Neil, I don't envy you hosting these last 3 shows.

That being said, one of the pundits I was reading a while ago said: "It would be better punishment to make Hendry stay
and deal with the mess he created than to fire him."

It boggles my mind how we ended up with not just one but 3 overpaid/underperforming outfielders that
really can't be traded without huge financial loss.

On one hand, I don't know how you trade them...and on the other, I don't know how you play them.

With the possible exception of Grabow/
Gorzelanny trade(and the verdict is still
out on that)...Hendry has had a horrible 2008/9...starting with releasing MeGehee
to not getting something for Harden while he could.

I suspect the Cubs might not want to offer Harden arbitration or resign him.

Anyway...good luck tonight...and good job in a difficult emotional situation for a fan.

Gerut is a former Cub, along with McGahee.

Wells needs to be shut down for the rest of the year. His arm is tired, and it shows.

Keep Hendry? Make an incompetent man clean up his own mess?????? How is that even possible? What kind of reasoning is that? The REAL answer is to get a REAL GM and manager: Jocketty and LaRussa would have been my choices. When Jocketty became available last year, they should have jumped on it. All I can say now is please, please, please, no more Ed Lynchs!!!!!!

Vernon Wells Aaron? Lol! C'mon dude, he is worse than Jeromry Burnitz

Here is the stat I referenced during my call

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Overall&cut_type=0&conference=MLB&year=season_2009&sort=711

Cubs are last... BOTTOM of the barrel!!! in stolen bases in ALL of Major League Baseball

Coincidence?

Superstars!!!

Another important keywords... Always pre-madonnas... but always undeniable threats that make pitchers or hitters shiver every single time.

FACT: We don't have any. Not 1 person on our roster is a superstar... I thought Z had the most potential, but he's clearly not shown it at all this year....

People mock superstar personalities, but don't underestimate the effect they have on the entire team...... I hope all of you guys saw MJ's HOF speech....

We need a superstar, or a Florida Marlins style rebuilding team.... what we got is a mediocre, going nowhere roster(don't kid yourselves about the last 2 seasons, we got swept and our offense SHUT DOWN in the last 2 playoff first rounds)

On a Positive note, I love the pitching rotations we have put out there the last few years, and have absolutely nothing negative to say about them... The rotation has consistently ranked in the top 10% of baseball... too bad our offense has sucked balls for 90% of that time (except 2008)

Hey Baron...Don't let those Boston newbies give you any @#@++**.

They are either too new to the scene or brain dead from all the previous years of losing.

TYhe Celtics and Bruins were huge when I was there...But the Red Sox and Patriots
always fell short.

I was at Foxboro for the very first game in that stadium...the plumbing wasn't working yet.
Imagine 60,000 people drinking beer...and the plumbing didn't work.

The guys just found the nearest back wall to spray...the girls just suffered.

Over the public address system...they actually asked if there were any plumbers in the house...Look it up...this is true.

So when your co-workers give you guff...
just tell them they pee on walls.

First of all...Neil, great show tonight, and thanks for taking my call.

I just wanted to expound on a few things. Some I've talked about ad nauseam.

1)We need to fire Kenney, Hendry, and Rothschild (in that order).

2)
a. We have to get younger. To do so, means trading/releasing/non-tendering many veterans, including: Cotts (obvious), Chad Fox (obvious), Taguchi (obvious), Johnson, Miles (we hope obvious), Gregg (likewise), Heilman (likewise...unless they plan to have him as an optional starter where he excelled in ST), Lee, Fukudome, Soriano, Bradley (we hope, Dempster, and Lilly.
*other candidates likely to be on the block this offseason include: Z, Soto, Theriot, Fontenot, Fox, Hoffpauir, Patton, Stevens, and Marshall
**I know I just listed about the whole team, but honestly, any reasonable GM would look at everyone, and at least put them all on the block to see what interest is out there. There's a distinct difference between "putting someone on the block" and actually trading them. I'm not trying to say the whole team will be traded, because that's just irresponsible and unrealistic.

b. younger players that should be considered include: Chris Davis and Mitchell Moreland, Josh Fields, Blalock,
Ankiel, Dunn, Wily Mo Pena (NOT as starter, but a 4th OF), Felipe Lopez, Crawford, Crosby, Holliday (extremely unlikely), Jason Bay (also unlikely), Lackey, Brett Myers, and Rafael Soriano

3)Positions that need SIGNIFICANT upgrades if we're ever going to compete include (ranked in order of importance): LF, RF, CF, middle relief, 2B, and starting catcher (assuming Soto continues to suck). If I were to rank offseason acquisitions in terms of importance, it'd have to be:

LF-Dunn
RF-Bay
CF-Crawford (or lesser extent, Ankiel)
middle relief-simply call-up Gaub, and look into Blake Parker and Jeremy Papelbon as well.
2B-Felipe Lopez
C-no catchers are worth looking into on the FA market, or even trade, unless you go for one of the Rangers young catchers. Therefore, I say in ST, Soto, Robinson, Castillo, and Clevenger should all battle it out, and may the best man win.

4)Kind of expounding on the subject above, I just don't see any possible way this team can go into next season with Fukudome and Bradley in the same OF. It's bad enough that we have Soriano, but for 2 straight seasons now, Fukudome is going to finish with around a .256 avg, .350-.370 OBP, around 10 hr, and just under 60 RBI. And he's finishing with about the same walks and K's (sitting at 81 walks and 98 k's right now when he finished with 81 walks, 104 K's last year). They're not going to get anything more than that out of him, that much is for sure. Veteran Japanese players just do not come over here and turn things around. Look no further than the careers of Ichiro, Matsui (both Kaz and Hideki), Johjima, Taguchi, etc. They're either consistently good, consistently bad, or consistently mediocre. There's really no peaks and valleys about any of their careers. Kaz Matsui might've been the closest to that when he "turned around" his career when he went to the Rockies, albeit in limited games. But if you look at Japanese players as a whole, that's what you see----consistency. To expect Fukudome to all of a sudden play like a $10+ million/yr player is just foolish. Therefore, I'd just cut my losses while I could, and pay at least half of his remaining contract. Bradley is a similar case. He's not going to get you more than 77 RBI or even 20 hr in all likelihood. That's NOT what a RF is supposed to produce. Just look around...almost every team has a RF capable of producing 20+hr, 90+RBI in any given season. Bradley has NEVER done that, and only hit 20+hr once in 10 years. WOW!!! So, again, to expect a miracle much like with Fukudome, it just isn't going to happen. It's also not reasonable to expect Miles, Soto, Fontenot, etc. to have resurgent seasons. Why? Because they've never done it before. If we can just find a way to upgrade the positions I mentioned, we should be in a lot better shape, even if Lee has a slow start to his season (even though I want him gone too b/c of age and bloated salary). It's also reasonable to assume that Lilly will NOT have another career year again. It's also reasonable to assume that Wells will slump in his sophomore season much like Soto did, and much like he already has after facing teams for a second and third time.

In summary, there's almost nothing to like about this team...nothing to look forward to...at least for 3 years (I'm referring to the Peoria players mostly).

Soriano, Lilly, and Lee will all be 34 next year. Fukudome will be 33. Bradley will be 32. Folks...it's going to get REALLY ugly, and the fact that Hendry had all of these facts at his fingertips, and completely disregarded all signs, will have a damning effect on the team in the next couple years. In fact, if the team even wants to compete next year, it will have to sacrifice the future. Guys such as: Fox, Castro, Cashner, Jackson, Antigua, Rhee, Vitters, Jackson, Burke, Flaherty, Ridling, LeMahieu, Hak Ju Lee, Archer, Carpenter, etc. are cheaper alternatives that have much higher upside and better or equal production than guys like Reed Johnson, Aaron Miles, Heilman, Gregg, etc.---pretty much any veteran you can think of on this team not named ARAM, Lee, Z, Lilly, Marmol, Guzman, or Dempster. To me, that's a pretty sad situation....it's also why we absolutely cannot trade any of those prospects this offseason. If anything, we should look into trading Theriot, Lee, Fukudome, Bradley, Lilly, etc. to gain prospects to flip to other teams for guys like Dunn, Crawford, etc.

So, in review, here's our team for next year (as of now..ages included for next year):

Z-29
Lilly-34
Dempster-33
Wells-27

Marshall-27
Guzman-28
Marmol-27
*others likely to get consideration: Grabow-31, Caridad-26, Berg-26, Gorzelanny (if not rotation)-27

C: Soto-27; Hill-31
1B: Lee-34; Hoffpauir-30
2B: Fontenot-30; Baker-29
SS-Theriot-30; Blanco-26
3B-ARAM-32
LF-Soriano-34; Fox-27
CF-Fukudome-33
RF-Bradley-32
*Blanco or Fontenot are gone if Miles stays

If you look at the list above, there's two things you should notice. First of all, the ages of the position players look absolutely UGLY. Secondly, the only positions where we could even insert anyone new would be 5th starter, and 4 pen slots. That's about it. So......given the fact the offense was sooooooooooooooooooooo abysmal this season, you'd have to think that something's gotta give. The only changes to the position players could be non-tendered candidates, but they're not likely to make much in arbitration, so it's improbably that we'd non-tender most of our candidates.

What that tells me is that trades are/should be on the horizon, and veterans will be expunged (hopefully). We all know that Bradley's likely played his last game, which should help matters. Lee was approached last offseason to waive his no-trade, so we know that's a possibility. Hopefully Ricketts makes HUGE changes.