Sammy Sofa

But we aren't having to wait until Sori's contract is over. So I guess I don"t see your point. Yeah, no kidding. The Cubs can hypothetically add Pujols (and more) in this coming off season even though Soriano still has 3 years left on his contract.

If the the 5 great years of production are coming courtesy of Albert Pujols? Of course. And the Cubs aren't hampered by Soriano's contract; they're hampered by his contract because of the sale. Unless we're thinking the Cubs are going to be sold sometime during the final years of Pujols' contract, then no, worrying about his money would limit the team isn't terribly realistic. A team like the Cubs can easily eat big contracts when they're not hampered by the process of being sold. Again, the area that should be of more concern is overpaying for role players, not overpaying for one of the greatest hitters ever.

Soto's value probably isn't all that high right now.

I said I don't hate him. I just don't view him with same mystique as others here do. You want another 6+ year contract? If it's a truly great player and that's the only way the Cubs are going to get him? Of course. Being flatly opposed to 6+ year contracts would be a terrible idea.

They are patient as long as they're prospects, but one they get to the big leagues and struggle some, they tend to give up. Felix Pie and Rich Hill come to mind. Of course Hills been awful since, but it was a bit early to ship him out for nothing. The obvious exception here is Samardzjia, but with him there's the matter of the contract and NTC. Pie wasn't a pitching prospect. See Truffle's post about Hill. Your jab was pretty obviously inaccurate. Yes, the Cubs have screwed up when it comes to position prospects like Patterson and Pie, but pitching prospects...no.

So how do you think he got away with hiding his age over the last decade? Anything I say is anecdotal, but I used to work for the company that sold his JC's team in KC all their gear. Consensus among those people was he's much older. If you look at the old team pics he's markedly thicker, especially upper-body and through the hips. Make of that what you will. And what would they be basing that on? And why wouldn't that information have not been leaked or exposed? That would be a huge story. Plus you had the huge crackdown in the wake of 9/11 with all the extra scrutiny being paid to player's visas and documentation. Yes, you had guys who sort of snuck through like Soriano because of his relatively weird path coming from Japan and the type of vias he had due to that...so how would Pujols have escaped the investigations that exposed the real ages of several other players? I don't know. That's why I qualified it by saying anecdotal; from my impressions there was a huge degree of jealousy/animosity present with the people he knew in KC. So would you be willing to admit that the available evidence and a logical analysis of the situation would make any conclusion that he's somehow hiding his true age to be very farfetched and not really a good argument against the Cubs signing him?

But nobody is saying pay him 30/10 just because the Cubs can. What's being said is that if that's what it takes, do it.

So how do you think he got away with hiding his age over the last decade? Anything I say is anecdotal, but I used to work for the company that sold his JC's team in KC all their gear. Consensus among those people was he's much older. If you look at the old team pics he's markedly thicker, especially upper-body and through the hips. Make of that what you will. And what would they be basing that on? And why wouldn't that information have not been leaked or exposed? That would be a huge story. Plus you had the huge crackdown in the wake of 9/11 with all the extra scrutiny being paid to player's visas and documentation. Yes, you had guys who sort of snuck through like Soriano because of his relatively weird path coming from Japan and the type of vias he had due to that...so how would Pujols have escaped the investigations that exposed the real ages of several other players?

Exactly.

IT'S PUJOLS. THE CUBS HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY. IT'S PUJOLS. MY WHITE SOX FAN GRANDPA SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ALBERT BELLE. Hahahahahaahahaah! Really? OK, let's hope the Cubs don't sign Albert [expletive] Pujols because Albert Belle existed. Ok, laugh at me when you're the one being flippant Because you're being hilarious. And yes, I'm going to be "flippant" when we here for the bajillionth time someone not wanting the Cubs to sign maybe the best hitter ever because of this phobia that the Cubs are now going to a team perpetually hamstrung by a limited payroll instead of the big market team that makes a ton of money and would make a [expletive]-ton of money if they were good again and how a ginormous superstar. Signing Pujols for a ridiculous deal wouldn't preclude them from making other big FA signings, even in the same offseason, and it certainly wouldn't going forward. People are basically arguing to not sign him out of the fear of more bad smaller contracts for other players.

So how do you think he got away with hiding his age over the last decade?

IT'S PUJOLS. THE CUBS HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY. IT'S PUJOLS. MY WHITE SOX FAN GRANDPA SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ALBERT BELLE. Hahahahahaahahaah! Really? OK, let's hope the Cubs don't sign Albert [expletive] Pujols because Albert Belle existed.

IT'S PUJOLS. THE CUBS HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY. IT'S PUJOLS. Seriously, the Cubs can easily afford him even if he did get what he's asking for. Having Pujols would just make an already profitable team shoot through the roof. He'll all but pay for himself for a bunch of those years.

Yeah. I basically squealed. Not my best moment.

Love how WSR thinks the Cubs aren't patient with their pitching prospects.

PATIENCE, MAAAAAAAANNNNN.

I'm spent.

But again, you have to look at him on Pujols-levels. If he's just declining as players do as they hit their mid-30's then he's still going to better than most anyone else out there for a while. It would take some pretty serious injuries to knock him down to being that bad that relatively quickly.

Seems like a really premature postponement. Wasn't the rain pretty much done by about an hour after the scheduled start time?

I'd put off looking for another starter until 2013 since that's when both Zambrano and Dempster are coming off the books. Hell, I wouldn't mind having Zambrano back if he could be had for a smart deal. Obviously, if there's a primo FA pickup to be had after this year, definitely kick the tires. What does the starting pitching FA class look like after the 2011 season?

Given the injuries and performance thus far, you can just as easily say it's wins 83 through 88 or something like that. And those marginal wins above .500 are the most valuable. Also, BA's top 5 prospects in the system(Jackson, McNutt, Jackson, Carpenter, Vitters) are all at AA or AAA, and none of them have their position blocked by a long term guy on the MLB roster. I'd like to see Pujols kick it in gear soon to assuage some lingering doubts, but if there was ever a player worthy of making that gamble with, it's him. Adding Pujols and making a smart decision with a rotation slot and 3B could make the team a NL Central favorite quite reasonably. It's the second two parts of that that worry me. If the plan is to sign Pujols and two more good players to put together a mega-team that cruises to the next 5 NL Central titles, then of course it's worth it. If the plan is to sign Pujols for the PR aspects and then stop, I'm not as sure. Hopefully it's the former, since they can afford to do so. Follow me on my crusade, people of NSSB...PUJOLS AND REYES FOR 2012. KEMP FOR 2013.

Tell that to the Celtics.

[expletive] that noise; guys like Durant and Rose are straight up dorks.

No, it's Andre 3000's fault. Actually, it was Fonzworth Bentley fault.

The problem with waiting for the exact perfect free agent is that free agent doesn't exist. If you sit around and pass on each major free agent because there are some flaws or questions, you'll never make a big free agent signing and you'll probably never win a World Series. The Cubs are in a position right now where we have some good, young major league talent and we have a ton of prospects on their way up who look like good major leaguers. However, we have no real starpower in the minors or on the team. The potential is there for a very good supporting cast, but no core for that cast to support. We also don't have much money committed beyond 2012 and the third highest payroll in the MLB. Given all of that, one of the best players to ever play the game may just hit the open market this offseason and would give us that core player we don't have in the system. If we pass on Pujols and Fielder in the hopes that the perfect free agent falls in our lap, we'll see a lot more of the type seasons we saw in the 2000s (good teams that weren't great because they lacked a great player) in the coming years. Signing Pujols is a gamble, but sometimes you have to take gambles to win championships and if I'm going to take a gamble, I want to take one on the best player in the game. I see your points but the issue for me is the years at that money. I am not saying pass on each big free agent or the Cubs should wait on the perfect deal. I am just saying I think we pass on this deal as it is either feast or famine. I know you have to take your shots when you can but I am not willing to gamble this much as a number of things scare me: We play tons of day games. Is he really the age he says he is? True, he has played hurt at an incredible level but still he has had some worrisome injuries with more frequency in recent years-will he be as resilient as he ages? We are in the National League so no DH. Maybe I got carried away with the booing at Wrigley thing. But this just shrinks our window to win. Let's go get somebody else at a better deal when we get closer to contending. How is it "feast or famine?" All players have injury risks as they get older. Great players aren't going to settle on a safe contract that only pays them through ages 32-36 if you're signing them when they're around 30. And is really all that realistic for people to truly worry about his "real age" these days? Who honestly thinks he would have been able to hide it? And how does this shrink the Cubs' window to win? This is a team that can afford to eat contracts. They've just had issues coming to a head now because of the sale. Put a good team on the field and they make a ton of money and they can have a gigantic payroll, and Pujols is a huge step in the right direction to accomplish that.