The Remains of the Day

So, what to make of the names being bandied about? Let's run them down.

Austin Kearns - OPS has crashed since his rookie year. Strikeouts climbing. Injuries also a problem. Only trade a very low cieling prospect for this guy. Mitre or Patterson signly would also be okay. Regardless, Kearns is not a guy to get excited about.

Julio Lugo - In 7 seasons, only 2 seasons with an OBP over .340. That ssaid, his most recent season was a career best .362. Histoically, also a 100+ strikout guy. Would seem to be a decent candidate, but is he really better than Ronny Cedeno? And is he really a leadoff guy?

Aubrey Huff - Long time "Wish Lister"er may be falling off due to his falling off. Last three years: Homers, doubles, walks, OPS steadily decling. Strikeouts rising. Perhaps a Wrigley Resurgance would be possible, but he seems to be a more expensive Kearns now. Not a guy I'd give a lot up for anymore.

Dave Pinto over at Baseballmusings.com suggests that the Cubs might be willing to part with Prior for Bobby Abreu. No bleeping way. Abreu has too many years pilled up on him relative to Prior to make that deal. Or, if they want to include some salary relief and some additional players back for Prior, I might listen. But straight up? No way.

That said, if there's any hope for 2006, it may be sitting in right field in Philidelphia right now. And Oakland's starting rotation (Zito) and Florida's outfield (Pierre).

Perhaps Barry Rozner is correct and it is time to blow this thing up and start over once again. I don't really ahve a problem with that if one thing is taken care of: Jim Hendry is either extended or fired.

You never want to have executives make decisions about the long-term future resources of your company when they know that their ass is on the line based on the next two quarterly reports.

Andy McPhail needs to extend Hendry now, or fire him before Hendry does something really stupid in a vain attempt to save his job.