Sammy Sofa

Weird because one year they got to the ECF, the next year their superstar tore his acl in the first game and last year we made it to the second round despite injuries to Deng and Hinrich. Not sure where we being tired comes into play. I guess you could make an argument that we could have beaten Miami in the ECF but that's a stretch to say we lost because we were worn out. Or you could say playing so many minutes in a strike shortened season contributed to playoff injuries to Rose and Noah. How could playing too much cause Rose's ACL to tear? It doesn't work that way. And plantar fasciitis is just a thing that you have; you don't get it from playing too much and sitting doesn't make it go away; it's just about whether there is pain or not at a particular moment.

Uh, no. How are the Cubs brief flashes of being not terrible better than those teams in that period? I don't know about 30 years, but I can definitely tell you that I would much rather take the Cubs' past 20 over the Pirates' past 20, and if you don't see why then you're crazy. Probably than Milwaukee's too, but not by as much. 03 alone makes it better than both those franchises. Pretending otherwise is foolish. Please show your math. How is the Cubs' 2003 so much crazy better than the Brewers' 2011?

I'm not one of those people who takes the disappointment of losing after doing better worse than just doing worse. 2008 was amazing and one of my most enjoyable years as a Cubs fan. 2003 too. I'll take those "disappointments" over crappy years any day. Well, yeah. I've been a fan for nearly 30 years and I'd be very happy if the Cubs didn't win a WS in the next 30 so long as they were regularly competitive. When I hear people talk like they couldn't take it if the Cubs kept losing playoff series or a disappointing year like 2004 it makes no sense to me; years where you actually compete but don't pull it off in the end, even if it's a disastrous finish, is infinitely more satisfying to me than this monstrosity.

Uh, no. How are the Cubs brief flashes of being not terrible better than those teams in that period? I don't know about 30 years, but I can definitely tell you that I would much rather take the Cubs' past 20 over the Pirates' past 20, and if you don't see why then you're crazy. Probably than Milwaukee's too, but not by as much. Yeah, but it clearly said 30, not 20. And even if you're narrowing it down to 20 then the answer is pretty much only the Pirates or the Royals as to who has been worse off, soooooo...aim big, I guess? The Cubs are indeed less terrible than other terrible teams.

But why are you presented Soler as if he's worse off than Puig when it comes to these types of issues? Both guys have them; it's a largely irrelevant point. And any debate as to which is better is basically redundant with the Cubs; they wanted both and should have/needed to get both. That they wanted all three of Soler, Puig and Cespedes and only came away with one is hugely disappointing.

But the Dodgers didn't sign him "out of nowhere;" other teams were interested and were willing to spend big money. The only "out of nowhere" part were people on the outside looking in with relatively minimal information who were just wrong. The teams involved apparently had a much better idea of who he was/is. That is an argument framed around hindsight, though. It worked out, so the Dodgers knew what they were doing, obviously. And the Cubs wanted to offer him up to 6 years/$50 million, so apparently they did to. Every deal is either good or bad in hindsight; the issue with the Cubs so far in the big IFA signings they've managed to grab one. Yeah, you're going to have busts (Concepcion isn't looking too hot), but they need to be getting more of these bigger names.

GOOD ONE.

http://i.qkme.me/3r18y5.jpg

Couldn't agree more with this; couple almost all of the biggest teams being disappointments and/or not really having any compelling players/storylines with baseball becoming more of a pitchers' game again and it makes complete sense why interest is waning right now. People complain about the Yankees and Red Sox, but when they're both really good it tends to bring interest in the game up. The Cubs not sucking would be a huge help, too, plus the Dodgers not being a disaster.

Uh, no. How are the Cubs brief flashes of being not terrible better than those teams in that period?

But the Dodgers didn't sign him "out of nowhere;" other teams were interested and were willing to spend big money. The only "out of nowhere" part were people on the outside looking in with relatively minimal information who were just wrong. The teams involved apparently had a much better idea of who he was/is.

I totally get the people who are and have been long term fans of minor league baseball; and this current mess will probably get some new fans really into it, but the amount of people here who are suddenly hanging on every box score/PA/IP like they're trying SO HARD to convince themselves that they like it is pretty amusing.

Exactly.

You are a very dull human if you think it is fun to watch the process that has been going on here. Holy hell, YES. The Plan, the Process, whatever we want to call it...it's tedious.

Puig seemingly wasn't well regarded by analysts and reporters and message board people and anyone else looking in, but there turned out be teams REALLY interested, included ours, so the "outside" opinions about these types of guys might not always be the most informed.

A guy or a solid guy? What about being a solid dude?

Castillo has made really dumb decisions trying to stretch hits a few times this year. He seems to forget he's not that fast.

And then they almost did it again two batters later.

He had to move out it just to not get tagged.

Uhhhhhhhhhhh....what? I am not staying up for a game this dumb.

Castro, what the [expletive]?

Yeah, I'll trade Donaldson a million times over for 2008 Harden. That was so great.

The Dodgers will have given Kershaw an extension by then. They've got Greinke and Ryu as their 2 and 3. If they give Gonzalez over 10 mill a year, you c as n pencil him in. They'll still have Beckett and Billingsley for another year and expect Zack Lee to compete for their last spot as well. If they give a guy 60 mill that doesn't become more than a mid rotation type, it doesn't help them all that much and gives us a better shot at signing one of the other guys. We're not playing on the same field(or planet possibly) when it comes to the Dodgers financially. Better to vet them out of the way, in my opinion, and it gives us a much better shot at the others. Who may be better anyway. We can compete financially with anyone else, given the current landscape. Nobody has any real idea what they can or can't spend, so just assuming/hoping they'll spend themselves out of contention sooner rather than later isn't a sound plan. It ranks up there with people expecting a sudden flood of homegrown talent and the FA market lining up with when the Cubs are "ready to compete again;" you can't just keep talking yourself out of making necessary moves to ideally improve this team. This is exactly the type of player they were supposedly going to focus on to help jump-start this mess and they've already missed out on several key chances. I don't know, it only took teams 15 years to see the Yankees get themselves a little over their head and hoping to pare their expenses. 15 years and the death of their owner. Dare to dream!

Well, then that's just indicative of a larger problem. It's very realistic this guy isn't worth that at all, but that's unfortunately the kind of spending we're seeing on these types of signings now, and, for better or for worse, the Cubs have to come prepared to spend big if they want them.

Aside from the fact that he's an IFA, how is he the type of player they're supposed to be focused on? Guys like Puig, Cespedes, Darvish, and Ryu had a great deal of success in their respective leagues before coming over here, and there was a decent amount of doubt about even them. Gonzalez hasn't pitched in a long time so maybe his stuff has improved, but he couldn't strike people out in Cuba 2 years ago and the reports about his stuff aren't overwhelming in the least. Again, I'm just going by the FO's reported interest. I don't know [expletive] about his guy and honestly could not give less of a [expletive] about knowing anything about him. If the FO thinks he's worth spending on, then they should get him.