The cubs better be careful i think this could be the year alot of faithful cub fans say i have had enough.The hope of new owners, well it looks the same to me. The cubs have backed themselves into a corner and the cross town rivals appear ready to shame them again.The winter meetings showed me there is no hope for this team for a few years, i for one cannot take it anymore. Hendry has to go. Keep Bradley if you can't trade him and make it clear to him that if there is any problems from him that he will sit the bench. And then be suspended with NO PAY and take on the players union. These problem childs need to be dealt with and stop getting their way. SPOILED BRATS give me a break.

Thank heavens we've added Wilken and Jaramillo and we now have real owners in Ricketts!

The flaw in your reasoning...cubs1967...is you are forgetting about the $30+ mill

in interest payments the Ricketts have to deal with...so not all ticket price raises can go directly to payroll...The Trib never hsd that nut to deal with.

I still believe that in the lopng run we'll be better off...but we're screwed for the short term.

When ticket prices were reasonable...I'd pay for a day at the ballpark...and enjoy it with no expectations.

Now it's a different story...since rthe Cubs are extracting a pound of flesh...

I won't pay for an inferior product.

no flaw in the missing $33M unless U know suzy what the cubs inc baseball team filed in tax returns for the last few years as true income; which no one knows............maybe the cubs made $40M-that would cover the supposed(have u seen the loan docs) $30M loan pymts.

like i said; the tribetts have gotten off to a bad a start as U could imagine.

let's not forget what monies could come there way from the florida or mesa proposals for spring training; the HUGE monies they get from MLB properties, XM radio, MLB tv contracts, etc........plus any increase in beer(shall we bet on this one) , hot dogs, etc we don't know about yet. plus monies from concerts(they had 3 last year) or what the captain morgan clubs brings in.

the money is there; we should have at least $15M to spend; cameron for $8M, $4M for felipe lopez, $2-3M for a RP and $2M for a non-tendered player like kevin correia as a 5 starter.

what this points out more than ever; is how bad an ownership group the tirbune co was all these years as they never had a mtg pymt........absolutely disgusting.

yanks just non-tendered Chien-Ming Wang. not a bad idea to kick the tires on him.

i've heard of a 140M payroll budget, and based on arb eligible, i see 129-130m already commited. so that means we have 10M to spend. Maybe you can get Orlando Hudson for 7M?

We need an OF? What about Brian Hawpe?

Can bat 5th.

Hopefully you deal Bradley and save 5M this year?

Maybe that payroll needs to get up to 145 or 150 for 2010, and then back down to 140 for 2011 and stay steady when some of the younger prospects make it to the majors?

What about dealing Zambrano? or DLee (last year of contract)?

What about Halladay?

Good players are available, but the cubs dont want to rock the boat too much.

Why? What have we won?

Zambrano has a no trade clause and has not pitched to the contract extension he signed ... untradeable if he would accept the trade. And there are multiple problems with that.

Lee ... again, full no trade clause. They asked him in November 2008 about waiving his no-trade clause. He said he wanted to stay in Chicago. Levine thinks Lee will be offered a contract extension before the year (either one, one with an option or two years)

Brad Hawpe would require a trade with the Rockies ... who do you give up? All of the tradeable pieces have no trade clauses and those that do not have little value.

Not going to save $5 million on Bradley this year. Likely will deal him dollar for dollar on 2010's salary then have to 'eat' the $12 million owed for 2011.

The Cubs are not going to be able to save anything on Bradley's contract ... don't care what they are trying to do. They are going to have to pay someone to take him off their hands. Hendry's third year with the 75 games vesting option has handcuffed the team.

They want to move him but it is the third year that is the problem. If Bradley was creating all of the problems they have talked about since the suspension then why did they allow the third year to vest?

Roy Halladay? Not enough. I have heard the Blue Jays asked the Yankees for either Joba or Hughes plus Jesus Montero (their best prosepct since they traded Austin Jackson for Granderson) ... then more. Cubs can't match right now.

the missing $33 million...........

so to date the Tribetts family is no diff than the tribune co:

to date: up tix prices again, worry about updating wrigley more than spending on the team w/ the billboards in LF bleachers and screw the city of mesa w/ this FLA talk of spring training.(no team in 20 yrs has left AZ for FLA).

so let's go over the $33 million missing:

all we hear about is trading bradley to spend money; but that is not true:

hence, $4.82 avg tix price increase multiplied by 3 million fanx equals $14.48M in add'l revenue.

by not sigining kevin gregg($4M), harden ($7M), or reed johnson-$3M that saves another $14M.

add in heilman being traded at $1.5M, plus the 1.7M being saved on aaron miles is another $3.2M.

add in the est. $2M in advertising fromt he LF bleachers equals $33M not spent.

so mr kenney-any ideas> or could someone from the tribetts family explain.

let's see if either kenney or tribetts shows up to the cubs convention w/ this crap going on.

looks like we have something to look forward to in 2012.

2010 and 2011 do not look promising with the current group of Major Leaguers.

Maybe hendry will pull some miracle and/or Castro and other prospects change the makeup of the roster.

I was hoping for a bigger shake up. We havent won with the majority of this roster, why keep em together????

Hendry is the worst GM. The payroll is such a disaster.