Sammy Sofa

With a wrist that tiny, you'd think most watches would already be too big for him.

WIN, you magnificent sons of bitches.

If this club somehow wised up and signed some decent coaches, I'd actually be curious to see what Bynum could do...as a bench player. He'll never be a starter, but he does have some speed and pop. If people ran this team that could kick him into gear and help him focus, I'd have zero problem with him as a backup off the bench. Same with Pagan.

Dude likes his jellyfish, and stings don't slump.

[george costanza] Can't you desour? Why can't you desour?[/george costanza] Show me 2003 the rest of this season and all of next season (plus no DL), and I will desour. I don't see it happening, but if it somehow did, I would. So he needs to be the best pitcher in the game or nothing? I want to see him pitch at or close to what he's capable of. Z does it every year. Thus far. So the instant Z is injured, and it WILL happen, he's in the dog house with Prior? You subtract those two fluke injuries, Prior is easily one of the best pitchers in the game. Granted, he has a lot to prove right now, but it's way, way, way, WAY too early to think about selling at the first possible chance when the Cubs have him on the cheap until 2008. Quite frankly, I have to echo the repeated sentiment by several here...what the hell was the point of this thread? I know you've tried to explain it, and I still can't come close to grasping it. Prior is young and cheap for the time being. What's the harm in using that time to see if he can rebound and be the pitcher we've seen him be? The Cubs have 3 other starting slots they can fill around him if need be with minimal damage, if they act smart for once. Prior when he's being Prior is one of the best out there...he's worth taking a chance on. He doesn't have a built in self-destructive style like Wood that people were calling from almost day 1. Sure, he needs to get out there and work his way back up, but I'm baffled by your cotinued sentiment that Prior is somehow done when it comes to this team. It makes less than zero sense. It actually makes anti-sense.

[george costanza] Can't you desour? Why can't you desour?[/george costanza] Show me 2003 the rest of this season and all of next season (plus no DL), and I will desour. I don't see it happening, but if it somehow did, I would. So he needs to be the best pitcher in the game or nothing?

"Livan Hernandez...will you be my valentine?"

Pat and Ron said it was at his feet :?: That's how big Prince's feet are. You know what they say about guys with big feet "They be sayin', 'DAMN!!! He got some big feet!!!'"

The whizzing match was between Alou and Alou alone.

"Dusty...why do you want to kill Ron Santo?"

Hey Len...just wanted to chime in and say "thanks" for the great work you and Bob do in the booth. Even my non-Cubs fan friends give you guys the thumbs up when I make them watch the games! Hang in there, my friend...

I watch the games when I can, I root for certain players, and at the end of the day, I love seeing this team win uber alles. That said, it's gotten SO bad that when they lose, I've definitely shifted fully into the acceptance mode of the grieving process. It ain't no thang when they tank because it happens so often...so I'm spinning positive and hoping that these losses bring some changes. I'm not rooting against them...but the losing doesn't bother me anymore, and actually has me hoping for the future. If that makes any sense.

Burn them all. Now. Yesterday. They bring only pain.

How many chances does Hill get to fail? Seriously, Marmol has shown a LOT more potential than Hill has or ever will in his short time in the bigs...Hill, to me, clearly is not a starter. He can't crossover from AAA to the bigs, and seems stuck in AAAA mode. I say try him out as a LOOGY reliever.

Ideally? Walker. The guy is a perfect #2 hitter, or could fill in nicely at the leadoff role if the Cubs' get their heads out of their collective butts and pick up another power bat.

The same thing what Baker said 2 years ago with the, "black guys play better in the heat because they are used to it." If a white guy says that, he's fired and facing criticism from everyone across the nation, Jesse Jackson would have been involved, and he's probably fired. Baker basically got away with it because of the fact that he is African-American. There's something far more shocking and horrifying in that statement...how moronic Dusty is when it comes to managing a baseball team. I don't care what color the player is...trying to figure out who plays based on the heat is asinine.

I hear the n word used far more frequently than the f word. Out of curiosity, where do you live? And who is saying it? Because not to trot out the hoary old cliche, but there's the "-er" version and the "-a" version. Again, wishful thinking aside, they ARE different, and almost always have completely different implications, whether said by someone black, white or otherwise. I live down south, just outside of DC, and I hear the "f word" infinitely more than the "-er" version of the "n word." And once more, I'm not justifying the use of ANY of these words, just trying to point out there is a difference in their severity, for a number of reasons. And Ozzie would still be an idiot no matter which one he said. Same with Rocker. I think Ozzie is getting off the hook moreso than Rocker ever could because Marriotti is such an ass.

*****OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE AHEAD!!!!******** No he's not. I think Ozzie's choice of words is appalling...but like it or not, "[expletive]" and "[expletive]" are not on the same levels. There are, unfortunately, plenty of people that view "[expletive]" as "just another insult." Personally, I think it's an ugly little word that nobody ever has to use, but if you look at both slurs on a sociological level, one is definitely "worse." It's vague, but there seems to be something to it. If you say "[expletive]," that's pure hate. If you say "[expletive]," that CAN just be ignorance. Again, neither is "right," but one is definitely a LOT worse. It seems an absurd thing to point out, but it's there. Look at it this way....nobody in this thread thought to censor "[expletive]" at all, yet "[expletive]" has not been expressly said up until now, even when discussed. How can you compare the two as equal if one is not even dared to be typed out? I apologize for the language, but it is to prove a point. If it should be edited out, fine...but will both slurs be edited out? Wouldn't that be the case if both are "equally" hateful? Man, what a lame thing to have to debate. People are awful sometimes.

The general point is that a pitcher not getting a win doesn't mean the game was lost. Yeah, with a team as crappy as the Cubs have been, it probably was, but not getting a win can mean that a starting pitcher went at least 6 innings and kept it tied, or only gave up a 1 or 2 or even 3 run leade, things that any halfway decent ballclub can easily fight their way back from. No pitcher is going to go out there and shut down every team...if they can consistently keep the team in legit striking distance, IMO, they've done their job. And that's often not going to translate to wins.

With Prior, you've got those two huge "freak" injuries...the basepath collision and the linedrive off the elbow. Subtract those, there's an excellent chance we're only talking about Wood like we are today.

Juan's hats are too big for his little boy-sized noggin. He can't help it.

Too true. It's absurd to think Wood is tanking it, or is "lazy," or whatever else accusation gets tossed at him. The guy is playing for his supper this year. Sure, plenty of teams would toss money at him and take a shot, but nowhere near what he COULD be getting even if he was out there pitching badly.

Yeah, he was too busy elbowing Barrett in the head as he was trying to get up.

If they can get him for one year with big time incentives, I'm all for it. Let him heal and do what neeeds to be done this year, and then he goes into 2007 as his "make or break year." Find out whether or not he can hack it as a starter, or see if he can be the dominant closer people think he might be.

Speed doesn't slump... ....except at Wrigley.