apete6

On a minor league deal. $500k if he makes the team. Great signing by Kenny Williams. Low risk/medium reward. Signing/trading for guys who used to be top prospects is a pretty good idea. Remember, this is the guy the Mets wouldn't give up in a proposed Barry Zito trade in 2006 when they were probably the best team in the NL. Maybe having Zito gets them past the [expletive] Cardinals in the playoffs.

Solid game, but I want to strangle the loud, annoying color commentator.

It's pretty clear that he's not after last year's draft and trading 3 top 10 prospects for 3 years of hispanic Randy Wells.

One does not read Uni Watch because Paul Lukas is a terrific interviewer. Not at all. I just wanted to let many more people know how big of a douche Morgan is.

From the UniWatch blog. An interview with the guy who used to sew on jersey nameplates for the Giants and As: "UW: Were the any players who were a real pain in the ass? SS: The worst player I ever dealt with was Joe Morgan. Oh my gosh. He was a prima donna. One time I was doing some work for the Giants — I did some work for them, too — and I walked into the clubhouse. Now, Wilson was making the Giants’ jerseys at the time, and they had apparently sent a size 44 jersey for Morgan, when he wore a size 40. So I walk into the clubhouse and Morgan just lets me have it, cussing at me, he throws his jersey at me, he goes, “Hey you, this is your fault! What kinda [expletive] is this? Fix my [expletive] shirt!” And I went nose-to-nose with him and said, “Hey, you don’t ever talk to me that way.” He and I nearly got into a fistfight. A few players had to break us up. UW: Aside from that being no way to treat another person, why would he even think you were responsible for his mis-sized jersey? SS: Because he knew I worked the jerseys, so in his mind he probably thought any problem with the uniforms was my fault. UW: Did he eventually apologize? SS: Oh, no. No way."

Actually, the financial ins and outs are well known, and not really speculative at all. Do some research on SUM and you'll find everything you need there. This is a venture that been done time and time again, and the costs can vary but the structure of the deals are always the same. SUM control every aspect of the operation. We'd be renting the space. That's about it. Broadcast revenues wouldn't have anything to do with the Cubs, as SUM control that aspect of the tour as well. Finally, I'd argue that any benefits of "exposure" would be minimal in terms of real impact to the organization. The downside is that it's probably a waste of time for the Cubs, it would potentially impact the playing surface and simply add one more useless event to put more wear and tear on an already dilapidated structure. And, whatever the research/payroll that is being put toward these types of endeavors is NOT being spent on baseball operations. Maybe the Cubs should just build an actual nice stadium somewhere and we could play a few series a year at Wrigley and then they could have all kinds of events there. Tractor pulls, little league games, concerts, etc.. Why the hell can't the organization just focus on baseball? I guarantee Mark Cuban would have been more than willing to put up his own money for a team improvement rather than focusing on crap like this.

But Tom Ricketts is a fan and just wants the Cubs to win the World Series!!!! I'm less and less impressed with Ricketts every time one of these dumb ideas comes along.

It's terrible. For all of the stories about Gruden being a hard ass, he just fellates everyone as an analyst. It's sickening.

If Miami really didn't make Dan Mullen a great offer, they are morons.

Difference between SEC and Big 10 is staggering. Michigan is probably one of the faster teams in the Big 10 and Miss. St. is average for the SEC and they look like a pro team vs. Michigan. Amazing that Florida is this bad, though. Penn State isn't very good and Florida can't do anything on offense. Makes you respect Tebow a little bit more. But just a little bit, he's still a douche.

Saying that winning isn't a "priority" with professional athletes never fails to be hilariously dumb. So why sign with Baltimore? They probably have the worst chance of making the playoffs out of every team in MLB. At least the Pirates and Royals and Cubs are in bad divisions. The O's could be way better next year and still finish 4th or last. I can think of 8 million reasons to sign with Baltimore. As Rocket pointed out, it's not like the top contenders were lined up looking for a 1B. San Diego allegedly offered him. Why not take that? Better question is why the hell the Orioles would just waste that money. Even if lee puts up a .900 OPS, they'd be better off developing a young guy instead of giving a 35 year old guy 500 at bats.

Saying that winning isn't a "priority" with professional athletes never fails to be hilariously dumb. So why sign with Baltimore? They probably have the worst chance of making the playoffs out of every team in MLB. At least the Pirates and Royals and Cubs are in bad divisions. The O's could be way better next year and still finish 4th or last.

I think this makes it pretty clear that winning is not a priority of D Lee. Along with the rejection of the trades until they basically strong armed him last year, this proves that Lee just likes being in a comfortable situation. He was a good player for the Cubs, but good riddance. Have fun losing 100 games, DLee, I hope you personally greet all 12,000 fans that will see you play most games.

Terrible idea. They'll lose their first 15 games in the Big East if they don't beat Seton Hall. They have the worst front line (size and rebounding wise) I've seen in a long time. And that's saying something. Future looks OK though. Freshmen Brandon Young and Cleveland Melvin are actual Big East caliber and they've got a decent recruiting class coming in. May be able to sniff .500 overall next season.

He was at a game a couple of years ago and the Bulls got killed. He probably doesn't want to jinx them anymore. On vacation in Hawaii for xmas. A rough life.

It would be nice to miss the Hawks and the Knicks in the first round. And then to send those pussys from Miami home in the 2nd round!

the pac 10 is ranked first in the sagarin ratings. and i love that beating teams like mississippi state, clemson and georgia are now great wins. USC and Mississippi State are 22 and 25 respectively in the Sagarin rankings....but overall, I agree with you. CBN probably sells the Pac-10 short in their analysis. I was pretty drunk during the game, but didn't Oregon beat Stanford? The same Stanford who didn't lose any other games all season? This guy is a moron.

Mike McCarthy sucks and Rodgers got hurt at the worst possible time. Too bad for Green Bay. Not.

If Judd Sirott gets this job, I hope someone goes all Tonya Harding on him and rips out his vocal cords. He sucks at broadcasting. Makes Joe Carter sound like Pat Hughes.

If the Rangers are at all desperate we will probably lose this. Not sure on that, Webb would likely be able to rebuild his value in the NL Central more than in the AL West, even though the West isn't full of great lineups. He'll still have to face the Red Sox and Yankees enough to possibly skew his stats. Rangers definitely should win the West, though, whereas the Cubs are definitively not favorites in the Central.

That's a great comeback. It is. I wonder who wrote it for him. He only connects on that joke in the clutch 6 out of every 24 times...

Wood and Prior possibly together again. Isn't that a guaranteed combined 40 wins and ERA+ of 150 waiting to happen? I would officially stop watching sports if that happened.

What does this mean? He's saying that they're both Black 1st basemen. Obviously that is bad, duh!

Dead on. The risk isn't worth the reward. I'd also add that the Cubs need to add some starpower to be a serious contender, and if they have to do so in the trade market, Marmol could be an extremely valuable piece in that pursuit. Completely agree. Why go long term on a closer? And I retract my Marmol is better than Rivera statement...for now.The last 4 years, Marmol has a 9.5 WAR and Rivera has a 12.1. Still, Marmol is, what, 15 years younger?

You're right. He's no Rivera. He's better.