This team needs another OF! In Case Tom "I am in it for the long haul" Ricketts hasn't noticed yet.

2 years, $10 million and they can have almost anyone they want.

I understand waiting will no doubt get a better price, but I really dont care they are going to save $2 mill and maybe get their 2nd, 3rd or 5th choice.

I am not expecting a Jason Bay type or a Matt Holliday, but this is what a really good GM does, they target who they want and go get them.

The list of guys they want should have been established months ago.

This does concern me that the Great Ricketts family is in "coupon mode" for a leadoff/OF for the starting lineup.

Maybe we all need to wait until they get back from naples.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I hear adam greenberg had a good year for the bluefish in the atlantic league last year. make it happen

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Are you pining for Byrd again?

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Obviously the Cubs are in a holding pattern...a spending freeze if you will.
Hopefully the Wrigley Field bathroom & food improvement programs are moving forward!

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

they already have one. alfonso soriano. how many more years does he have to lead off for this team before it becomes apparent to all that he is indeed going to be your lead-off guy. it is what it is. long-term deals, gotta love em. i have hated the soriano signing since the day they got him, but if he has to lead off to be productive, so be it. he isnt going anywhere. and, by the way, leadoff hitting hasnt been what has killed this team the last few years. it has been clutch hitting in the MIDDLE of the lineup. it has been the lack of a left-handed power stick to drop into the cleanup spot between lee and ramirez.

soriano, fuld/johnson, and fukudome are 4 of your outfielders, and 3 of them will start in my opinion. the cubs will either wait to see what they have in camp, or sign some dude off the scrap heap to fill the remaining spot.

they made bad choices over the last few years, and it is time to pay the piper and either start REALLY throwing money around like the yankees and red sox to make one last serious run (which they clearly arent), or disassemble through trades and start stocking your major league roster and your upper-level minor leagues with good talent in return so they can rebuild more quickly, so we dont have to slowly watch these current guys get old and beyond their primes and waste away and get nothing in return and be in a hopeless situation of trying to constantly patch things together with free agents and cast-offs.

No wonder Reinsdorf liked this guy,Ricketts! He probably knew he was going to sit on his hands! I know I am impatient,but sometimes,no moves are the best moves. I DO want to see the Cubs giving their farm system a shot. Bring up a Tyler Colvin & Sam Fuld for CF.Also,maybe Sterling Castro can make the team at SS.
ONE MOVE I DID NOT LIKE: They traded Jake Fox just to get rid of him. It makes sense,a team that can't hit gets rid of their most promising hitter from the minors. Don't tell me he couldn't patrol LF in Wrigley. Soriano will probably get hurt again.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I always have a problem with Hendry's timing, specifically when he bids way too much way too early.


Perhaps he has finally learned to stop bidding against himself, and he is just waiting for the prices to drop.

At least bigfan is clamoring for something. He may bash KW every chance he gets, but you can't deny that Kenny has at very least TRIED to make his team better for 2010. Maybe the moves won't work out, but its an attempt if nothing else. I don't see the Cubs being any better than they were on Sept 30th, and thats sad because 1 or 2 solid moves makes this team a favorite for the division.

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You can't be serious, Frank. So Cubs fans should have just been happy last year when Hendry signed Bradley... just because it was something?



If that's the case, I can't hold back my happiness for Carlos Silva.

+1 Beat me to the punch Chris

They'll be some moves, but the longer the offseasons goes on the price on any FA he may be looking at will go down. We can't spend our way out of this. Only a couple of smart signings coupled with decent production from our minor leaguers will make us a contender again anytime in the next couple years

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Team Cutler.

No, last year was almost the opposite. Hendry took a 97 win team and more or less dismantled it.

This year, he had an underacheiving 80(2? 3?) win team and has done nothing to improve it. Yeah, he got rid of Bradley, but that was just one of the many bad moves made last offseason.

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The difference is last off season there were good options available (Ibanez, Dunn, Abreu) and Hendry jumped on the worst one (Bradley). This season there are not a lot of good options available and instead of being aggressive and acquiring one of the better players (Granderson, Cabrera, Cameron) he's sitting on his hands.

And he ended up negotiating with himself on Bradley. Nobody was going to give him that kind of $, and nobody was going to give him more than a 1 year incentive laden deal.

Enter; Jim Hendry.

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So nobody has learned that spending money just to spend money doesn't work? Should Hendry just go out and give Marlon Byrd a handfull of money just to make the meatballs happy? They're not spending money and making moves because there's nothing worth spending money on, and that's the right thing. They're doing exactly what they should be doing, not wasting money and developing their farm system. This team isn't one player away, not anymore. The system is broken and needs to be fixed ,starting with wiser spending and farm system development.

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JohnKirk wrote: I dont get it...

Once again, Frank and Keyser would be on the Cubs threads bitching no matter what moves Hendry makes.

I think sometimes Bigfan plays the role of meatball just to rile some folks up and generally it works, especially for the 2 biggest Cub fans around here: Frank and Keyser.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

It does make sense that the 2 White Sox fans in here are the 2 people not making any fucking sense at all. I don't understand why a Sox fan would spend so much time in a Cubs forum.

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JohnKirk wrote: I dont get it...

+1 I am just glad MOFO is here to explain to them time and time again why throwing more money at mediocre talent is not the best move at this point. I hate Hendry as much as the next guy but all of this hand wringing from Sox fans about the Cubs offseason gets tiresome. Why don't you guys spend the offseason trying to keep Andruw Jones away from the buffet line.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Just to be clear, I will never ever find any sort of satisfaction from a GM "trying" to improve the team. This isn't bumble bee soccer where you get an A for effort.

if the cubs do not make any major moves this off-season, get rolling in april as is, and get through the trading deadline without dealing any of the somewhat valuable pieces for quality prospects, then i will join the "what the fuck?" club. but there isnt one mid-level free agent that i am disappointed the cubs havent gone after. now if the cubs get of to a blazing start, guys are playing out of their minds and it really looks like they could make a serious bid to contend, i would have to re-evaluate, but if they are 4, 5 games back in july and looking stagnant, id pull the plug.

Thats fine. You guys worry about the Sox fans in this forum. Jim Hendry doesn't seem to be worrying about the Cubs either.

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I don't think I can think of another group of fans that takes more pleasure griping about a rival team than celebrating their own. I know it's not all Sox fans, but wow they is a vocal minority.

What would you have wanted us to do Frank? We got more than I ever dreamed of for Bradley (talking $$ wise). Granderson was not worth destroying our farm system for. I personally would not have be upset about giving Cameron a 1-2 year deal, but that wasn't a move that will make or break the offseason and maybe we'll be happy ultimately not having that money on the books.

Getting rid of Miles/Fox for some decent pieces is +1. Their biggest f up this offseason is reliving a mistake made back in August by not trading Harden/Offering him Arb imo

It's December, this conversation would be much better had in March.

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Team Cutler.

That deal hardly destroyed the Yankees farm system. Austin Jackson was their 2nd ranked prospect and is now the Tigers 2nd ranked prospect. Ian Kennedy didn't pitch last season because of arm surgery to remove an aneurysm and Phil Coke is little more than a LOOGY. This defeatist attitude is killing me.

Sorry for not wanting to give up Castro/Vitters/Cashner/Jackson/Lee etc for a guy we can't financially afford to sign who had a .327 OBP last year who is due to make 26 million over the next three years. Even assuming last year was an anomaly, which is probably was, he would not have been the missing piece to make us a championship team and especially when you consider they were still considering have to eat Bradley's money at the time, it makes 100% sense to me why it didn't happen.

Even with Bradley gone, trading for him would basically prevent us from getting any bullpen help, a ss/2b etc.

It's not defeatist to realize we are pretty hosed with the money on our books and to expect Hendry to be reasonable with any moves( ) knowing that we are more than one player away at this point imo.

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Team Cutler.

Wow, well done.

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Team Cutler.

its not defeatist - at some point you can just see the writing on the wall and realize that your plan didnt work, and it is time to try something new. actually, it is opposite of defeatist. as a cubs fan, i would be pumped up to see the cubs cash in some chips and stock up the system with some good young talent. i want the team to build up a good young group of players so they can win for a long period of time, not snatch up all the marlon byrds and mike camerons and jj putzs of the world to try and labor through another tough year. nobody here can convince me for a second that the cubs are serious contenders to win a championship next year, and i dont mean a division championship. we have been down that path already. i mean a world championship contender. marlon byrd might help them win the division. this team needs to make a commitment to building the team from the ground up, and i hope mr. ricketts has seen this and agrees, and has made a decision to stop the madness, close the checkbook and build a strong organization.

Then why is Jim Hendry still the GM and Lou Pinella still the manager?? If it's time to close the books and start fresh wouldn't you do that with new managment??

Because it's not my decision to fire Jim. If it was, he would be gone. I don't have a huge problem with Lou finishing out his contract this year, but I would definitely be having conversations with Trammel and Bob Brenly to have someone in place for next year.

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Team Cutler.

That would be a bad idea. I have a friend of a friend that played on the Tigers (button 48) when Trammel was managing and he said he's the worst manager he ever played for (he played on 10 different teams). He said Trammel's a really nice guy with great stories but a horrible manager.