don_kessinger_was_good

Mabry's a useful guy, and $1MM would be about right for him considering what Hendry likes to pay for bit players. He takes over the Hollandsworth role. Myself, I'm hoping he's joined on the bench by Hee Seop Choi in that upcoming Milton Bradley trade. :-)

You're not giving Bradley enough credit here, I don't think. After Beltran, he's the best all-around CF in the NL. Jones doesn't hit for high enough average, Edmonds doesn't run and his average is falling every year now. I do agree the #2 spot would be the ideal place in the order for him, though, especially if Furcal is signed. Finally there'd be some guys on base for Lee and Ramirez. You could use Bradley at leadoff if there were no other options coming on board this offseason, but that negates some of Bradley's XBH ability; I'd prefer to see him get some RBI opportunities that a leadoff hitter likely won't get.

I would be most satisfied with an outfield of Murton, Bradley and Mench, with Furcal at SS and Cedeno at 2B. Instead of a corner OF, Hendry spends the rest of his money to pay for Barry Zito in the upcoming Felix Pie and Ricky Nolasco for Zito trade. :-)

Howry > Farnsworth. Eyre > Farnsworth. Howry and Eyre < $$ than Farnsworth?? Hendry's bullpen moves are looking better and better. Lots of money, but market value, and he bought some quality. Very pleased.

1. Like the pursuit of Sweeney, if true, for the bench. Combined with Mabry, Neifi, Hairston and Blanco, that would be an acceptable bench for once. 2. 4/38 is the sweet spot for Furcal, those are the numbers I predicted months ago. Cabrera got 4/36 and Furcal is better than him; Renteria got 4/40 and Furcal is probably as good. Call it 4/38, give him a 5th year option with lucrative buyout, and call it a deal. 3. Like the sound of Pierre or Bradley for CF very much. 4. Kevin Brown idea is intriguing. He'd be cheap insurance, and if at all healthy, is certainly a better pitcher than either Rusch or Williams. Better: Brown would definitely make Williams expendable, and Jerome has trade value. Why, one could even revive my Jerome + Novoa + Pie for Abreu + cash idea.... 5. These things go down, and only RF is left unsolved. And Hendry would be a hero in my book. Patience, grasshopper???.....

Tampa is so desperate for pitching...why not Rich Hill and a reliever like Andy Shipman or David Aardsma for Gomes? Or a situational lefty like Jon Koronka? I don't know that Tampa would get more than that for Gomes; as good as he looked in 2005, he IS still somewhat unproven, they DO have other quality OF-ers, and we ARE presumably giving them quality talent in exchange. At least, everyone keeps saying Rich Hill is our best pitching prospect.... If Petit and another minor leaguer are worth Carlos Delgado, how is Gomes worth more than say, Hill + Aardsma? I don't see it.

There's no reason both can't be done, and in all probability, will be done. We've done the $$ analysis several times in other threads, the $$ are there. I was one of the first to applaud Hendry for solving this long-standing weakness in our bullpen--notice I no longer have the "Fire Hendry" part of my sig? And I still applaud the move. Now, if the offseason ends and he has left RF and CF and leadoff unsolved, THEN we have a serious problem, but I've seen nothing so far this offseason that suggests Hendry doesn't intend on addressing each area, and rather forcefully. We've been at the top of the list in discussions regarding Pierre and Furcal, we are usually mentioned in discussions of Austin Kearns and Kevin Mench and most promisingly, Bobby Abreu. This is progress, no? Give the man a chance, I think he's having a strong offseason so far other than the ridiculous Neifi thing--which we all know is driven by Dusty, anyways.

You're not in the "Pierre sucked in 2005, I don't want him" camp? Or the "Pierre has no SLG" camp? Or is it "Pierre's not worth the $$" camp? Me, I like him considering (a) he's available at modest cost in players, (b) his $$ post-arbitration is likely to be moderate (~$5MM) compared to alternatives like Damon, © he is an unrestricted FA after 2006, so signing him does not block Pie's potential future development, (d) you are getting a guy on the cheap that was a terrific leadoff man three times in the past five years, (e) and by all accounts, Pierre is a nice guy and good teammate, there are no "Milton Bradley" issues here. In a perfect world, there are several CF-ers I'd prefer over Pierre (either Crisp or Sizemore certainly come to mind), but in the real world, I recognize he's likely the best attainable option, and I applaud Hendry if he closes the deal in the next few days.

No, not Lugo. The player on Tampa we should really be angling for is Jonny Gomes. How do they have room for him, and Crawford, and Huff, and now Baldelli is back? One of them has to go, and I thought I remembered hearing this past offseason that Gomes had run-ins with management on several occasions. Plus, Gomes > Huff, Baldelli, Crawford, so that's even better yet.

There's no reason to repeat here our back and forth in the Howry thread; suffice it to say, your comparisons were silly--as pointed out there. The stats you chose to focus on were selectively made. The logical inconsistency of your argument from one thread to another was also startling: on the one hand, you want to focus on recent performance and discount past results (Pierre), but on the other, you want to look at lifetime performance and discount recent results, even though said recent results came after career-trajectory-changing events (Eyre's ADD treatment; Howry's surgery). And to top it all off, you, one of the proudest proponents of the dangers of small sample size, then tout Ohman and Wuertz' case despite both having incredibly small sample sizes from which to observe. Hey, I don't take it with venom, in fact I take it more tongue-in-cheek; my interpretation is that you've been away for awhile and are just in the mood for some good natured arguments, and that's cool, I'm always up for that. But it doesn't change the fact that you're dead wrong, on multiple fronts of late.

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.

Yeah, let's just get rid of that Prior guy. Wood never amounted to much, either. Ya gotta love hyperbole. You're the one that has been overboard with the hyperbole of late. Prior doesn't count, for crying out loud. He was a big league talent the day he accepted his diploma. Or are you honestly going to claim that the Cubs minor league system had any role, whatsoever, in developing Prior's talent and preparing him for the big leagues? Wouldn't surprise me, because you have a strange fetish for making excuses for the Cubs' minor league system. I don't. It's a failure. Because I deal in end-results, and the fact is, we have nearly nothing to show for these guys at the major league level. Thank god at least a few of them were traded for talent. You can go back to rubbing the belly of your Hee Seop Choi doll now, Tim.

As a 4th OF, I think he'd be fine. Joey has speed and is a good bunter. A more refined version of Adam Greenberg's upside, if you will. But I sure wouldn't give much in the way of talent for Gathrait, and I SURE wouldn't be thinking of him as a CF starter. Ugh.

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.

Are you trying to imply that you were the first to think of trading for Luis Castillo? Or are you simply pointing out that Rozner is a complete hack unable to compose an unprompted thought?

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. In what universe is Todd Walker a "capable leadoff hitter?" How many GMs and managers around baseball share your wisdom that they should have had Walker batting 1st all along? Because, the guy has been on a half-dozen teams and has played in the big leagues for years now, so there is ample data size to show that Todd Walker would be a great leadoff man. Oh wait, the evidence is completely lacking? Well, he is a 350-ish OBP in his good years, OK, that's sufficient evidence for me.

Kenny Williams > Jim Hendry.

I normally agree with you that it's always better to spend money than prospects, bu as Diffusion pointed out, this is Pinto's last option year. The other 2 players are not likely to be of note, so it's not like giving up Pie, or Guzman circa 2003. Also, I'd disagree that Pierre is a step backwards. Our CF's last season were awful Pierre is not as good as people think, but I don't think he's as bad as 2005 would indicate, but even if the truth lies in between, Pierre is a giant step forward over any in-house option we have at CF right now. Also, look at the possible combinations. Would you rather have Furcal + Kearns or Mench (just examples) or Pierre + Abreu or Giles? Yeah, I framed that unfairly, but the point is, if we sign Furcal there goes our last type A FA this winter. It also locks up a huge amount of cash when, coupled with Lee and Aramis' contracts, and Z and Prior's raises, really locks down our payroll for the next couple years. Gosh, I never thought I'd be defending trading for Pierre. :!: Even though it's Pinto's last option year, it's still not worth it to trade him for Pierre, that's why I said none of the above at the beginning. The step backward I was referring to was philosophically, not production wise. Also, trading for Pierre takes away from what you can use to trade for an impact RF, making the combinations you mention less feasible. I think it's still up in the air whether we get 4 or 3 Type A's, and by signing Furcal you keep the chips to upgrade via trade. While Furcal is an investment, we're also not far from having Cedeno, Murton, and Pie all manning positions at a cheap price. Again though, Eyre and Howry's contracts screwed this up, which is why I don't want either particularly. But it's not terribly difficult to trade a talented player like Furcal if the need arises, and I'd rather take that chance than trade players for an inferior player. People can't have it both ways. We need a leadoff hitter. No one wants to have to trade ANYBODY of value to get one, and no one wants to pay $10MM a year to Furcal, either. Gee, so I guess we can just click our heels three times and A-Rod and Pujols show up on our door, this is great! Or the alternative, bring back the same retreads yet again, everyone angrily shouts out at that too. The price of inaction was seen last year with a sub-500 record from this team with the $100MM payroll. Hendry this year is ACTING, to try and address the shortcomings, and I think he's doing a decent job of it. To think Renyel Pinto was/is going to solve all the Chicago Cubs' problems is just plain silly. If, as seems to be the case, this organization is incapable of grooming prospects for ML success, then for crying out loud move these guys and get some value in exchange. How many Red Sox fans are crying over the trade of Hanley Ramirez? Um, pretty much none.

Geez, such overwrought handwringing here. All we've done is bitch about the Cubs not having a leadoff man for three straight years, how Hendry saw his lousy bullpen and lack of a leadoff man last offseason and did nothing. So now his first order of business this offseason is to solve those two problems, and all anyone can do is complain? Like probably everyone, I was somewhat chagrined by the Rusch signing, upset with the Neifi signing of course. But since then, impressed with Hendry's initiatives. Overpaying as usual, but that is his nature, we can't change that. Love having a deep, dependable and effective bullpen consisting of six to seven guys that are good, not one or two and then watch the dreck come in and pour gasoline all over another lost Cub victory. Love having a leadoff man who three times in the past five years has posted 200+ hits, 360+ OBP, 45+ SBs, less than 40 K's, and covers tons of ground in CF. The last leadoff man and/or CF to give numbers like that for the Cubs was.....Bueller? Bueller?? Two more points-- Hendry getting Pierre now puts all the pressure on Furcal and his agent, do you not see this? Time to get off the pot or pee, Rafael. We don't desperately need a leadoff man anymore. We'd still like an excellent SS like yourself, but we ain't gonna jump off a cliff now to make it happen, either. What's it gonna be, you like our offer or what? Finally, the handwringing over Pinto is ridiculous. Our prospects suck, they've always sucked, they very very rarely pan out. Dontrelle Willis, maybe Jon Garland (though it took 6 years), a marginal reliever like Andy Sisco. Zambrano who we kept. That's it. We don't need to make a list of highly touted Cub prospects that turned out to be deadbeats in juxtaposition, do we? Because that list is long. Pinto failed at AAA miserably, he has nasty control problems, he is not even the top-rated pitcher in our own organization. You get some value out of him and solve a perpetual problem for your MAJOR LEAGUE team. I'll let others commisserate in front of their Our Blessed Martyr Prospect Shrine, light a candle for old Renyel, and discuss Ryan Gripp's likelihood of making the Hall of Fame. Myself, I applaud Jim Hendry for a nice trade that fills a need.

Whoever your source is, I'm sure he's better than mine. Wait, I don't know anybody... His source may be better, but his avatar isn't even close. Me love sweaters...

Thanks for the clarification. I'd guess we can sign up to four, then. Is this a limitation on the absolute number of FA signings a team can make in any one year, or the NET number of signings? I ask because Burnitz and Nomar are on the list.

The "bum shoulder" didn't prevent the Marlins from selecting Luke Hagerty last year. Petrick is a stud. If he's healthy, he's gone. You'll have to explain the Sing and six-year free agency thing to me, vis-a-vis the draft, because everything I've seen says if were put on the 40-man, he'd be protected.

With Howry completing the bullpen, I would next: 1. Try to trade for one of Coco Crisp, Juan Pierre, Luis Castillo, or Milton Bradley. 2. Try to put together a blockbuster for Bobby Abreu or Adam Dunn. Failing that, pursue the trades for someone like Kevin Mench, Austin Kearns or Aubrey Huff. 3. Ya simply gotta sign Rafael Furcal, I think. 4. Need two bench outfielders, one of whom can play some 1B (assuming Todd Walker is traded).

What a nice Thanksgiving treat for us long-suffering boobs on this site if the player dumped is Macias! I KNOW I speak for everyone here in saying that this minor move, as viewed by the outside world, would be the subject of much rejoicing, clapping, and slapping of backs right here on the four-letter site. We'll just ignore that if Macias had simply been dumped one week earlier, Hendry could have protected Brandon Sing or Billy Petrick from the Rule 5 draft.... :-(

Downright ugly. Our system is falling apart, and that's why Hendry needs to use what good chips he has RIGHT NOW to obtain ML talent. Sit on Pie and Guzman if you must, and the younger guys are OK for awhile (Gallagher, E-Patterson, Johnson, Marmol, Pawelek is exciting). But the rest, all these AA and AAA guys, ship them out for talent if another team is willing to bite. I agree that it is inexcusable Hendry wasted a 40-man spot on Jose Macias in favor of exposing Brownlie and Sing. The Cubs apparently feel they won't be contributors, and I can appreciate that, but it doesn't change the fact that they MIGHT have value to someone else. So protecting Macias is just a bad bad baseball decision. Hendry really isn't a very good GM when you get right down to it. He's living off of three trades.