Machado Traded - Why?

[SmedIndy]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0320/1355181.html

The Cubs traded C Robert Machado to the Brewers.


First question is, why?

Second question is, does this mean Hundley and Girardi are in it for the long haul?

Third question is, why?


:confuse2:

[Rajah]

to get rid of the logjam at catcher

do you think any team in their right mind would take girardi or hundley off the cubs hands? At the salary rate they are getting that is. (I'm sure there is some dumb gm out there who would)

Seriously though smed, the cubs have been trying for 2 weeks to dump machado. They just wanted to carry hundley and girardi, for some godawful reason. Its been in the papers up here.

[Pilgrim]

For what it's worth, a good friend of mine used to live near Joe Girardi when Joe played with the Yankees and still keeps in touch with him.

Apparently, during the off-season, there were very serious talks about bringing Joe back to the Yankees to back up Posada and be a good luck charm, but the issue was salary.

By the way, did you know that Girardi named his infant son after his favorite teammate -- Dante Bichette? (And no, the kid isn't named "Fonzie").

All the more sign that Pudge will be a Cub next year (he makes more sense, of course, for the Cardinals, but that would ruin The Unmentionable One's Grand Master Plan of Evil that involves using a different catcher every day of the week when they are not playing center field).

[Duque]

The Brewers also had to place Bako on the DL, right?

[sweaver]

It's the Cubs and the Brewers. Why are you expecting it to make sense?

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by Rajah
Seriously though smed, the cubs have been trying for 2 weeks to dump machado. They just wanted to carry hundley and girardi, for some godawful reason. Its been in the papers up here.

:( :bigcry: :broken: :shakehd: :ashamed: :help: :rip: :snail:

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by Pilgrim
All the more sign that Pudge will be a Cub next year (he makes more sense, of course, for the Cardinals, but that would ruin The Unmentionable One's Grand Master Plan of Evil that involves using a different catcher every day of the week when they are not playing center field).

No, the Cubs probably would sign Brett Mayne and Chad Kreuter for next year....though if I-Rod would be of a reasonable price he wouldn't be a bad pickup. (Or if he'd learn to play third...better than Johnny Bench did...so he could catch just 110 to 120 games and save himself.)

[Pilgrim]

Ahhhhhh, but Smed, the Cubs need to add to their "too late!" collection of one-time All-Stars so that Pudge can trade DL stories with Alou.

And, incidentally, it's BRENT Mayne. :p

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by Pilgrim
Ahhhhhh, but Smed, the Cubs need to add to their "too late!" collection of one-time All-Stars so that Pudge can trade DL stories with Alou.

And, incidentally, it's BRENT Mayne. :p

So I mistyped. I can blame it on the baby. Or the wife. Or the Dream Syndicate song playing on my computer....
:rolleyes:

The sad thing is that McGriff is tragically healthy and playing like diddly-poo.

See, Girardi will keel over every day. He's as old as the character Arte Johnson played on Laugh - In that always chased Ruth Buzzi. And Hundley's fully krausened (sp?), like Old Style...

[Rajah]

Don't forget-Cubs have a few more years of the great, the mighty, Todd Hundley

And any team who signs IRod for more than 1 or 2 mil per is making a big mistake IMHO.

I pray that the Braves do not make that mistake. We've already got Javy "can't hit" Lopez and Henry "I think I'm clutch" Blanco

[gyb13]

Smed, you had 3 bad catchers. Now you have 2 bad catchers. What's the problem?

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by gyb13
Smed, you had 3 bad catchers. Now you have 2 bad catchers. What's the problem?

They gave up the least bad, and kept the worst of the lot.

Hundley's done, sorry to say.

[cubfan33]

We had three catchers and clearly didn't need them ...

1. Hundley - can't cut him - or rather, McPhail won't. His contract is among the all-time bad ones.

2. Girardi - the best of a bad lot. He's a "clubhouse leader" which really doesn't matter. He works well with Prior, which does matter.

3. Machado - out of options so trading him made some sense. I know next to nothing about Melian, other than he was a touted Yankee prospect.

Ideally, the Cubs would be rid of all of them, but that won't happen. Why they won't give Mellhuse a try is beyond me. I can't imagine Ivan in Wrigley will happen. A guy like Gregg Zaun would make a TON of sense.

[ChicagoDave]

Once again, I am being teased by what I hope the Cubs are trying to set up. I would love to see I-Rod here is Chicago.

I don't believe it will happen. ...Maybe he will come to Chicago the same way Dawson did...

What ever happened to Pat Cline?

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by ChicagoDave
What ever happened to Pat Cline?

Same thing that happened to almost every prospect from the early to mid 90's....