UMFan83

Save it for the Bears/Packers game threads, or maybe the Bulls Season thread sometime in November or December.

I remember Dodger fans being pretty excited about him around the time of our playoff series against them 2 years ago. It wasn't as much "He's the next Chase Utley" as much as it was "here is another reason why the future is bright with our club, he should be our starter for the next 10 years".

That will change everything! But seriously, I'm not in love with, nor do I really dislike the song. I say the more tradition the better. Seperates us from any other generic baseball club, much like our historic streak of championshipless futility does. I suppose we should worry about changing that tradition first.

Can't argue Kosuke because we all wanted him. But that contract looks like an eyesore now. Soriano's contract is historically bad in both years and amount, regardless of the economy. I can't imagine how much worse it would be without the value adding NTC that you speak of. Z may have given us a hometown discount, but you can easily question whether it was smart to resign Z to a long term contract at that point. I probably supported the move at the time but many people questioned it on the day it was signed due to the work that has been put on his arm, his attitude and his decreasing numbers (ERAs the last 4 seasons until his extension: 2.75, 3.26, 3.41, 3.95). I think Hendry would definitely consider an alternative route had he been able to do it over again. Also you don't point out how Milton Bradley got a 3 year 30 million dollar deal, despite having the worst numbers against RHP (the targeted area of need for this signing) than Ibanez and Dunn. Dunn absoutely embarrasses RHP over his career, and he signed for less money and years with a shittier team after publically pining for the Cubs. But Hendry went with Bradley despite the off the field and injury issues and despite the fact he hits much better vs. lefties than righties, because Bradley was more versatile, something Hendry was hot for (and probably still is). And I'm not even mentioning how Hendry was rumored to have outbid himself for Bradley (similar to the rumors he did the same for Maddux and Soriano in the past). I'm not sure what we are really arguing about anymore, because its slowly turning into pro-Hendry vs. anti-Hendry and you're next post will somehow be about the good signings Hendry has made in his defense. I don't hate Hendry as much as some, although I do greatly dislike him and do not think he should be in charge of the next rebuild because I don't trust him to spend our money properly.

A Red Wings fan in my office was nice enough to (excitedly) point out that Turco has a 1-9-2 career record at Joe Louis Arena.

I don't know what you want him to say. He could say nothing at all, but I think he's going the old "floating in positivity instead of drowning in negativity" route.

Scott Eyre gave the Cubs a 4.03 ERA in 148 appearances for the Cubs and Howry gave the Cubs a 3.90 ERA in 234 appearances for the Cubs. Considering the variability of relievers, averaging around a 4 ERA for 2 guys over 3 seasons is decent, but I don't see how they should be paid $8 million combined for that performance. Now those contracts didn't stop the Cubs from adding payroll while they were signed, but the original point (which we both agree on lol) is that Hendry should not be given another opportunity to spend a sizable chunk of money on building a team because of examples like this. If he is willing to give Grabow almost $5 million next year to be a setup man with his track record during a time where there is little to no payroll flexibility, I can't imagine him resisting more overpaid relievers in the future. Z, Kosuke and Soriano are largely untradeable at this point because of poor performance/benching. Kosuke may become moreso next year when less of his contract is left, however. Lilly was just traded for a good return and Lee and Aramis have 10/5 rights and we had no real desire (or reason) to trade them before last season. I did forget about Shark, but he's making $2 mil a year. I don't see how the NTCs are keeping us from rebuilding the team if the desire is there. Regardless of NTCs, blowing the team up would not be a particularly good idea anyway. I really don't see the issue. If no player had any type of no trade protection, who would we have traded to this point that we have not and would trading that player have been a good idea? Well we don't really know who would or would not lift their no trade clause if traded because none of them (besides Lee) have gotten to that point. But who knows why? Just because it hasn't hurt them yet doesn't mean it is a smart idea to give everyone NTC. Do we know for a fact that Soriano would OK a trade elsewhere if the Cubs actually found a team to take on some of his deal? Zambrano, as much as he's had with the team this year, I can't say for certain he'd accept a trade somewhere. We know Lee won't, Ramirez might. Even Fukudome I am not sure would accept a trade somewhere. Maybe if it were a big market or maybe Seattle. But he's not oking a trade to lets say Denver most likely. Maybe I'm putting a little too much emphasis on the NTC and not enough on the enormous salary these guys all make. I don't deny that's a huge reason too...probably bigger reason. It's not worth Hendry's times to look for trades where we get 20 cents on the dollar for a player like Fukudome, and pay half his salary, and have to worry about getting all the way down to an agreement and Fukudome nixing the trade.

I like your other one with Leddy in there.

Defense and o-line another year older? I don't know, I don't really believe it, I'm just playing Devil's advocate.

Who? Howry got about $4 mil a year, Grabow got an average of 3.5 a year and Eyre got 3 a year. I can't think of any $5+ mil a year relievers under Hendry. And Howry and Eyre were good signings. I should have said $4m/year contracts, but Grabow is gonna make $4.8mil next season, who was the player in my head when I wrote that. But yes, also $4m/year to both Eyre and Howry. We only have five guys with NTCs: Lee, Aramis, Soriano, Z, Fukudome. Soriano and Z are the only NTCs that look really bad at this point. The Cubs want to trade Fukudome but really shouldn't and Lee and Aramis have 10/5 rights at this point (and we didn't want to trade either prior to last year when I think both got their rights). Also include Lilly, who was just traded, and Samardzija who isn't even in the bigs right now. The point is, those 5 guys you listed make a combined $82 million. Combined with Lilly's $13 mil and Shark's $2 mil, the Cubs entered the season with $97 million tied up to 7 players with some form of no trade protection. That's more than 20 teams payrolls tied up in no trade clauses. It's the big reason why we just have to kind of wait this whole thing out and let contracts expire, instead of blowing up the core last offseason or this offseason.

I originally thought that was the point of offering Hammer so much. So they could either get Hammer or Niemi. But since they didnt offer Niemi anything after hammer was matched maybe that wasnt the case.

Seriously I'd take Turco at 1/1.75 than Niemi at 1/2.75, all nostalgia aside.

I hope the Cubs get saddled with payroll limitations until Hendry is gone because I absolutely do not trust him to spend surplus money on players that fit on this team. He's given middle relievers $5m/year contracts, he's signed 30 year old OFs to 8 year deals, he's given just about every decent signing/resigning no trade clauses, he's addressed a lack of a LH power bat by signing the player (of the LH bats) who hits the worst against Righties, and gave him the most money of the options out there.

I think they will sign Niemi.....and then trade him at some point in the near future.

Meh...I don't expect the media to be on our side this year. The good news is, the media knows squat. Two years ago everyone expected us to be bad, and we went 9-7. Last year everyone expected us to be a serious playoff contender and we sucked. In 2005, Peter King called us the worst team in the NFL and we had a first round bye.

That's apparently what they are saying.....14 years into interleague play and finally the Cubs are going to play a series at Fenway. (This is an old article from 7/9 so apologies if it's been discussed): http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/mlb/news/story?id=5365218 Also, according to today's Trib, the Yankees are planning to revisit Wrigley for the first time since 2003: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ct-spt-0802-around-town--20100801,0,1048482.column Have no idea why parts of the 2011 schedule are being released in July/August, but I guess that's all we have left to look forward to now.

Are all baseball fans this stupid? Or just Cubs fans? People are comparing this deal to the Lou Brock and Greg Maddux trades. It just doesn't compare. That is beyond ridiculous. Are you sure that's not a fake FB account? I doubt that anyone could be that dumb.

Did he manage to reacquire Ted Lilly on the way to the hospital? Edit: Glad it seems he's stable and doing well.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep 1-6 in the last 2 seasons at this park.

Damn you Fowler, that would have made things interesting. Soriano hit a ball 2 inches from tying the game.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100801/capt.1628cafad2224b2bae016419bcaec761-1628cafad2224b2bae016419bcaec761-0.jpg?x=243&y=345&q=85&sig=2DTvsO8rIjNA9fRguY_oFw--

Who else can start for us? Z, Marshall and Cashner aren't stretched out long enough.

And yet their fans were rewarded with an NL championship and World Series appearance 5 years ago. I don't feel sorry for their fans.

From Phil Rogers:

The only thing that makes me "meh" on the trade is that we had to give up 2.5 mil to get the return we did. I feel like we should have gotten a better return if we had to pay that much of Lilly's salary but what do I know.