Soul

I find it mildly humorous how invested you are in defending these guys, david.

Link Gallagher and Pie? That would be a terrible deal. Horrible beyond belief. In defense of Rosenthal though (which.....I really shouldn't be trying to defend him, but oh well), the entire quote is just throwing names out there, not suggesting it's going to be Gallagher and Pie together.

As a Red Wings fan I have to tell you there was a very good reason that the Wings had absolutely no interest in resigning Lang after this season. Dave Tallon has done a terrible job signing free agents. Almost all of them if not all have been huge letdowns, especially Khabibulin. Instead of signing Lane and some other smalltimer centers they should have opened up the checkbook and signed one of the top 3 centers available this past offseason. it's not just about the checkbook. the free agents have to want to go there, and most don't want to go to places like chicago or los angeles because there is a losing atmosphere surrounding the team. the kings were going to open the checkbooks and pushed hard after drury and briere and ended up with handzus (who i like, but he isn't a top line center), stuart, preissing, and nagy. a bunch of projects/tier 2 guys at best. this isn't like baseball where you can just offer more than the othe rteam, most of the teams can compete with each other financially because of the salary cap (this isn't 100% true, but it generally fits). you have to do it like the blackhawks are trying to do it right now and build from the ground up. before the last off-season started, dean lombardi (kings GM) talked about his philosophy as a GM. he said you consider some guys bridges and some guys builders. what he means is that you have to start with the bridges (stuart, nagy) so the young guys will be ready to step in and be productive when they're ready. now it helps when you end up with stars in the making like toews or kane or kopitar and they can step in and immediately produce, but that isn't going to happen very often. so teams like the blackhawks are stuck with the lower end of the free agent market until they can compete in the standings or at least show that they might be able to in the near future. then they'll be able to bring in stars via free agency and trade. i would look to this off-season as a shot for the blackhawks to make a big splash in the FA market. I'm with you on that. I listened to that Savard press conference, it was quite refreshing. I came away thinking the Blackhawks will need to take this offseason, remove some of the lazy elements off the roster, and move forward from there. If it can't be done in one offseason, then the right thing to do is to get started in that direction and hope some of the other guys who aren't contributing come around. The one thing they need to do is to make sure they don't get into a situation where the inmates are running the asylum. I'm convinced Savard is the right man to pilot this ship back to respectability, but the club is going to have to back him up and give what he's saying some teeth. The right messages must be sent. This club has developed a culture of losing over the past decade -- that's not easy to change.

I think Pie will be fine. He was 22 last year and posted a .973 OPS in AAA. Sure, he struggled at the MLB level. Not every prospect is Pujols. Here's what I would do with Pie: let him play. Let him learn. Don't platoon him. He's hit at every level, while being young for his level. He does need to work on his plate discipline and taking walks, but he's shown the capacity to improve. Bat him 7th and let him learn. I agree with everything you said except for not platooning him. Felix has learned to hit at every level against rightys, but has never hit lefties worth crap. I'd be alright with just letting him play no matter the pitcher, but it could also help alleviate some pressure from him to not have to face pitchers he's historically never been able to hit. I wouldn't give Murton for Byrd just to get him a platoon partner, but I think having one could help both Felix and the offensive production. Totally agree dew. If we were not a contender then I would let him play against LH & RH. But since we are, there's no reason not to platoon him, at least for the 1st half of the season. Yeah if we're going to play Pie full-time and let him learn, then I wonder how long he would be kept in if he doesn't produce anything. I'd rather put him in situations where he's more likely to succeed to build his confidence.

Why do people here keep slamming people on other team's boards as if they're saying these things just to mess wih us? Some of us are WAY too wound up over this. I'm agreeing with you a lot. Watch out, though. Someone is going to call you out for coming to the defense of the insiders. :roll: I have no knowledge of who is who on the Orioles board except for what was posted earlier in this thread. I will point out though, that the only labeled insider talking about the Cubs and Roberts during this whole thread on Bedard appears to be a new poster to the Orioles board with a supposed Cubs source whose veracity is openly questioned on the board. Link to Orioles Hangout Insider Re-cap. ...it was posted that the deal was finalized on the main page, so it definitely wasn't just one new guy. But who cares, it's just stupid rumor season anyway. This kind of stuff happens every year.

Dear Lord, who cares how long a thread is? Especially when they end up inflated due to people pointlessly commenting on how long the thread is? I feel bad for all the people who bravely come to these threads, even if multiple thread pages apparently crashes their computer or slashes their tires or gives them cancer. I had to have a tooth filled the other day for the first time in years. I believe my tooth decay is a result of the Brian Roberts thread. Get all your teeth replaced with implants. It will save you a lot of trouble.

I certainly wouldn't mind if they knocked down Mullens regardless of whether the construction extends that far. But that's just me. That would be the 7/11 gone on the one end, right? Good riddance to that. A couple sports shops gone on the other end, I think. Eh.....looks like it isn't in the area of any of the more well known clubs. I have no idea if this would be approved or not. Maybe Goose Island is given a good location inside the new complex.

If he puts up those averages, Wrigley is going to take the song "I'm turning Japanese" to a whole new level.

Despite Hendry saying "I wish I could be talking to you with us done, but unfortunately that's not the case"? He's been talking for months now though.

Just needed to re-up my commitment to the greatest thread ever. Seriously though, I'm thinking no more major moves before opening day. Would have probably happened by now. Pitchers & Catchers are about to report, everyone's getting ready for ST. Very little chatter out there other than the odd rumor here & there. I think this is it.

Mind boggling.

Perhaps not making the 2003 would have been the best thing for the Cubs, in retrospect. Exactly. I know this wasn't your point, but selfishly, I (and all the other fans) wouldn't have had to suffer through the tragedy of that playoff series. What? There were plenty of good times that year, don't let the loss to the Marlins destroy all the other stuff. The Braves series was some of the best times I've ever had as a Cub fan.

The Bears defense took that team to the Super Bowl in spite of Rex Grossman. Eh, don't agree. I understand he wasn't the greatest, but part of the Bears being the #1 seed that year was the bombastic games he had early, and that toss to Davis in OT to set up the winning FG vs. Seattle was pure magic. Any time you have a player who is providing the dagger in a playoff game, he's a contributor. Rex had his moments, no matter how much people bash him.

Is there really any truth to this Greene to Chicago rumor, or is it all based on our wants and desires to get it done? Didn't it start with a rumor that a Pie for Greene trade was turned down last year. Then that lead to everyone wanting Khalil Greene after Meph convinced a lot of people so (myself included). Then the Padres interested in Murton thing. I think that opened up Murton + Whoever else for Greene. Has there been any newspaper rumors about us actually going after Greene lately, or are we all just hoping for the best and making up our own scenarios that seem so obviously smart to do that we start to believe the Cubs will do it? I want Greene. So very very much. But is it really gonna happen? Probably not. It's a lot of fantasy, mixed with a few tidbits from the writers that may or may not indicate anything.

Does that mean Cotts lasted longer? We win!

Welcome back to trade rumor hell, my friend.

White Sox should be horrible this year. Therefore, they'll win 95 and compete for the WC/Div.

Please find a reasonable way to get Greene. I might not mind Theriot off the bench. Why do I get the feeling that all these trade rumors are going to blow away and we're ultimately going to be left with the team we've got right now?

Of course. I don't have any idea if that's what he's doing or not.

He'll play. and win super bowl mvp That leg contraption looked pretty big & ugly. I don't know, if Brady's really hobbled it could cause me to retract my "Pats by 20" prediction. All bets are off if Mr. GQ can't go 100%

I'm rooting for the game to still be interesting at around 6:30pm, which is roughly the time I'll be arriving at my hotel.

The obligatory all star for a team with Ryne Sandberg? There were a few years there when Biggio was good and you had Steve Sax and Tommy Herr displacing Sandberg here and there. Hell, if you listen to Joe Morgan, he may have still been playing in it those years. :lol: Sandberg was there every year from 1984-1993 So it definitely wasn't obligatory. I must be a bad Cub fan, I don't even remember Dunston in the AS game.

This has already been answered, but there are a lot of players that get drafted by other teams and decide to stay in school or move on to college. Slot money is pretty important to these players. I would imagine the team that drafts them probably plays a smaller role, but could factor into the decision as well. Mark Prior was drafted by the Yankees (don't recall whether it was the previous year or fresh out of high school), but Prior elected to stay in school. What's weird about the June Amateur Draft is that anyone can be drafted, they don't necessarily have to declare themselves to be drafted. For an undersclassman to make themselves available in the draft in the NBA and NFL, they have to actually declare they are coming out. Tons of baseball players get drafted every year and refuse to sign a deal with the respective team that drafted them. In Prior's case, it worked out very well for him to stay in school. Not only did he finish up his degree, but he vaulted up to a consensus #1 pick after his final year. I believe Mark Teixiera was the consensus #1 pick that year before the college baseball season got under way. Anyway, Prior got a guaranteed major league contract with the Cubs, which is likely not something he would have gotten had he signed with the Yankees the year they drafted him. Granted, Minnesota elected to go with Joe Mauer with the overall #1 pick in 2001 ahead of Prior, but that had more to do with signability issues rather than who was the top talent in the draft. Bobby Hill was drafted twice by other teams before he was drafted by the Cubs. He was drafted in 1996 in the 5th round by the Anaheim Angels. I'm guessing that was after his senior year in high school. In 1999, he was drafted by the White Sox in the 2nd round. I believe a contract couldn't be worked out between WS and Hill and Hill was a senior in college, so Hill was drafted by the Cubs out of an independent league the following year, once again in the 2nd round. Teams make late round gambles on big names all the time. If you can afford to waste a late round pick, it's not a bad way to waste one. While I can't recite any good examples, depending on the financial situation or social situation of a particular player, there is always the possibility that a late round draft slot could land you a guy you never would expect to sign to a deal if they were drafted in a late round. I want to say Bobbie Brownlie was expected to be a top draft pick the year the Cubs drafted him. And I also want to say that he had Scott Boras as his agent. The Cubs took him with their first pick, but it wasn't a top pick and it was predicted that Brownlie wouldn't sign and if I recall correctly, it came down to the final days before they worked out an agreement that made him a Cub. It was a good call on Brownlie's part, because he was injury riddled, and based on his first minor league season with the Cubs, his stock could have fallen dramatically the next year in the draft, which I believe would have been his senior year in college. That is weird, and it's a dynamic that I was not aware of. Thanks for the explanation.

I think this is dead-on. He's not a lefty, he's not a top of the order hitter, and he has a low batting average. Hendry won't be interested, even though he should be. Yes but in Hendry's mind shortstops are suppose to be poor to mediocre hitters with "moxy" "spunk" "grit" ect... I dont think we've had a good shortstop since Dunston. We talk every year about the glaring hole at SS when Hendry simple doesnt see it. He's happy with fielding crap at that possition for some reason. It's funny to think that Shawon was an all star for us...twice. I never thought of him as really that good, at least with us. He was always this huge potential guy, but it was never fully realized. I think it's been since Banks that we had a truly great SS. Fyi, Dunston's all-star seasons 1988 .249 .271 .357 1990 .262 .283 .426 Ew. I don't even remember. It sounds like he was the obligatory all-star for a horrible team, but I could be wrong and I don't care to look.

I think this is dead-on. He's not a lefty, he's not a top of the order hitter, and he has a low batting average. Hendry won't be interested, even though he should be. Yes but in Hendry's mind shortstops are suppose to be poor to mediocre hitters with "moxy" "spunk" "grit" ect... I dont think we've had a good shortstop since Dunston. We talk every year about the glaring hole at SS when Hendry simple doesnt see it. He's happy with fielding crap at that possition for some reason. Hendry wants a defensive shortstop, the other terms you throw out are superfluous. Greene is outstanding defensively. Combine that with the fact that Hendry already tried to trade for Greene last season, and your reasoning quickly falls apart. Let's also conveniently forget that the Cubs drafted Greene when Hendry was in charge Hahaha. I think I've heard Hendry say somewhere that he's "baffled" at the lack of position players coming from our minor leagues. How about because you don't have the first clue how to develop them, Jimbo? Not that I disagree, but what does that have to do with the previous post? So Greene was our ballplayer, and Hendry helped in drafting him.....so yet another ballplayer of ours has to go somewhere else to become major-league ready. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the post bolded above to you? Greene was never our ballplayer. The Cubs drafted him in the 14th round after his junior year, and Greene chose to continue playing college baseball so that he could be drafted higher and get more money. He was drafted in the first round by the Padres the next year. This had absolutely nothing to do with the Cubs problems in player development. OK, so I didn't know that. I've got better things to do than to know the nuances of every player the Cubs draft. My post has plenty to do with the previous post, AS POSTED. If it would have given more detail, obviously I wouldn't have said that.