YearofDaCubs

I would be OK with Huff. JJones and PWilson..blah

OK, so who is a better option. Preston Wilson for a year or Jacque Jones for 3?

Lovely.

Prior's mechanics have been debated since his injury 2 years ago. I sure as heck don't really know the answer. I did hear Rothschild make those comments about Prior throwing the curve though. At the same Tom House who worked with Prior said his injury to his elbow started happening when his achiles started hurting and his mechanics changed a bit to compensate. Who knows.

I believe that the WRs are not getting as open as they would like but clearly Orton is missing wide open receivers as well. It's to the point where Orton doesn't throw the bomb anymore because he overthrows targets by 10 yards. I don't know if he's nervous but it seems he has no sense of touch on the ball when going deep.

If I were a GM I'd never consider any player untouchable. Not even Pujols? Interesting.

I think there would be. The longest losing streak in sports. The getting rid of "the curse." And when you consider how many Cubs fans there are I think there would be.

If the Cubs won the Series next season, Hendry would win a permanent place in Chicago Sports lore, and deservedly so. He could be assigned to the GM position for life as far as I'm concerned along with 110% retirement benefits when he wanted to step down. I doubt that. Kenny Williams' work isnt being acknowledged by many and they waited almost as long as we have. the cubs and sox aren't comparable in this regard. most chicagoans would admit that it would be complete and total pandemonium if the cubs won. probably the biggest chicago sports story of the century. Totally Agree.

Cleveland says they will play Nomar in RF if they get him. And why didn't the Cubs think of that? Or did Nomar flat out say no to the Cubs yet it is an option for the Indians? You can't ask me that question, because I can't answer it. My first offseason move was to get Nomar back as cheaply as possible. To play shortstop? One idea would have been to have him play SS and Cedeno at 2B. barring injury Cedeno could be moved to SS. Can Nomar play 2B? Who knows. Nomar could have backed up ARam as well. Something could've been worked out. This lineup looks much better with Nomar in it than it does with Cedeno and Perez. As it stands right now we lost Burnitz and Nomar(granted he lost a lot of time last year) and only have gained Pierre. Offensively, the Cubs don't look good right now.

Cleveland says they will play Nomar in RF if they get him. And why didn't the Cubs think of that? Or did Nomar flat out say no to the Cubs yet it is an option for the Indians? You can't ask me that question, because I can't answer it. My first offseason move was to get Nomar back as cheaply as possible. It would have been a very good move to make. Especially at 4-6mil. I would think he would have stayed.

Cleveland says they will play Nomar in RF if they get him. And why didn't the Cubs think of that? Or did Nomar flat out say no to the Cubs yet it is an option for the Indians?

If the Cubs won the Series next season, Hendry would win a permanent place in Chicago Sports lore, and deservedly so. He could be assigned to the GM position for life as far as I'm concerned along with 110% retirement benefits when he wanted to step down. You are also forgetting the manager whoo took over after Baker was fired mid-season. :P

I'm glad we ended up with Howry over Looper that's for sure.

This isn't a bad signing for the Cardinals. I'm not a fan of Looper but he should be above AVG pitcher in the pen.

We will definitely hit the century mark which won't be good at all. I also think doing something like this would be a slap in the face to all the Cubs fans who were so close to finally tasting winning in 2003. I don't think they do it though.

As opposed to the great shortstops weve had. And what a horrible reason to not want to improve your team. Trading ARam for Tejada would not improve the team noticeably. Their offensive numbers are similar enough that it would be a wash, and the same problems would remain. Acquiring Tejada is only an impact move if Lee and Aramis are still on the team. Agreed.

You think it's drivel, I think it drives home a point. It was a sarcastic response to some pretty insincere words coming out of Hendry's mouth. Why do you pretend like there isn't a problem with the Cubs right now? Do you really think everything is fine? Many teams have spots to fill. I'm a laid back guy w/ patience. A laid back guy whom with every opportunity you get defend Hendry and the organization and keep waiting for the big trade or signing to happen. Time is ticking as far as I'm concerned. How is giving Hendry a B- a defence @ every opportunity?? Also, I've said he's done enough to get canned by the end of this upcoming season, if they don't contend. Sounds good to me. Although considering the holes we still have a B- is generous. :P I take the last 3 1/2 years into consideration. The team far exceded expectations in 2003. They underachieved a little in 2004, but had major injuries to Prior & Wood and still won 88 games. Last year was a major disappointment and Baker's infatuation w/ Perez reached epic proportions. Hitching his wagon to Baker for a 4th season makes me questions whether Hendry's fit for the job, as he's a pretty stubborn man. I'll give him one more year. Do you think Hendry salvaged Baker's final year because he stands to make 4m in that final year? Do you think that the Tribune would be happy with Hendry if he fired a guy Hendry hired, who still had 4m to go on his contract? Then also knowing that someone would have to be hired to replace Dusty, would Hendry's own job become more unstable? I'm wondering if that had anything to do with Baker still being here. The rumors of extensions kind of shoots that theory out of the water. But, Baker has been absolutely horrible (in my mind) with filling out a line up card, from preventing clubhouse chaos, etc... He hasn't been a man worthy of a 4m paycheck, IMO. Will it be easier for Hendry to fire him this year knowing he's now in the last year of his contract, meanwhile an interim manager wouldn't cost anymore? Or at this point, will Hendry just be sent packing too (assuming that he doesn't improve the team)? Oh, I'm sure the Trib doesn't want to pay 2 managers, but if Hendry pushed hard enough they may be able to get Baker out. My assumption w/ Hendry is that he's a really stubborn guy, and that may be his downfall. My guess is that if Hendry & Baker pull off 83 wins or more, they'll be back. That's enough for the Trib. It keeps hope alive w/ the masses, who don't follow baseball too closely. I don't think anything less than the playoffs will do it.

Tejada is a top notch player and would love to have him here but not at the expense of ARam. The black hole we had at 3B for all those years..Let's hope we don't go through that again in a while.

He was an elite player last year, no denying that. Will he keep it up? I'm not certain. History suggests players who have huge years like that tend to regress but still play better then before. Considering what he did last year and prior to that I will gladly take whatever Lee gives us then.

He was an elite player last year, no denying that. Will he keep it up? I'm not certain.

You think it's drivel, I think it drives home a point. It was a sarcastic response to some pretty insincere words coming out of Hendry's mouth. Why do you pretend like there isn't a problem with the Cubs right now? Do you really think everything is fine? Many teams have spots to fill. I'm a laid back guy w/ patience. A laid back guy whom with every opportunity you get defend Hendry and the organization and keep waiting for the big trade or signing to happen. Time is ticking as far as I'm concerned. How is giving Hendry a B- a defence @ every opportunity?? Also, I've said he's done enough to get canned by the end of this upcoming season, if they don't contend. Sounds good to me. Although considering the holes we still have a B- is generous. :P I take the last 3 1/2 years into consideration. The team far exceded expectations in 2003. They underachieved a little in 2004, but had major injuries to Prior & Wood and still won 88 games. Last year was a major disappointment and Baker's infatuation w/ Perez reached epic proportions. Hitching his wagon to Baker for a 4th season makes me questions whether Hendry's fit for the job, as he's a pretty stubborn man. I'll give him one more year. Do you think Hendry salvaged Baker's final year because he stands to make 4m in that final year? Do you think that the Tribune would be happy with Hendry if he fired a guy Hendry hired, who still had 4m to go on his contract? Then also knowing that someone would have to be hired to replace Dusty, would Hendry's own job become more unstable? I'm wondering if that had anything to do with Baker still being here. The rumors of extensions kind of shoots that theory out of the water. But, Baker has been absolutely horrible (in my mind) with filling out a line up card, from preventing clubhouse chaos, etc... He hasn't been a man worthy of a 4m paycheck, IMO. Will it be easier for Hendry to fire him this year knowing he's now in the last year of his contract, meanwhile an interim manager wouldn't cost anymore? Or at this point, will Hendry just be sent packing too (assuming that he doesn't improve the team)? Baker has been abysmal. All are great questions especially considering there is doubt now about the extenstions to be given out. Baker's latest comments made it seem he didn't want to be in Chicago anymore and I'm sure most will be fine with that.

Exagerations have been made, outrage has been magnified. You can't deny that. It isn't ridiculous to say that the Cubs currently have no good options on the team at RF, but it is premature to say that Hendry will definitely not improve the position and that the team will fail miserably. From now on, whenever anybody wants to whine, just post this: This way, we won't all be looking through the same post 5000 times. Considering Hendry's past offseason and lack of OF options out there there is a very good reason to be concerned about the Cubs in 2006. Who are you tell us if we are whining? What exactly should be happy about? Hendry has done a poor job as I see it. If you don't look at the facts that is your problem. We don't need you to tell us what to post. Concerned? Sure. Convinced of the inevitablilty of the Cubs being a sub .500 team? I don't know. Also, don't tell me that I don't look at the facts. That is not true. We both look at facts, the difference is what we see in those facts. I see that the offseason is not yet over, and that it is entirely possible that the team's problems will be adressed. You seem to see the Cubs failing. Agreed.

So if you include Walker and Patterson which sounds like they might be back on the roster next year and include the raises to the arb elgible players it doesn't seem like we have much left. Walker is already included in that $86. Raises for arb eligible Pierre, Zambrano, and Ohman are already in there. Salaries for arb eligible Patterson and Hairston are not in there, because I'm not certain yet they're going to be on the ball club. Once they get tendered contract offers, I'll put them in tentatively. Good stuff. So we can afford a player making 8-12mil.

You think it's drivel, I think it drives home a point. It was a sarcastic response to some pretty insincere words coming out of Hendry's mouth. Why do you pretend like there isn't a problem with the Cubs right now? Do you really think everything is fine? Many teams have spots to fill. I'm a laid back guy w/ patience. A laid back guy whom with every opportunity you get defend Hendry and the organization and keep waiting for the big trade or signing to happen. Time is ticking as far as I'm concerned. How is giving Hendry a B- a defence @ every opportunity?? Also, I've said he's done enough to get canned by the end of this upcoming season, if they don't contend. Sounds good to me. Although considering the holes we still have a B- is generous. :P

So if you include Walker and Patterson which sounds like they might be back on the roster next year and include the raises to the arb elgible players it doesn't seem like we have much left.