brinoch

:lmao: With quality posts like that, no wonder why you have 8,000 post per day. :lmao: You should show more respect to the top poster around here. The voters have spoken. Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. Bite me, internet warrior. :wink:

Atlanta's got Wickman and Andruw Jones this year, Tim Hudson and John Thomson last year. Oakland's got Eric Chavez, Jason Kendall, and Mark Kotsay. You can spend even larger amounts of money on high paid dreck too. The White Sox won a world series with a team full of middling salary guys and no superstars. The Cardinals did it the other way with a few studs, and the rest dreck. The Red Sox had a couple superstars, and then a bunch of role players. Don't overspend on bad players. Shocking revelation. Braves are also on the hook for the entirity of Mike Hampton's 14.5 this year. Also, if you think of Floyd's $3 million as "overpaid dreck", I wounder what you would call Atlanta paying Craig Wilson $2 million when he doesn't even last two months on the team. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Hampton is insured. And, I might point out that when Wilson didn't produce, they cut him. Amazing. They made a mistake BUT THEY RECTIFIED IT by cutting Wilson. What do we do with a crappy veteran? Keep 'em on the roster while punishing the young guy for the veteran's failure. And Floyd is overpaid, injury-prone dreck. Along with his incredible 4 home runs, he's hitting .304/.374/.415 for a .789 OPS. Wow. We're paying him $3M+ for that? Why, we have a nice little guy in AAA who did better than that last year who we are paying $415,000. With Jacque Jones on the roster, Floyd was always an extraneous piece.

You're right. This is all on Hendry for starting this mess in the first place. We should have never traded for Izturcrap in the first place. If I calculate correctly the total financial damage incurred by the Cub's involvement with Izturis is roughly $7.25M. Hendry sucks, he's just fortunate enough to have the payroll to outspend his mistakes. That's pretty horrid. Let's look at some of the wasted funds. Because it's always fun to stick a needle in one's eye. 2007 $4.25M -- Izturis $4.75M -- Marquis $3.00M -- Floyd $2.55M -- Blanco $5.33M -- Jones $3.83M -- Eyre $4.50M -- Howry $3.25M -- Rusch (might be insured since he could not play). While I don't disagree with most of the list, I have to wonder who in our minor league system could put up a 146 and 101 ERA+ with a 71:17 and 36:12 K:BB ratio the past two years? Those are Bob Howry's numbers as a Cub. Actually, I quite like Howry. He's been solid for us, all in all. But, our organizational strength is pitching. We have plenty of solid minor league pitchers who we control for a very long time, at a very low price. Why pay lots of money for relievers who are crapshoot anyway? If we don't make bad trades like Mitre-Nolasco-Pinto for Pierre, we don't need to go out and pay relievers like Howry $12M for 3 years. Or Marquis for $21M over 3 years. Instead we can be patient with Mitre and give Pinto or Nolasco a chance to make the roster. In addition, we should be emulating Towers with our bullpen strategy. Go cheap, go with good command over high velocity, and look for guys who don't walk people and get outs.

It could be an upgrade for the bench, or, as I've said before, an upgrade over Castillo while Bautista is on the DL.

Hey everyone, the Cubs won. Let's all take a deep breath. Relax. And now enjoy the 'W' flag. http://www.usflags.com/images/products/Product-4484.jpg

but now bonds is going to be on sportscenter! :cry: :cry: :cry: Thankfully, I haven't watched SportsCenter in years! :D :lol:

All right, all right, I get it. Bonds got a bunch of strikes -- who cares so long as the Cubs win?

Now don't get all apoplectic. Just because he is newsworthy doesn't mean everyone has to like it. They'll cover it, and I'll find some way to keep from vomiting. Don't watch. Easy enough.

I know. It's actually amazing that all trades seem to be bad for both teams.

It's not. And Vance knows better.

Well, he DOES have a relief pitcher fetish.

You're right. This is all on Hendry for starting this mess in the first place. We should have never traded for Izturcrap in the first place. If I calculate correctly the total financial damage incurred by the Cub's involvement with Izturis is roughly $7.25M. Hendry sucks, he's just fortunate enough to have the payroll to outspend his mistakes. That's pretty horrid. Let's look at some of the wasted funds. Because it's always fun to stick a needle in one's eye. 2007 $4.25M -- Izturis $4.75M -- Marquis $3.00M -- Floyd $2.55M -- Blanco $5.33M -- Jones $3.83M -- Eyre $4.50M -- Howry $3.25M -- Rusch (might be insured since he could not play). $31.46M in unnecessary and bad contracts. This is a third of the budget. For that kind of money, the Cubs could have gone out and gotten 2-3 real impact players. There's no one on this list that couldn't be replaced from within the farm system. It's just wasteful and profligate spending, and it sickens me. Teams like Atlanta and Oakland who are successful year in and year out don't pay large amounts of money for this kind of drek. For that money, we could have signed Jeff Suppan or Gil Meche and either Carlos Lee or JD Drew along with Soriano, DeRosa and Lilly. Being frugal with bit player's contracts, maximizing the farm system, and signing 1 year deals for relievers allows for more flexibility and, frankly, gets you better players all in all.

Richie Sexson, Shane Nance and PTBNL to Arizona, Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey, Chad Moeller, Lyle Overbay, Chris Capuano and Jorge De La Rosa To Milwaukee. 3 for 6 is different than 5 for 1 It really was more like 6 for 1. Nance and the PTBNL were roster balancing considerations. In the end, AZ might even have taken cash rather than the PTBNL; I can't recall. well congratulations on finding the one exception. Usually the biggest ticket guys are only netting 1 or 2 prospects in return No worries, I'm just giving you a hard time since you made it an absolute. :) In reality, you are right, these kinds of dump deals are usually done for a prospect or two, rather than for a slew of prospects. Personally, I have a hard time seeing the Reds trading Dunn within the division.

Richie Sexson, Shane Nance and PTBNL to Arizona, Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey, Chad Moeller, Lyle Overbay, Chris Capuano and Jorge De La Rosa To Milwaukee. 3 for 6 is different than 5 for 1 It really was more like 6 for 1. Nance and the PTBNL were roster balancing considerations. In the end, AZ might even have taken cash rather than the PTBNL; I can't recall.

Castillo is terrible -- probably worse than Izturis. It might be that Tracy thinks he can helps Izturis. Who knows. On the other hand, it could be -- as Jake has conjectured -- that Wilson is out the door and they need someone at SS. It may also be that Littlefield spins Izturis to a contender in a week and makes a tidy profit off this deal.

Why didn't the Cubs just cut Izturis if they wanted to open up a roster spot? Even without the PTBNL, the pirates are going to pay 1/3 of his salary left. If he was DFA'd we'd be on the hook for all of it. Less the pro-rated major-league minimum for any team who picked him up. It's not a bad deal for either side -- the Cubs got something (a marginal prospect presumably) for a terrible player taking up a needed roster slot. For the Pirates, they do have a need, and they get a cheap roster filler (to whom they have no commitment) until they can either trade Wilson or Bautista comes off the DL.

[-X

There have been numerous examples of how Hendry's excessive contracts for mediocre-to-crap bench players and flash in the pan relievers have the cost the Cubs opportunities to sign more expensive free agents. Here's yet another example of financial mismanagement. While I'm pleased that Izturis is gone, he should never have donned a Cubs uniform. Maddux to LA should have been a fine deal -- if only it had brought us a decent prospect in return.

That's probably why he was traded. Ramirez was probably unthrilled about his roving hands during celebrations and his wandering eye in the showers. Hendry offered Ramirez his opportunity for retribution and picked a trade to Pittsburgh as poetic justice. My understanding is that Ramirez made the deal with Littlefield.

Apathy. Was that an answer or an order? Either way, I don't care... Meh. Either way.

Richie Sexson, Shane Nance and PTBNL to Arizona, Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey, Chad Moeller, Lyle Overbay, Chris Capuano and Jorge De La Rosa To Milwaukee.

Apathy.

I posted this in the other thread, but since this is more topical I'll repost here: Bautista is on the DL, and the Pirates really have no confidence in Castillo. I think there's a chance that they move Sanchez to 3B and play Izturis at 2B. They also might just play Izturis at 3B until Bautista comes back.

Bautista is on the DL. I would assume that since they have no confidence in Castillo, they'll move Sanchez to 3B and play Izturis at 2B.

Izturis is being executed for well-known crimes against Cubdom. Jake Fox has been called up to be the executioner, in what many believe is merely a showcase of his many and varied skills (hitting, throwing, killing, computer hacking).