goonys evil twin

Much like baseball, analysts who have no idea what they're talking about. Oh, and some people aren't happy with some of the PBP guys(O'Brien especially) because they haven't done much/any soccer before, and it shows. Seems rather petty, considering their main job is getting the rest of America to pay any sort of attention to the sport. What is their other option, to hire a bunch of premier league guys whom Americans won't understand? There isn't exactly a rich supply of American soccer broadcasters.

If something is going to happen, I don't see why not next week. If nothing was going to happen, Hendry would say so, he always has in the past. GMs don't talk about "evaluating everything" without bringing out the axe. I just don't see how "he will use the four-day break to decide whether an overhaul is in order" means he's going to fire Baker and the whole coaching staff next week. Especially after the 4 day break. Maybe I'm reading too much into his comments. Maybe he wil fire Baker Sunday night and then evaluate the rest of the team over the next 4 days. Still, I'll believe it when I see it. I wouldn't say he's definitely firing the guy. But Hendry said throughout the freefall that he'd give Baker the chance to manage with a more healthy team. He's got them all back, and now Hendry is changing his statements. Baker has insinuated that Hendry failed to put a good team together, and Hendry has said that despite all the bad luck, they shouldn't be this far below .500. In reality he doesn't need the 4 days to evaluate. But that's just something GMs say when they don't want to say "I'm really thinking about firing the guy and blowing the whole team up but I'm not sure I want to pull the trigger just yet and I want to get my plans in order to handle the fall-out. Plus, I need to talk to guys about filling the vacancies."

If something is going to happen, I don't see why not next week. If nothing was going to happen, Hendry would say so, he always has in the past. GMs don't talk about "evaluating everything" without bringing out the axe.

He's been a full-time catcher for 6 years, he's been a catcher for longer. He's got more innings behind the plate than career catcher Henry Blanco. He's got nearly as many major league innings behind the dish as Paul Lo Duca.

Sell a stock that is worth $55 for $55, or wait for that stock to fall to $20 but manage to sell it at $30. The first option is selling high, the second option is just making the best of a bad situation.

I just don't see that as a sign that a change is imminent. He says he is going to use the 4 day break to evaluate. If he planned on making a change he would have to use the 4 days to put together a coaching staff which, by the way, is not easy in the middle of a season. Managers get fired either on Sunday evening or Monday morning before the ASB, not after the four day break when teams are starting to play again. The fact that it's being talked about tells me something. This is the same media that refused to question anything Baker did in 2003, stayed mostly silent after the 2004 collapse, allowed the Cubs to use the too many white guys, too many day games, too many injuries, bad luck, goat, Bartman, etc excuse for several years, and chastised those people who called for Dusty's firing back in May. The fact that all of them are talking about it is a huge change that tells me something is going on.

That's not trading high, that's fleecing somebody. Trading high is trading at a point when you can get the highest return. You could trade Neifi Perez tomorrow for a B prospect and you'd be getting more than equal value, but that doesn't mean you traded high. The "he's only been a catcher for a few years" disclaimer has got to stop. He's been a catcher his entire major league career. He's been a full-time catcher for 6 seasons, and has racked up nearly 6000 inning behind the plate.

Maybe he shouldn't be in AAA. There was never much to gain in rushing him the way Hendry wanted to rush him (the majors last year, how stupid that looks now). He didn't even play half a season in AA, missing out on a ton of developmental time.

Don't they need somebody to score points? Plenty of room on the sunny side of Chicago sports. I'm ready for football season already. I can get behind that...but I'm good with what the Bulls have done. I don't know much about it, but it seems rather obvious they are still a long way from being a stud team without somebody who can score. Wallace sounds like a better version of Chandler's defense only game. An upgrade certainly, but not a guy who will take an already great defensive team that was mediocre overall due to inability to score, into a great team. Are they just expecting to win every game 79-78 or do they think one of their young guys is going to take a huge leap this year?

And are you supposed to blame a guy for being brittle? You asked why people defend Prior for the injuries. Being injured is not something you should have to defend a guy from. It's not a choice by the player, except for those situations when injuries are the result of stupid motorcycle, skydiving, shirt ironing, wall punching, etc. The fact that he finished up 2003 pitching with a sore calf (which likely led into the achilles issues the next spring), stayed in the game after falling hard on his shoulder, came back from a broken elbow and is pitching right now at what is obviously not 100% puts an awful lot of holes in the assertion that Prior might be one of those guys who won't tempt fate in any way. Are you saying some players aren't injury prone? I'm saying I think it's absurd to "blame" players for their injuries.

Don't they need somebody to score points? Plenty of room on the sunny side of Chicago sports. I'm ready for football season already.

Don't they need somebody to score points?

Could you get anything more for Barrett in 2-3 years than you could get right now? Highly doubtful. Therefore, trading this year would be selling high. He's never had a full season of .350 OBP in his career. It's not like you are trading away guaranteed great production, OPS+ of 105 and 113 the past two years, there's a pretty mediocre list of comparable players throughout history. If nobody is interested in his services come July 31st, or next offseason, then so be it, hold onto him. But he's not a must keep player.

Please no.

So I've heard a lot of complaining about ESPN's soccer broadcast, but I don't know what the complaints are. Anybody want to explain the problem?

And are you supposed to blame a guy for being brittle? You asked why people defend Prior for the injuries. Being injured is not something you should have to defend a guy from. It's not a choice by the player, except for those situations when injuries are the result of stupid motorcycle, skydiving, shirt ironing, wall punching, etc. The fact that he finished up 2003 pitching with a sore calf (which likely led into the achilles issues the next spring), stayed in the game after falling hard on his shoulder, came back from a broken elbow and is pitching right now at what is obviously not 100% puts an awful lot of holes in the assertion that Prior might be one of those guys who won't tempt fate in any way.

I said at the time he was hired that he'd drive at least 1, and probably 2 of the big 3 into the ground. I just didn't know which ones. I defend Prior and not Baker because Baker is an old man who has been around the game and should know better, and all he has to do is think. Prior not only has to think, but perform an extremely difficult physical task that ultimately injures just about everybody that attempts to perform the task. Furthermore, what else can you do but defend a guy for injuries? What is the other option, blaming him? Irrationally accusing him of faking it?

So Prior never had to adapt to anything in 2002 or 2003, or late last year when he came back from a broken elbow and had very good results? He had nothing but the perfect situation laid out in front of him? He's had some of the worst coaching possible and one of the worst offenses in the game ever since he became a Cub, not to mention some god awful defense behind him and incredibly inconsist relievers. And all this between 21-25, when you're supposed to be learning the game from all those tough guys that made it through the rigors of many a season before you, except his veteran teammates were largely inept bums who had to have a kid carry them if anything good was going to happen.

A young kid changing his mechanics on his 115th pitch and not looking happy when the other team hits him isn't even close to evidence supporting your claim. Zambrano huffs around like a 12 year old girl who is banned from the phone when teams start getting to him, that doesn't mean he's not mentally tough enough to succeed as a pitcher. Greg Maddux has some horrible mannerisms when things go bad, doesn't mean a thing. If he was tough enough to make it this far he's tough enough to deal with obstacles.

Would I? I'm up for trading just about anybody from this organization, and Barrett is not free from that list. If they could get a good young catcher, and they had a manager who could deal with having a young catcher, I'd be all for it.

I don't see why he has to prove you wrong. The vast majority of these guys cruised through their younger years and faced little to no adversity. I don't get why you think you can use that as evidence against Prior's manliness.

I think it's more important for you to prove yourself right when throwing out wild accusations like that. He battled pretty hard in 2003, and my guess is you'll try to hang it all on that very poorly managed playoff game as a justification for your claims, even though he was so poorly abused going into that game, battling like very few 23 year olds have ever had to battle.

The fact that he might have 2-3 years left as a solid hitting C is exactly why it would be selling high. Barrett isn't the biggest problem with the team, but neither is Jones, and I'd be happy as heck if Jacque was dealt. Not being the biggest problem isn't a good enough reason to not trade a guy. When you trade your big problems you are trading low and getting very little back in return.

If you're talking about a CURRENT major league manager, I'd agree. If you're talking about a FORMER major league manager who wants to get back into managing, I'm not so sure. Two years is two more than zero years. And hardly an unprecedented contract offer. 4 years is actually pretty long for a manager's contract. Joe Torre has been working on a series of relatively short contracts, with the constant questions of what it will take for the Boss to let him stay. Even if they have to offer a 3 year deal it's not like they can't fire both after a theoretical dismal 2008, or extend Hendry after a theoretical succesful 2007 to get him "in-line" with his manager. Synchronized contracts is more of an excuse than any real problem.

I think some can but what I don't like about Prior is when he struggles he doesn't seem (yeah IMO) to be able to fight out of it. He's had a lot of success and can't deal with failure when he face's it. He's freaking fighting his way out of some rather screwed up injury issues, as well as having to deal with the ineptitude of Dusty Baker throughout his major league career. This all seems like more of the "he's not man enough" rubbish that everybody falls back on when explaining why things aren't so fine and dandy right now. Absolutely no. I thought this from the beginning when he was the wonder boy gooney. I agree that he is fighting his way through some injuries but that has little to do with what I'm saying. I look at a pitcher (this is where you and I disagree big time) and I see something missing when he's getting hit. He isn't used to it and IMO he does not know how to deal with it. Will he learn? Possibly. I just don't think he has what it takes to step up and fight through a bad game. This all sounds just like the Corey Patterson isn't coachable or Kerry Wood doesn't care stuff to me.