treebird

the deadline is four business days from wednesday at 4 pm local time. they're almost certainly not going to announce their decision tonight, but it's not like i need a lot of prodding to stay up all night when i'm already drinking and i don't have class tomorrow.

all i can really say in response to that is that you had better start coming up with next years excuses for why it's ok that hendry screwed up now. otherwise, it's going to be even more obvious that he's not doing a very good job.

That was MacPhail, not Hendry. I thought the opt out clause was dumb too, but that's not the issue. The point was no one I know was clamoring for a NEW CONTRACT last WINTER. You're wrong. I did. I'm sure others thought it might be smart, too. And even if MacPhail put the clause in (which I still doubt, BTW), how exactly does that absolve Hendry for allowing it to come to this? MacPhail is Hendry's superior. You and I do not know what they were thinking at the time that contract was signed. All we do know is MacPhail wrote that contract with the opt out clause (last minute sweetener courtesy of Katz). What would you have done? Not given him the opt out clause and let him play out the season (assuming that was a dealbreaker for Ramires/Katz/Kinzer)? We'd have been in the position we are now one year earlier. you've changed the argument.

the reds were first that's your answer to everything

im like the twelfth person to point this out, but that's not true at all.

Screw that noise. I'm sick and tired of people attempting to rationalize this. The very fact that his contract situation got to this point where he is going to hit the open market is the problem. Hendry didn't screw around with Derrek Lee. He signed him after a fluke career season a full year before he was FA eligible. You're telling me that Hendry deluded himself into actually believing that Aramis wasn't going to opt out? Look at that FA class. Everyone knew it was going to suck 18 months ago (which is why Hendry should have taken advantage of the Beltran FA class) and you're telling me that a 27 year old player coming into his prime with Aramis' ability wasn't going to opt out? No way. You get that deal extended last winter. You tear it up and sign him long term so you don't go into November of 2006 virtually guaranteed to be losing your best offensive player. This was poorly planned from the start. Allowing it to get to this point should be grounds for Hendry losing his job. We're going to lose our best offensive player for nothing because our GM is a good guy and took a player and his agent at their word that they "probably won't use the opt out clause". I'll repeat: We're going to lose Aramis for nothing. We didn't deal him, we didn't extend him like we did with Derrek Lee, and now we'll get a stupid draft pick for a guy we either should have hitting .300 with 30 HR's and 110 RBI until 2011, or should have gotten top, blue chip prospects for this past July. Give me a break. I'll take my chances with a soulless shark of a GM over the "good guy" who screws up an entire major league roster and farm system within 3 years. I'm sick and tired of 20/20 hindsight. Show me where anyone advocated signing Ramirez to a new contract this past winter. Until that happens, your POV is all 20/20 hindsight. i was definitely saying that aramis was obviously just going to opt out after the second year all the way back when he signed this contract. others were as well. i remember it quite clearly. everyone was ecstatic about the contract at first, then we learned of the out clause, and then we knew that basically the contract was going to go one of two ways: 1) aramis has success and opts out after the second year 2) aramis collapses completely and the cubs are stuck paying him for very little production neither scenario is particularly good for the cubs, and we knew it as soon as we knew of the out clause.

Which is why you proactively deal with it 12 months ago. exactly. there's virtually no way aramis' price goes down from there.

it's important to remember that when it came time for aramis to decide whether or not to opt out, it was basically just a matter of deciding whether or not he could get a contract better than 2/22. aramis could've broken a leg in july and done better than that.

well, when "take your chances with pitching" means zambrano, hill, prior, miller, prospects, and a solid bullpen, i'm willing to do it. when "take your chances with pitching" means the reds, i'm not. Hill is young and unproven. A 4th of 5th starter? Sure. Prior and Miller havent pitched a full season in two years. Prospects - well did any impress you at the end of last year? you really think we're picking up 3 new starters to push hill all the way back to 5, and the rest to bonus? i'd be pretty shocked if that happened even if we didn't sign any of those guys on offense.

well, when "take your chances with pitching" means zambrano, hill, prior, miller, prospects, and a solid bullpen, i'm willing to do it. when "take your chances with pitching" means the reds, i'm not.

bulls + wallace - chandler = cubs + soriano - ramirez

At slightly over 1% of our payroll and only for one year, its hard to argue against it. Especially when guys like Silva and his 75 ERA+ get 4M options picked up. exactly. the pirates can't do stuff like this, but there's no reason for the cubs to not throw a line or two like this out into water each offseason.

Isn't that bad? It would be one of the best offensive OFs in baseball assuming Sheffield's production doesn't drop off the face of the earth and those guys don't get injured anymore than their average. Can Soriano play RF? Why not put him at 2nd? He'd probably be happier there. Second base is a harder hole to fill than the OF. Keep Murton in left, move Soriano to 2nd, and get another bat for the OF (Lee?). good idea, let's sign every top free agent Ok, smartasses aside..... We can afford it. It probably won't happen, seeing as this is the Cubs, and Jim Hendry is in charge, but it's fun to talk about. Besides, say Pie has a phenomenal spring and Murton is hitting. Then you have a logjam in the OF with Pie, Murt, Drew, Jones, and Soriano. If you move Soriano to 2nd, you can throw Pie in there and ditch Jones or trade Murton for pitching. i was just giving you a hard time. how expensive would soriano, drew, lee AND ramirez be? i honestly don't know. sign those four, and maybe we'll just take our chances pitching-wise.

Isn't that bad? It would be one of the best offensive OFs in baseball assuming Sheffield's production doesn't drop off the face of the earth and those guys don't get injured anymore than their average. Can Soriano play RF? Why not put him at 2nd? He'd probably be happier there. Second base is a harder hole to fill than the OF. Keep Murton in left, move Soriano to 2nd, and get another bat for the OF (Lee?). good idea, let's sign every top free agent

i think the odds of miller showing up to spring training (or any time, really) as a front of the rotation guy are extremely small.

1.5 million is about the most i would be willing to pay miller, but, considering the amount, i guess i'm okay with the signing.

He probably passed out. too much work ey Jim? :lol: i'm thinking it's something more along the lines of treeman isn't the only one getting hammered on a thursday

didnt you say a similar thing about ARam's contract and JH's doorstep? i'm beginning to wonder if you might have a drug problem :wink: it's going to be hard for me to do this twice, so hopefully both of these things don't happen

YES PLZ

if the cubs win the bidding but the lions choose not to accept their offer, i'm injecting heroin into my forehead on the doorstep of one of the lions' owners

same here. i even like ugly uniforms just cause they're so weird

Completely, completely agree. Zito just gives up so many big flyballs that I think any smaller park (or team without great outfield defense) is gonna lead to the ERA hitting 4.50 without any bad luck.

What happened in June? EDIT: Barrett punching AJP? i think that was in may june was just when i realized how much i hated the cubs and how much happier i would be if i stopped watching the games.

even though i'm fairly sure the cubs wont get him, this is probably the most exciting cub day for me since june.

: ( i was hoping he'd go to oakland i guess the a's are just going to end up with geren like everyone always assumed they would, but if they're going to to do that, i don't know why they're waiting so long.