YearofDaCubs

Geez, we might even have a shot at landing him at this point. Kuroda seems like he may/may not be staying in Japan, so maybe the Cubs will submit a serious bid for Matsuzaka instead of going for that rare 4th starter. 8) Who are the other serious players in this? The Yanks, Red Sox, and Mets. Any others? According to ESPN this morning the Rangers are players too.

What do you do with the 75 million dollar center you just got and the good looking young power forward the Bulls drafted? You let Oden play and develop behind Wallace for 2, maybe 3 years. Wallace only has one maybe two more effective years left after this, anyway. You do not pass on a Greg Oden because you have Ben Wallace. Sure, it's a rare predicament where a championship contending team has a lottery pick, but it's a nice problem to have. :D I would love to have him as much as you, but could they afford him? Why would money be an issue if he is to be drafted? The Bulls also have a good salary cap situation.

I love the way Pax does it. I've had faith in him for a couple of years now. Angelo has had some really good moves but delaying on getting a backup QB and other stuff were always perplexing. I still consider him a good GM though.

So, because you say I can't use that against Hendry, I can't? Okay. How foolish of me to think that the GM of a major league baseball team can't lock down the necessary players to keep the team competitive for years to come. How foolish of me not to realize EVERY other single player in MLB has an opt out clause. That contract was signed quite some time ago. Hendry has had plenty of time to work out a new arrangement to avoid having Aramis opt out of this deal when he did. Aramis is no longer the property of the Chicago Cubs. He's free to sign wherever he wants. He's free to sign for however much he wants. Hendry basically just put himself in a position to pay top dollar for a free agent that he had under his own control. I can understand paying top dollar to lure a free agent away from another team, like Vlady or Beltran a few years back. It's totally different being one of 30 teams making an offer in comparison to working out an arrangement before the 29 other teams have a chance to outbid you. I'll be absolutely shocked if Aramis is wearing a Cub uniform in 2007. The ball is definitely in Aramis' court now. But, no one can sit there and tell me that the ball was never in Hendry's court and have me believe it. Bringing back Hendry back for another year is already starting to spell disaster. Please for the love of God somebody get this lazy fat pos GM out of here already. He's terrible!

I think 18mil for ARam is excessive. I wouldn't give him more than 15. We lose ARam and we're done for.

Sounds like that is happening more and more these days.

Agreed.

Nothing that made him miss significant amounts of time. Really? 2004: 118IP 2005:166IP 2006:43IP, I beg to differ. I'm sorry, I assumed that 2006 was the obvious exception. My point has always been that this year has been the only year that he has missed significant time for anything besides fluke accidents on the field. I think 2006 was the build up of 2003 and the two accidents and the adjustments he had to make for all 3 issues finally coming to a head. The thing I'm worried about the most with Prior is that he is damaged goods and he will never be the same and there's good reason to think that is highly possible.

He had an injury(bone chips?) and had surgery for it. He tried to come back but I believe he won't be ready until next year.

Nothing that made him miss significant amounts of time. Really? 2004: 118IP 2005:166IP 2006:43IP, I beg to differ.

I'd like to see any other 100M teams lose two aces from their staff and an all-star 1B and still compete. Should we have counted on Wood? No. DLee? Yes. Prior? Yes. Up till this last season, darn near everyone thought he had just suffered some fluke injuries (Giles, Hawpe, etc). It shocked everyone (ok, maybe not the pessimists) when he pulled up lame in ST. We won more games in '04 than we did in '03. It just took more wins to get in the playoffs that year. That's improvement. In '04 with Z, Wood, and Prior we were looking at a dynasty. Hendry doesn't prevent Wood from throwing back to back starts in high school, Prior from Giles, Prior from Hawpe, or DLee from Furcal. Wood and Prior should not have been counted on. Let's face it they are both injury prone players since 2004 and it's pretty ridiculous what Hendry had as a backup plan..none. Why wasn't a trade made much sooner when Lee went down? I don't believe the fluke injuries crap with Prior either. He has his fair share of legit injuries since 2004 but I think people just remember the collision and hit by ball injuries, there have been more. We laid an egg in 2004 due to our GM not picking up a closer when Hawkins was faltering so bad and Dusty the genius left him in that role. Everybody knew we needed a closer when Borowski went down but our GM was late to the party as usual waiting until waivers were set to try and pick up Jose Mesa. since the end of 2004 Hendry has done a pathetic job as GM, IMO. Sure, he's done some good moves since then but the bad far outweigh the good.

Awwww...poor Sheff...he'll have to take his $13 million and play somewhere that the Yankees send him... Trades are part of the business. A lot of guys don't get to decide where they play. I have a hard time feeling too bad for the guy. Me too, he deserves the treatment he gets.

Bottom line having Neifi or Izturis on our team is a bad idea and never was a good idea for them to be here in the first place. btw, firefox 2's built-in spell checking is awesome.

Maybe to some, sure. But I, for one, never thought Hendry thought Izturis was the great savior at SS. People who think Hendry is an idiot and a bad GM will look at the simplest of post-trade news conference quotes and turn them into more fodder for hating Hendry. What else is the guy supposed to say at the "I just traded Greg Maddux" news conference? That the guy we got in return isn't what we hoped he would be? Yeah, welcome to Chicago, Cesar. The reaction to that trade on this board was mind-boggling to me. As far as the Aramis NTC, I certainly had no idea if he had one back then. But if its true, it just goes to show how many of the opinions we carry are really only based on what we think we know instead of the whole truth. Umm ok, that's exactly why people give Hendry a hard time because he is the GM and he was the one that got garbage for Maddux. Considering how important it is to Hendry having players that can catch the ball I put the blame squarely on his shoulders. Did you intend to be condescending? Your "umm, ok" does nothing for your argument. What did you expect the Cubs to get for two months of a 40-year-old pitcher who is only moderately effective? Andy LaRoche? That was a pipe dream. Some guys are saying bring Maddux back in '07, but only as a 4th or 5th starter. Personally, I don't want him back. So the Cubs traded away two months of a 4th or 5th starter that they had no use for given the sad state of their won-loss record for a former all-star SS with injury problems. That's no great trade, but Izturis is far from, as you and many others on this board like to put it "garbage". As a 24-year-old, he posted a .330 OBP and played gold glove defense at a defensive position, SS, so he's got some upside. He's got a ton of question marks. He is far from a safe bet to reproduce his '04 numbers, but he is in his prime, so its far more likely to happen now than later. He's not the answer any of us want at SS, but he is not "garbage". I expected to not get a bad contract for him as that's what we got when we traded for Izturis. I didn't expect much for Maddux to be honest but getting a bad contract back wasn't a good idea on Hendry's part.

Maybe to some, sure. But I, for one, never thought Hendry thought Izturis was the great savior at SS. People who think Hendry is an idiot and a bad GM will look at the simplest of post-trade news conference quotes and turn them into more fodder for hating Hendry. What else is the guy supposed to say at the "I just traded Greg Maddux" news conference? That the guy we got in return isn't what we hoped he would be? Yeah, welcome to Chicago, Cesar. The reaction to that trade on this board was mind-boggling to me. As far as the Aramis NTC, I certainly had no idea if he had one back then. But if its true, it just goes to show how many of the opinions we carry are really only based on what we think we know instead of the whole truth. Umm ok, that's exactly why people give Hendry a hard time because he is the GM and he was the one that got garbage for Maddux. Considering how important it is to Hendry having players that can catch the ball I put the blame squarely on his shoulders.

I like this move.

Personally, I think Lilly would be a pretty good fit here if we can sign another top pitcher like Matsuzaka: Z Matsuzaka Hill Lilly 5th starter(anybody that can get you to 12-15 wins would be nice) That would be a solid rotation IMO.

I'm sure Baker had some say or input on the roster but not 90% as much. And if that is the case that doesn't make Hendry any better. He's the fool who listened to Dusty to begin with and most of the blame should be placed on him.

Note my sig..

I would be happy with that lineup actually. And I would be ecstatic to see Izturis a goner.

Off topic but if we can get those guys in your sig I will be very happy for once.

Piniella wasn't my first choice and neither was Girardi but maybe Piniella won't be as bad as I first thought he would be. Time will tell and to be honest I'm more concerned about who the Cubs sign or trade for.

This puzzles me as well. Why not obtain the opinions of those that we deem important two months ago rather than now? I infer this to mean that the steps they've taken over the last couple of months have failed, and thus they sent him to Andrews for evaluation recently....zero progress since being placed on the DL. Unfortunately, this has been typical as of late with this organization. We're the laughing stock of MLB when it comes to diagnosing injuries. I don't care if this Mark O'Neal's fault or not heads have to roll if there has been a chronic problem with injuries to almost all of the pitchers. O'Neal and Rothschild are the first two culprits that come to mind and they are both back for next year. Hallelujah!

Nice knowing you Prior. I'm starting to think it's probably best for the Cubs to cut their losses with the fragile twins and move forward without them.

Crown the bears super bowl champs i think. All the hype about them being the best team in NFL. 'You wanna crown them, crown their asses' i love it. That's exactly it.