biittner77

Just noticed that Asiancupid has an age range of 18 to 98. Maybe I can get a mail order bride for my grandfather (He's 104)

Me too. Quit pretending that the 4th linebacker that blitzes every passing down isn't just a small DE. The 3-4 was always an AFC thing too.

Yeah. Like dextermorgan said, we're not using the money on anything else and we have it available, might as well spend a little bit of it on the last bastion of Cubs nostalgia we have to keep the fans happy. I could buy that if Wood was a position player, the closer or even a starting pitcher. Are people really going to go to a game on the chance of seeing Kerry Wood making a relief appearance?

Out of curiosity, other than last year, when did Wood ever give the Cubs a hometown discount? I have nothing against Wood and don't really care one way or the other if he comes back but I don't believe either side really owes the other anything. Wood gave the Cubs a discount last year but he's also made a lot of money by being a member of the Cubs.

Who needs a 1st baseman now that he actually wants to play for that has the money and is willing to give him more than 5 years? A lot can change in a single season. what would be the point of fielder doing this? he's going to get paid this offseason. What if his best offer is 5/ 110 million from a team like the Orioles? He probably takes that but who can say for sure. FAs don't exactly line up to sign with the O's. It would be risky but if a team with money got involved in the bidding it could pay off big time. For example, the Dodgers new owners might feel he's the last piece to the puzzle.

Would it be such a terrible idea for Fielder to sign a one year deal with someone? If he doesn't like any of the deals available, would he really hurt himself that much by signing a short term deal to see who needs a first baseman next season? He'd be all but assured of finishing the season with a contender since whoever signed him would certainly be able to trade him at the deadline if they fell out of the race. Maybe by then a team that can't afford him now frees up enough payroll or has an injury.

I don't understand the question. It's common knowledge that Theo was a RS fan before he was hired by them and I would think it's pretty obvious that Santo and Wood have (had) an emotional attachment to the Cubs. I'm not knocking Theo, I'm just pointing out that he has a job to do with the Cubs and he's doing it without any sentimental attachment with the team. The question is where is your evidence that he'll only act in "all business, no sentiment" terms with the Cubs? Signing Wood is about the only action he's had that would be higher on the sentiment scale than business sense scale and they said a week ago that they would get it done. Unless he's torn Ronnie's flag off the pole, I'm not sure what evidence you've got that he's going to be all cold hearted here. What's the point of this discussion? I think what he's trying to say is that a new boss is not going to be sentimental toward employees that he just met. I didn't see where he said that Epstein will "always" be cold hearted regarding the Cubs. Maybe someday Robert California will be sentimental toward the employees of Dunder Mifflin but he's not likely to be sentimental beginning on day 1.

Which would get them a top 10 draft pick. This was a very peculiar post. Almost as if it were written by two people who disagreed with one another. Yeah, unless you confused the Cubs with the Astros last year I'm not sure where the motivation is for that post. I think a lot of people are confusing the 2012 Cubs with the 2011 Astros. That was supposed to be the point. In restrospect, I would have been better off taking a nap.

71 got us a #6 this year I stopped paying attention in August. I didn't realize just how close the fecal standings were. I should have looked that up first. Nevertheless, If they had won 2 more games that would have put them around 10th. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the Cubs pick outside the top 10 if they hit on any of the low cost lottery tickets they currently have. To get another top 5 ish pick, they'll have to trade everyone or have everyone completely suck. It seems to me that the difference between picking around 5th and picking around 10th is pretty big.

What are the lies people are telling about their ages? I misread people saying they were a 9 with they were 9. Nevermind. My 3 year old was awake all night and I'm not exactly firing on all cylinders.

That's where it's at. You're not creeped out by the serious jailbait potential there?

It seems like a lot of people assume that the Cubs will be so bad next year that they can count on a top 10 draft pick. I'm not so sure that the team, as constructed can't do at least as well as last year's team. The rotation of Gazra, Dempster, Wood, Wells, Volstad, if they stay healthy, should be better than last year's version that forfeited any chance of winning 2 games out of 5. A better rotation should help the pen a lot by not exposing the middle relief as much. No doubt they'll miss Marshall in the late innings but they have options there. The offense will miss Ramirez and it's unlikely his replacement can hope to match his production. Everywhere else the Cubs can do as good if not better. A bounce back season from Soto offsets whatever dropoff from Pena to Lahair/ Rizzo at first. Within the division they should be at least threatening to finish 3rd behind the Reds and whichever of the Cards/ Brewers gets over losing their best hitter. This team, with no other help now moves should finish with about 70 wins.

He intimated that he was too drunk to drive not that he was actually driving drunk. She may very well be a gold digger. I certainly hope so

You've seen all the ads

What is to stop a team from posting a ridiculously high amount just to prevent the player from going to another team, then low-balling the offer because they never intended to spend that much on the player in the first place? They have to pay the posting fee whether they sign him or not. What team would pay $50 million to block another team from getting that player?

The Sharp injury probably increases the price though of whatever they get.

There's a lot of lies being told in this thread. Mostly about how old people were. I'll admit I was about a 7 because I thought that, outside of Bonds, he had virtually nothing else with the Giants but still won games. I also still believed in Hendry at that point. That was back in the Cubs.com days. I don't remember anyone there talking about abusing pitchers. NSBB could just as easily have been called fireDustyBaker.com

Did they ever say what happened to Sharp? Despite the loss, there are a lot of positives to take away from this game. Crawford played well. He had no chance on any of the goals but stopped and more importantly gloved a lot of shots. Frolik didn't look that bad at Center. Bolland was a lot more active than he's been. Hayes and Shaw looked ok.

I think Sappelt is probably a fourth OF. But given the fact we're going nowhere this season I would absolutely love to give him as many PA as possible so he can prove me wrong. works for me. of course, soriano needs to go away to make that happen (assuming that the cubs aren't going to bench an $18m player) He could be the short half of a platoon with DeJesus if they hadn't signed Johnson.

I'd argue the problem for the Orioles right now is a) Some of their young arms have really faltered and have serious concerns (Matusz/Tillman). They had four young arms they were looking forward to ... right now, of that foursome (the aforementioned duo and Britton/Arrieta), they look to have 1 good starter, 1 inconsistent starter, and 2 gigantic question marks. No team should ever realistically hope that 4/4 top prospect arms should hit, but it sure feel like they expected 3 of them to. b) A relatively weak system. A couple stud guys in Dylan Bundy and Manny Machado, but really, this system is pretty bad right now. There's Schoop, a whole bunch of folks from this draft class (which doesn't look that great), Bobby Bundy. c) (and why I responded) A lack of quality trade chips/trade chips they over-value. I'm not sure too many teams are going to fork over the quality assets that the Orioles believe they should get for Nick Markakis and Jeremy Guthrie, but the Orioles aren't moving them unless it's a quality return. Markakis' power decline has a lot of folks alarmed, and he's signed down for fairly big money (3/42 left with an additional option year at 17.5 or a 3 mil buyout). Guthrie's a Randy Wells/Chris Volstad/Travis Wood level pitcher masquerading as an ace and not exactly cheap. Brian Roberts is an injury prone 2nd baseman now, past his prime, and still locked down for 2/20. Reynolds is Mark Reynolds, a poor fieldng slugger. One of the few guys they should trade (only 2 years until FA) is Adam Jones. Jones, though, is a tough guy to value. Orioles look at him as an emerging stud, while a lot of folks look at his as a poor fielding, questionable discipline guy. They want elite chips ... I'm not sure teams are going to give elite chips for him. Good, perhaps. One guy I would move, if I were them, is JJ Hardy, but I doubt they'll do so. I don't know if he can replicate the offensive season he just had, so this might be peak sell time. If they're really worried about Markakis, I'll gladly do a Markakis for Soriano + $10-$15 million trade. Somehow I don't think they're that worried. It's not the Orioles that are worried, it's everyone else. In a salary swap type deal for Markakis, the O's would probably want McNutt, Vitters, Soriano and probably someone else + enough money to come out equal. Basically way more than he's worth.

That's disappointing, if true. Winning games does wonders for team chemistry. I suppose it can't hurt. It just seems more Hendryish than smart. What if he asks the players, they all say get rid of him but then he can't find a taker?

But I love fried chicken and beer.

I don't particularly like the move, but I don't think Theo did this to be cowardly, or blame the Cubs' past suckiness on anyone. Based on his comments he sought advice from nearly everyone close to the situation and made an informed decision. Even though I don't care for the move, I like the willingness to call it what it is. I meant the players, who supposedly kept telling him Zambrano can't come back. Guys like Wood, Dempster..., who's left on this team now? Oops, looks like I misread it. I agree to some extent, but if they asked for the player's opinion and the player gives them an opinion, isn't it up to Theo to sift through what is reasonable and what is just sour grapes? Why ask the player's opinion?

Again, I don't see why anyone would be shocked at someone taking on Soriano who can still mash lefties if it only costs them around 5 mil over 3 years and something like a Chris Volstad. The O's are in desperate need of some publicity, I'd love to see Duquette jump on this move. I really do not care who the get in return. This isn't Sammy Sosa we're talking about here. Just a guy who can still do an OK job of hitting a baseball and throwing it from the outfield to home plate, occasionally managing to catch it when it's hit toward him. I would mostly agree. The qualifier comes from the fact that Soriano had that one good year for the Nationals and that might stand out more in people's minds locally than the reality of what he's done for the Cubs since then. The casual O's fans around here still think Soriano isn't that bad. If they got him really cheap it could create some buzz which would be better than never hearing about the Orioles ever which is what it's come to lately.

I was watching American Pickers and the tall guy has a saying "The time to buy something cool is when you see it." I realize that signing Fielder may not put the Cubs over the top right away but when will the Cubs have the chance again to get that talented a player without having to do anything but spend money?