cbbryan

I don't know that much about him, but I found this: Mota was signed by the Cubs as a non-drafted free agent in 2004 out of Valencia, Venezuela. The 18-year old appeared in 63 games last season with the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League batting .236 with no homers and 22 RBI. Mota started 20 games at second base and 43 at shortstop last season. He and Kyle Reynolds will both play shortstop in Johnston's absence. Link: http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3301205

Granted I am far from being knowledgeable about the Cubs farm system and their prospects, but that is HIGH praise for .275/.335/.419/.754. I'm assuming since he is 21 that he must have done quite well in the lower levels to be in AAA. He's done quite well at lower levels. He's still a top-50 prospect despite his struggles this season, given his age, past success and tools. Any MLB'ers that he could project to be similar to? The first year or two in the minors I heard comparisons to Vlad, but I don't know if he's still thought of like that.

Why would we want to be jerks to the Red Sox? I can think of alot of teams I wouldn't mind screwing, but Boston isn't one of them. Especially not if we're risking ending up with Javy freakin Lopez. Are you kidding? Red Sox fans are worse than Yankee fans since 2004. Come on, RS... I love the Cubs, but Cubs fans are far worse than Red Sox fans. I don't know of a whinier fan base than the Cubs, and if we ever do win a World Series... I cannot imagine how obnoxious our fans would become. Heck, we're a laughingstock and still obnoxious. I may have had that opinion in the past as well, but then I lived on the east coast for awhile. You would be hard pressed to say anything about Cub fans after listening to Met/Yankee/Jets/Giant fans on WFAN. Especially Met and Jet fans when times are tough!

Turnbow, Derrick

Berkman's still not playing so I benched him and moved Either into the line-up.

HBC list - 8/3/06 Morris, Matt Byrd, Paul Silva, Carlos Alou, Moises Green, Shawn

I guess we need a place to post our waiver players, so here it is!

Everything's done with house. Everything has been excepted. I'll be up around August 5. I'll be there to stay afterwards. We'll have to see what their schedule is.

Period 18: 7/31/06 - 8/6/06 Quakers ( 10 - 7 ) at Northside Baseball ( 14 - 3 ) Lynx ( 11 - 6 ) at Alamo Stealth ( 5 - 12 ) Danger Bees ( 5 - 12 ) at DB Coopers Flyers ( 4 - 13 ) Severe Tooterstorms ( 6 - 11 ) at Fuzzy Logistics ( 7 - 10 ) The Leon Trotskys ( 10 - 7 ) at Burning 'Bulbs ( 5 - 12 ) Raw Dawgs ( 8 - 9 ) at Galesburg Hand Sanitizers ( 14 - 3 ) NC Cubbies ( 4 - 13 ) at Buddiga ( 13 - 4 ) Skeletons of Society ( 7 - 10 ) at Harrys Budcrew ( 13 - 4 ) *******GAME OF THE WEEK*********** Quakers ( 10 - 7 ) at Northside Baseball ( 14 - 3 ) WEST Northside Baseball ( 14 - 3 ) Lynx ( 11 - 6 ) Quakers ( 10 - 7 ) Fuzzy Logistics ( 7 - 10 ) Severe Tooterstorms ( 6 - 11 ) Alamo Stealth ( 5 - 12 ) Danger Bees ( 5 - 12 ) DB Coopers Flyers ( 4 - 13 ) EAST Galesburg Hand Sanitizers ( 14 - 3 ) Buddiga ( 13 - 4 ) Harrys Budcrew ( 13 - 4 ) The Leon Trotskys ( 10 - 7 ) Raw Dawgs ( 8 - 9 ) Skeletons of Society ( 7 - 10 ) Burning 'Bulbs ( 5 - 12 ) NC Cubbies ( 4 - 13 ) at Buddiga ( 13 - 4 )

I didn't expect to see Izturis in a Maddux trade? It doesn't much make sense to me. Then the Dodgers turn around and trade for Lugo....................and gave up Joel Guzman to do it. I would have much rather had Greg Miller and one of Guzman, LaRoche, Kemp, or Delwyn Young.

I don't see it happening either. I just hadn't heard his name brought up.

Sorry if this has been brought up, I hadn't heard it. http://www.startribune.com/507/story/583303.html He doesn't deny there's been talks. Just says that "he heard about that about a month ago."

What character issues did Brownlie have? I remember health issues, but not character. Maybe I'm imagining this, but didn't he holdout and reenter the draft after refusing to sign with someone? He held out for awhile after being drafted by the Cubs and talked about returning to school for his final year of eligibility, but he signed with the Cubs without returning to class. Okay, then I was imagining it. Being on the same sleeping schedule as a 10 day old really messes with your memory! I've got a 9-day old. Congrats! Congrats to you too! Boy or girl? A girl named Bailey. My 2-year-old girl, Eleanor, said the following just today, "I like watching the Cubs." I'm a very happy man... What did you have? A girl. Named Ryan Alicia. I'm a very happy, very tired man. She's our first. :D A girl named Ryan? It may be a bit unorthodox, but Ryan Alicia is a beautiful name. Congratulations. BTW, we are into unorthodox names in our household. Bailey's middle name is Suu. And no that's not a typo. Eleanor's middle name is Cady. The unusual spellings aren't just for fun. Both are names of female world leaders. My youngest daughter's middle name is Ryne! I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count!

They can't have a secret agreement in place that Ramirez gets traded, uses the escape clause and comes back to the Cubs, that would be tampering. He can have his mind set on doing so, but he can't have some agreement lined up w/ Hendry. And IMO, Ramirez should uses the escape clause, b/c Adrain Beltre has a 5-year 64M deal, and Ramirez has better #'s than Beltre. AND ARod makes 25-27/year in the last few years of his deal. ............but David Wright's only making $374,000. IMO, it's not a given that ARAM will make more then the 11 million he's already making. Rolen is right around that price, Glaus makes less, Chipper Jones makes 2 million/year more, Mike Lowell makes less, Eric Chavez makes less, Ensberg makes less, Blalock makes less, Mora makes less............. he's pretty comparable w/ other 3B. If he opts out, it's because he doesn't want to be a Cub.............. or the Cubs have traded him and he Wants to be a Cub. You are applying too much emotion to the decision. It is completely logical for ARam to opt out or at least "indicate" he is going to do so. Anyone can see that he is at the core of the Cubs offense (along with Lee and Barrett) and that his leaving would be a major problem for Hendry since he would now need to replace ARam and still further upgrade the offense to improve this year's woeful showing. With that in mind, any agent would want to use that leverage to upgrade the money and extend the years on the deal. It is a lot like Prior opting out this past offseason. Some fans wanted to read all sort of things into it about how he wanted out of the organization, but the fact is that it was the smart business move so he did it. Hendry will make a similar move with Wood. He will decline the team option knowing Wood can not get similar money elsewhere and then probably try to sign him to a lower cost deal. It is not about lack of loyalty, it is just good dollars and cents. It's not emotions. Simply stated, ARam makes more, or around what his peers make. Everyone that makes more then him w/ the exception of Beltre (Seattle paid way over for him, IMO) you could argue is AS GOOD, or BETTER then ARam. From a business outlook, you DON'T opt out if your happy where you're at and there's a good chance you could make the same or less then what your making now. How does that make sense? I like ARam and if he wants an extension he could probably just ask for one. If he opts out, he may or may not make more. I would venture to say that IF he makes more, it would be VERY LITTLE more. The difference between Prior and ARam is that ARam is making what he should be for his production. Prior arguably wasn't getting paid league averages for his production to that point.

They can't have a secret agreement in place that Ramirez gets traded, uses the escape clause and comes back to the Cubs, that would be tampering. He can have his mind set on doing so, but he can't have some agreement lined up w/ Hendry. And IMO, Ramirez should uses the escape clause, b/c Adrain Beltre has a 5-year 64M deal, and Ramirez has better #'s than Beltre. AND ARod makes 25-27/year in the last few years of his deal. ............but David Wright's only making $374,000. IMO, it's not a given that ARAM will make more then the 11 million he's already making. Rolen is right around that price, Glaus makes less, Chipper Jones makes 2 million/year more, Mike Lowell makes less, Eric Chavez makes less, Ensberg makes less, Blalock makes less, Mora makes less............. he's pretty comparable w/ other 3B. If he opts out, it's because he doesn't want to be a Cub.............. or the Cubs have traded him and he Wants to be a Cub.

I'll take Greg Miller as the pitcher. I'll take one of LaRoche, Delwyn Young, Joel Guzman, or Matt Kemp as the positional player!

If Baltimore doesn't take that deal they are freaking nuts. Seriously, why even pretend like you might trade the guy if you won't take that trade? They want Berkman and Lidge too? Why wouldn't they take that?

sounds like he's just the type of player LaRussa likes. he'll love the cornrolls too. Is it cornrolls or cornrows? I always though it was cornrows. hmm CORNROW corn·row [ káwrn r ] noun (plural corn·rows) Definition: braided row of hair: a narrow parallel braid of hair in a set of braids covering the head and made close against the scalp transitive verb (past and past participle corn·rowed, present participle corn·row·ing, 3rd person present singular corn·rows) Definition: fix hair into cornrows: to style hair in cornrows [Late 20th century. Because the braids resemble kernels of corn]

27 points in one day from my two White Sox won't help your cause either. No, it looks VERY good. :D I thought you might think that!

Looks like the tie at the top may finally be broken as well. Buddiga and the budcrew have tanked against their opponents today... I've been lucky to escape with a win the last 2 weeks. I have 2 starts tomorrow, but NCs 3 QSs won't help my cause. We'll see if I can escape again, doesn't look good though.

While I don't mind the Police............my vote goes to Metallica!

No, he already made a trade w/ the Padres................ he's made 2 moves already!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I probably wouldn't either. It would be a race to claim them!

If the Twins make it to the WS, I think they'll win with that pitching! Nice call though. I thought about doing an '86 rematch and the Mets winning when Ortiz let's a ball go through his legs in game 6.

AL East - Red Sox AL Central - Tigers AL West - A's Wild Card - Twins NL East - Mets NL Central - Cards NL West - Padres Wild Card - Reds ALDS - Twins over Red Sox Tigers over A's NLDS - Mets over Reds Cards over Padres ALCS - Tigers over Twins NLCS - Mets over Cards Tigers defeat Mets in 7 games. Detroit Riots!