Congrats to Jim Hendry

Going into the winter meetings, Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry had 3 priorities.

1. Get a lefty hitter, preferably a power hitting RF.

2. Find someone to take Jason Marquis off his hands and give that team money to help with the deal.

3. Finish the trade with the San Diego Padres and strengthen your rotation by getting Jake Peavy.

After 4 days in Las Vegas and daily teasing with trade rumors, Hendry left Vegas for Chicago with none of things accomplished.

Sure he laid some groundwork for that hitter by having conversations with Milton Bradley on becoming that RF, but Friday morning, word came down that Raul Ibanez took a 3 year, $30 million dollar deal from the Philadelphia Phillies to play LF for them. I'm not that torn up about it since Ibanez would have been a poor choice for RF because of his defense, but at the
same time, its another potential RF off the market. Will Hendry be able to get Bradley or will someone else swoop in and grab in.

As far as Marquis goes, its going to be hard to find someone who will take Marquis' deal, even if the Cubs throw in some cash to go along with it. There was talk that the New York Mets were sniffing around Marquis, but with them trading potential Cubs targets Scott Schoeneweis and Aaron Heilman in separate deals this week, I'm not sure the Cubs will be able to matchup on a deal.

As for the cocktease that was a potential Peavy deal, there is always that possibility that the talks can be rekindled, but at this point, you have to believe that unless the Padres stop asking for 6 or 7 players in a potential deal, you have to imagine that Hendry is going to stay away. And while I understand why, you have to wonder if making the deal would have been the right move. Mortgaging the future is never a great move, but with window for the Cubs winning a World Series only a few years, can you wait for players like Josh Vitters to be ready?

So where do the Cubs go from here? Bradley seems to be the priority for their RF vacancy, but does one wonder if maybe Hendry might touch base again with the Baltimore Orioles to see if Brian Roberts might be available and maybe get the Cubs a leadoff hitter and move DeRosa to RF? Talks for Peavy will probably not be revived unless Marquis gets moved and even then
it probably won't happen.

As far as the Chicago White Sox go, I sometimes wonder if Kenny Williams was even in Vegas or if he just sat by the pool everyday. None of the players that he would need to move to help lower the payroll was even talked about, except Jermaine Dye and the rumor for him was killed before the meetings ever began. Does Williams have any irons in the fire? I guess we'll see.