pardon me if i don't think hendry's moves will turn into gold just because either 1. we want them to or 2. jacque jones worked out ok. first of all, jacque still has 2 years left on his contract, wants to be traded, disappeared the first month or two and played below average defense. so lets temper our enthusiasm for him a bit.

derosa is a terrible signing, plain and simple. he is a utility player, an average one at that, and was paid starter money. we have a very similar player already in theriot, and a very promising second baseman in patterson that will be ready soon.

soriano is a nice player, but he was paid like he's the best player in the league, and that he will continue to be that good into his late thirties, despite one of the most important aspects of his value being speed. he will play a position he's never played before, and if its right field, he moves from being one of the best players at his position to a slightly above average one. if jones is traded, soriano only modestly upgrades the offense, since he would effectively be replacing jones bat instead of pierre's. pierre is the worst contract of the off-season, but soriano's will be a head-scratcher in a few years.

marquis signing is pretty tough to defend. he's not a good pitcher, nor is he liked in the clubhouse. the two best pitching coaches in baseball have failed to keep him from deteriorating in his performance. he had an ERA over 6 this year, and had the two worst outings in baseball. even if you subtract those outings, he still had a very bad year. the only thing going for him is that he pitches a lot of innings every year, though i would submit that if your ERA is 6 the team would be best served keeping your innings to a minimum. I don't see why a combination of young pitchers couldn't give you 200 innings of 5+ERA pitching. And they are free. estes pitched a lot of innings too, and that wasn't a good thing, iirc.

Lilly probably will be one of the better signings this year. But i would prefer to take the money given Lilly and Marquis and signed Schmidt or Matsuzaka. I don't think we had a desperate need for a number 3 and 5 starter, i think we had a desperate need for a number 2. That they didn't sign a number 2 makes me wonder if hendry is, yet again, waiting on makr prior to salvage the seaosn. because at this point, without a healthy prior this is a very average team.

ward is a good bat off the bench. i don't have a problem with that signing.

i am an optimist by nature. i hope for the best in things and people. but i don't expect the best from something or someone that continually disappoints and takes advantage of me, like the cubs do. thats why i hope things go well with the cubs, but i don't expect them to. but hendry, in this off-season, didn't make me think all his folly the last few years was him giving baker what he asked for. he's just made me think he's not a good general manager.  give a good general manager 300 million to build a team around derrek lee, zambrano, howry, eyre, barrett hill, and jones, and i think they would give you a little more room for realistic optimism.

Luis

Let's break down the signings:
Soriano - I don't see how you can say his career numbers are "just slightly above average."  The guy steals bases, hits for power, and has an OBP that is trending upwards as he improves his approach at the plate.  This was a great signing, adding a 3rd head to the ARam-Lee monster (in other words, if one goes down like Lee did last year, I don't think our offense suffers the same catastrophic collapse).

Lilly - AL East pitcher who was pretty damn competitive in that league, coming to a MUCH weaker offensive division and league; young, and pretty talented.  Yes, quite a bit of money, but compared to the $55/5 years Meche got, not a bad deal. I'd give this signing a solid B to B+

DeRosa - here's a guy who plays a bunch of positions, had a great year last year (what you call a career year), and gets on base.  Now he's our 2B, but he offers flexibility in case of injury to play SS, OF, and 3B.  We had NO flexibility on the lineup last year, which is why losing Lee KILLED us.  I really don't fault this signing.

Marquis - I agree, too much money.  I'd actually prefer Meche for 5 years at $55 million than this contract.  But if you're going to complain about the large payroll on the one hand, and want a non-Prior-Miller dependent top 4 in the rotation on the other, where would you have saved money? Probaby with DeRosa, I predict.  Fine, but then you're relying on Theriot AND Izturis in the lineup to contribute, and an avoidance of injuries (since DeRosa offers flexibility if there are injuries).  The current status quo with DeRosa gives us flexibility, and the ability to play the "hot" hand (Izturis OR Theriot) at SS, and give EPatterson a chance to improve in the minors without the "contribute now" pressure his brother wilted under.  Marquis was probably too much given that guys like Piniero, Duckworth, and VZambrano came available with non-tenders....but at least we guaranteed to get a guy who has won (say what you will about it being luck, but he kept his team in it enough to win 14 games last year, and I'd take that out of our #4 starter) and left only one spot open for the Prior-Miller-Marshall-Guzman-rookie carousel.  At this point, if Prior or Miller or Marshall comes out and plays awesome, Marquis as a #5 pitcher is really not bad....even for that money, since we all know the Cubs can pay it.  And the fact that in 2 years, this won't be that onerous.

I don't see how meeting the market price now (if, as it appears, market prices will only escalate in the future given international expansion of the game and labor peace into the foreseeable future) is "reducing flexibility" or mortgaging our future.  In fact, it might be smart planning....spending what seems to be big money now to avoid spending way too much in the future.

last year the Cubs lost picks in rds 2, 3, and 4 because of Jones, Eyre, and Howry

This year we will lose our 2nd rd pick for Soriano

i believe we got a bit luckier with the system in that type B FA's do not cost draft picks in return and i believe Lilly was a B, if he was an A we'd lose our 3rd rd pick as well