davell

Damn, it's only like an hour difference. Good, one less thing to think is an obstacle.

They already ruled him out for the year though.

If you think the offseason is slow, just wait till the season starts. Jesus shut the [expletive] up already I'm sorry that a post about reality interrupted your fantasies about Japanese women and baseball mascots. It's got nothing to do with that. It's pretty easy to look in a thread at this point and figure when it's time for the "witty" B2B one liner about we're going to suck. The only thing I don't have down yet is you're pretty random at including the laughing smilie at your own stuff about as much as a league average NBA 3 point shooter. You may not like where we're at(Other than Arguello, no one is) but it is what it is, finding ANYTHING to talk about is a good thing. Especially if it's original, even if it's offbase.

So this is the "positivity" theme they're conjuring up this week, in time for the convention, I guess. So the potential "our payroll is pitiful" stuff has a light at the end of the tunnel for everyone. I can't wait to see Ricketts take on questions, my guess is they pick and choose extremely carefully.

The time savings are pretty overblown. You probably save an hour or longer layover, plus a 3 or 4 hour flight. It'd be pretty damn important to me. Especially when a flight from LA to Japan is 10-12 hours as well.

No clue, but it'd make sense to me if she's a legit star in Japan, it'd be convenient to cut some air time down by already being on the west coast. In case she needed to go back and forth often.

The Angels supposedly didn't even meet with Tanaka. I'm not listening to anyone. When he signs, we'll know. I doubt we get him, but I'm not going to say we have no chance either.

Would Javy be the first minor leaguer to demand a trade?

Derek Holland fell down his steps, because he tripped over his dog. Named Wrigley.

There are 3 teams left without mascots. The Dodgers, Angels, and Yanks. The 3 rumored finalists. It's cat and mouse at its finest. Theo, being as thorough as usual, found out Tanaka's wife is a mammalianpantsaphobe. My guess is until they change their tune on Chicago, she will be inundated with pics of our pantsless Internet champion. Once Tanaka's wife is scared into making him sign here, at a discount, no less, Clark will retweet back to Theo's evil mind. The rumor is it will take a bearded frog AND a monkey with bacne to get the Angels to give us Trout.

Somewhere, in a crowded room of suits, Crane's focus has turned from TV deals to wondering if Clark's first tweet should be deleted. It failed to get over with the fans. Is it a crushing blow? Can it be salvaged? Is a deletion an admission of automatic defeat? If so, does Theo need to be consulted? Will an admission of defeat affect Javy's progress? What does it say if we give up immediately for The Cubs Way? Can an actual Cub comprehend the idea of tweeting? Was it realistic, in the attempt at tweeting? How much progress can a Cub actually show, in regards to working the Internet? Too much, too soon, perhaps? Personally, I think the idea was a grand one, that ultimately has yet to play out. I think, deep down, we all want to believe in a super intelligent, clothes wearing Cub that rules the Internet. As is everything pertaining to the Cubs, the only option is to take a wait and see approach. And hope that he's learned letters and has figured out to use a pen to compensate for his paws around the time the Cubs youngsters come into THEIR own. Not only are we in the business of selling a baseball teams future. We're now bound to a [expletive] pantsless cub, intent on mastering the Internet. I'm riveted.

Dear God, it tweets. Cub fan want list-Tanaka We get-Clark the God Damn Cub.

Does a mascot salary count against the baseball ops budget?

So, is this a 50 or 75 million dollar expenditure for Ricketts to prove the money is staying in house?

The point is we're better off by missing the playoffs. I get the fact we're not finishing bottom 3. Everyone does. I get the fact that the odds aren't great if we finish outside the playoffs and near the back of the lottery-to wind up with a top 3 pick. But it's a non-zero chance. Meanwhile, our chances of winning a title this year ARE zero. The team needs that non-zero shot at getting an elite talent more than it does a likely 1st and definitely 2nd round playoff exit. More power to you, if you're able to watch this team in its current state, without throwing up. I apologize for the frustration, just truly disagree with the direction you prefer to happen.(playoffs this year, not anything past that)

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140113/BLOGS04/140119962?template=mobile&X-IgnoreUserAgent=1 Guess some of you guys are going, right?

You're kidding, right? I have a feeling you knew all along...even mentioned it twice to not look like a pervert. That's fine, I'll do it. https://www.google.com/search?q=Mai+Satoda&espv=210&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=HCjUUomHG4Xd2QW0uICoAg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=775 [expletive]. I DID know, but honestly forgot about her. She's a well known singer in Japan.

Kiley McDaniel? Used to work for ESPN. Very highly respected.

Kiley just posted his top 100. Almora-8 KB-10 Javy-13 CJ-44 Soler-53 Vogelbach-80 PJ-85 Alcantara-88 http://mlb.scout.com/a.z?s=243&p=9&c=12&yr=2014&nid=287&lnid=287&rc=4&pid=88&pg=1

I get it, the arguments for both Almora and Edwards.....But, keep in mind with Soler, he last played organized baseball in Cuba during 2010. Missed an entire season and then most of another, before getting in a hundred or so at bats in 2012. Spoke no English whatsoever, large adjustments going on for the guy in every aspect. The more comfortable he gets, the better I think he's going to look.

I've got him over Almora at 4 and did consider him at 3. It's nice to have this many legit options to choose from. I do think Almora gets the group vote here, which is in line with basically all the prospect gurus anyway.

I'm not doubting the talent whatsoever, if he's healthy, I can see his in-prime line being slightly better than that even. I do think he's a .300 hitter.

Just curious, I voted for Soler(or so I thought) and saw that he had no votes, but Pierce Johnson(directly underneath him) had 4 votes. I went in and changed mine and it went through correctly, but wonder if it's possible there is a glitch somehow. One, because I thought it happened to me and Two) I kind of doubt Pierce would be getting that many votes, with Soler having zero, at the time I voted. As for WHY I voted for Soler.....Almora's injury issues concern me quite a bit, while I can shrug off Soler's right now as just a freak event. That said, with the length of time Soler took off from playing organized baseball, I was super impressed with how good his plate discipline was. You hear about the plus bat speed and the bigtime power tool, the more he readjusts to game play, the more I expect these to come back. I'm very, very excited for his 2014 and think that he's going to take the single largest step forward this year out of all of our better known prospects.

Damn, good point. Anything we can do that helps his on-field performance should certainly be prominently in the presentation.

i think i remember you being in sales, but this is still really good stuff. Thanks, when the money is basically going to be close or the same from multiple teams, its all about presentation. I honestly have no doubt that Theo is going to be the best at this actually. I remember a story involving Contreras that showed me that and he still lost out, due to the Yankees being the Yankees. He got Schilling in the same way though, by being beyond thorough. There's a lot to overcome in this case, but Theo will be ready and be impressive as hell, I'm confident of that. Does NOT mean that Tanaka comes here though, sometimes it just doesn't matter, a client already has his mind made up prior to the meeting. But, if you can break down the wall and find out what someone's true objection is, which isn't easy to do, if they THINK they've already made up their mind, you've got a shot. I lose people I think I've gotten and get people I didn't think I had a chance with. It's just the nature of how things work obviously. But the more comfortable you can make him(or anyone) feel, the odds you have increase, at least. In the few days he was in the US, he supposedly met with at least 8-9 teams. My hope is this was just to narrow the field and give the truly interested teams more face time, prior to making a decision. If not, considering where we likely started at on his list, I doubt it'd bode well for us. No idea if Tanaka is married, but if so, you've got to roll out the red carpet for his wife. This is actually the most important thing I've mentioned. She's got to do the questionaire, you've got to have players wives or front office wives preferrably(since we don't even have a married player that is considered a longterm piece, to my knowledge) there to make her fall in love with the city. If you can win her over, it's damn near a done deal. Again, no idea if he even has a wife. If not, depending on how the questionaire goes and how much time you have with the guy, you could take it in the total opposite direction and show him some entertainment. Which goes back to trust and making him feel comfortable with you. Again, only if it appears it's something important to him though. You don't take a bible thumper to a strip club without them asking to go beforehand.