YearofDaCubs

Considering we were giving AGone 6mill per year Furcal is a steal at 8mil. I would personally have Furcal at 8mil than Nomar at 8mil here. I dont think I would pay more than 8mil though. I am also not against the idea of starting Cedeno and using that money elsewhere. Andy MacPhail was on the radio this afternoon and he def didnt sound happy. He did mention that the Cubs will do whatever they can to improve the team. Expect Baker and Hendry back next year. He seemed very confident of that.

Agreed. And I'm pretty much done feeling sorry for the players, too. It's been fun/easy to blame Dusty, and for awhile that's all I blamed, but frankly . . . just about everyone deserves a 2nd-to-last finish. Yeah, the blame starts from the top and goes all the way down to the bottom. Everyone should be accountable.

I'm not surprised a lot of people were writing off the Cards but I wasnt. Losing Rolen is huge though and that is the kind of loss that will make a difference to the Cards.

If both leave then what are our options?

the Sox wouldn't trade Rowand. Makes me think though that they'll take on a lot more of Griffey's contract now. We know the Reds need pitching so McCarthy has to be in the deal and I would probably say Brian Anderson is involved in it as well. McCarthy and Anderson seem to be very steep considering that contract, but who knows how much of that contract the Reds would pay.

Go figure.

I would think the Reds would be happy to unload that contract.

Have you guys seen Giles numbers the past 2 years? I think he only has 68 rbis this year? HR and RBI wise he is inline with Burnitz. Of course his AVG and OBP is better (.421 OBP)but do you guys think hes worth 10mil?

I wouldnt mind it if the White Sox won the world series. I think Chicago as a city deserves it even though I am not a white sox fan.

Lets hope Rusch's tenure as a cub comes to an end soon. It's very clear that he was a one-hit wonder.

Sound like a couple of differing viewpoints to me. What else is new. Contrary to what Hendry says about being on the same page as Baker, they are not.

I'm rooting for somebody to fire Dusty.

I hope we do. I want everybody to know how pathetic of a job Hendry and Baker did this year. That way Baker might be gone and we will have a legit team.

Well, I cant say that I blame Lamar. Every other team looks to fleece the Devil Rays thinking that they will trade with them just because they always have the worst record.

Trading Walker and Burnitz might give Hendry a chance to trade Mitre or Aardsma as well to meet some of the Cubs' pressing needs. If we truly want to be successful next year we will have to trade.

I'm not going to blame Coreys struggles on Baker. Corey just doesnt get it and I think we would be better off without him.

Holla will NOT be with the Cubs in 2006. I agree, he will not be a Cub next year either and my intuition tells me that Macias wont be here either. UNfortunately, I think Neifi will but I hope he won't be either. It's time to clean up the bench among other things.

I hope they keep losing. That way everybody knows what a terrible job Hendry and Baker have done and hopefully Baker will be gone sooner rather than later.

It's to the point that I could care less if Walker goes as well. SHip him off for a prospect and play Hairston next year.

Agreed. You are right though lately almost all of their moves have been questionable.

:(

What was wrong with giving Ohman a shot? He is a better pitcher than Bartosh. I didn't see anything in Bartosh from the beg., I saw a flat 90 MPH FB and an avg. breaking pitch, there wasn't anything there worth trading for. I thought Hendry overpaid for another situational lefty. Bay projects as a 4/5, but that is a higher ceiling than Bartosh. Yeah, Ohman was the first lefty, and Bartosh theoretically was the 2nd with Rusch as a long man. Bartosh was the wrong target in hindsight, but since Bay was going to be part of that roster crunch anyways, dealing him to take a chance on a short term upgrade, even with a lower ceiling than himself, isn't a terrible decision to me. Actually, if I recall correctly thr Bartosh trade sent Ohman to the minors. And after Hendry figured out he made a bad trade he demoted Bartosh and brought Ohman back up, but I'm certain Ohman did not open the season on our roster. EDIT: Yup, he did not start on the roster and possibly had to clear waivers to get to the minors in the first place which means we had a good chance to lose Ohman all because Hendry though Bartosh was the answer. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/2005odr/cubs.html

The Lawton trade really made no sense considering the consensus on this forum already was that we had no chance. AT the same time we had Murton doing good when he played for us. Hendry's move this year have been TERRIBLE!! Bay for Bartosh. Oh God that was bad. I would be worried if Hendry gave up on the season based on the consensus on a Cubs forum. His job is to keep trying to improve the team until it is out of contention and that is what he did. This team has some major 40 man roster decisions during the offseason so this worked out fine. In the end they cleared a 40 man roster spot of someone clearly not in their long term plans (Dubois) and added a younger prospect that does not need to be protected this year. Hendry was able to do that while also having Lawton for a while in a effort to get to the playoffs. I don't see how anyone can call Bay for Bartosh TERRIBLE until first of all Bay actually makes a big league roster and contributes and secondly we see what Bartosh winds up doing. He is still pretty young and could turn into a servicable LOOGY. At this point Bartosh has better odds of being a serviceable MLB pitcher than Bay just based on their level of development. Yes, Bay for Bartosh was indeed terrible. Bay was a good prospect and has been doing good in the minors for the Indians. At the very least you could have got a better player than Bartosh who sucked for us when he played here and chances are will be a non factor.

McClain over Fontenot or Kelton? I rather see a younger player than McClain. The experience would be good.

The Lawton trade really made no sense considering the consensus on this forum already was that we had no chance. AT the same time we had Murton doing good when he played for us. Hendry's move this year have been TERRIBLE!! Bay for Bartosh. Oh God that was bad.