Sammy Sofa

You don't remember the 3 headed catching monster of Joe Girardi, Damon Berryhill and Rick Wrona? I remember that I was 16 and wanted Wrona to start more games. Holy [expletive], he WAS part of that. Why can't I remember him?!?

Maybe he hit big on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Maybe he's waiting for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNo1-AqU61A Pretty sure the Ricketts are more like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd2rWeswwGw

Girardi's Cubs career is such a weird blind spot for me; it blows my mind that he played seven seasons with them. Outside of the Kile announcement I can't remember a damn thing about him as a Cub.

Holy [expletive], I forgot Master P ever existed. America, how the [expletive] did we ever let him happen? Oh, right...he had a gold tank.

STL still has 15 outs left. Do not speak until the beast is dead. I want to poop in your stretched-out hat.

Guys, he said "LOL." That's pretty hard to top.

Theo May not have been aware of the financial mess but he would've known about an impending mega tv deal - so that softens the blow somewhat. This is yet another road block and extends the time frame to rebuild (on top of the new cba) What mega TV deal? Even after the WGN is up they're still locked in with CSN until 2019. Yeah, they're going to get more money in the meantime, but it'll be nowhere near what other teams have been getting.

Now if only it can come true.

I left out a pretty critical "not;" I meant to say that I didn't Think Theo would have come here if he had any inkling of the financial mess the Ricketts were in for.

Do you think he'll have five more? You can't fall too much in love with what a guy has done in the past, especially when they're going to be on the wrong side of 30. I'd be in on him at 5-7 years, but beyond that and I'm not interested. His numbers dwarf what Soriano has posted, but so will his AAV. Theo has said they aren't interested in paying a premium for past performance that isn't likely to be repeated, so unless the market for Cano is surprisingly tepid, it's not going to happen. I don't want the Cubs to sign him, nor do I expect them to do so. Just amused at the silly comparison to Soriano in any capacity when he could have just said "I don't think they're going to sign any huge FA contracts."

That's exactly what we said when Epstein was hired. No *way* he'd be hired just to gut the payroll and run an expansion-style rebuild. I could've made this post for you; I was so sure it was coming. Hey, I'm thinking the Ricketts DID make promises that ultimately they couldn't keep; I do still think that Theo would not have come here if he knew the money issue was going to be what it's seemingly turned out to be. If the farm doesn't start seriously paying off in the next two seasons I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Epstein walk when his deal is done.

... Alfonso Soriano is 37 and has basically been a 29 WAR player. He's had two seasons with a WAR above 5. Robinson Cano, by contrast, is 30 and is already a 45 WAR player. He's had five seasons with a WAR above 5.

Yup. For the longest time I defended the Ricketts on that, thinking there was no way they were actually banking on big money from the city, but it's become painfully clear they they were counting on that and counting on being able to do what they need to do construction/renovation-wise ASAP, which shows a woeful miscalculation of who they were dealing with.

If this is your attempt to bring a new negative shtick, try again. It was awful. It was simply an expression of my skepticism that players who suck and have something wrong with them are likely to get better, either because sometimes what's wrong can't be fixed, and sometimes because that's not really the reason why they suck. Then it was a really dense and terrible generalization. Poor trolling, even for you.

I imagine this is just agents trying to drum up interest in their players? Only one I'd be interested in Salty, and he'd be expensive. Especially considering Castillo was worth two more wins than him this season and is younger. You're not interested in McCann? I mean there's other places I'd address, but just saying as far as catchers go. McCann is also nice, but we have other places where we could better allocate the money. Unless, as mentioned, they use Castillo as a part of a trade.

Stunningly accurate and similar comparison, really. I guess the crushing fist of logic comes along with the limp, sweaty handshake of dumbassery.

The Division Series don't even start until Thursday and Friday, which means there is plenty of room to fit a 3-game series. There is no reason to let 1-game decide a "playoff" round in a sport that plays a 162 game regular season. 1. It was decided over those 162 games that you're stuck in the do or die situation. If you want a chance at a full series, win your division. 2. In the case of the AL this year, you'd have Tampa traveling from Toronto on Sunday to Arlington on Monday to Cleveland on Tuesday(then presumably) back to Tampa on Thursday, and then to Boston on Fridady. And needing to leave Monday open for tiebreakers/make-up games, you wouldn't be able to start any of the DS games on Thursday. I think you would feel differently if a 94-win Cubs team finished 2nd to the Cardinals and ended up losing the 1 game playoff to an 89-win 2nd Wild Card team. If anything, it was decided over 162 games that the Cubs were better than Team B, so why should one essentially random game decide who moves on? Sure, they could also lose a 3 game series, but that outcome would be a little easier to swallow. I wouldn't. It should be much harder to win from the Wild Card. Anything they can do to make it harder is fine by me. Yes, this. I like that the WC isn't effectively a free pass to sneak in anymore. You still have to fight to claim it.

Well, my memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure our crowds were pretty awesome in 2003 before the 8th inning of Game 6. Let Pittsburgh go through a few of those and see if they don't turn into tight-asses too Yeah, the crowds were bonkers in 2003 and 2007. It was only with 2008 where they were a-scared.

Oh, calm down.

It was a squeaker! Fuckin' Braun.

"Load" is never good, be it based on fatness, Metallica or Nick Manning.

Really rooting for this guy to just turn out to be a fat load of meat.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I'm too lazy to read names.

Teams would certainly be willing to give up big league ready talent for those guys, but not the type Epstein would be looking for. I see Epstein prefering to take high ceiling prospects. If he wanted productive, young, big league talent, he'd simply hang on to them. As is, we have several high level prospects whom I think they'll play sink or swim with rather than search too hard for big league level replacements, unless we're talking reclamations or inexpensive "veteran presence." Wait, so you ARE saying you left them off of your lineup because you think they'll be traded? Because this just makes it sound like you forgot about them and completely missed that TT was pointing it out, not suggesting that HE thinks they should or will be moved.