jersey cubs fan

That brings me to something else. I really hope that if he struggles next year that the "New-style" Cubs Fans don't boo him too much. It would just be a shame. I can see if he is mailing it in and not trying, but if he is working hard and being diciplined and is just struggling to adjust right away I hope they don't take it out on him. It is embarassing to have fans boo their own team when it is unwarrented. I suspect he'll get a similar grace period as Soriano received. As long as he isn't making outs on the bases, getting picked off repeatedly, and throwing the ball into the ground, he will be given a couple months of adjustment before any but the most obnoxious fans even consider booing. I bet he's given many a standing ovation early in the year.

edited to shorten the quote

Allstate?

Bruce's article http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=93666 Forgive my cynicism, but I can't help but imagine Hendry was pushing hard for a December 11/12 decision date by Fukudome to make the Prior news backpage stuff.

Isn't that just your standard superimposed new jersey on an old picture situation?

Agreed. Now, if we could just get him to let the players know it's okay to take a walk.

Bruce's article appears to be indicating the likelihood is that Prior will be non-tendered. Bummer.

What next, are you going to talk about his VORP? Are you freaking kidding me Jim? Did you finally realize the Damien Jacksons and Neifi Perez's of the world have a fundamental problem with them. Jim has mentioned OBP a lot in recent years. Although I felt he was just paying lip service after having people like Bruce Miles ask about it repeatedly. The one concern I still have is that he likes OBP, only if it comes with high AVG. In other words, he still doesn't see the problem with the lack of walks. Hopefully Fukudome is a signal that is changed.

According to the dudes on the Comcast Sports show a few minutes ago, Dan Plesac said earlier today that he felt Fukudome and Roberts were an "either or proposition" and that the Cubs wouldn't go after both of them. Which led to a discussion of which one would you prefer and a lot of discussion on how much Fuk's Japanese stats should be discounted. In the clip I saw this morning, he was really skeptical of Japanese players in general. But this is also the same guy who thinks the world of people like Ryan Theriot and talked about how wonderful a player Jacque Jones is. I don't think he's analyzing anything here, just falling back to the "that's Japan this is the majors, there's no way to compare".

If he plays long enough to accumulate 10-15 HR and 18 SB, he will walk more than 0 times.

against the spread?

Wakey, wakey hands off snakey. It's 8:00 am Kosuke, rise and shine and make up your mind. All due respect.

My concern would be strictly about what sort of Plan B Hendry would force upon us if that happened.

I think most people are still stuck at the davhern sourcing davearm thing.

I figured this out when my wife was working in Tokyo and we'd call each other from the office.

What a waste of Alyssa Milano.

Pretty much every forum that has this info lists the payroll of the team's opening day roster. For instance, you won't see the $16m the Cubs paid Baltimore to take Sammy Sosa, or the $3+ million they paid Rusch not to pitch. They will not account for midseason acquisitions like Nomar Garciaparra, Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, or Steve Trachsel. They won't include the money the Cubs will pay Detroit to take Jones. They fail to take into account a lot of things, and when you do take this into account, it's clear the Cubs have had financial resources to spend than their divisional competition. That is certainly a factor in to why those numbers would be off. At the same time, over the years the Cardinals have added plenty of money at the deadline themselves (probably more than the Cubs have because the Cubs have rarely been good enough to add payroll during the season), and both have had years where they have cut money at the deadline. As for paying money as part of a trade, iirc the Cardinals have done that a lot less than the Cubs have. At the same time, the Cardianls have been much more active during the season of cutting struggling players, eating the dead money, and signing new players for small contracts that still add up. Those reasons do throw the reported figures off, but that still doesn't push the Cubs significantly above the Cardinals. Yes it does. The Sosa money alone makes 2005 go from 92-87 to 103-92 and blows your averages away. STL has never done anything close to that. They traded for Larry Walker in 2004, but Colorado threw in $8m in cash, meaning they paid the rest of 2004 and part of 2005 (yet USA Today gives Walker's entire salary to the Cardinals payroll).

Pretty much every forum that has this info lists the payroll of the team's opening day roster. For instance, you won't see the $16m the Cubs paid Baltimore to take Sammy Sosa, or the $3+ million they paid Rusch not to pitch. They will not account for midseason acquisitions like Nomar Garciaparra, Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, or Steve Trachsel. They won't include the money the Cubs will pay Detroit to take Jones. They fail to take into account a lot of things, and when you do take this into account, it's clear the Cubs have had financial resources to spend than their divisional competition.

Not fair? My lord. Enough with the woe is us nonsense. It's like all the talk forgiving Hendry for any losses because of injury. The Cubs have had a decided and clear financial advantage over every single division foe, plus the advantage of playing the weakest competition, by far. The Mets also play the consistently great Yanks 6 times a year, while the Cubs have been able to play the up and down White Sox. NY has Philly and Atlanta to compete with, teams that have clearly outclassed STL and HOU in recent years. And remember, the Cubs have been the team handing out insane money to many draft picks year after year as well, grossly overpaying for guys like Samardzija. The financial advantage is not only in the USA Today listed payrolls, it's everything, and it's been ongoing for several years. Quit with the excuses already. The Cubs should win 90 games every year. If they finish with 85 or 86 once or twice, it's excusable, but when 85 is the highest win total in three years, that is inexcusable. When 88 and 89 wins are the high water mark you are doing a lousy job taking advantage of the very clear financial advantage. This is the part I agree with, and we'll have to agree to disagree if the Cubs have truly had a financial advantage over the division, especially anytime before 2006. I can't agree to disagree on such a clearly obvious statement.

Seriously? Just strikes me as odd people would even care. We've quashed a number of nicknames for people like Corey Patterson and Glendon Rusch as well. There's a point where nicknames cross the line from being funny and clever, to immature and childish, and even more so...annoying. Think of this as a general rule: if it's in the word filter, it's there for a reason. Don't try to avoid it by getting cute with the spelling. I love the irony of this coupled with the fact that Rusch is used by the word filter as a substitute for an "obscenity." It's used for that obscenity because that obscenity was used as a nickname for Rusch. [expletive] pitched like crap today. Rusch pitched like crap today.

Is there room to make fun on this sentence?

Not fair? My lord. Enough with the woe is us nonsense. It's like all the talk forgiving Hendry for any losses because of injury. The Cubs have had a decided and clear financial advantage over every single division foe, plus the advantage of playing the weakest competition, by far. The Mets also play the consistently great Yanks 6 times a year, while the Cubs have been able to play the up and down White Sox. NY has Philly and Atlanta to compete with, teams that have clearly outclassed STL and HOU in recent years. And remember, the Cubs have been the team handing out insane money to many draft picks year after year as well, grossly overpaying for guys like Samardzija. The financial advantage is not only in the USA Today listed payrolls, it's everything, and it's been ongoing for several years. Quit with the excuses already. The Cubs should win 90 games every year. If they finish with 85 or 86 once or twice, it's excusable, but when 85 is the highest win total in three years, that is inexcusable. When 88 and 89 wins are the high water mark you are doing a lousy job taking advantage of the very clear financial advantage.

No specific timetable, many are reporting within 24-48 hours.

Doesn't excite me either. Although a Murton, Fukudome, Soriano outfield could be very nice.

Your guess is as good as mine. If the Cubs land Fukudome, I think they will be more willing to trade Pie especially if Colvin is progressing. Hendry keeps saying Pie is untouchable, but I got to believe if Hendry becomes desperate for Brian Roberts, he'll put Pie in that deal. With Pie, Theriot and the pitcher's spot, the lineup has 3 automatic outs (save for Z). Theriot is now an "automatic out?" There wasn't a single Cubs regular who made outs more frequently than Theriot last year.