when's the next remote?

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boy i wish the cubs had signed dunn back in 09. of all of hendrys bad moves, choosing bradley over dunn sealed the deal that the cubs window was closed. its a shame about all these bad long contracts, that they cant clear the deck and just nuke the team and start over. i would much rather have that than an annual "semi-rebuilding" disaster that rarely works, but just keeps the team in limbo for years.

pena for 1 year, at 10 million? sounds ok to me. any deal with no long-term commitment is a step in the right direction. the guy has some potential, and i love the prospects of maybe dealing him at the deadline if he has a good first half.

this team wont be a 100-loss disaster team, but what i fear is a long run of 80-win seasons in purgatory trying to clear out the contracts.

Theres a Danny Mac remote right in Hoffman?

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

Everybody seems to happily ignore that number.

Of course, I shouldn't complain I guess .... it's like having Dave Kingman back .... minus the power numbers and RBI ......

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

It is a one year deal, if it works out great, if it blows up, nothing really lost. There are no other better options out there right now.

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

that amount of money for a 1-year contract has gotta be a record

usually anyone worth $10 million a year gets a multi year contract

and guys who get 1-year deals are backup players or reclamation projects for low pay

once again, hendry shows he's an oddball

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Actually it's 5 and 5. 5 mil when he is here, 5 mil in 2012. Interesting agreement, but what the hell, it is a left handed power hitter at first. Seems like a decent signing to me.

now THAT....

is correct

Don Tiny, AL-NL is often a good move, imo.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

AL to NL is a good move for pitchers. For hitters its hit or miss. Especially for someone who spent their entire time in the AL will take sometime getting used to new ballparks and pitchers. Plus Cubs free agent signings are notoriously slow starters. So we have that going for us. Which is nice.

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I heard this and had to scratch my head about it. He did have some awful luck last year with an extremely lower BA of balls in play (I think I heard .225) - if that's a more normal 250-270 number, he's likely in that 240 range and people are looking at this as a great deal.

Or we needed a first basemen, Pena was arguably the best available, and he gave him a high one year deal so it aligns up with the rest of the money coming off the books after this season. As RFDC put it, very little long term risk with the move. Bully did well here.

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Team Cutler.

This is what I don't understand about BABIP. Why is it considered bad luck when someone continually pops up on the infield??

Pena last year posted a 14.5% Line Drive percentage when his career average is 18%, his ground ball percentage was 44.9% compared to his career average of 36.9%.

It appears more than bad luck was involved for the sub .200 average.

I still think he'll be a lot better this year. Pencil me in for .248, 27 home runs and 94 RBI

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Team Cutler.

.235 31 HR 90 RBI- Only 25 HR and 70RBIs with the Cub though.

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His average, RBIs, and HRs have all gone down the last 4 consecutive years.

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Sounds like he's due for a break out then

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Manny made 18.6 MIL (1yr) last year with the Dodgers

I like the Pena signing. low risk high reward. Who cares how much they payed for him, alteast he is not L.Overbay!

The Ray play by play guy was on one of the shows yesterday, and noted that the downturn in "luck" coincided with most of the AL East going to the shift last year. If the NL clubs are looking at the same scouting reports, and Pena is hitting a lot of balls to the 2B in right field, you may not see a huge rebound. Baseball is a game of adjustments.

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

could that perhaps be Dewayne Staats??

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Drillrods

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If Rudy Jaramillo can fix whatever caused Pena to pull balls on the ground in 2010, Hendry will finally have that power-hitting left-handed bat he's sought all these years. You don't spend 10MIL without doing your homework on the player. I'm sure they have watched tapes and think Rudy can get him back somewhere between his 09/10 numbers.

If Pena does recover, the Cubs could be just a few breaks away from contention in a weak NL Central.

Yes if the breaks include Pujols' leg, Wainwright's arm, and Votto's coccyx.

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Could have been Dave Wills or Chip Kalas too

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You don't think the Cubs can contend because of Pujols, Wainwright and Votto? Then you must think Boston has the World Series already locked up for 2011. Unless offcourse New York signs Lee, then game over baseball fans just give the freakin trophy to the Bronx.

Step away from your fantasy baseball roster and get a clue.

Yes, how naive of me to think that great players help teams win divisions.

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I'm not an optimist by any means. But I'm not buying into Cub gloom and doom for next year. This, again, was a nice/good, not great, signing. Carlos Pena was the best option available. Debate that all you want. I'll take this deal over Paulie's all day. For the Cubs. Also, it's a one year deal! Jim Hendry's closest confidants blew chunks hearing Pena didn't get an eight year, 340 million dollar deal. Did I have to mention the no-trade?

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I disagree. They should have traded for a young first basemen with an upside as opposed to Pena at 10M.

What if they were sold Chris Davis is the answer for three years? Even if he ends up sucking from day one?

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I hope they draft a 4 yr college player that can play 1b within 2 yrs with their 1st round draft pick this year. If not they can still trade for a young 1b prospect at any time this season. Their best leverage will be around the trade deadline, not now.

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

Marlon Byrd was the best available last year. Carlos Pena was the best avialable this year. Who's going to be the best available next year? Coco Crisp? Melvin Mora? Jack Wilson? That's a sure fire way to end the 100+ year drought.