Clem Fandango

[pointlessness] If you're ever in a situation where you're doing manual labor with a group of people, or work with a group of people, that involved doing more work or better work than others, randomly tell them your back hurts. When they ask why, tell them you've been carrying their weight all G** damn day. I used that on my Mom at a garage sale my family had a couple summers ago when I was selling more stuff than she was, it's a family tradition to say it now. Kerry should apply this to his every day life. [/pointlessness]

Keep in mind, financial wise, that as Soriano's contract gets bigger throughout the years, and begins to handcuff us, there are other players making big money whose contracts would likely come off the books. Will people expect Lee to be back in a Cub uniform in 2011? If not, that;s $13 mil off the table. Another $10 mil when Lilly leaves with him. The next year the Cubs might buy out Ramirez's contract at $2 mil and get the $19.25 mil they would owe him that year out of their hands. While the Soriano contract isn't helping much, you gotta keep in mind that as his paycheck grows, a lot of players might be gone opening up money for other players and/or spots in the field for prospects (I would assume Vitters will taker over to A-Ram assuming he doesn't bust, same for Colvin and Kosuke, whatever etc.) In the end, the audacity of his contract and the prospect of it handcuffing the Cubs is really contingent on who exactly buys the Cubs and how deep they are willing to delve into their pockets. If we get a conservative douche, then we're probably screwed. If we get a Mark Cuban type who does what it takes to win, then who cares? I ultimately don't think it will be as nightmarish as people say as far as hurting team finances are concerned. It will only hurt when we're paying him $18 mil for putting up half the numbers he put up last year in his old age.

I completely forgot about the draft and missed it. Didn't do pre-draft because I was expecting to take part in the draft :( C: Ramon Hernandez ( :banghead: ) 1B: Albert Pujols 2B: Brandon Phillips 3B: Ryan Zimmerman SS: Carlos Guillen OF: Hunter Pence OF: Brad Hawpe OF: Shane Victorino BN: Kevin Kouzmanoff BN: Luis Castillo BN: Conor Jackson (Dropped Giambi and picked him up) BN: Jack Cust (Dropped Garrett Anderson and picked him up) SP: Brad Penny SP: Jered Weaver RP: Jose Valverde RP: Matt Capps P: Tim Hudson P: Todd Jones P: Jeremy Guthrie BN: Franklin Morales I'm not too disappointed with my offense, although I'm not too happy with it either. I loathe my pitching. My fault though, guess I'll have to manage.

Is it weird that even though Dusty is managing another team, all the Dusty inspired transactions the Reds are making are pissing me off like they did when he was with the Cubs?

Well, I play with my fraternity brothers and they'll a little less knowledgeable of baseball and fantasy baseball. A lot of them ignored the OPS category and went for names instead of numbers. One guy drafted 7 pitchers in the first 9 rounds, took Papelbon in the 3rd, took Peavy before Santana, one of them was John Lackey, etc. There's still a lot of players that weren't drafted that could come up big this year. I agree I don't have the best team, but I feel its one of the more well rounded ones, and a trade or two away from being the best. I';m also putting a lot of faith into several pitchers, mainly Liriano returning close to his original form, Hill improving his ERA and K rate, Billingsley having a full year of starting under his belt to do well, etc. Thanks for the input

That's good, but still not as funny as the Kyle Kendrick pranked the Phillies pulled on him a few weeks back.

Awesome. Johnny Cueto will be to the Reds as Mark Prior was to the Cubs! Yaaaay!

What are the percentages that Wood, Marmol, or Howry get the closers job? I need some Fantasy Baseball guidance. Wood is available, Marmol is not. I'd love to pick up Wood, but is he a sure thing for closer? And for an extended period of time or only for a short while? Everything about this topic seems so vague, unless I missed something earlier in the thread

Oh, and I'd move to nominate Angel Pagan's colitis, and Nomar's torn groin muscle to this conversation

If I had this injury, the first thing I would do is never ever ever allow my team to let everyone know that I tore my anus. The least they could do is say they bruised his tailbone off the field or something. Why do this to a player? I will never look at Kaz Matsui again without thinking of his cornhole. Thanks a lot, Houston

Yeah yeah. Yahoo H2H league, 8 teams, 22 draft rounds. Offensive Stats: R, H, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OPS Pitching Stats: W, L, K, SV, ERA, WHIP Name (draft round pick) C: Victor Martinez (4) C: Geovany Soto (18) 1B: Carlos Pena (11) 2B: Rickie Weeks (14) 3B: Ryan Braun (2) SS: Hanley Ramirez (1) SS: Stephen Drew (21) OF: Grady Sizemore (3) OF: Adam Dunn (6) OF: Chris Young (15) OF: Kosuke Fukudome (17) OF: Josh Hamilton (22) SP: Erik Bedard (5) SP: Cole Hamles (7) SP: Fausto Carmona (10) SP: Francisco Liriano (12) SP: Rich Hill (13) SP: Chad Billingsley (16) SP: Ian Snell (20) RP: Joe Nathan (8) RP: Francisco Rodriguez (9) RP: Eric Gagne (19) If Pena is a bust I can always play Martinez at 1B and put Soto in. I could definitely use an upgrade at 2B, I'm thinking about offering Bedard for Utley, but I doubt the guy in my league takes it, although his first SP pick came in like round 12 or something and it was Brett Myers. He might be tempted by the Ace status of Bedard that he really doesn't have. Plus he has Figgins, Brandon Phillips, and Kelly Johnson who can all play 2B. I don't trust Bedard's health

Rotoworld now saying it's a 3-year deal, with two option years, potentially making it a 5-year deal

:lol:

This makes me upset, because I was hoping they'd trade him to the Cubs for chump change. I have a baseball man-crush on Ian Snell

Just got a ESPN Alert on my phone, can't find an article anywhere online though confirming or telling how much money it's for.

He might be able to do that if he fulfills his potential while hitting in Arlington

Was it an 8 year old article?

Rollins also plays a more valuable position. This is true, but that disparity between winning the MVP and getting 10th place is still huge. Rollins winning MVP/Gold Glove still pisses me off. Must be hard carrying a team down the stretch when you have 4 guys with OPS' higher than your own in the lineup. The NL MVP voting this year was fubar

We are being buried under the avalanche of your inadequacies, Mr. Crede!

Ba-zing!

I'm depressed to see that you didn't at least make it an AL team to add a DH spot for Pedro Cerano

Considering last year the Cubs underachieved big time at the beginning of the year, if they don't go through a similar slump, they could have one of the best lineups in the NL, IMO. They sucked in April. Big time. But not much changed lineup wise between April when they sucked and June when they caught fire. If they don't slump, they're one of the best.

Awesome video. I was in the bleachers for HR #6. Was an awesome game.

Well, whatever beneficial offensive skills Corey Patterson learned in Baltimore are probably going bye-bye now

Now I know! http://kreations.kaptainmyke.com/cp/cpimg/headers/knowinghalf.png