CubfaninCA

I don't get signing Kevin Brown. Isn't his arm shot? Can see Pierre in CF and Bradley in RF, but think that Bradley's the backup plan if Hendry can't get Abreu. LA might do Bradley for Patterson. Furcal for 4 and 38 sounds about right. Doubtful suitors like Atl and LA bid that high. Still think Kinzer's dreaming, if he think he can get 5 years. There's just not a big SS market, w/ so many of the big market teams being set @ SS.

Do you think the Delgado trade or Thome trade can give us any new insight as to what it might take to land Abreu in terms of players and money? Hoops, you have to ask yourself how the Phillies are going to 'look at' the 25M they sent to Chicago. What percentage of that counts towards the 06 payroll that they're budgeting for? Secondly, it's pretty obvious that either Abreu or Lofton will be traded, and that brings up the second question of timing. Assuming neither have signed by the beginning of the winter meetings in early December, do you forget Furcal and go all out for Abreu assuming he's made available? What would it take to acquire Abreu? Obviously not another outfielder, so Corey is out of that equation, which brings up question number 3 - Corey hasn't been rumored in the Marlins trade, and if he doesn't have a spot in Philly in a possible Abreu trade.......what are we going to do with him? I think the trades do give us insight as to what it is going to take to get Abreu. The question is whether or not the Cubs are willing to give that up. Of course, I don't see Philly eating any of Abreu's contract (they ate too much of Thome's and had an ample replacement in the wings), so I don't think it will take an established ML'er and 2 top prospects. I think we're looking close to the Delgado deal of 2 top 10 prospects and 1 midlevel prospect. Personally, I think it would take Pie, Hill, and probably a throw in arm they can put in the pen (Wellemeyer). But I still think the best deal for Philly and the Cubs would be to get a 3rd team involved. My proposed deal: Cubs get: Abreu Phillies get: Jerome Williams, Hank Blalock Texas gets: David Bell, Padilla, Pie (cash from Phillies) If Padilla performed better the past few years, could see this deal.

Hendry needs to put down the turkey and finalize this deal!! ;)

Why would Maddux waive his no-trade clause to go to a hole like Philly? Philly has the worse fans on earth. As for Zito and Abreu, seems that Hendry has stockpiled enough young talent to get both.

I was not aware of that, try this on for size: Cubs get: Abreu (13M), Gonzalez(11.5M) + Cash from Dbacks & Phillies Phillies get: Tracy (400k) + Cubs Pitching Prospect Dbacks get: Hill (300k), and Williams (500k) Since the cubs would be taking 24.5 mil in salary, the dbacks & phillies would need to cough up about 5-10 mil combined to make this feasable, which would be possible by cubs trading more prospects. With these 2 bats, we could slide cedeno at SS, Walker at 2B (unless you can upgrade with Castillo), and sign/trade Bradley for CF (depending on the situation). Then Ship Murton to somewhere like Oakland for Zito, along with another pitching prospect. 2B Walker RF Abreu 1B Lee 3B Ramirez LF Gonzalez CF Bradley SS Cedeno C Barrett That lineup could score some runs. AZ wants to gut their team??

Interesting that Hanley Ramirez still has high trade value after the signing of Renteria considering that Hendry's signings of Howry and Eyre has killed all the value of Novoa, Ohman, Mitre, Wellemeyer, etc..

Yeah, let's just get rid of that Prior guy. Wood never amounted to much, either. Ya gotta love hyperbole. Who was in charge of drafting when the Cubs got Wood, Z and Prior?? That was a pretty good run in a short period of time. In the past 25 year, I recall only a few other prospects being quite good, Maddux and Grace. Surely, I'm forgetting a player or two tho. I don't consider Dunston quite good although I did like the Shawn-O-Meter. In the last 15 years, the only Cubs draft picks that proceeded all the way to the bigs, and had any kind of impact once they got there, were Prior, Zambrano and Wood as you mention, and Dontrelle Willis, Jon Garland, and I guess to a degree Eric Hinske and Kyle Lohse (though they're a bit of a stretch) for other teams. That's pretty much it. The record for Cub 1st round and 2nd round picks is even more miserable yet. Hey at least they have an eye for pitcher's. However, this is why I never get fired up about hitting prospects. Bring back whoever drafted or signed Grace, Carter and Palmeiro.

Yeah, let's just get rid of that Prior guy. Wood never amounted to much, either. Ya gotta love hyperbole. Who was in charge of drafting when the Cubs got Wood, Z and Prior?? That was a pretty good run in a short period of time. In the past 25 year, I recall only a few other prospects being quite good, Maddux and Grace. Surely, I'm forgetting a player or two tho. I don't consider Dunston quite good although I did like the Shawn-O-Meter. Z, like Cruz, Pinto, and Pie, were international signings, not draftees. Ah true. Who signed them then?

Yeah, let's just get rid of that Prior guy. Wood never amounted to much, either. Ya gotta love hyperbole. Who was in charge of drafting when the Cubs got Wood, Z and Prior?? That was a pretty good run in a short period of time. In the past 25 year, I recall only a few other prospects being quite good, Maddux and Grace. Surely, I'm forgetting a player or two tho. I don't consider Dunston quite good although I did like the Shawn-O-Meter.

LA's not going to make a big offer. They have an owner who wants a middle market budget. They're not a big threat.

Um, sure, other teams were just beating down our door to get their hands on the likes of Roberto Novoa, Todd Wellemeyer, Sergio Mitre and crew. The excitement is/was just palpable!! Sometimes, it might be helpful to take off ones's Cub hat and for once, try and think as if you belonged to any other team. It is endemic to fandom I suppose, but you're not going to trade Wellemeyer and Cliff Bartosh for Bobby Abreu, OK? Or even a warm bucket of spit as far as that goes. "Lack of faith in our homegrown guys?" You better believe it, baby. And no other GM in baseball has any faith in these zeroes, either. Pffft. I think these guys had SOME value before the Eyre/Howry signings, but at this point, I doubt they have any. There's no way Hendry can fool another GM into thinking the Cubs were high on these guys for 2006. more glass half empty rhetoric. Did Hendry resigning Neifi kill Walker's value?

Obviously? Obvious to anyone who followed 2005. And it's obvious to anyone who followed '04 that he didn't have a problem with him there. Certainly not "pure fantasy thinking". If you think Baker will bat Walker leadoff in 06, you're one of the few people on this board who has any faith in the Baker.

Beckett is so much more valuable than Pierre, it's not even close. And again, Walker is a capable leadoff hitter, and we have him until we get someone like Furcal, who while overpriced, may be an unfortunate necessity like I outlined responding to USSoccer. He may be capable, but Baker won't lead him off. Dusty Baker making Walker leadoff man is just pure fantasy thinking. Walker had 228 AB's in the leadoff spot playing for Baker in '04(where he put up a .294/.370/.535/.905). More than every other spot in the order combined. How many leadoff AB's he have last year?? Baker obviously prefers him elsewhere. Obviously? Obvious to anyone who followed 2005.

Beckett is so much more valuable than Pierre, it's not even close. And again, Walker is a capable leadoff hitter, and we have him until we get someone like Furcal, who while overpriced, may be an unfortunate necessity like I outlined responding to USSoccer. He may be capable, but Baker won't lead him off. Dusty Baker making Walker leadoff man is just pure fantasy thinking. Walker had 228 AB's in the leadoff spot playing for Baker in '04(where he put up a .294/.370/.535/.905). More than every other spot in the order combined. How many leadoff AB's he have last year?? Baker obviously prefers him elsewhere.

Beckett is so much more valuable than Pierre, it's not even close. And again, Walker is a capable leadoff hitter, and we have him until we get someone like Furcal, who while overpriced, may be an unfortunate necessity like I outlined responding to USSoccer. He may be capable, but Baker won't lead him off. Dusty Baker making Walker leadoff man is just pure fantasy thinking.

Classic. I may need to copy and save this post & paste this when the daily crying starts.

Manny, Huff, Dunn, Kearns????? That one is for us to guess and Hendry to know. He has to be setting himself up for something because he paid a lot of cash for these guys and seems intent on trying to Dusty proof the pen with Vets. I'd like Abreu, Dunn, Giles or Manny. I consider Kearns and Huff as second tier OF's. I would also like one of those guys to be able to crush righties. Seems like Floyd's an ideal guy for the Cubs. He has a 1 year left on his contract @ $6.5 mil. He's a LH bat who can bat between Lee and ARam. His health is a concern, but that makes him perfect for this organization. Do you consider Floyd an impact guy like the 4 I mentioned? His injury and lack of defense kind of worry me. I think that Manny and Dunn supply enough offense to make up for their lack of skills in the field while Giles and Abreu can play decent defense. Do you think the Mets would want to move Floyd now that Cameron is gone? I agree that his bat would be nice in the Cub lineup. Floyd's on the next tier below Abreu, Manny, Dunn and Giles. Although his slugging was a little better than Giles. Floyd plays in a pitcher's park too... Abreu, Manny, Giles and Dunn will come @ big prices, either money wise or prospect wise. Just have a feeling the Cubs will opt for the cheaper option and spread the money around to SS and a starting pitcher. However, I think they'll take a long look @ the top tier guys, so a deal for Floyd could come in January after all the dominos fall. Jmo but Manny's the top domino, and I think Anaheim gets either Manny or Giles. This lineup would be pretty solid: Pierre, Furcal, Lee, Floyd, ARam, Barret, Murton, Neifi/Cedeno...

Manny, Huff, Dunn, Kearns????? That one is for us to guess and Hendry to know. He has to be setting himself up for something because he paid a lot of cash for these guys and seems intent on trying to Dusty proof the pen with Vets. I'd like Abreu, Dunn, Giles or Manny. I consider Kearns and Huff as second tier OF's. I would also like one of those guys to be able to crush righties. Seems like Floyd's an ideal guy for the Cubs. He has a 1 year left on his contract @ $6.5 mil. He's a LH bat who can bat between Lee and ARam. His health is a concern, but that makes him perfect for this organization.

hopefully with that deal its a low-level prospect. if walker and castillo have similar value, which someone has said here, your'e really trading patterson and cedeno for pierre. which is still overpaying, imo. castillo's better than walker.. I just try to get castillo and sign Furcal instead of trading for Pierre.

Pierre only made 3.5 million last year, and had a terrible year. I have a hard time seeing him making more than 4 million in arbitration. Well, that wouldn't be too bad, but have seen speculation on here from 5-8 million. If they can save a few bucks w/ Patterson in CF and a prospect, I can see it. Btw will Patterson take a pay cut in arbitration?? If anyone ever deserved one, it's him after last year.

Hack!

Can still see Pierre being dealt. $6 million or so is a little much for a small market team. The Florida franchises are pathetic. Just move the Marlins & D Ray to Southern Cal or New York.

Could NY go w/ Diaz, Beltran & Nady in the OF and look to trade Floyd?? They've never been thrilled w/ Floyd and could address their obp problem. Perhaps Walker and J. Williams for Floyd??

I'm talking about how incredibly immature it is of you to threaten to bump this thread to try and humiliate people who have a different opinion of yours, and how incredibly hypocritical it is of you to react the way you did when somebody asked if you'd do the same if the opposite were to happen. I don't recall you taking this tone a few months ago. Consistency is essential in debate. I think one of the mods already stepped in and asked that the topic be dropped a little later in the thread. Sorry, but this thread's just too rich w/ irony. Back on topic, I like Howry and Eyre. Sorry again. :)

Every report thus far about Giles has been 3 years to my knowledge. Maybe so, but it's early.. Beltran didn't sign until January last year, so I expect something similar w/ Giles. Lots can change in a month and a half... However, I'm certain the daily Giles' meltdowns will remain constant. :)