Sammy Sofa

Suuuurrrrre he is.

You're being VERY generous with what you mean by "bright spots." This is probably the lowest point the organization has been since the current FO took over. If it weren't for Bryant it would be nothing but darkness eclipsing the land. Disagree. Last year was much more bleak. At least Rizzo and Castro have performed this year. And while Olt has some red flags, I'm also encouraged by the slowly declining K rate and massive power he's shown so far. It bums me out because even with those improvements the team seems as bad as last year's or worse. I'm left to only hope that the FO is intentionally trying to tank despite these improvements because the alternative is more than a tad depressing.

Flashforward to 2016, when the Cubs go 79-83 and Castillo provides a 0.2 WAR turd of a season, and we can't blame Theo because Castillo had just seemed so reliable. Seems weird that Castillo would be the focal point of a disappointing season like that, but whatever floats your boat.

Castillo is a 27-year-old catcher with a 26% K-rate. Setting back and assuming that's filled is a perilous position to take. he was a 3.2 fwar player last year and he's on about a 3 fwar pace this year. the position is filled. Yeah, at the very least he's serviceable. Filling the catcher spot with someone else is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list of necessities right now.

You're being VERY generous with what you mean by "bright spots." This is probably the lowest point the organization has been since the current FO took over. If it weren't for Bryant it would be nothing but darkness eclipsing the land.

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Bonafacio's arm is made of sadness.

Starlin homered? Boing.

It's be cool if Hammel could stop sucking this inning.

The shitty resolution had me thinking he was randomly done up like one of those "robot" street performers.

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.