Jehrico

While it would make some sense for the Orioles to reload, Angelos is afraid of the competition for area fans with the Washington Nationals. The impact of the Nats on his market is serious since we are talking about cable contracts etc. The Orioles would also need to unload Javier Lopez, Melvin Mora, Hernandez, etc. in an effort to rebuild. If I were them, I wouldn't unload Hernandez. I'd keep him to work with and bring along some of the young top pitching prospects they should be trading the other above names for.

Why? If Ronnyc isn't headed to Baltimore he's going to your starting second baseman most likely if Walker gets dealt or not. It would suck for RonnyC to watch Perez getting starts over him not one of the best shortstops in the majors if not the best in Miggy. You said it yourself. Do you really think Baker will play Ronny over Neifi? Yes, I do. What I do think will happen is that Ronnie will play 120-130 games, not 155 games. I hope you're right and I'm wrong. I think Ronny will start out on pace for that, but as soon as he hits an extended slump, Baker will forget who the heck he is for a month. Then when he'll finally get back in there, he'll be rusty, and won't get enough opportunities to get back on track.

Why? If Ronnyc isn't headed to Baltimore he's going to your starting second baseman most likely if Walker gets dealt or not. It would suck for RonnyC to watch Perez getting starts over him not one of the best shortstops in the majors if not the best in Miggy. You said it yourself. Do you really think Baker will play Ronny over Neifi? I highly doubt it.

I agree, but I can't see it happening. I wouldn't mind giving up Pie for Tejada if we kept Prior and Z though. They're going to want one of those guys, for sure.

we have two of the most promising position prospects that actually performed on their first sniff of the majors, and we're doing everything in our power to block them. Yet we've had other guys who stumbled out the gate, like Corey, and we give them chance after chance after chance...It must suck to be Murton or RonnyC right about now.

I agree. I've never been a fan of the "he was rushed" explanation for his struggles. Corey's failure is related to his inability and/or unwillingness to learn/adapt, and the Cubs' inabiliy to find a way to get through to him, regardless of the level. I still haven't seen a good reason why you try to dump him when his value is at its lowest. I think the thing tha hurt Corey the most wasn't calling him up too early, but rather, calling him up to sit on the bench. He spent alot of time on the pine during what should have been a crucial time in his development. If Baylor (one of the few managers that makes Dusty look good at handling young guys) had either played him or sent him down, I think he'd be alot better off.

I don't think this is a big deal. I bet that the deal has evolved from Prior for Tejada (Hendry said no) to Prior for Tejada and Bedard (Duqette said no) to Prior and Pie for Tejada and Bedard (Hendry said no). I don't think it's a matter of Hendry being more willing to deal Prior for Tejada, it's a matter of getting enough in return for what he's giving up on both sides.

I think the surprise is the timing. Why now? Why not earlier in the offseason when Hendry had alot more payroll unaccounted for? Why wait until most of Hendy's available dollars have been spent? I'm not convinced he would have done it otherwise. I think a NTC might be at play here... how is this a 'surprise'? this clause has been well known to fans as well as Hendry. Prior deserves a raise, (if, for no other reason than Neifi is being paid 2.5M) and i certainly believe Hendry has planned for this scenario... Not to mention Rusch, Eyre, Howry, and Jones also making more than him. Isn't Mabry getting paid about that too?

I think the surprise is the timing. Why now? Why not earlier in the offseason when Hendry had alot more payroll unaccounted for? Why wait until most of Hendy's available dollars have been spent? I'm not convinced he would have done it otherwise. I think a NTC might be at play here... There's just no way Prior wasn't going to do it. It wouldn't have made any sense not to. Then why'd he wait until now?

I think the surprise is the timing. Why now? Why not earlier in the offseason when Hendry had alot more payroll unaccounted for? Why wait until most of Hendy's available dollars have been spent? I'm not convinced he would have done it otherwise. I think a NTC might be at play here...

Interesting, but I don't like the implications. Getting rid of Walker for an OFer most likely reduces Jones playing time (good), but most likely puts Neifi into the primary starting 2bman role. Either that, or we end up dealing for Tejada and move RonnyC to 2nd, which means we're probably going to lose Prior. So Walker for Wilson = too much neifi, or good bye prior. Edit: Forgot about Hairston...if he starts at 2nd, then we don't have a backup CF on the bench.

You certainly cannot be comparing Law's 293/358/412/770 to Moreland's 307/374/440/814, can you? No, just making the point that Law had a very good year for us after his prime and after stinking before we picked him up. It was certainly worth mentioning. In all fairness though, I don't think Moreland qualifies for what the original post was asking. He was asking who had we signed before that was past their prime and washed up that actually had a good year for us (or at least that's how I interpreted it). We got Moreland in '82 when he was 28, I wouldn't exactly call that past his prime, he was about in it. You could also make the argument that his '83 season was better, as his slg and OBP were both higher. The only glaring upgrade from 83 to 85 was his RBI production.

Albert Belle was mentioned earlier, but his contract was sooo bad, it's worth further mentioning. He played his final game in 2000. In 2001, he was the 8th highest paid player in baseball at over $12 million. In 2002 and 2003, he rose a couple of notches, and was the 6th highest paid player both years, again making over 12, then 13 even. Baltimore carried one of the highest paid guys in baseball for 3 years and didn't get a single plate appearance out of him. That's perhaps the biggest cause of their struggles at the beginning of this decade. That one contract handcuffed an entire organization for 3 years with absolutely nothing in return in terms of production.

Vance Law's all-star campaign in '88.

Yeah, but what'd he do after he was called up from T-Ball?

Eh, the deal struck me more as Ibanez being a throw in becase of salary and Reed being the real value in the deal. This deal minus the trading for Clement part would have been great before giving a spot to Jones. OF- LF-Ibanez CF-Pierre RF-Reednot sure he has the arm for it, but whatever 4thOF-Murton 5thOF-Mabry If you COULD do Hill,Patterson for Reed that would be nice Who's the backup CFer?

I'd rather pay him $2 mil for a year than Jones $15 for 3.

Some things to keep in mind about Soriano: 1) Soriano's away OBP in 2003: .350. In 2004, 291. In 2005, it dropped to .265. Yes, that is a .265 OBP. Worse than Neifi. 2) His OBP without splits over those three years has gone from .338 to .324 to .309. That is an alarming downward trend. 3) Who knows how old he really is, there are doubts his listed age which would have him turn 30 at the end of the week is true. 4) Someone said his defense was as bad as Walkers, I beg to differ. He makes Walker look like Ryno Jr. He's a butcher. Walker is just below average. 5) He refuses to switch to a position that isn't as important defensively, as he insists on being a butcher there, as his stats aren't as impressive for an OFer as they are a 2bman. 6) He's stated he'll walk at the end of the year and return to the AL. He'd be a one year rental. 7) He makes $10 million. (more than DLee, ARam...) He's getting paid for past production, his numbers the last few years do not indicate he's inclined to repeat his '02 or '03 numbers. He's the most overrated player in baseball, IMHO. I hope Hendry steers clear of him. His peak was much higher than Walkers, but it was only sustained for a very short time and is well past. Sammy was a 5-tool player at one time. In '04, he was still able to put up a .500 slg, but that was about all he had, and as we all remember, he was horrible despite his .500 slugging. Just because Soriano can put up a .500 slugging doesn't mean he's better than Walker. I'd be more upset if we traded for him to man 2nd than I was when we signed Jones even if we didn't have to give up anything that hurts. One reason that some teams never can get over the hump is they don't understand the concept of paying for future production vs past production. Paying Soriano $10 million is paying him $10 mil for his past performance. No one is ever going to get anywhere near $10 million in production from him ever again.

As long as Dusty understands the bolded part, I agree. How sad is it when you really believe that your manager will play a 39 year old has-been who hit .212 last year over a promising young outfielder who has had success on the big league level? It's the life we lead. The one thing we have going for us is that CPatt is probably a goner. If that's so, then we need a bona-fide backup CFer, and no one else on the roster fits that role. Hairston played a little center for us last year, but I think he displayed that he's not a great CFer.

I believe Olivo was the only player last year with a VORP lower than CPatts. Something like a -12 or so. Could be a good gamble taking a kid like that after a down year on the cheap. If there's anyone who can turn him around, I would think it would be Girardi.

The Tribune had absolutely no involvement with how Hendry put himself into a position to have to sign a mediocre RFer like Jacque Jones. That's all on Hendry. The Tribune has expanded it's payroll by more than 25m over the last 5 years and has become top 5 overall. The only real blame you can hand to the Tribune at this time is that they didn't fire MacPhail and/or Hendry and Dusty after the craptastic 2004 season, or the craptacular2005 season. Not just because the results weren't there, but because of the way these guys dealt with internal problems (ie. Steve Stone, Chip Caray, Sammy, Moises, Walker, Mercker, etc...) But, getting back to the real problem..... Hendry had horsey blinders on this offseason in his quest to replace Ronny Cedeno or Nomar at SS. All he saw this offseason was free agent Rafael Furcal. He totally put all of his eggs in Rafael's basket, and Rafael took his basket to Los Angeles. Hendry felt like he had a sure thing. Because of that, he had no back up plan if the Furcal thing fell through. The question of how much of an upgrade Furcal would have actually been over Nomar and/or Cedeno in comparison to a good RF over Burnitz hasn't been answered. Outfield was far and away the 2nd biggest problem this team had last year. The biggest problem of course being team OBP, especially at the top of the order. Depending on how Dusty attacks his line up card, I'm not sure there will be much improvement on OBP at the top of the order if Pierre ends up hitting about the same as he did last year, and Neifi Perez or Jacque Jones end up hitting 2nd in his line up. I really don't care one way or another about Hendry's passion to improve team defense. I'm fine with that. But, not at the expense of OBP. With the money the Cubs had available this offseason, the trade commodity (farm and parent club) they had available to use to improve the tema, and other teams interested in making trades, there are NO EXCUSES that Hendry gets a pass on. This mediocre team he has thrown together this offseason needs to finish in 1st place or grab the wild card at minimum, or he needs to be kicked to the same curb he kicked Nomar to. Trading Prior would be the last thing I let him do. In fact, I'd like to see someone stop him before he actually does it. I don't think your post is very fair. I agree that there wasn't sufficient cause to work so hard on upgrading SS while ignoring RF, but to say that Hendry put all of his eggs in one basket isn't right. He went after Furcal so hard moreso because he was a leadoff hitter than a great SS. When Furcal didn't pan out, he went toward plan B, Juan Pierre. He was going to get a new CF regardless, had he landed Furcal, he could have went with more of a middle of the order type of hitter instead of Pierre, and that would have taken a little of the burden off of getting a stud RFer. I disagree with his strategy, he should have went after RF hot and heavy from the get go, but the one thing I don't think he did was put all of his eggs in one basket (Furcal) with no backup plan.

Maybe he should try to see if TO can be had then. I hear he can catch the ball, he's out of favor with his team, and has a below market contract.

Choi Career OBP .349 Jones Career OBP .327 It seems to me that many people look at batting average as the best indicator of hitting ability...when in fact it's really completely useless. I think you're going a tad overboard calling it useless. I prefer OBP myself, but average most certainly isn't a useless stat.

I'm not sure about the award, but they gave up a good pospect. I also heard something about Coletti not wanting to deal with the Cubs. I think there's still bad blood between him and Dusty.

Yeah, Jim, defense really is the key to victory. Look what a good defense has done for the other Chicago team...I'd say they've turned out alright. Maybe that's the problem, Hendry doesn't realize the difference between baseball and football, and he's trying to emulate 'da Bears...