I made a bet earlier that the carolina panthwers would make the playoffs.

Just got back ST. Kitts, wonderful island.

If it is true, so be it.  Marquis is a 200 inning pitcher, and he did have those two 10+ run "save the bullpen" outings last season.  Like Al said, at his best he is a bit better than Lilly.  

there is no way we are getting giles. hendry already paid derosa, who is a below average hitter with no natural position, starter money to play second base and block eric patterson should he ever be ready. giles would have been a fantastic option, and since we have a surplus of bullpen arms probably would've been readily available. of well.

this also likely means that jones will either be kept, or traded for crap. my guess is he's traded for crap, and we sacrifice much the power we added in the soriano deal by signing lofton to play center field.

i had convinced myself to give hendry another chance with the hopes that many or most of his terrible moves the last few years were just baker's influence. i don't think so anymore. he's just a bad gm. he's spent over 250 million dollars and the team is marginally better, and most of the people on the team now have huge salaries and are likely headed for decline, not improvement. its takes a special kind of stupid to do that.

Given the Sox already pulled the trigger on Freddy Garcia w/o Rowand included-I'd think we have a good shot.  The Phils have Shane Victorino as a backup to Rowand.

The Phillies are also desperate for relief help, and are looking to unload Lieber as well.  I don't know what it would take, but I would like a reliever + rookie pitcher to the Phils for Rowand.

Rowand only made $3.25MM in '06 (don't know what he gets in 07) and could very well post .280/.450/.800

Thoughts?

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-061209cubs-story,1,2062914.story?co ll=cs-cubs-headlines

As your buddy Adam Dunn would say:  grrrrrr.

;)

I'm neutral on this signing...most likely because I'm an idiot. Marquis will return to 2004 form, Prior will return to 2003 form, Hill will remain at late 2006 form, Lilly will gain a form that allows him to be above .500...

Jeromy Burnitz- 37 and unsigned
Steve Finley- 41 and unsigned
Todd Hollandsworth- 34 and unsigned
Ryan Klesko- 35 and unsigned
Matt Stairs- 38 and unsigned

And Shawn Estes and Jose Hernandez are still out there as well...

<Sarcasm>

On a serious note, other FA's still out there (as you can see, I was checking the FA tracker) that drew interest to me (not necessarily in relation to the Cubs):

Todd Walker, Mark Mulder, Brad Radke, Troy Percival, Chan Ho Park, Kenny Lofton, Aubrey Huff, Keith Foulke, Eric Gagne, and Octavio Dotel.

one of the reasons people get frustrated discussing things with you is that you will completely change your opinion about something if that's what the cubs want you to. for example, before marquis was signed, you said this about him:

"I would stay FAR away. I can't believe Marquis thinks he's worth that much.
For a small base plus incentives, I'd do it, but not for anything more."

then after the cubs signed him for 3/21, you cite how good a hitter he is, and say you think he'll revert back to 2004 form and be a real steal.

it was the same thing with baker, where you defended him and placed blame elsewhere until the moment he was fired, then said you changed your mind and that he was probably responsible for a lot of the cubs failures, and that hendry, who coincidentally wasn't fired, probably was corrupted by baker, and probably is still a pretty good gm.

you are perfectly willing to call "stat guys"  to task for supposedly not acknowledging the human aspects of the game, and only recognizing what can be measured on a stat sheet. however, you are not aware that you often are willing to accept whatever propaganda the cubs feed you distort your own ability to examine what they are doing.