bleedcubbieblue

What do you think the chances are that Wood goes to the Yankees as a FA, they give him a two-year deal, and it turns into gold for both parties? Funny, I just emailed my friend who is a die hard Yankee fan, and said that exact thing. As soon as he takes the cubbie blue off, and George signs him, things will be coming up sunny for him! The other thing is, what do you think the chances are that the socks take a flyer on him? That could happen, and why not, if the risk is not too much?

Well, I thought I would never be saying this, but at least if nothing else, it is going to make the decision on whether to pick up that option a lot easier. If it was mediocre starts, then they would be on the fence on picking it up. If he spends most of the year on the DL, it will be a no brainer. BCB

How many times must this be proven false until people stop saying it? Well, it's technically false. But it's also been written by nearly all the writers, including Bruce, that there's a handshake agreement that Maddux won't be dealt w/o his approval. So it's effectively a NTC, though not technically one. Sure, JH could go back on his word. Although I think he's done a pretty bad job as GM (at least recently), I don't think he'd throw away his reputation with all players by dealing Maddux against his wishes. There was a quote from last Sunday's Trib from Maddux in which he said he does not have one; "Whatever," Maddux said. "There's nothing I can do about [a trade]. I don't have a no-trade clause." http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-0606040254jun04,1,2415632.story BCB

Hall can play multiple positions and would make for an ideal guy off the bench. Amazing that the Brew Crew would consider bench depth as a need and the Cubs consider it unnecessary. Bill Hall or Neifi Perez. Such a tough choice. Not! I'm going to take a wild guess that Bill Hall doesn't make half what Neifi Perez makes. [-( 400k. he hasn't tested free agency yet tho. Actually, Neifi didn't either, and if he had, Hendry would have seen there was not much of a market for him, and maybe he would not have dearly overpaid for him. Didn't Hendry find Neifi on the scrap heap, Hendry is such a gum shoe, he makes Jerry Krause look like Sherlock Holmes. Listen, a GM is supposed to pick up players that make the team better, but from Hendry's track record since he has taken over, and specifically since 2003, this team has only gotten worse, which tells me Hendry does not have a lot of knowledge about being a good GM. Which also tells me Bill Hall should not make any immediate plans on coming to Chicago, even if the Brewers made him available. BCB

The Yankess have always had a bigger payroll than all of the other teams. Go back and look at their teams of the 70's that they bought, mostly from the A's Charlie Finley. The recent spree has been unprecedented. I know in the mid 90s they did not have the highest payroll, Baltimore did. And when the Yankees finally took over that ranking, they were only slightly ahead of the 2nd and 3rd highest payrolls. It wasn't until around 2000, when they went hard after guys like Mussian, Giambi and others, that their payroll skyrocketed past everybody else. While it might be unprecedented, it had to do more with giving them the best chance in the world to win more WS championships. I certainly wish the Tribune cared as much as Frankensteinbrenner did about winning, but fiscal responsibility overrules everything the Cubs do. While the Yanks might not have won a WS championship these last 6 years, they certainly have been much closer than we have ever been in those 6 years, not to mention in the past 98 years. If one gets enjoyment out of them having such a huge payroll to only come up short, good for you, but I certainly wish the Tribune handling of the Cubs and their payroll was closer to the Yanks model, than the one they currently have in place, because as you can see from the position we are in, we end up with what we have on the field. 13 winning seasons in a row speaks volumes about how they run that organization, a huge payroll is just one of the outcomes of doing this, something the Tribune never wishes to have. BCB I think my mantra from now on will be "I'd rather have a smart GM than a rich owner." I guess Cashman may be disproving this argument, but at least with the Tribune's announcement today, it is something we have to hope for, but after the last 25 years of their ownership, they have not had one since Dallas Green, and I don't foresee this changing anytime soon. Zero confidence in them identifying the right man for the job. BCB

The Yankess have always had a bigger payroll than all of the other teams. Go back and look at their teams of the 70's that they bought, mostly from the A's Charlie Finley. The recent spree has been unprecedented. I know in the mid 90s they did not have the highest payroll, Baltimore did. And when the Yankees finally took over that ranking, they were only slightly ahead of the 2nd and 3rd highest payrolls. It wasn't until around 2000, when they went hard after guys like Mussian, Giambi and others, that their payroll skyrocketed past everybody else. While it might be unprecedented, it had to do more with giving them the best chance in the world to win more WS championships. I certainly wish the Tribune cared as much as Frankensteinbrenner did about winning, but fiscal responsibility overrules everything the Cubs do. While the Yanks might not have won a WS championship these last 6 years, they certainly have been much closer than we have ever been in those 6 years, not to mention in the past 98 years. If one gets enjoyment out of them having such a huge payroll to only come up short, good for you, but I certainly wish the Tribune handling of the Cubs and their payroll was closer to the Yanks model, than the one they currently have in place, because as you can see from the position we are in, we end up with what we have on the field. 13 winning seasons in a row speaks volumes about how they run that organization, a huge payroll is just one of the outcomes of doing this, something the Tribune never wishes to have. BCB

This was in Monday's Cubune; "Outfielder Angel Pagan, on the disabled list since April 16, could begin a rehab assignment within the next week to 10 days." BCB

Stiff back. Thanks bcb, just saw it in the Trib. My gut tells me he will not miss his next outing. Now if it was Wood or Prior.................???? Well..........

Stiff back.

The Tribune is betting that ultimately their stock will go back up, which in the short term(yesterday), it did. But if their circulation and other outlets do not start doing better, and their stock goes down along with revenues, it will mean bad things for the Tribune. But the good news is, the Cubs have nothing do to with Tribune revenues, they operate as their own separate entity, which means that the payroll should stay the same, regardless what the Tribune is doing. Although, that is if you believe this statement as being true, which I don't. For some reason, a small part of me hopes that they do not do better and revenues keep shrinking, because it should ultimately mean that they may have to sell off the Cubs to raise revenue down the road. I guess this means that all that revenue they have been hiding with the radio and tv contracts they seem to underestimate year in and year out, cannot no longer substain the Tribunes overall profits. (this last part is sarcasim) BCB

I figured I would follow suit and say...... No

Good to see Jim was garbage picking again, he will go well with the bookends known as Neifi and Rusch. Well at least we can give him a 2 year extension after he has a decent season, and saves us from last place! BCB

My too! Using the Cubs theory of signing players, only 8 more years before we sign him to a multi year deal because he brings the intangible things they like in ball players. Of course, it will also mean that it is 8 years past his prime! And most important, we are getting him at a discounted price. BCB

It will also mean that A Ram will be making more errors and not getting to as many balls. Note to MacPhail, an excuse for the next radio interview in 2 months, when we will be in the cellar by ourself! BCB

I guess all this talk about how tough getting tickets are, along with being scalped by scalpers will all be gone by the end of June early July. They will probably be giving those tickets away, especially if the socks stay on their pace and keep playing outstanding ball. Maybe even some of those fans that infiltrate Wrigley to drink and party, will be taking their business over to cell block instead. Just think how Wrigley will look once September comes? To quote Green Day, Wake me up, when September ends!

A little soon to make that judgment, don't you think? Furcal had offseason knee surgery and started off terribly, but his OBP is already about 30 points higher than Ronny's and 60 points higher than Pierre's. Granted, Furcal hasn't been playing to his potential but when you compare him to Pierre...NO CONTEST. Furcal 36R 45H 2HR 16RBI 25BB 29K 10SB .245AVG .333OBP Pierre 24R 44H 0HR 2RBI 8BB 18K 14SB .235AVG .270OBP Look at the contracts though. If Pierre continues to have a bad year, he's a FA at the end of the year so we can get rid of him. If Furcal had signed with us and was having a bad year, we would still be stuck with him for 4 more years. I agree that I would much rather have Furcal this year than Pierre, but nobody knows how Furcal would hold up through 2010. I truly believe that if Pierre's agent wouldn't be asking for that much he would be signed to a multi-year deal already. Sometimes the best deals are the one you never make!

A fire sale scares me now as much as anything. Instead of just screwing up the 2006 season, Hendry could conceivably cripple the Cubs for the next 5 years... What about this season has not been screwed up? As for crippling the Cubs, the very fact that he was extended, has ensured it! Agreed. The only thing that would make me mad now is trading our players for horrible prospects. At this point, I am willing to give some horrible propects a chance, and a good example would be Borchard taking Maddux down with a 3 run dong. Then again, he was facing Cub pitching! BCB

A fire sale scares me now as much as anything. Instead of just screwing up the 2006 season, Hendry could conceivably cripple the Cubs for the next 5 years... What about this season has not been screwed up? As for crippling the Cubs, the very fact that he was extended, has ensured it!

Well tribune employee emails are; first initial last name @tribune.com I fired one off yesterday, while he did not respond, it also did not get bounced, and that is not to say it is manned, but I found it interesting that it did not bounce. I guess one could say, it is a publically traded company, and there is no reason not to have this kind of information available, especially if one would like to write or discuss scomthing with someone in this postion. The right thing to do would be to resign. BCB

I personally go back to 2002 where we didn't dump Alou to make room for Vlad. Same thing (as you say) in 2003 with Tejada and in 2004 with Beltran. Once they finally see that signing a top free agent will ultimately keep them a better team, and stay competitive for a longer period, along with costing them less money in the long term, things will stay the same. The postion they are in year in and year out, never the biggest spender, never the smallest spender, keeps them in the position they are always in, which is a relatively high payroll, hoping to pay .500 ball. Not the way things should be done. They seem to never target the right player, just the way things are, and will be, until they blow it up, or sell off the team.

Offseason???? You can make that offseasons! Starting off after our run in 2003, instead of signing Tejada when he had the opportunity, they decided against it because he AGon was due 5 million that year. Still paying for that move. The following year, because Sammy was still on the books, we could not sign Beltran. It is the tribco refusal to sign top tier free agents and overspend it the root of all their problems. Trying to be fiscally responsible, puts them in a never ending cycle we are in now. Not in the bottom half of salary, never in the top 3, so we end up with a team like we are witnessing right now, which of course is the worst position to be in. Everyone once in a while, we get a bone thrown to us, and get lucky, but after watching Hendry these last few years, he makes Ed Lynch look like a genius, which I did not think was possible, but this organization right now is completely lost. When you consider the condition the ballclub was in when hendry took over and compare that to the condition the ballclub was in when Ed Lynch took it over, Hendry has many more mistakes, outside of a couple of very solid trades. Throw in that we have 2 very injury prone pitchers, that should be 1-2 in our rotation. Yes, I understand that Beltran did not have a good season last year, and both are overpaid, but he signed for multiyears, and he and his numbers would look better than anything we have manning the outfield right now. Yes, it is nice to see Cedeno getting a shot, and I do think he will be a solid shortstop, just not great like Tejada. Instead, we have people like Pierre, Jones, Neifi, and Rusch, 2 taken off the scrap heap, that had decent seasons last year, and were rewarded with a lot of money. This has to fall on Hendry. Truthfully, even with his extension, the right thing to do is resign. Now for his next act, let Kerry walk after this season, which has to be done, and watch him become the healthy stud pitcher we have always envisioned him to be. BCB

"In all fairness to JH, he didn't have much of a choice last offseason but to wait untili Sosa was gone. Then again he might have created that monster by devaluing him so much." Can I ask why you feel that way? While I understand that JH answers to the Cubune, there was no reason why they could not spend more, they just chose not to. Fans, for whatever reason, do not put pressure on the organization to spend more, and when the Cubune says it needs to be fiscally responsible, there are a good portion of fans that buy into that theory. Yes, they spent a lot of money on payroll last season, but it was that high because of mistakes made by them, but unlike the Yankees that throw more money at the problem areas, they get the propaganda otherwise known as the Cubune and tell the fans that JH is doing everything possible to correct the situation, only I ask, what did he really do except say, he had no moves. Then we were told, but at least now we have the money to spend at the all star break to pick up the pieces needed, except there was no pieces to be had. I look at it this way, the Cubune, after this last season was over, which, in my opinion, did very little to upgrade the team from the previous year, and if fact, weakened the team last off season, came out after this season was over, and increased ticket prices, just because they can. While it is still to be determined what the final payroll will be, it certainly is looking a lot like last off season. Plus, supposedly, they have set payroll at the same figure as last year, which was 100, although no where close to that figure of ACTUAL player in uniform. So I guess I wonder why, when seating capacity in the bleachers will be increased by 1800 a game, along with a pretty heafty payroll increase, why payroll is not being increased for this upcoming season. While I think Marriotti on a whole, is not so bright, he is correct when he says for the Cubune, it is all about the bottom line. The difference is that they spin it so that it seems like they are doing everything possible, but in fact, it is all wasted breath and printed words. Than it keeps the masses coming back for more. BCB

What no Billy Grabarkewitz? BCB

"There has been a lot of discussion about how the Maddux contract is a big problem and how he isn't earning his money. Also, people early in the year mentioned how having Maddux under contract kept the Cubs from being able to re-sign Clement. As bad as everyone insists Maddux has been, it is interesting to me that all-star Clement now has a higher era. Just for discussion sake, would you rather have Maddux and the one year left or Clement and whatever the Red Sox have left in years and dollars to pay? I have a feeling Maddux will outperform Clement through the end of the 2006 season. 9 million is a lot for next year, but the Cubs should have no money troubles (actually probably more money to spend than there is worthwhile FA talent to spend it on) and Maddux sitting in the 4 or 5 hole of the rotation seems a lot better to me than Sergio Mitre." Amen, and the moaning and groaning that goes on over Maddux's contract for next season never seems to stop. I have said it before and I will say it again, the complaints made really goes back to the environment the Tribune has created that most fans buy into over fiscal responsibility. They drum it into us, so much so, that a lot of fans buy into it now. Do you honestly believe that if this was the Yanks or Red Sox, that fans would be worried or complaining over his contract next year. Maybe some, but not to the extent seen on this board. Yet, if you complain about Wood's contract, you see a fair amount of people who defend him to no end, yet for the last 2 seasons, he can't seem to stay healthy. Just boggles the mind, or at least this one, and I guess I will have others tell what is wrong with it. Trust me, the Tribune can afford Maddux's contract next year, they can also sign and trade for other players and increase payroll, but I am willing to bet what road they will take. If fans want to believe that we signed Burnitz because that was all they could afford after trading away Sosa, they can do so, but I don't. Same can be said about left field up until about a week ago. If they want to believe that we could not resign Clement because we signed Maddux last season, fine, but I think they could have, they chose not too and claimed fiscal responsibility. If anything, Wood is killing us with his salary, and being able to start 32 games over the last 2 seasons, that is killing this team, especially when considering the kind of money he is making. Then there is the Sosa contract that we are paying to have him play in Baltimore, but I am not worried about it because the Tribune can afford it, and they Tribune will cry poor over paying that money to Baltimore and it has been pointed out many times in their paper, and I guess if you read and hear something long enough, you start to believe it. Overall, the Cubs have made many, many, many past free agent signings, that have come with a lot less production and returns than what Maddux is giving them right now, and a case could be made with Wood over the course of this season and last, since he signed his extension, but I am sure that people will tell me the errors of my way, in this thinking. BCB

[i didn't want to get into this argument again. Suffice to say, that wins don't mean much when evaluating a pitcher. The argument that Wood has only won 14 games is tired and old and if you use that as an evaluation for Wood's talent or performance, you're simply being shortsighted. WHIP, .BAA, QS, ERA, BB:K ratio, k/9 are all more important numbers for a Starter than Wins (though the last 2 are not that much of a bigger deal) If wood didn't have the lowest Run Support of Cub pitchers from 2001-2003, he would have won many more than 14 games in a season. By your rationale, Maddux is better than Clemens this year because he has more wins. Wins matter for the HOF, Cy Young award, and maybe the All-star game. That's it. OF all the stats I listed, WHIP and .BAA are the most important tools in judging the effectiveness of a pitcher. Actually, you are making the assumption that I am not taking those things into consideration. What it does show is that Greg Maddux knows how to win, and more specifically, in the game he is pitching in. The same cannot be said about Kerry Wood, and while that argument is old and tired, it is still fact. Maybe Kerry should think about changing his name to Gregory Maddux, so the players will score more runs for him! (shrug??) While I will agree that Kerry always seems to get shortchanged in his starts he makes, the great pitchers adapt and still get the W's, regardless of runs scored for him. While Kerry has had his moments, he never really has broken thru on a consistent basis. This is directly connected to his durability, or lack there of, and the fact that he can't seem to keep his pitch count down enough, to be in the game to collect the W when the offense does score. BTW, and if you asked, I don't think Maddux is a better pitcher than Clemens, but I do know 2 winners when I see them, and they both are. BCB