Sammy Sofa

He won't cost much monetarily, so the only cost to the team would be prospects. If Bell cost something like Wells/Thomas or something like that, we probably would still have the means to add offense - if the money's there. Ping will be thrilled by this, I suspect. I guess. It's a very smart move if they still have the resources/money to make some kind of improvement to the offense, too.

Why? The Cubs need to be able to actually score runs to have leads for the bullpen to save.

Normally I'd agree, but he's been SO bad for SO long now. Something is up with him. At the very least he should be put on the DL if that nagging knee problem is helping drag everything down. I'm worried he's playing hurt and this team needs the old streaky Soriano ASAP. Continuing to play him hurt (if he is) isn't the way out of this. I'd say if he's not hurt then let him play out of it, but he's had well over a month to play out of it. I agree with everything you said in your post, but Soriano needs a break. Yeah I would definitely be in favor of a DL visit. Give him a couple weeks off, and throw him against weak AAA pitching on a "rehab assignment," see if we can jumpstart a hot streak by getting his confidence up. But I really don't believe he's done, but you're right about this prolonged period of awful production. At first I thought it was just my frustration towards the team unfairly directed at one person, but he hasn't had an OPS below 600 in any month before this one in the last 4 years, not to mention having a 657 OPS the month before it. Anyone watching him can see his legs are bothering him after supposedly coming into the year ready to steal bases again. I know it would give Fukudome a ton of ground to cover in center if he's got Fox and Hoff on either side of him, but honestly Fox has to be covering more ground out there than Soriano at this point. All we're doing right now is making Soriano's legs worse, which could have implications far beyond this season, especially with his history of being VERY slow to heal. Exactly. We all know his contract is an awful thing, but you might as well try and maximize what you can get out of him. Playing him while he's hurt and this bad is not doing that.

Normally I'd agree, but he's been SO bad for SO long now. Something is up with him. At the very least he should be put on the DL if that nagging knee problem is helping drag everything down. I'm worried he's playing hurt and this team needs the old streaky Soriano ASAP. Continuing to play him hurt (if he is) isn't the way out of this. I'd say if he's not hurt then let him play out of it, but he's had well over a month to play out of it. I agree with everything you said in your post, but Soriano needs a break.

ELOHELOHELOHELOH

The Pirates only managed 4 runs in 2 games against the Ass Cubs. I'd hate to be THOSE guys.

Their problems scoring go WELL beyond Soriano at this point. He is the number one culprit. You have a leadoff hitter who NEVER and I mean NEVER ignites a rally to start a game. I've been saying that for a while now here, and when he does snap out of it for short periods of time, the results are good. I can't even remember the last time he "snapped out of it", other than a few gap and bloop hits. That's the very real concern. He always had his cold streaks but usually they lasted like two or three weeks, tops. He's been awful for over a month now.

Their problems scoring go WELL beyond Soriano at this point. He is the number one culprit. You have a leadoff hitter who NEVER and I mean NEVER ignites a rally to start a game. I've been saying that for a while now here, and when he does snap out of it for short periods of time, the results are good. Soriano is hardly the "#1 culprit" for this team's offensive woes. He's been awful, but he's not causing the other players to crap the bed with runners on or in scoring position, which IS actually the number one culprit as to why their offense stinks.

Their problems scoring go WELL beyond Soriano at this point.

Sure, but they'll stink, too. If Aramis is smart he'll opt for surgery and just stay out the rest of the year.

5 Guys. In & Out is definitely good, but the burgers aren't as big or filling as the ones from 5 Guys, plus the 5 Guys' fries are worth it by themselves. The In & Out fries are just typical fries. In N Out fries are not typical fries. Exactly. You can actually watch them make the fries while sitting in the drive through. And I don't mean just watching them dump them in the grease. They actually MAKE the fries on site. So does Five Guys.

As spotty as Gaudin's pitching can be, he's far more valuable than Patton.

Ah-doy.

People keep saying "you know he's going to get hot". I'm really not so sure about that. Then the question is why. The only thing I can think of that would make this cold streak so prolonged are these knee troubles we keep hearing about.

Alright, what the hell is up with Soriano?

Best race in MLB.

That fastball is locked in and brutal tonight.

Holy [expletive]. That was a couple of merciless k's.

Freel.

Indeed.

I don't do the whole "Cobs" thing. Good man.

Why? The Pirates are actually playing decent ball, and had won 4 in a row before today. And they lost 5 in a row before that. So then wouldn't it have been better to start the series on day one of that 5 game losing streak? It would have been even better to start this series in 2008, but since we can't bend time and space I'll take what we can get.

If those are the only stats you're better off assuming that player B was on a better team. :shock: Or, if I were to look at the history of those players RBI per year, I could determine that player B was a consistent run producer, and player A wasn't. If you're only looking at RBI's per player each year? That wouldn't be a safe assumption at all. Sure, that COULD be the case, but there's much better and more accurate ways to determine whether or not a player produces with people on base than only looking at RBI totals. RBI's hinge too much on the performance of the players ahead of that hitter to be an effective stat on their own in evaluating how well he hits with guys on base. A low total in RBI's could very easily be reflective of a player who is an excellent hitter and very good at driving in runners but is on a team where the players ahead of him are awful and he's up to bat too often with nobody on or in scoring position. 2005 Derrek Lee is a primo example of this.

If those are the only stats you're better off assuming that player B was on a better team.

So you don't think there's been any kind of turnaround in the last 3 drafts? I'd have to believe he doesn't follow the minors if he doesn't think the last couple of drafts have been solid. The farm is starting to rebound really nicely. I could see 4 maybe even 5 guys (Vitters, Jay Jackson, Castro, Shark, Cashner) sneak into the top 100 if things work out. Definitely. The farm system still isn't something to crow about, but the last 3 years have been significant improvements. Hopefully they continue in that direction.