at least two or three years. The Cubs won't have the money for that type of contract(reason why they couldn't risk Harden coming back). Plus right now adding a starting pitcher doesn't seem at the top of there list of things to do. Of course if they get rid of enough of Bradley salary they could be looking for a cheap 5th starter option or a bargin rehab type guy. But there's no way they will be bidding on any top free agent pitchers.

Hmm.. well I need more sources then Muskat saying there's no mystery team. Seems like she's just reading a report from Tampa paper that says Rays are still the favorite. Yesterday both Wittenmyer and Levine had sources tell them that they were talking to a mystery team, and were getting close to a deal. So if one of them change there tune, then I'll buy it.