don_kessinger_was_good

Papelbon and Lester are targeted for the bullpen. Wells will go to San Diego, it's just a matter of when and how. So that leaves just 5 starters plus Clemens--if he goes to Boston, you simply move Wakefield to the bullpen, or more likely, trade Clement. Given that Beckett and Schilling are just as big injury risks for them as Prior and Wood are for us though, they would likely welcome having too many starters, anyway.

JK Ryu--no one talks about him. But he continues to progress, he's still young, has two plus pitches, and will be the #3 starter in Iowa this year. Rate his big-league future: marginal hanger-on, useful middle reliever, useful short reliever, or starting pitcher?? Me, I think Ryu is a lot more likely to be a big league bullpen contributor than Bobby Brownlie will ever be. I rate Ryu as the fourth most interesting player I'll be following in Iowa this year, after Pie, Guzman and Hill. I hope to drive up to Des Moines and catch a half-dozen games this summer. Will definitely angle for a Felix Pie autograph or three. ;-)

I do not think Hendry is so hard-headed that if Jones sucks--and he likely will--that he'd marry the ship to JJ for three long years. He wanted him this year for lack of better alternatives, and it took a 3-year contract to get him, fine. But that doesn't mean he really WANTS him for three years, nor does it mean he needs to. Keep in mind the contract was structured with a signing bonus, so Jones gets $7MM of his money in 2006. He gets just $4MM in 2007 and $5MM in 2008. You cannot convince me that if Jones shows ANYTHING this year, he couldn't be moved if owed $4.5MM average over two years time. Or, you eat a modest $4MM to get the cost down to $2.5MM/year, could you move him then? Pierre OK, it's clear Hendry loves him. But if Murton works out and Pie is ready next year, Jones is outta here. Or, if a big trade or FA signing occurs next offseason, again--Jones is outta here. I will be shocked if he is in Chicago for three full years, no way.

I think the Nomar trade was Hendry's best midseason deal. He pulled it off when no one thought it would really happen, he brought in a 3rd team (Minnesota) to get the trade done, and he shrewdly assessed young talent not only by making wise choices in who he gave up (Harris, Beltran and Jones), but by being persistent enough to get Boston to include Matt Murton, who has ended up being the key player in the trade. Just because Nomar didn't pan out, due to numerous injuries, does not lessen the success of the trade. Very well done, and Matt Murton is now our starting LF. Meanwhile, Justin Jones' career is on life support due to injuries, ditto for Francis Beltran, Brendan Harris can't even crack the Washington Nats' 25-man roster, and Alex Gonzalez well....who cares about Alex Gonzalez. Best midseason trade.

Just because Rusch gets the benefit of the doubt because of his veteran status, LH pitching, and his somewhat acceptable performance for us the last couple years, does NOT mean he's permanently penciled in to the rotation. He'll need to perform to keep his place. This isn't a $12MM pitcher we're talking about here like Kerry Wood--Rusch has been bad before, he has experience in the pen, and I don't think the Cubs will hesitate TOO long to put him back there if he falters as a starter. Frankly, I think the deal is that in April, Rusch and Williams are going to be competing and auditioning for a permanent rotation spot the remainder of the season. Let the best man win. When Wood comes back, the choice will be made, and if Rusch is the winner, THEN Jerome could be dealt. If Williams is the winner, Rusch moves to the pen and whoever the 12th pitcher is (Novoa or Wellemeyer) is out of luck. Novoa has options so he can always be shuttled back to Iowa, but if Welly is still here by then, he'll be dumped to another team. If/when Miller returns, I think it'll be as a reliever. Finally, I don't think there's any rush with Hill and Guzman. Neither has yet pitched a full season of AAA ball, I can see both staying in Iowa until the July trade deadline at a bare minimum.

Cubs should have snagged him when Washington took him off the 40-man. Iowa bullpen is looking a bit soft what with JVB and Leicester gone, and Novoa potential trade bait. I always liked Beltran if the kid could have just stayed healthy. As it is, if the Cubs had grabbed him back, the net trade long-term for us would have been Brendan Harris and an injured Justin Jones (career-ending?) for Matt Murton, that's a pretty sweet deal.

Maybe Bruce can explain why the Cubs want a **FIFTH** Judy-hitting second baseman like Graffanino. You just can't have enough lousy 2B I guess if it's your goal to be a pennant winner! :roll:

There really aren't that many good RF-ers in baseball right now worth acquiring, to be honest. Jones is a terrible solution, but there are few better players actually AVAILABLE. I cut Hendry some slack as a result based on that, I simply fault him for choosing such an awful "I need SOMEONE" solution, and at three years contract length, in JJ. A one-year deal to someone like Preston Wilson or Reggie Sanders, or maybe even trading for a youngster would have made much more sense. I mean really, in the NL, what do you have for RF? Giles is married to San Diego, and getting old quickly. Drew is good but always hurt. Shawn Green is a shell of his former self (and has a NTC). Reds have the underachieving Austin Kearns; Cards had to settle for Juan Encarnacion; Pirates for Jeromy Burnitz. Brewers have Geoff Jenkins, that might have been a possibility, but neither he nor Cliff Floyd in New York are difference makers. Miguel Cabrera is untouchable, Jose Guillen is a head case, so was Milton Bradley (and he wasn't a difference maker). And then there's Abreu. Story is pretty much the same in the AL, Huff was the most available but his numbers have declined every year. Trot Nixon is only valuable as a platoon player, Gary Sheffield is 70 years old, guys like Jermaine Dye and Casey Blake and Brad Wilkerson aren't difference makers. Vlade is untouchable. So the options are pretty bleak. If the Cubs want to get this problem solved for 2007, I think they're going to need to go young. It's time to trade some pitching talent for some hitting talent, IMO. Arizona likely won't keep both Conor Jackson and Carlos Quentin, that's the first place I'd look.

I'm not as high as most on Pie, and I'd agree with Sickel's grade. I'd be curious whether he graded Rich Hill and Matt Murton, and if so, what the grades were. Mine would be B+ (Hill) and A- (Murton). I'm thinking his B+ grade for Pawelek is based strictly on small sample size and being too early to get a strong feel for his ultimate ceiling. We'll know an awful lot more about him after 2006. Could easily see him becoming one of the top 5 prospects in baseball at this time next year. Exciting kid. How did Sickels grade Marshall and Marmol?

It's a little late to be wanting Abreu--since JJ was signed as a free agent, the Cubs are stuck with him until at least June 15. Besides, I don't want to give up what the Phils would demand for Abreu, too much talent. We could desperately use a bat like his, but we simply cannot afford to deal away a top pitcher given our health issues, while the Sox can deal from strength and get away with it. I will be VERY impressed with KW if he pulls this off though. How smart does the Vazquez deal look now? Buerhle, Garland, Vazquez, McCarthy and Garcia, Sox won't miss a beat with Contreras out of there. And Abreu > Dye. If Thome gives them ANYTHING, Sox won't be touched in the Central.

With Hendry, you will come very close to the actual numbers by simply splitting the difference between player and team numbers, that seems to be his M.O. I'd expect Zambrano to get 6.6 and Pierre 5.7, unless in Pierre's case Hendry decides to do an extension with bonus. I like Pierre, but I'd prefer to see him perform some before I'm ready to throw three more years at him. Ohman, don't know what the holdup is there, the difference is just $250K, the Cubs piss away money like that without thinking twice about it. Give Will the small amount of extra dough, he had a tough time with injuries in the minors, he's earned some scratch.

Big Lee wasn't a real contributor until 1981 though, he appeared in a few innings late in the season 1980 and that's it. 1984 wasn't too bad, the combination of Big Lee, Tim Stoddard and Warren Brusstar did a very nice job. You could argue Stoddard's 1984 was about the best setup man performance we've ever had with the Cubs. There have been others with lower ERAs and WHIPs, but Tim got the job done, 10 wins and 7 saves are a lot of fireman points. Not bad with Smith in front of you.

Reagan was a huge CUB fan, not just baseball. Besides working Cub games for WHO, he went to Eureka College and was born in Dixon, the guy was true blue Illinois all the way. You can change your home base in your adult life, and he did, but you can NEVER change your baseball roots, as we all know. Dutch was a Cubbie, and like my Grandpa never saw the Cubs win a World Series. :-(

Very good news that Hendry is committing to Murton and Cedeno as everyday players. Puts DFB on the spot, he can't get away with his veteran fetish this time. I wish someone had asked him about the interest in a Hairston/Walker full-time platoon at 2B, and whether he (Hendry) is comfortable with the idea of Neifi strictly as a bench player (where he does have value). I would like to know Hendry's feelings on the 12-man vs. 11-man staff. And, I would like to know his impressions of the logman in the bullpen for that 11th and 12th spots. Novoa, Wellemeyer, Rusch or Williams when Wood comes off the DL, maybe Miller later too. Who does Hendry think will be the odd men out, and will he trade in spring training once the decision has been made? I guess I'd like to know as well what the Rockies were offering for Wellemeyer in early December.

The script Kansas City gray is sweet, I'll buy one. If I chase down George at his restaurant, maybe I can get him to sign it. I'm a life-long, 4th generation, 100% Cub, but George Brett=God. Man, what a hitter.

Isn't it too early to give up on Marmol as a starter? He's done the job so far. If he has a good year in AA, I don't see how you can move him to the bullpen. Starters have SO much more value.

Why is this a surprise? Harvey and Dopirak have been disappointing, Hagerty and Blasko and Marshall and Petrick and Guzman have been hurt, Pinto and Sisco and Nolasco and Dubois and Jones and Beltran and Harris are gone, what's left to get excited about? Pie, Hill, Pawelek, and in Chicago, Murton and Cedeno. Maybe Veal and Gallagher and Marmol. Maybe Patterson. Them's pretty slim pickings.

I'd ask why aren't you forward thinking enough to have landed Andy Marte and Kelly Shoppach for yourself, instead of wasting time on deadbeats like Jacques Jones, Neifi Perez, Marquis Grissom and Pagan Angel? Just curious Jim. Also, when is the Trib selling, so the new owner can kick your butt out of town? Can you give us a timeline on that? Thanks.

Why is Boston going to waste Andy Marte (and others) on Coco Crisp, and why is Philly settling for Arthur Rhodes to give up Jason Michaels? This makes no sense, why doesn't Boston simply trade for Jason Michaels themselves? He's likely just as good as Crisp. If the issue is that Boston doesn't have the relievers to spare, that's where we come in. Make it a 3-way between the Cubs, Sox and Phils. Phils get: Roberto Novoa and John Koronka; or Michael Wuertz (their choice) Red Sox get: Jason Michaels Cubs get: Dustin Pedroia What's wrong with that? Everyone wins. Phillies get a better reliever than Rhodes for Michaels; Red Sox get their CF without giving up Marte; Cubs get a young infielder that could be the 2B of the future.

Murton >> Kearns, no thanks. Figure out a trade for me that nets the Cubs Andy Marte, that's the one I want to see.

Any organization that values a Neifi Perez and Jose Macias, and values a manager that is dumb enough to play them, deserves heaps of scorn and ridicule.

If you're Jim Hendry and determined to dump Walker no matter what, at least Luis Matos is something worthwhile. He could be a natural platoon partner for Jacques Jones and otherwise, the righty reserve OF to go with lefty John Mabry. Matos has no slugging to speak of, but he has decent OBP, decent BA, and decent speed. I can think of worse things we've gotten from Baltimore.....

A 5th starter is only needed three times the first month of the season. If Wood and/or Miller are ready by mid-May, you're talking maybe four, five starts max to worry about. That's not reason enough to hang on to Jerome, if you can trade him and get something like Lugo now. For those four or five starts, you could easily use Hill, or Guzman, or Koronka, or even Wellemeyer if he's still here, all of whom are on the 40-man roster (and obviously, Wood and Miller would be on the DL, so you can put someone like Koronka say on the 25-man active with no problems). Personally, I'd like to see Hill get those starts.

If I'm not mistaken, the Cubs have had just 39 men on the roster since the Patterson trade.

At $1MM, Wade Miller doesn't need to start games to be valuable to the Cubs. If he's simply a serviceable middle reliever that joins the team in May or June and gives the team 40-50 decent innings, he's easily worth a million bucks in today's market. And if he's healthy at all, he's certainly capable of that at the very least; as someone else correctly noted, Miller has NASTY stuff. When they first joined the Houston rotation, more people were higher on Miller long-term than they were on Oswalt (I lived in Houston at the time). The only way this deal could have been better is if the Cubs got a cheap 2007 option along with it, but so long as they can offer arby and get a draft pick, that's still OK. If he does a decent job in middle relief, he'd surely be a Type B free agent, and that gets us a 2nd round pick.