CubfaninCA

no one. hill gives up 714 tho. i hope z drills him in the arm.

Soriano's line of .286/.336/.526 is not all that impressive. He has always been, and will always be, an OBP liability. He does offer plus power for a 2B. As a corner OF, not so much. Jones hurts this team, but Jones/Soriano is better than Theriot-Hairston/Soriano. I'd love to replace Jones, but doing so with weak hitters isn't going to help the team. His slugging would be nearly 100 points above anyone currently playing on the cubs. Sure the cubs need more walks, but they need more extra base hits too. They need a third power hitter.

I like the progressive thinking. I don't think Washington would take Jones, but maybe Pierre. I'd give them Pierre, Hill and a filler. Cedeno, Walker, Lee, ARam, Sori, Jones, Murton & Barrett could be formidable. Not sure who will play rf tho, as Jones will be moved to cf.

Cubs win tonight 3-2 and break San Diego's 8 game winnnig streak. Maddux goes 7 innings and the pen shuts them down. Ramirez gets 2 rbis. Good to see ARam starting to heat up. This team so needs it!

Pierre? His OBP was .326 last year. i meant career obp. my bad. need to edit.

Well, if Soriano was so available, maybe Hendry could have acquired him and flipped him to Washington. If not, I don't know why you are so convinced the Cubs don't have the prospects to trade for Wilkerson. I don't know if Hendry even inquired, never heard that he did. Wow, you have some pretty good inside knowledge there. Bradley plus another prospect (Antonio Perez) were traded for a player from the Texas League (Ethier). I have a hard time believe the Cubs couldn't top or equal that. I remember some rumors about that as well. I'd like to know if Hendry made an offer (that did or didn't include Walker). Dealing with TB certainly seems to be difficult. You may be right about the others, but you seem to just dismiss them as, "well, they probably weren't available. I'm sure Hendry tried." But who knows? I never heard about Hendry even sniffing any of these deals. Instead I heard Hendry talk about guys catching the ball and I heard Baker talk about speed. I heard praise heaped toward two terrible players in Jones and Pierre. I watched Hendry overpay for absolute garbage (Perez, Rusch, etc.) and claim the team didn't have the resources to go out and get guys like Brian Giles, Vlad (a few years back), Ordonez, Drew, etc. They have/had the resources. He didn't allocate them properly. Outstanding arguement They dealt Casey and Pena, so yes, they still deal. I'd have to think some quality pitching prospects could have landed you Kearns or Pena or, if you upped the ante, Dunn. I agree. I wasn't in favor of bringing back Nomar. Again, likely agree. I wouldn't give up Pie, but it's definitely a name Hendry could have looked into (if he didn't). If nothing else, Sanders doesn't tie your hands for three years, like Jones. Sure, you can probably trade Jones at some point, but you're likely going to eat a large portion of his contract. It was a stupid signing, no matter how you want to spin it. Really, even Patterson in RF was a better option then signing Jones. Not that Patterson is productive enough to be a RFer (he isn't), but he's still better then Jones. now vlad was the big fish that got away. of course, the trib doesn't have the cajones to sign someone who had vlad's injury problems and sosa was in rf back then. i'll wager to get some of the other guys like kearns or wilkerson, hendry would have to give up pie or guzman or both. then he'd be damned for giving up the youth. admittedly, he blew a lot on a guy w/ a .355 career obp and it's not working. just like lawton became a bum when he got to wrigley. patterson needed a change of scenery.

I have to agree. If the Cubs were at .500 & 6 out in July, and could get Abreu for Pie, Guzman and another prospect, I do it. Of course, I don't like to give up w/out a fight. Screw packin it in. :)

Addendum: Marshall's off the table regardless.

considering this team might really struggle this year?? Unlike the Cardinals, the Cubs probably aren't going to catch any breaks in the luck department, so it probably takes moving Pie or Guzman to compete til the end, and maybe that won't even do it. At what point do either or both come off the table? Hypothetically, if the Cubs are .500 in July, and 6 out, do you pull the trigger?

Really? Who? Teams like kc, pittsburgh, and detroit seem to always be in the market for guys like jones. There's probably a few other teams that can be added to the list.

I'm not bbb or goony, but these are all names I'd prefer to Jones and/or Pierre. All of whom seem likely to have been available in the last year: Wilkerson Bradley Mench Kearns Dunn (I'm sure someone will say to drop this one) B. Giles (see: Dunn) Klesko Abreu Burrell Floyd Our very own Nomar Cliff Floyd Huff Shawn Green Luis Gonzalez Wily Mo Pena Coco Crisp Reggie Sanders And I'm sure more could be added. Alright soapy and bbb.. To get Wilkerson would have to had to give up someone of soriano's caliber & bowden loves sori type of player. Bradley - Colleti didn't want to deal w/ the Cubs and what stud prospect you giving up for him? Mench - Pretty sure there was a Mench for Walker rumor. abreu, burrell, floyd, huff, gonzo, green might be available at the deadline. i think az, ny and philly wanted to hang onto them in the offseason. hence they're still there. who knows what tb's doing. giles & dunn - riiight kearns - hendry's been negotiating with this forever. does cincy deal anyone? give up hill, i guess. nomar - at the expense of walker or cedeno? coco crisp - boston gave up marte. that's a lot. so give up pie? sanders - doesn't help us more than jones. If Hendry could have got ARod, we'd be in great shape ya know. Man...you got some good contacts to have all the inside info on this stuff. Colleti didn't watn to deal with the Cubs huh? And the rumor was that they were going to release Bradley, so I don't think it would've taken a stud to get him. the colletti thing was discussed here a lot, and oakland gave up a pretty good prospect to get bradley btw. apparently, the release rumor was wrong...

How about re-signing Burnitz for 1 year instead of Jones for 3? I think there was a lot of talk about Austin Kearns being available before the season. burnitz wouldn't make us any better this year. But on a one year deal we'd be free to make an upgrade and kick him to the curb. Instead we're tied down to a 3 yr deal with Jones. Why throw away crap to get new crap? I'm obviously not arguing that Burnitz was the best option. Just throwing out what the options were. perhaps, but the discussion is about improving the team for this year. i think there's a few teams that will take jones for 2 years.

I'm not bbb or goony, but these are all names I'd prefer to Jones and/or Pierre. All of whom seem likely to have been available in the last year: Wilkerson Bradley Mench Kearns Dunn (I'm sure someone will say to drop this one) B. Giles (see: Dunn) Klesko Abreu Burrell Floyd Our very own Nomar Cliff Floyd Huff Shawn Green Luis Gonzalez Wily Mo Pena Coco Crisp Reggie Sanders And I'm sure more could be added. Alright soapy and bbb.. To get Wilkerson would have to had to give up someone of soriano's caliber & bowden loves sori type of player. Bradley - Colleti didn't want to deal w/ the Cubs and what stud prospect you giving up for him? Mench - Pretty sure there was a Mench for Walker rumor. abreu, burrell, floyd, huff, gonzo, green might be available at the deadline. i think az, ny and philly wanted to hang onto them in the offseason. hence they're still there. who knows what tb's doing. giles & dunn - riiight kearns - hendry's been negotiating with this forever. does cincy deal anyone? give up hill, i guess. nomar - at the expense of walker or cedeno? coco crisp - boston gave up marte. that's a lot. so give up pie? sanders - doesn't help us more than jones. If Hendry could have got ARod, we'd be in great shape ya know.

How about re-signing Burnitz for 1 year instead of Jones for 3? I think there was a lot of talk about Austin Kearns being available before the season. burnitz wouldn't make us any better this year.

eric patterson is supposed to be the future 2b. gotta play the kids and save money. :)

And Petco Park is one of the worst hitting parks in baseball. Couple in LA, San Fran and Arizona and you have one of the worst hitting divisions in baseball, even with Colorado in the mix. His SLG dropped when he moved to the NL West. I don't think it would be nearly as bad if he was playing the NL Central, one of the best hitting divisions in baseball. What's Giles' OBP right now? SLG isn't the only part of his game. .400

I'm just trying to bring you back to reality. :) Can you refresh my memory on your rf alternatives? I'm guessing Aubrey Huff is one. Milton Bradley another.

Yeah...I don't know why people would complain after losing 6 straight games. Clearly Baker and Hendry have the NL right where they want them. the 6 game skid sucks, but they're 14-16 with prior, wood, lee and jwilliams out. it could be a lot worse. do you expect them to be tied w/ the cardinals?

bbb and gooney, i'm still waiting for a reasonable alternative. i guess you can argue for prior for tejada. not sure what else.

This debate is old, but its pretty clear that Giles leveraged the threat of free agency only to squeeze more cash out of SD. Re the longterm contract with Pitt, perhaps SD already had their OF set at that point. What year was that and who was in SD's OF? was gwynn still there?? also, giles numbers weren't that great prior to the pitt contract. The point I was trying to make is that there weren't many cf and rf solutions. Maybe there were a few superior SS and LF alternatives, but then the future had to be sacrificed. the complaining is getting a little carried away.

What would have been the lift? Walker would have sat, and probably would have been more likely to not even be here. Soriano's numbers replacing Walker's numbers doesn't make this team any better. Not to mention, if Soriano had been brought in, I'd have to think Walker would have been traded (maybe even as part of a Soriano deal). Walker's and Soriano's numbers are pretty similar this year. I fail to see how replacing Walker's numbers with Soriano's makes this team any better. there was a rumor of murton for soriano, which got shot down by many here. the problem w/ improving for this year is that the cubs have to sacrifice for the future. good players just don't fall into a teams lap, and you need lots of things to go right to be successful in any season. unfortunately, the cubs have about a third of their budget out already. they have 3 starting pitchers out (yeah I'm counting Jerome Williams, who many of us were high on), and one of the best hitters in the game's out. any reasonable cub fan should have known the first month would be rough, as we waited for prior and wood to return. lee's injury compounded the difficulty to compete.

Btw giles isn't exactly tearing it up with his .357 slugging %. the cubs have enough guys who rarely hit the ball out of the park.

I don't know, the fact that Giles returned to SD even though 3 of the most successful franchises in baseball history were suiting him (NY, LA and STL) is pretty strong evidence that Giles wanted to remain a Padre. *shrug*

What would have been the lift? Walker would have sat, and probably would have been more likely to not even be here. Soriano's numbers replacing Walker's numbers doesn't make this team any better. since we're playing fantasyball, they could have put him in rf. i really like murton, but since we're just talking about this year, soriano's .862 ops & 9 homers helps more than murton's 2 homer & .791 ops. the cubs need another guy who can hit the longball. lets remember that sori plays in a pitcher's park too.

If that's the case, can you please provide your explanation of why he became a free agent in the first place? If he was so adamant about staying, why did he file for free agency? he wanted more than sd's initial offer, 3 & 21.