Bobby Abreau isn’t a big power guy, and Mark Texieria plays first base. Thus ending your idea of a left fielder. And Harden should never be given a long term contract. That’s insane. He’s a arm injury waiting to happen. The Cubs have seen this movie before.

Teixeira is a first baseman now, and from what he says here in L.A., he either stays here or goes back to a place near his family, which is Baltimore. However, Arte Moreno is making noises now that he’ll do what he can to keep him.

I agree that the team should explore moving Lee. I think Carlos Delgado is a free agent, but at what price? And the Cubs need ot face it, they’re stuck with Soriano and that contract. Unless they elect to eat a good portion of it, he’s going nowhere. We’ll see whether this latest experience has humbled him any.

If Furcal’s back is repaired, I’d definitely look into him. Theriot’s a great guy, but something needs to be done. I also wouldn’t complain if the Cubs bought out Fukudome and snet him home. I have a feeling he wouldn’t either, but how does he cope with going back to Japan a failure? But why would I care at this point?

Center field. Reed Johnson didn’t play at all in the NLDS I don’t think. If the platoon with Edmonds doesn’t return, and I can think of a lot of reasons why it shouldn’t, it’s put up or shut up for Pie.

At all costs, stay away from Frankie Rodriguez. Keep Wood in the closer role.

but, as mentioned above, signing Harden would be a mistake-I don’t know how that guy could expect any sort of a long term contract as essentially a five inning pitcher.
I’d LOVE to add Texiera but, againn as was mentioned, he’s a first baseman which means we’d have to somehow unload Lee first-but why would anyone trade for Lee when they could sign Texiera instead?
The best of your suggestions is something I’ve been saying for a few days now; getting Brian Roberts could have a good, ripple effect on the rest of the lineup-it would force Soriano down in the order (and. like it or not that’s the only real option-NO ONE is going to trade for that contract)-you could then move Lee to fifth or sixth.
My biggest worry right now though is that Hendry and Lou seem to be pretty pigheaded when it comes to making the kind of changes that it seems pretty clear that they really need. I wish we had a GM like Kenny Williams-somebody who’s not shy about making bold moves and taking gambles-sure, they’re not going to always work but this team needs a big time shake up if they’re going to even dream of post season in ’09.

The teams that were fighting for playoff spots at the end of the season are still in the playoffs while the teams with the best records are either eliminated or down 0-2 (except the Rays, who are young and hungry and have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball at $43,745,597).

My point: teams have to stay sharp and competitive going into the playoffs. Going into “Spring Training” mode the last two weeks causes teams to go flat and lose their edge.

Does this make sense?

It cetianly looks like the Cubs went into the playoffs this year with zero momentum. I think not having to play hard the last week caused them to lose focus a littlebit.
I was comparing it to ‘03 when the Cubs had (I think) nine fewer wins but turned it way up in September and went into the playoffs on a high. As we remember, the completely dominated the Braves in round one and looked good until…well, you all know the rest.
This year’s team, however, looked like they were literally sleepwalking once postseason started.

however Lou should not keep him in the three hole. Soriano and Ramirez with stay, we know that. What we need to do is sign Furcal or Cabrera to play at SS and somehow get a powerful lefthanded bat to play RF

5-51 combined in the last two post seasons. That pretty much sums up the suckitude.

but it’s not happening. Who’s going to want to take on that brutal contract? Lou needs to get him out of the leadoff slot though.

signed to a long term contract. I’m just not comfortable with a guy you have to baby and can only pitch every 7-8 days and only feels comfortable pitching on cool nights. He started out very well for us but faded towards the end.

If the Cubs do indeed let him go, when he finally does have that injury-free season with 20 wins to show for it, then they will be kicking themselves.

Fans post this trash and people wonder why players feel no connection to the fans.
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Right let’s get rid of players of a 97 win team.

What’s really stupid is people saying they didn’t try and didn’t care. Not performing DOES NOT MEAN THEY DID NOT TRY OR DO NOT CARE

Are these posts meant to make us appreciate Hendry for not being a reactionary idiot?

How much money is Hendry paying to people to make these posts? Only an idiot reactionary would trade Lee, Ramirez or Soriano because of a bad few games.

There’s a reason Hendry should be Executive of the Year and you’re on your couch drinking beer.