Sammy Sofa

Well, your dad is horrible, horrible influence.

Watching, reading...who has the time?

Now it's just getting to be ridiculous. How much could it cost to build a dome their? Probably less than a Hendry era loogy or utility infielder I'm guessing. I wish I could hurl you away with the power of George The Animal Steel.

You're all like "who said this" and "who said that?" when the answer is clearly nobody, because I never said that anyone did. They are statements that I personally made that did not refer to anyone else. I think that Castro is overrated by "Cubs fans in general" because he has been over-hyped from day 1 as being a future superstar, and I'm just not quite on the bandwagon yet. Folks on this forum are more realistic than "Cubs fans in general", though, so again, I'm not referring to specific posters on this forum. We've seen what he can already do offensively; now we're seeing what he can do with improved defense. He's only 22, so he manages to put those things together and continue developing as a player and you're talking about an incredibly valuable asset: a SS who can pull off a 5-6 WAR for years.

OK, nobody respond to what this guy says, because that really, really freaks him out. Just explain how you think "Cubs fans" are overrating Starlin Castro.

This doesn't make any sense. Who is saying he has to be the best hitter on the team? Who thinks they need or can find "WAY better hitters" than Castro unless they think this year will be his typical production?

If Castro puts up a career like Jeter for less money, I'll be happy with that. He didn't seem to hurt the Yankees much. Nobody said he "hurt" the Yankees(?); I'm just amused that you present Jeter as being this gold standard, like Castro will be lucky to match or exceed his production.

Oh man, yeah, it's going to be really tough for Castro to reach the dizzying heights of Derek Jeter-dom.

Excellent. Now he'll be even cheaper.

A career season two seasons in a row in typically the toughest division in the AL.

No, let's focus on the ST invite for Villanueva.

Why would it be?

Here comes this guy talking about boos, even though most of the discussion has been about the media, because reading isn't cool.

While the PC's are bad enough, even more frustrating to me was that Dusty left him in there to achieve some of those super high pitch counts in games that were well in hand. I want to say a couple of those 130+ games were games Dusty was trying to let Prior get a complete game shut out, or finish off an inning he got himself in trouble with. ETA: Perfect example was the 131 PC start against St. Louis with a 7-0 lead after 6 innings. Dusty leaves him in there for 8 innings. Next start, 5-1 lead after 5, Dusty takes him out after 7 with 129 pitches thrown. Dumbass! That's why it's not apples to apples and innings aren't all created equal. If they limit him on pitches, the innings number could be pushed. Also, it has to kill any pro athlete to basically sit down and watch his team try and win a title in what could be their only chance. I'm pretty damn sure numerous teams thought they were "going to be competitive for a long time" and "had a ton of young talent" and then ended up never making it back. There's no guarantee that if the Cubs shut down Prior in September of 2003 that he would have come back and dominated again in 04 or 05. They could have, however, certainly treated him a lot more cautiously. But, if he had gotten 5 more outs vs. Florida and they could have won the WS after that, I'm sorry, but I'd sacrifice his arm for that. I want to talk about the two things that are in bold. The first one about the pitch count. Granted that Baker ran Prior into the ground with that and several of those starts Baker left him in too long. There were other factors as well. Here's the difference between Prior and Strasburg. Strasburg has like 40 starts in his career so far and only 2 of those starts were more than 110 pitches and 7 more from 100-109 pitches (all 9 starts are from this year). Nats are already limiting Strasburg in BOTH pitch counts and innings so far in his career. It's a great way to go with a guy like Strasburg IMO. They want to make sure they have him for multiple seasons. Could he get hurt again? Of course, but the reason will be because of something Strasburg did (or his mechanics) or a fluke thing happened (collison with someone/liner to head or elbow/etc.) and not because Nats were reckless with him. The 2nd part... Why would Cubs need to shut down Prior in Sept. of '03??? I'm not sure where you're going with that. Prior pitched like 170 innings in 2002 (minors and MLB) and went 210 (plus 23 in playoffs) in 2003. He also didn't have any injuries before 2003 and was regarded to have great mechanics at the time IIRC. Yes, they should've been more cautious with him, but the problem was having Baylor (check out his 2002 game logs) and Baker as his managers. I don't think it was how many innings he pitched in 2003. It was the pitch counts in a lot of the games in his career and leaving him in too long when they could've went to the bullpen. Had they been more cautious about that part, they probably would've cut 10-20 innings easily in the 2003 season and also a buttload of pitches that he didn't even need to throw. Now do I think it would've saved his career? No, but I think it would've extended by another year or possibly two before the injuries. He was bound to have shoulder/arm injuries eventually with his mechanics. I'm not sure about the whole "if he had gotten 5 more outs vs. Florida and they could have won the WS after that, I'm sorry, but I'd sacrifice his arm for that" deal when he really shouldn't been out there in the 8th in the first place. Why would you want him to pitch a complete game anyway? Of course you would sacrifice his arm to be in the WS and have a chance to win. You already know what happened afterwards and how messed up his career is to this point. Plus it has no effect on your life (besides being a fan of the Cubs and the emotions of getting into the WS). It's stupid and pointless as pretty much everyone else would say the same thing now (except for probably Prior and his family). Well said.

Steroids. Look at that acne.

People aren't stacking up Brenly, Rozner and Kaplan as if they're the Three Stooges of baseball racism and on equal footing. Like I said, this is something deeply ingrained and it's present across both society and the media to various degrees, hence why cliches like "lazy" non-white players are something you see or hear everywhere and not just in Chicago. It's pretty damn far from "a few bad apples;" it's basically a deeply rooted part of our society.

Is this guy the Chinese sulley or is sulley the American that guy? http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/2012-olympics-chinese-doctor-accuses-michael-phelps-steroid-abuse

Lee was criticized for being too quiet and not enough a leader, and then got raked over the coals when he dared suggest that he's encountered racist fans.

If they even mention it at all; most either focus on calling him and his deal untradeable or talk about his offensive production with the caveat of being on a terrible team, as if to say, "he's only putting up decent numbers when compared to garbage!"

My kid is a huge Soriano fan, so maybe I am biased and try to block out the bad stuff, but could you please cite some examples of people pouncing over "anything and everything he does wrong since he got here"? I admit I do not have the best memory, but it seemed that most of the media members went to great lengths to talk about how hard he works and how great of a guy he is. For example, when Felix Pie was brought up, there were stories all over the place that Soriano (being the great guy that he was) let him live at his house and took him under his wing etc. I have heard several TV analyst fawn over Soriano and his work ethic. There may be a few members of the media that have been tough on him but by and far, Soriano was very well liked and a very popular player until his production slipped in relation to his salary. Once his legs started to slow down and his production dipped the criticism came from some circles and fans started being more critical of him. What I remember of the Pie stuff was people reacting with horror, much as they did when it was reported that he and Castro are buddies, like Soriano was somehow going to give them baseball AIDS.

It's almost comical how the drinking and whoring of guys like Grace and Farnsworth were just chalked up as "boys will be boys" shenanigans and a chuckle, nevermind one of them was spearing guys on the field and dishing out beatdowns.

The "territory" is filled with really, really stupid people; that's the problem.

Zambrano compounded things by being nuts. Zambrano and guys like Milton Bradley don't excuse the [expletive] treatment that guys like Jacque Jones, Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Soriano, Castro, Alou et al have received.

Actually, the Prior stuff just played to these type of base prejudices, since the underlying current to pretty much all of the criticism/jokes was that he was weak and unmanly, so just substitute one prejudice for another. Toss on the anti-illectualism because of his degree and the perception of him being "arrogant" because of it and you've got a nice, roiling meatball stew going. The Wells stuff I honestly don't remember at all. And you're right about the expectations with someone like Soriano, but again, I'd argue a lot of that is fueled by inherent frustration and resentment over "one of them" getting that kind of money. He's obviously a flawed player, but the unwritten goal with him has seemingly been to pounce on anything and everything he does "wrong" since he got here. I mean, really, should be surprised that what fans often want, and what sports journalists often cater do, are just our dumber, more base instincts? And there's little more base than playing on our fears/resentment of "the other."

And hey, you know what trying to avoid taxing Strasburg is? AN ATTEMPT TO BE ABLE TO WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS.