neely crenshaw

hendry said today on the score that we are pursuing schmidt,lilly and jennings plus a bat. it at least sounds good! i hope we pull it off but it sounds like money will not be a problem! let's hope

wow..it would be really interesting to watch an outfield with arms like bernie and jj in center and right! if you think jj has a bad arm..bernie makes pierre look like a cannon! he is better off kicking the ball into the infield

i thought sammy couldn't undertstand english and needed an interpreter during steroid meetings..what gives?

with therumblings of signings like schmidt and lilly...i think if we deal jones, we would be in the market for a big bat..that we should have gotten the last 2 years instead of jones-burnitz. with the name of man ram out there..perhaps, just perhaps he would be in our plans if we dealt jones. certainly we would like a lineup of.. soriano-cf murton-rf dlee 1b manram lf aram 3b barrett -c delarosa-theriot 2b isturis-cedeno ss p zambrano schmidt jennngs hill lilly now that would be something to talk about... with drew going to bosox, manram would be much more of a salary drop than before, and we would not have to pony up equal value, so young pitchers might get it done, they wouldn't want izturis' salary bit maybe cedeno or theriot!

schmidt is a funny cat, when it comes to stuff, he's velocity flucuates from start to start. at the end of lasy season i'm his fastball hit 88-90 but i also know it hit 93-94 in other starts. and this goes on all year. he does not have to be our ace...right now it does seem to matter to hendry what he spends, as long as he keeps filling holes..i don't care whta it costs. if we stop short of filling everything..or at least trying because we spent too much then i'll reconsider..he will take the ball, and make 95% of his starts...which we need badly! he and z at the top...will be nice! we still need one more durable starter..maybe meche. if it is 3 years, i would bet that he lasts as a decent pitcher-more so than maddux did. really what else do we sign if we don't get schmidt? there are some middle of the road guys but then we are either hoping that prior comes backa stud or just trying to compete. overpay or not..if we get schmidt we are trying to put together a team that can win it...and regardless of money, that's what i want! sorry as much as i like guys like lilly and meche...unless we catch lightning in the bottle a rotation of z,meche,lilly,hill and marshall are not going to win a pennent!.....i refuse to even consider prior

Z and Izturis for Ervin Santana, Wood, Kendrick, and Adenhart. Sign Schmidt. Schmidt Zito Ervin Hill Westbrook We'd have perhaps the best middle infield cheap for 6 years, a very good young pitcher, we'd sign an ace to nearly replace Z's productivity and his rapidly escalating salary, and a very highly touted pitching prospect. trying desperately to get back on topic....lol

how did we go from jessica alba to uribe?....now that would be a bad trade!

it says today the offer is 3/44...sounds like they are really targeting schmidt to me.

i agree maddux is better off in a pitchers park(he was 6-3 3.30 in LA) BUT here are numbers..baby maddux15-14 4.20 meche 11-8 4.48(AL) lilly 15-13 4.31(AL) they are people talking 10 mil for them HERE IS OUR FUTURE...that many of you aren't screaming bloody murder about hill 4.26 guzman 7.46 marmol 6.08 marshall 5.59 walrond 7.30 miller 4.57 mateo 5.32 prior 7.30 beauty is in the eye of the beholder....

i love maddux. he was good for us...at a big price. he did what we needed the last 2 years, he took the ball. which only he and z did. his upside is he will make all his starts. he is an average pitcher. for a good team he would have a winning record but there are better guys out there for the potential cost. he is a 4. he is a darn good 4. the problem for us is that we lost wood and prior and maddux had to be a 2. he pitches very well when the wind blows in or he is in a big park...but wrigley in summer is neither. he would do well to stay in LA, or go to detroit or seattle. if we are going to go "yankees" and spend for everything..ok i'll sign him as a 5 and the sign schmidt,lilly and meche(and carlos lee!) but i don't see that happening!

i am not up for paying decent money to a free agent to be a role player. if he is going get 300-400 at bats(not the case) that's different. we pay anyone any more that we pay theriot or cedeno or bynum...to play defense and run. get 1 start every 2 weeks.. wolfe sounds like he may be worth a gamble. he is on the up swing.

hold on here..i am as negative about the cubs as anyone but we won 66 games...consider we add soriano....we also basically add dlee. that's a pretty good jump in offense. we hopefully will add a decent prior...not great but decent.(and no i am not counting on health) the WS champ is in our division and won only 83....it's not that huge a jump. with health next year we are already a contender(but then only 5 teams aren't) what we do now is try to make it a "near" lock for the playoffs. overpay schmidt..get meche or lilly(quickly because they may go way up in cost! later) then we are done. hope wood,dempster,howry and eyre can get it done in the bullpen with an eye on a closer at deal time... i just don't see any options at closer now.

listen we had a chance tp be somewhat economical and still win but WE BLEW IT... now we need to seriuosly spend money... i could care less if we win once or 5 straight.. i could care less if we suck the year after we win it...we have been sucking for 100 years...can we stop talking about being smart, having a better market next year(isn't it always) or spending more wisely and can we just win one please.

if this is the only step they take then it is not a good move but i have to believe with Piniella signing on it is not going to be the last move. just making this move shows there is a difference. hendry has made some moves but never has he gone out and gotten one of the stud players on the market. i hold out hope that he is feeling the pressure to win now!

also i would rather overpat for the player i really wanted than miss out and follow up with overpaying neifi,pierre,jones and izturis.

i'm sorry we haven't won in 100 years..i got give a crap about the long term effects of this contract! i will happily trade a WS championship in the next few years for being crapppy again in 8.... we were the worst team in the NL last season how can a long contract makes us any worse?

a couple of bad points on this... first this means that cedeno and theriot have absolutely no trade value as of now...obviously neither one is in our plans so we will give them away like we did cpatt. second point, doesn't soriano want to return to 2nd? thrid, we are counting on signing soriano to play center! he has 1 year in the outfield and although he worked hard to be a decent LEFTFIELDER, we are hoping he will play center with 2 less than great defensive corner outfielders...doesn't sound like a great plan.

i laugh when i readsome of this...it all depends on what bonds would cost. 6-8 mil maybe more...not so much over 12...no thanks we simply can't rick it. with aram gone...exactly who could we possibly win a bid on? jim's big splashes the last 2 years...burnitz and jones...i don't feel very confident we can get soriano. you really think sammy was run out of town because he was a cheat? if he could still drop 50+ he still be here! as far as not having steroid guys...umm most people lump guys like: nomar, jobo,wood and even prior into the catagory. i mean out of no where tendons start falling off of nomar...that's not typical. finally...did you guys check out our left field combo this year? murton and mabry! i think i take a chance on bonds/murton for year.

one flaw in all these trade ideas.... no one wants any of our players...we do not have anyone that is good. sorry but in the offseason you are not going to get a top flite major leaguer for a prospect. not when there are free agents around. we have a couple pitchers that might have some value but who is going to take hill for a big bat? at the deadline maybe but look at what pierre cost us in prospects for a year! and i don't see anyone dumping salary this offseason. we have 0 postition players with trade value not even pie....

our gm has been looking to the next year every year he has been here...when will he pull the trigger. aram is gone. unless no one wants him...but he will get offers. face it..our poor offense just got pitiful...can you imagine how it will be for dlee with jock hitting 4th! yeah... and no i do not think hendry can fix it...just another hole that won't be addressed. i mean it's only been 3 offseasons and we almost have sammy and alou replaced...nevermind.

let me get this straight- baseball, a faction that has imbraced such notables as daryl strawberry,steve howe, doc gooden who took drugs while playing the game..basically killed their careers and teams. absolutely relishes cheaters like gaylord perry or any number of hiters who have corked a bat! enabled racists to exempt players based on skin color has enshrined some of these very well known racists in it's hall of fame but is going to pull collision on a guy because he used peformance enhancers (that were not illega)l to make himself a better player.... oh and by the way he has never failed a drug test... sure makes sense.

i like hill. i want him in the rotation. but if he is our #2 at the start of the season we will be bad. that means we added nothing or next to nothing to the starting staff. we almost lost 100 games this year. after april we had the worst record in all of baseball. unless we had 4-5 postiton players a staff of z,prior,miller,hill and marshall is not going to work. we have no idea what prior and miller will be able to do and we can not repeat the 4 young pitcher thing and compete! adding a meche or lilly might help the consistency but fixing the back end of the rotation will not help this team enough to win. we are not close to competing right now. also there is no way lou Piniella signed on to manage a team that is planning on rebuilding. it is also pretty clear that if we are paying Piniella to manage, hendry must put a serious contender on the field very soon.

i agree with the age thing...it's always scary. and a tight rope may be a good way to say it but our 2nd most starts was 24. schimidt has only started fewer than 25 once in his career. he may have had some aches but give me some nagging injuries nad his 32 starts and 213 innings last year! free agency is a crap shoot we may go for it and fail but i would much rather go for it than sign gil meche and be safe!

clearly it should be the "wonder" white bread award. seriously what type of serious award has to have a cadidate from every team? if anyone watched the cubs play they have very few players that deserve any type of award for last season....and there has got to be a better candidate than mabry...heck, murton's very white...kinda clear even!

i won't pretend to know vereything there is about ted lilly but my question for you naysayers is have you every watched him pitch an entire game? or are you basing it on what highlights you have seen and stuff you have heard/read? i watched himpitch against the sox and he was tough. he has great stuff-period! he throws much harder than hill or even zito. in the 3 games i watched he was topping out at 94. now not every fastball was 94 but i was shocked at how hard he threw! he's curve was nasty! i thought he was being possessed by steve carlton! lol..i don't know if he's worth the money. hopefully we had scouts out there watching him to see what he has but i can tell you if we sign him, i won't be too upset. i will be upset if he is the top pitcher we sign! he certainly is worth a look. the thing i really like is the last 4 years 32 starts, 25 starts,32 starts, 32 starts...if there's anything we need is starters who can actually make their starts...with our staff that can be invaluable! it would help if they could also pitch a litle that brings me to my next thought...why does everyone feel schmidt is injury prone? he is as reliable as anyone. he has not missed significant starts since 2000. that's 6 seasons worth! he has averaged 30 starts the last 5 seasons and still made 25 in 2001. he's fewest is 29 in the last 5 years! before 1999, it was more of the same ..3 years of 32+ starts! so except for 2000 he has gotten his 180-225 innings and around 30 starts! maybe he'll wear out but i certainly don't see him as injury prone.