Sammy Sofa

Dude, it's Aramis. He's afraid to get in front of the ball.

Only recently?

Unless he rebounds dramatically this last month, Rios has now been awful for two seasons except for a little over a month this year where he hit out of his mind. There's not much there for WS fans to be optimistic about.

Seems like you got it just fine. It's not like the White Sox get a mulligan for his bad months for the one really, really good month he had.

You mean his .335 OBP and sub .800 OPS? His line is .288/.335/.463/.798 at the CF position. I'd say that's about market value for 12M a year. That line is inflated by his performance in May of this year where he went .344 .406 .700 1.106. His next best month was in April, where he managed .277 .326 .470 .796. Everything else has been with an OPS of .760 or lower and sharply declining each month. Check out his sexy second half numbers: .256 .285 .363 .648 Ooh, BABY. That Kenny always gets his man.

When there's a good chance that pop up is going to fall in for a hit? It's not like this was a pop up to the second baseman that he lost in the sun and Soriano wasn't running full speed around the bases. That was always going to be a ball that could easily cause problems. And it's also different from a guy who is protecting himself and is cautious all the way around the bases but Soriano is aggressive after he gets on base so why is it different for him coming out of the box? I certainly don't want any changes to the team over it, but I don't think there's any reason to try to cover up lapses in hustle either. Even though it doesn't actually affect the season, it still affects the enjoyment level of most fans greatly. He still made it to third. People were talking about this like he was walking to first or just loafing around the bases. It's ridiculous to act like there's any kind of significant problem on display over the course of that AB when he still made it all the way to third base. This is what a bad season does; it gets the fans and the announcers bored and on edge so they start looking to blame every little thing like it's THE reason this team sucks. Like I said before, you're already seeing the narrative of how it's the "little things" and the "fundamentals" that are the keys as to why the team faltered this year and, whoops, lo and behold, they have a meathead-beloved managerial candidate waiting in the wings who can't shut the [expletive] up about those things (and then a backup candidate for him sitting in the booth). The script is written, the roles have been cast, and everyone is already lining up for tickets.

I guess this depends on who you ask. Given soriano's past it was very probable that he probably wouldn't put up those numbers again. And frankly he was due for some DL time. If he consistently was putting up numbers like 05 thats one thing. But he wasnt. Also I thought he changed his age just before or after the contract. I guess I'm wrong. Either way its pretty well evident that Soriano's contract is a joke. Hendry out bid himself by 20-30 million if the reports are correct. 'nuf said. Wait, what? So GM's should avoid signing players with minimal DL time because they'll be "due" for some? And they shouldn't necessarily sign someone after a career year? Why not? Soriano hasn't had to duplicate his 2005 to be very useful. Yes, we all agree it's a terrible contract (and should agree that Rios' is just a baby version of it), but your reasoning over why it's bad is very bizarre. yes I know what his contract is. I don't think its that bad and neither does fangraphs amongst others. If we can agree that cameron and rios are comparable then its not crazy to think that Cameron at 37 should make less than Rios at 29. Cameron is making less than Rios. I don't understand why this is even coming up; Rios' contract is terrible because of its longevity. Cameron was only signed to two years to a reasonable rate. It's effecting them because they're paying a guy at least $12 million a year for the rest of his contract who, even now, can't keep up with the meager estimations that Fangraphs had for him to be productive. It wasn't a good move by Williams because the end result is them paying way too much for a pretty average player. In some ways it's even worse than Soriano because instead of dishing out his own incredibly stupid and expensive contract he went out and willfully took on someone else's.

maybe if you read the part where I said "signing soriano was stupid because..." But then you talked about signing him "at the height of his career" and how "he had never been on the DL," which are good things, and then brought up the age issue as if it came up after he signed with the Cubs when it didn't. Mike Cameron signed a 2-year deal before this season that is paying him $15.5 million total. Rios is signed through 2014 and after this year is making at least $12 million a year for the rest of his contract. Rios' contract might be tolerable to certain teams if he can maintain his production, but it doesn't really fit in with the budgets that the White Sox have been set with for a while now. They've got an old team that's going to need a lot of turnover, so unless Reinsdorff is going to open up the wallet and expand their payroll, paying $12 million a year for Alex Rios isn't in their best interests.

I think you're unaware of the details of Rios' contract. And I have no idea if you're defending or slamming the Cubs' signing of Soriano. That was a bizzare, rambling rant.

Yes. Expecting older players with a recent leg injury histories to automatically bust ass over a pop up is dumb.

Anyone who thinks that picking up Rios was a good move must think that the Cubs' signing of Soriano was a stroke of brilliance.

So that means you actually think they were good moves, right?

I hate all of you. The Cubs have decided who the scapegoat will be, the roles have been assigned and now the rubes are lapping it up, JUST LIKE THEY WANT.

[expletive] that.

Well, Hendry is stupid like that.

I didn't know a 71 point difference in OPS was consistent.

That doesn't sound like a good strategy at all.

Agreed. I'd much rather that they just keep Fukudome for the final year of his contract. If Colvin is the 4th OF he can still get plenty of AB's platooning with Fukudome and spelling for Byrd and Soriano when they need a day off. I'd like to see Nady brought back in that scenario as well if he keeps up his resurgence for the rest of the year.

Disagree with you. Fuku's contract is a sunk cost. Colvin's contract in comparison is minimal. Colvin is younger, will be cheaper and is under team contract for longer than Fukudome. The team should be thinking about the future not this year. Colvin should be playing first, with Kosuke in RF. Nady getting ABs is what makes no sense. Getting a team to take a portion of Kosuke's contract would have been easier if he were playing as he is every day. And it is not sunk cost, or at least it didn't have to be. It's the same sort of stupidity that sending Z to the pen the second times was. And what if Kosuke can't be traded? Then we have the same problem going into 2011. Actually, Nady getting starts makes plenty of sense if they're thinking of bringing him back, especially if they're determined to move Fukudome. Nady's performance over the last month+ hopefully shows that he's recovered from his surgery, which would make him very valuable.

Personally, I "gave up" on the Bears before the preseason. They didn't or couldn't do enough to improve the offense.

Not bad enough!

Probably because the main reason that we haven't seen much of Fukudome is that the Cubs have been insistent on playing Colvin instead, even when it would have behooved them to have been attempting to be showcasing Fukudome for a trade if they were and are indeed (foolishly) determined to trade him.

About time you fools embraced reality.

Sorry he wasn't as insightful as "Fukudome not terrible??"

What does it matter if a GM "always gets his guy" (and KW doesn't) if "his guy" usually isn't what the team actually needs?