don_kessinger_was_good

Good for Nomar, I'm glad he escaped this train wreck of a team. At least with Houston, LA, NY, or Cleveland, he'll have the chance to win. That has to be a lot more fun than looking forward to a 66-96 season.

Sounds to me like Hendry is giving up. Typical. He's been overmatched for this job from the beginning. In the article, THEY'RE ALREADY TALKING ABOUT 2007, FOR CRIPE'S SAKE!!! This is a total train wreck. There is no hope for 2006, and the organization doesn't give a damn. Unbelievable.

Blow the whole thing up for prospects. Cubs suck. We are doomed. Backpedalling for three straight years. Lovely.

Williams is the man, he's in the driver's seat for Tejada. He has Garland and McCarthy to dangle in front of Baltimore; Hendry has Williams and Hill. Gee, which would you pick? Garland >> Williams McCarthy > Hill Sox rule. I am very envious.

Who said Neifi will get 200 PAs in the #2 hole in 2006, are you nuts? Hendry is intent on trading Walker, that means Perez is your #2 hitter for 600 PAs in 2006, courtesy of resident genius Johnnie Baker. 2006 is going to be 2002 all over again, book it. An ugly ugly year. I just hope one outcome from it is that the GM and manager get the axe again.

Yes, let's fire a guy who actually got us finally competitive and a guy who netted us Ramirez, and Lee along with drafting Prior if I recall right. Let's clean house on a team that's really close to being a playoff team (barring any injuries) because we had one bad year last year and are trying to fix the problems. If you have a $100MM payroll, and your team has gotten WORSE in every year of your tenure, then you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Hendry needs to go. Now. And take his pet manager with him. You were all aboard the Hendry "bandwagon" if I remember right... what happened to change your mind? I've never been a supporter of Hendry's, but I applauded him early in the offseason with his bullpen moves, which was an initiative I did (and still do) support. The problem is that bullpen was just one of five critical need areas for the Cubs this offseason, and since then, Hendry has accomplished nothing but trade three pitching prospects for an OK, but not ideal leadoff man/CF solution (Pierre). Now, things look pretty bleak, and the two big holes on this team remain unfixed and it looks increasingly like they WON'T get fixed--namely, a middle-of-the-order slugger for RF, and a middle infielder that will keep Neifi F. Perez' at-bats under 200 for the season. This team is looking even worse on paper than 12 months before with the 2005 Cubs team, and that is all on Hendry's back. Teams like Atlanta have a problem, a hole, and presto--the GM goes out and fixes it. "I need a veteran SS like Renteria, you want my top prospect, OK, let's get this done." Boston needs a starting pitcher, "you want me to take a bad contract and give you one of my top prospects too? OK, let's get this done." Meanwhile, our GM fiddles away, getting out-maneuvered time and time again by more savvy GMs around baseball. He lets his manager dictate personnel choices. He has tunnel vision and cannot think "outside the box." Hendry sucks. Plain and simple. I'm not interested in any canards about "But he got Aramis, he traded for Lee, he moved Turd Hundley..." He also screwed up or missed out on three times as many deals. He wastes signficant portions of his ridiculous $100MM+ payroll on deadbeats and discards and detritus. Yeah, I'm on a Hendry bandwagon alright--the "Where's the Rope" Bandwagon. Talk to the sig...

Yes, let's fire a guy who actually got us finally competitive and a guy who netted us Ramirez, and Lee along with drafting Prior if I recall right. Let's clean house on a team that's really close to being a playoff team (barring any injuries) because we had one bad year last year and are trying to fix the problems. If you have a $100MM payroll, and your team has gotten WORSE in every year of your tenure, then you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Hendry needs to go. Now. And take his pet manager with him.

Why not keep Patterson, this is going to be a sub-500, 5th place team anyways. What the hell, maybe he'll be mediocre instead of awful next time, and the new GM can get something for him in trade next winter.

Other GMs hold Jim Hendry's feet to the fire because they know he's in a tight spot. It's basically extortion, but Hendry has no one to blame but himself. Recent events also make it very clear that GMs around baseball value the Cubs prospects much MUCH lower than most folks here. Time for a GM change, seriously. Clean house.

Can the Cubs trade Hendry to the Sox for KW?

Predictable. This is going to turn out bad. Enjoy the holidays Jim, it'll be your last as GM of the Cubs.

It's unlikely we do anything with Texas at this point, with Hendry pet Alfonso Soriano now gone, and Texas on record as overshooting and asking for the moon for Kevin Mench. I think most potential suitors, including the Cubs, have moved on. And that's a good thing, Mench doesn't interest me much...neither does Wilkerson. Tampa is the team I hope Hendry is talking with.

No one is going to trade for Patterson prior to Dec 20 and pay him $2.5MM. The Cubs will non-tender him, and some team will take a flyer on him. I think the Cubs front office has moved on.

1. Bobby Abreu 2. Aubrey Huff 3. Raul Ibanez 4. Nick Swisher 5. Kevin Mench 6. Chad Tracy 7. Brad Wilkerson 8. Austin Kearns 9. Ryan Klesko (if half the contract picked up)

1. Shawn Green--no trade clause. 2. Luis Gonzalez--too expensive; not tradeable. 3. Chad Tracy 4. Carlos Quentin 5. Conor Jackson Arizona should move one of 3, 4 or 5, and I'd be interested in any of them.

I don't see that Vidro, especially with his health issues, is a significant enough upgrade over Walker to bother. Plus, he's much more costly at $8MM/per. I still say if Hendry is going to trade several players, he should do so to get a quality impact RF. The middle infield is not a significant hurdle for this team right now. The lack of a 5 hitter with genuine RBI production and SLG, now THAT is where this team is sorely lacking. Abreu would be choices 1, 2 and 3. Floyd, Huff and Mench would be fallbacks.

Throw Milldege into that too probably. If we were going to get him from the Mets it be for Major League Ready Guys like Prior or Z. This is the kind of thinking I was talking about, it's just plain wrong. A high ceiling, but unproven yet, outfield prospect for a high ceiling, but unproven yet, pitching prospect. At some point, teams with a need for pitching and excess outfielders need to look at that kind of plan, and similarly, teams with excess pitching and a need for outfielders should consider it too. Let's take the case of Delmon Young as one example. He is an incredible prospect, everyone realizes this. The team that owns him has almost NO pitching to speak of, but they currently have FIVE outfielders, and Young would be the sixth. At what point, if you're a prudent GM of that team, do you not come to the conclusion that maybe you should deal from strength and trade that outfielder prospect for pitching help? Young should be one heckuva outfielder, you'd think he could bring Tampa some legitimate pitching, wouldn't you? On the other hand, if you hoard these players under your control, you're not maximizing your team's value. You [expletive] the player's development, you create friction amongst the players (just ask Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Pena how that dynamic works). I'm just saying I find it very frustrating and hard to comprehend why some GMs aren't more open-minded about running their teams as a portfolio of assets, instead of on (what seems to be) an isolated, player for player case basis.

Royals might be interested. They have a little money to spend, they can't entice any free agents to come here, and there is ZERO excitement about the team. Management probably still has a bitter taste in its mouth about taking a flyer on Juan Gonzalez, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them try it again. Sammy could get some time at DH, depending on how many games Mike Sweeney is able to give them at 1B with his bad back. When his back acts up, he's the DH, and Sammy would be on the bench. I don't think Sammy could crack KC's starting OF of Matt Stairs, David DeJesus and Emil Brown, which is a pretty damning statement about how far Sammy has fallen. Still, it'd be a major league job, and he'd get his chance at his precious 600 home runs here. Beggars can't be choosers...

Dusty doesn't have any choice if there are no other alternatives. He can't leave the position vacant I don't think, that would probably be considered dereliction of duty. He'll play the outfielder Hendry gives him.

I never thought he'd get traded anyway. Just an unhappy player blowing off steam. Back to the grindstone Jim--get that RF you need.

I don't buy this argument that you can have too many young players in a lineup, that's bunk. I want the players most likely to be successful, regardless of experience. There are plenty of teams willing to hand over spots to high ceiling rookies. If you can't find or trade for a veteran that fits your needs, then why not go the youngster route? Especially when you are a team like the Cubs that has young pitching to offer in exchange. One team trades a high ceiling pitching prospect to a team with a high ceiling OF prospect, what's wrong with that plan? Both teams deal from strength and fill a position of weakness. We have high ceiling pitching prospects Rich Hill and Angel Guzman to offer in trade. What are some of the high ceiling outfielders that might be available in exchange? Here is a quick list I put together off the top of my head, there are likely others-- Lastings Milledge, Jeff Francouer, Jeremy Hermida, Shane Victorino, Ryan Church, Termel Sledge, Joel Guzman, Carlos Quentin, Conor Jackson, Freddy Guzman, Delmon Young, Curtis Granderson, Franklin Gutierrez, Brian Anderson, Jeremy Reed.

Definitely (another) step backwards for the Birdinals; Ray King > Rincon.

The more thought I put into this, the less enamored I am of pursuing Tejada given the likely cost. I'd rather get a slugging RF and take my chances at this point with Cedeno and Walker. Ronny is tearing up the VWL, after hitting well in Iowa and Chicago last year. He is ready. And we know Walker's pros and cons. But you go with those two, and you still KEEP the likes of Hill, Pie, Williams and/or others. Result: we're better off. Let's make the trade for a good RF instead. As usual, Bobby Abreu, Yoda looks at you.

For those questioning why Hendry seems to be "stockpiling" starting pitching as it were, the injury issues are certainly one aspect of that. But I think many are forgetting the second--he is planning more than one year in advance. He knows Maddux will retire and Wood won't be brought back. So he's looking at two starters for sure in 07 (Z and Prior) and then what? He needs to get some kind of continuity set up here, or the Cubs will be looking for a LOT of starting pitching 12 months from now. One would hope someone like Guzman or Hill could be one of the in-house options to lessen the task. Hence, don't trade Hill (is Hendry's thinking) unless it is a trade that REALLY helps the team. Like Tejada or Abreu. What I don't know is how other GMs view this kid. I'm betting some of them are wowed by his 2005 minor league numbers, and in the spirit of "sell high", that's why I've been hoping Hendry trades him this offseason. But I understand his logic behind publicly calling him "untouchable" too.

Pierre--"Ebony and Ivory", or "Lucky Pierre" Murton--"L'Petit Orange" (if you have to ask...)