cubsfan26

FWIW Billy Beane comments on Bradley So maybe the A's are the mystery team? Not many GMs are saying postive things about Bradley so this is a start.

Hendry has been a fan of Church in the past, so I can see him having some interest. The problem is with Fukudome needing a platoon partner who hits LH pitching well. Church isn't a really good fit as the 4th outfielder. Because he struggles alot against LH pitching himself. If things end up going really bad this offseason, which means the don't Cubs don't save much money on Bradley and take a long time to trade him. I could see them having to bring in someone like Church or Ankiel to be the regular CF or RF against RH pitching next season. So Church as a 4th outfielder probably is unlikely, but Church as a regular is possible.

The way I look at it the mystery team has to be Tigers, Redsox or Yankees. Sure it could possibly be the Indians, but I can see them going down that road again. Since they were the first team to dump Bradley for being an A-hole. Because we know it's not the Angels, Mariners, Rays(at least not in this rumored deal), Rangers and the Blue Jays reportly want nothing to do with Bradley(Overbay/Bradley contracts don't even out either). Not to mention the Royals GM said on the radio today that they don't have interest in Bradley at this time. Then we have teams like the Twins/Orioles who don't have the bad contracts to move for Bradley or spots in the outfield or DH for him either. Also there's just about no way that the White Sox would go after Bradley after the issues he had with the Chicago media and fans. I guess the A's are always a possiblity, but they don't really have a bad contract to offer back. Unless you count Eric Chavez, and I doubt the Cubs or any other teams have much interest in him. So that leaves the Tigers who have Ordonez, Robertson, Guillen Willis and Bondermann as crap contracts that they could offer to the Cubs. But even that becomes tricky when making a deal, because Bondermann, Willis and Robertson are all one year contracts and all owed less then Bradley. So if they aren't gonna eat most of Bradley salary in 2011, too get Burrell I doubt they would do it for any of those guys. Then you have Guillen and Ordonez who are potentially owed more then Bradley. With Guillen making more money then Bradley and having less trade value then Burrell, so that deal doesn't make sense either. Magglio would really only work if he was willing to waive his 15m option for 2011. Which kicks in, If he gets 540 PA or plays in 135 games Which I doubt he would be willing to do and I dunno if he could even do it. Otherwise he's owed 33m over the next two years and the Cubs aren't gonna potentially spend another 10m to add Ordonez. Then we have the Redsox who could possibly be looking to replace Jason Bay cheaply. Plus rumors are they are looking to dump Mike Lowell. So a Lowell for Bradley deal could work, with the Cubs shipping Lowell to another team. Lowell makes 12m next season, so maybe the Cubs will send 5-6m for 2011. Then the Redsox could put Bradley in LF with Hermida as insurance incase he gets hurt. Now I dunno if Boston is looking to do anything like that(might want bigger name then Bradley in LF), but something like that might work. Last idea I have is the Yankees, who could be looking to replace Matsui/Damon in LF and DH. Maybe they will send something like Damaso Marte(owed 8m over next two years) for Bradley with the Cubs sending 7m or so for 2011. Or they could do a Bradley for Swisher deal, if they are down on him like reports have stated. With the Cubs sending the Yankees 5m or so to even out the money. But again these are all just ideas, and me trying to make sense of this mystery team angle.

LOL relax, deal is unlikely. Stop acting like it's done already. Thats update from Suntimes

From Carrie Muskat

Well the fact that Gorden is now saying it's a three team deal makes me less scared about Carlos Silva. If we did get Silva does anybody think there's a chance he could get back to pitching to a Jason Marquis like level moving back to the NL?

Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports said possibly Blue Jays or Mariners. I guess Blue Jays would be something for Lyle Overbay and Mariners of course would be Carlos Silva. But I would assume that Hendry could have always did Bradley for Silva.

Not that it matters at this point, because me saying Ellis is just me thinking off the top of my head by looking at some contracts on the A's. But Ellis is a guy who could be helped out by moving out of the A's ballpark. Over the last three years he hit 286/347/788 on the road.

10 bucks says it's Oakland. Maybe Bradley and cash for Mark Ellis. I believe Ellis is owed a simliar amount as Luis Castillo.

Nah Royals GM came out today and said Bradley isn't a fit at this time. Bruce Levine reported a simliar thing, that the Cubs could be getting close and were talking to new teams. But he didn't know if it was AL or NL. This is what Levine said http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog/_/post/4725304/name/levine

This is kinda interesting, I wonder who that AL team could be. Since it's not Rays, Rangers, Royals or probably Blue Jays or Angels.

Wolf was pretty good in 2009, but thats not someone I would wanna give a three year and most likely 10m plus per year deal to. When you consider Wolf has either been pretty average or hurt every season since 2002 or 2003.

From everything I heard the Cubs have no interest in him. They don't like his defense at 2b I guess. Yeah I don't think the Cubs planned to ever nontender him. I think if they do get another 2b they will trade Fontenot. But if they don't we will see a Fontenot/Baker platoon next season at 2b. The Cubs don't really know what they can do yet until the Bradley trade is done. Then after that they will focus on CF, and adding the best player they can there. So unless they get a 2b in a deal for Bradley, they probably won't focus much on that postion. Unless later in the offseason there's some guys still on the market that they could get at a bargin price.

The money wouldn't match up for DeJesus. So it would have to be Bradley for Jose Guillen(with the Cubs sending some money for 2011 for Bradley) or maybe a Bradley(and maybe another cheap player) for Gil Meche trade. Meche is owed 24m in 2010 and 2011 so the salaries are close to matching up. I dunno why the Royals would wanna get rid of Meche to get Bradley though. So Bradley/Guillen seems more likely.

Kelly Johnson could be a option to since the Braves are looking to get rid of him. But from the way Hendry talks(mentioned Fontenot with Soto/Soriano as needing a better year) I wouldn't be surprised if we go into the year with Fontenot/Baker.

That won't happen if we bring in Cameron(or any RH hitting OF) we will be adding either a LH or switch hitting 2b. Or Fontenot(Hendry brings his name up with Soto/Soriano as guys who need to do better in 2010) will get most of the playing time at 2b.

I could probably live with either guy there, with Fukudome probably being the best option. My only problem with Fukudome is when he's in one his slumps, he's pretty worthless. So he will hurt the team getting the most AB's. When he's hot and going good though he's a great leadoff option, there just very little middle ground with him. But don't be shocked if the Cubs still bring in a 2b who hits towards the top of the order. I think they plan to save a little money and whatever bad contract they take on will be a 2b or SP by trading Bradley. Then use whatever part of the money saved on Bradley towards a CF(mixed with money left to spend and money saved on Miles). After that whatever litle money left will then be used on bargin free agents for probably 2b, SP,bench or for whatever we don't get in return for Bradley.

I wouldn't worry, going into the offseason Hendry planned on resigning Grabow(or adding a simliar reliever) and bringing in a CF. No matter what people wanna think the Cubs weren't ever going to go into next season with Marmol and Guzman as the only guys with track records, especially with Guzmans history of poor health. Most of the money used on Grabow this season, was the money that would have went to Heilman. The Cubs basically decided he would be traded or nontendered, and they would use that money towards adding a veteran late inning reliever. As long as they trade Bradley(and save some money) they should be able to afford Cameron. Unless of course he ask for some high contract for 9-10m a year. Cameron might be worth that, but his market value is going to be pretty below a guy like Bob Abreu who will be getting 9m in 2010. So Cameron should come at the 6-7m range, with 8m probably being the most. Personally Cameron is the only CF we could realisticly bring in that I would feel good about. Since I don't want Granderson contract on the books or give up the prospects its going to take to get him, and Marlon Byrd is gonna end up getting more money then he's worth.

Maybe he hasn't spent money on one, but he has over-traded for one (Pierre) which is probably just as fatal of an error. Yes he did, but it's not like he signed Pierre to a big extension and was more then willing to let him to leave. The trade though was by far the worst trade Hendry made as GM though. Still that has nothing to do with Hendry being willing to offer big money to Figgins(or any leadoff hitter). Not to mention Hendry doesn't have that type of money to spend in the first place. All I'm saying is lets save our exhaling to when Hendry misses on out a free agent we don't want, that he's actually after. Sorry to ruin everybodys fun.

You guys are funny, I can't believe your all thanking god that Figgins is signe,d so we couldn't sign him. Do you guys pay attention to whats going on with the Cubs right now? The Cubs were never going to be players for Figgins. Not to mention Hendry has never went out and spent big money on a non power hitting leadoff hitter. Sometimes I think the Hendry bashing on here is just for entertainment purposes. Because exhaling over the fact the Figgins is signed is ridiculous.

The more I think about it the more I care less about trading Fox. I know alot of fans fell in love with Fox after the way he hit from May through early August. But he was really bad the final few months of the season. Look at these numbers Now take in account that we have a simliar player to Fox already on the roster in Hoffpauir. Who had a simliar hot start, and then tailed off. Look at these numbers Now I do think Fox is a little better then Hoffpauir, but there's not much difference between them. Not to mention when Hoffpauir returned to the majors in September he hit again. So we basically traded a expandable bench player who was simliar to a guy we already had on the roster and were able to get rid of Aaron Miles at the same time. So this was a good trade IMO and the fact we got some decent prospects back is also a plus. Now if Gray or Morta become solid relievers or Spencer turns into a good 4th outfielder. It will basically turn the Miles signing into a postive, like it or not. So I guess this will be a wait and see type trade(like most of them are).

The more I think about it the more I care less about trading Fox. I know alot of fans fell in love with Fox after the way he hit from May through early August. But he was really bad the final few months of the season. Look at these numbers Now take in account that we have a simliar player to Fox already on the roster in Hoffpauir. Who had a simliar hot start, and then tailed off. Look at these numbers Now I do think Fox is a little better then Hoffpauir, but there's not much difference between them. Not to mention when Hoffpauir returned to the majors in September he hit again. So we basically traded a expandable bench player who was simliar to a guy we already had on the roster and were able to get rid of Aaron Miles at the same time. So this was a good trade IMO and the fact we got some decent prospects back is also a plus. Now if Gray or Morta become solid relievers or Spencer turns into a good 4th outfielder. It will basically turn the Miles signing into a postive, like it or not. So I guess this will be a wait and see type trade(like most of them are).

The more I think about it the more I care less about trading Fox. I know alot of fans fell in love with Fox after the way he hit from May through early August. But he was really bad the final few months of the season. Look at these numbers Now take in account that we have a simliar player to Fox already on the roster in Hoffpauir. Who had a simliar hot start, and then tailed off. Look at these numbers Now I do think Fox is a little better then Hoffpauir, but there's not much difference between them. Not to mention when Hoffpauir returned to the majors in September he hit again. So we basically traded a expandable bench player who was simliar to a guy we already had on the roster and were able to get rid of Aaron Miles at the same time. So this was a good trade IMO and the fact we got some decent prospects back is also a plus.

Why is that? I'm just curious because from looking at some numbers it wouldn't seem that way. Like Baker is a year younger, he is a career 307/377/883 hitter in the minors and his numbers off the bench the last two years have been pretty consistent(only 333 and 248 AB's though) . While Fontenot is a career 291/336/803 hitter in the minors and struggled when getting regular playing time last year. It seems like the basis of Fontenot success is based on his 08 season(only 284 AB's), which could have been a fluke. Especially since he really only well that season from late June through September.