jersey cubs fan

I don't know the point, but hopefully it can be a tipping point were it becomes less and less of a story. I do think there needs to be more of a concerted effort to keeps kids from playing with roids, and perhaps this can shed a little more light on that subject. But when all is said and done, there probably isn't a point, other than giving Bud a chance to say "get the hell off my back already."

Or was just smart enough to not use a personal check. And for baseball players, the probably qualifies as genius.

I would definitely take a look at the guy. A guy who can mash lefties off the bench could really help the Cubs, especially if Murton is eventually traded.

That looks more like Houston's basket than the Cubs'. Too many brown ones in that basket. Tejada, Lee and Wandy. Looks to be more in the rear bottom. Kaz?

Bye bye nancy boy Prior, you non-trying towel throwing slumpy body language girly man. Karma really bit you for screwing over the Cubs and the fans the way you did you just ducky stiffing mph losing getting hurt on purpose can't throw 150 pitches wussy. I hope you didn't strain your vagina when you found out Hendry finally pulled you off the Cubs' teat and took away all that free money you've been getting. What's that, you could have made many many more millions if you weren't hurt? Don't give me that nonsense, I know you aren't even hurt and even if you were you did it on purpose so you could get paid for nothing and live the highlife back in SoCal with all your wimpy pretty boy roid head needle sticking lying jerkheads.

What, you're concerned about the validity of a glorified witch hunt/McCarthy communist report? Exactly. A) Politician, B) Red Sox owner, C) based on hearsay. No oversight, no transparancy. I had an open mind when it was first announced, but the more I've heard about it the less I care about it. It really has nothing to do with Cubs names being on it, I said this before I ever heard the names. I'm just uncomfortable with the idea of a name being in a report equalling a fact that a guy did steroids.

So people are now taking rumors of appearances in the Mitchell report as fact that said player used steroids? If his name actually appears in the report in 30 minutes will you be convinced? And if not, why? It really wasn't about the rumor part, it was about the Mitchell report. The whole thing stinks to me.

That looks more like Houston's basket than the Cubs'. Too many brown ones in that basket. Tejada, Lee and Wandy.

That looks more like Houston's basket than the Cubs'.

So people are now taking rumors of appearances in the Mitchell report as fact that said player used steroids?

While there may be no need to adjust predicted production, I highly doubt everyone has been clean the past couple years. The thing is, if they haven't been caught on the plan yet, you may be able to assume they are smart enough to avoid detection. Then there is still no need to adjust predicted production. If they haven't been caught the past couple years, they won't be caught the next couple years. Theres been no indication that any of the testing is going to change, correct? The whole Mitchell Report is to show that many baseball players abused PEDs in the past, but stopped when the ban was put in place. Its all just show so Selig can prove that hes "cleaned up the game". That was my point. You can seperate those two issues. But you can't know that guys have been clean in recent years.

That about sums it up. I have to say I'm a little disappointed there were no Susie Greene quotes. I don't think I could have gotten "four-eyed ****" in the paper. I had a dental appointment!!!

While there may be no need to adjust predicted production, I highly doubt everyone has been clean the past couple years. The thing is, if they haven't been caught on the plan yet, you may be able to assume they are smart enough to avoid detection.

Let's just hope he's not ready to break camp with the big club either.

i'm a little confused. when the cubs.com article says they offered him a 1-year deal, etc., etc., isn't this tendering him a contract? No. The tender, I believe, requires some official paperwork. I'm sure the offer was more or less verbal, and probably significantly below the permissable arbitration level. In other words, they would have had to tender a contract offer of $3m (or close), and they probably said, "Hey Mark, we'll offer you 1 year for $1.5m".

That about sums it up. I have to say I'm a little disappointed there were no Susie Greene quotes.

At least they came to terms with Neil Cotts.

The keys are Soto and Pie. Assuming both get the starting nod, if they can give the Cubs something close to the average level of production at their respective positions, they should be able to handle the central, as long as most everybody else at least stays level. Fukudome probably isn't going to be a tremendous improvement over what they got out of RF last year, but it should be an improvement nonetheless. Pie clearly has the tougher task. The average CF production is signficantly better than the average C production, not to mention much better than what Pie has shown in the majors. Even if he eventually turns out to be a bust though, he may be able to at least flirt with the .273/.335/.427 line NL CFers put up last year. Although if Soto manages that or better, then they can probably get away with Pie going .256/.318/.393, the 2007 average line for NL catchers, and still win the division. SS is likely to be bottom of the barrel again, unless Cedeno gets the nod and reaches his potential, or they make a move. But I think they can get away with one black hole. Last year's 3 black holes, coupled with some disappointing mediocrity in RF is what sunk the lineup. The rest of the crew just isn't good enough to makeup for those issues. I still think they need one more significant improvement to solidify their position at the top of the division, and possibly the NL.

I think Bruce's article makes it clear that Hendry has only reluctantly mentioned OBP, mostly because people like Bruce kept bugging him about it. But he has yet to grasp the value of the walk, and really only thinks of OBP as an extension of batting average.

Cuse, you've let emotion determine every sentence you've written about the Prior issue, so don't start with me on this nonsense. Your damn right emotion comes into play. My emotion is being pissed that the Cubs are run by incomptent idiots who let stuff like this get to the level where it's at.

Henry Blanco and Jacque Jones say hi. Oh, and we should introduce you to Jason Marquis pretty soon.

As Bruce stated in his article this morning, there didn't seem to be much interest from other teams in terms of trading for Prior. Because the Cubs made it painfully obvious they were going to give him away for free. And we all know that all 29 of the other teams can sign him. I'm sure no team ever trades for a guy in July that is going to be a free agent the next season either. They wouldn't if he was going to be a free agent on August 1.

Bye bye nancy boy Prior, you non-trying towel throwing slumpy body language girly man. Karma really bit you for screwing over the Cubs and the fans the way you did you just ducky stiffing mph losing getting hurt on purpose can't throw 150 pitches wussy. I hope you didn't strain your vagina when you found out Hendry finally pulled you off the Cubs' teat and took away all that free money you've been getting. What's that, you could have made many many more millions if you weren't hurt? Don't give me that nonsense, I know you aren't even hurt and even if you were you did it on purpose so you could get paid for nothing and live the highlife back in SoCal with all your wimpy pretty boy jerkheads.

As Bruce stated in his article this morning, there didn't seem to be much interest from other teams in terms of trading for Prior. Because the Cubs made it painfully obvious they were going to give him away for free.

I watched Mike and Mike the next Morning and they never even touched on it. Pretty surprising. PTI touched on it, but they just ripped on him for being stupid enough to sign with the Cubs. It was never in their breaking news box on espnnews, as that was filled with Petrino news and then a mitchell report promo at least 15 hours in advance. They did have the Prior news in that box for a short time. But it's definitely true that the lack of coverage is clearly affected by the fact that Boston and the Yankees were not involved. Had the Cubs beat either of those two teams, it would be newsworthy.