badger1679666666

I would remove myself from this thread, quickly and quietly. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I had to go to another board to unleash my profanity laden tirade. I just couldn't be all proper.

Why did Hendry have to get obsessed with catching the ball in this piss poor offseason? WHY WHY WHY WHY? 4th or 5th place guaranteed unless Z, Prior and Wood all have cyoung type years.

I just keep thinking this thread will go away.

I'm going to go work out.

A 3 GOSH DAMN YEAR DEAL ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS? I HATE THE CUBS I HATE HENDRY. Does he even know what OBP means? Is anyone going to the Convention? Can we get some tough questions asked. What a $!@%#$% idiot. I really wish this wasn't a family board.

A 3 #$@#!%$#$@%$#*@%#$@ year deal? ARe you kidding me? Ok Fire Hendry. Fire baker. I've absolutely had it. How god damn stupid is Hendry? I defended him ALL off season, and I can't defend him ANY more.

Because he didnt have enough money after signing Eyre and Howry to ridiculous contracts? Who knows. I would think this is a move Hendry would make considering he signed Williamson and Dempster. Seriously, what are you talking about? I'm not even going to touch your Eyre and Howry comment (despite the $$ not being all that ridiculous in this market) because it's clear you think the kid on the short bus could outmanage Hendry BUT: We have plenty of money and no one to spend it on. I don't get where you came up with the not having enough money comment from, but we have 20 million to spend still (AT LEAST) and absolutely no one to spend it on.

If this happens, my location is changing, and view of Hendry will be much different than it has so far this offseason. Namely, his good moves of 2002-2004 will carry no weight in my mind anymore.

Without a doubt. Considering his recent health, I wouldn't be surprised to see him take a 2 year extension and run. Could be a wise business decision. Washington is a team without an owner and as such is in no position to be offering contract extensions like this. This "deal" is not in the realm of possibility. Is there any chance Kerry will get dealt to another team this offseason? do you really honestly care if there's any return on him or are you just so eager to get rid of him that you'd take a much lesser player, a player likely to get no important innings, pay all of wood's salary just to be rid of him? i honestly don't understand the hate for wood at all. I don't think it's because of hate...at least not for me, it's just that I think the Cubs would have been better off trading him before his 3 year deal and missed the boat as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully Wood can come back and pitch well enough to be an effctive starter again. This makes zero sense to me? Coming off 3 virtually injury-free years, with stellar #1 starter stats, and a great run into the NLCS, with a team poised to return, you trade your #1 or #1a pitcher (at the time)? Sure NOW it seems like the obvious thing to do, but if Hendry would have traded Wood after 2003, he would have been hung. Literally. Some insane cubs fan would have killed him for making that move.

I don't think I can understate how sad, and handicapping it is, to have to Dusty-proof a team. You literally cannot have a good veteran bench (probably the place veterans are most useful) if you have young regulars. You just can't. IT makes the formulation of a solid team so difficult.

I'd give him the league minimum. 8)

Roy's Bulldozer http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2005/12/19/fbN66COg.jpg I thought it was pretty funny at least.

I recall plenty of people calling it idiotic during the fact. Yes, I recall a few. Nice predictions by them. It was practically everyone. I think I may go through the game threads from those days. This is a nice example of a time when the average member of NSBB was clearly smarter than the Cubs. I think practically everyone knew it was idiotic too. I'm with you on this one Beard.

Am I mistaken or didn't they ask for Guzman first from that Boise team? And I know a couple people who predicted Willis' success before he was traded. oh if only MacPhail/Hendry caved on Guzman. but then again, they are supposed to be clairvoyant. particularly from the GM, that a pattern doesn't develop wherein talent is continually forfeit without proper return. That is all anyone is saying. I don't see how ANYONE in a rational, methodical way, could outline how Hendry is continually in a pattern of forfeiting talent without proper return. That is all I'm saying. One could argue at the time, if Baker wasn't a moron, and managed the NLCS, giving up Willis helped the Cubs reach the WS for the first time since 1945. Clement was an integral piece of that pitching machine that dominated. I'll give up Pie, if it gets me in the WS and a chance to win it. But aside from Willis (which apparently some knew would be a cy young award winner, while most couldn't differentiate from teh rest of that talented group) hendry has consistently been in a pattern of fleecing teams in trades, and getting much more talent back then he's given up - items of proof (and I may not include all players, this is off my poor short-term memory) Hill + other scrubs = Aramis, Simon, Lofton Choi = Lee Alex Gonzales, Francis Beltran + other scrubs = Nomar, Murton LaDump = J. Williams, Aardsma Damian Miller = Barrett Hundley = Grudz and Karros items against proof: Hairston/Fontenot = sosa (though some may not include this as a negative) Moore/Novoa = farnsworth (though some may not include this as a negative quite yet after seeing farnsies contract and moore's potential) Cruz = Can't remember - this trade was awful Pierre = Mitre, pinto, nolasco (YTBD) In fact if I was going to argue anything about Hendry's "pattern" it's continually overpaying for mediocrity in the free agent market, and re-signing crappy free agents.

I don't agree with his premise AT ALL, but he feels Hendry's moves that he listed outweigh the idiocy of keeping Wood pitching. However: 1) How did he chastise you, at most he was sarcastic? IF sarcasm is a no-no, many of the "old time, respected" posters would be out of here 2) Wouldn't asking someone how old they are anyway be considered condescending, and therefore chastising?

This statement is actually true. No sarcasm. I have to say I learned about statistics that I had no clue about before joining this site. However, I never would have thought Neifi was good before.

I was really prepared to read "Wood had a setback and won't be available until the All-Star Break" before opening this thread. Does anyone have the dates on when he was moved to the pen, and when we were realistically out of it, so I can see just how big of an idiot Dusty, Jim, and Larry are with how they handled Kerry?

Well, reality tells us that the Cubs aren't a very good team, but they are a very expensive team. So, when you add up all the "piles" of his deals, the results do not at all tilt in his favor, because the team he built isn't good. That's what matters, and that is what makes me think the way I do about Hendry's moves, on the whole. The 2004 team that Hendy assembled was absolutely stacked. They should have won. You know it, I know it. IT isn't hendry's fault that crucial pieces got injured, Dusty can't manage a bullpen, and the team imploded in September. That team was CLEARLY better and improved than the 2003 team. If you disagree, I have NO idea what you're looking at. Hendry did a stellar job of creating that team and it should have gone far in the play offs, if healthy. Now the 2004 and 2005 off season's haven't gone well so far, but 2005 isn't over and Hendry was handcuffed in 2004. There are plenty of things he's done that I don't like, but his positive moves outweight his negative moves, we just had too many injuries, and Dusty is a moron.

Not true. It's not just Willis, it's the idea of trading good young prospects for mediocre veterans. I have no problem trading away prospects, even if they end up really good in a couple years. But when you do it, you better trade for really good veterans, and Pierre is not really good. He was a throw-in at the last minute. No one saw it coming. IF you know of someone who did, and can read the future, can you please refer him to the Cubs. I'd like to know which of all of A and AA prospects are going to make the majors as studs.

I love Nomar alot. I wish he was back too. But of all the things Hendry has done, this is not one that I think he deserves blame about. He got burned once, and wasn't gonna offer arbitration, I don't blame him. Because if he resigned and got hurt again, everyone would have Hendry's head saying "he should have known Nomar was injury prone" This is definitely a lose-lose situation for JH.

I think that if you assume that Eyre and Howry give Baker enough pen options so as to not completely use up Wuertz by June 15th, and if you (correctly, IMO) assume Pierre gives us about .50-.75 more OBP points out of the leadoff spot, you would win anywhere from 1-6 more games on average. Just by default, we've upped the odds tha Aramis or Lee come up with a guy on more often with Pierre leading off. However, just making these tweaks doesn't make us a contender. It makes us somewhat improved over last season, which is not Jim Hendry's job. Hendry's job is to make sure we are the best possible team going into the season. Then again there is no more Nomar, no RF as of yet and we are also hoping for 2 rookies to pan out. I have no problem relying on Cedeno and Murton. In fact I think it's about time we tried to give some farm guys a chance. That being said, I'm increasingly skeptical of what Hendry is going to do with RF. There is really no one, all options are bad to horrible. I'm hoping damage is minimized and no lengthy contracts are given to crappy ball players.

signing giles would be admitting that there's something to the statistic of on-base percentage. hendry will never do that, he hates OBP, and will go out of his way to avoid players who have it. Who wouldn't want Giles? But I think its unfair to criticize Hendry for not signing Giles. Giles had no intentions of leaving the West Coast. He turned down bigger money elsewhere to stay in SD. according to who? Ummm..maybe Giles? Giles signed for 3/30 to stay in SD. Didn't Toronto offer him some big money? I know LA was in on him, but they are also a West Coast team. Giles has made no secret over the years as to his preference for playing on the West Coast. This isn't news. ummmm......are you in contact with him? because there was nothing out of the giles camp to indicate that any team had offered him more than 10 mil per. so unless you had some inside info, you couldn't know. I guess by your analysis you have no inside info on Hendry, and the fact that he would do whatever he could to NOT sign OBP guys. so unless you had some inside info, you couldn't know. (Since Bruno's circumstantial evidence is invalid, yours is too).

I'd trade Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds to the Royals for Matt Stairs and Elmer Dessens. Adding a Canadian and a dude named Elmer make that deal too tempting for any team to pass up... :P No offense but unless you think DLee is going to repeat his 05 numbers you are vastly overrating him. Again, I'd do the deal. It's not JUST his offense. His defense probably saves 40 errors a year alone, not including how many base hits he robs, and alert plays he makes. Sure he might regress a little bit, but he is relatively young so he could have had a breakout season and might hit .300/.380/.540 which would be a regression, but still a solid output as well. Lee and Williams for an average SS, Jeromy Burnitz, and an proven, but very talented prospect? No thanks. Maybe I'd trade Lee for Lugo, Huff, and Gomes, but not Lee AND Williams.

Because they are Cubs fans, and everything in the history of baseball has gone against them? (I use "them", because I wasn't criticizing the Cubs for Dempster, Howry, or Eyre, but I guess it's understandable when you've been a Cubs fan for so long).