Soul

:lol: Nice

Lugo's mediocre, but he's "proven"? Huh? If mediocrity is what you're striving for, why not give Ronny a chance? Yea soul, sorry man, but that sounded REALLY dusty like. He's "Proven"? Proven wife-beater, that is... His wife re-canted her story and admitted she made the whole thing up. http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0716/1581601.html Assistant Harris County District Attorney Catherine Evans told jurors Mabely Lugo signed a sworn statement that her husband grabbed her by the hair and forced her head into their vehicle at Minute Maid Park and told the same story to nine individuals involved in the case. Mabely Lugo testified Tuesday she had exaggerated the account and that her husband wasn't trying to harm her. Evans told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that it is not uncommon for victims of domestic violence to change their stories. "She was not happy to be here,'' Evans said. "She is protective of her husband. She is anxious. She is nervous. I don't blame her. How sad is it to hear a woman say over and over, 'I hit myself with the truck. I provoked him. It was my fault.''' It's not that I really care either way. I think we're probably going to have substandard play from the position regardless. It's not something I feel strongly about, but yeah I'd make that trade. Weren't rumors flying around that we were offering Williams + another player for Lugo? That sounds much more insane to me. Maybe I'm mixing my rumors though :wink:

I don't think we can simply count Cedeno as a top asset because he hit .300 in 80 ABs as a callup. I'd trade him for Lugo. Why not? Cedeno could bust out of the league by June. Lugo's mediocre/slightly above average, but at least he's proven to be a MLB player. I seriously doubt there is a straight-up deal on the table Cedeno for Lugo.

Hendry has officially lost his mind. Williams may be inconsistent, but he's much better than Rusch.

Let him "do his thing" and the Cubs will be ready? :shock: Didn't we let him "do his thing" last year? What happened? How about the year before? Results? I think we shoud do OUR thing and kick his overrated managing arse out of town.

Just my opinion, but I think you turn it down because pitching is still more important, Prior is one of our only chances at having an actual 20-win ace (& Z, of course), and our starting rotation is hanging by a thread.

Haha, isn't it amazing how players like Lugo suddenly become "blue-chip" trade prospects when nothing else is available?

Certainly nobody can blame Huff for being a little......"unsettled" by the fact that the DRays continue to dangle him for trades over & over again. The fact of the matter is, Tampa has seen Huff's value plummet over the past 2 years so they've missed their window of opportunity on him. At this point I would take a flyer on Huff and see how he looks this season. If he's truly disgruntled, it could affect his play on the field also. I'm glad we didn't give up alot for him a couple years back, that's for sure.

Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG TB SH SF IBB HBP GDP +--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+---+---+-----+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+ 2002 27 MIN AL 149 577 96 173 37 2 27 85 6 7 37 129 .300 .341 .511 295 4 6 2 2 8 2003 28 MIN AL 136 517 76 157 33 1 16 69 13 1 21 105 .304 .333 .464 240 1 5 2 4 10 Those numbers got Jones his deal. Too bad I think there's about a snowball's chance in Pasadena of him repeating them. Yeah, if Jones goes back to those numbers I'll dance a jig and I bet even Hendry's jaw will hit the ground.

I don't get it. I hear Lugo's name all the time. No power, has never hit over .300, never had more than 75 RBI, 3/6 seasons he has struck out 100+ times.... I'm not saying he's bad. But all this hype, you would think he's been tearing up the league or something. Is it just that the pool of available players is so bad?

ALL of the blame? I think Corey was handled improperly, but it's become pretty clear that while Corey is a talented athlete, he's not a talented baseball player. I also must admit I was confused by Wheel's post: To me, all of the blame lays with the Cubs organization Corey certainly shares some of the blame for never getting what his coaches were trying to tell him So which is it? Yeah yeah yeah, "all" should have been "most", lol :D We don't have the Spider-sense man, you have to be careful with us mere mortals

ALL of the blame? I think Corey was handled improperly, but it's become pretty clear that while Corey is a talented athlete, he's not a talented baseball player. I also must admit I was confused by Wheel's post: To me, all of the blame lays with the Cubs organization Corey certainly shares some of the blame for never getting what his coaches were trying to tell him So which is it?

If he had been acquired by the Cubs, the trainers would have given him two aspirin and encouraged him to "work the kinks out in the Dominican league." Hendry would support the decision by stating that Furcal could postpone surgery and still be available by opening day. Of course, Hendry would be half right...opening day 2007. Ouch. It would be funny if it wasn't so true.

You are absolutely right. Macias as a 25th man and not as the 1st bat off the bench, substitute CF, or top-of-the-lineup hitter makes some sense. For those Hendry haters out there, I contend that if Baker used the players as they were supposed to be used the team record would have been 8-10 games better. Look at how much of the season was wasted on finding a closer, figuring out other roles in the bullpen, using players like Perez, Patterson, and Macias at the top of the lineup, etc. I don't argue it. So then: why does Hendry stay with Baker? Why does he not fire a manager who obviously isn't implementing his plan properly? Got to ask the obvious question....

There's enough blame to go around. I don't disagree with Rogers. I just supplement what he said with the fact that Corey also is to blame. Now that CPatt is a newcomer with Baltimore, I'll bet he makes more of an effort to improve. He can no longer fall back on the "I'm a veteran with this ballclub" excuse, either with his coaches or in his own mind. He's low man on the totem-pole now.

If Furcal had been acquired by the Cubs, I guarantee this would be front page news in Chicago.

CPatt deserves at least half the blame. I'm sure he will listen and try to improve a little more in Baltimore, seeing as he is now a newcomer so there's no pretense of Corey being a "veteran" who doesn't need silly things like "winter ball" and "extra practice time."

To answer the original question: NO. When you're the GM and the team goes from the NLCS to 4th place in the space of two seasons, you don't deserve much credit (actually, I think Hendry *DOES* deserve his share of the credit for our downfall). Moves made in the offseason without the benefit of the season to determine if they pan out can't possibly count in Hendry's favor either. If the Cubs make some kind of comeback, then I'll start giving Hendry some credit. Right now, he's the guy, along with Baker, who has driven us into the ground.

Williams is a bit of an enigma for me. It looks like we are going to need a breakout season from him to truly compete, yet his past inconsistencies keep his value relatively low IMO. Yet, when he's good, he's good.

I, too, am holding out some hope that this team will perform above expectations and at least compete for a playoff spot. However, my intellect (or what's left of it) tells me: 1) On paper there are 3 better teams in the division 2) Career years from a few of our guys will make up much of that ground, but career years can't be counted on. 3) It is likely, given our history, that significant injuries will take place----and only one serious injury to our starting rotation will likely be unrecoverable. 4) Our outfield is still one of the worst in baseball. I'm sure some teams go to the playoffs with a substandard OF, but ours seems really bad to me. Maybe these things can be overcome. I don't know. There's always hope I suppose.

I don't think there is such a thing as getting a grasp on Soriano. While with NY he put up MONSTER road stats (Yankee Stadium is not friendly to RHH). One would assume that he would have put up monster numbers at a hitter's park both home and away but he didn't (and if he did he would NOT be available). Did he stop taking pitches? No. Has he slowed down? No. Did his power diminish? No. He is what he is. A very good offensive player with power and speed. If he added OBP he would be a great player but there's no reason to expect him to suddenly go Bonds on you. He is what he is. You mean there's no reason to expect he will start pumping roids to improve his stats? Darn it!!

I don't know, when compared to last year's lineup, I think it's better. Corey or Neifi aren't leading off or in the lineup at all. Murton's in it for hopefully the full season. Pierre>Patterson or Neifi leading off Jones=Burnitz(in my opinion, and could be even better if he returns to pre-2005 numbers) Cedeno>Neifi I'm trying to keep a little optimism here, but alas I cannot seem to get much traction.... I hope you are right. Still though, I see 3 teams in our division who look better than us right now (could change, hopefully it does or hopefully I'm wrong).

The nuclear option has been exercised. Grissom a Cub 8) There will be no one to stop us now.

Wow. Hey things are lookin' up now, eh? :?

This looks like a rumor as written, and not even a real solid one. Sounds to me like this is a lot of hullabaloo over nuttin' :wink: