Sammy Sofa

Great year for Lee.

To be fair, the sombrero's a bit much, but with all the community involvement Pujols does, how do you know Pujols has not in fact taken a lawn mower and mowed his lawn? Good point. He's a classy guy like that and a sombrero would just practical doing all that hard work in the hot sun, which is something that someone as brilliant as Pujols would realize. I love Albert Pujols.

Facing a couple of pitchers [expletive] the bed definitely helps. Classy avatar you have there.

The horror begins.

Which is stupid because even in his career year he wasn't a big RBI guy. You can't really make a player into something they're not.

In the long run they're basically a wash.

Whut? DeRosa and Edmonds, duh It's remarkable the Cubs let two once-in-a-lifetime players get away like that. It makes letting Maddux sign with the Braves seem like nothing at all.

Whut?

Dude, slow down. Go Tweet or something and get it out of your system. You're Roasting it up here something fierce.

The question is: what would be the purpose of that? If indeed Bradley refused to play when asked to, such a grievance could backfire easily. What if he's claiming he didn't want to pinch-hit because he thought he was injured?

The Reds owe the Cubs a favor for drafting and trading Josh Hamilton. Time to call that favor in. :D If Dusty is still around that might not be a bad idea. Milton and Dusty would be a match made in heaven. The Cubs apparently were interested in signing Milton prior to the 2006 season and Dusty and Milton met and apparently that didn't go well.

I'm not going to get a "twitch" over DeRosa's unremarkable at best season. I'm definitely optimistic about next season, though I don't see it as some kind of sure thing. A lot of it hinges on whether Soriano and Soto can bounce back and whether or not Harden is back and healthy and used correctly.

He was very upfront about how bad he was doing when he started so cold.

Would have been nice much earlier in the season but Fontenot is looking much better at the plate lately. I definitely think he'll hold some value as a bench guy next season.

That's a good point. And I don't want to give the impression that I dump the Cubs at the drop of a hat, just that I believe everyone has a point where it ceases to be worthwhile to stick with any particular endeavor. I have the same emotional attachment that most here do, and it's not necessarily easy to just stop caring. But it grates a bit when people act like it's literally impossible. Who said it's literally impossible?

That's not a fact at all. Oh, but it is. Has Milton Bradley performed above or below expectations? Heck, he's well below his career norms, which ends this debate right now. And yet that still makes him a productive player.

That's not a fact at all.

"Milton Bradley did absolutely nothing to help the Cubs win games. Had he done that, you learn to live with it. In fact, the distractions on and off the field were helping them lose games." How? Milton Bradley was crippling their ability to hit with RISP? What an amazingly selective clubhouse cancer.

He basically flat-out said that Bradley contributed nothing offensively this year.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! WHAT A [expletive] FAGGOT WHO TAKES IT IN THE [expletive]!!!

And where is anyone saying that people can't watch another team or root for another team over individual games or series? Do you not see the difference between that and completely changing your allegiance again and again when someone asks you the question "what team are you a fan of?" Almost everyone here has teams they root for other than the Cubs in the playoff series in that particular context of the Cubs not being in it. It's not like everyone here turns off baseball once the Cubs are out of it or the playoffs being without the Cubs. Honestly, if the Cubs right now are enough for someone to give up on them and completely change their fandom then they haven't been a fan prior to 2003. To completely change one's fandom over a crappy year, especially if they claim to be a Cubs fan, is a load of [expletive] and it was never more than a dalliance or bandwagon deal to begin with. This is what it is to be a Cubs fan (and a sports fan in general) far more often than not, for better or for worse. You stick with your team when it comes down to the THE team you are a fan of through whatever happens. If all you're going to do is slink off in shame when the team is bad and then come back when they're good, what's the point of claiming to be a fan of anything in the first place? That's not being a fan of anything in particular except winning.

Or they just keep him as a serviceable sorta-supersub and good bat to have off the bench.

Yes. These games are meaningless and making this big of a deal just causes the Cubs' bargaining position in trading Bradley plummet from minimal to practically non-existent.

I think you're confused about what a "copout" is. So are you saying I have a responsibility to stand by the Cubs, no matter how poorly run they are, no matter how unpleasant they are to watch? No matter how many predictably stupid moves they make, even though I'm powerless to change these things? Okay, then, I happily admit I'm "copping out" of my sacred responsibility as a Cubs fan, whenever it suits me. My point was that people are responsible for their own choices, and if you reach a point where your decision to be a Cubs fan is making your life miserable, it's a copout to say you can't change it. Whether or not to follow the team is ultimately the only power you DO have in this situation, and you'd be a fool to rule it out over some archaic romantic idea that it's in your blood or some crap like that. I never said it was some kind of "sacred responsibility:" I just don't see the point in giving up on a team one has rooted for all or most of their life because they're often bad. If that's the idea, why root for any team ever for any prolonged period of time unless they're winning? There's also a huge difference between choosing to not watch or follow a team and actually becoming a fan of a different team altogether. Of course anyone here COULD change being fans of the Cubs: any statements along those lines should be obvious hyperbole.

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