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lol take out vitters, veal, cedeno and add markakis and weiters and i'll do it

we have like 5 in-house options that are better than griffey

Yeah, I know it's Sullivan, so take it for what it's worth. The saga continues... Paul Sullivan is a sensationalist hack...And a hobbit. Here ye, here ye. Rogers too, and De Lucca while were at it. Haven't really formed an opinion on Wittenmeyer though. Wittenmeyer is the worst of all of them. He flat out makes stuff up

overpaying for ryan dempster here we come

No it's not...it's Towers and Axelrod Really I think we never had a realistic shot at Peavy

And Chad wonders why people are making fun of him

By the way, just some proof that the yankees.com writer doesn't know what he's talking about This quote came after Thrusday

i think robert falkoff just needs to falkoff

rolos are delicious

Milwaukee??? White Sox?? You know the White Sox had a pretty good bullpen last year, right? Also Milwuakee's was not nearly as bad as people made it out to be. They actually had a better bullpen ERA than the Cubs. Really the Cubs bullpen was trash outside of Marmol and Wood. By the end of the year the White Sox bullpen was Thornton and Jenks. Milwaukee's was Torres and Shouse. It was? Maybe you need to check the numbers again. Villanueva was nasty in September and the whole second half. McClung was really good down the stretch too. Even Gagne allowed just one run in his final 11 appearances.

Oh God, I want nothing to do with Oliver Perez. Why? He's a middle of the rotation starter with the potential to be a top of the rotation starter, espec. under Rothschild, he's the perfect fit for Larry and would become the lefty version of Matt Clement, IMO. I think he's a mediocre starter, and that's not what we should be spending money on. He hasn't had a season worth the 8 figures per year he's going to get since '04.(His much better than average ERA with the Mets came with 20 UER. I don't see Lou being a huge fan of him walking 100 guys a season either. If they don't bring back Dempster, they'll need someone like Perez to fill that void, given the injury history of Harden, Marshall is best off used in that role of a 6th starter since no one beyond poss. Samardzija or Atkins could fill that role as a ML starter out of the farm. They also have Gaudin to take up emergency starts. I forgot about Gaudin but it doesn't underscore my point about them still neeeding another starter if Dempster isn't back. Absolutely - the rotation is my biggest concern this offseason, by far. Though Jim's turning the bullpen into a close second. Of all of the 8 playoff teams from last year, the Cubs by far have the worst bullpen and it isn't even close, well maybe Ana b/c they'll lose one if not both of K-Rod and Oliver. Milwaukee??? White Sox?? You know the White Sox had a pretty good bullpen last year, right? Also Milwuakee's was not nearly as bad as people made it out to be. They actually had a better bullpen ERA than the Cubs. Really the Cubs bullpen was trash outside of Marmol and Wood.

A couple of thoughts about this statement: 1: If a deal is done then why wait on the announcement? I know if I had acquire a top 5 pitcher in baseball, I would announced it to my team's fanbase as soon as possibile. So this statment is bullcrap. 2: I read Donnie's story, and he never said a "deal is done" all he reported was where Peavy would like to go, and the chances of him being trading. So this blog is taking liberties with Donnie story. But hey we are less then 15 pages to 100, we needed something to get us there...So let's reach 100 before the night is over, guys. lol the joker from the cub reporter linked to this post and trashed you. hey rob g, your site is a joke. thanks for playng.

ugh stop falling for it

now i remember that B had theriot as his sig. he's just doing this to mess with people. he doesn't actually believe it. obviously imb is doing the same.

oh man, i want to think you are joking Exactly what part do you think I would be joking about? i still think you're joking. you have to be.

I still don't understand why you're under the impression that the Padres would want Gregg. He probably has negative value to them Your probably right, but Im just baffled about the Gregg trade otherwise. Greggs not particularly bad, and Im not saying that Cedas is the next K Rod, but he was one of our top trade chips, and we traded him for a guy who we really had little to no use for, with 1 year under team control. It could be that for once Hendry traded a player while his value was the highest, and got a decent return for someone he didn't see fitting into the Cubs plans in the future. He may have traded him while his value was highest, but he didn't get true value for him. He basically gave him away for a mediocre reliever who will make millions next year. It doesn't matter if he doesn't fit into the Cubs plans, he still has value that can be used. I can't stand when people use that argument. True value is in the eye of the beholder. Obviously, Hendry values Ceda a lot less than we do. Until Ceda comes to the major leagues and puts up numbers better than Gregg, I will give Hendry the benefit of the doubt. Plus, the Cubs got Ceda for basically nothing. One of the reasons I like this move is that Hendry is being proactive early in the off season. With Gregg the Cubs have at least one solid bullpen arm guaranteed. If Gregg were in the Cubs pen last year he would have had the third best WHIP behind Wood and Marmol. If he has a similar season in 2009, he is an upgrade over every other pitcher in the pen. Hendry still has time to go out and get some other arms, but he is not held hostage in free agency. So because he got Ceda for nothing it's okay to give him away? I really don't think you should be giving Hendry the benefit of the doubt, especially when trading young pitchers to the Marlins. I also think you think Gregg is better than he really is. He's an average pitcher with an above average salary. Plus saying that he had a better WHIP than anybody on our team last year not named Wood or Marmol isn't really saying much. And you think Gregg is worse than he really is. A 1.27 WHIP is not average. Ceda had around a 1.30 in A+ ball. That is against low level major league hitters. Why is it that you apply a double standard when you evaluate talent. By your logic if a 1.27 WHIP pitcher in the majors is an average reliever than....a 1.30 A+ ball pitcher is WAY below average, because he is facing much worse talent. People are getting carried away with Ceda's ability to throw a 95 mph fastball. I don't think anyone is getting carried away with Ceda. Nobody here is in love with him We know what he is. I wanted him to be traded while he had value this offseason, just not for Gregg. For other organizations with decent farm systems this trade might be okay. Ceda is one of the few players we have in the minors that actually has trade value. We can't be wasting those guys. BA ranked him our 4th best prospect in 2008 so he's not trash. Also, I'm not sure why you're using his WHIP at age 21 in AA to determine how good he is anyways. I'd say the fact that he is missing a ton of bats at that level at a young age is a lot more relevant.

I thought someone on this board said that.

By the way, it would be fun to see him get win #300 as a Cub. He only needs 5 more.

I'm down, but only if it's as a bonus starter.

The picture of young Kerry Wood next to current Kerry Wood on the cubs.com homepage makes me sad

Don't believe everything you hear. All we can do is make judgements based on the info we have

If we sign Jonhson it better not be the only starter we sign.

From what I've gathered, Hendry doesn't want him to sign for cheap. He feels bad about it. That's the reason Wood is leaving. Hendry wants him to get paid.

I just find it ridiculous that they're trading BA's 4th ranked Cubs prospect of 2008 for kevin Gregg and they're dumping Michael Wuertz. Somebody please explain that to me.

I still don't understand why you're under the impression that the Padres would want Gregg. He probably has negative value to them Your probably right, but Im just baffled about the Gregg trade otherwise. Greggs not particularly bad, and Im not saying that Cedas is the next K Rod, but he was one of our top trade chips, and we traded him for a guy who we really had little to no use for, with 1 year under team control. It could be that for once Hendry traded a player while his value was the highest, and got a decent return for someone he didn't see fitting into the Cubs plans in the future. He may have traded him while his value was highest, but he didn't get true value for him. He basically gave him away for a mediocre reliever who will make millions next year. It doesn't matter if he doesn't fit into the Cubs plans, he still has value that can be used. I can't stand when people use that argument. I dunno if Ceda value was much higher then a guy like Kevin Gregg, and the only reason the Marlins only got one prospect for a Gregg, Is because Gregg got hurt and struggled in mid to late August. On August 14th, Gregg was 26 of 32 in saves with a 2.29 era, and had a mid 2 era most of the season. The fact that he got bombed from August 15 through 29 and then went on the DL, made him have less value this offseason. I'm not saying that makes it ok for Hendry to trade a prospect like Ceda for Gregg. But a guy like Gregg who doesn't make alot, who can close and has a mid 3's era, has good value around the league. I'm sure alot of people around baseball don't see Gregg as a mediocre reliever, including obviously Jim Hendry. That's irrelevant, because the stats show that he is