Sammy Sofa

I'll bet anything this guy's name is Linus or something equally douchey. People like this have "discovered" my neighborhood bar and they must be stopped. "Do you guys carry Idaho Organic Huckleberry IPA?" "The bar hasn't been painted in 40 years. STFU!" That's why they're there.

Is that a Scientology thing?

Well, yeah, nobody's saying that signing Cruz should have been their ONLY move; it was just yet another in a long, long line of moves they have chosen not to do that have built up into a gaping hole of farts.

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Is it OK if I lustily want the Cubs to sign this guy or will it cause monocles to fall into champagne glasses?

It kinda looks like [expletive], period.

he of the -50 UZR/150, and 0.4 total fWAR? he's also DH'd in 40% of his games played (full disclosure: i wanted Chris B Young/Granderson) Yes, him. Because he's useful and cheap and only signed for one year. Are the Orioles DHing because of health issues or just to fit him in? Because it's not like he was anchored to the spot before this year.

The stupid old arguments keep coming up because we get getting doofs with Stockholm Syndrome.

His teams were highly flawed because he had no interest in finding players that could get on base. That seemingly hasn't changed. Yes, that's the point; the teams he put together weren't the financially crippled, catastrophic messes that some need to make them out as to seemingly justify what's been going on under the current regime when it comes to the big league team. It's a tired excuse. But you're the only one using the term "financially crippling." What was crippling was the lack of young talent left behind. 2015 has been the goal all along; and that's to be competitive, and go from there. At this moment in time, does it feel like we're less than a year away from that? Not on the surface. But we do have 1B, SS, C covered. I'm not ready to crown Olt just yet, but as of now, it looks like we may have 3B. The OF is iffy. If nothing else, we have maybe a pair of platoon guys in Lake and Kalish. Bryant is sure looking like he could be in the heart of our lineup by opening day. Soler's possible, but. I wouldn't bet on it. Between Valbuena, Barney and Watkins, we have if not 2B, then a pair of UT. n Wood, Jackson, Hammel, Arrietta, Hendricks, and maybe Wada, we easily have 3 mid-back end options. Extending Shark would give us a front end guy, and I hope we do. Vizcaino, Rondon, Ramirez, Rivero, Wright, Grimm, and Rosscup, I like our pen. So if our opening day roster looked something like: 1B Bryant 2B ?, Barney/Watkins, Valbuena SS Castro, Barney/Watkins 3B Olt, Valbuena LF Bryant, Lake CF ?, Lake, RF Soler/?, Kalish C Castillo, does it matter? SP: Shark (if resigned), ??, 3 of Arietta, Wood, Jackson, Hammel, some type of Wada/Feldman/Maholm reclamation-win BP: Vizcaino (CL,) Rondon, Ramirez, Rosscup,Grimm, Wright. Shark would be very expensive, but IMHO, worth it. As for filling the holes, for SP, if we want to aim for the stars, there's Lester or Scherzer. Not sure what's beyond that. Even is Ervin Santana continues his dominance, he's a scary investment. Similar could be said for Liriano. Melky Cabrera seems like he could make back a big chunk of the change that he cost himself in 2012, and Colby Rasmus seems to have blossomed into the best we could have hoped for from Brett Jackson before the engine dropped out. So really, Epstein's plan seems to be right on course. Step 1: Clear out the attic: check. Step 2: rebuild on a foundation of good, young players: check Step 3: dust off the checkbook, fill the holes. Just more of the same excuse making. The idea that anyone thinks they had to field multiple years of 100-loss or near 100-loss teams to fix things is just tiresome. They're in the position in they're in right now likely because they want to be in it or because they have to be in it, not because of some horriffic mess Hendry left behind, but because of the shitty ownership of the Ricketts.

rofl if we got stanton and baez gets fixed, eventually we wouldn't even need to bother fielding a pitching staff. I mostly want Baez fixed enough in the hopes he's traded for Stanton because ultimately I don't think he'll ever be the monster we want him to be. Pile on to him to get it done, bring in Stanton and Bryant and then unleash the fury.

All I want from Miami is Stanton. Jesus, [expletive], his numbers are sexy as hell this year.

Stay away from my mom, you monster.

My mother, who is bizarrely biased against the idea of players in US pro sports who aren't American, was VERY disappointed to find out that someone with the wholesome all-American name of "Junior Lake" is actually a filthy foreigner. This has to tie in hugely to your baseball reverse racism Definitely. Though her favorite Cub is Billy Williams and she thinks Sandberg is a creep, so she's pretty cool.

IT'S A JOKE, YOU FOOL.

How does being right or wrong about such a statement have anything to do with being smarter or not? It's just goofy hyperbole. You're right. I should be taking this much more seriously. I apologize. Didn't know you were kidding with all of that and should have realized it with such an obviously ridiculous statement; my bad.

Oh lord Javy that was worse than I imagined. That was Patterson-esque at his worst. But yeah, he's always had all that waggle. a high outside curveball i dont even That was exactly how about 90% of my PA's go in The Show.

How does being right or wrong about such a statement have anything to do with being smarter or not? It's just goofy hyperbole.

And no, she doesn't count the DR.

My mother, who is bizarrely biased against the idea of players in US pro sports who aren't American, was VERY disappointed to find out that someone with the wholesome all-American name of "Junior Lake" is actually a filthy foreigner.

His teams were highly flawed because he had no interest in finding players that could get on base. The one truly good team he built (2008) was built on a bunch of career years. The good teams he built on paper (2004 specifically) were ruined by his hand-picked manager. He wasn't very good (although certainly not the worst, as some made him out to be at the time). Although it seems many on this board are suddenly pining for an 80-win juggernaut with a huge payroll. Hendry was pretty good at those. Those "bunch of career years" being the middle IF and Dempster? While not technically a career year, getting what we got out of Edmonds was obscenely lucky, FWIW. I'm still not sure what the hell that was. Also, while not really career years, we did manage to get good-for-them seasons out of pretty much everyone. [expletive], DeRosa, there's another example that could go in the "diamond in the rough discussion" (Yes, I know he had his best year the year before the Cubs signed him). Aramis was Aramis, Soriano actually had a lesser year compared to the previous few, and Lee ultimately had 3 better seasons as a Cub. How did those four have "good for them seasons?" Soto definitely kicked ass, but Fukudome was just doing what everyone had hoped/expected and was actually kind of a disappointment with the way he tapered off. Edmonds and Theriot were the only one that really blew expectations out of the water (and even Theriot just built a bit on what he had inexplicably done the year before), unless you're talking guys like Fontenot and Hoffpauir.

His teams were highly flawed because he had no interest in finding players that could get on base. That seemingly hasn't changed. Yes, that's the point; the teams he put together weren't the financially crippled, catastrophic messes that some need to make them out as to seemingly justify what's been going on under the current regime when it comes to the big league team. It's a tired excuse.

Are you kidding me? Signing players like Aaron Miles and John Grabow are indicative of a huge mess? [expletive], nobody better tell Theo and co. about that. Hendry had a typically mediocre team construction in his final years.

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Hey, DeJesus! I forgot about him; there's a good example. Or Nelson Cruz.

If you're putting 2014 in the books already, then yeah. Sweeney, Schierholtz, and Bogusevic turned Ruggiano being specific examples of guys likely to provide value covering multiple years. I think we (obviously) have wildly different expectations; to me those all seem like guys signed as obvious placeholders or who have effectively amounted to being decent bench options. Even Valbuena is largely seen "just" as the strong side of a platoon. I guess I was just hoping that they'd either target or stumble across a single player this way that turned out to be even just a serviceable everyday option. Well that line gets pretty blurry in this run environment. Do you have an example of the type of player you're referring to, specifically in the last couple years? I don't; I'm just assuming that someother teams out there have managed to signed someone that turned out to be, say, a fulltime Valbuena or thereabouts.