Sammy Sofa

You mean the Ryan Dempster of 2008? OH, SO SMALL AND SO NERVOUS.

$44 of $46 million? There better be a top prospect in that kind of deal, that's absurd to get next to nothing in return for giving Soriano away for $1 million per year for the rest of the contract. Yeah if there isn't a decent prospect involved, he's more valuable as protection for Rizzo in the lineup. STOP IT.

He didn't. Like you said, I think most assumed he'd be back out.

Man, Rizzo is badass, but his stance is one of the least impressive I've ever seen.

CASTRO WALKS.

As someone posted many pages ago, Soriano leaving means Rizzo loses his protection in the lineup. Other things were said about that.

Cutler could not have possibly given less of a [expletive] about being there. I fuckin' love that guy.

My "goals" don't have to change at all because I'm just a guy watching baseball games. What a weird thing to say.

Enjoy it now, it's about to get a lot worse. http://pendletonpanther.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/debbie.gif?w=480 [expletive]. I think it's more exciting than something to be sad about. The [expletive] it is. The end result down the line will be better, but I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that at this moment I would enjoy seeing them bottom out more than what they've been doing recently.

Enjoy it now, it's about to get a lot worse. http://pendletonpanther.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/debbie.gif?w=480 [expletive].

This is pleasant.

Oh, thank God.

Man, Rizzo really doesn't want to take any pitches right now.

Meh...400? It doesn't really mean anything. I mean, good for him, but nobody goes nuts over 400 home runs anymore.

Ugh, no. [expletive] stolen bases.

Ryan Howard's been worth $20 million or more twice in his career. The Phillies will have paid Ryan Howard at least $20 million dollars a year for 6 years when all is said and done.

Me too. He is on fire NBA Jam style. http://thedirty.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/alfonso-soriano-keri-13.jpg This is great. That's such a fantastic "yeah, I KNOW"-look on his face.

That's what you get for playing in the desert.

Jesus, I thought that was gone for a second.

Relevant.

Wait, what? These were his numbers going in to today over the last 4 weeks: .233 .317 .384 .701 Do you people really think he's been on some kind of gigantic hot streak? He's been Soriano this year. If he was "Soriano" in April, he'd be leading the majors in HRs right now. He's had much hotter stretches in his Cubs career. However, he's never had such a broad stretch of consistent power as a Cub that I can remember from May to the present. How about his very first year as a Cub? Hit 0 HR in April, 4 in May and then 11 in June. Or September of that year, when he hit 14 HR. In May of 2008 he hit 10 HR. In April of 2011 he hit 10 HR. I'm not sure by what you mean "broad stretch of consistent power." He hit 8 HR in June and 7 in May. He's hit both numbers (or better) on a monthy basis multiple times as a Cub, as well as hitting 6 in a month multiple times, too. I think some are just propping up what he's done this year out of the hope of trading him, when he's really not doing anything all that unusual for Alfonso Soriano.

Wait, what? These were his numbers going in to today over the last 4 weeks: .233 .317 .384 .701 Do you people really think he's been on some kind of gigantic hot streak? He's been Soriano this year.

This is dumb, even for you. And this defense of Amaro is weird and dumb. I don't think SCS is defending Amaro, just pointing out that there are similarities with the Phillies and what is happened with the Red Sox under Theo. Both GMs came into a good situation, made the teams better, had very high payrolls, and now are suffering with expensive players that are aging and getting injured. That's a very, very faulty comparison.

I think you're conflating the media scrutiny, twitter-centric, social media, ubiquitious cell phone camera era of today with Jordan's time. How exactly am I doing that? My point is that people knew about Jordan's negative qualities by the time of the Dream Team. Plenty of articles brought it up and you had a huge book in The Jordan Rules. By the time he retired the first time you had plenty of scuttlebutt/jokes about his gambling and the porn stars and such, no Twitter required. The biggest thing people are skewing here is the difference in perspective of Jordan the person/player and Michael Jordan: Insanely Famous World Celebrity. There were tons of people who weren't Jordan or Bulls fans who would where Jordan jerseys and t-shirts and shoes because of Jordan the brand and the status that came along with rocking that gear. Like I said, time has effectively rehabilitated almost all of the Dream Team members (some simply didn't need it like Robinson). Everyone talks about Jordan and Bird and Magic and Barkley like they're the essentially universally beloved figures they are today. Back in the days tons of people couldn't stand each one of them, and looked at them as being the villain. People did that, but yes, still would wear the gear and respect the game and marvel at their ability. Think about how Kobe and LeBron are effectively villains today, yet look at the ridiculous amount of merchandise they move and just the sheer omnipresence of their celebrity globally. People will likely have the same type of hindsight perspective about them 20 years from now just because of how famous and talented they are.

I think people are really conflating general fame/respecting the talent/the adoration of children into "everyone loved Michael Jordan."