Rob

Pass

I wish. I'd have a 30 HR lead over my opponent thanks to Vlad and Pujols.

Sweet. Since Vlad (and Pujols) are on my fantasy team, I think I should get credit for all their dingers tonight in the league. I'd feel pretty confident about my chances.

I got sick and tired of listening to this thing. How many did Vlad hit in the final round?

Steve Stone could be there with them, talking about how the pitcher should throw a slider low and away. (Note: I like Stoney... but that's all he friggin talks about.)

This is disgusting. If they don't just let Kenny Mayne call the whole thing from the kayak, I think I'm gonna have to go to hospital for jackass poisoning.

QFT ARod has easily been the best player in the AL. The only other player that even has a case is Magglio, but that's it.

I had to go with Hanley. He's hitting just about as well as anybody in the league, stealing bases at a decent clip, staying healthy, and playing solid defense at a position on the far left of the fielding spectrum... where that bat looks even more amazing.

Joe Morgan just tried to knock the rock with that chicken.

I'm laughing too hard to come up with a witty comment.

I'm sorry but Hendry deserves more credit than this. Plus its pretty clear they want someone with defensive abilites over offensive. Correction: Jim Hendry wanted somebody with more defensive abilities than offensive. Being as fickle as he is, he's gonna love this plan until we lose 7 of 10 after our new catchers can't capitalize at the plate in close games. Jim Hendry flip flops more often than a Russian gymnist. You really think he'll stick with this plan once the first few signs of failure inevitably start to show? I'll grant, it's much more likely he brings up Soto and cuts bait on Hill. But I see zero chance that Hill/Bowen is our catching tandem for the rest of the year.

Why on earth would the commish have anything to say about it? He only bitches about paying over slot for draft picks... and understandably so, considering the talent we got in the 06 draft without having a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th round pick. At any rate, we have holes at C, SS, and CF right now, plus the potential to upgrade in RF. At C, only Salty and Piazza are really available. Salty wont be much of an impact bat this year, and considering Piazza's defensive woes, we'd probably be better off just bringing up Soto. At SS, there's really nothing available unless the Yankees fall way out of it this month. Even at that, I don't see Jim ponying up for Arod unless he gets him to agree to waive his opt-out. Again, most likely upgrade is just bringing up Cedeno. In CF, Pie could turn it on and be a real impact player, but it seems likely he's a year away from being truly ready. Unfortunately, most teams with trade-candidate CFers are in the races right now. Andruw Jones, Ichiro, Torii Hunter, Eric Byrnes, Mike Cameron... all those guys are in the playoff hunt. And I don't see Jimbo trading for a guy with more than one year left on his contract simply to avoid blocking Pie. In RF, Cliff Floyd is hitting well enough but is severely lacking power. Jermaine Dye, Ken Griffey Jr., and Bobby Abreu have all been made available. And there's always the chance we could play Adam Dunn out of position in RF. I guess the point is that we aren't going to be able to acquire a real impact bat for the positions we currently have black holes at... so if we do manage to get an impact player, it's not gonna be as useful as it could be.

I could see Jim making up for his stupid decision by making a dumber one... like bringing in Piazza (who no longer has a place in Oakland with the emergence of Jack Cust)

Molina isn't a plus defensive or offensive catcher anymore, and he's expensive. Does it sound like something Jim Hendry would do? Yeah... but that's hardly a reason to get behind the idea.

From Baseball Prospectus' Playoff Odds Report, the Cubs have a 21.11332% chance to win the NL Central, and a 16.74729% chance to win the Wild Card, which leads to a agreggate playoff chance of 37.86060%

We could fix SS and C just by bringing up Cedeno and Soto. But we wont do that.

Neifi was a demigod with a bat for almost a solid month. Yuck. Really? I don't remember that. I still stand by my opinion, however that Neifi was a decent 25th man. The problem was that he was used more that a 25th man should be used. When Neifi first showed up with the Cubs, for 23 games at the end of the 2004 season, he hit .371/.400/.548.

We have a $70 million payroll. It's not great, but it's not awful either. Narron needed to be fired about a month ago. It's about time. He was by far the worst manaer in baseball. Buddy Bell, Grady Little, Clint Hurdle. Buddy Bell does a pretty nice job of keeping pitch counts down. He hurts his team's chances at scoring runs, but at least he isn't sabotaging them down the road. He's a decent enough placeholder.

Well it's fairly obvious he didn't make any moves explicitly because of the situation, but he does have a legitimate gripe that he made non-moves because he had Braun. I think you should probably poll your league owners to see if anybody made any offers involving a 3B that he passed on because he liked Braun.

On the plus side of things, this makes it easier to finally get ready and leave. I'm meeting friends an hour away in an hour and 20 mins.

If yesterday is any indication, this is a good sign.

Cubs are 5-2 this season when I eat Kraft Spiderman Macaroni and Cheese before a game. Yeah, I'm 22. 8-[

I got three hours of sleep last night and had a test this morning... so I am completely freaking drained. I'll be happy if I make it through the entire game.

It took most of my energy just to be as excited reading this as you were writing it. I'm all tapped out now. Sorry.

To answer all the questions about how I managed to get this team... I traded: Kelly Johnson and Gary Sheffield for Dan Uggla and Lance Berkman Carlos Guillen and Jered Weaver for Bill Hall (bad trade, I know... but I had to get Bill Hall to set up the next trade) Alex Gordon, Bill Hall, Jake Peavy, Ben Sheets, and Trevor Hoffman for Alex Rodriguez, Felipe Lopez, Scott Kazmir, and Matt Cain Dan Uggla, Lance Berkman, and Scott Kazmir for BJ Upton, Carlos Beltran, and Cole Hamels Mike Napoli, Carlos Beltran, Josh Hamilton and Roger Clemens for Vladimir Guerrero, Nick Swisher, and AJ Pierzynski AJ Pierzynski, Nick Swisher, and Jhonny Peralta for Joe Mauer and Julio Lugo Adam Dunn and Cole Hamels for Manny Ramirez, Bill Hall, and Andrew Miller I've been doing a real good job of grabbing guys off the waiver wire and flipping them for good value. But the whole chain of events started when I got Berkman while his value was low. I've essentially traded from him up to Vlad by way of Beltran. And since none of the people in my league understand pitching prospects, I'm able to grab those guys off the wire to restock my pitching at will. (Hence why I was able to trade so much for ARod). The only guys on my team that were there after the draft are Pujols, Hafner, King Felix, Rich Hill, and JJ Putz. I guess you could count Howie Kendrick, but I dropped him after his injury and he slowly made his way back around the league to me. Everybody else I've nabbed off waivers or through trades.