Sammy Sofa

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."

That's not why people were and continue to rail on you... It's the "all or nothing" approach of meatballism; if someone disagrees with the meatball it must be because they hold the opposite extreme opinion of the meatball's extreme opinion.

Wait, that exists? And Crispin Glover is in it?!? What the [expletive].

Wait, The Jordan Rules came out almost a year BEFORE the Dream Team, so get the [expletive] out of here with this "nobody knew anything" crap.

What? No. "Like Mike" was a song, not a documentary.

Fuckin' ridiculous.

Again, the dislike of Jordan/awareness of his douchebaggery was in full effect by then even subtracting any knowledge of his personal life; it was no secret how much of a domineering and arrogant he was to his opponents and his teammates. The Jordan Rules came out within months of the Dream Team, and it's not like that stuff came out of nowhere.

Holy hell, no. The world was in love with Jordan. '92 was before his "baseball vacation" and before all of the infidelity stuff was made public. The world was in love with the brand and appreciated the talent; most basketball fans that weren't Bulls fans couldn't stand the guy for a variety of reasons well before his "retirement," largely for his on the court attitude. Jordan was a notorious douchebag practically from day #1, and it was awesome.

Holy hell, no.

Colvin's numbers away from Coors shot up nearly .200 points in OPS in about a week's worth of playing time (again, hinged mostly off of a single game where he went 3-4 with 2 HR against Stephen Strasburg); that's an incredibly small sample size to use to start declaring that he's going to succeed regularly away from Coors. It's an irrelevant trade. The realistic best case scenario people would be hoping for would have been Stewart being serviceable and cheap at 3B for a couple of seasons or so until a better option came along. We're assuming Colvin would have put up anything resembling his Rockies numbers as a bench player for the Cubs...why, exactly?

That's REALLY looking back on the '92 team with rose-colored glasses. Guys like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Ewing and Barkley were all notorious douchebags. Notorious among their contemporaries, but darlings in the media (ok, not Ewing or Barkley). Today's media focuses much more on the negative personalities of athletes than media 20 years ago That's more the environment of having a 24-hour news cycle, but back then it's not like these guys were hiding many secrets. Everyone knew they were pricks.

That's REALLY looking back on the '92 team with rose-colored glasses. Guys like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Ewing and Barkley were all notorious douchebags.

Why not give him a shot when he's ready? He hit well last year in AA and has improved at the plate so far in AAA. I know his defense has been a question mark in the past but how much time does he need to prove he can play? I understand not rushing someone but he's been in the minors since 2007 and is showing that he can hit there. He needs plenty of time; you're basically making my point for me when you say "he's improved so far in AAA." His success is relatively recent and it would be smart to allow a flawed hitter/defender time to refine his game, especially considering he's spent much of his developmental time under the previous front office's coaching/development philosophies and approaches.

He can't get the job done on his own like Monstroso could.

I think the only explanation is that Thibs loves him for his system. Which is warranted, but why would they pacify him with a bad player deal when they won't get him paid first? Like I said: baffling. It makes no sense.

I know it's politically fashionable to let someone else pay for everything, but is an industry that prices out its users (i.e., the fans) really sustainable? Salaries went down in the early 1930s. It is hard to imagine, but absent hyperinflation it will happen again. I'm not sure what salaries in the 30's have to do with anything; the owners were paying the players [expletive].