YearofDaCubs

Signing Rusch makes it an unfortunate necessity because of the DL we can always add a pitcher after Wood goes on it. Now, with Rusch here you know the 12man staff will be here because we cant stick our 6th SP in the minors.

I'm not opposed to resigning Nomar and having Cedeno on our bench. I am opposed to having Neifi and Macias back here.

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug. Not only that, but this also means we go back to a 12 man pitching staff, unless of course we shake up the starting pitching which IMO wont happen. Perhaps I have mis-interpreted some info but aren't most teams going with a 12-man pitching staff these days? We did it last year and we had players who wouldnt pitch for weeks. Most teams go with a 11-man staff and have more bench players.

We really need to sign Giles to put us over the top. Get Giles, resign Nomar, and trade for either MGiles or Castillo. Those 3 moves IMO would give us a lineup necessary to get into the playoffs(pitching notwithstanding.)

I'm all for Murton starting in LF and no doubt in my mind that he deserves it. I'm just more worried on who will be playing RF and CF come April.

:evil: That's frickin ridiculous with the talent in our farm system and the holes we have left to plug. Not only that, but this also means we go back to a 12 man pitching staff, unless of course we shake up the starting pitching which IMO wont happen.

I dont care if Nomar was healthy for the entire year. Chances are we still would have lost. Besides, how can you count on so many injury prone players to stay healthy? Fact of the matter is our lack of discipline at the plate probably cost us more than anything. Our OF and Baker's lineups were pretty bad as well. Those 3 IMO cost us a playoff berth.

Honestly, if Nomar wants to extend his career and be at less risk for injury, a move to LF for the rest of his career would be in his best interest, imo. Yeah, bu does he even have the arm to play OF? Not everybody can play any position.

This is the same budget that was dictated by the Sosa debacle. There were limited options at the time b/c free agency was coming to an end and all potential options had already been signed. Had the Cubs used any foresight, they would've known if they had to trade Sosa it would've been key to find a RF'er ASAP once they made the decision they were going to trade him instead of few possible options such as Burnitz. Hendry had to sign Burnitz, he had to sign him b/c the Cubs waited so damn long in trading Sosa and deciding not to sign anyone until after the trade was completed likely b/c of budget constraints and potentially eating more than they already did. The flaw isn't in signing in Burnitz, it's waiting till he's the last avail. option. Actually, I think the budgetary concerns were nonexistent. We picked up most of Sosa's salary anyway-did Hendry think he was going to be able to unload all of it on some other team, especially considering the hackjob the Tribune pulled on Sosa. If Sosa's 18m was a hinderance to singing a top flight RF, it would have been a hinderance if he were traded or not, so what's the difference? Beteween Hairston, Burnitz and Sosa's salary we ate, we lost money on that deal. I think the team uses Sosa's trade as an easy out to the question of: Why didn't you sign a FA OF? At the very least they could have brought back Alou. He signed, what, a $7m contract with a $6m option for 2006? The excuse for not bringing him back was that Hendry wasn't sure he could move Sosa, so he didn't want to commit money to Alou just in case. Then he signed Burnitz for $4.5. Hendry couldn't have found an extra 2.5m somewehre in the budget to accomodate that? It's in that chain of events like overpaying for Macias, Perez and, to a lesser extent, Blanco came back to bite Hendry. As irritating as Alou was to us (especially Tim), an Alou/Patterson/Whoever OF would have been light years better than the one we ended up with. At that time, they were coming to an end financially. They had to have known they'd be eating most if not all of his contract. But, the 7 or so mil did help land Burnitz and I don't think they would've been able to if they didn't get Balt. to pay part of Sosa's '05. We ate, IIRC, $13m of the $18.5m of Sosa's 2005. Hairston made $1.8m last season, and Burnitz signed for $4.5m. At best, that's a wash. The budgetary issue is a total red herring for a complete lack of planning from the second the final out occurred against Atlanta last October. Say what you will about the results that Hendry has produced but saying that he has a "complete lack of planning" is absurd. From all accounts Hendry is one of the hardest working GM's around, so I seriously doubt that he just sat around all winter without thinking about the direction of the ballclub. The difficulty in moving Sosa is highly underestimated. I think Hendry probably worked daily in trying to get this done. It also seems to me that he had a unofficial agreement with Burnitz that he would sign him as soon as he found a taker for Sosa that would free up the position and the necessary cash. Otherwise it makes no sense that Burnitz would be the only guy still unsigned considering the numbers he put up the year before and the fact that he did get interest from other teams. Hendry had been interested in Burnitz since at least two years ago when he was with the Dodgers. I can respect the argument that Hendry overvalued Burnitz and that was an error in judgement by him, but I don't buy this hyperbole about Hendry not having a plan. Hyperbole indeed. Hendry had a good plan for 6 of the 8 positions. Unfortunately, Nomar and Patterson were brutal. He had a so-so plan for LF, which failed miserably, until Murton came up and looked real good in September. He tried to fix the LF problem by trading for Lawton @ the end of July, but that flopped too. The plan for RF sucked, but AGAIN, what was out there?? If people think Burnitz was bad, look @ the alternatives.. Drew 72 games. Ordonez 82 games and a .795 ops. Sosa 102 games and .671 ops. Huff .749 and would have cost multiple prospects. Yes, they could have went w/ Alou in LF & Holla/Dubi in RF, but Alou missed 40 games and cost SF $13 million over 2 years and did Alou really want to come back or play for his father instead?? Unfortunately, Ichiro, Vlad, Giles, Sheff and Abreu weren't available. Shawn Green could have been had, but does anyone want to pay him what AZ did? Sure Hendry could have been creative and picked up a bat, but that would probably have meant dealing off Pie & another prospect. Of course, then he'd get ripped apart for not giving the kids a shot. The bottom line is that the season was over when that line drive hit Prior and Wood went down. An extra bat wouldn't have got the Cubs into the playoffs. How quick we are to deflect blame from Hendry. He is the GM and he is responsible for all of these moves. Even with Wood and Prior out which by the way both of them missed significant time the year before the offense regressed from 2004. What exactly did Hendry do to improve the team? Trade Bear Bay for a scrub? Try to improve the OF the day of the trade deadline which turned out to be a bust? Let Sisco walk? Sign Burnitz as our RFer? Hendry's gameplan was to get rid of Sosa. A lot of the blame SHOULD go to Hendry because he did a terrible job. No escaping it..we miss the playoffs next season and Hendry should be fired IMO.

Agreed. With a huge emphasis on offense.

You must have been watching a different Cubs team from the one I watched. Dubios never got a shot. Dusty tried to pick spots for Dubios to be successful, like batting him against Wakefield so Hollandsworth wouldn't lose his eye against a tough knuckleballer. Every single time Dubios stepped to the plate he was batting for a job. An o-fer and he was done for a week. I cannot imagine what that must be like for a 26 year old rookie. Dubios was set up for failure from spring training. Hendry and Baker together is not a good combo. Man, now I know why SF wanted Baker out of here even though he took them to the WS.

Ok so who should he have signed? Beltan? Lowe? Pavano? Let's face it, last offseason looked promising on paper, but most of them have been busts. And expensive busts at that. I'm d#$@ grateful we didn't get tied down to someone who can't hold their weight now. EDIT: I'm sure glad we got rid of Sosa somehow though. He would have been a nightmare in RF this year. Let Walker walk and sign Kent... Let Nomar walk and sign Eckstein. Deal off Sosa and sign Dye instead of Burnitz and the Cubs offence would have been quite good. Howevah, I'm sure most were thrilled w/ bringing back Walker and Nomar last offseason. Yet they want to nitpick once things don't pan and disregard that their boys (Walker & Nomar) were the big reasons for failure. It's funny that they want to bring both back too! Having the worst OF was probably a bigger reason. Also having a manager who doesnt play the best players nor can put a consistent lineup together didnt help anything. So Hendry was supposed to deal off Patterson and not give DuBois a shot?? I recall that many were content w/ giving DuBois a shot in LF, as part of a platoon. Unfortunately, DuBois & Holla flopped big time. Also, there weren't many options for RF. There was Drew, who they didn't have the money for and who only played 72 games. There was Sosa, who some on this board wanted back. There was Burnitz, who had a better season than Sosa. There was Dye, who was coming off a .793 ops season w/ Oakland. Contrary to nitpicking history, the pickings for RF were slim. Not really, they wanted Dubois as the full-time LF. I don't remember anyone clamoring for a platoon. No talk of platoon. Hendry was mentioned as saying he wanted Dubois there. Dubois also outplayed Holla in ST yet Holla got the start. Hmm, I wonder why that is. Baker the man with a brain the size of a raisin.

Ok so who should he have signed? Beltan? Lowe? Pavano? Let's face it, last offseason looked promising on paper, but most of them have been busts. And expensive busts at that. I'm d#$@ grateful we didn't get tied down to someone who can't hold their weight now. EDIT: I'm sure glad we got rid of Sosa somehow though. He would have been a nightmare in RF this year. Let Walker walk and sign Kent... Let Nomar walk and sign Eckstein. Deal off Sosa and sign Dye instead of Burnitz and the Cubs offence would have been quite good. Howevah, I'm sure most were thrilled w/ bringing back Walker and Nomar last offseason. Yet they want to nitpick once things don't pan and disregard that their boys (Walker & Nomar) were the big reasons for failure. It's funny that they want to bring both back too! Having the worst OF was probably a bigger reason. Also having a manager who doesnt play the best players nor can put a consistent lineup together didnt help anything. So Hendry was supposed to deal off Patterson and not give DuBois a shot?? I recall that many were content w/ giving DuBois a shot in LF, as part of a platoon. Unfortunately, DuBois & Holla flopped big time. Also, there weren't many options for RF. There was Drew, who they didn't have the money for and who only played 72 games. There was Sosa, who some on this board wanted back. There was Burnitz, who had a better season than Sosa. There was Dye, who was coming off a .793 ops season w/ Oakland. Contrary to nitpicking history, the pickings for RF were slim. Yeah, well that thinking is exactly we we had th worst OF. We let Alou walk. If Hendry was so set on moving Sosa and Alou he should of had a better game plan, but like I have stated before I dont think Hendry has/had much of a game plan.

Tracy reminds me a lot of Murton.

Ok so who should he have signed? Beltan? Lowe? Pavano? Let's face it, last offseason looked promising on paper, but most of them have been busts. And expensive busts at that. I'm d#$@ grateful we didn't get tied down to someone who can't hold their weight now. EDIT: I'm sure glad we got rid of Sosa somehow though. He would have been a nightmare in RF this year. Let Walker walk and sign Kent... Let Nomar walk and sign Eckstein. Deal off Sosa and sign Dye instead of Burnitz and the Cubs offence would have been quite good. Howevah, I'm sure most were thrilled w/ bringing back Walker and Nomar last offseason. Yet they want to nitpick once things don't pan and disregard that their boys (Walker & Nomar) were the big reasons for failure. It's funny that they want to bring both back too! Having the worst OF was probably a bigger reason. Also having a manager who doesnt play the best players nor can put a consistent lineup together didnt help anything.

After having a pathetic 1 and 2 spots a Furcal woudl make a difference. How can Baker not try and put Walker at the 1 hole? The man is terrible.

Had the Cubs had Giles in RF instead of Burnitz, we would have been 5th in OBP instead of 13th. That alone speaks of his value. The window is closing. I don't think we have the luxury of passing on the only impact OF because of his age. We can be fiscally responsible in fourth place or we can overpay for the player than immediately improves the line-up. I choose the later. I want Giles too but 4 years scares me. Obviously if we can get him for 3 years that would be perfect. What if the Cards offered 3/36, would you do the fourth to keep him away from them? I would. I would go ahead and offer the fourth to keep him from even thinking about other teams. If necessary yes because if he goes to the Cards we are done for.

Had the Cubs had Giles in RF instead of Burnitz, we would have been 5th in OBP instead of 13th. That alone speaks of his value. The window is closing. I don't think we have the luxury of passing on the only impact OF because of his age. We can be fiscally responsible in fourth place or we can overpay for the player than immediately improves the line-up. I choose the later. I want Giles too but 4 years scares me. Obviously if we can get him for 3 years that would be perfect.

I dont know man isn't 4 years kinda steep for a player who will be 39 going into the last season of his contract?

I personally think Cedeno can be an everyday starter. He seems to have a good eye, and some pop.

You mean LoDuca? :P HAHA yeah :)

Do you think this move stems from last year when he got rid of Mota and DeLuca?

That's not true, Pittsburgh was very interested in Jeromy. Pittsburgh was not going to give him the money Hendry did.

Hendry gave a contract to Burnitz when nobody really wanted his services. A pretty hefty contract at that. Same iwth Maddux, nobody wanted to grab Maddux and we gave him a VERY generous contract, very. Rusch had an option on the Cubs for 2MIL instead of waiting for it or not Hendry decided to sign him to a 2 year deal worth 3mil per. Since he was not a free agent, yes he bid against his 2mil option contract.

You have got to be kidding me. Did we make the playoffs in 2004 or 2005? Maybe you don't know this but we were 4th in our division last year. That is terrible!! All I care about is results and the past two year Hendry and Baker did nothing of the sort. I concede that Hendry sold us short in 2005, but very little of the blame for the 2004 season can be laid at Hendry's feet. I'm not so sure about that. Although our offense was stacked we still had some glaring holes and the most important being our closer. Everybody and their mother knew that Hawkins should not be in the role and Hendry decided to acquire Jose Mesa after waivers? Of course it was going to get blocked. Hawkins futility in that role, lack of fundamentals, and our sputtering offense cost us a playoff berth. Going into the 2004 season closer wasn't an issue. It didn't become one until late April/May. Going into 2004 ST, the Cubs roster was the strongest in the NL central, IMO. The offense was stacked (excluding SS), in part because Hendry brought in Derrek Lee, Todd Walker and Michael Barrett. The rotation was heralded as the best in the NL, and many said the Cubs had a top 3 bullpen. Remmy was good in 2003, as was Farnsworth. Hendry brought in the top setup man on the market (Hawkins), and perhaps the best loogy (Mercker). Borowski was coming off his best season. He signed Greg Maddux to go with Wood/Prior/Zambrano/Clement. The Bench left a bit to be desired, but you were going to have Grudz/Walker and Hollandsworth as your top PH, so it was far from pitiful. Now injuries and Baker undermined the season, but as pitchers and catchers reported in February 2004, you had to feel pretty damn good about our chances. 2005 is a different story. I felt great about 2004 at the beginning but like I said after those injuries Hendry didn't make the trades necessary to put us over the top. More specifically finding a closer. I don't give a crap how much you had to pay for it, you just had to get one.