They've been after A.J. for a while. Good luck overpaying!

 

it's pretty sad that he is sometimes considered the best free agent SP this year

 

meh, they can have him

 

It's a dry market this year. But, it's near time to see how much Steiny is going to overpay for someone. Here's hoping he throws $500M at Furcal.

 

Why don't you encourage them to trade for Eric Miltion?

 

Milton Bradley would look great in pinstripes too!

Say, is Albert Belle still playing?

 

I heard World Series winner Frank Thomas is available :wink:

 

Actually, I hope he resigns with the ChiSox. It'd be nice to see him end his career with them...Besides, if he's healthy, watch out.

 

i dont even want to talk about baseball, i think ive been through as much as any true fan of his team can possibly be through in the past years. to add to it, i actually fell for the words of Bruce Levinn when he said the Cubs were in the final stages of a deal for Juan Pierre. Go Bears is what I say

 

with that. He proved that when he was back for that little bit

 

Bradley for Matsui, straight up.

 

Coming back from the gym, 720 WGN said the Cubs just announced they signed Scott Eyre to a 2 year deal with yr. 3 as an option.

[X] Sign a good lefty in the pen
[ ] RF
[ ] SS
[ ] SP
[ ] Patterson Replacement

let's see how it plays out..

 

I'm curious to hear your ideal offseason for the Cubs

 

1. Sign Furcal ASAP!! You do not want to instigate any emotion from him or his agent. Just sign him to a 4 year $39 M deal with a 5th yr. option if he wants it.
2. Trade for Juan Pierre
3. Trade for Kevin Mench

This would all leave room in the budget, which should either be kept or spent on a 5th starter. Otherwise, save it for next year since D Lee, Prior, and Carlos Z will be FAs at season's end. I'm confident Hendry knows this, he is a very smart GM.

My ideal lineup;
SS Furcal
CF Pierre
1B Lee
3B Ramirez
RF Mench
LF Murton
C Barrett
2B Cedeņo/Perez

P Prior
P Zambrano
P Wood
P Maddux
P Washburn/ Millwood/ Williams

 

Poor Cubbies, you know they cant afford to keep all 3
Now, its good being a yankee fan, just waiting for stars to be FA to sign big $$ contracts to come to NY

Too bad there's no one really to buy up this year

 

There is going to be a change of power in the great state of NY, you wait and see

 

..and Hendry is very aware of the fact that all 3 will need to be signed. I'm hoping things work out.

 

Beckett to be traded to Rangers...

Wow...never saw that coming...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ort/index.html

 

Yeah the Herald said it in yesterday's paper. Since we didn't get a new stadium, the current lease does not allow us to support a payroll that high. Carlos Delgado is probably gone too and they'd put Blalock on 1st. We might not re-sign Alex Gonzalez and sign Royce Clayton until our young SS Robert Andino is ready. The pitching staff will be Dontrelle and a bunch of youngins a la Oakland. It's going to be a long season.

 

Hey, that's the curse of winning so many titles so early.

 

also the curse of having such a cheap owner

 

Sources: Beckett Boston Bound

Boston and Florida have tentatively agreed to a deal that sends both Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to the Red Sox, sources tell Peter Gammons and Jayson Stark. Florida would get two of Boston's top prospects, shortstop Hanley Ramirez and pitcher Anibal Sanchez.

 

Yeah, I heard about the sox deal. I just hate seeing young talent get traded...

 

good and bad sides on the red sox' end. young talent, but you're supporting a pretty potent lineup as is. I do, however, believe Mike Lowell is nearing the start of his decline, if not already there.

 

Excellent. Now, watch the Yanks pay Burnett $500 billion to play for them.

 

If you knew about the current stadium lease that the Marlins have you wouldn't say that. Also last year's team was the highest payroll team ever for the Marlins. Higher than both World Champs. This owner has tried to maintain our team but it costs too much when our young guys are coming out of arbitration.

I was hoping to get Hank Blalock from the Rangers. You Sox fans will have a love/hate relationship with Beckett. If he stays healthy you'll love him, but if he gets hurt you'll hate him. Reason being he gets a lot of blister and stupid injuries. And he gets hurt a lot. He had a .500 career record until this year when he had career highs in everything. Hopefully he progresses and stays healthy.

Can someone tell me about who we got?

 

I just read the same thing. The Yankees were thinking about dealing Cano for Beckett and some other players which piss me off. I'm getting sick of them trading away young talent for over priced injury proned veterans. They need to learn to work with what they had. I still miss Alfonso Soriano..

 

Hanley Ramirez is the Red Sox's biggest propect (now that paplebon is in the majors)... Hanley Ramirez is probably the top propect in ALL of baseball...

With Rentirea signed at short for 3 more years, Ramirez became expendable... Hanley has been described as having a big upside, but has also been tagged with the "imature" label.

I'm not as familair with Sanchez's history... All I know was that he was on the teams "untouchable top five propect" list... but it looks like both were "touchable" or tradeable after all..

http://bostondirtdogs.com/ will have links to alot of articles that might provide further background info.

I'm concerned about Beckett's health, but I like to compare this deal to when we traded Pavano (now with the yanks) for Pedro Martinez...

 

IMO Beckett will be for the Red Sox what Pavano was for the Yankees last year. I think it's a bad move on the Red Sox to do that. I would of moved Renteria before getting rid of Hanley.

 

I agree with you, but you can't be too sour over the Soriano-Arod deal. He did win the MVP for you guys. And the Yanks did need a third baseman.

Everyone hates A-rod and I don't get it. He may not be clutch in the playoffs, but the yanks may not have even got there without him.

As far as his personality, thats a different story

 

Yeah, it'll be easy to move Renteria after the spectacular season he had last year

 

How can you hate MLB's MVP. He has had great postseasons with Seattle. It's not like he's Barry Bonds in that nature. But like said above, he got you there.

Beckett isn't really Pavano. Pavano already showed his stuff as a decent pitcher until his monster year with Florida. The Yanks plain and simple overpaid for him. Beckett has tremendous upside, younger, and can play in the postseason as the Yankees know.

 

but I also agree with GreenMonster, moving Renteria wouldn't be easy..

 

There are a few teams out there that wouldn't mind a guy like Renteria

 

of course, but my point is Boston would end up getting screwed in the deal...

 

Marlins announced yesterday that because they can't get funding for a new stadium they are listening to offers to move cities. Las Vegas and Portland seem to be the front runners. Cliffs for those who don't know what's up:

Wayne Huizenga, who created the Marlins, dismantles 97 champs due to sagging attendance and to make the team easier to sell since he lost millions.

John Henry buys the team and tries to get stadium financing. Cites that due to lease agreement held by Huizenga (owns the stadium and Dolphins) and can't change terms of said lease will not be able to make money. Can't get anything from the local governments and sells the team to Jeff Loria.

Loria attempts to get financing. City and county agree to help but state rejects them. Funds needed were about $100 million short. Rumors are that Huizenga agrees to help on lease and add retractable dome that he would pay for. Huizenga chooses to do so due to plan of making Dolphin Stadium a center with a shopping mall, restaurants, bars, and a hotel. Loria said to have refused continues trying to make a deal.

Marlins president, David Sampson, announces they are taking offers to leave.

According to local radio host and ESPN reporter, Hank Goldberg, the Marlins plan of getting financing is not creative enough to acquire financing. The days of public financing have gone away due to it showing that a new stadium isn't automatic extra revenue. Stadiums like the Cardinals stadium are privately financed and in some cases most of the funds were from that franchise. The Cardinals put in 75% of their financing. Of course they have the revenue to do it since they have some of the best fans and always have great attendance.

Even after winning a 2nd World Series our attendance was still in the bottom. We were competing until September to make the playoffs, Dontrelle was Cy Young material, and Delgado and Cabrera were MVP material. Unfortunately we still can't fill. Baseball for whatever reason has no interest here even though it's our most successful franchise since the Fins in the 70s and somewhat in the 80s.

 

Just read that the Marlins have agreed to trade Delgado to the METS for Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit. As a METS fan, I'm not too sure if I like the move to bring a guy here that rejected a contract with the METS. Hopefully he ain't too bitter. Although, if he keeps up his numbers, any team will be happy to have him.

 

I heard Delgado was turned off by how Omar Minaya, Mets GM, negotiated. He was insulted by how Minaya spoke spanish to him and wasn't as professional as could be. Mets were a contender to getting him before we did.

 

He probably did assuming Delgado felt more comfortable speaking Spanish since he does have a strong accent. Delgado is just being a baby he should feel comfortable speaking his language and appreciate there is a person who understands him in office. It's just an excuse The Mets really should let Jacobs grow and get more pitching

 

I would have been OK with taking a huge hit on Renteria to keep Hanley R. Then again, it's not my money.

<-- excited about having Beckett.