Andy

You just made up two narratives here. The Cubs are only trading Samardzija if the return provides more value going forward than Samardzija will. That's why he's still on the team now. Castro, Rizzo and Castillo are currently at the major league level and producing. Samardzija is pitching lights out, Hammel isn't far behind, and Arrieta and Wood are contributing positively, and the pen is actually proving to be an asset right now (once the Veres issue sorted itself out). The outfield isn't performing, even in the platoons (and the best of the bunch is on the shelf for 3 weeks), which really drags down the offense in an annoyingly glaring way despite the success from the infield across the board (including Valbuena and Bonifacio, though Bonifacio is the most likely candidate to regress quickly and has). I'm aware Castro, Rizzo and Castillo are producing, and that's great and certainly a relief after the crap years the former two put up in 2013. But I can only be so thrilled about Shark and Hammel when both will be gone in August if Shark doesn't take a nap at the deadline the Cubs successfully get the ransom they'll ask for, a ransom that will be a maybe to amount to anything. And the 3 young guys are only going to be young for so long. At some point there need to be results, and I do not like betting on unknowns. Rational or not, I've been burned repeatedly hoping for unknowns to turn into knowns for this team and I can't help but wonder if this will burn me too.

He and Barney shouldn't be seeing as much time as they are. Even if Valbuena doesn't hit lefties (and he's got reverse splits, or close anyway), he puts together much better ABs than Barney. And I don't care if it's Coghlan out there every day, somebody other than Nate would be nice. Coghlan is a terrible defensive outfielder who hasn't been a positive WAR offensive player since 2010. I'll take my chances with Nate to be honest.

Plenty of people are sick of losing. Few make up narratives and turn a blind eye to everything good happening just to have an excuse to spout off regularly. We suck donkey balls for the 3rd year in a row and are going to trade the best player on the team within 2 months, but I'm making up narratives. And most of the 'good things' you're referring to are either sucking or injured in the minors right now. Forgive me for not jumping for joy.

To be fair, you kinda always got constantly insulted on this board. Fair point.

God, quit being a damned moron, already. There have been 4 teams in the last 3 years, all small-market, who lost more games in a season than we did in 2011 and had a lower-ranked farm system than we did in 2011 who went on to make the playoffs the following year and I'm rooting for the one that decided to pitch the next 3 (and looks like 4) years. If being pissed about that is 'being a damned moron', then sign me the [expletive] up. You are denser than a pile of bricks, but hey, go all in on Kyle-level thick-headedness, then. Losing 100 games two years in a row does funny things to people. Funny how the people who aren't sick of this [expletive] don't get constantly insulted on this board.

God, quit being a damned moron, already. There have been 4 teams in the last 3 years, all small-market, who lost more games in a season than we did in 2011 and had a lower-ranked farm system than we did in 2011 who went on to make the playoffs the following year and I'm rooting for the one that decided to pitch the next 3 (and looks like 4) years. If being pissed about that is 'being a damned moron', then sign me the [expletive] up.

I don't know what's better about supporting the Theo Cubs - the fact that the highlight of our season is going to be 2 out of 3 against St. Louis in early May or the fact that I'm sure many of us knew that as it was happening. I'm sick of this [expletive].

At least 2 of the pieces we got for Garza have been useful so far.

And Shark's quest for a 0-win Cy Young Award continues.

What does it matter? He won't be here next year anyway.

He has been garbage, but we didn't really 're-sign' him. This was his final year of arbitration. It would have been nice to get something for him last year when he was producing at asinine levels. Yes...yes it would have.

Heyward must be a hell of a defender, because he's pretty much done jack [expletive] on offense this year.

He has been garbage, but we didn't really 're-sign' him. This was his final year of arbitration.

I thought it might be a front office employee. Thank you for clearing that one up

Drop Jay Bruce, add Mike Trout.

Yadier Molina on a 92-hopper through the middle is pretty much exactly how I would imagine STL beating us in a game. [expletive]. I wanted to stay out of last place longer.

Sweep these bastards

When a catcher is putting up half-decent numbers for stupidly cheap, you don't get rid of him unless you have far better options to pursue. The Cubs didn't.

Jonathan Villar has more homers than anyone on our team outside of Rizzo. I'm stumped.

It's like choosing which animal's [expletive] you want to step in in the yard.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6g1db1gjP1qf11ovo2_250.gif

The Cubs being a Yankees level behemoth in 5 years in large part due to a rights deal and ballpark renovations that wouldn't have anything to do with the team's performance wouldn't justify the first few years of [expletive]. It'd sure be nice, though.

Time to photoshop Renteria into the Cubs sweeper pic.

RIZZGASM

I'll give Lake this much, he doesn't make contact well, but he often hits the crap out of it when he does.