Sammy Sofa

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.

All of this because he's unlikely to ever steal 40 bases in a single season again. LOL. You're right. It's not just this. I'm projecting some of my other disappointments with Sori on to this recent story. Such as? Such as hitting 13 fewer HRs than he did his last year with the Nats, and 20 points lower in OBP. Such as coming up with only half the BB he did with the Nats in '06 (which would have greatly improved his OBP, of course). He missed time due to the leg injury, which clearly cut into how many HR's he would have had. Besides, expecting him to replicate the 40/40 years is like expecting Lee to replicate his 2005.

Drive him out to the middle of nowhere, tell him the rest of the money that's owed to him is just over the hill and then speed off when he gets out to get it.

All of this because he's unlikely to ever steal 40 bases in a single season again. LOL. You're right. It's not just this. I'm projecting some of my other disappointments with Sori on to this recent story. Such as?

All of this because he's unlikely to ever steal 40 bases in a single season again.

Is he going to insist on batting leadoff after he's crippled, too? Just askin' Can't steal 40 bases = crippled. Hm. Don't you have some spring training stats to sweat over?

No, but I sure was expecting around 25. Now it seems like we're hoping for 15 or so. As Soul mentioned above, where is he going to be in 2-3 years from now? Scary...in a bad way. Hopefully we're able to unload him on some poor sap before his contract becomes an albatross. Although it'll probably cost us a boatload of good, young farm talent before someone agrees to take him. And then we can all thank Jim Hendry. the cubs have enough revenue where they can afford to have a bad contract. manny ramirez sure wasn't worth $20M last year, and he won't be worth that much this year either. gary matthews jr and torii hunter will be badly overpaid by the angels. juan pierre's contract is a train wreck. but all these teams are in contention. even if you're a big market team, you have to be able to develop talent. that's the key, talent development, and not having too many contracts where the guy's performance is far below what he's being paid to do. But the Cubs don't have a seemingly unlimited budget like the Yanks or Red Sox do. There are budget concerns, and I'm afraid that several years down the road Sori's contract will handcuff us to the point where we won't be able to sign or trade for key pieces of the team. Based on what?

Felipe Lopez would be the biggest low risk/high reward player the Cubs could possibly get. It wouldn't cost to much to get him. The Cubs wouldn't be forced to make him an everyday player. His upside is as high as any other middle IF on the roster. I believe he's about average defensively at SS, maybe a little below. He's probably above average at 2B. It makes too much sense...therefore, Hendry isn't even considering it. I know it's a generalization, but how many times have we talked about scrap heap players with low risk/high reward that can be had for next to nothing that just pass right on by the Cubs? Hendry seems to only want to use that thought process on trying to stumble on some cheap pitchers, never, position players.

Lou says he can't pitch until Saturday at the earliest. 11 trips to the DL indicates a history to me. Let me know when you see the light. Hey, history-lover. The back is nothing new. See the posts before yours. There's a difference between the injuries and surgeries that have sidelined him for much of his career and the back problem he has to deal with in the very short term from time to time.

I say screw fairness. they put up the same numbers, virtually. roberts can steal bases, but why trade away assets to acquire something you already have? that's unfair to the organization. roberts walks more, has more doubles power and a little more home run power, steals a lot of bases and is good at it from a sb/cs perspective, and is a better defensive player. they're not virtually the same player; if roberts plays like he did in 2006 and derosa plays like he has the last two years, then they're about the same. if roberts plays like he did in 2005 and 2007, then he's better by a pretty good margin. Roberts is also younger.

No, but I sure was expecting around 25. Now it seems like we're hoping for 15 or so. As Soul mentioned above, where is he going to be in 2-3 years from now? Scary...in a bad way. I guess I just don't value steals that much. It's not like his contract would be any less ridiculous with a bunch of stolen bases.

Was anyone really expecting a man of his age to be likely to again steal 40 bases, even 100% healthy? Come on. That was window dressing.

So long as he can still smack the hell out of the ball for a few more years, I don't give a rat's crap if he never steals another base.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/bill_pecota_autograph.jpg

Nice to see Cedeno end up just a HR short of the cycle.

A Gameday link when this gets going would be much appreciated.

A black.

At this point even the two of them might not know what's actually happening. ](*,) Wouldn't suprise me if neither of those two even know where they are from moment to moment. Pretty sure Angelos has no clue to what is going on, but he hasn't had a clue in over 10 years. "Wait, wait, wait...I own a BASEBALL team?!?"

Calling them our three "top" pitching prospects is the same as calling Roberts an "all star." It's all contextual and doesnt' really matter. What matters is how they grade out as prospects. They're only "top" prospects because they're in our system. In reality, none of them are A prospects. Yeah, but it's all we really have, in terms of prospects potentially able to step in relatively soon OR prospects that are going to hae some trade value. Trading them now on a good player who is arguably very redundant and doesn't address the teams major holes could very easily leave the team damn near crippled if the precarious starting pitching balance falls apart AND if they need to make key trades by the deadline.

Yeah, we're on the verge of falling out of the srping training playoff race. Unacceptable.

Stop generalizing like they're only giving up "four position players." Three of those players are three of their top pitching prospects...pitching prospects who very well may be needed given how crappy/old our last two starting pitching spots look this year, or i injuris hit the other starters.

I didn't say anything about the high socks affecting actual physical ability. Neifi single-handedly campaigned to have the Mendoza line renamed the Perez line, sure, but at least he was wearing his socks properly while doing it. no, im saying he looked like an idiot Neifi's bulbous ass and chicken legs and general awfulness ensured he looked like an idiot no matter how he dressed.

No kidding on both. If this deal goes through, despite their histronics, the Orioles have a pretty damn impressive offseason in terms of rebuilding their team.

Oh, those blacks! Countdown to this thread being blamed on booze in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...