Sammy Sofa

Welp it's the 5th inning.

That's been a WGN hallmark for, well, ever.

While the come from behind walkoff wins are great, a nice comfortable one where the Cubs always have the lead would be swell. FIRST INNING RUNS, PLEASE.

If you're seriously assuming that Hendry can dump Miles AND his contract then you have to assume that the chances the Cubs get anything of value back are slim to none, which would be fine by me. Blanco is essentially Miles with at least better MI defense and is dirt cheap.

It was like vintage 2005. Damn you, Furcal.

He's the best one this team has by far.

Wrong. If Soriano stops swinging at that slider and takes his walk like he did there the cubs offense would be in pretty good shape. Well... that's a pretty big "if". Soriano has never taken walks and he's always swung at bad pitches. He is a HORRIBLE baseball player, who just happens to have the ability to hit mistakes out of the ballpark. There also isn't a single aspect of his game that suggests he should hit leadoff. Look at this quote from Lou: "We've been through this many times," Piniella sighed. "When we signed Alfonso, he was a leadoff hitter. We've won two divisions with him being a leadoff hitter. What else can I say? He's struggling. We just got to hope he gets hot." He was not a leadoff hitter, ever. He just bats first because he's a whiny little girl when he doesn't. We've also been swept in the first round twice with him being a leadoff hitter. The problem with Soriano, is that even when he is hot, he is still a horrible leadoff hitter! Lou thinks that he is being a productive leadoff hitter when he is hitting long balls, and that is just not the case. He should be hitting long balls with people on base. [/RANT] When has Soriano been a "whiny little girl" with the Cubs when he hasn't been in the leadoff spot? And I cannot fathom how he is a horrible leadoff hitter when he's hot. The goal of a leadoff hitter is to cross home plate. Soriano, when he's hot, just singlehandedly accelerates the process.

Man, I had to leave for work right after Bradley made the first out in the bottom of the 9th. I couldn't watch the rest, but I had a good feeling that they'd somehow pull it off after coming back to 7-6. I'm glad that feeling turned out to be valid.

I can't belive I'm saying it, but I miss the old Theriot.

Theriot, PLEASE, PLEASE remeber how you used to be able to shoot singles through the infield before you started downing PED's like Skittles.

Damn, Clutchiano!

YES! Cubs were owed that after getting robbed of 2 runs by 2 great defensive plays earlier.

And his numbers facing lefties are horrible. Lou shouldn't have burned Fontenot and just stuck with him.

Let "At least" be a guide that perhaps the person speaking or posting is not claiming that it's an ideal situation. That's not how sarcasm works, but OK.

yup that definitely would have been worst case scenario. Yeah, I don't know why that would have been so horrible since people would be talking about it only if the Cubs actually kept winning.

I'd rather have Marshall and Harden in the rotation.

But he's not overrated. He's considered one of the best pitchers of the game when he's healthy and consistent. And hes very very rarely consistent and healthy so in my opinion hes overrated. I don't know how much more simple this can be explained: Harden is "rated" with his health issues and inconsistencies in mind. He'd be overrated if those factors were ignored. They're not.

But he's not overrated. He's considered one of the best pitchers of the game when he's healthy and consistent.

I think he's extremely inconsistent. Which is part of the reason hes overrated as hell. I don't know how he's overrated as hell. He was great for the Cubs last year. But everybody has always acknowledged that his weakness is staying healthy and being consistently effective. Hes making 7 million dollars and when healthy is widely regarded as 1 of the best pitchers in the game supposedly. Hes healthy and hasnt been very effective. You basically just repeated what gooney said.

Ow, right onto the bullpen phone.

Wonderful.

There's zero chance of Hendry being fired while the team is unsold, so you might as well stop with the delusion that there's a chance it would happen. You didn't catch my drift :? So the green means you agree that the repeated cries for him to be fired mid-season are redundant and tedious?

There's zero chance of Hendry being fired while the team is unsold, so you might as well stop with the delusion that there's a chance it would happen.

Never stop leaving games early.

You certainly can expect a GM to act responsibly and understand the consquences of such longterm deals. He cannot expect payroll to climb indefinitely. He has to operate under a sense of caution that any huge deal now will effect future deals. Furthermore, he knew at the time ownership was in limbo and there was not a clear indication what future budgets would be. He was in a CYA frame of mind, doing what he could do to be successful as soon as possible so the outgoing executives could justify giving him a contract. His only concern was a short-term fix from the disastrous teams he put together in 2005 and 2006 that should have led to his firing. But since Andy gave him a deal on his way out the door, and ownership was preoccupied, he was given a free pass. What was uncertain was his employment status in 2009 and beyond, so he spent lavishly on a good, but very far from great player who could help in the short-term but was obviously going to hurt them in the long-term. Yes, you can, and should expect a GM to plan responsibly for the future. Agreed, but again, planning for the future should not and cannot include "I wonder if 3 three and a half years from now my team will be locked in a prolonged selling process that will hold up any midseason deals I can do." I never said a GM should plan for the future. My point is that planning for what's actually tying up the Cubs' spending right now (the sale of the team) isn't really feasable.