CubinNY

He's tall, has good hands, and runs good routs. I'm not so sure about his speed though. I think a lot depends on what ND does this year and how often they get him the ball. But all the hype and PR ND generates here on the East Coast will likely increase his percieved value. Unless he gets hurt or starts dropping passes I don't see him slipping. [stephan A Smith voice] Quite frankly, I think this was a wasted pick and wasted money. [/stephen A Smith voice] Jack McKeon was known as "Trader Jack" when he was GM of the Reds. I think Hendry should be known as "Long Shot Jim" To me at least, Sammy NEEDS to pick one sport. Football or baseball. There is an old saying, "if you try and chase two rabbits, you end up not catching either," some crap like that. In other words...pick a sport, and concentrate on it. I'm willing to bet that both the Raiders and the Royals were equally frustrated with Bo Jackson, and his indecision to pick one sport to excell at. Weiss is correct, there is no possible way for him to play two sports at the professional level. Football is the safest bet and most lucrative avenue. I cannot be objective as I 1) Hate ND with a red hot passion that only those who grew up in "Michiana" can appreciate and 2) Love the Cubs with a red hot passion that not many outside of NSBB can appreciate. It would be a no brainer for me. I'd play baseball. BTW, do you still live in Prattville AL? My wife is from there and her parents still live there.

Finally someone who accepts it for what it is. Now, I just proved my original point pages back that Elia is getting too much credit and Cubs coaching is getting too much blame because he hasn't made any big improvements as a hitter; he's just slightly improved to mediocrity and started going for bunts and infield hits more and possibly refined some of his running techniques or workouts to increase baserunning ability and speed. That's not your point at all.

He's tall, has good hands, and runs good routs. I'm not so sure about his speed though. I think a lot depends on what ND does this year and how often they get him the ball. But all the hype and PR ND generates here on the East Coast will likely increase his percieved value. Unless he gets hurt or starts dropping passes I don't see him slipping. [stephan A Smith voice] Quite frankly, I think this was a wasted pick and wasted money. [/stephen A Smith voice] Jack McKeon was known as "Trader Jack" when he was GM of the Reds. I think Hendry should be known as "Long Shot Jim"

I'm not buying your argument that his numbers are lower than Jacque's because of the division he plays in. Giles has played a whole 2 games in Dodger Stadium, 2 in AT&T Park, and 3 in Chase Field for a combined 32 at bats, and he has 11 hits in those 32 at bats (about a .340 average). Oh, and he has an OPS over 1300 in both AT&T Park and Chase Field. And I don't think I need to mention Coors Field. The bottomline is that Jacque Jones has outproduced the much wanted Brian Giles. For half the cost. Can we at least wait until the 3/4 of the season is over to proclaim JJ a good buy. He's been doing well but the season isn't eve half over yet.

Sadly, the Cubs are not one or two players away from contention. They are @ 1/3 of a team away from contention. Tinkering here or there won't make this team good for this year or next. In fact, it's what Hendry has done for the past 3 years with very limited success. And the free-agent class is once again filled with overpriced aging veterans who likely won't perform up to contract. They should sell whatever they can to try to improve toward the future. This includes Zambrano, Prior, Lee, and anyone else. Now that doesn't mean they should dump them for just anything. The offers would have to be equal to or greater than the tallent for players like Lee and Zambrano and some of the top prospects. If that is the case, I don't see any of them to likely be traded. Barrett is an adequate catcher who is an above average hitter for a catcher. He is a premium stock for his position, they should get premium return for him. Guys like Jones, Pierre, or any of the middle relievers probably aren't going to get the Cubs much, but if the right offer comes they should make the deal. Closer is the most over-valued commidity in baseball, still. I imagine Dempster would fetch some premium talent. Regardless, with the current decision makers on the North Side I'm not real confident about any choice they make.

...sell, sell, sell.

And for a fraction of the price of Slappy Daddy 4-3 (it's his rap name).

He had Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling. And a juiced Luis Gonzalez. And Mariano Riveria botching an easy comebacker DP. When I listen Brenly "stratigize" during the games, I am fairly confident that he would be a worse manager than Dusty. He wanted to bunt to first for five innings to see if Edmonds can play first. Brenly has said many stupid things in the year and a half or so as color man, but that wasn't one of them. He only kept saying that because the Cubs were too stupid to ever try. No that was a stupid idea.

He had Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling. And a juiced Luis Gonzalez. And Mariano Riveria botching an easy comebacker DP. When I listen Brenly "stratigize" during the games, I am fairly confident that he would be a worse manager than Dusty. He wanted to bunt to first for five innings to see if Edmonds can play first.

Ques Teck is just an excuse. The last time MLB reported data, it showed that the Umpires gave the correct call @ 90% of the time. It's a fiction of Burhle's imagination. I really can't understand why this gets into the pitchers' head. The absence or presence of Ques Tech has nothing to do with Burhle's pitch counts. I wonder if anyone has bothered to look up his home/road (non Ques Tech venues) PCs, walks, and hits to see if there are any discrepencies. Even if there are discrepencies it could be do to reactivity (knowing Ques Teck is present).

That's right. Companies can prepare the books however they want for managing the business internally; GAAP applies only to reporting to outsiders. So a business could really have three sets of books; one for reporting to shareholders, one for tax reporting, and one for managing the business internally. It's not legal to intentionally mislead the public. An outside auditor (if doing their job properly) would not sign off misleading financial statements; an auditor has to express an opinion on whether the financial statements fairly reflect the business's operating results and financial position. Plus' date=' under Sarbanes-Oxley the company's CEO and CFO must certify, under penalty of law, that the financial statements are not knowingly misleading. As far as the IRS is concerned, the issue is simply whether the company has fully reported its revenue and is legitimately entitled to deduct the expenses they have. As long as the revenue and expenses have been reported in compliance with the tax code, the company's obligation is merely to pay the lowest amount of taxes they are required to pay by law. Deducting expenses in order to reduce the tax liability is perfectly acceptable as long as the tax code (or related IRS guidelines or court rulings) permit the deduction. If not, then it's tax evasion, which can result in fines and/or jail time.. In fact, tax evasion is how Al Capone and other gangsters of that time were caught. It could never be proven that they engaged in illegal activities (even though everybody knew they were), but it could be proven that they received income that they didn't report on their tax returns. By using tax evasion to get them, it only had to be proven that they had income that wasn't reported; it wasn't necessary to prove how they got the income. Test tomorrow. :D[/quote'] Thanks professor. Next question. Do you think MLB teams (or any professional team) intentionally mislead the public when they report earnings. If so, how much do you think the Trib makes on the Cubs? Do you think they can sustain $130 million 25 man roster? I know a lot about behavior but next to nothing about the world of high finance.

Randomness in baseball or life in general is very small. There is always a small bit of chance it won't happen, but pitchers who walk batters consistently have high ERAs and airplanes don't fall out of the sky for no reason at all. Numbers show patterns and trends. To base baseball decision on hunches, feels, and guts is not the way to win. As with most things, there is truth on both sides of this issue. High OBP is always good, but it's better if most of the time it's in the context of a team rally, which is of itself random. Get more high-OBP guys on the same team, there is less randomness. Quality starts usually correlate closely with wins, but it's the randomness of when you throw them that makes a huge difference in W-L results. Compare Zambrano or Sean Marshall with Jason Marquis. That's not ture at all. Randomness is chance or luck. Over the course of 160 games luck plays a very limted role in who makes the playoffs and who doesn't. Randomness is a convient excuse for why things don't happen the way we want them too. The Cubs aren't bad becuase the gods hate them or because of chance, they're bad becuase their numbers indicate it is so. And using wins as a metric for starting pitchers becme usless around the time of Rolly Fingers.

It's not only legal, but in some cases necessary to keep separate books for tax purposes vs. reporting to shareholders. For example, the method most companies use to depreciate assets for tax purposes (MACRS) is not acceptable for reporting to hhareholders because the write-off is too fast (an asset may really have a 10-year life, which would be the required write-off period for reporting to shareholders, but be depreciated over 7 years under the tax law). Requirements for reporting to shareholders are based on generally accepted accounting principles, which are developed mainly by the Financial Accounting Standards Board with input from the SEC, while reporting for tax purposes is governed by the tax code and IRS regulations. The two frequently contradict each other, requiring two sets of books. Sorry for the accounting class, but I am a university accounting professor. Class dismissed. :D Thanks for information. Can companies intentionally mislead the public/IRS and have it be legal?

I can't imagine a Fortune 500 company would keep 2 sets of books in them in this day and age. With the Enrons and World Coms getting busted, the risk is far to great to do this and expect to get away with it. And also, what would the motivation be for doing this? What could possible be worth destroying an enormous company? You are wrong about that, many companies keeps 2 sets of books for internal and external reporting. There are no laws that state companies can only have 1 set of records. The reason for this is for tax reasons and shareholder reporting. When the company is reporting there taxes they want to record things in a way to limit their net income to pay as little taxes as possible. This mainly deals with how a company defers income or depreciates assets to lower net income on a yearly bases. For obvious reason, the company would not want to report these same figures to its shareholders. I don't know if keeping two sets of accounting records is illegal or not, but your company should be reported to the IRS and the CFO should be brought up on charges. I'm sure the stockholders want to hear the most accurate information possible as does Uncle Sam.

Randomness in baseball or life in general is very small. There is always a small bit of chance it won't happen, but pitchers who walk batters consistently have high ERAs and airplanes don't fall out of the sky for no reason at all. Numbers show patterns and trends. To base baseball decision on hunches, feels, and guts is not the way to win.

How "this" has not already been bumped out of the lineup is beyond me. I understand they have enough firepower to make up for his deficiencies, but he has been absolutely horrible. Ouch, those numbers are Pierre like.

In a three game series I wouldn't think the potential hands of stone defense would matter that much. I'd rather have the bat. But at the same time, in a three game series how much is Thome going to out produce whomever is in left for the Sox? I have no idea as I don't really follow the Sox

Wow that seems like a lot. And yet is probably not enough. Plus Aramis makes a lot of money.

How would he lose money!!?? We've got so many revenue streams. Last year the Cubs had @ $100 million dollar team and they made @ 5 or 6 million in profit. You do the math. Those are figures reported by the Cubs, right? No, that's a best guess from Forbes reported profit from 2001. But more to the point, money is not what is holding the Cubs back.

How would he lose money!!?? We've got so many revenue streams. Last year the Cubs had @ $100 million dollar team and they made @ 10 million in profit. You do the math.

Cuban may like to win, but the Chicago market cannot sustain a $130 million dollar team. First and foremost Cuban is a business man. And from all reports a pretty smart business man. He'll want to win but not at the cost of losing millions of dollars. That is just foolish.

If he would grow back that mustache I'd like him much better.

If the Cubs retain Vaughn Joshua I am confident that his flaws can be corrected. Uusally I don't worry about swings at this point. If he has good enough # to consider being drafted high in the draft then he has the raw talent to make adjustments. What worries me more is plate discipline. IMO, controlling the strike zone is the hardest skill to learn. That written, I agree with everything DDS wrote.

Kiley is not very happy with the Cubs. It's a good thing he doen't work for the Trib.

'Twasn't in a mocking way, it just reminded me of my dad. Even with the Cardinals, he's an eternal pessimist. It's funny, and that response to Carlos Lee was something he would say about anyone the Cardinals would acquire. I can't wait to be a Cubs fan have the same sunny disposition when it comes to my team. :) A pessimistic Cardinals fan? Not possible. The only thing less believable would be a pessimistic Yankees fan. Actually, many Yankee fans are not only pessimistic but prone to panic attacks at two game losing streaks. Then they dream up outrageous trade proposals becuase, well everyone wants to play for the Yankees.