According to a report from Buster Olney that is focused on where Manny Ramirez may end up, "The Cubs have maxed out their spending for the winter and in any event couldn't consider an outfield of Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano."
While Manny being Manny for the Cubs would be farfetched at best, the wording by Olney stating, "The Cubs have maxed out their spending for the winter" is more than concerning.
Yes the Cubs re-signed Ryan Dempster but on paper they weakened their bullpen by letting Kerry Wood walk and trading a player with a ton of upside for a questionable bullpen arm in Kevin Gregg. The Cubs also appear set to go into next season without Henry Blanco backing up Geovany Soto.....an unsigned Paul Bako and Koyie Hill appear to be the options Lou Piniella will be given when camp opens in less than two months.
The other changes they have made since the conclusion of the season have been minimal at best....picking up Chris Snyder on a waiver claim in September, trading for Rule 5 pick David Patton and signing Joey Gathright. The Cubs also avoided arbitration with Reed Johnson, Neal Cotts and Chad Gaudin and tendered contracts to Ronny Cedeno, Kevin Gregg and Michael Wuertz.
Jim Hendry has not addressed his team's needs to this point. The Cubs are reportedly shopping Jason Marquis to free up at least half of the $9.875 million owed to Marquis. And while they are reportedly still interested in Milton Bradley, rumors on the Bradley front have been minimal at best for the last two weeks....Bruce Levine reported within the last two weeks that the deal for Bradley to the Cubs would be done around the first of the year.
This has been a slow off-season around baseball and the pending ownership change appears to be affecting the club more than anyone out of the office at 1060 West Addison....if Olney's statement is accurate and just not referring to the Cubs as being a possibility to sign Manny Ramirez.
While it will not be 2009 until Thursday, it is getting late in the off-season and Jim Hendry still has some "tweaking" to do....
Subscribe
With the exception of the Yankees, baseball in general is moving very slow with signings due to the economy.
Yes, the Cubs have a factor of the ownership change, but that aside there is no way we would add a mega contract like Manny. (Though would be nice)
The Cubs don't need a major overhaul anyhow. There are many who would like to see Hoffpauir handed the job in spring training and given a shot. There are some who want to see Pie be handed the job in CF and thus give us a leadoff hitter and another LH bat. Not to mention if Fukudome can bounce back.
There is certainly no need to panic at this time. I'd rather go to spring training, see how those moves pan out, and look for a trade at the start of the season if we feel we need it.
Although impatient to see some kind of action...we do have a team that could get better on its own without major trades...hear me out before you howl.
1) Soriano stays healthy and actually
steals the bases he was supposed to.
2) Pie and Fukodome show up at the plate.
(That alone would be huge.)
3) Lee cuts down "hit into DP" by half and increases homers by 5-10.
4)Carlos pitches to capabilities consistantly.
5)Hoffpauir is given a true shot to play.
This is big...I think the Cubs could actually improve the starting rotation
just by eliminating Marquis...and tat doesn't have to be right away because he's a decent 1rst half pitcher.
If he can remain healthy...Angel Guzman
could become a stud pitcher this year.
Either taking over a rotation spot or filling Marshall's role if Marshall gets the 5th spot.
Hendry for depth will sign a rehabbing
or "prove yourself" vet to a minor league
deal...ala Lieber/Clement(that signed a
minor deal with Toronto)
I might be the minority...but I like Koyle Hill as a backup to Soto.
My main concerns are 1)Starting pitching...Which Zambrano will show up?
2)Can Dempster do it again? 3) Can Harden
stay healthy and give us more than 5 inning stints?
In the bullpen...we could use a solid left hander...Cotts makes me nervous but he did have a magical year with the Sox...maybe he can do it again.
I am operating under the assumption that
the Cubs...with new ownership will make at least one huge move this season to get us over the top...but they have until July 31rst to do it.
Agreed on All Counts Suzy.....great summary!
This signing and dealing inactivity has a lot to do with baseball's caste system (Big People/Little People and the budget limitations of a lot of teams. And I hate the caste system. But there should be a bunch of Little People deals early in the new year, and I expect the Cubs to be involved in two or three more signings and trades.
Back home again in Indiana, and upon reading Olney's remarks and some others, it appears we are still in the hunt for Bradley (probably just into the Big People category) at about 3 and $25-$27 mil. Maybe his future will be decided by the end of this week. Bradley's agent likely has JH on hold while the agent sees if a team like the Angels steps up. I think that we will get him. If we don't get Bradley, I look for the platooner (Hinske) or our whouda thunk it deal of the winter, (Junior).
I am looking forward to the Little People signings and trades. If we get Bradley, I can see Hoffpauir and Fox moving on to a team like the Mariners who need power bats badly. They will have to do it by adding Little People. I would like to get lefty, Cesar Jiminez, from them for our pen. If Marquis goes to the Rockies, they have some farm team depth that would be interesting (along with you know who). We have a couple of pitchers in the bottom fourth of the staff category that we could and might trade too.
Agreed on ALL counts. Good summary!
After the fact, I see that I didn't sign in--so my post just completed is now in Neil's pending pile. Sorry about the confusion. I am back from NY and should be fully sober in the morning. The post also lamented the "no news" environment but did say that there should be two or three more signings and trades that will matter a lot more than the ones so far. (Excepting the important signing of D.)
I can't speak for anyone else but I'm somewhat comforted by the fact we aren't spending more money this offseason. Frankly none of the free agents out there right now are worth anywhere near the money we would have to pay for them (Bradley especially). I think it would be very wise for JH to stand pat and go to spring training with who we have. Our bench and minor league is full of AAAA players (Pie/Hoffpauir/Cedeno/Fuk) and we need to give them a chance to perform and possibly increase their value at the beginning of the year. The free agent market doesn't hold the left-handed power bat we are looking for, but the Oakland A's do.....they traded for Matt Holliday this offseason (who I think is in the last year of his deal). Come July when they realize they aren't contenders it will be a perfect time to give Mr. Beane a call and offer up that Peavy package of players for someone who will actually help us win it all.
Unless we are going to pry the likes of Curtis Granderson, Brian Roberts, or Carl Crawford away from their respective teams I am happy to relax and wait for the weather to warm up!
Happy Holidays and best wishes to all!!!
I agree that we need to give the rookies a chance. I think Pie and Hoffpauir should be handed the jobs in CF and RF. End of story.
One correction to your points however, is that Matt Holiday is not a left handed bat. He is a righty.
Happy Holidays to you as well!!
Just thought I would leave a little news.
M. Barrett signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays today. It comes with an invite to Spring training...he was injured most of last year with San Diego.
Also, according to MLB.com...the Dodgers have expressed interest in Adam Dunn...contacting his agent in the last
week.
tough times have really hit all industries. Baseball is NOT immune from this, so all of this inactivity from many different teams comes as no surprise. However...there are five teams out there that should never complain about dollars and cents---within reason: Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets, and Dodgers (in that order).
The Cubs of the 80's, 90's, and early 200's, were that of a penny pinching cash cow. The Tribune raked in so much money, it's ridiculous, and shelled out ridiculously low amounts of cash to improve the team, often settling for one big star on the team just to keep fans somewhat interested (ie.-George Bell, Danny Jackson, etc.) The Yankees under primarily Steinbrenner's guidance (face it, the Yankees GM's have never had much power) consistently spent the money to put their team in a good position to win, and accomplished the task many times over. Additionally, the Red Sox of late have shelled out the cash to be a competitor as well, and they've accomplished the ultimate feat twice in 4 years now.
I mention this, because there is NO way that the Cubs should be sitting by doing nothing, given the activity of the Yankees, Mets, and attempts by the Red Sox (in the running for CC and Tex), and the Dodgers recently.
I just can't fathom this. I mean, really, since we've entered the offseason, we have NOT improve this team one bit...not one single bit. There's NO defending that. If you were to defend that, you'd probably have to still have Wood around, Ceda in the arsenal, and Howry, Ward, and Fukudome off the team.
As it stands right now, Kevin Gregg has replaced BOTH Wood and Ceda, which is particularly damning. Howry and Ward are gone, which is good, but even if we sign someone else, we still have Fukudome, and he's taking up a valuable roster spot. Gathright replaces Pie, which makes our roster worse, actually. Hoffpauir replaces Ward, which is also good. We lost Edmonds' power, leadership, and defense in CF. So, in summary...
Lost:
Wood-big loss, 30+ saves, high K's, low walks, and, obviously, our closer
Howry-oft-used set-up man, 5+ERA...not much loss
Ward-no loss
Ceda-top pitching prospect, huge K/9 ratio in minors, might've been added to our pen
Pie-this one's probable (though not announced yet) given Gathright's signing; this will be a big loss because we gave up on him and haven't seen his true potential yet.
Veal-lost in Rule 5, and might've been a valuable trade chip
GAIN:
Gregg-9 blown saves, essentially replaces Wood. Extremely low K/9 ratio for a closer/late inning guy
Gathright-replaces Pie, in all likelihood. Essentially a .260 hitter with NO power, low OBP, and excellent speed. So, how is that useful if you can't hit and can't get on base either?!?!hmmmmmmmm
David Patton-who? Exactly...our Rule 5 pick here is laughable
I'm not quite sure how this team is even going to win the division, much less the playoffs. With the Brewers dangerous lineup (and farm system), the Reds young team with Encarnacion, Votto, Bruce, Volquez, etc., they've got a great base there to build on....
I stated, and most media outlets stated that we needed a big power lefty bat, a leadoff hitter, help in the pen, and to get rid of Marquis in favor of Marshall or a pitcher via trade (Peavy, etc.).
So far, we've managed to degrade our pen, spell doom for a potential lead-off hitter (Pie) with an even lesser player than Pie's best season (which isn't saying much), lost a lefty power hitter (Edmonds), and lost out on Peavy.
Yup, sure sounds like Hendry should be GM of our team for years to come, right?
Aaron:
As usual you are spot on.
In regards to Fukudome, I am not ready to give up on him yet. Great Defense, Solid baserunner and he showed for the first two months that he can hit and get on base. Lets give him another year.
Other than Yankees, no team has plunged into the FA pool more than once. IMO the GM's are waiting for agents to panic so that they can lowball them. The last two winters we were spoiled because Hendry pretty much was done trading/signing FA's.
By the way, what do you think of Randy Johnson signing with SF? Not a bad #4 or #5 guy.
Aaron,
If the season started today...you are right...but last I looked...it starts in April.
You mentioned the Dodgers...that should be spending big...McCourt's (owner)money
is in real estate.
Even if the economy didn't tank and the Tribune Co go into bankruptcy...a new owner is coming soon...and no matter what
anyone says...I'm sure it impacts current moves.
Losing Wood sucks...no matter what happens. The Gathright signing is both
strange and bothering unless it is in preparation for a GOOD trade involving
Pie...ie would you give up the chance to watch Pie blossom for either Brian Roberts/Johnny Damon/ or even Jake Peavy?
For those three or the like...I would trade Pie...anything less sucks.
I look at Gregg as more of a replacement
for Howry or Eyre. Not Wood.
If we have him...Angel Guzman is going to
be a stud.
As we stand today...we still win the division but not in the playoffs again.
Milwaukee - No Sheets/Sabathia
St. Louis - No Closer
Cincy - prove yourself
Houston - might actually be the
competition this year.
Pittsburgh - We own them.
We will be different by Spring training.
While Gregg's K/9 isn't earth-shattering, neither is it "extremely low" - the average for the last 3 years was 8.42. While there are closers out there that go over 9 - some over 10 - 8 and a half is pretty respectable actually.
I think I hear BOREDOM shouting out for a couple of transactions to happen somewhere. Most of the tepid news is about blood sucking. The Rockies GM is saying they'll not be able to come up with much payroll at all for Marquis. The Mets are saying that they could consider Andreu Jones--if the Dodgers will eat about $20 mil of his $22 mil salary. Olney is saying that that there is almost no one left who will sign Manny for two years in the low $20 millions. Meanwhile (hopefully) a couple of signings of guys like Burnett, Abreu and Bradley are getting closer.
A quick check of the Carribbean winter leagues reveals a couple of names that I think could help us and that might be traded for. Brayan Pena (27) the swich-hitting catcher in the KC system (out of Atlanta) has a line of .341-8-38 in 42 games. He hit well at AAA, makes good contact from both sides and stole 7 bases at Omaha. Maybe Ascaino and Wellington gets him, and he plays behind Soto.
The Twins have a lefty reliever, Jose Mijares (24) pitching well at Araqua where Fuld is now .333-4-22 in 189 AB's and Cedeno is .278-4-24 in 180 AB's. Mijares was 3-2, 2.70, with 11 W's and 41 SO's at AA and 0-1, 0.87 for the Twins in 10 IP last season. Maybe a Colvin or a Hart in combination with a younger prospect gets us Mijares and a younger prospect.
Ian Kennedy seemed to wear out his welcome with the Yankees with poor results, but the 24 year-old right hander is 2-2, 1.56 in 34 IP at Mayaguez in Puerto Rico. He has only given up 19 H while walking 12 and striking out 31. I would like to see some movement among a couple of our big league hopefulls like Pie, Cedeno, Fox, Ascaino, Hart, Guzman and Hill to give us some new look backups or depth at AAA.
Thanks for the research Jim...I think we are all bored with this offseason...heck
even Kenny Williams is sitting tight!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Here's another possible take on what is (not) going on. JH is keeping quiet while the prices for the somewhat limited stars/Big People are coming down like last week's birthday baloons. Older guys like Lowe and Abreu end up getting two years at $10 to $12 mil. Bradley and Dunn get 3 years at $8 or $9 mil. Griffey gets one year at $4 mil with with incentives and an option year of some sort. Fuentes gets 2 years at $6 mil per.
At the end of the post-holidays-sales period, about the end of January for baseball teams, Macy's and Best Buy, JH is quoted as having told Lou, "I told him that we would get Bradley and Valentin (C), and we did. At the end of the negotiations, we are pleased with our team for 2009. I am also pleased that Woodie was able to get one of the better deals available this off-season."
I was hoping that Agustin would not be sleeping but would give us some news. I keep trying to increase the P.R. quota on the Cubs (this year Ian Kennedy, last year Jonathan Sanchez), and I'm told it was Agustin who helped Ian get some bite back on his slider.
What do you mean Ian Kennedy is Irish? O.K. maybe we'll just add Pudge for a year as the back-up catcher.
How about we deal Soriano for Carlos beltran (PR)?
LOL! Winter Basebal is heating up just now. The Yankees
might get excited with Ian who is doing well but pitches maybe
2-3 innings and as soon as he gives up something they take
him out. Pudge won't likely sign as a backup anywhere, though
it would be nice to have him.
Jim(tp)- why would the mets do that? I would do it in a heartbeat.
JimK -fun homework... check this guy out ( Motorita ) means little
Bike in the puerto rico league. Tell me what you think.
I'll be at the game today so I'll let you know what's up.
Agustin....At 6-3-200 lbs., I guess I was Motorgrande in Indiana University's Little 500--the event honored in the movie "Breaking Away". That biking experience helped in discovering your mystery man biker--aka Jesus "Motorita" Feliciano, a AAA Mets farmhand. If he is another of your relatives, he is a nice young man of keen intellect and engaging personality.
If he is not one of your relatives, he is a 19 year-old, left-left OF who has played above his age level and may be a solid prospect. At New Orleans, in the PCL, he had a line of .308-3-55 with a .360 OBP. He stole 12 bases but was caught stealing 14 times. In the P.R. winter league, he is .365-2-11 in 137 AB's. To me, he seems like another Pie; and, as Marilyn used to say, "that doesn't exactly blow up my skirt".
What's your take on another P.R. prospect, Angel Morales, the 19 year-old power OF, right-right, who hit .301-15-28 in 182 AB's at low A last season?
I know I give Hendry a hard time...maybe he deserves it....maybe not. What I do know is that he is in a very powerful position AND, he has put himself in situations to be scrutinized, which I will list now:
1)Since 2006, had indentified lead-off as a position we needed to fix (though, I argue we had the issue forever it seemed), and spent much of his offseason losing out on Furcal
2)During the offseason of 2007, he identified CF/RF as major concerns, and had already added Hamilton. He refused to commit to the failed experiment that was Jacque Jones, thus leaving us with minor leaguers including Pie to fill 2 spots in CF and RF. Whether you agree with me or not, he had a former top prospect, all-world type of player in Hamilton available in the Rule 5, and opted to send the pick to the Reds instead, and take his chances with an OF of Soriano, Jones, and Cliff Floyd. Why do I mention this? Well, first of all, Jones was horrible at both defense and offense for a corner OF spot, and not fast enough for CF, or capable of being a decent lead-off man. Hendry had this fixation on Floyd since his days trying to recruit him while head coach at Creighton University. Floyd, as everyone knew, was oft-injured, and best suited as a DH if anything, yet he counted on him to be an everyday contributor. Of course, he signed him to a cheap contract much like most of Hendry's acquisitions, and he failed badly for us, ending up injured most of the time.
3)In fairness to Hendry, he identified starting pitching as a weakness, and went and signed Lilly for the rotation to go along with Zambrano, Hill, Wade Miller, and Sean Marshall. Now, obviously, Wade Miller sucked, and only pitched 3 games, but Marshall was ready to start everyday, and he set us up for hard times later on by signing a mediocre Jason Marquis to a 3 year deal that has handcuffed our organization. At most, he should've just done a 2 year deal if that. We had a cast of minor leaguers headed by Angel Guzman that could've filled in as well.
4)well...I just want to wrap up this post, so this last point is going to be summarized. Hendry solved our starting pitching problem to the point that we now have a surplus, and an albatross deal to Marquis that is crippling our ability to give a deserving youngster like Marshall a shot or another guy. He still has yet to solve CF or RF, and more importantly, a lead-off man. To me, given his 6 years on the job, he should've fixed it by now (which is why I love the NFL much more in terms of front office accountability...if you don't produce there, you're shit-canned the next season---which Hendry should've been canned 3 times over already given our dismal seasons in 2002, 2005, and 2006.
Our offseason this year looks like a failure to me. We still have a lead-off situation that needs resolved, a pen that got weaker by his own doing, and a gaping hole in CF and RF.
I'm not saying that a few things wouldn't have happened anyway, but here was what my team would've looked like with FA additions from 2005 on:
2005-Beltran for OF (whatever it took)
2006-Furcal for lead-off (4 yr deal)
2007-Schmidt (3 yr deal---hey, I admit I was WAY wrong on that one) and Meche (3-4 yr deal) for rotation, plus Hamilton in Rule 5
2008-Lofton for CF insurance (1 yr deal), Dotel for pen
2009-Dunn for LF, Randy Johnson for rotation, Juan Cruz and Saito for pen
lineup for 2009 would've been:
Furcal-SS
Theriot/Fontenot-2B
Beltran-CF/RF
ARAM-3B
Dunn-LF
Lee-1B
Soto-C
Hamilton (I only put him this low, b/c he was an unknown at the time with big potential)-CF
rotation: Z, Schmidt (totally missed), Meche, Harden, Marshall/Hill/Guzman, etc.
pen: Cotts, Dotel, Marmol, Saito, Cruz, Guzman (if he lost out in rotation),and Wood
****now, before I get shellacked on here for this, I was merely stating what could have been. Many of you might be aware that Beltran was strongly considering the Cubs before Hendry reportedly pulled the plug, much like he did the following year with Furcal. Beltran AVERAGES 29 hr, 108 RBI, 30 SB's, .281 avg, .357 OBP, AND, to boot, has a lesser contract than what Hendry gave in a desperation attempt with Soriano.
So, here's the knowns: Beltran, Furcal, Randy Johnson, Carlos Lee, Adam Dunn, and Jake Peavy are all FA targets or trade targets that identified the Cubs atop their wish lists.
Hendry let Beltran and Furcal go to the Mets and Dodgers and was quoted as saying their contracts were ridiculous, before plopping down an even more ridiculous contract for Soriano in 2007. The same year, Carlos Lee was practically begging the Cubs to give him a contract, but Hendry wouldn't. IT was funny, because Lee has less speed than Beltran, but fairly similar offensive numbers otherwise, and both have superior numbers to Soriano. Dunn, this year has also shown interest, as did Randy Johnson (though he signed a somewhat ridiculous deal for an oft-injured pitcher----would he have taken a discount to sign with the Cubs though for a championship?).
I just don't think he gets the job done for us, I really don't. He's too buddy-buddy with his coaches and players, and long-time "interests" (like Cliff Floyd), even though most are past their times. As for Soriano, most of you guys, myself included---have lauded Soriano's ability to "carry" the team during stretches, but we fail to realize that if he wasn't so cold at other times, he wouldn't need to do so, which is why consistency matters. It's why you can count on 30 hr, 100+RBI, .280+avg and .350+OBP from Beltran and Carlos Lee, and 40 hr, 100+RBI, .245+avg, .400 OBP from Dunn. It's why you can count on 25-30+hr, 100 RBI, .285+avg, .360+OBP from ARAM. But it's why you simply CANNOT count on anything from Soriano or Lee, except maddening inconsistencies. Sure, you might get 40 hr, 100 RBI, but the very next year, you get 20 hr, 80 RBI--if that. It's why you almost never give huge contracts to guys like Lee and Soriano who were coming off career years. For those of you Bears fans out there, if you read Angelo's comments about Kyle Orton, you'll understand. He basically said, "we love Kyle Orton---the first half Kyle Orton, but why give him a contract extension when he hasn't put together a good full year, much less 2 good years in a row. We NEED consistency." Oh, if only Hendry could apply that when he dished out BIG contracts to guys like Lee, Soriano, and Jason Marquis, and Dempster, when he totally ignored historical figures.
Additionally, he can't develop a single hitter, and I highly suggest you guys read this post:
http://www.goatriders.org/hendrys-tab