Sammy Sofa

What the hell are you talking about. The Cubs aren't running a charity. Why the hell should they trade a useful left handed pitcher who can start and relieve just because you feel bad for him?

So would I, but aside from DeRosa, when has Hendry sold high on a player? Jose Ceda and Kevin Hart probably qualify. Sean Gallagher would as well. I guess it could be argued he sold reasonably high on Choi and Bobby Hill, too. What about Clement? Clement was let go in free agency by the Cubs. That's probably a little bit of a different category in which a few notable names would appear. Ah, my mistake. I was thinking he was part of the Nomar deal.

So would I, but aside from DeRosa, when has Hendry sold high on a player? Jose Ceda and Kevin Hart probably qualify. Sean Gallagher would as well. I guess it could be argued he sold reasonably high on Choi and Bobby Hill, too. What about Clement?

"YOU MONSTER." http://www.old-picture.com/indians/pictures/Old-Indian-Man.jpg

YOU be quiet. You were the butt of arguably the best joke. Hey, the guy has a lot of experience with special ed classes.

You be quiet. This is the best thing this site has produced in years.

When was the last time Lou seemed "all that happy" to you ?? During batting practice before game 1 of the 08 NLDS? It's kind of weird to see yet another well regarded manager limp his way to the conclusion of his contract after all the fanfare that was had when they began their Cubs career. Each one promised they were going to do good things and take the Cubs to a World Series. They all professed that they did not feel like the Cubs were cursed or that there was any difference between this club and the other 29 teams. I'm not saying there is, but its strangely fascinating to see the life slowly being kicked out of these guys. Baylor and Baker looked depressed and overwhelmed during the end of their tenures, while Lou is somewhere in la la land and seems like he can't come to grips with how things have turned out in his tenure with the team. I kind of want the next manager to be a nobody at least in the minds of the casual Cubs fan. I am sick of the fanfare surrounding our manager, but I think the powers that be want a manager they can market. I want a boring ass manager that is never the star of the show. I just want a GM who knows what they're doing and can ignore the manager when necessary. What you're describing ironically happened in no small part to Hendry letting himself be lead around by Dusty and Lou and their dumb ass ideas as to how a team should be built. I basically want a GM who knows what they are doing and a manager who won't mess it up. If the GM knows what they're doing then the manager has to go pretty out of their way to [expletive] up the team. Replacing Hendry is key. If they by some miracle actually end up with a good GM they could let Lou, Dusty, whoever the [expletive] they want out there.

Sad. I remember going to a Bullets game when I was a kid when he and Muggsy were on the team and it kinda freaked me out.

When was the last time Lou seemed "all that happy" to you ?? During batting practice before game 1 of the 08 NLDS? It's kind of weird to see yet another well regarded manager limp his way to the conclusion of his contract after all the fanfare that was had when they began their Cubs career. Each one promised they were going to do good things and take the Cubs to a World Series. They all professed that they did not feel like the Cubs were cursed or that there was any difference between this club and the other 29 teams. I'm not saying there is, but its strangely fascinating to see the life slowly being kicked out of these guys. Baylor and Baker looked depressed and overwhelmed during the end of their tenures, while Lou is somewhere in la la land and seems like he can't come to grips with how things have turned out in his tenure with the team. I kind of want the next manager to be a nobody at least in the minds of the casual Cubs fan. I am sick of the fanfare surrounding our manager, but I think the powers that be want a manager they can market. I want a boring ass manager that is never the star of the show. I just want a GM who knows what they're doing and can ignore the manager when necessary. What you're describing ironically happened in no small part to Hendry letting himself be lead around by Dusty and Lou and their dumb ass ideas as to how a team should be built.

Can't start Soto since the last game ended only 17 hours ago, dude. That's barely even a full night's sleep! I'm personally grateful that we have someone like Lou who is so thoughtful and concerned about his players' well-being.

Fuckin' post dates; how do they work?!?!?

Colvin could keep hitting exceptionally well, but the odds are much greater that Kosuke is the better player over the course of the season. Coupled with Kosuke's trade value likely dropping if he's benched, the right move is to stick with Kosuke. I'm all for getting Colvin as many ABs as possible, but I'm not in favor of benching the guys who are most likely to help us win this year. The trio of outfielders have been easily our best hitters this year (save for maybe Soto) and we shouldn't be benching any of them. The best way to get Colvin ABs is to let him hit for whoever needs a day off or whoever is struggling. Kosuke and Soriano have both proven to be streaky players, so giving Colvin more ABs when one of them is mired in an extended slump is fine. Outright benching any of them is not the solution, though. Great points.

Yes. I don't know why you're not grasping this. It's not like I want him to fail, but it would be surprising if Colvin consistently hit 20+ HR each season as a starting OF. His success thus far this season, while a pleasant surprise, is nowhere near being proof that he'd be a 20+ HR guy every season. I have no problem with Colvin getting most of the RF starts if Fukudome is traded, but in the meantime it's simply not realistic to have him starting over the main 3 OF. You can't bench Fukudome if you expect to pull of a decent trade, Colvin definitely cannot man CF full time and a streaky Soriano is still more likely to be more beneficial to the team getting more starts than Colvin. It is hard to grasp when you change your argument, yes. It has now gone from Colvin ever hitting 20 in a full season being a "llooooooooooooonnnng shot", to "it would be surprising if he did it consistently". I have never even argued the point of him doing it consistently. I haven't argued whether he should get more playing time in this awkward outfield situation. I was arguing "loooooooooooong" shot for 20 when the guy is on a 40 HR pace. I haven't changed anything. I thought we were always talking about whether he could do it consistently as a starting OF, but yes, I do also think it would be a long shot for him to hit at least 20 this year if he became a starting OF for the Cubs today. His performance in a limited role thus far this season is in no way a guarantee that he'd continue at the pace he's currently on as a starter, or even be anywhere near that pace, or even that he'll continue at this pace in the role that he's currently in. I'll be very surprised if Colvin finishes this year with 20 or more home runs, either in his current part time role or if he basically becomes a starting OF if Fukudome is traded.

Yes. I don't know why you're not grasping this. It's not like I want him to fail, but it would be surprising if Colvin consistently hit 20+ HR each season as a starting OF. His success thus far this season, while a pleasant surprise, is nowhere near being proof that he'd be a 20+ HR guy every season. I have no problem with Colvin getting most of the RF starts if Fukudome is traded, but in the meantime it's simply not realistic to have him starting over the main 3 OF. You can't bench Fukudome if you expect to pull of a decent trade, Colvin definitely cannot man CF full time and a streaky Soriano is still more likely to be more beneficial to the team getting more starts than Colvin. As long as he keeps hitting, thats reason enough to keep him playing regardless. Hes OPSing over 1.000, and has 3 fewer home runs than Jason Heyward in less than half the ABs. When the main thing killing this team is offense, when your 1 of the few guys on the team whose hitting, your going to play even if you cost the over priced guys playing time. Again, he can't play CF well enough to start there regularly, you can't bench Fukudome if you expect the team to be able to make any kind of a good trade moving him and regardless of what some people refusing to believe the odds are much better that Soriano, flaws and all, will be more productive over the course of the season as the starting RF than Colvin. And hell, it's tremendously likely that Colvin is hitting this well BECAUSE he's not starting full time. Just let him hit off the bench and spot start for all of the other OF (hell, let him start for Fukudome against lefties to get a bit more of an idea if he can hit them) and then ideally he gets the bulk of the RF starts after Fukudome is (hopefully) traded.

Yes. I don't know why you're not grasping this. It's not like I want him to fail, but it would be surprising if Colvin consistently hit 20+ HR each season as a starting OF. His success thus far this season, while a pleasant surprise, is nowhere near being proof that he'd be a 20+ HR guy every season. I have no problem with Colvin getting most of the RF starts if Fukudome is traded, but in the meantime it's simply not realistic to have him starting over the main 3 OF. You can't bench Fukudome if you expect to pull of a decent trade, Colvin definitely cannot man CF full time and a streaky Soriano is still more likely to be more beneficial to the team getting more starts than Colvin.

You're kidding with that today, right? Meh, can't be much worse than Theriot at this point. Theriot is posting a whopping 595 OPS vs leftys this year. Pick your poison, basically. I don't mind Theriot still starting against LH if they're really going to shop him or listen to trade offers since that way he has at least a chance of looking better.

You're kidding with that today, right?

Hasn't the city of Detroit suffered enough?

Both.

The Cubs will win due to one of the least frustrating lineups Lou has posted all year.

What, you wanted 3 pages about Jake Fox? Weirdo.

Absolutely. Ramirez is a fabulous second banana. Lee has on occasion been a star, but he's usually just an also ran in the 1B department. The really good lineups have ARod or Manny or Pujols or Utley. If you are a huge budget team, you should have one of that type of player, plus the Aramis type. Exactly. Both guys are incredibly useful players to have, but you don't build a team around either one of them as the Cubs attempted to do.

It seems multiple people are thinking I'm saying that the Cubs shouldn't have signed Lee and Aramis or that their contracts were unreasonable or bad singings; I'm not. I'm saying that when a team's payroll is able to top out near $150 million then Aramis and Lee should not and cannot be expected to be the very best offensive players that that team has. That's not saying they shouldn't have been signed; I'm saying that if almost $150 million is spent and they're expected to be the offensive cornerstones then something's been fucked up.

Lee and Aramis are like the last guys I think of on this team in terms of having bad contracts. My point is that the teams with big payrolls tend to lock up most of their money in good players whereas the Cubs seem to love spreading it around too much overpaying for the wrong guys time and time again. Yeah, but Lee and Aramis fit the description from your previous post pretty well. I disagree. Yeah, Lee had 2005, but wrist injury or not that didn't make him a sure thing. The Cubs shelling out after one (admittedly amazing) year for a guy expecting him to be THE guy as the #3 hitter is indicative of how they've spending their payroll poorly as its expanded. And even Aramis isn't what I'm talking about. You look at the teams typically spending at or above the Cubs and their idea of at least one "sure thing" is going and getting someone who is basically a HOF lock. Aramis has been great for this team, but for the money they had available they should have been able to find someone better than him (though I'm not saying instead of him) and definitely better than Lee. No team is going to spend smart 100% of the time, but for the money they had available the Cubs should have been able to come away with someone better than Lee or Soriano or even Aramis.

Lee and Aramis are like the last guys I think of on this team in terms of having bad contracts. My point is that the teams with big payrolls tend to lock up most of their money in good players whereas the Cubs seem to love spreading it around too much overpaying for the wrong guys time and time again.