CubfaninCA

Get Pierre for a few minor leaguers and Hendry has more trade options, as he'll still have Patterson and can deal off Pie for an impact hitter. Can Brad Wilkerson play rf?? Have heard Corey for Wilkerson a few times now.

Yep, good points. The sky hasn't fallen yet. It appears the Cubs are in good position w/ Furcal. It's unrealistic to expect him to sign a few days after free agency begins. Most top 5 free agents take a while. good point, but is hinging the rest of your offseason on a top 5 free agent signing a smart move? i hope Hendry's backup plan for Furcal falling through is solid. Gotta take risks in order to be really good, and I bet Walker's going nowhere until things are sorted out w/ Furcal. Surely, Hendry has multiple backup plans.

Yep, good points. The sky hasn't fallen yet. It appears the Cubs are in good position w/ Furcal. It's unrealistic to expect him to sign a few days after free agency begins. Most top 5 free agents take a while.

I'll be shocked if the Cubs get Giles. This lineup would look nice tho. Pierre, Furcal, Giles, Lee, Dunn, ARam, Barrett, Nef/Cedeno

What a pile of crap. This "agent's" just posturing for money. Furcal in CF. Right! I'd rather go w/ Neifi @ SS than Nomar. Neifi would be taking over by mid-April anyway. Just save $6 million and let Nomar sign w/ LA already.

That's the 2nd best avatar here behind your's. Nef has style. :)

Where did you hear that Cincy wanted Pie at the deadline? Probably from this board. My memory's not the greatest tho. :)

Iirc Cincy really wanted Pie @ the trade deadline. I guess Hendry will feel a lot more comfortable dealing off Pie, if he gets Pierre. Dunn seems to fit the philosophy of Hendry better than Abreu or Giles, as he several years younger. Pie, Hill & Williams for Dunn may be able to do it. I like Williams, but he's seems to be a #3 pitcher at best.

My guess is that Walker and Bradley would win a vote here. They're cheap and have good obp and slg. They'd be pretty far down my list. 185 combined games played in 2005 scares me.

This part of the article seems to imply the Cubs and Furcal will reach a deal sooner rather than later. If the Cubs agree to a 5 year deal, the apocalypse is coming soon. 5 years works for me tho. Furcal's just entering his "prime."

Pierre at 5 or 6 million works. Heck everyone's grossly overpaid in baseball, but this is about market rate for someone who has put up Pierre's number over the past several years. If Pierre put up another .370 obp season last year, I could see $8 million for next year, but he didn't so maybe the Cubs catch a break and get him @ a little bit of a discount. Get Furcal signed right away and then pull off a deal for Pierre asap, and Giles may show more interest in the Cubs...

I've been in San Diego for about 10 years and I've come to understand the way they do things here. Not well! Ramon Hernandez is leaving and Giles is waiting at the terminal for his ride out as well. The player the Padres seem the most interested in is Kenji Jojima. That's all well and good, but I'd be really nervous having a catcher who can't communicate with the pitching staff. It also seems as though they are going to court Jacque Jones. To put this into perspective, here is what this team might look like next year: Dave Roberts Mark Loretta Ryan Klesko Jacque Jones X Nady Vinny Castilla Khalil Greene Kenji Jojima/Miguel Olivo Peavy, Eaton, Park, Williams, Wells? Trevor Hoffman emptied his locker when the Padres lowballed him as well. John Moores is spending all the money he is making off the Padres baseball team on developing condominiums and shopping around the stadium rather than on improving the team. They were 6th in attendance with extremely healthy ticket prices last year. At least the ballpark/gaslamp district will be really nice. I'll have to visit SD more often. :)

Perhap so. Get Furcal locked up asap, and Hendry can move on to possibly dealing Walker for outfield help.

Neifi's already earning that money. Nef = good company man. :)

Well, I hope you're wrong about Hendry's line in the sand on Giles, but I have a feeling you're pretty close in your guess. Thus no Giles in Chicago. I don't see Giles going to the Yankees being a San Diego native. Too much of a culture shock. :)

If the Cubs don't get Furcal, there's still backup plans left. It appears that Castillo, Kent and Soriano will all be on the market. They can just go w/ Cedeno/Neifi @ SS. Of course, Sori and Kent aren't leadoff men tho. Going to need to get someone from CF in that case. You may have missed it somewhere, but I'm not willing to hand Cedeno an everyday job, either. Unless of course we have ++ offensive production from CF, RF and 2b. And I don't see that happening. Of course, with Hendry's philosophies of wanting to improve defense, I think it will be especially hard to find ++ offensive production AND good defense from all 3 of those spots. With just 80 major league at bats, we don't know whether Cedeno is a better or worse hitter than Neifi. Fact! I sit and think about all the different scenarios that have played out. I still think the best option would have been to invest their attention on resigning Nomar, getting Giles, keeping Walker and signing Lofton while spending any remaining cash on the pitching staff. Option #2 would have been to get Furcal instead of Nomar, sign Giles and Lofton and retain Walker, with the rest being spent on pitching. In these scenarios, Cedeno is the back up. Ah not willing to fully endorse Cedeno yet. Can respect that. These youngsters should earn their spots and not have it handed to them. I'm confident they'll get the bats this offseason, as they have more financial freedom, w/ Sosa gone. My template for success is signing Giles and getting Abreu. :) That would be great, except this is the Cubs. I would be shocked if they went out and put forth the effort to win a couple big boppers like that. Well, they have the money for Giles and enough talent (Hill, Williams, Walker, Murton, Pie & Patterson) to be able to work some sort of deal that gets them Abreu. Of course, there's zero chance of this happening, as this is the Cubs.

Going by Hendry's philosophy, Kent & Sori make more sense than Walker. Kent's played for Baker. He's a better hitter and can hit in the middle of the order (which they really need too) or bat 2nd. Sori's younger than Walker. Has more power and is a solid 5 or 6 hitter. Also, he has a lot more speed. Hendry may see their gloves as a wash.

If the Cubs don't get Furcal, there's still backup plans left. It appears that Castillo, Kent and Soriano will all be on the market. They can just go w/ Cedeno/Neifi @ SS. Of course, Sori and Kent aren't leadoff men tho. Going to need to get someone from CF in that case. You may have missed it somewhere, but I'm not willing to hand Cedeno an everyday job, either. Unless of course we have ++ offensive production from CF, RF and 2b. And I don't see that happening. Of course, with Hendry's philosophies of wanting to improve defense, I think it will be especially hard to find ++ offensive production AND good defense from all 3 of those spots. With just 80 major league at bats, we don't know whether Cedeno is a better or worse hitter than Neifi. Fact! I sit and think about all the different scenarios that have played out. I still think the best option would have been to invest their attention on resigning Nomar, getting Giles, keeping Walker and signing Lofton while spending any remaining cash on the pitching staff. Option #2 would have been to get Furcal instead of Nomar, sign Giles and Lofton and retain Walker, with the rest being spent on pitching. In these scenarios, Cedeno is the back up. Ah not willing to fully endorse Cedeno yet. Can respect that. These youngsters should earn their spots and not have it handed to them. I'm confident they'll get the bats this offseason, as they have more financial freedom, w/ Sosa gone. My template for success is signing Giles and getting Abreu. :)

How did he create the hole?? There's been a hole @ SS forever.

If the Cubs don't get Furcal, there's still backup plans left. It appears that Castillo, Kent and Soriano will all be on the market. They can just go w/ Cedeno/Neifi @ SS. Of course, Sori and Kent aren't leadoff men tho. Going to need to get someone from CF in that case.

I would like to go on record and say that if Furcal signs with the Cubs the ire on this board over his baseball performance will rival if not exceed that of Neifi F. Perez. Can't see that. There isn't overwhelming support for Furcal here, but many seem to like him. Can't say the same for Neifi. Thus can't see Furcal getting Neifized, as people would basically be ripping themselves too.

''Obviously, last year our leadoff situation was among the worst in baseball,'' Hendry said. ''So we are going to try to rectify that this winter.'' Looks like he has a clue. If Nef helps the Cubs get Furcal, he's already earned a quarter of his contract. :o

This lineup may tick some people off, and wouldn't be surprised to see it. Pierre, Furcal, I-Rod, Lee, ARam, Soriano, Monroe, Murton Cubs trade Patterson & prospect for Pierre Cubs trade Barrett and prospects for I~Rod and Monroe. (Detroit saves money).... Cubs trade Hill, Williams and Cedeno for Sori

I don't want Bryd for $7 mil/yr. and it sounds like he's pretty content w/ staying w/ Anaheim... Furcal could fill a couple needs for 4 years. Walker's a stop gap and the jury's still out on Cedeno. Would love to have Ryan tho.

I haven't seen anyone really support the signing, as all the Hendry-supporters seem to be quite wary of Dusty's usage of Nef. I have to take issue w/ the theory of Hendry "bidding against himself" again. This theory seems to be gaining more momentum. This board used to be a place of high decorum. However, threads like this where the words moron, idiot and stupid are continually trotted out are becoming more common. I guess if a person supports Jim Hendry then they're a moron as well. That sure seems to be the implication... I get tickled by the irony, but I'm sure others get a little offended, which may explain the "poster bashing."