Cubs Offseason Thread

[BUfan14]

Is any other Cubs fans just plain sick of what they are doing these past couple offseasons? All Hendry has done over the past five years is sign guys who have bloated salaries and are bad teams players, and subtracted guys who are good team players and wanted to be here for less money. We got rid of Derosa, Harden, Wood, Eyre, Edmonds, Blanco, and Marquis all for nothing. Many hustle guys and team players who would've taken less salary to stay. We signed and kept Soriano, Soto, Zambrano for more money. Now we stupidly signed Bradley and are wasting a whole offseason doing nothing but trying to trade him! We could have tried for a classy young good outfielder in Granderson but did nothing cause of our prospects! Peavy, roberts etc. we decided to keep prospects as well as why we traded Derosa...well where are these prospects? The only good ones I here of are the young SS and Cashner and Vitters who supposedly can't field anything. Adding bad team players and subtracting good ones won't win anything. Dlee and Rami are the only well above average player we have and Dlee is getting older. Between the Bears being terrible and my hate of Cutler (Grossman supporter), the Bulls being terrible, the Cubs doing nothing after being terrible, and my college football team ND being terrible, I sure hope the Braves have a good year to relieve my frustration! Too bad I'm not a hockey fan since the hawks are actually the only team in Chicago that is any good at all.

[doug shank's crossover]

I agree with most of your post. There is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, however. Josh Vitters and Starlin Castro could very well be the infield of the future. Both flashed great tools in the Arizona Fall League and are among the best prospects in baseball. Former Cub prospects like Bobby Hill, Felix Pie and Brian Dopirak were similarly lauded, but the difference is that Vitters and Castro have proven it against the best prospects in the world, in the premier prospect showcase in Arizona. The key to next season is going to be finding a home for Bradley and finding a speed guy for centerfield.

[Beninator]

It probably won't happen now that the Yankees traded for Javier Vazquez, but I found it interesting that Yankees GM Brian Cashman reportedly inquired about a possible trade for Carlos Zambrano. --and the high asking price by the Cubs---

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/auld_lang_sign_lnyUGytHfw1E9U0jIMUpMN

[Beninator]

Matt Capps to sign with either the Nationals or the Cubs. If he signs with the Cubs, it looks as if he would be a set-up man. Capps expects to make a decision by Wednesday night.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091222&content_id=7842616&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[dogsrus]

Matt Capps to sign with either the Nationals or the Cubs. If he signs with the Cubs, it looks as if he would be a set-up man. Capps expects to make a decision by Wednesday night.


http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Nats......

[Da Coach]

Nothing official yet, but...
Nats closing in on Capps

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091223&content_id=7850868&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[SFP]

I agree with most of your post. There is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, however. Josh Vitters and Starlin Castro could very well be the infield of the future. Both flashed great tools in the Arizona Fall League and are among the best prospects in baseball. Former Cub prospects like Bobby Hill, Felix Pie and Brian Dopirak were similarly lauded, but the difference is that Vitters and Castro have proven it against the best prospects in the world, in the premier prospect showcase in Arizona. The key to next season is going to be finding a home for Bradley and finding a speed guy for centerfield.

Cubs right now would love to have Felix Pie on their roster. I'm sure he's available.

[DUBrave5]

Cubs right now would love to have Felix Pie on their roster. I'm sure he's available.

Cubs sign Marlon Byrd previously from the Rangers for 3yrs/$15mil. Hopefully it'll be a smooth transfer for him since we brought his hitting coach to Chicago.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=4785125

[Da Coach]

Cubs sign Marlon Byrd previously from the Rangers for 3yrs/$15mil. Hopefully it'll be a smooth transfer for him since we brought his hitting coach to Chicago.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/ml...ory?id=4785125

Marlon Byrd is a 32 year old right-handed outfielder. He has played for Philadelphia, Washington, and Texas. His career MLB batting average is .279 and he has 60 home runs in 10 major league seasons. He had never had more than 10 in any previous season until last year. His 20 HRs and 89 RBI last season are easily career highs. He has played centerfield the most, but has also played the corner outfield positions quite a bit the past few years. He is considered an excellent fielder, though his arm is not strong.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/byrdma01.shtml

He lead the AL in sacrifice flies last year. That is the only statistical area he has ever come close to leading the league in.
I suspect the Cubs really wanted a centerfielder with more power, but Byrd's career offensive averages are not as good as Reed Johnson's, and are similar to Kosuke Fukudome's.

For $5 million a year, can't you get something more than mediocrity?

[DUBrave5]

Marlon Byrd is a 32 year old right-handed outfielder. He has played for Philadelphia, Washington, and Texas. His career MLB batting average is .279 and he has 60 home runs in 10 major league seasons. He had never had more than 10 in any previous season until last year. His 20 HRs and 89 RBI last season are easily career highs. He has played centerfield the most, but has also played the corner outfield positions quite a bit the past few years. He is considered an excellent fielder, though his arm is not strong.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/byrdma01.shtml

He lead the AL in sacrifice flies last year. That is the only statistical area he has ever come close to leading the league in.
I suspect the Cubs really wanted a centerfielder with more power, but Byrd's career offensive averages are not as good as Reed Johnson's, and are similar to Kosuke Fukudome's.

For $5 million a year, can't you get something more than mediocrity?

Never said I was happy about picking him up

Honestly I think they could've gotten better but with how much we are paying some players and the new owners not wanting to drop a ton of extra cash, I can see why they signed him. For the first time in a while, I do not have high hopes for this team but I will still pay to go see them

[DUBrave5]

According to Gordon Wittenmyer on Twitter -

cst_cubs
Byrd's contract backloaded, putting just 3M on '10 payroll (plus 5.5, 6.5) 4 minutes ago from txt

[Big Mike]

this is weird....

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/01/will-cubs-take-a-chance-on-ben-sheets.html

[BUfan14]

I don't think the Cubs will do this because they would have just signed Harden then, but then again Sheets will be a one year deal that might be a little cheaper. I'm all for it, I like the move, but I doubt they do it. It would be nice to see them do something outside of Marlon Byrd......O well there is always next year

[BU_EMT128]

The cards and cubs seem to be going in opposite directions right now. While the cardinals are going after some of the most talented FA available, the cubs are settling for mediocrity trading bad contract for bad contract. The Cubs will not improve until they free up a significant amount of payroll, and decide to take a risk and gamble a large sum on a great player, not 8 year 136mil on Soriano or 3 year 30mil on Bradley.

[BUfan14]

Athletics signed Sheets so we are not getting him, which is disappointing to me, but we signed Xavier Nady. He is coming off an injury so we will see how that goes, but it is relatively cheap so a pretty good deal that has more upside than downside. I still hope we sign Orlando Hudson for second base, but there appears to be no signs of us doing that.