brinoch

And what makes you think Prior won't bolt the second he hits free agency? And what makes you think he will? Besides, the Cubs have Prior under control through 2008. Tejada can demand a trade one year after being traded.

I'd rather suck with Prior than with Tejada. That way, in two years after Hendry's been fired, we can at least build around a good pitching staff.

He didn't have surgery, but I'd characterize missing 2 months of a season as a "significant" injury. It was, however, an injury to the bone and not the muscle and tendon structure. It is unlikely in the extreme it would have any effect whatsoever in the future. Given Bedard's injury history, I say to the Orioles with respect to their concerns about Prior: "Pot, meet Mr. Kettle."

I'm not sure anymore. I'd agree to anything to end this "trade Prior" discussion. I understand that physical torture has the same effect on people.

Ignoring the trade aspect for a moment (I know that's impossible -- even for me), Tejada is significantly better than Furcal. There's really no question about it.

Isn't masochism a requisite of being a Cubs fan?? Yes.

I'm a 4th generation Cub fan. I grew up watching the Cubs, through good years and mostly bad years. And I have to say, goony's right. The Cubs front office *is* inept, and has been inept since Dallas Green. Trading Prior in a deal like this is going to force me to evaluate my time commitment to following the Cubs. I'm a diehard Cubs fan, but this is going to really, really, really deflate my enthusiasm and interest. Call it what you will, but I call it triage. I have only so many hours in the day, and following the Cubs in-season takes precious time, energy and money -- all of which could be better spent with my family, my job, and my other interests. If the investment isn't worth it -- and given the kind of offseason the Cubs have given me, I've no choice but to question whether it is -- I probably won't spend a lot of time following the Cubs until Hendry leaves.

Until today I've been relatively content to sit and read the rumors, think about the options, and observe. No more. This is a bad deal, and it's not that I have some emotional "fan-boy" investment in Prior. You don't trade a budding ace who's 25 for a past-his-prime SS with a career OPS of .815 -- who's never once put up a .900 OPS. And, to top it off, you receive in return a player who's shown very little during his career in the majors and you give up your "untouchable" minor-league leading strikeout pitching lefty, plus Corey "I have no value right now" Patterson? That's a fleecing, no two ways about it. Sorry. Bad deal. If Hendry tries to pull the trigger, Andy better fire his ass on the spot.

Yeah.... and you can still be disowned, boy !! If you disown me for this, the terrorists win! Jim Hendry is a terrorist? If this doesn't make him fit the bill, then I don't know what does. Then the NSA needs to tap his phones and share his conversations with Prior-loving Cub fans everywhere. We need to know whether or not Hendry is a baseball terrorist. We need to know.

I really don't mind losing Prior as long as it's a good deal. I don't think this deal is that good for the Cubs if these are the players involved. I do mind losing Prior. I don't like trading pitching except where absolutely necessary. Now, I will trade anyone to make "my team" better. I just don't see how this makes the Cubs better. It seems like a stupid, short-sighted deal the likes of which we've never seen. Or perhaps we've seen it, only so long ago many have forgotten it. This is one of those deals that just needs not to occur. If we're going to have to trade one of our most valuable players -- a Cy Young caliber pitcher -- for an admittedly excellent SS, then I'm not interested. Additionally, this seems another example of Hendry selling low. Prior's "injury-prone" in the minds of many around baseball -- so why trade him when his value is low? I have a word for that: stupid. I sincerely hope that this is all smoke and no fire, because if there is fire, I think the maelstrom will quickly burn out of control.

Yeah.... and you can still be disowned, boy !! If you disown me for this, the terrorists win! Jim Hendry is a terrorist?

I understand the disillusionment. I've very angry right now at the prospect of losing Prior. I'd like to think that this is a bad Levine rumor, but somehow I doubt it.

Just say no.

They might get laughed at, but then again, whether or not a GM would value Prior as highly as Cub fans is the question. For better or worse, Prior is a face of the franchise. We know he's a great pitcher with awesome potential. Plus, think of the marketing they've put behind him. When you trade a player like that, it better be a deal that unmistakeably improves your team. Tejada, while coveted by myself and others, is not worth Prior. Why, you ask? 1. He's exiting his prime. He'll 30 this season. 2. His production, while solid, is only great for an SS. Were he an OF, we'd be less than enthused. 3. Given that he's aging, Tejada's going to have to move positions in a couple of years, most likely -- vastly reducing his value. 4. SS isn't a real position of need for the Cubs. Cedeno is young and cheap. Give him a shot. 5. You don't trade a young star pitcher for an aging veteran star position player. You trade like for like, or you trade old for young, or you trade prospects for aging stars. If this deal goes down, I'm going to have a lot of free time this summer.

All pitchers are injury risks. It's a hazard of the profession.

I call a line drive breaking your best pitcher's elbow bad luck. Prior winning multiple Cy Young's after the Cubs trade him would be poor decision-making. Also known as Cub luck.

You're quite probably right. More than likely Prior was thrown into the discussion, but that by no means indicates Hendry's willingness or desire to trade him. I'd be pretty shocked (and extremely disappointed) if Prior was traded.

What did you want in CF and RF instead? Lets be realistic too and not throw out sign Giles for 3 years or get Abreu for a few prospects and Williams. let's stop pretending that giles was unrealistic. you keep saying this but you fail every time to produce any sort of reasoning behind your logic other than "his family lives in san diego". The fact that he resigned w/ SD early in the FA process for an amount that was less than NY's initial offer is pretty convincing. Discussing the merits of Giles signing w /the Cubs on a daily basis was just a waste of time. Wasn't happening and it didn't. Give me a break. Sure, he signed before December, but it wasn't early. It wasn't like Giles didn't hit the market or he signed during the Padres' window of exclusivity. The day that he hit the market, I'd have offered him a $39M, 3-year deal. Would Giles have been interested? I don't know. But I'd have given it a damn sight more effort than Hendry appeared to.

I find this to be the most offensive post in the thread. Far worse than any f-bomb. The guy shows up and makes a post that he obviously spent a lot of time on, just trying to start discussion. I don't agree with his points either, but that's no reason to respond with a childish, overreacting post and say the entire thread should be locked because he mentioned the words "clutch" and "leader." I'd be pissed off if I were him too. I rarely find a thread here at NSBB that doesn't degenerate into high school squabbling, but this probably takes the cake. And a mod chastised him for posting it. Like his opinion or not, he's welcome to post it. It's fine to debate players, take different positions, and work to persuade others that your position is correct -- that's the lifeblood of a message board. Saying a thread is "ridiculous and should be locked" is not welcome. The part of the post that came before it is fine, but the last line is insulting, intolerant and condescending. Just because some people are in an overreative frenzy does not give them the right to insinuate that an opposing viewpoint is not welcome and devoid of validity. You're right, saying a thread is ridiculous and should be locked isn't welcome. And a Mod chastised him for his post, so where's the problem? Willis was out of line and was told as much. I think you may be confused as to who I was referencing in my post. (I edited the post almost immediately after hitting submit, noticing that the necessary TC3 reference was missing. Re-read it as it is now:

I find this to be the most offensive post in the thread. Far worse than any f-bomb. The guy shows up and makes a post that he obviously spent a lot of time on, just trying to start discussion. I don't agree with his points either, but that's no reason to respond with a childish, overreacting post and say the entire thread should be locked because he mentioned the words "clutch" and "leader." I'd be pissed off if I were him too. I rarely find a thread here at NSBB that doesn't degenerate into high school squabbling, but this probably takes the cake. And a mod chastised him for posting it. Like his opinion or not, TC3 is welcome to post it. It's fine to debate players, take different positions, and work to persuade others that your position is correct -- that's the lifeblood of a message board.

Well said. This echoes my feeling with respect to a Jones more or less exactly.

Even though I don't think Lee did it on purpose, I still would have knocked him down.

Nope. We did not offer arby for Burnitz or Nomar.

Exactly. It's more than possible that Hendry set the market with the Eyre and Howry deals, but whether he did or not, the fact is that we are getting pretty decent value compared to what other teams have been paying for relievers. Who knows what sets the market, it could be teams in the background driving up the prices for all I know. Perhaps he did inflate the market, but look at the deal he signed with Dempster -- one could effectively argue that Hendry reduced the market given the relative success he had as a closer.

A Jim Hendry Special... Exactly.