jersey cubs fan

Well then make up your mind, you can't say they will have to settle for a crap deal and that they will have plenty of strenght in negotiation that will net them a good deal at the same time. The deal mentioned sucked and should be passed on. A good deal should be accepted.

Disagree. Getting a couple of useful prospects > a draft pick > having Garza on a bad FA deal If it was guaranteed to be a bad deal perhaps, but it is not. You can't negotiate with any strength if you are resigned to trading a guy no matter what.

I thought you were against signing Garza long term. It's not my favorite option. But trading him for "whatever you can get" is a worse idea.

That's not a fair comparison since it's not a $$$ for $$$ thing. The IFA money isn't just based on whatever a team wants to spend, they need to have access to the slots. It's a fair comparison to discuss what the market for IFA slot space is.

I think that seriously underestimates the price to keep Garza. He's not going to come back on a reasonable deal. He's going to hit a money-rich, talent-poor FA market as the best pitcher available and get something stupid. Then you can pat yourself on the back with the No. 35 overall pick or whatever that might slot into the back of our top 10, instead of getting a top 100 prospect + a guy as good as the No. 35 pick. Then sign him. If you can't get an impactful return in trade there is no point in trading him. Incremental improvement does nothing for this team.

That's a horrible [expletive] return. I'd rather make the qualifying offer and try to sign him. I'm definitely looking forward to your reaction when he is traded. He's right though. That's an awful return and should be dismissed in favor of keeping him next season.

Yeah, I probably should have included this in the list of reasons: Baby boomers keep dying.

Surprised to see Jennings as a blue-chipper but not Brandon Marshall. All the others sound about right. Tim Jennings is listed as the same level as Marshall, high quality. Only Tillman is a blue chipper.

I don't watch a lot of non-Cubs games in a typical year but I probably haven't seen more than 2 innings of a non-Cubs game this year, combined. I will throw on a Pirates game for my brother-in-law or Phillies for my father-in-law, but then I'll tune out myself and find something else to do.

I'm not so sure he doesn't understand all this. I just think it's not on him to give a crap about the long-term interests of the ballclub. He's on the Chicago Cubs in 2013 and they suck and just traded away a good player. He saw this last year and he's been a part of a team that has been bad for a long time. At 30,000 feet you can see the promise on the horizon, but the guys who have to play on this crap team right now don't have the advantage of tuning out and waiting for the future. i guess i just don't really see the difference. this team was already bad with feldman. there was no realistic scenario in which the cubs became good in the second half and made the playoffs. they can win like 68 games with feldman and clevenger and other assorted great guys who play the game hard and play the right way, or they can win 62 games with other great guys who sometimes play the game the wrong way. and i'm sure it sucks being on a lousy ballclub, but when you sign with a team that hasn't won it all since the teddy roosevelt administration, you should have an idea of what you're getting into. Well, there isn't a difference. And most everybody should recognize that, but the players are exempt from thinking about that sort of stuff in my opinion. They are on the team and allowed to lament a teammate leaving and another season being thrown away. He signed in 2006, a couple years after the team showed some signs of sustained success, but before that really fell apart. They got good again shortly thereafter. I think he signed on with the expectation of a team that wouldn't win it all every year, but would be competitive in most years. Now he's in his fourth consecutive season of crap. And a draftee doesn't have a huge choice about which team he signs on with anyway.

You are a very dull human if you think it is fun to watch the process that has been going on here.

When I went to the game last week I couldn't believe how diminutive Torreyes was compared everyone else. He can't be taller than 5-4. tiny dude. Still, he has enough positives that this trade, moreso than Feldman, seemed to show their desperation for IFA money. I'm also mildly curious why Houston did this. As I'm not an Astros fan, I guess I really don't care, but it seems odd that a rebuilding team would, at the expense of IFA money, add a 2nd baseman in AA when their best MLB asset is a young 2nd baseman. Then again, don't care. You'd have to think they weren't going to spend the money anyway and were happy to acquire whatever they could for the right to not spend that money.

I'm not so sure he doesn't understand all this. I just think it's not on him to give a crap about the long-term interests of the ballclub. He's on the Chicago Cubs in 2013 and they suck and just traded away a good player. He saw this last year and he's been a part of a team that has been bad for a long time. At 30,000 feet you can see the promise on the horizon, but the guys who have to play on this crap team right now don't have the advantage of tuning out and waiting for the future.

The Mets could be included in the popular, bad team argument too. But it does seem like a larger trend than just this season. They could, but they are a distant second in their own city and I don't think they have much of a national presence.

low scoring baseball is boring of the three most popular teams in the game: one has been irrelevant for four seasons (cubs) one is coming off a disastrous season which followed a very disappointing one (bos) one is a completely overexposed dull brand having a ho-hum season (nyy) Of the 6 current division leaders, only Boston has shown a consistently supportive fan base

Eh, I don't begrudge a player for lamenting the loss of a teammate while witnessing his front office punt multiple seasons. Those are the guys who should say this stuff.

sullivan said something about likely end of camp and rodriguez

Look, you are the one who tried to equate this to trading for the 16 year old. They didn't have to trade stuff to sign him. They could have just signed him, and he wouldn't have been the only one. So, sign Mejia and not have an opportunity to sign Jimenez so you can hold onto Feldman/Clevenger/Torreyes is what you're saying? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying your made up equivocation is not relevant.

Look, you are the one who tried to equate this to trading for the 16 year old. They didn't have to trade stuff to sign him. They could have just signed him, and he wouldn't have been the only one.

They could have still signed the top 2. It's still just allowing for the second tier 16 year olds, not the elite.

Who said he had no familiarity? What the hell are you talking about? I would assume that when he was out west he had familiarity with him. I would hope so at least. I just don't see how he'd have extra familiarity based simply on being employed by an organization whose major league team plays in the same division as the major league team of the organization where that prospect played at the time.

No, because they could have signed without making any of those trades. Do you honestly think that Hoyer is going to acquire all that IFA pool money and not use it? That has nothing to do with what you asked. The extra pool money isn't allowing them to add the elite guys, it's allowing them to add the 2nd tier guys after spending their own money on the elite guys.

NBC Sports ‏@NBCSports 25m The final is on ESPN. RT @BillSimmons "Radwanska! Bartoli!!!!! It's the Wimbledon Women's Finals on NBC!" Retweeted by Drew Magary

Theo was in the AL East as recently as 2011, while the other two big guys had been in the NL West for a long time. Although I don't think there's any extra familiarity with being in the same division anyway. You don't think there's any extra familiarity with guys on teams you play 17-19 times every year over a team in the other league? That's flat out ridiculous. A pitcher you might see twice? I would think the front office types would familiarize themselves with everybody in the league and not just focus on the opponents of the big league team at the moment. Arrieta faced Boston twice in 2011 and once in 2010. Strop didn't come to the AL East until halfway through 2011. He threw 2.2 innings versus Boston that year. I can't imagine how they would realistically have more familiarity with those guys than with the rest of the league.

The Cubs are the ones making it valuable by being the guys who are trading stuff for it.