Sammy Sofa

Trading Garza would be really, really stupid. Soto, too.

Are they janitors?

Sucks that Dempster didn't get the win, but that was [expletive] awesome. Soak in some joy for once in your miserable lives, you pathetic animals.

Wait, Dempster has thrown a 67-pitch shutout through 7? Huh, I might have to watch this.

What the hell? Why did you post this again?

Who is "everyone"? Marlon Byrd and Kerry Wood? If Hendry is waiting for them to turn the team around, he is even dumber than I thought. Hendry and co. are definitely trying to sell the idea of Barney being a good player so they're no doubt counting him, too.

Yeah, I'll (sadly) be very surprised if he's traded. As bad as this team is they still don't seem to be at the point that they'll trade away the best player they have. Hopefully that'll change as they get closer to the decade, but I just don't see them leaving a gaping hole at 1B for the rest of the season even if it's the smart thing to do. They'll still cling to the idea that a hot player will bring them money in the short run instead of looking at the bigger picture.

Wait, people honestly expect Jim Hendry to confirm or announce a fire sale? Really?

Well, Darwin's back, so it certainly is.

I hope his nacho cheese machine explodes in his face. Of course that will happen when he's left it on for days and he's screaming at it for not magically making cheese.

I [expletive] hate fans like that. If you know [expletive] is going to be awful forever then stop being a fan of the team. You suck at everything, Bum.

Nice.

Did he say "funky butt-lovin'?!?!"

SIGN THAT KID: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Cubs-fan-8217-s-incredible-throw-returns-Tejada?urn=mlb-wp11089

The gulls are going to be real confused.

Nope, try again.

Man, he shoulda dove. Sure, could have resulted in an in the park HR, but at least there would have been trying! What the [expletive] is Cusack wearing?

Because those are the hardest balls to catch and judge and he's not a very good OF and "going all out" would likely make things worse.

Yeah, I really don't know what people are talking about when they say he loafs after grounders or hits in the gap. He's slowed down in general, but I think it's just how he runs. He has this weird gallop that just doesn't "look" very fast for a guy with his reputation for speed. I remember when he was still stealing bases I never thought he actually looked very fast. But I could easily be wrong, since this is based off of the usually lame "eye check."

Well said.

So you think he regularly gives up on balls he should catch and regularly detrimentally loafs on plays (presumably turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples)?

So, wait, is this something you're going to back up only through anecdotal evidence? Because a player routinely giving up on balls they could catch would be something that, y'know, wouldn't just escape defensive metrics.

We're not talking about a 2% chance. And we're also not talking about "diving" into the wall. We're talking about running back fullspeed, gaining body control, leaping to catch the ball, and bracing for impact. OFs do that routinely (or at least attempt it). Soriano attempts it almost never. Heck he flunks the running fullspeed part most of the time, even when there's no wall in the equation. Yes, because he's not good at managing the wall, we've already established that. I have no idea why you'd want someone like that trying what you just described. You want him to "routinely attempt" something he's terrible at? Seems weird. I want him to routinely attempt to try his hardest to catch anything hit in his direction. Instead what I see is a guy that gives up quickly and is content to trot after the ball and pick it up when it stops rolling. Then your expectations are absurd. Why you would want a player with glaring OF weakness attempting whenever possible basically the most difficult thing an OF can do makes absolutely no sense to me. It would be one thing if Soriano was this talented defensive whiz who was just lazy, but he's not. "Trying hard" isn't automatically a good thing if it means trying for jumping and diving catches means you're giving up unnecessary doubles and triples. I mean, your argument is essentially "hey, guy who isn't a very good OF...I want you to be regularly BETTER than most OF by routinely attempting things that most guys actually don't routinely attempt (even though I'm convinced they do) and that are almost always beyond the realm of your defensive ability."

We're not talking about a 2% chance. And we're also not talking about "diving" into the wall. We're talking about running back fullspeed, gaining body control, leaping to catch the ball, and bracing for impact. OFs do that routinely (or at least attempt it). Soriano attempts it almost never. Heck he flunks the running fullspeed part most of the time, even when there's no wall in the equation. Yes, because he's not good at managing the wall, we've already established that. I have no idea why you'd want someone like that trying what you just described. You want him to "routinely attempt" something he's terrible at? Seems weird. And no, OF across baseball do not "routinely" do that. Most will opt to play it off the wall. You're conflating Web Gems with everyday baseball.

[expletive] THAT CORNER, BLUE.