Sammy Sofa

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.

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.