jersey cubs fan

They will lose that argument to the lineup every time.

I wouldn't call a year of plateau meaningless even at Castro's age and I certainly wouldn't call Garza regressing to career norms (which aren't terribly impressive for a TOR pitcher) meaningless. I'm not all that concerned with Castro's plateau offensively, but it is disappointing. Garza and Soto are the biggest concerns for me, though. Had Garza continued the progress he made last year and Soto had managed a bounceback year, we'd have a much better chance at putting together a competitive team next year. However, Garza took a considerable step back and Soto has been awful, and the team is on pace to lose 110 games (which we won't lose that many, but still). Had the two of them developed like we all had hoped, then the team wouldn't be as bad as it is. So the comments that we've been horrid and everybody who matters has developed fine are untrue. Dew, you're talking about a completely different thing that what was being discussed in here.

the thing is, he's usually friendly in PCs. it's that meathead urlacher that gets surly and goes after reporters with his answers, the so-called face of the franchise. jay is usually boring, though he's been more insightful lately. Actually, that brings up an overall inconsistency. It isn't just PCs. Urlacher is easily as surly and stand-off-ish in general as Cutler is. Yet Brian is treated much better than Jay. Jay's persona is interpreted as, "pfff, whatever, I don't even care." Whereas Urlacher's surliness is interpreted as a guy who really cares about the game. It's no surprise which version of not friendly with the media would be treated better.

How so? He looks like he's doing just fine to me, if not a little better in some aspects of his game What aspects of Garza's game have been better this year? He's taken a step back from last year, but 2011 was a pretty glaring outlier. He's still performing very well though.

Nobody said everything went right. Somebody did say they all had to do play poorly. The fact that Castro hasn't taken another step forward hardly means he's playing poorly. And a year of plateau at this age is meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

only slightly harder than looking them up yourself

How the hell does LaHair get coupled with Garza in that discussion? "Even LaHair?" If you can get anything for LaHair, take it. They got a ridiculous start from him and have done a tremendous job of doling out the playing time to maintain those overall numbers in impressive territory.

They've been quoted on multiple occasions recently that transactions will start to take place after the draft was completed.

I will never forgive him for losing a #1 pick for Latroy Hawkins, a GD reliever.

what? My interpretation is preemptive response to people talking about players not being robots or programmable computers.

guy on twitter said fake

idris elba?

I think that's right, and I also think it's not going to be an issue. I can't imagine the Cubs built in some sort of work around that would circumvent the CBA by having him go through the arbitration process but then revert back to being under contract. 2012, 2013 and 2014 are the first three years, and he's probably not going to sniff the big leagues in that time. So actually that would leave him with 6 years left on the deal and 6 years until free agency. Wait, I forgot what year it is. Soler would need to be up for good by Opening Day 2014 to accumulate 6 full seasons worth of time. Right, I switched midstream after realizing the difference.

Only if they wanted the MLBPA breathing down their necks.

http://deadspin.com/5917774/kenyan-schoolchildren-reenact-game-6-of-the-1986-world-series

Yeah, he was never any miracle worker or anything. But he was widely respected and very highly paid so he had to be good.

I think that's right, and I also think it's not going to be an issue. I can't imagine the Cubs built in some sort of work around that would circumvent the CBA by having him go through the arbitration process but then revert back to being under contract. 2012, 2013 and 2014 are the first three years, and he's probably not going to sniff the big leagues in that time. So actually that would leave him with 6 years left on the deal and 6 years until free agency.

I'm not sure why you think they would do that, or why that is true. If there is a mechanism in place for him to opt out of free agency, then he will have then opted out of his contract. You clipped out the context of the conversation that preceded this. My comment was addressing the issue of what happens if Soler reaches the bigs soon enough for his arb years - which he can "opt out" of his contract to head to arbitration - to *not* be the last three years of his nine-year deal. What happens in that ninth year, was the question. And I'm saying I suspect the contract, itself, addresses that possibility explicitly. It could be an "opt out" into free agency, but it could be something else entirely. And if the contract specifies that he somehow gets free agency as soon as he finishes those arb years (if he opts out of his contract and into arbitration at all), why wouldn't the Cubs hold him down to ensure they get that 9th year? It's extremely likely, given that all that it will entail is holding him down until he's like 22 and a half. I didn't clip out anything, I directly quoted what you wrote. And I'm saying I assume they have a 9 year contract in place to spread out the cost of $30m if he winds up a failure, but that if he "makes it" and opts out of the deal early for arbitration, he will be then be out of the contract and thus a free agent after 6 years. If he can opt out, he has opted out. It would go against the rules of the CBA to arbitrarily force him into something like 5 or 6 arbitration rules and have 7 or 8 years of service time before reaching free agency.

You don't need to lose as many games as possible, just 1 more than the next worst team.

And broadly tossing out statements like they can't lose lots of games without the Cubs better players playing poorly and damaging their futures is false.

And the Cubs are pretty much on pace for the high of of the range for losing lots of games, without damaging the future of anybody who matters.

http://www.dodgersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/111711-Cy.jpg Clayton Kershaw http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/19174/major_league_19174.jpg Charlie Sheen