Peoriaman

B. Looper. He would be my pick.

There are several issues with his post, but you seriously think the Wood and Bradley situations are identical? You think you can just look at say "each costs $10m a year and has a high likelihood of injury. Thus, you must either like both deals or hate both deals." There's obviously more to it than that. Wood in a RP. If he goes down for a week or even the whole year, we have a couple of options to replace him: Marmol and Gregg (maybe others). He's also a huge fan favorite, he's been a great citizen of Chicago and seemed to want to play here. From what I know, teammates liked him. Bradley is the starting RF. If he goes down for an extended period of time, which is likely, we get Reed or Gathright full time (maybe Pie, but that seems unlikely). Neither of whom is likely to come close to the OPS we're hoping to get from Bradley. He's got a pretty bad reputation as a teammate as well. You can certainly like both deals or hate both deals, but a reasonable person can like one and hate the other. Sure, you can like one deal and not like the other, but don't complain about signing the "fragile" Bradley while pimping for a Kerry Wood deal who is historically just as fragile.

I agree. It seems he caught the Texas lightning in a bottle. He'll be fairly productive when he's healthy, but probably not nearly as good as he was last year. Anyone else sick to their stomachs knowing that we now have approximately $70 million tied up in Fukudome & Bradley for the next 3 years? Due to contracts, our offense will remain nearly exactly the same for the next 3 years. It better be good again. No, not me.

Clearly, Hendry had to shave payroll in order to get Bradley. Miles gives us 2+ million PLUS another year. We were going to lose DeRosa after this year or probably pay him even more. It also got us more left handed and probably better defense. Money does matter. The Trib is bankrupt.

Unless we end up with Peavy, I sure wish the Cubs hadn't traded DeRosa. Seconded. There was no reason to get rid of DeRo unless a Peavy trade was imminent. yea there is. he had to trade peavy to afford bradley. you might not like that, but there was a reason for it. There was no good reason to trade DeRo unless a Peavy trade was extremely likely/imminent. Yes there is. Money

good work.

good move.

once the angels lost out on Tex and CC, this was option no 3.

no.

If it is a salary situation and we needed to get the $$ for Bradley, so be it. We are in a tough economy and the Trib is bankrupt. Money does matter. I would understand that. It is exceedingly easy for us to spend other people's money.

No doubt this board has some smartasses and wanna be GM know-it-alls. It does get old. That said, there are a lot of great Cub fans here who really know baseball. Like any message board, you take the good and the bad.

I suspect the Angels will end up with Peavy.

Why? The guy can rake. He's 36, is expensive, awful on defense, and I wouldn't say an .837 OPS for a corner outfielder is "raking". well, I can understand the age, but he can rake it. I understand you define "rake it" different than I do. So be it. Ibanez hit .293 this season, with 23 homers, 110 RBIs, a .358 on-base percentage and a .472 slugging percentage. He is one of just five outfielders who have driven in at least 100 runs in each of the past three seasons. The others: Carlos Beltran, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and Bobby Abreu.

Why? The guy can rake. He's 37 and given a 3 year deal. OK, thanks.

Why? The guy can rake.

The Angels are quietly working behind the scenes on this front.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/tribune-hires-bankruptcy-advisers/

Angels are not interested until they resolve the Tex and CC free agency situations.

The Angels will be in if they can't sign Tex OR CC.

Wood: Leaving Cubs is 'bittersweet' By Paul Sullivan Kerry Wood called his departure from the Cubs "bittersweet" on Friday, but said he'd been preparing for the possibility of leaving through the 2008 season and wasn’t surprised by general manager Jim Hendry’s decision to go in another direction. "It's bittersweet," Wood said. "Obviously this was my first choice. I wanted to stay here, and it was the best choice for me and my family… (but) it was good to hear it out of his mouth, the honesty. It’s a rarity in the game." Wood said he’d prefer to stay in the National League, but is open to going anywhere. The New York Mets are looking for a closer, Texas is close to his childhood home, and the Los Angeles Angels may now be in the picture after waving bye to Francisco Rodriguez. But there's a glut of closers on the market, so where Wood will wind up is anyone's guess right now. "There are plenty of teams out there," he said. "I’ll find my niche somewhere." While Wood was understanding about the Cubs' decision, which Hendry said was made in the best interests of Wood and his family, he did say he would've been amenable to staying and "would have done anything" to stay a Cub. The Cubs told him to go get a three- or four-year deal for more money, but Wood said he would've agreed to a one-year deal to stay. "That was an avenue we kind of approached," he said. "But they’ve got some issues they've got to take care of, and at the end I wasn't as important as lot of other aspects of the team. (Carlos) Marmol, we all know what he's capable of doing… it is what it is." Wood found out he was no longer wanted a few days ago during a dinner with his agent and Hendry. But he was mentally preparing for the possibility all season, making the news a little easier to digest. "I had to prepare myself for this last year, and that maybe helped me enjoy this past summer a little bit better, knowing it could possible be my last year with the Cubs," he said. "Did I want to leave? Of course not," he said. "I wanted to end my career here, and start taking my kids to the games. But in the end, having a little bit of knowledge about the organization, and what's going on with the team and who was up for free agency and the contracts, I had a pretty good idea. It didn't catch me off-guard. I was disappointed and obviously would've loved to have stayed here, but that's baseball."

If Wood wants a multi-year deal at big money, we absolutely should not resign him. Letting him go is absolutely the right move given what he is almost certain to command. Millions and millions of dollars to relievers FTL. Aside from the fact that I feel that Wood would be one guy you should be willing to pay his ducats to, regardless, you can't tell me that there was no way to figure something out. There was no way to figure something out.

Good move by Hendry.

good move by the Cubs. Kerry got as much, if not more, from us than we got from him.

The Pads are talking to one very, very good team in a very attractive market. It may or may not work, but they want more value than is being offered by Cubs/Braves.

really? where is that coming from? At least the second part of that goes against what pretty much every source has agreed on so far... I am not saying that another acceptable club will step in and offer more, but right now a # 1 starting pitcher is on the market and, in Tower's mind, teams are offering spare parts. The pads want more than that and are chatting with other clubs. Will they get it? Time will tell. If the Pads were happy with what was being offered, the deal would be done. But what about all the reports that Peavy had a very limited number of clubs that he would wave his NTC for?????? It is limited, but not to 2 teams. Towers also wouldn't hesitate to try to convince him to expand that list if an attractive team made a better offer. It's really three teams, but one of them is in the division, and Towers really doesn't want to improve one of his divisional rivals. So, until Peavy comes out and says "I will accept a trade to the Yankees or someone else," the pool is two unless Towers determines that trading him to the Dodgers is worth it. At this point, Towers is talking to a few other teams. He is in a tough spot with Peavy holding the best cards. Time will tell. He can talk to anyone he wants, but it won't do any good if Peavy doesn't want to go there. That doesn't mean they're in the mix. Just telling you what is going on. Believe it or not, I don't really care.