2006-2007 Baseball Offseason Thread....
 

Dusty and Cubs Part Ways...



And also Andy McPhail quit yesterday as Cubs Team President. Looks like the organization is going to completely revamp itself. Here's hoping for the better.

I'm not crazy about a Marketing guy taking over as team president though. I guess we'll see how it works though. Joe Girardi is the clubhouse leader for Manager, but I wouldn't mind waiting a while to see what other teams are looking for a new manager, too.

Another expected move...Felipe Alou won't return to the Giants as their Manager next year....

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2610590

The Cubs got worse every year under Baker, and his "I guess you gotta blame someone" bullshit is as fitting as anything else he's said since coming to Chicago. The fact is, with the team the Cubs had for 4 years and the payroll they had, Baker is more to blame than anyone else in the organization. Whoever else hires this buffoon gets what they deserve, because Dusty Baker is one of the worst managers in recent history. His teams have won is spite of Dusty, not because of him. Good riddance you obstructionist fuckwad.

So I'm guessing he won't get a Christmas card from you, eh?

Now if the Blue Jays can hire a manager capable of not fighting with his players....perhaps we can improve on that 2nd place finish.

I got to go to a game at Wrigley this year, and in the middle of the game - which the Cubs were losing - I walked past the ushers and went down the aisle down the 3rd base line near the Cubs dugout. I told the seatholders I wanted to take a picture (which I did), but when Dusty came out of the dugout, I started screaming at him, telling him what a worthless POS he was, how much he sucked, etc. The usher finally came to escore me out and I told the people sitting there I was sorry for the rant. One old guy said, "If I knew you were going to yell at Dusty like that, I'd have invited you to stay for a few innings". My kind of people.

Girardi hasn't been released yet, has he? I was overseas and I'm totally out of sorts.

The Red Sox fired Dave Wallace and Ron Jackson (hitting & pitching coaches). There were rumblings of discontent recently from "veterans" about Jackson's performance this season. (Seems to me that in order for it to have gotten him booted, veterans would have to be one or more of Ortiz, Varitek, and Ramirez.)

Not yet. Rumor has he's going to be let go tomorrow, and if not, he has an out clause in his contract for the Cubs job.

I believe the early injury to AJ Burnett and Josh Towers really cost us this year. If Burnett is healthy all season and Towers pitches anything close to his last 3 years, then it aint t he offseason for Toronto. Looking forward to next season. Should be a interesting one in Toronto. Lots of players up for free agency

And the second shoe falls - well, shoe 1 1/2 - as Joe Girardi gets the axe. I hope Joe kept his realtor in Chicago on retainer.

The Marlins Brass.... WOW!

Everytime the Fish do something positive, they throw a flipping Atom Bomb at it and blow it to smitherines..

We'll see. There were a lot of rumblings from within the Marlins organization about how difficult Girardi was to work with, and how if it were completely up to him, a lot of the younger players that starred for Florida this year wouldn't have seen the field - Beinfest and company had to insist.

Should be an interesting case study to see how well Girardi does from here on out, and how well the Marlins do with a new guy as manager. I think a big portion of the praise in Florida for how well they did this year has to go to Beinfest for getting so many talented prospects back in his trades.

Will be the 8th manager for the Marlins so far.

Good points DawgFan. I was speaking from more of a historical viewpoint of the Florida Marlin Franchise..

The dismantling of World Championship Teams... and now the shaking up of what was a good baseball team that achieved very good things this season in contrast to what was expected.

I don't know the behind the scenes stuff... The Marlins just can't seem to keep things right once they achieve positive goals.

And the Marlins have named their new manager, Freddi Gonzalez.

Rumor is Pinella is more likely in Chicago and Girardi in DC.

Actually word here in DC that Dusty is on the short list for the Nats. I also have to believe that, if Chicago is truly interested, they will not be outbid for Girardi.

Interesting how all the negative stuff about Girardi was "leaked" to the press by management starting about three to four weeks prior to the end of the season...when the Marlins were still in the hunt for a wild card. No distractions there, boyo!

That alone puts me more on Girardi's side in this thing.

Well, it was certainly a very fucked-up situation, and I think Loria is an ass. I think it was rather thin-skinned of the front office as well to leak that stuff as well - it reeks of "Hey, that guy's getting too much credit! Look at us, look at us!"

Still, I wonder whether Girardi will be able to live up to his lofty reputation elsewhere. I also suspect that his popularity may actually be a hinderance to him getting the job with the Cubs - he'd instantly be a hero there, and poor peformance next year would likely first be blamed on Hendry, who's probably already on the hot seat.

I think Hendry should already be out.

Hendry should already be out.

why?

• Because he sucks.
• Because he sat on his fat putrifying ass for 3 years and watched the Cubs rot and didn't do a goddamned thing to help.
• Because he let Dusty Baker run the team into the ground and never canned his sorry ass.
• Because he's taken a farm system, once the top farm system in baseball, and turned into one of the worst - not able to produce a single major-leage worthy position player EVER.
• Because he continually trades good young pitching talent for crap.
• Becasue he signed Neifi Perez and 15 guys just like him.
• Because he didn't trade Mark Prior when he could. For Miguel Tejada! AAAUUGGH!
• Because he believes OBP and walks are overrated, and this filters down to the farm system, producing no players who can get on base consistently.

I could go on for fucking forever

Before you can Hendry, you don't mind if the M's grab Angel Guzman for a bucket of balls and some rosin bags do you?

Hey, he brought Matt Lawton in AND Phil Nevin, didn't he? ;)

I heard Hendry three years ago on Tribune owned WGN state that he believes the most important stat in baseball is Runs Batted In. Case closed.

Cubs should have cleaned house, but the problem there is that the new President is not a baseball guy. He needed to retain a 'solid' baseball guy like Hendry, who appears poised to have complete say in the construction of the roster. His track record isn't so hot.

Relying on Wood, Prior and Zambrano for three consecutive seasons after Baker whipped those mules for all he could in 2003 was a complete and utter mistake (I realize Zambrano has stood the test of time, but just watch his career arc - it will look a lot like Alex Fernandez. Not to mention holding on to prized prospects like Corey Patterson til they proved beyond a doubt that there was nothing to the hype and lost all trade value.

The Cubs have a deeply flawed roster and free agency alone can not salvage this team. It won't happen in a million years, but I believe the steps the Cubs could take are:

1) Fire Hendry and bring in someone competent.

2) Fire sale (trade Zambrano at his career peak value, trade Lee if someone will trade value for him even though he was severely injured last season - Lee's 31 and we've seen his peak too Cubs fans, dump Ramirez whom will lose all inspiration once they pick up his option, Prior should stay only long enough so that potential suitors can see he's capable of staying healthy for 10 consecutive starts). The Cubs need to seed their farm system with actual talented players. This would be a start. A schlock team on a low budget would be every bit as capable of producing the NL's worst record, just like the 90+ million payroll 2006 squad)

3) Sell the team - The Tribune Company's in trouble and has been rumored to be contemplating just such a move. Pull the trigger after you've slashed payroll by 50-60%. They'll be more attractive. The big drawing card of the franchise has always been Wrigley, so a barebones roster shouldn't detract too much from the market value of the franchise.

4) profit :)

Cub fans would still come out to Wrigley no matter who they put on the field...so that's a plus if they slash payroll.

The only point I disagree with is the farm system. Yes, I know it sucks now. But he's one of the main reasons why it was good at a time.

Missed the Perez comment. Solid statement. Who was the outfielder they signed from the Twins? That wasn't a wise move or well received by Cub fans as I recall.

Jacque Jones? Talk is that he's going to demand a trade this offseason because he came here for Dusty. I hope it's true.

Fire Buddy Bell! err

Maybe he can transfer to a D-II team so he won't have to sit out a year...

Good news! Wrigley was mostly emply the last 2 weeks of the season - the first time that has happened in decades. The management spoke about how shocked they were that the fans - who had already purchased the tickets - chose to stay away rather than go to the games. A bold statement by the fans IMO.

However your arguement is right on the nose - there is no reason why the Cubs should be spending more than $25M tops on payroll if they can sell 3M tickets a year. Shit, how much do you have to spend to have the worst record in the NL?

Actually, he's not. Hendry inherited a very very good farm system, but he's in love with the high school pitcher, and the results bear this out. Hendry decimated a good system, he didn't build it up first.

Triple-motherfucking-dola-play:

• Because it has been 36 hours and he hasn't hired Joe Girardi yet.

Quad-dola-phenia

He had quite the impressive year, but if he wants a trade, I'm all for it. Make room for Manny! Or Carlos! or Alfonso!

Shit, who am I kidding?

Make room for Marlon Byrd!

While the Tribune company has control of the Cubs, no one will win a division title or World Series. They need to cut bait and sell to someone that will allow the team to join the 21st century.

When all they care about is attendance, no one can win in that atmosphere. NO one. The Cubs of the 80 and 90's is LONG gone.... the one year where they almost made it was just a blip in the loser radar. I have been watching them for almost 30 years and it tears the soul to see them like this.

Baseball America marks the decline under the Hendry regime here.

Felix Pie: The 2nd coming of Corey Patterson?

I agree with everything except your opinion on Carlos Zambrano, his numbers put Alex Fernandez to shame, and you simply don't deal a stud pitcher who should get you a win everytime he takes the mound. If the Cubs doctors think they know something, so be it, deal him, but I don't see how one can expect Zambrano to wear down at age 25.

Astros extended Phil Garner's contract and fired their pitching coach...interesting moves.

A 25 year old w/ 977 major league innings pitched averaging over 107 pitches a start.

*tick* *tick* *tick* *tick*

I did find a better comp for Z. Kevin Appier, who did go on to have a full and mostly productive career, but there was a four year stretch in the middle of his career where he lost a season to injury and was league average for the next three (cummulative effect of the overuse in his formative years???). It is possible Zambrano might not explode. I'm just saying if I'm the GM, I certainly couldn't possibly be suprised if he does.

Twins picked up Hunters 12M option for next yr. I'm pretty surprised by this move, I thought they were gonna let him walk.

better to trade him midseason

Looks like Pinella will be officially announced as Cubs manager with a 3-year deal.

A's fired Ken Macha

Phillies extend Moyer at 10.5M for two yrs. Seems like a dumb move to me, being that he turns 44 next month.

Ridiculous. They must have reasoned that since he doesn't throw hard to begin with, he won't completely lose it like Big Unit is going to.

That's a move I just don't understand at all...

SI