YearofDaCubs

If they're not, please ship him to Chicago ASAP. I'll personally pay for Dusty's plane ticket out and Scioscia's ticket in. We'll split the price of the tickets 50/50!

I would like to see a 3 year contract. I also think a 3/12Mil is very fair.

SD has to deal with a bad contract in Klesko and I do think SD is looking to acquire more offense so it should be interesting. Giles though knows that his numbers at PetCo are not as good if he plaed at a different park and that might persuade him to leave from there. I also think that the Red Sox should be more worried about their pitching than their offense. Bottom line, Hendry needs to step up. It better not be a pathetic offseason like this year. EDIT: I do want to add that SD should put more effort into acquiring right-handers instead of lefties if they want to be more successful. They also have a bad contract in Chan Ho Park.

I'm really hoping for a couple kids to get bench jobs. I see a few of them doing as well as some $800,000 veteran. But I think I'd like to see a good outing by Sing vault him into valuable trade chip this winter. The Cubs need to make moves, and the more assets the better. Totally agree.

I don't believe it. That person on the score is making stuff up IMO.

Ha! That's exactly what I was thinking.

I didnt want to believe that Wood and Prior were getting injured more frequently because of 2003, but there is no denying that both of them haven't been the same since that year. Be it because of injury or possibly overacheiving they have not been the same and have been injured every year since then.

I don't know about that. Hawkins had good peripherals, but fell flat in the end. Dempster walks the tight rope in his outings. It would not take much of a downgrade in those peripherals for me to see him falling on his face. I'd still like to see the Cubs sign a dominant reliever like Ryan or Wagner. Let Dempster pitch the bridge role, not entering in the middle of innings, but starting and finishing the 8th every night. Fell flat? Come on man Hawkins was plain terrible in the closer role. It wasn't even close. I don't deny that, I wasn't trying to sugarcoat. My point though is that Dempster was walking the tightrope. He wasn't a lockdown closer, despite the % (which isn't a great indicator of future success). I do agree that there were times where Dempster did walk the tight rope, but I believe he will be at the very least an efficient closer for us.

I don't know about that. Hawkins had good peripherals, but fell flat in the end. Dempster walks the tight rope in his outings. It would not take much of a downgrade in those peripherals for me to see him falling on his face. I'd still like to see the Cubs sign a dominant reliever like Ryan or Wagner. Let Dempster pitch the bridge role, not entering in the middle of innings, but starting and finishing the 8th every night. Fell flat? Come on man Hawkins was plain terrible in the closer role. It wasn't even close.

IF we want to make the playoffs we have to do the following: Improve fundamentals and defense. Less Ks, more OBP. Our 1-2 should have legitimate players there, not Corey, Neifi, Macias. Improved OF. I dont know if its true or not but I'm pretty sure we might have the worst OF in baseball. Murton in LF, but we need improvements in CF and RF I would like to see one more SP. We need to improve our RP by a bit. I like Williamson and if he can come back to form we will be good, but I would like to see us go after one more good veteran RP. Bench..we need to revamp our bench and fill it up with people that can actually hit coming off the bench. Macias in pinch hitting situations had an AVG in the .100s that is not even close to acceptable as your primary bench player. Neifi thinks he can be a starter for someone, well do us a favor and leave. Our bench players also need to minimize on the double-plays. I would like to see Nomar back but his defense concerns me as much as his injury history. I'm not saying improving these categories are going to be easy for Hendry but you know what he put us in this mess and it's time for him to really step it up and improve the team unlike last year.

I dont know what the fuss is all about. I was angry when we did not sign a closer the past two season, but I'm very happy having Dempster here now. The way I see it is Dempster did an excellent job for us and even if he regresses just a bit, he will still be MUCH MUCH better than Hawkins. 5mil, like I said before was a little more than I was expecting Demp to get but whatever 5mil for a closer isn't all that bad especially considering Hawkins is making more than that. We still need to sign or trade for another RP that can be good and have that person and Williamson fight it out for the setup spot.

What a class act.

We get to watch Benson do his best Anthony Thomas impression? Or do we get to see Adrian Peterson play? :| The time has finally come for us to watch Benson have 20 carries. AP will play, but not as extensive as Benson.

Agreed. Although nobody knows what Couch's status is since he had shoulder surgery. A healthy Couch would've been a really good backup.

I would take Jeff George over Blake any day of the week. Blake and Kittner should NOT be on this roster.

Not that Chinatown would make a difference to Hideki since he is Japanese, but we have a good amount of people who are Japanese in Chicago. I'm Greek and can tell you there's more places to go to than just Greek town if you're Greek. I'm sure it works the same way for every nationality.

Umm..Bakers mistakes ARE painfully obvious to the fans, but he doesnt have to worry because he is Hendry's boy.

Is he open-minded about leaving NY? I can see him wanting to stay there because it is much more of a multi-lingual city than Chicago. In Chicago you pretty much hear English, Spanish, and Polish and little else. Thats not true.

Did you know: Jeter is a lifetime .314/.386/.461 hitter. For his career he's hit almost exactly that in the postseason (just slightly lower in AVG/OBP), in the divisional series he's been much better than that, but in LCS he's been much worse, and in the WS he's been a little worse. ARod is a lifetime .307/.385/.577 hitter. In the posteason overall he's .305/.401/.534 (less in the division series, better in the LCS). Choke, clutch, choke, clutch. They're fun words to use, but largely meaningless. Did you know that ARod's avg this postseason was .133 and had no homers or rbis? That's pretty terrible if you ask me especially considering the money he makes. That was a 5-game span. I'm sure I could take five consecutive games and make anyone in baseball look bad. Sample. Size. It's not all A-Rod's fault they lost that series. He didn't help, but there were other reasons. Nobody seems to mention the lack of communication in last night's game that led to the collision between Crosby and Sheffield. That was a blunder as well. A-Rod was a big part of the reason they got to the playoffs in the first place. Nobody seems to mention that, either. Just because he's the marquee name does not mean it's his fault. It's like saying Sammy is totally the reason we lost the NLCS in 2003. Yeah, a 5 game span in the playoffs. He is not the sole reason why they lost. Their starting pitching has more to do with that. When you are in the heart of the order you are expected to produce. ARod in this instance did not. I never said ARod was a choker throughout his career but in this playoff series he choked. No question about it.

Not a bad idea. I agree with you.

Let's hope Hendry's advisors will have a better game plan than last year.

Yes, it is beyond ridiculous. And people wonder why it's been so long foru us to make it to the WS.

Yeah, his avg was bad this year. And so was the Big Unit's ERA. Some guys have huge series, some guys have bad series. It happens. From year to year that changes. And over time it tends to even out, which to me is why it's silly to say things like choke/clutch. A guy making $25 mil isn't allowed a "bad year", even if it's just a few post-season games, in my opinion. When you're making that kind of money, and your team is fortunate enough to make the playoffs, you'd better be a "money player". Okay then. Unreasonable expectations are cool. The more people badmouthing ARod the better, hopefully he gets traded and hopefully he comes to the Cubs. I'll take my chances on that "bad year" every time. ARod would never come to the Cubs. That's a pipe dream.

Did you know: Jeter is a lifetime .314/.386/.461 hitter. For his career he's hit almost exactly that in the postseason (just slightly lower in AVG/OBP), in the divisional series he's been much better than that, but in LCS he's been much worse, and in the WS he's been a little worse. ARod is a lifetime .307/.385/.577 hitter. In the posteason overall he's .305/.401/.534 (less in the division series, better in the LCS). Choke, clutch, choke, clutch. They're fun words to use, but largely meaningless. Did you know that ARod's avg this postseason was .133 and had no homers or rbis? That's pretty terrible if you ask me especially considering the money he makes.

If we sign Furcal, it will be a 4/36- 5/42 deal. How will that deal look four or five years down the road? Once again, we're mentioned as a suitor. Hendry has been known to get his targets. I have a strong feeling we'll end up with Furcal. Unfortunately, I believe that will be the totality of the splash we make and that our OF still will be uninspiring. If our OF is not improved..I'm done with this team. You guys say that all the time, and you always comeback. It's an addiction, but seriously enough is enough with this team.