Jehrico

If that is the hold up, then that's pretty dumb. Dunn shouldn't play RF with Soriano in the same OF. Any manager who would play Soriano in LF and Dunn in RF should be fired. On the spot.

Slightly old article on the topic... http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-30-rogers-whispersnov30,0,732802.story I haven't seen any follow up on this...was Hill released from the Venezuela team as this article reports was about to happen? I can't see him having a Cliff Lee type resurgence after pitching (badly) in winter ball and not getting the offseason to clear his head and rest his arm. I can't possibly see how he makes the roster this year. Is he worth putting on the 60 day DL, give him the year off, and try again next year if he performs predictably in ST?

That's a pretty horrible article. Those were all horrible deals for the teams. I would argue that some of those were the greatest deals Boras ever got his clients. Especially when he got ARod a quarter billion. I take that back...a quarter billion wasn't enough even though there was only one team in it way before they got to that number...he got another two million on top of that. Amazing.

...we do? I think Mark DeRosa has insomnia and Ronny Cedeno suffers from Asperger's Syndrome. I wouldn't mind seeing Greinke and Z on the same staff. Chances are they'd get in a fight at some point in the season, and we all remember what Zambrano did after the last time he punched out a teammate.

Whether it's time to move on or not depends on the target. If Hendry gets a chance to upgrade the team significantly without giving up too much, he should jump on it. He shouldn't get impatient and not let the Peavy situation play itself out because of a marginal upgrade in RF like Abreu or something like that.

I don't think Theriot is as bad as some people make him out to be. However, I'm not willing to bet that he can reproduce what he did last year either. I expect him to regress towards the norm. He may not, who knows. Either way, his value is as high as it's going to ever be and he's replacable. We either need to sell high on a trade with him this offseason, or just accept he's going to be our starting SS for the next 5 years. What norm, though? Going back to AA in '05, Theriot's posted pretty consistent .300 AVG, low-SLG, OBP-heavy .750ish OPS's, and that's exactly what the Cubs got from him in '08. Seems to me that, if anything, he regressed to the norm in '08, and '07 was uncharacteristically bad. Of course perhaps the better explanation is that Theriot simply hasn't been in the bigleagues long enough to establish a norm in the first place. At any rate, I surely wouldn't be so quick to assume that '07 is it, and that some sort of deline from '08 levels is inevitable. Theriot's career minor league line is .271/.355/.692. Guys normally don't put up better lines in the majors than minors, especially guys who spend 6 years in the minors. I think the norm should be expected to be closer to his career minor league line than what he did last year. He turns 29 this month, and is now a marginally passable SS. So, he's got maybe a couple of seasons left to where he can passably play SS. If he can't play SS everyday, he loses a ton of value. Back to the norm argument, some guys like Theriot leave everyone waiting for years for them to trip up but they continue exceeding expectations. Good organizations realize these guys are the exceptions and not the rules, and don't sit on them. More often than not, selling high on guys who fit Theriot's profile ends up being the right answer. Theriot spent the early portion of his minor league career as a switch hitter. His numbers picked up when he dropped hitting lefthanded. I'm sure someone here can shed more light on this and maybe speak to the timing of when the change was made, but suffice it to say that looking at his career minor league line is going to be misleading. I'd put more weight on the last few years when we know for sure he was only batting righthanded. All the weight, actually. I didn't know that. That changes things a little bit. However, his MLB numbers are still a touch on the high side for what he should reasonably be expected. I'm also pessimistic about how much longer he can play a marginally passing SS, as he turns 29 this week, which dramatically impacts his value. He's still an excellent sell high candidate in my book.

There was no chance that he makes the team this past year either, yet he did.At least we don't have Dusty anymore. Lou gave him a couple of cursory appearances, then shut him down after he failed to perform. Dusty would have kept trotting him out there until his arm fell off.

west coast not-withstanding, I can't imagine Lee lifting his NTC to go to that crap team He lives in the bay area. i know this. I still don't think he'll trade sleeping in his own bed for playing for a last place team Technically, he would be trading NOT sleeping in his own bed and playing for a winning team to sleeping in his own bed while playing for lesser team.

That was also before the Padre's had a black hole for a hitters park called Petco. Some thoughts on the whole Greene situation... You can't ignore last years stats anymore than you can't ignore the previous 4 years stats. More recent stats normally hold more value for prediction than older stats, unless there is a specific reason the more recent stats should be disregarded (i.e. playing through injury...). You can't ignore park factors. Petco was the worst park in which to hit in 2008. Busch2 was 23rd, so getting out of Petco to go to Busch2 should help a little, but not that much. 2008 wasn't just a down year for Khalil, it was epically disastrous. It was the kind of bad year that has ended other players careers before. You have to wonder if there are any lingering mental issues from such a frustrating season. After exceptionally bad or good years, normally you should expect players to regress towards their expected norms. I think if you consider all of the above, Greene shouldn't be immediately dismissed or discounted based solely on his 2008. That's narrowmindedly dismissive, especially in light of his past before that. On the other hand, nor should anyone consider this the type of move that separates championship franchises from the rest of the pack. That's just as foolish as evaluating Greene based solely on his 2008, just on the other end of the foolish spectrum. This move makes more sense for the Cardinals than it does us. They were trotting out Ceasar freaking Izturis at SS last year, occasionally platooned with Aaron Miles. Greene should be expected to improve the position for both of them offensively and defensively, even if you go with more conservative projections for Greene. The Cardinals have less payroll uncertainty than we do, and can gamble on how much of an upgrade Greene will be over what they had last year. On the other hand, regardless of what you think of Theriot (I think he peaked and should be sold high), it's more of a gamble that Greene would upgrade SS for us in 2009 than it is with St Louis. Without Greene, we were projecting to be in better shape than SS than St Louis anyways. Plus, with our payroll uncertainty, we have an additional opportunity cost to factor in if we added the extra $6 mil for that position. Adding Greene could take us out of the Peavy running, or inhibit our ability to upgrade RF which are more pressing needs. That's hard to say because we don't know exactly what we're playing with. Plus, there are some defensive metrics like PMR show Greene's ability with the glove at SS sliding the last few years and actually had him not very good with the glove last year. That's great cause for concern, as his value really is accentuated by his reputation as a rare SS who is outstanding with the glove, and can provide what would be average offense for non-SS positions. It's possible that his 2008 decline in defense was due to pressing because his offense was so horrible last year, but that doesn't explain the drop in 2007 either. I don't understand the extreme polarity of the arguments for or against Greene. I think this easily a case where attitudes should be more middle-of-the-road if you objectively look at the big picture.

I didn't think he was old enough to play for the Giants.

That's why this is taking so long. I don't know why everyone expects other GMs to act quickly to help the Cubs get Jake Peavy. It doesn't make any sense. Also, who knows if Hendry is looking at giving up all of the names you listed above at the same time for him. I doubt the package is that high.

Official press release from the Cubs. I thought maybe the joker was coming out in you...considering we never post entire stories and you didn't link. This is turning into one of those days I could use a joke. Let me rephrase that...I was hoping this was a joke...

Shenanigans?

I don't think Theriot is as bad as some people make him out to be. However, I'm not willing to bet that he can reproduce what he did last year either. I expect him to regress towards the norm. He may not, who knows. Either way, his value is as high as it's going to ever be and he's replacable. We either need to sell high on a trade with him this offseason, or just accept he's going to be our starting SS for the next 5 years. What norm, though? Going back to AA in '05, Theriot's posted pretty consistent .300 AVG, low-SLG, OBP-heavy .750ish OPS's, and that's exactly what the Cubs got from him in '08. Seems to me that, if anything, he regressed to the norm in '08, and '07 was uncharacteristically bad. Of course perhaps the better explanation is that Theriot simply hasn't been in the bigleagues long enough to establish a norm in the first place. At any rate, I surely wouldn't be so quick to assume that '07 is it, and that some sort of deline from '08 levels is inevitable. Theriot's career minor league line is .271/.355/.692. Guys normally don't put up better lines in the majors than minors, especially guys who spend 6 years in the minors. I think the norm should be expected to be closer to his career minor league line than what he did last year. He turns 29 this month, and is now a marginally passable SS. So, he's got maybe a couple of seasons left to where he can passably play SS. If he can't play SS everyday, he loses a ton of value. Back to the norm argument, some guys like Theriot leave everyone waiting for years for them to trip up but they continue exceeding expectations. Good organizations realize these guys are the exceptions and not the rules, and don't sit on them. More often than not, selling high on guys who fit Theriot's profile ends up being the right answer.

It could be if Theriot is a piece going to the Pads for Peavy and Hendry doesn't want Greene in return...

I don't dislike MacPhail at all, but you must admit that his slow moving pace and his overvaluing his players can be really annoying. I think he might be the wrong man for the job to rebuild the O's if you are an impatient O's fan. He might get it done, but it won't be done quickly. MacPhail also overvalues former Cubs prospects that were in the system when he was here (like Pie). Talks with the Os aren't "dragging on" yet, they just started. He's trying to get a better deal for his guy. This is another one of those Negotiating 101 concepts that people don't understand...you never accept the first offer. If he were that easy to work with, then he definitely wouldn't be the right guy to rebuild the O's. You can't hold him accountable if none of the other parties are laying down any deadlines for coming to a concensus. Time is on his side right now to see if he can get more. He's simply doing his job.

I don't think Theriot is as bad as some people make him out to be. However, I'm not willing to bet that he can reproduce what he did last year either. I expect him to regress towards the norm. He may not, who knows. Either way, his value is as high as it's going to ever be and he's replacable. We either need to sell high on a trade with him this offseason, or just accept he's going to be our starting SS for the next 5 years.

Yeah, the perennial playoff appearances, the championships, the good ol days... Don't forget spending top dollar to retain our best players like Greg Maddux. Honestly, that's maybe the one thing the Trib did well. Outside of Maddux, did they ever lose another player that they wanted to hold on to? I think he was the only one. The Maddux debacle was all Himes. The money was there, Himes let Maddux walk out of spite because he didn't like Maddux and his agent acting so presumptious by giving him a deadline on when to have their offer in, so he let the deadline pass and sent him the offer the next day to show them who was boss. Himes should have been publicly lynched over that one.

Yeah, the perennial playoff appearances, the championships, the good ol days...

I can't imagine someone holding all the records Rickey Henderson has could miss the first ballot. That said, I'm sure there will be writers who don't vote for him because he played in the steroid era/if Babe Ruth wasn't unanimous no one should be/he talked in the third person. I doubt more than 25% of the writers will use that reasoning though. I'm surprised that he was hated by sports writers. Guys that are as wierd and quirky as he was make the writers jobs easy.

please, please, please tell us that you were joking around here. Sarchasm. Funny comparison though...if Soriano had a little more discipline at the plate, his ceiling probably is near what Rickey's career looked like. Leadoff hitter with good power and speed. He wouldn't rack up the SB numbers because no one plays the game that way anymore, but if he walked enough to maintain a .400 OBP, he'd be a pretty similar player. That, and quit doing the stupid hop every time he catches a ball. Back to the original question, if Henderson isn't a 1st ballot HOFer but Ozzie Smith was, then the HOF is a complete sham.

I don't understand the hostility towards MacPhail. Most of it seems to be linked to the Roberts fiasco from last year, even though it's common knowledge that Angelos and his irrational man-love for Brian Roberts was the source of the friction in that deal, not MacPhail himself. There are plenty of reasons to not like MacPhail, but that isn't one of them.

I've clinched a playoff spot, so I'd actually be getting him for Week 15...against the Bears. Yeah, perhaps I should go do that. Now. EDIT: I went ahead and picked up Moore. In Week 16 (our championship week) he plays the Lions. Heh. So it was a pretty easy call. It came down to him or Berrian, but I trust Brees more than Frerotte. Odd thing about our league though. After 10 FA pickups or team-to-team trades, you have to pay $6 to the pot per transaction. Champ gets the cash. So this was like my 14th move. Not that it deterred me, because I was scared of playing Edwards and had no other option. Just never been in another league like this before. I stand to win quite a bit of cash though if I win, so it's worth it. I concur on Lance Moore. He's tied with Reggie Bush for most TDs on the Saints. Bush has three punts ran back, so Moore has the most TDs on that high scoring team if you don't count special teams. Of course, his targets will go down with Bush healthy again, but defenses will be cheating on Bush more too, which means he should get more long looks. I've got Edwards as well, and I'd drop him if there was anyone better left.

This is what is so amazing about the whole situation. Hendry was the primary guy responsible for the awesome farm system we had 5 years ago, he came up as a scout, that's where he cut his teeth. Why the farm that he basically built fell into such disrepair is something I can't rationalize.

Not that I wanted Hampton, but some names of past reclamation projects are being thrown out there to justify not signing Hampton. Everyone forget about Dempster? I'd never complain about Hendry picking anyone off of the scrap heap for league minimum contract that doesn't guarantee a roster spot. I'd only complain if they get used when they shouldn't, like Chad Fox.