J.H. get the trade done asap!!! The sooner the better..

Quick! Before they change their minds!

He may rebound with his old coach back...let him start the season hope for a good start and trade hime then? Why sell low.

BTW it looks like the Phillies have the Dodgers number. (Just like the Cubs own the Bucs) The only position players that the Cubs have that can rival the first five in hte Philly order are Ramirez and Lee and they would be no better than fourth or fifth best in that line-up. The Cubs are several years away and the development of some really dood minor league talent from creating a team that can play with the Phillies or Yankees.

There have been only 3 NL teams to win back to back WS.

Reds 1975-76
NY Giants (In the 30's or 40's)
Cubs 1907-1908

There is no question or doubt in my mind.....BRADLEY MUST GO!!! After all the comments he made about the fans, the organization, and the media, there is no way he can come back and be a Cub. I am wary of the Cubs taking on another bad contract in exchange, but one guy I am curious about is Vernon Wells. He was a real disappointment last year (and in 2007), but he actually played well in 2008 before he got injured (and before 2007). He's an athletic player with above average power and speed and a good defensive center fielder who may thrive in the Wrigley environment. And I am pretty sure Toronto would love to get him off the books. Thoughts??

Aaron F...Wells for Bradley? NOPE.

Here's why:
1) Wells is signed for 5 more years at
98.5 million with a no trade clause...
Wells is 31.
We cannot add another long term immovable contract until we deal w9ith Soriano...Bradley is 2 yrs @ 21 mil...
so the deal is lopsided anyway.

We need to get younger...and less expensive.

Now, If you really liked Wells and wanted to add him...the guy to work a package around is Soriano and Wells.
But since Toronto just wants to dump salary...It probably wouldn't work.

I gotta wonder about Hendry's repeated statements on Bradley something on the order that you have to work with the cards you are dealt...wait aren't you responsible for dealing the cards? Did Crane Kenney force him to get Bradley?

This article very well represents the hiring of our latest hitting coach.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?post=4582819&name=friedell

Hendry again over-paying for "talent".

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/10/cubs-white-sox-cards-interested-in-aroldis-chapman.html

They wont sign him but I never saw this coming. The Yankees will sign him for 7 years and 140 million, I will not be surprise.

I figure that Rudy will have Miles hitting 20 HR's next year.

LOL

Hendry should NOT trade Bradley asap for two reasons: 1) His value will never be lower than it is right now. Let him work w/ Jaramillo. His value will increase w/ time and if he produces--even during Spring Training!, his value will increase 2) Who will the Cubs put in RF or CF? Do not trade Bradley until a replacement is in hand. Never sell low, especially after buying high.

The thing that gets me about this whole thing...is Jim Hendry has not issued an apology or said "Hey, I screwed up."

The whole world knows he's screwed up...and he still won't admit it.
Next thing we know...he'll be vying for a post in Nixon's Whitehouse....Just like the players he gets...a day late and a dollar too much.

There will be plenty of rumors abound this offseason. (not just for the Cubs)...

Infielders:
Hardy, Uggla, Fields, Chris Davis, Alexei Ramirez, Fielder, EY Jr., Teahen, Brandon Phillips, Adrian Gonzalez, Kouzmanoff, Michael Young, Renteria, Atkins, Jose Reyes, BJ Upton (both IF and OF), and Christian Guzman....and that's only a sampling of the rumors we've seen, not even including our own IF trade candidates like Fontenot, Theriot, etc.

Outfielders:
Dunn, Willingham, Wells, Hermida, Beltran, Burrell, Crawford, Delmon Young, Granderson, DeJesus, Pierre, Chris Young, Byrnes, Tavares, Rowand, Matthews Jr., Hawpe, etc.

I think if we can free up spots at 2B, SS, CF, and RF, we'll be sitting in VERY good shape.

In fact, if we open the season with Castro or Blanco at SS, we'll be exponentially greater defensively as Theriot's range was a notch above horrific. Yes, I realize we'd lose a little offensively...but with Castro, it's quite possible we'd have a gain their too. Our struggles at 2B, CF, and RF were well documented. Getting someone like Dan Uggla at 2B, even if his defense is average to below average, his 30 hr, 90 RBI would be VERY nice in our lineup. As far as CF is concerned, unless we can pry BJ Upton or Crawford away from the Rays, I think we ought to go with Ankiel in CF, as he represents the closest option we'd have to what Edmonds gave us in 2008 (about 20 hr, 60 RBI), which would mean that we could afford to go with a Fukudome-Colvin, or Fukudome-Johnson, or Fukudome-Fox platoon in RF, as that's essentially what we had in 2008 as well.

The only problem I see with that type of proposition is that we do NOT get much speed, which is a key need for next season. This is precisely why I think we might see the speedier Castro break camp with this team, even given his young age. He had something like 30 stolen bases this season. This also apparently means that the Cubs would try to go after a speedy CF, and Upton, Pierre, Podsednik, Cameron (though, no so much last year), and Coco Crisp, would all represent speedy options in CF. Outside of Abreu, the RF market doesn't offer much speed either. The 2B market doesn't appear to offer any speed either.

So, like I said, if we're going to add speed, it HAS to be at SS or CF, and it has to be as a starter, NOT a bench player (as the Cubs would normally do...you know, the Eric Yelding, Ced Landrum, Joey Gathright types that could never be everyday players because you simply cannot steal 1st base) I guess for 2B, we could trade for Luis Castillo, but that's highly unlikely given age and money owed him.

I think we all pretty much know what needs to happen if the team is going to be competitive this year and in subsequent seasons. We have to get younger...absolutely MUST get younger, and Upton and EY Jr. certainly accomplish that.

Allow me to paint a picture for you of what the team would look like with them:

EY Jr.-2B (40-50 SB)
Upton-CF (30-40 SB)
Lee-1B
ARAM-3B
Fukudome/Fox/Abreu/etc.-RF (if Abreu 20-30 SB)
Soriano-LF (15-20 SB)
Soto-C
Castro-SS (20-30 SB)

*added salary approx. $9 million with Abreu. So, by adding Upton, EY Jr., Abreu, and Castro to this roster, we'd have probably the league's fastest lineup with close to 170 stolen bases.

I guess the question is...what would you be willing to give up to get Upton and EY Jr.? Upton would cost no less than 3 top prospects, while EY Jr. would likely cost a veteran relief pitcher plus a prospect.

Upton-Soto, Colvin, Coleman? Or, W. Castillo, Jay Jackson, Jeff Stevens?

EY Jr.-Marshall, Stevens

Would you do that? I think I would, because the average age of our lineup would go from 32 years old down to 28 years old.

I also would go all out after Ardolis Chapman too. Why? Because Wells and Zambrano are our only 20-somethings in the rotation as of now. Yes, we have Gorzelanny, Samardzija, Marshall, Cashner, Jackson, Coleman, etc. waiting in the wings, but none of them (save for maybe Jackson) really have stats that jump out at you...not even Cashner. We also have a shortage of lefty starters, especially the hard-throwing type. Chapman would fill that void, and if you could trade Lilly to land more prospects for yourself (or to flip in trades), then you'd just insert Chapman right into the fire, and have a rotation of:
Z, Dempster, Wells, Chapman, and Gorzelanny/Cashner/Jackson/Coleman/Samardzija/etc.

But, with Hendry at the helm, you can rest assured that he will go after the Chone Figgins types, or Mike Cameron Types that will be old and overpaid, and not very productive given their contracts. You can expect a re-signing like Grabow to be touted as a free agent pick-up, even though it doesn't change a single thing about the roster. You can also expect a Washburn or Pavano, or Wolf type of signing for the rotation to create competition with our younger guys that will end up actually taking their spot. You can expect a Brian Giles, Randy Winn, or Mark Loretta type of signing as well for our lineup. It's absolutely uncanny how inept Hendry really is year after year, yet he's somehow escaped the hatchet (and much criticism from the media) due to high profile signings/trades for Soriano, Harden, and Fukudome. It's almost like the media put on fan goggles instead of having an objective/realistic point of view on the signings, and gave him a pass based on the hype surrounding the player, rather than determining if the player was a really good fit to begin with. Even the Bradley signing came originally without much criticism from the media (only now...after the fact, they've come out of the woodwork).

So, while we all know the moves that should be made with Upton, EY Jr., Dunn, Chapman, etc., we should all think about Hendry in terms of, "what has he done in his entire tenure that makes you think he'll make the right decisions to put this franchise on the path toward World Series success?"

EY Jr and Upton would be great moves for the Cubs ... and I'd make the trades you propose in a heartbeat. The problem is JH won't make them ... not because of his GM skills, but because he'll never get the opportunity. Those proposals are steals for the Cubs. The better question is whether the Cubs would/should do your Upton deal if Marmol was added to the Soto/Colvin/Coleman package ... that's something gthe Rays might consider. EY Jr. will cost more than Marshall and Stevens as well. I'm not a big JH defender and consider him a very average GM. It's ok to blast him for Soriano, Bradley, and DeRosa moves, his bad drafts, and other moves he has actually made ... particularly if one bashed the move at the time it was made. But, it's not fair to bash JH for trades he didn't make when we are not sure the trade was actually available to him ... or to say he should have signed a player like Soriano for less dollars or years when one doesn't know what it would take to get the deal done.

Aaron, if we got Chapman...it would be a huge committment...mlbtraderumors says a 40 to 60 mil contract...with the Yankees/Red Sox/White Sox/and Cardinals all in the hunt.
Considering the $$$ and competition for his services...I'd have to say we were
a darkhorse in that race.

-I'd consider Soto in any trade...but I'd want to know who his replacement is going to be before I trade him.

The other part of that is he knows his mlb career is on the line this year...
so I expect him to be in tip/top shape...
If he doesn't bounce back...then he can go the way of Tuffy Rhodes.

If he does bounce back...then were selling to low.

Hendry should let Grabow go...bone chips and all...with Gaub in the wings we should be ok...unless we do trade Wells
and then we need another lefty.

I really think EY Jr is going to be something special for many years...so I do whatever I can to grab him....He can play both 2nd and CF...2 sore spots for us.
If Castro comes up...we'll have that team speed...and if not traded...Blanco and Baker to steady the youth...I'd love that infield POTENTIAL...

Theriot would then become a trade chip.
The Rockies don't need him...they want pitching so Theriot and others would go for more pitching....

and I think I'd look at Wagner for a short term deal in the pen...both to compete and steady Marmol a bit.

But it still comes down to our ugly outfield and what happens with Milton.
What does JH come up with there?...
Who are the key players traded?...He can really screw us for even more years...if he doesn;t do it right.

Washington says they are keeping Dunn.
Ditto Crawford with the Rays...But Bartlett might be available...we might consider Bartlett at ss and with Castro as back-up at both 2nd and short...too
many possibilities...and not enough probabilities just now.

JimK where are you?