Soooo, after 14 years and MILLIONS of dollars, they finally get a role that Wood can contribute in and they let him walk so they can trade for Kevin Gregg?

What a bunch of BULLSHIT!

they finally get a role that Wood can contribute in and they let him walk so they can trade for Kevin Gregg?

I think the plan all along is to let Marmol close.

Better not fuck up the 2 draft picks by drafting 2nd basemen.

So we’ll likely have 6 picks before the end of the secound round in the June draft? After seeing some of the names Wilken has left on the board for some of the names he’s selected, I’m not as happy about that as I would have been.

I like Vitters, but wouldn’t we rather have Porcello, Travis Snider over Tyler Colvin and any number of players in this year’s first round over Cashner and Flaherty?

They didn’t trade Wood for Gregg.

They traded Wood and Ceda for Gregg, two draft picks and a few million dollars.

didn’t that guy blow last year?

Fixed.

Gregg had a terrible August, but every other month was an ERA below 3.

So we’ll likely have 6 picks before the end of the secound round in the June draft? After seeing some of the names Wilken has left on the board for some of the names he’s selected, I’m not as happy about that as I would have been.

I like Vitters, but wouldn’t we rather have Porcello, Travis Snider over Tyler Colvin and any number of players in this year’s first round over Cashner and Flaherty?

Yea, I remember wanting the Cubs to draft Porcello.

CAIRO projections Gregg and Wood to be almost equal to one another next year.

Dierkes mentioned that Gregg was suffering from a knee injury during Aug.

I didn’t see that.  I don’t think there’s any doubt Wood is the better pitcher, but he’s not so much better to justify spending the additional money and keeping Jose Ceda.

I didn’t see that.  I don’t think there’s any doubt Wood is the better pitcher, but he’s not so much better to justify spending the additional money and keeping Jose Ceda.

Definitely agree.  Letting Wood go might mean bringing in Furcal, Giles, or someone else while signing Dempster and trading for Peavy.

I predict the cubs are about to do something that requires a significant amount of salary, or that they have been shut down by the tribune and are going to need to be creative.

the wood move(s) make sense as long as gregg doesn’t blow, but it doesn’t foot to anything hendry has done over the last 2 years.  i am somewhat worried about this.  the peavy talk may just be cover, or doable because they just would drop demp/wood.

i worry that the trib has shut them down.  i will relax when they sign someone like lowe.

Hopefully it’s the Rangers that sign Wood.  That’d be a decent pick in the draft.

The D-backs need a closer bad and Wood lives in Phoenix during the off season. Done deal.

Wood will sign with whoever offers him the most money.

I think we can offer this up as further proof that Yellon is not only full of shit but not privy to any inside info either.

Did Yellon say the Cubs were going to sign Wood or something?

Did Yellon say the Cubs were going to sign Wood or something?

Yea, pretty much. He’s just been dancing around the bullshit that this minions lap up, you know…....

“Loves the city, wife’s from here, involved in the community”

Not sure if his “source” told him directly, but as far as I can tell he was somewhat convinced that Wood would be back. Dempster as well, but that kind of just goes along with Al’s typical offseason mantra that the Cubs will generally resign all of their FA’s.

Al is a fucking idiot. He is never right about anything, and yet still manages to be 100% sure about each new claim he makes.

But like every other rumor he is going to avoid the thread that announces he was wrong.  LIke the Kerry Wood thread today he won’t show up until someone specifically mentions Al and/or his supposed source.  The man suffers from some serious narcissism.

I hate to see Wood leave. But these are moves that ballclubs that are concerned with staying at a high level of play have to make. Marmol is clearly ready to close and Kerry Wood is ready for a HUGE payday. The Cubs were not ready to pay him. With the addition of Gregg and another arm they can rebuild their bullpen pretty quickly on the fly. In the meantime the bullpen gets younger and cheaper. From a business perspective this makes sense. 

As far as Dempster goes, I would like to see the Cubs let him walk out the door too. He’s coming off a career year and whatever he gets is going to be more than he is worth. Pitchers like Lowe or Burnett would be just as good if not better options for 2009.

I think the Cubs backing away from giving Wood a big pay raise shows you that they may be starting to realize the economic realities of 2009 are going to be. I know it was mentioned by Levine that the Cub payroll would be near $150 M. I don’t think that is reality. I think the payroll will be right around $125 or $130M.

Tough time for the tribune company, they have some big loans coming due this year and early next, close to about one billion $...  news paper industry struggles to overcome historic lows in advertising revenue…  Has to effect every part of the trib holdings, including the Cubs.  Still from a personal standpoint, I appreciate what Kerry did for Chicago, a good guy..  From an organizational point of view, had to be done for financial reasons i guess.  Cubs still have options for the bullpen.  Still more work to be done, I hope, from Hendry.  Private ownership from San D. going through divorce, Corporate ownership cutting back because of economic times.

“Nothing is close,” he said. “I wouldn’t say we are even remotely close to pulling the trigger on anything with Jake.”

That’s from Kevin Towers

Solid trade. Pleased.

Sad to see Wood gone on one hand, on the other I am relieved that he’s finally gone. Little chance he makes it through the next big contract without breaking down for a significant period of time. One less thing to worry about going forward.

Like someone said above, this is what smart teams do. Can’t get hung up on names. Gotta do what’s best for the organization. Gregg will likely be just as good for millions less and Marmol is ready.

Cubs just saved money and got better.

Zambrano = Silver Slugger

I think the economy isn’t going to affect MLB for another year or two.

Contracts might be shorter in length, number of years…  But I think your right, regarding the size of the yearly contract.

You had it all Kerry, but you wanted the cash. You will never be the same. Were going to have to do this without you pal. Your choice. —BCB moron, who else?

I hate them so fucking much. Not only is that comment dumb, its simply inaccurate. Wood played for fucking peanuts and — knowing that his arm hasn’t been reliable — wants the long term deal, probably the last of his career. Who the fuck can blame him?

I’m as bummed as anyone to see him go. He had balls the size of lake michigan the whole time he was a Cub and has been on more productive Cub teams than any Cub in my lifetime and probably in the last 100 years. But this decision makes perfect sense.

It’s the only decision Wood could make.  He’s played for under market value for years and probably even would have re-signed for a hometown discount this offseason.  It’s nice of Jim Hendry to tell Wood to go sign that huge deal, one the Cubs wouldn’t make.  He’s earned it.  Any fan that sees it any differently is a fucking moron.

What a tremendous move!
The emotional-fan part of me that is attached to the players, hates this move as Kerry Wood is probably my favorite Cub of all time and i’ll be sad to see him go.

But this was the smart thing to do, and the fact that the Cubs did it despite Wood being a fan favorite speaks volumes about the direction of this franchise.

It does.  I just mentioned over on WV23 that I think his may in fact be the smartest move I’ve seen the Cubs make from a player personnel standpoint in my lifetime.  This is just such a good move for a team that could use that extra $6-8 million and really has no use for Ceda at this point.

Not to mention the draft picks (which have been mentioned upthread from here).

If the Cubs play this right they can be well on their way to improving their farm system by this time next year.  2 picks for Woody, 2 for Dempster.  I’d offer arbitration to Howry.  Not likely he’d accept and if he did, well, you could always get rid of him before the season starts and not have to pay but one-sixth of the salary.  That’s 5 draft picks.  Figure in this scenario the Cubs sign Lowe and Furcal, they still have 3 extra draft picks before the 2nd round.

The cynical baseball mind in me says this was a great trade.  The romantic baseball fan in me says this is a bummer.

I heard Hendry on ESPN 1000, a replay of his interview earlier, and he talked about how this prevents rushing Samardzija into the set-up role. 

Marmol is our closer, Gregg our set-up guy.  Samardzija is probably not going to be a starter yet.  I have to say, that’s a pretty good 7-8-9 at a pretty good price.

HP, have you done any pitchf/x work on Gregg?  I looked around your site, but couldn’t find any.

About $5 million! 

That’s a steal

Samardzija is a reliever for the foreseeable future.

Well, Hendry did mention him being a starter or reliever at some point, but I think the relief role will come later.  The guy needs more time to improve his secondary pitches.  His two-seamer, on the other hand, is just fine.

done any pitchf/x work on Gregg?

I’m doing it now, actually.

Jeremy Papelbon may turn out to be better than a lot of people expected.

I’m not so sure, his walk totals are pretty high in Hawaii, although I think he’s improving.  He’s behind Esmalin Caridad and Jose Ascanio by a couple years, IMO.  Ascanio has only walked one guy so far in VZ (last I looked) and Caridad has also sported a nice K:BB ratio.  Caridad seems much better in relief than as a starter, based on the limited data available, his time in Japan (2 games) and the Dominican (rest of that season) included.

I figured I’d be really down when Wood left, but it happened under circumstances that impress me so I’m more happy than down about it.  I knew the right decision was letting him go, but he’s been one of my favorite players for awhile.  I just can’t get over that this is a Cubs team making this kind of decision.  3 years ago this does not happen.

I will be more impressed by letting Wood go if they let Dempster walk with him.  I heard Hendry on the radio this afternoon and he said they are still optimistic about getting a deal done with Dempster.  I don’t understand how he fails to see that it doesn’t make sense to overpay Demp.  I’m only sad to see Wood go based on sentiment and also disappointed if this makes it more likely they re-sign Dempster.

Gregg’s got some interesting off-speed stuff.  A slider, and a fastball (with the rare cutter or two-seamer, or data errors, who knows) plus a couple change/splitter type pitches. 

He throws hard, consistently above 90, occasionally over 95.  The offspeed stuff and the slider are all in the low/mid 80s.

More later, I’m going to hunt for scouting reports and maybe check out some video.

Ryan Dempster is a better pitcher in overall value than Kerry Wood at this point. I don’t see why this confuses people.

I love this move. It’s a very shrewd maneuver by Hendry, to get better while freeing up some cash, and garnering a couple draft picks. Good business, that.

Sucks to see Kerry go, but this is the nature of the game.

I agree, Colin.  I think the whole career year thing throws people off.  People seem to think after a career year players go back to what they did before, but the reasonable expectations have changed and he’s likely to be much better than we would have thought last year. 

I have no problem with the cubs re-signing Dempster.  I’d prefer they sign Lowe, but I don’t have an issue with a 4/50 or even a 4/60 deal for dempster.

I love this move. It’s a very shrewd maneuver by Hendry, to get better while freeing up some cash, and garnering a couple draft picks. Good business, that.

I’m shouldn’t be surprised that people disagree with that, but it still does surprise me.  I don’t know why.  This is a good move.

Peavy is still relatively cheap in 2009.  If you signed the other 2 they would be a lot more expensive.

Unless you can foist Fukudome and/or Marquis on some poor soul.

He really sounded like part of the reason they let Woody go was so they could re-sign Dempster.

Makes sense.  I really did expect the Cubs to sign Dempster today if they were going to bring him back though.