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Ryan Dempster that remains to be seen but it could definitely end up that way. at least he was legitmately good last season, as opposed to have gotten lucky with a flukey era or something.... like when the astros traded for jason jennings and said he'd be a solid number 2 starter.

Aaron Miles 2/5 i don't see how you can call a 5 million dollar commitment the biggest blunder of the offseason.

this was a weird quote from lou. he must have little confidence in bradey's legs if he feels it's amazing that they still are okay after like a week

that too while we're on that topic, who would that award go to? derek lowe for 4/60? burnett for 5/80? renteria for 2/18? i feel like i'm missing someone

Personally I'm hoping Manny is on the list. that would be nice but manny is pretty much hated already. i want the golden boy to be named so i can watch the media react to it.

I'd give anything for Greg Maddux, David Wells, and Hector Villanueva to be on the list. why?

calling it the biggest "blunder" of the offseason is a little overkill

wow the rangers are a mess

not really the place for that suit, joakim

i don't think anyone's flipping out, but hendry's prized offseason possession, who is notorious for getting hurt, got hurt after his first at bat of ST. it's not exactly a good start to his tenure as a cub. it happened before the game, and i owuldn't call a tight quad "getting hurt". still thohg, you're right. even when he's healthy, he's not really "healthy"

i'd give anything for jeter to be on this list.

unless he puts up his career numbers. then he'll be like the 4th or 5th best hitter on the team. gtyty Read my post again. I never said I didn't expect him to be good, I just don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he'll be a great hitter. He's been a great hitter for about his last full season's worth of at-bats. Before then he wasn't great for a corner outfielder. His career OPS+ is 118, which would have been tied for 6th best on the Cubs last season.... hence my comment about him probably being like the 4th or 5th best hitter on the Cubs if he performed to his career averages. Like I said, I'm not expecting that. I'm expecting him to put up numbers similar to what Aramis put up last year.... rate-wise.

i don't think anybody is really freaking out aout this specific injury. it's just funny that he already is having leg problems

unless he puts up his career numbers. then he'll be like the 4th or 5th best hitter on the team.

but how could this happen..... hendry made sure he was healthy in the offseason

I think he meant "Wood is" but just forgot the apostrophe

This isn't really anything new though. He always has this off and on.

Miles was brought in to take a part of DeRosa and Cedeno. Overall Fontenot/Hoffpauir are taking more of DeRosa would be AB's though. We traded the everyday guy, promoted the bench guy to starter, and brought in another bench guy. But the fact that DeRosa plays so much outfield, our power hitting corner outfield/1b in Hoffpauir is replacing some of what DeRosa did. Remember DeRosa is just one guy. If he's playing outfield, Fontenot or Cedeno had to play 2b. Those guys combined had over 350 AB's at 2b last year. This year Fontenot and Miles will be at 2b, and Hoffpauir will be taking DeRosa would be outfield bats. You can't say just one player is replacing DeRosa, because he played so many postions. This year a combo of players will be replacing him, and you can't judge how big of a loss it will be. Until you know how a combo of those players do. Of course Fontenot/Hoffpauir will be getting most of them, but Miles and Johnson will be taking some AB's to. Saying Miles replaced DeRosa, because they both play 2b, and were switched on the same day. Just doesn't tell the whole story of what will happen next year. If Miles gets over 500 AB's and is playing everyday at 2b or in the outfield, then you can say that. But most likely he will be taking 130 AB's of DeRosa, and getting Cedeno other 210 AB's. I'll just copy and paste my post from above since I guess you didn't see it And yeah dude, you keep saying that we don't know what will happen. I get it. Nobody is claiming that any of this is certain. We're talking about what we think, just like you are.

Also has there been anything mentioned about Hoffpauir ptentially getting spot starts in RF? IIRC, Lou ended the Hoffpauir-in-RF experiment early last season after Hoff got a few starts there. I seem to remember him saying something about it in a postgame after a loss.

You're guilty of the same thing though. You've said the "let's just stop talking about it and see what happens" line probably a dozen times in the past month, but you still talk about it just like us. I'm just saying you keep criticizing people for going on and on about the Miles thing and telling them to shut up about it, but you're doing the exact same thing. You're just aruging the other side of it. They're trying to talk the moves down, you're trying to talk them up. Same thing, different sides. Oh, and again, I never said anything about Miles replacing DeRosa's playing time. He's replacing him on the roster, meaning DeRosa isn't there to play RF when Bradley is hurt. Of course Miles isn't going to get as many at-bats as DeRosa would have. That's not what I'm saying. He took his place on the roster.

When your GM signs a 2B/utility man the same exact day he trades away the current 2B/utility man, I think it's fair to assume it was a one on one replacement. Hendry wouldn't pay 5 million dollars to replace the Cedeno role. Weren't there even quotes from hendry that day talking about Miles replacing DeRosa in the versatility department?

Okay he's replacing Edmonds for like 10 million more dollars. You're not focusing on the point though. I guess this is you just following through on that promise of following me around and "calling me out" though.

it's on the mlb network site

Bradley is replacing Jim Edmonds, last year Edmonds gave us 250 AB's. Bradley even with his history of poor health has still at least given his team 350 plus AB's, four of the last six years. Plus if Bradley only plays in 100 games with 350 AB's, the loss of DeRosa only hurts if Hoffpauir isn't hitting. If you do a Reed in CF, Fukudome in RF vs LH pitching, and Fukudome in CF, and Hoffpauir in RF against RH pitching, with Gathright defense late in the game. The loss isn't as big as people wanna believe it will be. Of course if Hoffpauir isn't hitting, then we will have a problem, but thats when we make a roster move I guess. IMO it will be easier then ever to get players in salary dumps this season. Yes he's replacing his roster spot, and can play the same postion. But that doesn't mean he's replacing his role on the team. Last year DeRosa had 272 AB's at 2b, and Cedeno had a 108 AB's at 2b. So thats 180-200 AB's more AB's for Fontenot next year, and 180-200 to Miles at 2b. So really 100-130 AB's or so DeRosa AB's at 2b and 3rd, that Miles is replacing(rest is Cedeno). The rest of DeRosa work was in the outfield, and guys like Hoffpauir, Johnson and Gathright will be taking up those 225-250 AB's. So really a combo of players are replacing what DeRosa, not just one player. So like I said before If Hoffpauir is good, there shouldn't really be a downgrade. But this has been debated over and over this offseason, we will just have to wait and see what happens. I don't see the point of saying stuff like Bradley is replacing Edmonds. This team has had a big makeover so you can't just say "this guy is replacing this guy" and so on and attempt to make sense of it that way. You have to look at how the team is being contructed for this season. I think you've really overestimating the options we have when Bradley gets hurt. All the options seem like really bad ones. Not only do I not trust Hoffpauir to be able to hit enough, but are we really talking about playing him in the outfield? Even if he does hit a little bit he's going to give most of that value right back with his defense. Johnson is awful against RHP so that's not a good option, and as of right now the option of Fukudome against LHP sounds pretty bad also. What other options are there when bradley gets hurt? Gathright? Miles in the outfield? Every option I can think of seems like a singificant downgrade to the DeRosa/Fontenot combination. As for the second part of your post, you're again talking too much about last season. Last season is over. The goal is to put the best team possible on the field this season. Like I said, the rest of the moves don't hinge on the difference between Miles and DeRosa (not talking about money right here). It was one or the other. The rest of the team would have been assembled the same way. So yes, Miles is absolutely replacing DeRosa for THIS year. He traded DeRosa and signed Miles on the same day. If he didn't trade DeRosa, he wouldn't have signed Miles, it's as simple as that. It was one or the other. As for the "we just have to wait and see what happens" line you keep using....this is an internet message board. We're supposed to talk aobut this stuff. You're an equal part of this. They're trying to talk the moves down, and you're trying to talk them up. Obviously nobody knows for sure what will happen. All we can do is say hw we feel about the team right now, and right now I think the DeRosa/Bradley combo was a bad one.

Or Cedeno, and you could also say Hoffpauir is taking DeRosa roster spot, with Fontenot getting a bigger role. People can word it anyway they want it to make it sound better to prove their point. Overall this is what we did though. Lost DeRosa-RH Edmonds-LH Ward- LH Cedeno-RH Added Bradley-S Hoffpauir-LH Miles-S Gathright-LH I guess it depends on how good you feel Hoffpauir can do against RH pitching next year, will factor in how good you feel about the switch. If you feel Hoffpauir can have a 850 OPS(facing mostly RH pitching) off the bench filling in at RF, LF and 1b for 250 AB's or so. Then you probably won't feel we downgraded much, and depending on how much Bradley gives us(should be at least 100 more AB's then Edmonds did) and If Fontenot hits the way the Cubs think he wil, you can actually say we might have upgraded. But right now people can't see that as being possible, because Mark DeRosa is awesome. Or because people don't trust Bradley enough to stay healthy. The second bradley gets hurt we're going to feel the loss of DeRosa. I was fine with signing Bradley or trading DeRosa, but not both. And I don't know how you can try to spin it around any other way than Miles replacing DeRosa. That's exactly who he is replacing. There's a reason both moves were made on the same day. All the other moves don't change that Miles was brought in to replace DeRosa. It was going to be one of those 2 guys.