CUBZ99

Oh Noes!! From the Trib: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-051221mitchell,1,1670882.column?coll=cs-home-utility

:lol:

So basically your saying that the Cubs finished in 4th place this year and failed to improve in any position? The worst part is that if Hendry trades Walker the offense is looking pretty weak.

I think that we are all overlooking Jones robust daytime splits of .225 Avg. and sub .300 OBP. :x

They were #2 and #3 in ERA in an absolutely loaded league(Both made BA's top 20 for the Southern League as well, IIRC). Pinto and Nolasco are good prospects. You may think that they are worth Pierre, but let's not devalue them by calling them 'mediocre at best' or 'middle relievers'. Feel free to call them whatever you want. I wish to call them middle relief prospects. Why? Because neither has a "plus" pitch and nothing exceptional, good minor league pitchers but nothing special. Pinto's change is a plus pitch, his FB and slider are above-average or plus, depending on which scout you talk to. Nolasco's FB, curve and change are all above-average. EDIT: Raw wins. Pinto has absolutely no control and got hammered against good competition and Nolasco is nothing special i.e. middle relievers

This may be worse than signing Neifi for 2 years $5M. Guess Hendry figures if he gets fired this year, he is going to strap the Cubs with crappy players for a few years, so his legacy will live on. I agree with another poster when did he become such a dumb GM?

Isn't that his 2nd surgery in 2 years?

I would hope Hendry could do better than Vidro and Church, if he decides to trade Wood.

BTW how does a beatwriter in KC have inside knowledge about one of Hendry's offers on the table, when not a single writer in Chicago has a clue? Are the Chi-town beatwriters slacking off? :lol:

I wouldn't like to see the Cubs trade Guzman for anyone outside of Abreu or Tejada. Guzman has the potential (if he can stay healty) to be a top of the rotation pitcher. IMO you can't take that lightly and trade him off for an average LH hitter.

He's barely acceptable for a corner OF against RHP, not quite a stud. If we're trading Walker and a prospect for Mench, skip Jones entirely. His numbers vs. RHP are alot better than acceptable. However, why would you sign a guy for three years at more than $5M a year to be a platoon player?

Abreu is only a possiblity if Philly lowers their trade expectations. Insisting on Prior or Zambrano is not reasonable. Except they're not, for the millionth time, insisting on Prior or Zambrano. In talks with other clubs, including National League clubs, they've been reported to have asked for Matt Clement, Barry Zito, Erik Bedard, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Jason Schmidt and Jason Marquis amongst others. None of those pitchers are anywhere near as valuable right now as Prior or Zambrano, though a healthy Schmidt and an on-form Zito aren't too far back, and Bedard in about eighteen months could be damn good. What's going on here is that the Phillies are making it known that they want a good starting pitcher for Abreu, they're trying their luck with a few names, and every single team they're talking to is saying no. The reason that the A's said no to Abreu was almost certainly the money and not, despite Beane's insisting otherwise, that he doesn't want to move Barry Zito. Beane's clever enough to know that in Zito he has a widely overvalued pitcher that's going to hit free agency in one year's time, and the A's aren't going to be able to re-sign him. And the pitching market this winter is making a lot of teams desperate, pushing Zito's value up even more. Beane saying he's not going to trade Zito only gives him an even better trading chip. So what Hendry needs to do here is get in the middle of things... Phillies get: Barry Zito, Rich Hill A's get: Jerome Williams, Ryan Madson, Adam Greenberg Cubs get: Bobby Abreu, $5m towards 2007 from Phillies Something like that. Obviously, if the Cubs hadn't made the awful trade with the Marlins for Pierre, and had instead traded for Bradley on the ridiculously cheap as it turned out (Ethier isn't even equivalent in prospect status to Renyel Pinto in my opinion, and the Dodgers threw in a decent backup middle infielder), they'd be much more able to afford the pitching they're giving up to net Abreu, and this would leave us skating on thin ice a bit come next year. But we need Abreu, and it's as simple as that. What is your opinion based on? Ethier slaughtered AA pitching in his first go round and continued to mash in the fall league. Pinto on the other hand was in his second tour of Duty in AA and showed last year he was unable to handle AAA batters. Ethier takes walks and hits for power at a league appropriate age. There seems to be a disconnect between fans lofty expectations of the Cubs prospects and reality. Also, it is possible that Dodgers were looking for a higher level OF prospect to replace Bradley and if that was the expectation, the Cubs didn't have a prayer of landing Bradley in the first place.

Why would you want to downgrade at the GM spot? KW is a terrible GM, who got EXTREMELY lucky with his moves last yr. My bet....Javy Vazquez will stink with the Sox. KW is by far a better GM than Jim Hendry. Sure there is some luck involved, but he works with half the payroll that Hendry does.

How did you expect Hendry to get Bradley? Arm wrestle with the Dodger's GM? The Dodgers got a better return than anything the Cubs had to offer.

Would you trade Pie for Huff? If not, why? I'm curious why everyone's gotten the idea that Pie is untouchable. I think that is an equally good question to others that are mad with the Cubs not getting Bradley. Would you trade Pie for Bradley? If the Dodgers were looking for a higher level OF prospect for Bradley, the Cubs were never going to be able to work out a deal. I wouldn't. Of course the A's didn't trade a prospect anywhere near Pie's level. True, but his numbers in AA were pretty impressive compared to Pie's and the Cubs simply didn't have a comparable prospect. IMO the Dodgers did a great job at getting the best deal possible for a player that they didn't even want and had no intention of bringing back.

Would you trade Pie for Huff? If not, why? I'm curious why everyone's gotten the idea that Pie is untouchable. I think that is an equally good question to others that are mad with the Cubs not getting Bradley. Would you trade Pie for Bradley? If the Dodgers were looking for a higher level OF prospect for Bradley, the Cubs were never going to be able to work out a deal.

6m a year to be a platoon player=horrible option. Paying Jones $6M a year is a bad idea period, but he is not a totally worthless player.

Seems like alot of criticism of Hendry going on, without any real discussion of what he should have done. The kid the A's gave up was a pretty good prospect who crushed AA and Fall league pitching this year. The Cubs don't even have a decent OF prospect that produced at that level outside of Pie. As far as other trading chips, I think it is becoming more than clear how other teams value the Cubs pitching prospects.

What is the difference from Burnitz to Jones? Their numbers last year are nearly identical. Don't see how Hendry can view a Jones acquisition as much of an upgrade. BTW has anyone looked at his splits? Jones is a fairly productive hitter vs. RHP .268 BA .348 OBP and a decent OPS. He may not be a horrible option if the Cubs had another player to platoon with him.

That is amazing. :D Speaking of Baker, I'm sure that he can't wait to get out of Chicago. As much as I can't stand him, he has been stuck with some real duds as teams and has to have some frustration towards Hendry and the Cubs front office. He doesn't help himself by making dumb decisions, but Hendry has really let him down "bigtime".

If Jones comes to the Cubs, does that signal a Todd Walker return? Just don't see how Hendry can go into next season with arguably a worse offense than last year. I think the lack of a trade so far, confirms what many believed, in that, beyond a few decent prospects, the Cubs system is just not very valuable.

I think we can all rest assured that Hendry will not land Jones unless he comes to the Cubs at a discount. By reading his scouting profile, he looks to be the exact same player the Cubs have already in Corey Patterson.

It is a puff piece becuase it is not news, nor is it news worthy. In addition, it could have been writtten about the vast majority of all professional baseball players. As I wrote, what would people be saying if the story was about Patterson rather than Pierre? Patterson spent last offseason in Mesa working out so he would be ready for the 05 season. A fat lot of good that did him. Whether I like the trade is competly irrelevent. I find it beyond my scope to comunicate how foolish it is to think that professional athelets don't work hard. The people that fit the profile I bolded in your above post usually don't stay around long no matter how much talent they have. Nor would they ever make it to the majors. #-o How is a background story about a newly added player not news worthy? Not every Cubs fan is as dedicated as you or already knew all about Pierre's background or work ethic.

Bruce, nice article today about Tejada. I just hope that Hendry shares your enthusiasm. Do you think Hendry views Tejada as someone that the Cubs would be willing to part with "untouchables"? http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sportsstory.asp?id=130468

Did you enjoy it more when Nolasco and Pinto were giving up 7 to 8 runs a game ? :lol: