Baseball rumors are fun, and for all we know, the Mark Prior and Rich Hill to the Orioles for Miguel Tejada and Eric Bedard talk is just that, “rumors.”
Would the Cubs deal one of their 24-year-old pitching aces to the Orioles for a former MVP shortstop? I guess they would. Should they?
In a word, no.
Now is not the time for Jim Hendry to all of a sudden make up for his inability to convince the Tribune Tower to pony up for Tejada in the offseason following the apopalyptic finish to the 2003 season. That was when you needed Tejada. When you had a gaping hole at shortstop, filled only by the underachieving Alex Gonzalez, who was saved from eternal Cub damnation only by a dope in a green sweatshirt, a turtleneck and a radio headset.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. That was when you should have gotten Miguel. Back when it would have “only” cost you money and a first round draft pick.
As much as it’d be great to get Tejada, it doesn’t make much sense to do it while forsaking Prior. It makes perfect sense for the Orioles, who could pair Prior with Leo Mazzone and Cubs’ fans could relive the glory days of watching a former Cubs pitcher, one we knew was too good to let go, rack up big numbers for another team while Mazzone rocked away in the dugout with approval.
OK, so that’s settled. This would be dumb. This would be reactionary. Didn’t the Cubs pay any attention to the 2005 playoffs? Actually, I didn’t watch much of them, but what I do know is that the teams without pitching depth all went home early. Even the two best offenses in the game, Boston and the Yankees could combine to only go 2-6 in the playoffs.
That’s not saying that the Cubs could get anywhere near the playoffs even with Tejada AND Prior right now. But if they’re ever going to do it again, they’re going to do it with Prior on their team.
You want another reason to damn Kerry Wood? Here’s one. If he could stay healthy your options would be much greater. You could deal Prior or Carlos Zambrano, or better yet, Wood. But with a farm system that was once so stocked with starting pitching prospects just about dried up, you’d be faced with going into 2007 with Zambrano, Jerome Williams, Glendon Rusch and… Prior would be in Baltimore, Greg Maddux on a golf course in Las Vegas and Wood throwing simulated games in somebody else’s bullpen. Yay?
But let’s say you decide you just HAVE to deal for Tejada. You don’t trade Prior. Nope. As much as this hurts me to say it, because my manlove for him knows no bounds, you trade Carlos.
Blasphemy!?!
Here’s why. In a strange way, Prior’s string of injuries from the pictured tumble over Marcus Giles, to his spring training Achilles ache to the B(r)ad Hawpe off his arm, have made it impossible for Dusty Baker to ride Prior into the ground the past two years. He did a pretty good job of it in 2003, but then Prior took big hunks of the next two seasons off.
Meanwhile, Carlos goes out every turn and pitches his ass off. He hasn’t been hurt. At least not seriously.
Yet.
You know it’s coming. I know it’s coming. I’d like to pretend that Carlos is one of those rare guys impervious to injury, but it’d be just so Cub for them to trade Prior this winter and lose Carlos in the spring.
Then Miguel would have to hold a press conference and announce that he still wants to be traded to a “winner.”
There are other factors, to consider, if you have to pick one or the other (again, I don’t think you should trade either one of them).
Carlos is a year closer to free agency than Mark is.
Carlos’ agent is Scott Boras. There’s no chance in hell Scott will let Carlos sign a long term deal before he can declare himself a free agent. We know how aggressive the Cubs are in pursuing free agents. They look like Calvin Schiraldi trying to run away from a bumblebee.
Carlos is going to pitch for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, too. Sure, he’ll have Hank White around to watch his back, but that’s just what Carlos needs. MORE INNINGS.
Going into this offseason, the Cubs were “set” for the near future at only five spots on their entire roster. First base, second third (edited because I spelled third s-e-c-o-n-d, which is wrong) base, closer (and even that’s less than guaranteed) and with Carlos and Mark. That’s twenty big question marks. They had lots of money to spend though to fill those holes.
So far, they’ve pretty much pissed it away on two dubious relievers and Jock Jones, plus a trade for Juan Pierre. The only way the offseason could get worse would be to lose one of the five real-live assets they had before this whole thing started.
But it sure looks like they’re determined to pull just that off.
This is just so Cub.
Meh. At least we’d do something interesting.
Can I be GM again?
I was wearing a blue sweatshirt and green turtleneck you dimwit. And red shoes. And no, I’m not retarded. Get it straight next time.
Andy, I agree with you on this. Boras is waiting in the weeds to hold up the Cubs for Zambrano. Z’s the one to deal.
Nothing like folding me when you may very well have a set. Norm Chad would have a field day making fun of Hendry if this were the WSOP.
When you say the Cubs were set at 2nd base did you mean 3rd base? I don’t know … Third base!
The Cubs are set at second base? Set for what? You are counting on a rookie playing out of position as set?
High expectations, indeed.
It was a black Renegades Baseball sweatshirt, with white print, morans.
Don’t trade either ace for Tejada and slap yourself for even thinking such a thing. And don’t trade Wood either. These guys can’t just stay hurt forever. One of these days they’re going to get it done unison. And we’ll do likewise on the Gamecasts every workday until we all get fired for jerking at work.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go choke the bishop.
I just had a rather large bowel movement. It was kind of like giving birth to Stonehenge. But it was nowhere near the pile this “column” turned out to be. Trading Zambrano? There’s one player in baseball worth that. His name is Johan Santana. Yeah, maybe Dontrelle too. But fuck that. What’s wrong with you people?
Just because Wood & Prior have spent the last 2 years on the DL, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Carlos will follow suit. Not every pitcher gets hurt, even though to Cubs fans it sure seems that way. Carlos is not a lock to get hurt. At least not as long as Dusty keeps Carlos’ laptop locked away.
Forget Tejada. It will never happen. Get Millwood, even if it’s at $12M/year. Why not? After this year, Maddux comes off the payroll at $9M/yr. Wood’s contract will be up as well at $10M/yr. In 2007, we will lose Wood (unreliable) and Maddux (old) but we could replace them with Millwood (reliable) and Hill (young). Hey wait a second, somebody alert the higher-ups at the Tribune Company – by doing this, the Cubs would SAVE MONEY IN 2007 OVERALL. All it requires is taking a hit in 2006 on Millwood, which could be softened by backloading his contact with guaranteed money. A Millwood signing would make the Cubs’ offseason a success, where they would have spent most of their free agency money on building pitching depth.
There’s just one problem with this plan. The Trib will never green-light a Millwood outlay this year. We should stop talking about this crap and just accept our 75 to 82 win season in 2006 and choke on it.
Happy Holidays!
If you’re going to rip Dusty for “riding pitchers into the ground” by boldly asking them to take the mound every 5th day, then your pitchers aren’t as valuable as you think.
My god, Carlos pitched his ass off! His arm’s next! Dusty’s ruining him! He pitched fewer innings than Maddux, for christ’s sake.
It ain’t the innings you dope. It’s the 120 pitches that Dusty lets Zambrano throw each time out.
And good reading comprehension skills there, Redondo. You really nailed it that this was about how the Cubs should trade Zambrano.
“Would the Cubs deal one of their 24-year-old pitching aces to the Orioles for a former MVP shortstop? I guess they would. Should they? In a word, no.”
Typical Cubs offseason, sign crap and then float out a rumor involving a big name free agent. In my lifetime I have been excited about Alou, Dawson and Maddux signings and the trades for Crime Dog, Nomar and MAYBE Ramirez and Lofton (everyone wanted Lowell). Thats it!! They’ve traded an all star team away over the years and have always been cheap. There is absolutely no reason why a town like St Louis is more competitive and had a higher payroll last year than the 3rd largest city. Look it up, the Trib tried to say it was 100 million but the official stat was around 87, Sosa’s money didnt count. The Cards was over 90 million. Jock Jones, Pierre, a couple of relievers, whoo hoo!!!! Another shitty year! Merry X-mas Cubs fans from the Tribune Company. I also will bet that the payroll this year isnt 100 million and they will say it was because it was a weak free agent market and it doesnt make sense to spend money just for the sake of spending money. Its like the freakin movie Ground Hog Day!!!!!
“It ain’t the innings you dope. It’s the 120 pitches that Dusty lets Zambrano throw each time out.”
A pitcher who throws 120 pitches each time out and needs 2-3 innings of bullpen help isn’t as valuable as you think. Which doesn’t make you a dope, just a jerk, evidently.
The payroll projects to nearly $102 million right now.
Hey, Don:
1 Livan Hernandez
2 Carlos Zambrano
3 Mark Prior
And check out the link before you say that’s just hysterical opinion
Agreed with Andy that you don’t trade away aces to make up for not signing people earlier. You cut your losses and don’t panic until I am a free agent next year: I am on record saying I want back in Chicago and not on the Southside. Sign me, please. Jock’s contract won’t preclude him being traded next winter.
But I was only third most abused in 2004.
I should kill Jim Hendry if he wants to trade me for that dumb Dominican Miguel Tejada.
What’s the historical correlation between PAP and actual injuries from pitching?
Why isn’t Howard Stern on the list? I find him very abusive.
Check out this heartbreaker about me from June 19, 1998, in the article first introducing PAPs:
“And, of course, I can’t write this article without mentioning Kerry Wood. At 21, he’s the youngest name on this list, and he’s in the middle of the pack as far as abuse goes. He hasn’t thrown more than 128 pitches in a game this year, but he has a number of outings in the 120+ range. I don’t think he’s in grave danger of injury – he’s a big guy with good mechanics, relies on his fastball, and doesn’t throw a splitter. But I do think that Jim Riggleman should take a little more care of the most prized arm of the decade.”
I’m not sure, I’m not sure if it’s conclusive. But the thinking goes that it doesn’t just correlate with injury: if your shoulder doesn’t fall off you just end up pitching much less effectively.
Were they talking about the staff at Kerry Wood Chevrolet/Buick?
I recommend every woman get a PAP at least once a year. Hey, I practice what I preach.
If Hendry/the suits at Trib are possibly willing to back up the bus for a star SS in Tejada, why didn’t the bean counters approve of a better deal to ensure Furcal would be wearing Cubbie blue ????? The roster would be stronger with an overpaid Furcal and Prior than Tejada and ??? filling in Prior’s slot.
Psst….dudes, I can Danny Jackson in town within 24 hours. He’s a lefty, did you know that?
Guh. Yes, should have read “third base”, though really, with Neifi at second, I think we can all agree that, nah.
It seems likely that both Carlos and Mark will be around for all of 2006 (at least on the roster, or in the whirlpool or trying to break Kerry Wood’s record for scoreless simulated innings), but you’ve got a lame duck GM and manager and you always have to admire the rash decisions that situation lends itself to.
Honestly, the Cubs can’t afford to trade either Mark or Carlos because right now they’re two of their best six hitters.
To be fair, it appears that the Cubs are asking for “promising left-hander Erik Bedard” as part of the deal to “replace” Prior. And from many accounts I heard yesterday (Thursday), the speculation is that there is no way in hell that Prior will sign another contract with the Cubs and is determined to pitch for a West Coast team. Maybe the Cubs know something about Prior’s intentions and attitude and are willing to get something now instead of risking losing him for nothing.
If Hendry pulls off the deal that includes Bedard on their end and Pie/whomever on the Cubs side – we’ll need to make a deal to get Arod for 2b in order to score enough runs to win 80 games with the following rotation (given that Hendry doesn’t have another move up his sleeve). Z,?/Wood,Maddx,Rusch,Williams,Bedard/Hill? Yikes. Tee it up NL Central.
Quit your whinin’. You guys get Pierre, Howry, Jones, and Eyre, and I’m stuck with Bigbie, Miles, Ponson, and Deivi Cruz. Hell, we got Rick Ankiel on our 40-man roster as a friggin’ outfielder!
Hey, Andy … is “apopalyptic” a contraction of “apoplectic” and “apocalyptic”? You know, as in “ultimate doom that makes you really, really angry”?
If so, then I heartily approve. It’s the perfect made-up word to describe what every Kool-Ade-free Cubs fan is feeling right about now.
I thought it was the name of Mel Gibson’s new movie?
If Prior’s really making noise about not re-signing after the 2008 season now (which I doubt), it would probably have something to do with his dissatisfaction with the toothpick chewing dumbass in the dugout. I have a feeling that won’t be much of a problem after this upcoming season.
Bedard’s a talent, but he’s already had Tommy John disease and a major knee surgery. If you’re going to trade Mark, you ought to get one of the 2,000 major leaguers with a better injury history than his, not one of the six with a worse one.
Screw this team. Its my birthday on Sunday!
If I’m talking about leaving the Cubs organization, would anybody blame me? They’re the fucking morans who re-sign shit like Neifi Perez. Of course I have deep-seated hatred.
K Patt for Matt Clement
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
the player you offer for Tejada is…… Wood.
And the orioles will take him. Heck, they took Sammy.
He gone!
We killed the Moranboard!!!
:(
#37, I always thought the expression was “deep-seeded” hatred. Am I a moran?
Founder of the Bring Back the Moranboard BandWGN
When you abuse me, you make Baby Jesus cry.
Hey, Jesus.
Your b-day is in the ME, dumbass. We celebrate you with retail largess in the winter now because 1,500 years ago we who liked you were being killed. We moved the date to December to coincide with other holidays so we could hide our celebration and wouldn’t be killed nomore.
Am I going to hell for calling Jesus a dumbass?
Yeah, my real birthday should be closer to Easter, but I like presents. What do you want me to do? Do you put a bear trap in your chimney? No, didn’t think so, now back to my poorly lit nativity scene.
I don’t know 44, but you just made my list, bitch. Merry Christmas.
Monday we could wake up with the Bears as Division champs with a 1st round bye AND
Prior as an Oriole…..who would have thought?!?!?!?!
Prior is trying to skip town, and leave us with the tab!
On a positive note, with the hot stove “upgrades” Hendry has made so far, the hunt for the wild card will be on par with trying to find an alley in Wrigelyville not soaked in urine. We can then trade Zambrano AND Prior AND Wood AND anyone else of any value to contenders for some “good stuff.” I hope someone besides Mr. Cruller is doing “stuff” evaluation by that point.
As the blue flag rises again and again and again and again and again and again, I see a June where the Cubs finally raise the white flag and blow up the team. Merry Friggin’ Christmas.
You try to tell me when my birthday is, and call me a dumbass? For that you are going to go straight…nowhere. Its all magic and lies anyway. Little secret. Shhhhh!!!
Bring back the Moran bored……Happy Birthday Jesus.
I got shaved and I’m now wearing a Yankees hat. Look at the miracles I make. Millions of fans loved me one night, and now they hate my guts.
OH MY DAD there are three Jesuses! Or is it Jesi?
Mark Prior bro, you will love da Orioles. Eet is berry fung mang
Now of course, the toothpick thing is obdvious, anyone with even a bit of background should be able to see the abusive personality traits displayed. Prior, for anyone who plays everyday and is not the second coming of the Babe himself, is just foolish because Prior owns a .641 winning percentage.
The point of this outburst is merely that Jesus is correct, of course, Dusty can’t chew toothpicks without a great deal of patients on the part of Cub’s fans. Being manager of the year so many times is difficult to live up to, especially when quality pitching turns into pine riding wounded pitching. It’s pitching people, pitching, you don’t let pitching go anywhere…
Sorry we messed up your birthday, Jesus. We suck.
Bring back the Moran board, fellas.
Can someone say overrated? This is what a one and done looks like when they play a 3-11 bunch of losers.
We are winning, moron, and the Packers have a top 10 defense.
You know what? I’ve saved this country numerous times. I can lead the Cubs to the playoffs. Get rid of DFB…i can make it happen. That includes getting rid of KKKorey Patterson. No traces. Call me, and we’ll talk. Make it soon. I have to be on TV in a couple of weeks.
Peace on Earth, good will to men.
Fuck you Dusty Baker and Jim Hendry, you big shit-stained leaky colostomy bags. But Jesus loves you.
I really like the fact that the moran board is gone, and the site is updated about once a week now. That really makes people eager to come back to desipio.
Desipio is losing steam….no moran board, updates monthly….all frigin Cub talk. Yikes
… a stupid posting name of “Milkhammit Ali”. Dumbest. Name. Ever.
Yeah, and… pretty catchy also I must say. Dumbass.
That was weak.
yawn
Wakey, wakey. Hands off snakey!
A farily good Mariotti column today. “Damn”.
won’t completely freeze over until we win the Series.
wood is worthless. don’t trade Prior or the Lawnmower. we’ll need them, unless Miggy plans on working on his breaking ball this winter.
hey – what happened to my board?
Apparently the same thing that happened to me. Anyone seen Andy lately?
Sometimes people take us at the end of the year.
Did anyone see the recent dose on me? No? I didn’t either, maybe no one at desipio cares anymore about anything other than the cubs every few weeks or so. Someone start a new web site…..this one bites. Where is the St. Louis Cardinal board?
Yeah, I suck. I get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to run this site, all you people probably donate millions to me so I can maintain this site, and I take it easy the last couple weeks during Christmas and New Year’s. Fuck me.
Mouthpiece, you’re in the wrong place. Doses about you would be on the spinoff hoops site. You should check it out. It’s like watching “Joey” – someone has to do it.
Its alive!!!!!!!!!!!! You have created a monster with this site!!!
Did anyone think last nights Nebraska / Michigan game was poorly officiated?
Oh and by the way I know where to find myself on Hoops.com
Who has me penciled in as the Cubs 2006 starting 2B? Anyone have this on their radar? I’ve already sent LaTroy Hawkins a belated F-U card for the holidays, and I have a Delino DeShields and Scoop Jackson voodoo doll tandem in my locker. What else do I need to do to get setup?
None of them darkies live near Wrigleyville, right? They’re all on the South Side picking cotton or something?
Will get the Comments board to the same spot the moran board went
Hey guys, does this mean no death pool for 2006? What the hell did you think I was waiting for??
I love Matt Turvey’s responses to his wonderful NBA postings….yawn. Just another example of how popular the NBA is especially during bowl season, NCAA hoops season and the baseball season….The NBA should cut back to about 50 games during the season…shorten the playoffs and pay those hood rats about $75K for a season…oh wait thats the CBA. Perfect.
Come back Andy! We need you. Hell, I need you. I miss your scent. Your musk. I think after this thing sorts itself out we should get an apartment together.
Whammy!
Did you read in today’s Trib that Hendry is chasing after me? I can’t wait to bat 2nd behind Juan! Hell I’d bat 2nd behind anybody. I’m 39 freaking years old – any job is a good job! I can’t wait to join that second-rate, crappy-ass Cubs team. I’ll feel right at home!
If Andy randomly died, how many days of no columns would it take to conclusively determine that he was gone forever?
Take it easy, Champ. Why don’t you stop talking for awhile.