Jehrico

Pardon me for interjecting, but it doesn't sound like you're practicing what you're preaching. That may be the reason for a handful of people, but you're broadly overgeneralizing why some people like Wilkerson and why some people are not pleased with the Soriano signing. There's plenty of honest discussion and debate around here. However, with the number of people here, you're going to find a few cases where some facts are twisted and misconstrued from time to time. That's life. Find a board anywhere on the internet that is open to anyone who wants to join where that is not the case. If you can't find several people around here to have an honest discussion and debate around here, you aren't trying very hard at all. This is one of the best sports boards I've found on the net, bar none.

Fingers crossed. I'd be excited if the Cubs won the bidding. It's about time they enter the Japanese market. It'd also be one less rotation hole to fill! I like the attitude that Igawa appears to have. He and Z would be fun to watch. On an unrelated note, Vinestal, who is that in your avatar? That would be Mark DeRosa, Ive taken up being his 1 man fan club sense everyone else seems to hate him. I like him and will continue to unless he gives me good reason not to. I like him as well, I try my best to like all the cubs and usually do unless they go all Neifi on us. Which seems to happen more often than not...

So a comparable free agent could expect to sign for around $12 mil a year then?

I'd really like to see Wilkerson signed. He's an OBP machine for what his salary is likely to be. I attribute his performance last year to him switching leagues and his injury he tried to play through. I think he's a very solid candidate to be comeback player of the year next year.

Huh? Sheets, Capuano, Bush, Villenuva, Vargas is still pretty good. It leaves the Brewers with just two guys who started 30 or more times last year. I guess only reliable starter was an exaggeration, but it does weaken their pitching staff. The next highest was Sheets with 17 starts. Capuano threw over 220 innings this last year, and was over 200 in '05 as well. Bush was also over 200 with more than 30 starts. Davis was third on their team in innings last year. I agree on Estrada...He's 30 years old now, so he's likely peaked. His walk rate has dropped sharply since 2004, indicating his approach or patience has worstened. Anyone batting over .300 should have an OBP over .350, IMO. Good move by the DBacks, I think Milwaukee could have done better.

Z's our ace. Hill I think has taken the #2 spot with his late run. Hopefully Prior can regain form and take the 3 spot. Schimdt could be in the mix. I wouldn't mind Suppan as the #5 (I know I'm dreaming...).

Typically those guys don't go this far into the free agency process. Bottom line is this: It's baseball, the safest bet is to assume the player will follow the money/years. If the Cubs offer more years, that's more stability than he might get staying on the west coast. I would have to agree with that. My original point got a little convoluted. Basically, I'm not convinced that Schmidt will make his decision based 100% on money (and definitely not because of pressure from his agent, like previously suggested). If someone close to home is in the ball park of our bid, I wouldn't be surprised if he spurned us. If we're looking to go longer than anyone else though, I think that would give us more of an advantage than being a little higher per year than others. Either way, I hope Hendry can find a way to get it done!

Seattle is great city. I can easily see why someone from that area would want to go back. Hey man, I love DC and wouldn't want to go anywhere else. But if the choice between two jobs, one in my preferred location and another in Chicago, for a 3 year gig...I think I can delay my preferred city for 3 years if it meant an extra 6 million dollars in my account. West coast gets played up too much. Schmidt isn't Clemens, he's ten years younger, and he's not on the cusp of retirement. For a 3 year gig, location probably doesn't mean that much to a guy not yet in his twilight years. I strongly agree with all that The Dude is saying here, and it's not just because I saw part of the Big Lebowski again last night. A few extra million would make the distance from your preferred locale pretty easy to deal with. It's not like he'd be spending every day at home either, they are travelling most of the time. I'd disagree. If I was generally happy where I was at, I was married and had kids in school, I wouldn't move for 45 million over three instead of, say, $39 mil over three. It's not like you can't get by quite nicely for $13 mil a year, I wouldn't yank my kids out of the school system and uproot my family because I was greedy for another two per. But then again, I don't know if he has kids or anything like that either. Would you still have the family live in Seattle and make your residence there, but acknowledge the fact that you have a $15M/year job that kept you on the road for 6 months at a time? Have the fam with you in a condo in Chicago during the summer months so you're really only on the road away from them for four months during the year. You can afford to fly everyone in to Chicago for every homestand, too. Would you expect your family to drop everything (school, sports, social activities) every homestand and fly halfway across the country? Yeah, he can afford it, but that'd get to be a drain after awhile. I'm not saying he wouldn't do it. What I am saying is that just because we offer him a couple more million a year than anyone else doesn't guarantee it will be enough to convince him to sign. Everyone's priorities are different. I don't know Schmidt from a hill of beans, so I couldn't tell you where his are. All I'm saying is don't be surprised if he decides not to sign with us even if we are the highest bidder, as that won't guarantee anything.

A) I don't think you can honestly say you wouldn't do that, because you've probably never been in the position where you've decided on job offers that involved tens of millions of dollars (just a guess). The number of already rich players who end up accepting more millions over moving home is staggering, such that my guess is most people are going to take the money. B) He's not a 9-5er who is going to wake up every morning in the same bed and kiss his wife and kids goodbye as she gets them ready for school. He will be in whatever city he plays for for a grand total of maybe 3 months next year. The majority of the time, he will be in another city, on his way to another city, on his way back from another city, or preparing to go to another city. Playing at home doesn't mean you see your kids all the time. If he leaves SF, presumably, he's "yanking his kids out of school" regardless of whether he ends up in Seattle, Chicago or New York. I honestly can say I wouldn't do that. After what I've been through since 2001, I can say definitively that providing some stability for my family is worth more to me than getting a 13-15% pay raise, provided that I'm more than sufficient to provide for my family without that extra 13-15%, of course. As for the second point, the key word is IF. IF he leaves San Fran, we've got as good of a shot as any. If he's not really set on going elsewhere, then I'm not convinced a couple of million will be the sole determining factor. I think you're underestimating how many guys like stability. Haven't you ever heard of anyone giving a hometown discount?

Seattle is great city. I can easily see why someone from that area would want to go back. Hey man, I love DC and wouldn't want to go anywhere else. But if the choice between two jobs, one in my preferred location and another in Chicago, for a 3 year gig...I think I can delay my preferred city for 3 years if it meant an extra 6 million dollars in my account. West coast gets played up too much. Schmidt isn't Clemens, he's ten years younger, and he's not on the cusp of retirement. For a 3 year gig, location probably doesn't mean that much to a guy not yet in his twilight years. Either way, I'm not convinced 15 per year instead of 13 year is enough additional money to floor him enough to where he just can't say no. I strongly agree with all that The Dude is saying here, and it's not just because I saw part of the Big Lebowski again last night. A few extra million would make the distance from your preferred locale pretty easy to deal with. It's not like he'd be spending every day at home either, they are travelling most of the time. I'd disagree. If I was generally happy where I was at, I was married and had kids in school, I wouldn't move for 45 million over three instead of, say, $39 mil over three. It's not like you can't get by quite nicely for $13 mil a year, I wouldn't yank my kids out of the school system and uproot my family because I was greedy for another two per. But then again, I don't know if he has kids or anything like that either. Only problem is that he's not already in his "ideal" spot, he needs to uproot to get to Seattle. FWIW, he's married with a 5 year old and a 2 year old. So I guess the question is, how happy is he in San Fran? If Seattle is his "ideal" spot, then maybe there's hope, because Seattle is going to stink next year. I would think he's be more tempted to go to Seattle for his final hurrah if they can get it turned around in a couple of years. He may be content on staying in SF until the ideal opportunity to head north arises, or maybe not.

Seattle is great city. I can easily see why someone from that area would want to go back. Hey man, I love DC and wouldn't want to go anywhere else. But if the choice between two jobs, one in my preferred location and another in Chicago, for a 3 year gig...I think I can delay my preferred city for 3 years if it meant an extra 6 million dollars in my account. West coast gets played up too much. Schmidt isn't Clemens, he's ten years younger, and he's not on the cusp of retirement. For a 3 year gig, location probably doesn't mean that much to a guy not yet in his twilight years. I strongly agree with all that The Dude is saying here, and it's not just because I saw part of the Big Lebowski again last night. A few extra million would make the distance from your preferred locale pretty easy to deal with. It's not like he'd be spending every day at home either, they are travelling most of the time. I'd disagree. If I was generally happy where I was at, I was married and had kids in school, I wouldn't move for 45 million over three instead of, say, $39 mil over three. It's not like you can't get by quite nicely for $13 mil a year, I wouldn't yank my kids out of the school system and uproot my family because I was greedy for another two per. But then again, I don't know if he has kids or anything like that either.

They might be thinking that now, but last week they were thinking... "I should have taken the blue pill..."

I think so. You have to coordinate and make an appointment with his secretary...er....his PO. Just be advised, it sounds like he's booked for the next 10 to 20.

Sorry, but am I missing something everyone else in the thread is catching? I see nothing in Bruce's article about the Cubs being on the cusp of making a hard push for Soriano. Just wondering... ?? Had to read the article twice...it's just a short blurb between all of the old Cubs returning in some organizational capacity and the Cotts trade. I guess I was expecting a full article about it.

Sorry, but am I missing something everyone else in the thread is catching? I see nothing in Bruce's article about the Cubs being on the cusp of making a hard push for Soriano. Just wondering...

Soriano's 2006 offensive numbers = fluke. Soriano's defense is terrible. Soriano's interest in returning to the AL is considerable. I hope Hendry isn't thinking about getting involved in the bidding, I don't want him.

Like Joe Torre?

Haven't bullpen arms been "his guys"? Didn't he specifically target Remlinger, Hawkins, Eyre, and Howry and then get them? Eyre and Howry were the exceptions. I don't recall him wrapping up Remlinger or Hawkins that quickly, those happened a little later in the offseason. I'd like to see him just once target a big name FA, say "that's my guy," and go out and bowl him over. He's always lukewarm on his interest on anyone (other than Dusty 4 years ago), and tries wait for the bidding to develop as if he thinks he can get someone cheap when there's no interest from someone else (with the good players, that is, he has no problem bowling over the Glendon's and Neifi's of the world). Erye was on November 29th Howry was on December 2nd Hawkins was on December 3rd Remlinger was on December 4th Okay then...let him go do that with a big bat or a starter for once!

Haven't bullpen arms been "his guys"? Didn't he specifically target Remlinger, Hawkins, Eyre, and Howry and then get them? Eyre and Howry were the exceptions. I don't recall him wrapping up Remlinger or Hawkins that quickly, those happened a little later in the offseason. I'd like to see him just once target a big name FA, say "that's my guy," and go out and bowl him over. He's always lukewarm on his interest on anyone (other than Dusty 4 years ago), and tries wait for the bidding to develop as if he thinks he can get someone cheap when there's no interest from someone else (with the good players, that is, he has no problem bowling over the Glendon's and Neifi's of the world).

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/84784,CST-SPT- cub05.article Why wouldn't "losing out" concern Hendry? If he knows who he wants go get him. Is he just going to wait and just take the last man standing? This leads to another very good reason to roast Hendry that I don't think I've ever seen him criticized for...Indecisiveness. I can't recall him ever saying "I want that guy," and going out and wrapping him up as soon as possible. Whenever he has shown interest, he takes his time and usually ends up losing out. Grow a set Jim, and learn how to make decisions! I could do a dissertation on bio-nuclear physics in less time than he takes researching free agents (not like's it's not known who generally will be on the market in the offseason before the offseason comes...). He needs to learn to have a game plan before the end of September. You don't wait until the season is over to start thinking about the offseason.

You sound like you already know who's coming in :wink:

Marcus Giles anyone? He's number one on Atlanta's dump list this winter. I say we buy low for once. I'd rather give Cedeno another year at SS under a manager who can get him to start showing a little patience again and have Giles at 2B then go with Cedeno at 2B and Izturis at SS.

I think we should hire Buck Showalter. Then fire him after one season. His teams have a pretty good record in the playoffs the year he's replaced, no? That would be worth putting up with him for one year, I think...

Good luck in your future endeavors, Glendon...

Gas must be cheap where you live :wink: