Sammy Sofa

"Sources" always say a lot of things. If what anonymous "sources" said about transactions were true even half as often as you think they are most of these rumors would still be lies or inaccuracies or total speculation.

Actually, Hendry's big plan for the 2006 season was supposedly to snag both Pierre and Furcal. The biggest change with all of that would have been, obviously, that he wouldn't have broken Lee's wrist. It was only 58 PA, but Lee was already off to a monster start in 2006, seemingly following up his awesome 2005. Furcal ended up having one of his most productive years offensively that season, too. I'd like to think things would have played out differently if Furcal had been signed, but man, that 2006 team REALLY sucked. I don't think having him and Super D-Lee would have even gotten them to .500.

That's especially not true when it comes to professional sports.

No. The Ricketts are morons if they manage to snag someone like Epstein to be the GM and then effectively force him to hire Sandberg to manage to placate the meatballs.

Man, I'd love to see this happen.

This did not go unnoticed. Awesome. Seriously, he would never come back. I want this so damn bad. Isn't also rumored that Maddux and Cindy were bumping uglies? Make him the pitching coach.

Cool, I appreciate you going the extra distance with this. I mean, if the evidence is there I have no problem being wrong, and curious if it is.

Yeah, that's the part that's sticking to me; it seems like CubmanPi's argument is relying on actually extrapolating where the ball was going and where Alou's glove was going before both encountered fans, and those photos don't allow or do that. The first one maybe is, but it's at a horrible angle to actually know or break it down as such.

I fully cop to when I'm out of my element, and I am here with how you're going at this. I appreciate the more in-depth explanation, and it does help me get a better grasp of how you came to your conclusion, though I'm still pretty foggy on it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your argument seems to be hinged on where contact between Bartman and Alou occurred as being the point where the ball would have been caught, correct? And that's all well and good, but I thing I can't get over is that all of the pictures and video seem to be showing Alou and Bartman making contact away from where the play theoretically would have been made if Alou was going to catch the ball (and this would be a good time to bring up one key thing which I'm unclear on, which is how from those photos you are concluding that the ball is "on the line" and not in the stands. Neither appears to be from an angle that makes that clear). So, yeah, Bartman and Alou are making contact on the line or even in the field of play, but where is the ball? Their contact appears to be the result of a distracted, excited fan making a desperate stab in the general direction of the ball (and failing to come close to catching it) and a not very good fielder trying to track a tricky catch. The photos and videos, to me, seem to be showing that Alou is going into the stands to catch the ball and Bartman is reaching over them in an effort to catch it, and that's why they hit each other. Again, I'm going to defer to the idea that there is more evidence to show me wrong (and it could easily be the case), but I don't think those photos are showing where Alou would have been if he had actually caught the ball. If he had caught it he would have caught it technically in the stands, but the contact occurred on the line or over the line. But really, thanks for going the extra mile to spell out what you're saying.

It seems like something is missing (at least when it comes to my understanding) for you to be able to say this: That seems like a somewhat arbitrary declaration on your part since none of the photos present an angle that actually shows whether that is true or not. Without a photo clearly showing that this is the case how can we come to this conclusion? I guess what I'm asking for is for you to effectively show your work since re-reading it it doesn't seem like it amounts to more than "well, this looks right" + visual aids. I'd appreciate it if you could break it down as such because I really do feel like I'm missing something here.

I genuinely have no clue how you're coming to the definitive conclusion he's not reaching in to the stands from those photos. If you could explain how you're drawing from any of those photos that one can conclusively say he is or isn't reaching into the stands I would appreciate it, because none of those seem to allow one to conclude for sure either way. I really don't understand at all how those lines you drew show anything besides his positions along the wall in those photos and how they do anything to show whether or not he was over the wall. The angles of the photos seem to preclude coming to such a conclusion, especially since we can't seem to find any showing the same moment from different angles. I'm not trolling, and maybe I am just dense, but to me it seems like you're making a leap and I don't understand how you got there with the evidence available.

No, I genuinely don't understand. I really don't get how your posts prove he wasn't reaching over the wall. Your marked photos seems to only indicate where he was along the wall and not whether or not he was reaching into the stands. I don't know how much more clear I can make this.

I honestly have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

Man, I don't want that at all. I want the Cubs to be so good they handily cruise into the playoffs.

It's cute how Kyle wants to be Nate Silver's nemesis. It's like desperate Nixon ranting at the portrait of JFK in the White House.

Fair enough.

I don't think the pictures are conclusive either way. Hell, they make it look like if the ball was in play then Alou had absolutely zero chance of catching it since he's reaching into the stands.

I thought FI hinged on where the ball is. If the contact between Alou and Bartman occurred because both are going after a ball in the stands isn't it moot? I thought FI occurs when a player interferes with a player trying to make a play on the field.

I kinda did. Imagining the worst case scenario with anyone is impossible to avoid. Expecting or predicting it was going to happen didn't happen and shouldn't happen. I can safely say that nobody here predicted that this type of season would happen the first year of his new contract (short of a catastrophic injury occurring). If you want to claim that the bold part was referring to something like what actually happened (an .892 OPS player going to .569 at age 31) instead of talking about a steady (and even steep) decline over the course of his contract, well, I simply don't believe you. I mean, I wasn't arguing against the idea of Dunn declining; it happens to everyone and he is technically on the wrong side of 30. I was pissed at the time because the WS had gotten him for only 4 years and I really wanted the Cubs to sign him for 3-4 years if they could. The thinking behind that is that while they'd be likely dealing with decline they likely wouldn't get saddled with a player toppling off of a cliff. Well, turns out I was probably wrong in that assumption (part of me still thinks this might not have occurred if he had stayed in the NL). Of course all of that hinged on me being convinced that Fielder was going to end up in the AL before or during this season (and then be locked up by whoever snagged him) and that Pujols was going to be re-signed by the Cardinals before ST. Right now I'm glad I was wrong on all of that and I really hope I get banned due to being spectacularly wrong.

Man, you didn't warn me about THIS. I want to be banned because the Cubs have someone amazing at 1B, not because their assortment of garbage by default beats out a guy who inexplicably fell off of the Ultimate Cliff of Baseball Doom at age 31.

I think I demanded to be banned if Dunn doesn't outproduce the Cubs' 1B production by the time his contract with the Sox is done. I really, really hope I'm banned for something better than some mope(s) outproducing something like a .750 OPS.

I was kind of indifferent to the MLB Network before but I [expletive] love it now.

I'm struggling to think of a more amazing night of non-Cubs baseball than what I've seen tonight. 3 of 4 games delivered just [expletive] fantastic drama.

HOLY [expletive]. This night was amazing.

I was a huge fan of Alou's but a lot of people's perception of him was tainted by how bad he was that first year with the Cubs and he had been touted as such a big signing. 2003 was also well below those numbers he was putting up in his peaks years of 1997-2001, plus he was always so dicey in the field and was a monster on the basepaths.