badnews

Derrek Lee would be a badass hitting shortstop. And you know what? If Pat Burrell played a legitimate center field he'd be making way more money. But when you start ranking Derrek Lee among first baseman, in the here and now, no, it looks bad. If you want to rank Derrek Lee among shortstops in hitting, yes, well, then he'd look good. But how many first baseman would you take above Derrek Lee at this point, like a hundred billion? I mean, he's not as bad as Lyle Overbay but if he was getting paid like Lyle Overbay I wouldn't mind. The money is inseparable from the production. If Darren Dreifort or Mike Hampton didn't sign those contracts no one would care that they sucked. It's like Mo Vaughn. Mo Vaughn is not hilarious simply because his name is Mo Vaughn, he's enormously fat, and he spent all of his time in strip clubs, Mo Vaughn is that much funnier because the Mets signed him for an obscene amount of money and did nothing but keep New York's red light district still financed at a time when it looked like Guiliani had permanently stamped it out.

He shouldn't feed into though. Even as far as to defend himself. This is the real world, the truth is, sometimes it doesn't matter if you are 100% right and "they" are 100% wrong, you just don't even engage it at all.

This topic doesn't even make sense. The first flaw in this question is that you (at least should) demand better production from those who make more money. If Soriano was on a 4 year, $28 million contract we'd all like him a hell of a lot better. How much does Lee make vs. Soto and Fontenot? Second flaw. Who the hell expects the same offense out of catcher and second base that you get out of first base? I don't know how much Fontenot and Soto make. $1 million or less or right? So the question is, why aren't our cheap ass catcher and second baseman getting as much flak more not hitting as our $14 million a year first baseman? Wow, so let me see if I can play this game right. Why are Giants fans angry at Barry Zito and letting Noah Lowry off the hook. I WONDER WHY.

I thought the Milton Bradley deal sucked at the time and I think it sucks now. However in order to truly be a Cubs free agent acquisition he has to go on a tear against some crap pitching. When do the Cubs play the Nationals?

Why is Fukudome hitting 3rd? Why can't Aramis?

Milton Bradley has the most injury prone lower body I can think of since Cliff Floyd.

Usually I don't go in for this way of thinking about baseball, but is there a less intimidating closer in baseball than Kevin Gregg?

I think it's pretty crappy when you send Rich Harden up against Braden Looper and can't come away with a win. This game counts just as much in the standings as the 161st game of the season, by the way.

Kevin Gregg is a sham closer. He's one of these guys like Danys Baez who can look like an okay closer for a season or two, but you pretty much know they're eventually going to stink it up, and it's no surprise that they do.

Erik Bedard is the suckiest good pitcher in baseball.

I remember I used to use Adenhart as an example of how the Cubs should spend their bonus money (instead of Huseby). Geez. 22 and gone. That's crazy. He really had something special.

But what does this mean in translation to the majors? Kellen Kulbacki is not going to be any kind of badass All-Star.

I smell a reality TV show.

Remember there was that short period of time where Sergio Mitre looked like he might actually do something interesting? Renyel Pinto doesn't look particularly impressive for what he is either. But remember when we lost Juan Pierre we got a DRAFT PICK that turned into RICH HARDEN along with some other guys. So that means Juan Pierre = Rich Harden. No I don't really believe that.

So Prior breaking down had nothing to do with the fact that you look at his pitch counts for 2003, especially September and after when he was averaging like 126 pitches a game, I mean, the pitch counts were abominable. You can point to Randy Johnson, but I don't judge anybody on the same scale I'd judge Randy Johnson, he's a freak of nature. Prior was 22 and he lead the majors in average pitches per game and basically every pitch count category, how often does that happen? Randy Johnson and then you have to way back to like, Steve Carlton or somebody, and things were so different back then I don't think it's an apt comparison. Back to this Strasburg fellow. I don't understand why anyone would give him so much money. The list of uber-hard throwers is not as awesome as you might think. If this guy can throw 105 mph and be hurt a lot, is that better than throwing 98 and staying healthy? Joel Zumaya's fastball is the one talked up the most currently in the majors, his career K/9 is not that great. Pat Neshek and his goofball delivery are about as effective as Zumaya's 102 mph fastball. Of course I think Pat Neshek's arm has now been severed. Another thing, at least I, can't judge anything from the hype any more. I'm still smarting from back when the "experts" called Andrew Miller of the Marlins the next Randy Johnson. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see another Randy Johnson for quite a long time.

That's not what it's famous for. It's famous for being ranked 50 out of 50 in every statistically quantifiable category.

When did they have someone as good as Dobbs? Was last year that long ago? Last year they also had a good bench in case you were kidnapped by the Taliban and missed it. Mike Fontenot and Reed Johnson were both very great off the bench last year, and Ward/Hofpauir, Blanco, and Cedeno rounded out one of the more solid benches in the league. Miles, Gathright, Hoffpauir(hopefully), and Johnson/Fukudome will be a better bench than a lot of people think. Granted Bako will be a waste of space aside from the 1 day a week he catches. We wont have the power we did last year, but it will be better than a lot of teams have. No, that bench still doesn't look like it's any good. I feel like you're almost just throwing out random names. Let me try. "McKinley, Roosevelt, Harding, Coolidge, Taft, Hoover, now there's a bench with some depth and versatility."

I still can't believe people are defending this Aaron Miles nonsense. It'd be like, if you're rating major league baseball players on a scale of 1-100, and the people who don't like him say he's a 5, than there's this wackjob group who always has to pick a fight and say, no he's not a 5 on a scale of 1-100, he's a 15 or a 20. Who gives a ****. He's horrid. His empty batting average is a joke. Not even the 25th man on the crappiest team in baseball's roster should be Aaron Miles. I'm not sure where people equate "bench player" with "Useless .650 OPS slug with no defense, speed, or any other assets whatsoever." The standards for bench players are ridiculously low on here. In conclusion, if you've spent more than 3 minutes of your life defending Aaron Miles you should have the ability to choose how you utilize your free time taken away from you and given to someone who exercises better decision making skills.

As far as I am concerned Aaron Miles is responsible for World War I and The Black Plague. The internet needs someone to with enough time to waste to work on Aaron Miles Facts, like anti-Chuck Norris facts.

Why do the Cubs rarely have a good bench, they just have a bench that suck at a wide variety of position. When was the last time we had a GREG DOBBS.

The girls think Bobby Crosby is hot and looks sort of like Brad Pitt. Acquiring him will add hundreds in ticket revenues.

I think there should be a week in baseball where every team plays in its ugliest throwback jersey.

What does it mean it doesn't matter who he was facing? I think you've overextending yourself trying to defend your initial point. "Great movement?" How many pitches had great movement on them?

I don't think it looks good when managers acknowledge these guys.

I still think with Carlos Lee and Aramis Ramirez in the middle of the Cubs lineup you've got a whole different story. Two legitimate power hitters that are relatively hard to strike out for power hitters in the middle of the lineup, that looks good to me.