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People complain about paying Bradley because of health concerns, but let's sign Hudson (who has health concerns). :-k Comparing the health issues of Bradley to the health "issues" of Hudson is silly My point was more about people complaining about any move Hendry makes i.e. signing one guy with health concerns is stupid, but we ought to sign another guy who has health concerns. Some of the same people who complain about Harden wanted to add Johnson or Sheets to the rotation. Again, you're comparing the health of Bradley to Hudson, which is ridiculous. Bradley has dozens of different injuries and is constantly hurting something different. He's fragile. Hudson is not. He hurt is wrist and it is now healed. If you want to talk about maybe that affecting his performance for awhile, okay, but don't compare a healthy player to a guy who is injured non stop. People question the Bradley signing because he's shown that he can't stay healthy. Hudson had a tough break and broke a bone. Big difference. I don't want Hudson though. Also I've never seen a single person here complain about trading for Harden.

You're forgetting the drafts

They wrote an article about how the Cubs would never break the curse, including some cheesy little "poem" trashing the Cubs.

Been posted before I'm sure, but still fun to watch http://benmatthews.wordpress.com/2007/05/03/bernie-miklasz-suffers-from-diarrhea-of-the-mouth-err-pen/ I like when they pan over to Bernie slumped down in his seat with his fat overflowing

Yeah I didn't see the "at this point" of his post until after I posted it. I deleted my pst but you must have already been replying to it before I deleted it. My fault. And yeah, how can you not be excited? It's baseball.

o http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/sp/v/mlb/players_l/20080402/6154.jpg?x=65&y=85&xc=1&yc=1&wc=164&hc=215&q=100&sig=LCwAE1TFB2scz.nmPVAI3w-- You think Soriano is worth 18 million a year? I don't think you'll find many people here who believe Soriano is worth $18 million a year, especially as he gets older. IMHO, nobody is worth $18 million. obviously, nobody should be. but if someone will pay it its "worth" it. that's the point. That's not what we're talking about in the context of this conversation though. We're talking about whether or not it's a good idea to pay them that much. Barry Zito is "worth" 18.5 million.

People complain about paying Bradley because of health concerns, but let's sign Hudson (who has health concerns). :-k Comparing the health issues of Bradley to the health "issues" of Hudson is silly

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/sp/v/mlb/players_l/20080402/6154.jpg?x=65&y=85&xc=1&yc=1&wc=164&hc=215&q=100&sig=LCwAE1TFB2scz.nmPVAI3w-- You think Soriano is worth 18 million a year?

From Bill Simmons

You mean you don't know the sabremetrics of hockey? IGNORED. well you see martin brodeur is clearly a bad goalie because i say so and will not expound on this point, exposing myself to lots of criticism because i prefer to make vague, outlandish statements rather than thought out posts that back up my point. I know he has 3 stanley cups...but wins and loses are not the best way to measure how good a team or a player is. Marty Brodeur's random Anze number is .722. Cristobal Huet's is .832 the best goalie of all time is actually daren puppa. what an underappreciated gem! I remember his daughter being named "Isabella Megan Puppa". What a horrible combo of names

I stopped after "newfangled statistical analysis "

I was at that game and I'll never forget it. The scene throughout the stadium hallways after the game was like nothing I've ever seen before at any sporting event... EVER. It was insane. Thousands of Cubs fans all screaming/singing/hugging/high fiving, etc.....and all complete strangers. I mean, we thought it was over they had won the pennant. There was no doubt whatsoever. We were going to the World Series.

Last year has nothing to do with it, that's why I told you his cumulative two year OPS was .865. I was using '06 and '07 because he combined to play 2 half seasons, was a full time outfielder, and that wasn't his career year in a hitters park playing DH like last year was. Sorry, I should have read it better. My fault. But that actually proves the point more... which is that fangraph statistic is extremely flawed and is pretty much garbage IMO. A half season of a mid-to-high .800's OPS corner outfielder is worth 10 million? I don't see how you can jutisfy that. In what world is a sub .900 OPS corner outfielder worth 20 million for a full season?

Don't forget Hudson would also cost us a first round pick. That alone makes it not worth it IMO. I'm not convinced Hudson is even that good. He's been garbage outside of BOB the last 3 seasons. I don't think he's much of an upgrade over Fontenot.

Which steroid era?

pathetic

holy collapse

Whats the going rate for a back up infielder? Gm's pay players what they demand that year. If you need a veteran back up infielder, thats what they cost this offseason. Not to be rude but people complaining about Aaron Miles and 2.2m he makes next year have too much time on their hands to complain. Miles salary has very little impact on our team as a whole. Thats the guy Hendry wanted for the bench, he will help the team. If you don't like his salary and think he's getting paid 1m too much. Well that sucks, but thats the market for back up middle infielders. What is worse...complaing about moves... or complaining about people making those complaints on an internet message board? In the offseason you generally discuss offseason moves. If you are upset with people criticizing moves and our beloved GM, ignore them. Nobody is forcing you to read it. Also, the going rate for backup infielders are one year contracts, not 2 years. The 2 years is what makes it looks bad.

I guess the Cardinals 06 World Series win shouldn't really matter either. Winning the division is winning the division, if were gonna say this. Then we can say we got unlucky in 2004, winning 89 games and missing the playoffs, it doesn't work both ways. So when you factor in were we at in 06(due to injuries, Hendry/MacPhail), to how much we improved in 07 it was a successful year. Especially having one of the best records in baseball after June. People can complain all they want about Hendry moves this offseason, it still doesn't take away the fact that he has done a good job the last two years. At this time in 2007, people were assuming Mark DeRosa was gonna be a overpaid bench player, Marquis was gonna have a 5 or 6 era, Lilly was gonna be a overpaid number 4. So I think people should maybe stop assuming so much and thinking their opinion is right and Hendry is wrong. Yes, I think it would be equally silly to praise a GM for assembling an 83 win team in an awful division that won the World Series. Hendry has a huge payroll and won 85 games in a terrible division. That's nice and all, but using it as an argument of why we should give him the benefit of the doubt? Come on. really you're missing the point though. I'm not even trashing Hendry. He has done a nice job over the past couple season. My point is that I think it's dumb to give him a free pass because of that, and for us to just look the other way on moves we don't agree with this offseason because we were great last year and has made some good moves recently. That's silly to me. I don't care what HGM made the moves this offseason, I care about the moves themselves, and I don't like them. Could they end up being good, and could I end up being wrong? Sure. All I'm saying is right now I think the offseason wasn't very good. This is an internet message board. If you don't want to listen to people complain about what looks to be a below average offseason, then it's probably best not to read it. All I know is I'd rather project the moves based on what I think about them than just give them a free pass. That's just as bad, or worse, than people who are criticizing just for the sake of criticizing.

I agree, but it's worse to use that to say "well, we thought this guy woud suck and he turned out good...so maybe this guy won't suck".

I don't get this "benefit of the doubt" stuff. We dsicuss whether or not we like deals based on the move itself, not on who is making them. Theo Epsteing giving Miles 2/5 would be exactly the same as Bill Bavasi giving Miles 2/5. We judge by the move, not the person making it. It just sounds like you want to give hendry a free pass. "Well this move doesn't look good, but we won 97 games last season and we got Ted Lilly the year before" while leaving out the bad moves that he's done in that time. Very few GM's earn free passes, and you're giving one to a guy who doesn't fit that description.

Swisher looks hilarious in that picture

That completely depends on how healthy he is. If he plays half of each season' date=' is that still a great deal?[/quote'] In 2006 and 2007 combined, Bradley played 157 games and was worth about $19.9 million dollars. Link Are we still using that? This is the same formula that said Willie Harris was worth 14.6 mil last year. Not to mention he's almost certainly not going to have a .999 OPS here. Bradley had an .865 OPS in '06 and '07. Also, his value is tied to offense much, much, much more than Willie Harris, and there's much, much, much less room for debate with how accurate the offensive metrics are in measuring value. The Harris number is still an indication of how flawed that stat is on fangraphs. I don't get why people keep using it as a basis for an argument. All the numbers seem highly inflated. But anyways, that 19.9 million figure you came up with is largely in part to him having a .999 OPS last season and a mid .900's OPS in a small amount of ABs the previous season. I think we're more likely looking at an OPS around .900 this season. I thihk people get so caught up in the health/mental questions that they forget that this guy is no guarantee to rake. I think he will be, but I'm not entirely confident. His career numbers are all over the place, even considering bad ballparks.

I completely agree. Where did I ever argue that he is better than Khabi? I never said any of that. I wouldn't even have a problem with starting Khabi every day and making Huet purely a backup. All I'm saying is I don't get why so many people act like Huet is horrible.

llie That completely depends on how healthy he is. If he plays half of each season, is that still a great deal? In 2006 and 2007 combined, Bradley played 157 games and was worth about $19.9 million dollars. Link Are we still using that? This is the same formula that said Willie Harris was worth 14.6 mil last year. Not to mention he's almost certainly not going to have a .999 OPS here.