Sarcastic

For those who missed Voyager, here is a quick recap in verse. Can be sung to the Voyager theme music: Star Trek Voyager is floating around in the Delta Quadrant They wanna go home But they can't Oh no The show can be summed up equally well in prose: Some guy: What should we do Captain? Janeway: It's risky, but we've got to do it. Repeat. I did watch TNG and DS9 a while ago, and I liked them alright. Voyager was a low point, and I stopped watching after that.

It wasn't funny when it started, either. That won't stop it.

There is nothing about neo-cons that is traditional conservative. nail meet head. reading between the lines: Neo-Cons believe in the invasion of foreign countries in order to steal their order and spread Christianity What are they planning to do with foreign order?

I have no idea who is going to win. I've got feeling that Obama will win, but I really have no basis for believing that. I don't care that much who wins Iowa as long as it isn't Clinton or Biden. In my ideal scenario, Clinton comes in third place or worse and her campaign gets blown up by the loss of "momentum". As far as what my guess for the ultimate outcome of the caucus goes, I think it won't be decisive. The media is invested in squeezing as much coverage out of the primaries as possible, so unless one candidate comes out way ahead, the media narrative will probably be that the campaign is not over. As long as the media treats the primaries like they are still a race, people will perceive the candidates as having a chance, and they will still give money to continue the campaigns. The media has a chance to create a self-fulfilling prophecy here and cause the primaries to be a race for much longer than they usually are.

Soto won the PCL MVP last year. I think it's safe to say he had more success in the minors than Theriot did. I'm not saying that Soto isn't more talented than Theriot, but his minor league track record isn't great. People are really hanging their hopes on one great year at AAA. Besides that year, his best minor league OPS for a full year was .756 in AA back in 2004. It is possible that his breakout was real to some extent, and I hope it was. But I just think that there are a lot of parallels in the way the two players were set up in the minds of the fans. Obviously they aren't the same player, but I don't know why some people have so much confidence in him.

Does it seem at all like Geovany Soto is this year's Ryan Theriot? They were both young players who replaced unpopular and unproductive veterans (Kendall-Perez), both had strong performances in a highly limited number of ABs, both had a little minor league success, and both had high fan expectations for the following year. I'd be shocked if Soto ever puts up an .850 OPS for a full season in his entire career. Hopefully his AAA success this year wasn't just a fluke. If he can be a league average catcher, that'd be great, but I think we are probably going to have to revise his numbers downwards if we want to be realistic about the team's likely run production.

I won't boo him at all. The Cubs treated him like garbage. How? Any insinuations that he was soft either came from secondary sources or was hinted at by people like Dusty because Prior refused to tell anyone what was wrong with him. The Cubs gave him every chance and shielded him from a lot of media scrutiny. Wait, what? Prior refused to tell anyone what was wrong with him? So now he gets blamed for his injuries AND his doctor's diagnoses too? The only possible justification for letting Prior go is if Hendry has information that has only been leaked to the public as unsourced rumors but that many people seem to believe anyway that Prior: 1) Hates the Cubs so much that he was determined to leave after this year regardless, or 2) Didn't recover well from his surgery and will have serious lingering issues for the rest of his career. If either of those were the case, there's no good reason to resign him. But I think it is more likely that Hendry is just being stupid.

There's been plenty of speculation in the local press that Prior and the Cubs management dislike each other, but I don't believe I've ever seen anything really solid to back it up. If you want to find an article where it is suggested though, just look up any articles involving Prior written by Paul Sullivan. If he really does just want out, signing him to any deal would probably be a waste of money. I think the reason Prior doesn't want to sign the rumored deal with a second year as a team option is because he knows that it doesn't make financial sense for him. If he is in a position where it would be beneficial for the Cubs to exercise the option, he would make a lot more money on the free agent market. If he doesn't come back and the Cubs don't pick up the option, he's has no guaranteed back up plan. The deal probably looks pretty bad from his perspective, whether he wants to stay in Chicago or not.

:( Damn. This stuff was all unattributed speculation from Paul Sullivan. I'd love to here where he got the "June at the earliest" bit. I haven't heard one piece of reliable information on Prior's rehab for weeks.

I'm a bit surprised taht the Padres rumors didn't end up with Prior being traded for garbage, although I guess there is still time. If he does end up geting traded, I'd bet that it will be for junk. I don't see how anyone is going to trade much of value for Prior. What contending team is willing to give up significant value in a trade for a risky player who's been branded as mentally weak?

The problem is that if Prior makes it back to 2004/2005 condition, and he's healthy, he could probably get a much better deal than $10 million, and he probably knows that. The current pitching market is insane. Someone with his upside coming off a good season and a successful surgery could get a pretty good contract with a desperate team, of which there are always plenty. The club option would probably have to be a little higher than that, (although preferably not all guaranteed money) for him to accept it.

Is it just me, or does this sudden rush of info about Prior being traded seem a little vague? All of these articles all came right after Olney's article saying the Cubs were willing to trade Prior and MIGHT do so if they failed to agree on a 2 year deal. His article probably had reliable sources. After that, there was a flood of articles online about this with increasingly speculative predictions on Prior's future which offered no further sources. I'd bet that a bunch of sports writers were basically piggybacking on the Prior storyline and Olney's material, or whatever the original source of his article was. I'm not taking new articles as evidence of anything more than what Olney actually wrote unless they provide new sources. Otherwise, they are just more speculation. It looks like trading Prior will be a possibility. I seriously doubt they'll be able to get anything of vaue for him.

Even though this would fit Hendry's style perfectly, I'll reserve judgment until we see a more reliable source.

I think the vibe that he wanted out was mostly created by the media as part of their "Prior ios a wuss" storyline. I don't think any of us have any idea what Prior wants, except that he seems to want to pitch.

It's a business move for me. He has had problems staying healthy along with imo, a steroid user. I just don't see him being better than an average pitcher from here on, if that. Hey, I may be wrong but that's my opinion. He's had problems staying healthy because he has been pitching hurt for the last couple years. The problem has finally been addressed with surgery. You have absolutley no basis for singling out Prior as a steroid user. This follows the pattern I mentioned before. I can't judge what is in your mind, but to me it seems that you are fed up with seeing him unable to pitch and because of it are coming to baseless conclusions (for example, he's on steroids).

People are letting their emotions about Prior cloud their judgment. I know a lot of people are tired of seeing a pitcher we had such high expectations for go injured season after season, and the temptation to just wash our hands of it is strong, but it isn't accurate to call Prior a sinking ship. He pitched well and made a decent number of starts up until 2006. He finally had surgery in 2007. He is not a lost cause. He isn't worth a huge contract, but giving him a reasonable two year incentive leaden contract, especially if the second year is a team option, would not be a bad deal. As much as we have struggled to watch him fail the last two years, he is still young, still has a lot of upside, and has only had one surgery. Considering the market for pitching right now, it would be stupid to let him go unless his demands are quite high.

Prior's rehab time is like the size of the big catch on the last fishing trip: every time somebody mention's it, it gets longer. Now Muskat is saying that he may be back in "late 2008". Could this be an instance of Muskat actually having information, or just the general expectations that everyone seems to be throwing around for an often injured pitcher?

No fair, you stole my comparison before I had a chance to use it. Infante could be a worthwhile gamble, but does anyone else think his value isn't quite at what Jones' is? Please explain to me how Infante is anything like Barrett? Barrett's bat wouldn't play at a corner infield postion and he was athletic enough to move to catcher. Infante's bat isn't even that good for a middle infielder and he's played some in CF. I don't see the comparison. Wrong thread? Seems like the right thread to me. Oops, you're right. That's what happens when you don't read all the nested quotes.

No fair, you stole my comparison before I had a chance to use it. Infante could be a worthwhile gamble, but does anyone else think his value isn't quite at what Jones' is? Please explain to me how Infante is anything like Barrett? Barrett's bat wouldn't play at a corner infield postion and he was athletic enough to move to catcher. Infante's bat isn't even that good for a middle infielder and he's played some in CF. I don't see the comparison. Wrong thread?

Am I the only person who thinks that Fukudome shirts would sell even if he decided to go with his first name on the official jersey?

Hendry has pissed away alot more money on alot worse players. So? That makes it okay to piss away more money? Just cause he's screwed up in the past doesn't mean it's okay for him to screw up again. Im saying that spending a few million on a guy with Priors upside isnt really pissing money away, when you have pissed away money on players with no upside before. It is if you're spending it on 2008, and 2008 only. I absolutely want Prior resigned. However, since we're going to be funding his rehab, the very least he could do is agree to a club option in 2009. Otherwise, what's the point of paying Prior to rehab in '08 and then have him walk once the season is over? 2008 is not a rehab only year. The incredibly vague news we have heard from the organization so far was that he was ahead of schedule and hoping to be back early next year. I think it is very possible that he will be back early in the year, and also quite possible that he will need longer to rehab than that. If he spends all of next year rehabbing, then something additional went wrong, and it is time to cut him. But his 2008 paycheck is not being written just to rehab, as a couple posters here have asserted without any evidence. An important thing to remember here is that an '08 only contract does not guarantee that Prior will bolt. The best thing to do would be to lock him up with a team option for '09, of course, but he could still be resigned. My guess is that even if he does come back, he won't be at 100% effectiveness, and might be willing to sign a short term contract to play for a bigger deal afterwards. In any case, unless Hendry has good info that Prior will seek to leave after '08, or that he won't be able to pitch until '09, it is worth keeping him on to see what upside he has left, now that he has had his surgery.

Stupid. Yea Jim would rather invest in crap like Jason Marquis, Neifi Perez, Steve freaking Trachsel, etc etc etc.. then a guy with talent. The sooner Hendrys ass leaves Chicago the better. Why is this so out of line? I'm sure other teams would want a option for 2009 also. He's not due back until the ASB, and even then you don't know what he'll give you. I thought he was on schedule for spring training? Riiigghhttt.... To be fair, we have no idea when he will be back. It can't be assumed that he'll be back for ST, but we obviously don't have any non-speculative information suggesting that he wn't be back until the ASB. The only information I recall coming out about Prior this year was that he was ahead of schedule, which sounds positive, but is too vague to base anything on. I'd like Hendry to try to negotiate a team option for 2009. That makes sense for the team. But it would be better to keep him on next year without a 2009 option if the alternative is letting him go now, after paying him to rehab for most of two seasons, after which he finally got the surgery he needed all along. He's not guaranteed to be gone if he doesn't sign with an option for '09, anyway. Resigning him is a risk, but considering his upside and the fact that he has finally had surgery, the Cubs should be able to spare a bit of payroll to take one last crack at it.

Small error in the title.

A team is allowed to trade players to another team for the rights to negotiate a contract with its manager?