Sammy Sofa

Gambit.

"HO-HO, SO-TO!!!!" http://devan1.tripod.com/Pics/Jabba.jpg

"Aramis hustling!"

Whoops.

Hill was not happy with that pitch. I know a few counts have gotten high or full, but has he avoided walking anyone today?

Except he can play CF.

DEFENSE SCORES RUNS, MAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN.

What, he couldn't k all three batters? WHAT A SHAM CLOSER.

YAH!!! UZE YER PENIS, D00D!!!!

Yeah, this has been mentiond before, that the Orioles might be killing time since they want Cedeno and think that they might be able to just snatch him up and thens till milk the Cubs for an extra player for Roberts. I don't see Cedeno being released if Cintron is injured, unless the Cubs do sign Lopez. See, this doesn't make much sense to me. If the Os want Cedeno, the only way to guarantee that they get him is if they trade for him. If he is released, he's free to go wherever he wants. The O's aren't guaranteed to get him in that case. My thinking is if they think Cedeno is going to be released maybe they think "hey Cubs, he's not good enough for your roster, why should we accept him as part of a trade for Roberts.....we want more" I was trying to think from the Orioles' position of anti-logic.

How is this not on TV? It's Saturday, Cubs vs. Sox, I'm finally home to watch one...thanks a lot, jerks.

Yeah, this has been mentiond before, that the Orioles might be killing time since they want Cedeno and think that they might be able to just snatch him up and thens till milk the Cubs for an extra player for Roberts. I don't see Cedeno being released if Cintron is injured, unless the Cubs do sign Lopez.

Oh, good. Watch, we won't get Roberts and DeRosa gets traded for peanuts for "talking out of line."

No. Pie is a mythical creature like a centaur. He's not real.

Quickly? Hendry has been here since 94, and GM for 5 years. Right, but the green light to get the big pricey FA names seemingly only showed up in the last year or so. An organization this hapless suddenly deciding to spend big isn't the situation where I expect to see much being done that's thought out right away. What a bunch of nonsense. Hendry was given more than enough resources to field a great team every season he's been at the helm. Hendry did not have the green light to spend that huge on those types of FA's. Either way, stop painting it like I'm defending Hendry...my point is that Henry showed he was incompetent on the relatively smaller spending scale, why would he suddenly be competent spending on the Soriano-scale? It IS all about history...the sloppiness and shortsightedness of the Soriano deal makes total sense when it comes down to who was wrangling it and for what team. This team has shown that again and again its front office focus is on marketing and making money, not fielding a team. This begat crappy GM after GM, a crappy farm system, crappy scouts, crappy managers, crappy coaches...you name it. I don't see how the history of the team, especially under the Tribune, can just be discounted like it doesn't matter. It's a complete history of failure, and it's mapped out by a chain of events that have us where we're at today. None of this just happened out of nowhere. The failures of one year lead to asinine and halfassed attempts to tweek things or repair them the next, further bogging the team down in mediocrity and expanding its flaws. None of it happens in a vacuum...they just keep compounding the probems or making new ones in their sloppy attempts to fix what's already wrong. Henry was given the resources before Soriano to field a decent team, but with the history of no accountability or real interest in doing so from anyone aove him, why was that going to happen? All they've done is open up the money bin, but dumped it all on the same crappy management/scouting system they've maintained variations of for 20 years now.

Quickly? Hendry has been here since 94, and GM for 5 years. Right, but the green light to get the big pricey FA names seemingly only showed up in the last year or so. An organization this hapless suddenly deciding to spend big isn't the situation where I expect to see much being done that's thought out right away.

HE'S GOT BLISTAHS ON HE FINGAHS.

Ichiro is still only hitting .119.

That only matters if there was some sort of rule that said they had to sign him in the first place. It was only Jim Hendry's incompetence that put him in a position where he felt so desperate to make the signing. And there it is. Unless we can somehow convince ourselves that how many ever millions we're going to be giving this guy for seasons age 35-40 aren't going to be a waste because our revenue streams rival that of Microsoft, that is A LOT of money that could be going elsewhere. Arguing otherwise is ridiculous. The chain reaction that made the Cubs "need" to sign Soriano started rolling well before Hendry got here. It's an epic legacy of failure and stupidity and missed chances. That's a bit too fatalist for my tastes. I could see putting some of the blame on Ed Lynch, Andy MacPhail, et al. But to blame it on the sucky 70's and beyond seems like quite the stretch. His responsibility is to do what's best for the organization, and that's to get the most value out of every dollar he spends. He has unequivocally not fulfilled that responsibility. I mean, yay, we're the best team in the worst division, and at best, the 2nd best team in the inferior league. The fact that the Cleveland Indians, with a fraction of our payroll, could wipe the floor with us more often than not should send alarms up as to how poorly this team has been run. When you're run piss-poorly for decades, why should it suddenly turn around so quickly? This organization has shown little idea for the better part of a century as to how to have a winning season, and that did not change under the Tribune. There's not a recent example that can be fallen back on as to what they should be doing more of. Just they fact they went out and overspent for a player Soriao was unprecedented. Hendry is just the latest in a long line of suck.

That only matters if there was some sort of rule that said they had to sign him in the first place. It was only Jim Hendry's incompetence that put him in a position where he felt so desperate to make the signing. And there it is. Unless we can somehow convince ourselves that how many ever millions we're going to be giving this guy for seasons age 35-40 aren't going to be a waste because our revenue streams rival that of Microsoft, that is A LOT of money that could be going elsewhere. Arguing otherwise is ridiculous. The chain reaction that made the Cubs "need" to sign Soriano started rolling well before Hendry got here. It's an epic legacy of failure and stupidity and missed chances.

The injury means more than fewer SB, it means missed time, which has already happened and likely will continue to happen. Maybe. Or maybe not attempting to steal as many bases will help avoid significant DL time. Stealing wasn't what hurt him in the first place. Never said it was.

It was perfectly clear to me and many others here. Can't help it if you weren't paying attention like the rest of us. [-X [-X I simply want the Cubs to win the division, the league and the World Series this year, that's all. To put any hope on having Wood as the closer, given his history of DL stints and who knows how many games he wasn't or won't be available, is bad decision making. Again, he has ZERO saves in his career. How would you ever determine a closer if they're not allowed to ever get their first save? Everyone starts at zero.

The injury means more than fewer SB, it means missed time, which has already happened and likely will continue to happen. Maybe. Or maybe not attempting to steal as many bases will help avoid significant DL time.

Not even close to the same. Dlee's fluke 2005 was unlike anything he'd come close to in his career. Soriano flirted with 40/40 on a regular basis. But when you pay him what the Cubs paid him, you better be expecting that out of him. Flirting is one thing...look how many times 40/40 has actually been accomplished. Expecting a player to do it agan is statistially pretty ridiculous. He had the drop off last year due to the injury time. Had he not missed that, he likely would have come near 40 home runs again. Again, I'm all about the one part of the 40's, not the stolen bases part. I don't see why everyone automatically assumes that because he's lost some speed, his bat is somehow going to suffer as well. Not being able to steal 40 bases is pretty far from not being able to steal bases at all, so it's not like his stealing "threat" is gone for people hung up on that. His speed was going to drop off relatively early in the contract due to his age anyways. Personally, I don't care whether he actually gets 40/40. But the fact remains, Soriano has been close to that on a regular basis, whereas Lee has never come close to duplicating 2005. Now, if you want to say it's unrealistic to expect Soriano to repeat his 2006, fine. That's true. But that doesn't mean it's wrong to be disappointed that your $136 million player stands little to no chance of ever living up to his contract, because the only way he could is if he regularly repeats his 2006. Well, yeah, obviously. A contract that insane is only "justified" if he duplicates a 40/40 season. It's pretty much impossible to justify that contract, and his injury, to me, does little to make it any worse than it already is. It just means he'll steal fewer bases...he's still above average speed-wise, and would likely still score around the same number of runs whether he's advanced a base through a steal or not.

Not even close to the same. Dlee's fluke 2005 was unlike anything he'd come close to in his career. Soriano flirted with 40/40 on a regular basis. But when you pay him what the Cubs paid him, you better be expecting that out of him. Flirting is one thing...look how many times 40/40 has actually been accomplished. Expecting a player to do it agan is statistially pretty ridiculous. He had the drop off last year due to the injury time. Had he not missed that, he likely would have come near 40 home runs again. Again, I'm all about the one part of the 40's, not the stolen bases part. I don't see why everyone automatically assumes that because he's lost some speed, his bat is somehow going to suffer as well. Not being able to steal 40 bases is pretty far from not being able to steal bases at all, so it's not like his stealing "threat" is gone for people hung up on that. His speed was going to drop off relatively early in the contract due to his age anyways.