17 Seconds

Neither are mediocre relievers who can't throw strikes and have bloated salaries

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.

What a soft goal. You're in position with no screen and you let him go 5 hole on you to win it? C'mon

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 still don't understand why you're under the impression that the Padres would want Gregg. He probably has negative value to them

Hopefully the Angels sign Teixeira

Hopefully the Angels don't get involved because it sounds like he'd be Jake's first choice after the Dodgers

lolol everyone was joking about Peavy being his source and he actually was

Braves pretty much backed out of negotions. DonnieD has a source who supposedly said Peavy to the Braves wasn't happening even when reports said he was going to be traded there. Also supposedly something is supposed to happen today and if not, DonnieD will shed more light on his source. I'm pretty sure DonnieD never said anything about something happening tonight.

Don't get your hopes up too much. There was information he shared with mods that gave me the impression he may want to hold off on sharing that info beyond Friday. But, that's just my take. He may spill the beans tonight. So do you believe what he says? I believe what he says, but I wouldn't get too excited about the info. Why? Because the person isn't reputable, or because things change? Not that the person isn't reputable but it depends on Donnie's read/judgement of the situation. And yes, things can easily change. So if you guys had to guess right now would you Peavy is trading to the Cubs or not? haha Given the information I have, I'm not sure. It really comes down to Donnie's judgement of his source. Judgement of his source? Confusing

Don't get your hopes up too much. There was information he shared with mods that gave me the impression he may want to hold off on sharing that info beyond Friday. But, that's just my take. He may spill the beans tonight. So do you believe what he says? I believe what he says, but I wouldn't get too excited about the info. Why? Because the person isn't reputable, or because things change? Not that the person isn't reputable but it depends on Donnie's read/judgement of the situation. And yes, things can easily change. So if you guys had to guess right now would you Peavy is trading to the Cubs or not? haha

Don't get your hopes up too much. There was information he shared with mods that gave me the impression he may want to hold off on sharing that info beyond Friday. But, that's just my take. He may spill the beans tonight. So do you believe what he says? I believe what he says, but I wouldn't get too excited about the info. Why? Because the person isn't reputable, or because things change?

Don't get your hopes up too much. There was information he shared with mods that gave me the impression he may want to hold off on sharing that info beyond Friday. But, that's just my take. He may spill the beans tonight. So do you believe what he says?

From all the rumors I remember, MacPhail and Hendry had a trade worked out, but Angelos wouldn't sign off on it. I don't see why you're making a big deal of this. I doubt Hendry will spend much time working with MacPhail this offseason. As far as the Peavy talks are concerned, why should Hendry walk away from a potential deal for Peavy. He's lucky enough to be one of 2 GM's who are seriously being considered to land Peavy. Meanwhile, Hendry is not sitting on his hands waiting for Towers to make a decision. The Cubs have already made a couple of trades this offseason, which is more action than many other teams have had so far. I'm not making a big deal out of it. I made a passing comment on it and like 3 people bashed me for it so I defend myself, that's all. And for like the 4th time, nothing I have said has anything to do with Hendry and the Peavy talks. I don't have any problem with the Peavy stuff.

Maybe he will...remember, he posts late at night. I think I asked this awhile ago, but I don't remember getting an answer: what could he possibly be able to divulge on this certain day that he couldn't before. Obviously you can't say exactly, but can anyone give an example of how that even makes sense? From what I read, I'm guessing he won't divulge his information until after a deal is made. see, that makes a bit more sense. . . but it seems some people were expecting something Friday (I think I recall Donnie saying something about Friday, too.) I seem to recall something about Friday also, but I don't remember exactly why. It could be that Friday was the day they hoped something would be done, since that was the day teams could start talking to free agents. I'm pretty sure he said Friday because this was the day he'd have the source until.

The fact that they won 97 games after the whole thing happened is irrelevant. At the time they were coming off an 85 win season and a 3 game sweep in the playoffs. That's irrelevant too though. We can argue about this all day and we'll still have different opinions. You think it showed that he was reasonable. Fine. I think that it showed you can dick around and he won't walk away. Part of trading away good proven players is knowing how far you can string along and haggle the interested parties without losing them. MacPhail basically got a free pass with that. If every Gm had that advantage then nobody would ever be traded until right before ST started.

By saying "10 mil a year" you're making it sound like multiple years. 10 mil for one year is not a big deal. He's off the books next October no matter what so it's not a big gamble. gagne got 10 mil last year and was a disaster. Big deal, it was a bad 6 months and now the contract is gone. It's notl ike you have to worry about it crippling your payroll flexibilty over the next few years. As for me having things stuck in my head, why do you have it stuck in your head that he would have demanded 10 mil? Wood's quote was that he'd have done "anything" to stay with the Cubs. Sounds to me like he would have accepted a one year deal at a lower salary to fit into the tight budget of this offseason. Anyways, 10 mil isn't the key number. The key number is the difference between what Gregg will make and what Wood would have gotten. You ask how many closers get 10 mil a year (which was a poor example anyways since guys that make that much a year rarely accept one year deals). Well how often do mediocre 1.2-1.3 WHIP relievers get around 5 mil a year?

With the way Lou is, I just can't imagine him sticking with gregg as the closer as he's walking guys non-stop. I know Marmol walks a lot of guy's too, but he has the K's and the ability to not give up hits to make up for it. I could see Gregg walking 2 guys and then serving up a 3 run bomb in a save opp in ST and Lou saying "that's it, Marmol is closing" You would think that, but he stuck with Dempster as closer in 07. Even though Howry and Marmol were both pretty much lights out in the second half of 07. Gregg control as bad or simliar to Dempster, but he's also tougher to hit. As long as Gregg isn't blowing a bunch of saves Lou will stick with him. In 07 Gregg saved 32 of 36, and last year he was 26 of 32 before getting hurt and losing his closer spot, I'm sure the Marlins defense didn't help either. If he pitches anything like that I think Lou would stick with him as the closer. Dempster was a good example and I hope you're right, but i just have a feeling that Lou has Marmol as closer set in his mind

If anyone looked bad in that situation it was the Orioles, not Hendry. GM's want to know they can negotiate with someone in good faith without getting the run around or having the rug yanked out from underneat them (especially after things start getting leaked to the press). The Orioles have long had a front office reputation of being so completely unorganized and chaotic that they're almost impossible to deal with. There's a reason why that Bedard trade took almost 2 months to finally get completed. I'm not necessarily he "looked bad", just that he set a bad example. GMs know Baltimore's deal. My point is that if GMs see someone get messed with they know they can do the same. I'd say that most GM's would have told the O's to eff off after a couple months like Wren basically did with the Braves.

With the way Lou is, I just can't imagine him sticking with gregg as the closer as he's walking guys non-stop. I know Marmol walks a lot of guy's too, but he has the K's and the ability to not give up hits to make up for it. I could see Gregg walking 2 guys and then serving up a 3 run bomb in a save opp in ST and Lou saying "that's it, Marmol is closing"

Remember when DonnieD said he'd reveal his "source" on Friday if nothing had happened?

Well you can still do what Wren did while not actually closing the door. I'm sure that Towers could still accept the Braves package if he wanted. My point was just that it's not a good example to set that you can mess with a guy for 5 months and he'll stil be waiting on your every move. It's not a big deal, I'm just saying that it's not good.

He didn't use him poorly...he just overused him Marmol in the closer role almost seems like a waste

I thought about that too

What was lost in doing that? Respect. He basically said to every other GM out there that he can be jerked around for months and you won't lose him Do you really think Hendry lost respect among other GM's because he has not satisfied your media obligation in telling you everything that is going on? Wait, what did I ever say about him not tleling us stuff? All I'm saying is that it's not a good example to set that you can be haggled for 5 months and not walk away So how did he lose respect, and from who? jesus christ. I wasn't saying that it has cost us anything or that it will cost us anything. All I'm saying is that it's a bad example to set. By the way, I remember reading an article on either BA or BP that was saying the same thing