Sammy Sofa

The Cubs not signing Maddux was really my first moment of true heartbreak/anger towards the team. '84 was my first year and '89 obviously was frustrating, but that was the moment when something burned out forever.

Bryant. I'm terrified Baez is going to be an epic bust.

YES, DAVD, I KNOW HE'S NOT MARRIED.

I don't want Bryant Sandberging the joint up behind the scenes. When Baez bangs his wife he better shut the [expletive] up.

I'm showing nearly four inches after reading that. Play your cards right and I'll show all five.

Plus, who knows; maybe signing someone like Ellsbury would show someone like Tanaka this is maybe a team worth signing with instead of a hot garbage fire with a terrifying future. I mean, I know people like to say guys are going to sign wherever the money is, but when there's multiple teams with money to burn you have to actually have something that makes someone want to come here, and making moves where it looks like you're maybe trying (and obviously Ellsbury alone wouldn't be that) could actually go a long way. Seriously, why would anyone here think the Cubs have a real shot at Tanaka? The terrible team that could be even worse this year? Basically completely gambling on prospects for the future? The ownership that can't even fix up the laughably bad facilities?

Woo hoo! I hate this time of year until spring training. At least we have the Cubs Convention coming up for a quick reprieve of propoganda. After that come the dog days until those first ST pics. Holy hell, the convention; what the [expletive] is even going to be the big event/unveiling?

My Bryant is much more interesting.

White jock. Maybe he's white trash, in which case I rescind the "entitled" part. Either way, I hope he's a douchebag; the best pro athletes usually are. Plus it's more entertaining, despite David's hurt feelings. It's the opposite of the truth, though. Pay attention more. Guys like Pujols are the exception; most of the sports world's super stars are monsters. He needs to douche it up big time.

White jock. Maybe he's white trash, in which case I rescind the "entitled" part. Either way, I hope he's a douchebag; the best pro athletes usually are. Plus it's more entertaining, despite David's hurt feelings.

He's an entitled white pro ball player with two horrible lacrosse player first names for his first AND last name. I can't to see him be a monster to baseball, but the douche side is strong with this one.

It was a pretty safe bet the 2013 team would be better than 2012, too. And they were! 70 wins, here we come!

It's not like he's forced to live here in the winter, for [expletive]'s sake.

http://pitch.rs/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/hsp-622x300.jpg

I think at any given moment half of the posters here are failed or wannabe sports journalists.

Such a diva.

How dare you.

If we get Tanaka and keep Shark, I challenge you to explain how it could possibly be worse. We lose little from the offense and should get better without adding much from the outside. Starlin and Rizzo should rebound/improve, and we likely get 1/2 a season of Baez and other incremental gains. The bullpen is a lot stronger than it was to start last year. The rotation has taken a hit, for certain. But adding Tanaka would make up that gap pretty easily. If, and it is a big honking if, we add Tanaka, I believe we'll get to see interesting baseball in the late summer in a while. I'll be stunned if they get Tanaka. I don't think it's realistic to expect they land him; I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it. The offense was just rank last year, and they haven't don't much to improve it. It's basically hinged on praying that Castro and Rizzo rebound and that Baez both shows up and is good. Those are some pretty big if's; I really like Baez, but it's hardly unlikely that he shows up and struggles. The offense wasn't quite as bad as the runs scored would lead you to believe. The wOBA was still bad, but was within shouting distance of average. If we can: - manage to avoid giving Barney 555 PA's of .252 wOBA - have Castro improve on his 705 PA's of .280 wOBA That alone will help improve the performance dramatically. Also, it is often pointed out that we are not likely to get repeat performances from the Murphy's of the world, but we are also not likely to get Lillibridged in 2014, either. The 286 PA we got from Lillibridge, Clevenger, Watkins, Borbon, Sappelt and Alberto Gonzalez contributed greatly to the lousy performance. Simply having a deeper bench would avoid a lot of negative performances. We'll still get some bad results from some guys, but avoiding the incredibly negative results would make things a lot better. Without any additional changes, I strongly doubt the offense will be top 10 in MLB. However, it wouldn't surprise me that much if they were very close to average in most offensive metrics - especially in the NL. But at the same time it wouldn't take much for it to stink. Obviously we want it to do well, but they're yet again setting up a team where things have to break right just for them to be OK.

Me too, but it kinda sucks that he'll be unleashed onto a big pile of poo.

If we get Tanaka and keep Shark, I challenge you to explain how it could possibly be worse. We lose little from the offense and should get better without adding much from the outside. Starlin and Rizzo should rebound/improve, and we likely get 1/2 a season of Baez and other incremental gains. The bullpen is a lot stronger than it was to start last year. The rotation has taken a hit, for certain. But adding Tanaka would make up that gap pretty easily. If, and it is a big honking if, we add Tanaka, I believe we'll get to see interesting baseball in the late summer in a while. I'll be stunned if they get Tanaka. I don't think it's realistic to expect they land him; I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it. The offense was just rank last year, and they haven't don't much to improve it. It's basically hinged on praying that Castro and Rizzo rebound and that Baez both shows up and is good. Those are some pretty big if's; I really like Baez, but it's hardly unlikely that he shows up and struggles. on the whole, isn't it considerably more likely that baez is mediocre or worse in aaa and spends the whole season there than he comes up to the majors and is good enough to have a real impact on the team? Yes, that too.

If we get Tanaka and keep Shark, I challenge you to explain how it could possibly be worse. We lose little from the offense and should get better without adding much from the outside. Starlin and Rizzo should rebound/improve, and we likely get 1/2 a season of Baez and other incremental gains. The bullpen is a lot stronger than it was to start last year. The rotation has taken a hit, for certain. But adding Tanaka would make up that gap pretty easily. If, and it is a big honking if, we add Tanaka, I believe we'll get to see interesting baseball in the late summer in a while. I'll be stunned if they get Tanaka. I don't think it's realistic to expect they land him; I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it. The offense was just rank last year, and they haven't don't much to improve it. It's basically hinged on praying that Castro and Rizzo rebound and that Baez both shows up and is good. Those are some pretty big if's; I really like Baez, but it's hardly unlikely that he shows up and struggles.

Everyone is desperately trying to ignore how horrendous this upcoming season is shaping up to be. I didn't think there was a chance it would actually somehow be WORSE, but here we are.

Oh, wait, no; he was the worst. And he gets to retire with two WS rings. GROSSSSSS.

http://thenewsjournal.net/userfiles/image/Bowing%20heads%204x.jpg?imgmax=800

Literal lol. Big time.