Sammy Sofa

I keep waiting for Gameday to reverse Neifi's "Called Strike" with "Jacked one out of the park."

OK, that was far from pretty, but Carlos got out of that mess with only 22 pitches, 1 run and a strikeout. Not too horrible.

If you're in a spot where you can have the sound of the radio playing, you really should listen to the radio over the Internet. If you need to know where to find it, I can get you the link. It is so much more enjoyable, at least to me. Sadly, I'm not, but I really appreciate the offer. Typically if I'm home I can just turn on XM, but I'm stuck at work and at the mercy of Gameday.

AWESOME. TOTALLY AWESOME.

OK, screw the living hell out of Gameday. It said Miles was out, then he ends up having singled. Then it says Pujols was out with no runs scored, and that flips to a sac fly. Nice to see it only took the Cardinals 6 pitches to score a run.

Hopefully Mabry and Cedeno can keep producing like they have against Suppan-Mabry is 6 for 9 with 3 doubles against him, and Cedeno is 2 for 4 with a double and a triple. Jones has also killed him, 11-33 with 4 Home runs. BTW, this is one of those pitchers that Neifi hits well against-he's 5 of 15 with a BB against him. Sweet merciful crap! As soon as the ball leaves his hand it magically becomes a magnet of suck.

Who is the catcher then in your scenario? Let's say you can have either D. Lee/Aramis/Barrett/Soriano/Murton to fill 1B, 3B, C, 2B, and LF-as I am suggesting, or you can have D. Lee/Barrett/Blanco?/Soriano/Carlos Lee as you are suggesting. You'd have to find a catcher that had more offense than Murton to make the offense better, and any catcher with even that much offense is going to cost a pretty penny and is probably not available. I think having Lee/Lee/Soriano/Barrett/a Jones & Murton platoon makes finding a catcher than can out produce Murton not necessary (obviously, I'm not saying they don't need to look for a catcher at all; find one who can hit better than Blanco and I'd be fine). I could easily be wrong...that's just my opinion. Plus, who knows what we could have gotten spinning Aramis off to another team. I'm perfectly happy with Aramis on the Cubs next year. I simply think him being here means we're gonna have to be stuck with the black hole up the middle or Murton still learning in LF and not be able to improve both.

Almost #2, Murt! Keep reaching! So Barrett is clobbering the Cards this year...Dusty couldn't have tweeked the schedule to make sure he's playing this entire series?

But you're wrong. Barrett on a C schedule means he sits once a week. Big deal. That's not going to make or break your offense. Being a catcher is also going to wear down his career. He's shown he has the bat...I could live with him at 3rd if it frees up money to get what the Cubs need. Finding a decent defensive catcher with a little pop is nowhere near as demanding as the other spots the Cubs absolutely need to improve, and need serious money to improve. I'm not saying that I don't like Aramis or think he needs to be gone...I just don't think trading him would have been the end of the world and couldeasily have had a ton of upside if played right.

I'm not saying I want 1 of those players over Aramis...I'd want both if he were to have been traded and I wouldn't mind seeing Barrett moved to 3rd. Like I said, I think a C-Lee/D-Lee/Barrett/Soriano combo is better than just Aramis/D-Lee/Barrett on a catcher's schedule/just 1 of the players above. I'm sorry, but I don't have the confidence that Muron, at this point in his career, would have the power needed to hold down LF on his own next year if the Cubs want to compete. I'm very confident he will develop power, and I'd like to see him take over RF after Jacque is gone. That frees up LF for a long term masher, Murton develops as a hitter and defender platooning in RF and Pie eventually comes up to take CF. Look, if the Cubs could get Soriano and Carlos Lee and still have Aramis and still go out and get another serious starter, hey, great. I just don't see it as too likely.

"Moran" is an old joke here.

There's no way the Yankees give up A-Rod's offense for just pitching, especially damaged goods like Prior. He couldn't just come back healthy next year for this to work...he'd need to at least be back at his 2003 level.

It would be glorious if Murton magically ended up in the #2 slot. Boy, thank Christ Fox assumes that the entire east coast gives a rat's butt about the Yankees and Red Sox. I was worried I might forget about them playing!

There's not a single player out there this winter that's better than Ramirez. I'd take a combo of D-Lee/C-Lee/Soriano/Barrett most games of the year over D-Lee/Aramis/Barrett (on a catcher's schedule). Aramis is better in every way than either of those 2 players. Why not just sign one of them and keep Aramis? Regardless, you can't trade Aramis now anyway. The latter: I know, this is all hypothetical. The former: I think the 2 combined would be better, more productive and more consistent than Aramis. I also think they'd be able to hold up if another big hitter goes down for an extended period of time. Sadly, I don't think the Cubs can hope for any significant improvement unless they sign both players, or 2 players along their lines. Hendry has created a sucking black hole of offense between 2nd base and SS and the OF has so little power between the corner spots it's not even funny. I think RF could be salvaged next year with a Murton/Jones platoon, but LF needs to the big boost desperately. Murton is not the answer there at this point. I'd sign a big bat for LF longterm, let Murt platoon in RF with Jacque, and then he takes over RF fulltime when Jacque is gone. Hopefully his power has developed enough at that point. By then you'd have Big Bat TBNL in left, Pie in CF and Murton in RF. The problem with picking up 2 players along these lines is it doesn't leave much money to fix up the starting rotation. Hence why I'd be willing to have traded Aramis.

There's not a single player out there this winter that's better than Ramirez. I'd take a combo of D-Lee/C-Lee/Soriano/Barrett most games of the year over D-Lee/Aramis/Barrett (on a catcher's schedule).

I wouldn't want Barrett in the OF, but I wouldn't be opposed to putting him at 3rd to replace Aramis. I'm still thinking trading him wouldn't hurt if you do such a switch...with Maddux and Ramirez gone and Wood either gone or back at a discount, that frees up a lot of money for the Cubs to hopefully get out there and fix some holes.

But when is he going to get the playing time needed to get back into the swing of things, pun intended? Sitting him and having him do nothing except practice can be adverse, too.

O'Malley might show a little something and be valuable for a trade. Miller might show he has some gas left in the tank and could be had next year on the cheap as a starter or for bullpen work. I can't imagine O'Malley getting more than 3 starts...he's probably gone as soon as Marshall is ready to go. Miller cost a bit of cash, so why not see if any of it can pay off? If he takes up slot, you've got Z taking another...I'd give the other 3 to Hill, Guzman and Marshall. Send Mateo and Marmol back down to get some work. They're too raw at this point.

if o'malley gets starts at hill's expense, i may quit the cubs. I'd guess Marmol or Mateo would get bumped before Hill at this point.

None of those players broke their wrist, something that directly affects how fast you can swing a bat and in turn your mechanics. Besides, we have 3 1B on the roster in Nevin, Mabry, and Lee. I just don't understand why you'd let him play one more meaningless month. It's not meaningless...he needs to play at least some of the time to help work his wrist back to being in fighting shape. Sitting around not playing and only having batting practice and tossing the ball around is not the same as actually stepping up for a real game. I'd understand giving him some minor league starts first or giving him every other or third game off or something along those lines, but totally shutting him down makes zero sense. It's not like he's a pitcher.

I think it was explained quite well already -- ARod was the superior player at that position. Pretty simple, actually. If you think the hatred for aRod is bad now, imagine if he had taken Jeter's position. So what? That organization holds a ton of sway over the media in NY. If Jeter was the consumate team player and captain he's purported to be, he'd have publically handed over the SS position because it was what was best for the Yankees, and then you have no controversy. It just doesn't work like that man. It just doesn't. Do you give your corner office spot to the new guy because he went to a great college and was on the dean's list? It just doesn't work like that! So A-Rod was a rookie and only had his minor league numbers when he came to the Yankees? Because that's the only way that anaology even comes close to working.

um, 1945? That was in response to Scott saying we've had it "longterm"...yeah, no WS since '45, but '03 and '04 were not mediocre years. My debate with him is whether or not Dusty needs to go, and letting him slide and going nuts over the team having some empty winning streaks that might keep him around isn't explained away by "longterm mediocrity." I will not settle for crap with a bow on top.

You're assuming dusty will be back not me. long term mediocrity or short term, meaningless victory scrambles? We've already have long term mediocrity!! Don't see your pont. We've had mediocrity since the end of 2004. I guarentee you, if the Cubs somehow reached or got within spitting distance of .500, Dusty would be back. Hendry doesn't effectively admit mistakes by firing a manager unless he absolutely has to, and getting near or to .500 gives him his out, and he'd take it in a heartbeat. "Meanlingless victory scrambles," besides sounded like the worst meal at Denny's ever, is how I'd look at any kind of random, fluke push to .500 at this point. It accomplishes nothing productive, longterm or meaningful. It would be an empty non-victory that would likely hurt this team more than helping it, given who is running the show. It falsely convices them they have a decent team they can just tweek a little to win instead of one riddled with serious holes that needs some genuine rebuilding.

The Cubs suckiness blew out Gameday...what happened after they got Rolen out after the wild Marmol throw? Screw you, Gameday. Nevermind.

Marmol's a spaz.