Magnetic Curses

as has been said, i'd do it without LA picking up any of that deal, i'm not sure what it would take to get it done. probably not all that much if we're willing to ease the dodgers' load completely. bradley and drew would look great in right and center.

he'd be an ideal 5th outfielder, as he has some pop and he plays decent defense. but it's not worth the risk of having dusty misinterpret yet another signing and commence to starting him everyday in center. he's also not worth 5 mil per.

Vance, don't the Cubs have to wait a few weeks before Hendry can begin negotiating for Giles? I thought there is a 2 week window after the WS where current teams have exclusive negotiation rights to their own FAs. :? Right. 14 days after the W.S. As soon as that window opens, though, I'd have my offer ready and pick up the phone. Would you start at 4/50? I wouldn't. I'd be willing to go there no problem, but I wouldn't start there. I would, only because it lets him know we are dead serious about signing him. I think best case scenario is Furcal and Shuerholtz strike a deal in the 14 day period-triggering a trade of Marcus Giles(5) to the Cubs for Walker(2.5)+R.Hill-Wuertz. Marcus in the fold gives us a LEGITIMATE shot at Brian Giles-Sign Giles to whatever he wants-(4/40) Trade JWilliams+Cpatt(2.5)+Mitre for Pierre(5) and Mota(3)- Re-sign Nomar(5M) to play SS- sign AJ Burnett-4/40(9,10,10,11) Go to War with that- CF-Pierre(5) 2B-M.Giles(5) 1B-Lee(9) RF-Giles(10) 3B-Aram(10) SS-Nomar(5) C-Barrett(4) LF-Murton(.3) (48.3M) Prior(4) Z(6) Maddux(9) Burnett(9) Wood(10) (38M) Mota(3)-Dempster(5)-Rusch(2.5)-Ohman(.4)-Williamson(2)-Novoa+JVB (12.9M) Hairston(2)-Blanco(1.5)-Cedeno(.3)-Greenburg(.3)-Branyon(1.5)=5.3M 104M team-and WOW- i thought walker asked hendry to simply decline his option if he didn't want to bring him back.

it's called overpaying based on save percentage rather than stuff. not a smart move if you want consistent numbers...especially from an important piece like your closer. even a good player is a bad deal based on the money and years you give them. Dempster could have gotten much more than a 3/15 on the open market. Watch the contracts a lot of relivers get that had much worse seasons than Dempster and you will see what I mean. i guess it's not bad if you rate a pitcher based on save percentage. look at the man's WHIP and K/BB, not his ERA. his success won't last. wait till next season and you will see what I mean. :( g/f and k/9 are pretty good for a closer. his g/f was especially wicked out of the bullpen last year. nearly 3 ground balls for every fly ball. THAT is great stuff.......and why his era was so low.

i like the squidbillies for some reason.

like the creepy dude in the bushes going through your trash, who breaks in and drinks out of your toilet when you're not home?

i would hope that astro fans are thinking: hmmm....brad lidge is good. no wait, i actually hope they're thinking he stinks and run him out of town. somewhere where his impossibly sick slider cannot hurt us anymore.

but san diego is where his family lives, plus, i've heard the weather is very nice.

i don't understand the fascination either. the same people who criticize the cubs in the past for "waiting for the 3-run homer" are the same people who want him, which makes me scratch my head. That is not true, so please don't classify it as such. maybe not, but it seems this way.

i don't understand the fascination either. the same people who criticize the cubs in the past for "waiting for the 3-run homer" are the same people who want him, which makes me scratch my head.

the thing that sets dempster apart from other cubs is that he just signed a lucrative extension this year. who knows, maybe hendry told him who he was going to pursue during negotiations?

A three-year offer in the 21 million range!!! :shock: No, wonder he filed. But, in the depressing news category... No mention of the Cubs there and once again, I see the Cardinals mentioned as a suitor. :( yes, but we have more money to spend. if hendry doesn't outbid everyone, i will be disappointed.

my problem with corey is that he continues to be a dumb baseball player. i have no problem with his attitude, as far as it doesn't keep him from making the appropriate changes to his approach at the plate. he has shown absolutely NO intention of shrinking his strike zone down. this is my only quarrel.

i have to laugh any time that sox fans have to run back to cub fans for validation. we don't care. cub fans look at the sox as any other team that they don't root for, there's not much hate involved. are sox fans entertaining? of course, but a few jokes about incompetence and repeated absences aside, we don't really give them much thought. the article by scoop is a desperate cry for recognition. their mindset is: "why don't you care about us? we care about you! look how much we care, we can't go two seconds in the 12 hours after we won the world series without thinking about you guys." guess what, sox fans? many of us, including me, were hoping you pulled it off, if for no other reason, than to see our division rival houston astros fail. that's how much we really think about it. i know about as many sox fans as i know detroit tiger fans, and i feel roughly the same way about the two. i was actually rooting for the team who took game 1 to sweep so that the offseason could start sooner. i think it's funny that at last the sox have won, the last barrier between the sox and attendance, between recognition has been breached, and sox fans come running first to the north side, to cub fans looking for validation, and it's ultimately not there. no, no one was watching, i played chaos theory after discovering that my beloved Lost was a re-run and then went to bed. there will be no more full stadiums next season, sox ratings will be the same as they always have been because there simply is not the support in chicago for the sox, there hasn't been for a long time and a world series will never change it. drink your champagne, sox fans, your team has earned it, just don't come knocking on my door expecting any sort of attention donation, I've given it all to the teams that I care about.

midget or not, he's brought more world championships to chicago than any other owner.

i think the trib is well aware of everything. they've had to print nothing but white sox articles for 6 months now.

Makes a lot of sense to me. Let Dempster start the 8th. Ohman is the guy you bring into the middle of an inning to face a lefty, Wuertz or whoever else you sign comes in to face the righties. You can also bring Wagner into a very tough 7th/8th inning spot, then let Dempster close that day. Not allowing yourself to improve the team just because Ryan Dempster is already techinically the closer would be absurd. The bullpen can use bigtime arms. If this team fails to adequately fix the offensive problems, which it seems they will almost certainly do, then you absolutely have to bring in a lockdown arm to the bullpen. I'd love to have Ryan or Wagner. i think it all depends on what options we have to upgrade the offense. he's definitely one of the few sure bet closers in the league, but we have needs other than an overpriced closer to address first.

DePo please!

with all due respect, wagner and remmy aren't a comparable duo. unless you're talking about the fact that they have been largely overpaid.

by the way, offensively, an infield of ramirez, nomar/furcal/cedeno, walker, lee, and barrett would completely make up for any drop-off in the outfield, a dropoff that probably doesn't even exist. dunn's ops last year was 16 points higher than sammy's in 2003, alou put up a MONSTER .819 OPS in 2003, i can't see anyone eclipsing that mark to offensive dominance, ever. it's simply not physically possible for a player like murton to come close to that huge .819. wow, what a gigantic number alou threw up there--whew. as for lofton, no one knows what he's going to do, but he'll likely have an OBP around .350, and that's good enough for me, considering the alternatives. maybe you'd rather have corey and his superior arm and sub 3 OBP out there? he'd throw a lot of runners out at home, and the chemistry that that would create would completely make up for his complete incompetence at the plate, probably.

an outfield of suspect arms. super. dunn has an average OF arm (no way does he have the gun for RF). murton and pierre both throw rainbows. i love what dunn brings to the table offensively though and his range isn't horrible for his size. we just can't have an OF full of crappy arms. we've done it before, re: 2003. please. you aren't honestly comparing the offensive production from sosa, alou, and lofton/cpat to lofton (years later), murton and dunn. lmao. great comparison. '05 dunn is roughly equal to '03 Sammy offensively, and '03 lofton was appreciably better than '06 lofton will be...so you're saying murton is far and away better than '03 alou offensively? :lol: oh, and '03 lofton with the cubs was a completely different player from the '03 pirates lofton. w/ '03 cubs: .327/.381/.471 (56 games) w/ '03 pirates: .277/.333/.437 (84 games) woah, somebody didn't get their juice at lunch i see.

an outfield of suspect arms. super. dunn has an average OF arm (no way does he have the gun for RF). murton and pierre both throw rainbows. i love what dunn brings to the table offensively though and his range isn't horrible for his size. we just can't have an OF full of crappy arms. we've done it before, re: 2003.

i've actually heard that there's no prettier site to a catcher than pierre standing at first base.

Many FA's have families that live in the cities in which they play, yet players continue to change teams and cities.

Believe it or not I would prefer to see our OF talent be upgraded via trade if we can't get Giles to a good deal. If they can't get Giles, they have to upgrade via trade. Status quo is completely unacceptable. No way can we go into the season with our OF the way it is right now. If we do, Hendry will be exposed. Not even just the way it is right now. To me, status quo is replacing Burnitz with somebody like Wilson or Jones, and settling on a second rate CF as well. They need somebody who is a real threat to have a 900+ OPS next season to play right, and is practically a guarantee for a .360+ OBP. Only 5 rightfielders had an ops over .850 this year (Vlad, Giles, Sheff, Abreu, and Jenkins). The Cubs have little shot @ any of these guys. yep. they have the ability to outbid anyone for giles, yet they have "little shot"? okay.