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Sammy Sofa

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Everything posted by Sammy Sofa

  1. Sammy Sofa
    He's probably also looking to make $500 million dollars and have a flying car, too.
  2. Sammy Sofa
    Hey, you go play with your reasonable contracts in the corner and the rest of MLB will get going with reality.
  3. Sammy Sofa
    All this is true, but there were three negatives to take into account. He was coming off a bad elbow injury, he was over 30, and his production came in a league that doesn't translate all that great in the states. He was a worthwhile target, but he had bigger red flags than somebody like Fielder. Oh, he definitely had question marks, but he's still indicative of how rarely the Cubs even looked at the right types of players during the Hendry era.
  4. Sammy Sofa
    We only know the first part in hindsight. And Zambrano was freshly turned 26 and coming off 4 straight seasons of 4 WAR, two of which were 5. Yes, he was having a bit of a down year in 07, but to say that at age 26 it was clear that he was on the decline is wrong. Fukudome got more money than people expected and wasn't as good as expected. Didn't Fukudome reportedly take LESS money than what was being offered to him elsewhere to sign with the Cubs? I don't remember if it was verified or not, but IIRC, there were reports that he turned down a bigger offer somewhere else to play in Chicago. For some reason I want to say it was the Mets or Dodgers, but I could very well be mistaken. Hell, I remember hearing that the White Sox offered him more than what he took with the Cubs. The Fukudome experience is one of those things that gets lumped in as symptomatic of the failures of the Hendry era, but it's really not. Fukudome was a highly touted, highly coveted player who was touted and coveted for the right reasons...it just ended up not working out. It's a much different situation from signing someone like Soriano or Bradley.
  5. Sammy Sofa
    He's like a really old, clunky 50's robot that has to be fed precise commands on punch cards.
  6. Sammy Sofa
    We only know the first part in hindsight. And Zambrano was freshly turned 26 and coming off 4 straight seasons of 4 WAR, two of which were 5. Yes, he was having a bit of a down year in 07, but to say that at age 26 it was clear that he was on the decline is wrong. Fukudome got more money than people expected and wasn't as good as expected. Didn't Fukudome reportedly take LESS money than what was being offered to him elsewhere to sign with the Cubs?
  7. Sammy Sofa
    No we don't. So it's not a problem that we gave superstar money to Soriano and Zambrano, and gave $12 million a year to solid players like Fududome? Aren't these years supposed to be the "budget hell" years of the Soriano and Zambrano contracts? And aren't we serious contenders for a one of the two superstar free agents during this time of supposed "budget hell"? No, the two years prior were the time when our budget was in serious trouble. Hendry admitted it. Remember when we had to defer $5 million dollars for Carlos Pena? And didn't Dempster defer money so we could sign Marlon Byrd? Because of the sale.
  8. Sammy Sofa
    No we don't. So it's not a problem that we gave superstar money to Soriano and Zambrano, and gave $12 million a year to solid players like Fududome? We're just going to blame this mess all on John Stocksill and Jim Hendry signing guys on the margin like John Grabow? It's not great, but it's not the reason why they suck. They suck because the GM sucked at putting together a baseball team. And they won't suck just because they pay a really good player too much money. You suck when you don't have enough good players, and the Cubs haven't had enough good players in their system in a decade. They drafted like crap and focused on nonsense. I agree, but these big contracts are some of the most glaring examples of sucking at putting together a baseball team and not having enough good players. When your entire philosophy is flawed, that's when you give players like Soriano 8 year mega deals. Yes and no. Soriano got the deal he did in part to the Tribune telling Hendry to get him by any means necessary. There seems to be credence to the idea that Hendry was pursuing him for less money and fewer years.
  9. Sammy Sofa
    But isn't a large part of that due to the proximity to the sale? Do you think the Ricketts likely would be similarly conservative, say, 5 years from now? 10 years from now?
  10. Sammy Sofa
    I thought Ricketts said that he gave Theo the total $ amount and that it was up to him how to allocate it. He said he has the final say on how the money is spent, strongly implying that any big contracts (ie-like the one doled out to Soriano or the theoretical one Prince Fielder would get and so on) would have to be approved by him.
  11. Sammy Sofa
    You're not listening; it's not our decision what is an albatross contract and what isn't. That's essentially up to Ricketts, barring some kind of personal financial disaster for him and his family. My point is that *I* don't care what they pay him so long as Ricketts and the FO are OK with it. These aren't stupid men; they know who Fielder he is and they know the risks that come with him. If they decide they want to and can take those risks, great. If Ricketts decides it isn't going to severely financially hinder the team, great. I'm not going to sit here and bemoan a big contract for Fielder if the people actually in charge of the money don't have a problem with it.
  12. Sammy Sofa
    Of course not. But not because of how much he'd cost; because was insanely bad this past season and it's probably due to his bat speed. That said, half of what I just said still applies; if at the time Ricketts decided that he was willing to pay up and that it likely wouldn't hinder the Cubs financially over the course of the contract then that's his call and I'd be fine with it. I'm now even more confident in that type of decision being made based on the FO the team has. It's Tom Ricketts' as to what the Cubs can spend, and I'm a sure a FO as smart as ours is going to consider how Fielder's contract would potentially limit this team over the course of it and going to want to know if the Ricketts are going to be willing to put the money where and when it's needed. If the FO wants Fielder and Ricketts is saying "OK, I'll give you the money now, but if he goes bust we're [expletive] out of luck" then it's a bad decision. If Ricketts says "OK, I'll give you the money now and worst comes to worst there will still be money for other big signings during his contract" I'm fine with it.
  13. Sammy Sofa
    My problem is with the tone of Mrs. Pujols' comments. She made it abundantly clear that they really wanted to stay, had no intentions to leave, and that moving is very difficult for a number of reasons. That obviously begs the question, well then why didn't you stay, if that's what you wanted? Her implication is, the reason they didn't stay is because Cardinals somehow took that option away from them. That I find laughable. If she had said something like "Albert felt in the end that he wanted the Angels' offer more than the Cardinals'", then I wouldn't have an issue, since that's what really happened. WHOOSH. They wanted to stay, but Pujols also wanted to get paid. The Cardinals apparently weren't willing to pay up while another team was, so they couldn't stay. The only way your argument makes any sense is if you honestly think she's talking like money didn't matter to them. She isn't, and she makes it very clear in the interview that money was the main factor. From the money standpoint, no, St. Louis took that option away from them. The decision to stay or leave St. Louis didn't occur in a vacuum where the decision was only based on the desire to stay or leave. It really is astounding how black and white things have to be with you.
  14. Sammy Sofa
    Ultimately I don't give a damn how much they pay the guy. This isn't a Soriano situation, where you have the backing motivation of the previous owners trying to jack up the value of the team; now you have a team with a set owner in the Ricketts and a set FO. Tom Ricketts has made it very clear that he is the final say with the money, so if Theo and co. decide to go all out and sign Prince for 8 years and whatever money and they make the case for Ricketts and he's sold and he's confident they'll have the financial wherewithal to deal with it and any speed bumps that occur down the line then great, get it done. That's the the real thing that matters.
  15. Sammy Sofa
    So your problem is actually over the semantics of what was said. If she had said something like "Albert felt in the end that he wanted the Angels' offer more than the Cardinals'" instead of "we had no choice" you wouldn't have an issue? Because Mrs. Pujols didn't make it explicitly clear that they weren't literally without a choice you find what she said "laughable" and a "sob story?"
  16. Sammy Sofa
    Holy God, why are you taking the "no other choice" part so literally?
  17. Sammy Sofa
    She's not complaining about the situation. She's explaining why they're leaving.
  18. Sammy Sofa
    Yes, that is the context; we're talking about Albert Pujols: maybe the greatest hitter of all time. In that context a 5 year/$130 million deal IS insulting. She shouldn't have to clarify to anyone with a functioning brain that she's talking about being "insulted" on a rich people's problems-scale.
  19. Sammy Sofa
    Yes, the implication that the Cardinals weren't going to pay her husband anywhere near what he wanted so he went with a team that did. They wanted to stay in St. Louis, but only if the Cardinals offered a contract as dictated by his value as a player and his history with the team. None of these things are outlandish, wrong, or a "sob story."
  20. Sammy Sofa
    Sadly, no. For his career, he has 16 stolen bases and 10 caught stealings, only 1 of which was a pickoff. Ridiculous. I hate it when managers try to get cute like that. Stolen bases aren't valuable enough for that kind of isht.
  21. Sammy Sofa
    Why does he have ANY CS numbers? Does that include getting picked off?
  22. Sammy Sofa
    I don't fault Pujols one bit for being greedy, or selfish, or walking away from the Cardinals over money. Just own it. They're not. These quotes from Mrs. Pujols make it sound as if the Cardinals gave Pujols no other choice but to leave, even though they never intended to and never wanted to. That's utter nonsense. Black & white davearm2 strikes again. You do realize what hyperbole is, right? You understand that she doesn't actually mean they literally had no other choice, yes?
  23. Sammy Sofa
    Nobody here wants that, as best I can tell. It's a figment of your imagination that you keep perpetrating as fact. It's the reality of the situation that the Cubs are in right now. At some point they have to take the plunge and bolster the team through significant FA signings because their farm system ain't producing enough talent right now to either make their team or make enough impact trades to fix things. The problem is also that the forecast of significant offensive FA being available is pretty barren for a while once Fielder is signed. I agree completely with the first two sentences. Where we differ is, the fact that the forecast of significant offensive FA being available is pretty barren for a while doesn't convince me that signing Fielder to a contract I think will be a mistake, and will hurt the team in the long run, is a wise choice. "Mistake" and "hurt" are all relative to the resources a team has.
  24. Sammy Sofa
    Where in the interview does she ever talk like she's not talking about rich people problems?
  25. Sammy Sofa
    Really, where's the "sob story?" I keep reading it and I see someone explaining why her husband decided to sign with a different baseball team. The "stress" is reality to leaving behind their life in St. Louis; nowhere is she talking like it's some horrible thing that happened to them. She's talking like it's unfortunate that the Cardinals wanted to pay her husband RELATIVELY so little compared to what he's done for the team and what he's worth.
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