YearofDaCubs

No I bet you the fool will put them between Lee and ARam to break the "righties" up.

Totally agree. We won't go anywhere with MacPhail and the other losers at the top.

Have you're fun but don't forget you guys will have "JRod" and So running around the OF. :D Do you think the cubs have any chance of finishing ahead of the cards? Cubs will be lucky to finish 3rd in the division. Seriously.

Abreu gets traded to Houston, we trade Walker and start Perez and then people will wonder what exactly went wrong. It's the philosophy of the entire organization that is the problem.

My theory more than ever has come to fruition. Hendry will only sign "set-up" men to top dollar free agent contracts. He will not sign top-tier free agents. He didn't even offer Furcal the guy who he was sweating all off-season 10mil per. MacPhail, Hendry, and Baker need to be fired in order for us to become successful.

Start a campaign similar to the one in Detroit about Millen. :)

Of course. Nothing is unexpected with this organization. Nothing.

Yeah I can see it now. Trading Walker and starting Perez at 2B would be the cherry on top of the offseason. I can actually see it go down like this.

I knew something like this would happen. I didn't want the offseason to end like this but I knew better than to listen to Hendry's quotes and BS. It's going to be a long season.

Hendry is going to pull off the trade of the century dont you know?

Hendry should be fired.

That was an excellent trade for Hendry.

I really think Weaver is undervalued and gets a reasonable deal. I think two years ago Weaver led the majors in quality starts. He wouldn't be a bad signing for the right deal.

Good work listing all the various links, but I bet this goes through in the next few days, and then Hendry starts focusing on Tejada and a starting pitcher. You must have some inside info working for the oganization to know he will start working on Tejada and a SP. How do you know that? Pipe dreams if you ask me Actually, I happen to also think he'll try and sign or otherwise find another starter, if for no other reason than after this season our rotation is losing 2 of the guys in it. This season is not the right time to sign a starting pitcher considering the contracts which were given out.

Because he didnt have enough money after signing Eyre and Howry to ridiculous contracts? Who knows. I would think this is a move Hendry would make considering he signed Williamson and Dempster.

Daily Herald Even Rotoworldpoints to the suntimes article Good work listing all the various links, but I bet this goes through in the next few days, and then Hendry starts focusing on Tejada and a starting pitcher. You must have some inside info working for the oganization to know he will start working on Tejada and a SP. How do you know that? Pipe dreams if you ask me

I don't think too many people are surprised, just disgusted. Disgusted is an over- reaction. They have no idea what JJ will do in a Cubs uniform. I would have never guessed & most baseball people I have spoken to, would have never guessed that D.Lee would turn into Pujols in 05'. I'm willing to see it play out, before I completely chastise Hendry & Cubs management. This is why grading teams & GM's on their off-season is absolutely ridiculous. You know, maybe i'm just overtired, but I cannot understand how Hendry and the Cubs could sign a homeless guy off the street to play RF and people will say "you never know how it will work out". That's junk. At least Lee had the peripherals showing some sort of statistical bounce when he left Pro Player and came to Wrigley. Jones is bloody awful. Just terrible. Look at any metric you want. His BA sucks, his OBP super sucks, he K's too much, he's barely a 20 HR a year guy, he doesn't steal, his defense is inferior to Patterson's, and he doesn't deserve more than 1 year deal for about $4.5 m. AND to top it off, we're putting him with a coaching staff that will do nothing to get him to be more patient. So yeah, I don't need to "wait and see" how this turns out. I knew how Burnitz turned out, and this is going to be worse than that, for a couple extra years. Hooray. Agreed.

Great pickup by the Yanks. Vance will be upset.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9108081 I didn't see it posted but if it is please lock.

Agreed. I like Dotel's chances of being good again much much better than Miller's.

Abysmal...

You mean the pitching staff that has an injury prone pitcher in Wood and a pitcher in Maddux who will regress? Prior and Z go down and so does our season but we won't have the offense to compensate. That's the problem. How much can we really rely on our pitching considering the injury history of some of our pitchers? That's reaching. Reaching is what we did last year and obviously it didn't work out so well. I agree we should nto rely on the pitching. Just what did you think I was saying there ? And that's why I said I agree with you.

Was he hurt in 2004? His numbers in 2004 are basically identical or worse than his 2005 season. His father died in 2004. Can see how a guy can lose focus and all. Ok so he didn't do good in 2004 because his father died. He wan't good in 2005 because he had astrained oblique so then what will be the excuse in 2006?

Not true. You and I have butted heads all offseason, so while you are under the impression I am all gloom and doom while I'm under the impression you believe Hendry can do no wrong, there is a middle point most likely for both of us. ....I said right after the offseason ended to give me a line up with .350+ OBP throughout and this team will win more games than it loses. so would any team, but that's simply not realistic. name five teams that had 8 .350 OBP regulars in the history of baseball. the 2004 RedSox only had seven, and that includes having the DH instead of a pitcher. Here's an interesting observation. The team shown only had four players with OBP's over .350, but they did score 944 runs, and had a team OBP of .367, even with the pitcher batting in the 9 spot. This offense is right up there in the same stratosphere as the vaunted 1927 Yankees. (who also had 2 starters with OBP's under .350). POS Player G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO HBP SH SB AVG OBP SLG C Spud Davis 106 329 41 103 16 1 14 65 17 20 1 10 1 .313 .349 .495 1B Don Hurst 119 391 78 128 19 3 17 78 46 22 2 12 6 .327 .401 .522 2B Fresco Thompson 122 478 77 135 34 4 4 46 35 29 0 16 7 .282 .331 .395 3B Pinky Whitney 149 606 87 207 41 5 8 117 40 41 1 15 3 .342 .383 .465 SS Tommy Thevenow 156 573 57 164 21 1 0 78 23 26 2 26 1 .286 .316 .326 LF Lefty O'Doul 140 528 122 202 37 7 22 97 63 21 5 10 3 .383 .453 .604 CF Denny Sothern 90 347 66 97 26 1 5 36 22 37 2 10 6 .280 .326 .403 RF Chuck Klein 156 648 158 250 59 8 40 170 54 50 4 13 4 .386 .436 .687 UT Bernie Friberg 105 331 62 113 21 1 4 42 47 35 1 8 1 .341 .425 .447 1B Monk Sherlock 92 299 51 97 18 2 0 38 27 28 0 9 0 .324 .380 .398 OF Fred Brickell 53 240 33 59 12 6 0 17 13 21 2 2 1 .246 .290 .346 C Tony Rensa 54 172 31 49 11 2 3 31 10 18 1 2 0 .285 .328 .424 C Harry McCurdy 80 148 23 49 6 2 1 25 15 12 0 3 0 .331 .393 .419 OF Tripp Sigman 52 100 15 27 4 1 4 6 6 9 2 1 1 .270 .324 .450 OF Cy Williams 21 17 1 8 2 0 0 2 4 3 0 0 0 .471 .571 .588 C Jim Spotts 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Total 1875 5667 944 1783 345 44 126 884 450 459 23 148 34 .315 .367 .458 Unfortunately, this 1930 Phillies team, unlike the '27 Yankees, didn't quite make it to the World Series. In fact, they finished dead last at 52-102, 40 games behind the Cardinals. You know the answer, no pitching. I'm not suggesting that the CUBS' offense, as it stands today, is good enough. The fact is, it is pretty weak. While I have hopes that Hendry will acquire somebody good for right field and maybe Shortstop, the fact remains, IMO, that this team will go as far as it's pitching takes them. There are just too many questions on the pitching staff for me to feel confidant of them right now. You mean the pitching staff that has an injury prone pitcher in Wood and a pitcher in Maddux who will regress? Prior and Z go down and so does our season but we won't have the offense to compensate. That's the problem. How much can we really rely on our pitching considering the injury history of some of our pitchers? That's reaching. Reaching is what we did last year and obviously it didn't work out so well. I agree we should nto rely on the pitching.

That's another excuse to make fans think he's a good option. Kinda like the BS Hendry came up with for Burnitz.