Sammy Sofa

Is he going to start taking foul tips to the jewels and punching rival catchers on a regular basis?

He didn't just play it...he LIVED it, dude.

It's a dead horse, but as long as our team keeps playing at WRIGLEY Field, this type of complaining comes off a bit ridiculous. Pretty much since the beginning, baseball fields have been field with signs advertising commercial products. Baseball and advertising go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back. I actually think naming parts of the stadium or the innings, etc. is actually LESS intrusive than most of the advertising baseball has been a part of and invited in over the last 100+ years. Wrigley Field is named for the former owners of the franchise, not for the gum. It just happens that the former owners also owned the gum company. It's pretty hard to seperate Wrigley the man from Wrigley the gum/company, especially when the stadium was renamed. They can say all they want...old man Wrigley was no dummy. If he didn't know that name on the stadium wouldn't be a huge source of advertising, he wouldn't have been as rich as he was. Officially, it's named after the man. Unofficially, well, the guy also named his gum after himself, too. The Wrigley name was a huge product in and of itself back then. It's not like he was dead at that point and they were naming it in his honor. Hell, the place was known as "Cubs Park" before Wrigley slapped his brand on it...what was wrong with that? Or transferring over the old "West Side Park" name? It's a bit of a cheat to let companies that use a family name off the hook just because it is a family name. Besides, I'll still stick with the rest of my post, too. Baseball and advertising all over the fields and stadiums have gone together practically since when professional baseball was first started. I simply don't understand how sponsoring a section or inning or stadium is somehow more intrusive than the ads in the stadium and around the field, something that has been around almost from the beginning!

The light is going on. Maybe not at the speed of light, but they're not ignoring the poor walks and OBP totals from this year. It'll be on the table at the org meetings. More like at the speed of clog.

It's a dead horse, but as long as our team keeps playing at WRIGLEY Field, this type of complaining comes off a bit ridiculous. Pretty much since the beginning, baseball fields have been field with signs advertising commercial products. Baseball and advertising go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back. I actually think naming parts of the stadium or the innings, etc. is actually LESS intrusive than most of the advertising baseball has been a part of and invited in over the last 100+ years.

To hell with them both. I have no shame rooting for an AL team this year, especially with the Red Sox, White Sox and Yankees out of it.

Idle question, but why couldn't this thread have gone into the long-running ARod speculation thread in the Transactions forum?

Jeez, a lot of you guys must retch when you go to games at any age level and you see the ads/sponsor signs along the wall/field/stadium/etc.. Lighten up, Francis. Hey, anyone want some gum?

Yeah, that Cabrera guy is a hack.

Maybe I'm recalling incorrectly, but I think most of those sentiments were in reply to the idea that the very presence of Juan Pierre every time he was on base was going to drive even the most skilled pitcher to crap the bed. In the right situation, ANY baserunner can possibly get the pitcher's attention. Most of the time, however, it ain't no thang.

Ditto. I'm really disheartened how a guy like Girardi, who I think should be down at least 5th or 6th on the list after the 1st picks are found to be unavailable, is being propped up as the savior the Cubs NEED to sign.

A "hustling" Aramis is not going to get many, if any, more triples. He is simply not a "speed player," peak fitness or not. I'm sorry, but given the type of hitter we're talking about, this is an asinine and pointless pipe dream. I know you mean well, but in the big picture this stuff is meaningless with these type of players. We're nitpicking one of the best 3rd basemen this team has ever had. Could he maybe do better if he got on a radical fitness program that allowed him to "hustle" more? Maybe. He might also make it around the bases better if they sew bottle rockets to his cleats. I simply do not see any honest reason for this kind of criticism.

Exactly. I don't think he's the end-all, be-all of closers, but he's clearly not the "Dumpster" people rant about if you just look at his overall numbers out of the bullpen. Any GM with half a brain will probably see that Dempster's erratic use pattern under Baker played havoc with his outings. When's he used consistently he's very effective. When's he not, he's all over the place and goes off track. He's not a lost cause.

If he's playing uninjured and doing well and the team was very obviously trying to go young and cheap a la the Marlins it could be very smart. I don't think they will do this or should they at this point, but under the right circumstances trading Lee could be very, VERY smart.

We're ruthless for wanting what's best for our favorite baseball team? Nobody's saying he isn't a great guy or that he doesn't hustle or whatever other non-producing platitude we're gonna hear tossed out...he simply is not the player the Cubs need in any capacity at this point, ESPECIALLY with how much money he can potentially command.

Maybe there's some kind of massive plot/conspiracy that'll ensure ARod comes to the Cubs as long as Lou gets the job. Maybe the sky will be argyle when I wake up tomorrow.

You can still unload a lot of bullpen cash by trading Eyre. He's gonna be a lot easier to move than Dempster at this point.

So hopefully that rules out the Cubs, too. We're nowhere near "winning."

I agree about Hendry and trading. I feel much more comfortable with him trying to pull in big players that way since he's pulled it off pretty spectacuarly in the past. And I don't think there's any doubt ARod still has years of great baseball left in him, especially if he's moved back to SS.

Think Pee-Wee Herman's "and he just keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and KNITTING!"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! If it's Grossman, he breaks his neck the next game.

He hits, but he hardly ever walks. His OBP will probably peak each year for the rest of his career around .330 at the most. For a lead off hitter, that's terrible. He hits, but the amount of runs he drives in is hideous. He typically is the 1st batter of the inning only once in the game. Even a lead off hitter needs to have some pop. Stolen bases are insanely overrated in this era of baseball. They can be useful, but they're hardly essential. Pierre would be best as a #8 hitter at this point, not a #1.

On the upisde, no Sweet Lou for the Cubs. On the downside, any ARod rumors seem dashed since it seems highly doubtful he waves his no-trade clause if he's about to play under Lou. Short of the Yankees flat out telling him they want him gone, I think he's sticking there.

Or they just point to the stats that tell you the whole story.

how do you know what the yankees want? Based on history alone I believe he is right. I can't even remember the last time the Yankees traded for a prospect as a centerpiece of a deal. The florida marlins fit the bill for what he is saying. Cubs get: A-Rod Marlins get: Pie, Guzman, and Marshall/Mateo Yankees get: Willis Exactly. I'd pull that trigger in a second.