Sammy Sofa

Overrated how? The guy has been an amazing player. All you keep going on and on about is how he can't make last minute shots. If you're saying "overrated" in terms of how people would stack him up next to Jordan, fine...but if you're saying he's overrated in the sense that he's NOT a great player, well, that's just ridiculous.

Overrated how? He's NOT one of the best players of all time?

Oh, man, Howard vs. the meatballs...what a magnificent perfect storm.

What the [expletive]?

Man, she must drink a LOT.

This series made it extremely evident that the rest of the team is just filled with role players. You can't compare Deng and Noah to guys like Wade and Bosh. There's such a gigantic drop off from the Bulls best player to their second best player. That needs to be addressed. And it's essentially pointless to point to the Heat as some kind of team-building model. If they're your standards for "superstar collecting" or whatever the hell people are saying when they scream "ONE STAR AND A BUNCH OF ROLE PLAYERS" then you're doomed to nothing but disappointment; the Heat are an anomaly, not the standard. Sooooooo, just like every other sport then?

This was not a championship team even if they had Rose. This was the same team to me that lost in the playoffs last year and had Derrick carry them all the way to the ECF. You can't win with role players in the NBA. It doesn't happen. Period. It's literally been less than a year since it last happened.

I find Castro much more thrilling than Dolis, who is more terrifying than anything else given how much contact he gives up.

How do you figure? The two years he was really good, the year he was good and the year he wasn't so good.

The Purple Line express actually makes an extra stop there when there are evening games at Wrigley for that exact reason. Pretty much. I can't stand Wrigleyville.

Nobody said he's immune from criticism. The response is from people saying things like "he's only getting worse" or "he's not getting better" or "it's time to move on from the Soto era" or whatever billionth meatball-ism we've heard about him. And he's not "equally down and up." He's been a good player far more often than not in his 4 years as the Cubs' starting catcher.

I'm sorry, but do you just not know how to use stats sites or do you just refuse to? Soto's getting better.

Soto is a big concern, no? No.

Wait, why is that stretch "huge?"

Nicely done, Dolis.

Agreed on all points. But you think he's not working through things.

You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're playing a character or something. The role he's playing is called "realist" and it's typically played by someone who isn't still infatuated with a former ROY. Motherfather, I will end you. Right in your face.

ACTUALLY, HE'S BEEN SHOWING LOTS OF SIGNS OF GETTING BETTER.

You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're playing a character or something.

Tiny sample size, but holy [expletive], Cardenas looks terrible trying to do anything.

[expletive], I go to haul the recycling out and I miss actual scoring?

Whoops, guess you backtracked already.

So is Maholm.

Man, this game is a thrill-a-minute.

I'm not mojo, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try LaHair in the OF this year whichever side of the debate you fall on. If you aren't able to get an acceptable deal at the deadline, I think you keep him at first the remainder of this year and keep Rizzo in AAA all year (until September callups). After the season, you work hard with LaHair and get him reps in the OF and monitor his progress that way. At that point you make a determination on whether you feel he's an OF or not. Trying him for 10-20 games after he's barely played OF in the minors and been a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now isn't going to give you the kind of sample size that will tell you conclusively either way. He's got over 260 innings logged in the OF between the minors and the majors, a bunch of those coming just last year, so he hasn't been "a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now." And no, I've never been saying they can't put him out there; they can put him out there all they want. He's just going to be terrible at it. Him succeeding at hitting despite many predictions otherwise is one thing; the guy has a skill set that shows that offensive success in the majors isn't out of the realm of possibility. Defensively, however, he has basically zilch to show he can succeed as a starting OFer. Some people are talking like he hasn't been "tried" out there before, and he has; he's not good at it. He's not even a very good defensive 1B. The reality of the situation is that he's a man without a position on the Cubs as of next year. If he can maintain consistent offensive ability there's no shortage of competitive teams that need that ability, especially at 1B or DH. With the FO we have I'd much rather see them capitalize on that and pick up someone like Upton than trying to shoehorn him in as a starting OFer.