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UMFan83

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Everything posted by UMFan83

  1. UMFan83
    I'm pretty sure Ricketts only bought the Cubs to push his free range bison dogs on the masses at Wrigley.
  2. UMFan83
    Oh well, the guy we got to play 1B instead of Thome outperformed Thome from 04-09.
  3. UMFan83
    This was 4 games into the season. that and the catch against the ball in Anaheim are the 2 things I remember about Holla. Oh and the NSBB-coined nickname, Dutchvalue.
  4. UMFan83
    Sorry I don't follow these threads as day to day as you guys, so I claim partial ignorance. I am just curious as to whether it's a recent trend for teams to sign post-1st round picks so far above slot? I just remember when Shark was signed and how the MLB was pissed that we went so far over slot. I know he was a 4th rounder and we gave him $10 mil, which even this year would be insanely over slot, but I remember the prevailing thought being not to abuse the system by going way overslot to sign your draft picks. Now it seems like teams reguarly ignore the slot system when making picks and signing them. Is this becoming a problem that is going to be addressed at some point, perhaps the next CBA negotiations? I would hate to see this practice stopped now that the Cubs seem to finally be realzing the value of exploiting their resources in the draft.
  5. UMFan83
    "I am here to talk about the direction of the Chicago Cubs franchise. The ballpark for our short season A affiliate in Boise sucks. We're gonna move the team to Coeur d'Alene. Oh and look at how well we are playing with everyone healthy. Told ya so. We'll keep our roster as is this offseason. I'm off to Egypt guys, peace!"
  6. UMFan83
    He said they were going to start with some upgrades to Wrigley, and they did. He said they were going to spend money to acquire prospects and they have. He said he was sticking with Hendry and he has for quite a while. What have you heard that he hasn't followed up on? I won't bail out on the team and go to Africa in the middle of baseball season. /whichever poster put up a fuss about that
  7. UMFan83
    Who was that? Mike Holmes? No idea I was watching from the 400 section. He was active though. According to Google, 48 is Holmes.
  8. UMFan83
    So you want Crane Kenney and Gillick working side by side in the front office? I mean I'm not completely against that but I'd assume that they don't want to pay 2 people for pretty much the same position, even if Gillick is a pure baseball guy and Kenney is a purse business guy. I think he was referring to the insistence on calling Kenney a cockroach. He's survived 3 team presidents and 2 owners so I'd say he has cockroach-like qualities. So being employed by the same company for awhile (In different positions, working your way up through the years) makes one a cockroach? You want a cockroach in the organization, look at Fleita. No but usually when a new team president or owner takes over, they want to get their people in place after an evaluation period. Kenney has survived. And no doubt Hendry has survived even more than Kenney has. Not many GMs are able hire 3 managers in a 9 year period.
  9. UMFan83
    It's one day. I don't think Hanie needs as many as possible. Cutler needs as many as possible, and if he goes down the team is screwed regardless. There's nothing wrong with a few days of Enderle eating into Hanie's reps. The funny thing is that Martz said something yesterday about Enderle not getting any reps and that he needed some, but then there is a quote from Enderle floating around where he said that because Hanie was a veteran FA and couldnt practice with the team for a few days after signing, Enderle got a ton of reps. He even said he got more reps than he ever imagined he would. Now obviously since Hanie has been on board, his reps had pretty much completely gone away, but to say he hasn't gotten any reps this camp is not true.
  10. UMFan83
    At this point, I have to assume that Hanie just isn't the prototypical Martz QB, or Martz just doesn't like him. Looking at what we know: Martz asked for a veteran QB to backup Cutler at the end of camp last year, when Todd Collins looked absolutely washed up against Carolina and was demoted to 3rd string, it was Martz that lobbied for Collins to go back to backup QB, and was quietly moved, after Collins first drive in the NFC title game, where he showed he had nothing left, he was still allowed to come out for a 2nd possession before Hanie came in. Also, not sure how much of this was Martz's decision, but the Bears have drafted late round QB's in the last 2 drafts despite having Cutler and Hanie in place.
  11. UMFan83
    So you want Crane Kenney and Gillick working side by side in the front office? I mean I'm not completely against that but I'd assume that they don't want to pay 2 people for pretty much the same position, even if Gillick is a pure baseball guy and Kenney is a purse business guy. I think he was referring to the insistence on calling Kenney a cockroach. He's survived 3 team presidents and 2 owners so I'd say he has cockroach-like qualities. I mean yeah, there is definitely. But the Cubs have had one of the smallest front offices in baseball for awhile. Not sure if Ricketts has a desire to change that or not. Who knows.
  12. UMFan83
    I'd hope so.
  13. UMFan83
    Weird that a young mostly unproven player like Webb would need a fire lit under him 2 weeks into training camp but ok.
  14. UMFan83
    So you want Crane Kenney and Gillick working side by side in the front office? I mean I'm not completely against that but I'd assume that they don't want to pay 2 people for pretty much the same position, even if Gillick is a pure baseball guy and Kenney is a purse business guy.
  15. UMFan83
    Acknowledging that we could be putting way too much emphasis on "direction of the franchise" as a particular quote, how in the world is Wrigley renovation part of "direction of the franchise"? Ricketts has always put an emphasis about renovating Wrigley for the next generation of Cubs fans, so I'd think deciding on what to do with our 100 year old aging ballpark and where the Cubs are going to play baseball for the next 50 years fits a loose definition of "direction of the franchise". Just brainstorming all possibilities here. And yeah, it doesn't make any sense to decide to fire Hendry today, leak an upcoming announcement through sources and then 10 days later finally give him the axe. Now that draft picks are signed, what is Hendry going to do in the next 10 days to help the Cubs if it's already been decided that he's not going to be our GM anymore?
  16. UMFan83
    I highly doubt it's firing Hendry. That's one of those things that when you make the decision, it happens immediately, not "in the next 10 days or so". If its front office movement, the most likely would have to be hiring of a team president, like the rumored Gillick hiring. Hiring Gillick would have to lead to a reshuffling of Crane Kenney, as he is a cockroach and would not be fired, and unfortunately the Trib doesn't own the team anymore so you cant reshuffle him to a non baseball side of business. Maybe Tom can send him to Omaha to work at the Ricketts main company. They could also be reshuffling Hendry to a director of scouting role or something, or VP of baseball Opps and hiring a new GM (or promoting Bush). I think Ricketts is fond of Hendry's scouting roots and that probably factors into his evaluation of his job performance. Maybe he says "Jim, we are going to go a different direction at GM, however we value your scouting and would like you to stick on running that dept." I don't know. The only non-front office thing I can think of is that they are announcing they secured the funds/got the approval for a massive wrigley rennovation. I'm guessing that would fall under "direction of the franchise"
  17. UMFan83
    Time's up. Pencils down.
  18. UMFan83
    For the more informed: do most 1st round picks normally go right to the wire like this? I know some did but not sure to what extent
  19. UMFan83
    yeah i know he has always been a good guy (charitable off the field) and he was beloved in cleveland and well-liked in philly (don't know much about his time with the white sox or twins, but i assume it's the same). and umfan is right, this definitely flew under the radar. i knew he had a shot at 600 coming into this year but didn't realize he was so close. i'm sure there would have been more attention if he'd hit 599 tonight and then were sitting on that number for a couple of games, but still, his dad and family have been travelling with him for a while to be there when he hit #600, so there was always the chance he could hit 2 in a game. Disregard the breaking news graphic, as it wasn't there at all this week... but here is where ESPN had their "Thome-counter" I probably haven't scrolled that far down ESPN.com in a long time.
  20. UMFan83
    Probably wouldnt end up working but what would we have to lose? We have the cap space, we have a need. Sign him as a backup and give him 2-3 weeks to evaluate. But as I said, I doubt it would happen. Angelo just passed on an opportunity to sign proven talents through FA, I doubt he'll admit he made a mistake and start taking on projects 3 weeks before the season starts.
  21. UMFan83
    Colvin since the Fukudome trade: .195/.227/.439/.666 41 PA Meh
  22. UMFan83
    He was a Pro Bowler just 2 years ago. I say take a flier on him and bring him to camp. Could be a lesser version of Reuben Brown. That said, I doubt they get any FA lineman at this point. They've repeatedly said to the media that they are giving their young guys a chance to develop, and nothing short of the line failing as bad as they did on Saturday for the next 3 preseason games, will get them to change their stance. Then again, they might bring him on as a backup and as soon as one guy isnt getting it done in the regular season, replace him.
  23. UMFan83
    I had no idea he was getting close. When Jeter was like 15 hits away from 3,000 they were having live look ins for his AB. I didn't even see a "Thome is close to 600" article on ESPN.com. anyways good for him. I always liked Thome.
  24. UMFan83
    He's probably trying to make the Cubs believe he is helping with a problem player so the Cubs will forgive Sosa and retire his number.
  25. UMFan83
    St. Louis trailing 4-2, Brewers and Dodgers scoreless still. wait, did I really just do that? lol
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