Jehrico

All you have to do is google "cubs hermida" dude http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8793068/ChiSox-GM-is-up-to-something-...-but-what??CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2008/11/08/2008-11-08_with_superfan_barack_obama_leading_cheer.html?page=2 http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081203&content_id=3700331&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3754869&type=blogEntry http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1319247,CST-SPT-cub08.article Like I said earlier, I haven't seen anything saying Hendry has contacted them about Hermida. It was widely reported that he was on their radar earlier in the month, but Florida wanted waaay too much from another team that asked and scared most of the others off. I hadn't seen the ESPN link you posted, that's the only link of those five that says they actually did contact them. There's a difference between having someone on a list, and actually pursuing that guy. Just googling "Hermida Cubs" isn't going to find that dude. haha, seriously? if multiple places are reporting that they've expressed interest, then it's pretty obvious that hendry has probably contacted them. plus like you said, that espn link said it. what more do you want? admit you were wrong and move on. I said I hadn't seen the link on ESPN before, what more do you want? It was well reported they were interested in him, but Florida asked for a royal haul from another team that did formally inquire, so I assumed that Hendry had no intentions of following through on that interest as a result. Coincidentally, reports of their interest dropped off after that as well. Other than that one obscure blog link within ESPN, it hadn't been reported anywhere else that they actually had talks about him. That one obscure ESPN page could be mistaken since it's not corroborated. Or if it is corroborated, sorry for not taking the time to read a thousand pages throughout the net with the earlier reported interest. Are you one of those guys that actually gets a stiffy from saying "told you so," and are you getting pissed because I'm depriving you of that? Because that's what you're acting like. you say that the cubs haven't been rumored to be interested in hermida and the only people who have mentioned him are people on this board, then when i give you multiple examples it's "oh, well that doesn't mean hendry has talked to the marlins about him. that's what i meant." come on. so what you're saying it's that multiple places confirm that the cubs are/were interested, but hendry never even called them to ask about him? him. i guess hendry just had a crush on him but was too afraid to call and ask. I never said they hadn't been rumored to be interested in him. I said they hadn't been directly linked to him. If you need me to spell it out, they hadn't been linked to any trade talks with the Marlins. Second, no, it's reasonable to think Hendry never did call and ask. And it has nothing to do with him being "too afraid to call and ask." Hendry wasn't working on anything else while the Peavy deal was pending, since he didn't know what he might be left to work with. It would have been a waste of time to even go down that road. Did you totally miss all of the stories that were flying around about Peavy and what Hendry was doing during the meetings? Florida's demands were exposed as uber-extreme before the Peavy deal was shelved, so no, I would have expected that he never did talk to them. Is it really worth starting a pissing match and dragging down the thread because you couldn't figure that out for yourself? Why don't you try to figure out what it is that people mean before blowing up over something that was an ancillary point at best in an earlier post? Criminey man, just stop already.

All you have to do is google "cubs hermida" dude http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8793068/ChiSox-GM-is-up-to-something-...-but-what??CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2008/11/08/2008-11-08_with_superfan_barack_obama_leading_cheer.html?page=2 http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081203&content_id=3700331&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3754869&type=blogEntry http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1319247,CST-SPT-cub08.article Like I said earlier, I haven't seen anything saying Hendry has contacted them about Hermida. It was widely reported that he was on their radar earlier in the month, but Florida wanted waaay too much from another team that asked and scared most of the others off. I hadn't seen the ESPN link you posted, that's the only link of those five that says they actually did contact them. There's a difference between having someone on a list, and actually pursuing that guy. Just googling "Hermida Cubs" isn't going to find that dude. haha, seriously? if multiple places are reporting that they've expressed interest, then it's pretty obvious that hendry has probably contacted them. plus like you said, that espn link said it. what more do you want? admit you were wrong and move on. I said I hadn't seen the link on ESPN before, what more do you want? It was well reported they were interested in him, but Florida asked for a royal haul from another team that did formally inquire, so I assumed that Hendry had no intentions of following through on that interest as a result. Coincidentally, reports of their interest dropped off after that as well. Other than that one obscure blog link within ESPN, it hadn't been reported anywhere else that they actually had talks about him. That one obscure ESPN page could be mistaken since it's not corroborated. Or if it is corroborated, sorry for not taking the time to read a thousand pages throughout the net with the earlier reported interest. Are you one of those guys that actually gets a stiffy from saying "told you so," and are you getting pissed because I'm depriving you of that? Because that's what you're acting like.

All you have to do is google "cubs hermida" dude http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8793068/ChiSox-GM-is-up-to-something-...-but-what??CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49 http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2008/11/08/2008-11-08_with_superfan_barack_obama_leading_cheer.html?page=2 http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081203&content_id=3700331&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3754869&type=blogEntry http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1319247,CST-SPT-cub08.article Like I said earlier, I haven't seen anything saying Hendry has contacted them about Hermida. It was widely reported that he was on their radar earlier in the month, but Florida wanted waaay too much from another team that asked and scared most of the others off. I hadn't seen the ESPN link you posted, that's the only link of those five that says they actually did contact them. There's a difference between having someone on a list, and actually pursuing that guy. Just googling "Hermida Cubs" isn't going to find that dude.

Depending on how the first half of the season goes, I could see us getting him at the deadline. They'd get the last real cheap year out of him before his contract starts to balloon.

Really? Because of the four offseason RF targets the Cubs had going into the winter meetings, Gathright is better than 2-3 of them (depending on how many games you think Bradley will last in the outfield). And that's BEFORE you take contract value into account. If we're considering those targets to be Ibanez, Hermida, Abreu, and Bradley, than there's no argument to be made that Gathright is even close to as good as any of them. Why is this comparison even being made? There's zero rumors floating out there even remotely linking us to Hermida. Ibanez is a Philly. Abreu and Bradley are being looked at as replacements to Kosuke in RF so he can platoon in LF. No one ever advocated Gathright as a substitute to Abreu and Bradley. He signed a minor league contract for crying out loud. If Pie gets traded, then Gathright basically replaces him as "organizational depth." Uh, that guy made the comparison? I was just responding to exactly what he said. And we have definitely been linked to Hermida. Badly written post on my part after going back and rereading it. My intent was to reinforce your said, not counter your post. As far as the Hermida link, I've seen it nothing outside of posters here saying they'd love him and one or two local writers suggesting we should go after him. I haven't seen anything saying Hendry contacted them about Hermida. They've definitely been linked to him Then quit being lazy and provide a link.

Really? Because of the four offseason RF targets the Cubs had going into the winter meetings, Gathright is better than 2-3 of them (depending on how many games you think Bradley will last in the outfield). And that's BEFORE you take contract value into account. If we're considering those targets to be Ibanez, Hermida, Abreu, and Bradley, than there's no argument to be made that Gathright is even close to as good as any of them. Why is this comparison even being made? There's zero rumors floating out there even remotely linking us to Hermida. Ibanez is a Philly. Abreu and Bradley are being looked at as replacements to Kosuke in RF so he can platoon in LF. No one ever advocated Gathright as a substitute to Abreu and Bradley. He signed a minor league contract for crying out loud. If Pie gets traded, then Gathright basically replaces him as "organizational depth." did you even read the series of posts you're replying to? doesn't sound like it. This is the big IF. If Pie gets traded, for something of value than I wouldnt mind Gathright as a replacement. However, I just hope it would be for something of value, not just to get him off the team. Still, when you have Pie for league minimum, I dont understand throwing Gathright 1-2 mil when by all accounts, were trying to shed some pay roll. It's not that big of an if. If we don't get another lefty bat, then Gathright basically assumes Edmonds spot on the bench and spells Johnson when he needs it, and that's only when Kosuke is in RF and DeRo is in the infield. If DeRo is in the outfield, then both Kosuke shifts over, so he and Johnson would be ahead of him on the depth chart in CF. So, he'd be somewhere in between 2nd and 3rd option in CF.

Really? Because of the four offseason RF targets the Cubs had going into the winter meetings, Gathright is better than 2-3 of them (depending on how many games you think Bradley will last in the outfield). And that's BEFORE you take contract value into account. If we're considering those targets to be Ibanez, Hermida, Abreu, and Bradley, than there's no argument to be made that Gathright is even close to as good as any of them. Why is this comparison even being made? There's zero rumors floating out there even remotely linking us to Hermida. Ibanez is a Philly. Abreu and Bradley are being looked at as replacements to Kosuke in RF so he can platoon in LF. No one ever advocated Gathright as a substitute to Abreu and Bradley. He signed a minor league contract for crying out loud. If Pie gets traded, then Gathright basically replaces him as "organizational depth." Uh, that guy made the comparison? I was just responding to exactly what he said. And we have definitely been linked to Hermida. Badly written post on my part after going back and rereading it. My intent was to reinforce your said, not counter your post. As far as the Hermida link, I've seen it nothing outside of posters here saying they'd love him and one or two local writers suggesting we should go after him. I haven't seen anything saying Hendry contacted them about Hermida.

Actually, I think it'd been split into 3 threads...2 in transactions, and the Dunn one in Baseball Discussions. I merged the two here, and I think we should be all set now. That makes alot more sense. I didn't see the Dunn thread at first. It's actually in Cubs discussions. Does one of the mods know something that hasn't been announced yet that the rest of us don't know? [/irrational hope]

Really? Because of the four offseason RF targets the Cubs had going into the winter meetings, Gathright is better than 2-3 of them (depending on how many games you think Bradley will last in the outfield). And that's BEFORE you take contract value into account. If we're considering those targets to be Ibanez, Hermida, Abreu, and Bradley, than there's no argument to be made that Gathright is even close to as good as any of them. Why is this comparison even being made? There's zero rumors floating out there even remotely linking us to Hermida. Ibanez is a Philly. Abreu and Bradley are being looked at as replacements to Kosuke in RF so he can platoon in LF. No one ever advocated Gathright as a substitute to Abreu and Bradley. He signed a minor league contract for crying out loud. If Pie gets traded, then Gathright basically replaces him as "organizational depth."

Yeah...signing guys like this to compete for the last couple roster spots is such a clueless move. What are we thinking? Yeah...instead of signing him, we should be going after Abreu and Dunn in addition to Bradley. Abreu and Dunn can compete for at bats from our bench. I don't know what our organization is thinking...why are they being so cheap with a minor league contract for our last bench spot when everyone knows a team is only as strong as it's weakest link. If Gathright makes the roster out of ST, then that means we have a team of Gathrights, right?!?! If you're not a former all-star, or have all-star potential, go play for someone elses bench! Its not about wanting a team of all stars. It not a spot that has to be filled. If we we needed a few extra bench players, then Id be all about signing him. However, as is we have a full bench. All assuming we end up signing that lefty for RF, We have Cedeno, who we need as a back up SS. We'll need a back up catcher of some kind. Unless we trade one,. we'll have whichever of Johnson/Fukudome isnt starting. We'll have Fontenot and Hoffpauir, as well as Pie, who will not only fill the same need Gathright would, but should be a more complete player, plus the fact that were already paying him. This is already a full bench, and chances are, there wont be room for all of these guys. Two problems with your post...number one, do you understand what a minor league contract is and what purpose is serves? Number two, no, our bench is not full.

Really, really strange choice of which posts to take for the cut job splitting the thread into two. You might want to take the pg 6 reference out of the title since there's only two pages now.

Yeah...signing guys like this to compete for the last couple roster spots is such a clueless move. What are we thinking? Yeah...instead of signing him, we should be going after Abreu and Dunn in addition to Bradley. Abreu and Dunn can compete for at bats from our bench. I don't know what our organization is thinking...why are they being so cheap with a minor league contract for our last bench spot when everyone knows a team is only as strong as it's weakest link. If Gathright makes the roster out of ST, then that means we have a team of Gathrights, right?!?! If you're not a former all-star, or have all-star potential, go play for someone elses bench!

It's really not though. Theres 0 Logic, especially when it gives me the sickening feeling that it could be the only signing of the off season. Hes the type of player who would be good to have around in September as an extra set of legs, but thats about it. There's no reason to think it'll be the only signing of the season. You're really being quick with the kneejerk.

I'm sorry, but I just thought this thread needed this famous movie quote...

As long as Lou isn't tempted to start him more than 5-10 times a year, this is a good signing (assuming salary is appropriate...i.e. $1 or 2 mil...)

Yeah, I'd like to give Saito a shot if he's healthy, but it would have to be on a incentive laden deal. Who knows, maybe Percival, Gagne failures will give teams looking to strike lightning in a bottle with a old injured ridden vet a pause this off season before they give them huge 1 year deals. If he has anything left, I wouldn't mind giving him a $1 mil deal with another 2.5 in incentives based on appearances and what not... Doubt he'd take it though. I think he'll end up taking an offer similar to what LAD already offered. I think he's holding out hoping to get more on the market, and will circle back when the money isn't there.

So everyone else in the business of baseball is wrong, but this hodge-podge group of forumites is right? With all due respect, give me a break. You're really offering up some twisted arguments here. First off, the last comment in your post is pretty unnecessary. If that's the way you feel, then why even bother being here? It's well known that certain categories are valued more than other categories in baseball. You have a handful of GMs making their money by trying to exploit undervalued attributes in order to maximize bang for the buck because they realize there is more than one way to contribute to the game. Hence, Beane's pursuit of OBP during the years preceding the release of his moneyball book. Second, re: feasting on mediocre pitching and sucking against good pitching...that's why good pitching is good. They can get the good hitters out too. Yes, Dunn and Soriano don't as well against good pitching as they do mediocre pitching. And the sky is blue, and the same can be said about just about every other hitter in the league. It's hard to comment on Dunn's postseason ability as he's never played in the postseason. There's really no legitimate reason to believe he'd perform any better or worse in any given playoff series. One thing that's interesting with Dunn...he hit 40 hrs exactly for the 4th straight year. Has anyone ever hit the same number of homers with a total other than zero four years in a row? Worthless trivia at best, but still interesting...

Think of the Angelos/BR fiasco last winter. Could you imagine how ugly talks for Markakis would get? You'd have to agree to literally let the O's rape the entire organization.

I started Portis, Lee Evans, Boldin, Deion Branch, and Cadillac Williams today. :cry: I was the runaway winner during the regular season, but Portis, Gore, Parker, and Graham didn't hold up physically. Boldin and Evans picked a bad time to crap the bed. If Philadelphias DST puts up like 40 points tomorrow night, I could move on, but that ain't gonna happen.

How many SSs can provide plus defense and be a good bet to OPS+ 100 or higher? Oh yeah, don't forget he also plays "leadoff."

Never use Dunn's name with the term "can move" in the same sentence. I'd rather never see Dunn at 1B. Instead of lowering our defense in just LF, he'd worsen the defense of our entire infield.

And compared to the Big Unit, Z fields like Maddux in his prime. Why are we comparing Randy Johnson to Z? Why are we not comparing him to the person he'd be replacing in the roatation (Marquis or Marshall)? I guess that's my fault, even though I wasn't really comparing them, I was using Z as a basis of comparison so people would stop thinking Johnson would be a horrible alternative to filling the spot left by Marquis There's reasonable evidence to suggest we can't expect a similar performance from RJ in 09. He's a horrible alternative because there's a small but reasonable possibility he won't be good, and there's an even better possibility he won't be healthy. Horrible may be overstating it just a little bit, but he's not a desirable option.

Soriano is far from perfect out there, but he's not nearly as bad as you're painting him to be. He's got speed and good range and has a pretty good arm. He just gets bad jumps and doesn't always take the best routes. He's at least slightly above-average out there.

Agreed. If we don't seal the deal with Bradley, then it sounds like Dunn might come a little cheaper, as it's been reported we are his first pick. Burrell is more than a decent plan C. If we did end up with him, then Soriano is manning right instead (same with Dunn...).

I'd go with Evans.