Cubbie Swagger

Haha. I guess we need to clarify what exactly a "franchise player" is. If you build your team around someone who has an OPS of .800-.850, you are FUCKED. If you have a team where your SS has an OPS of .800-.850, and you have other players on the roster that are better than him offensively, then that sounds like a good start to a winning team. All I'm saying is this: Castro is really good for the position that he plays, but that doesn't mean he needs to be the centerpiece of our offense and hit 3rd in our lineup forever. I really feel like I'm not being all that unreasonable here.

Castro does not SUCK, but honestly, from the beginning, I haven't been as high on him as other people are. I'm totally fine with him being our everyday shortstop for a long time to come... but I also would not build my team around him. He's not a "franchise" player by any stretch. Lucky for him, he plays a position that isn't very demanding as far as slugging and OBP. If he can hit .300, steal bases, and post at least a .800-.850 OPS every year, along with plus defense, then I'll take him as my shortstop.

I'm really hoping that Geo puts up some really nice artificially-inflated numbers down there in Texas and then gets a nice fat deal from one of our division opponents.

:D There's nothing else to say about Byrd. He used PEDs. He got caught. He's a dick. Etc.

I get that you prefer natural food, but it's faulty to deem anything not natural as being automatically bad for people. It really depends on what your definition of "bad" is. Obviously there are plenty of natural substances out there that will make you drop dead instantly if you consume them. Synthetic substances do have their uses in medicine, where you're usually talking about a "lesser of two evils" situation. Like... if you have a medical problem that is worse than the potential side effects of the pharm drugs... then I'm not going to criticize you for taking them. Synthetics do NOT have any place in food.

Honestly, that mentality is the reason I moved to the west coast. I got tired of fundamentally disagreeing with everyone.

There's nothing wrong with cities. I'm not one of those tree-huggers who is against building stuff or expanding the infrastructure or anything. Although... obviously that needs to be limited somewhat. We need some amount of natural beauty to be preserved. Oh... and there's nothing "futurey" about eating. I might not know exactly what's going on in this dimension we're stuck in... but I do know that it all works by itself without us intervening. We shouldn't be eating anything that isn't already here for us.

it's totally normal because people didn't start making it to 40 with regularity until very recently, thanks in part to synthetics. You are correct that synthetics have played a role in lengthening the human lifespan, but not as big of a role as people like to think. Mostly just eliminating mass diseases/plagues. In general, antibiotics are WAY over-prescribed and also very harmful. Really, the reason that we live longer today is because of our infrastructure. Food is widely available and regulated. We don't have to go around hunting and eating/drinking whatever we happen to find that day (risking all sorts of diseases, etc). Also, we don't get eaten by bears and lions and stuff as much anymore. The bottom line is that people get things like cancer, Alzheimers, diabetes, autism, food allergies, etc at astronomically higher rates today than ever before. It's because of all the toxins we put into our bodies. Boy... now I'm really off topic. people have been mass farming for 10,000 years and food has been widely available since. the very existence of farms implies that they have cities to feed. people living on top of each other in cities is a far better way of spreading disease than people hunting and fishing for food in small reclusive communities. after withstanding plague after plague, we finally figured out a few tricks to improve our chances at survival, antiseptics (thank you, Donnie Darko) and antibiotics. what you're bemoaning isn't pharmaceuticals, but the necessity of pharmaceuticals. but the only way we can live without them now is to trade the plow for the spear, which isn't going to happen. you'll have to live with it. the older our population gets, the sicker it will get. To be fair, there is an over "dependence" (more like over-usage of) pharmaceuticals (particularly psychotropic drugs, which Americans consume at a prodigious rate). And antibiotics are over-prescribed. But your overall point stands. Improved healthcare tools like vaccinations and antibiotics, along with the basic understanding of medical pathology that led to them, are more responsible for our increased longevity than any other factor, by far. They're not remotely perfect, but their role can't be understated. The far more grievous threats currently posed to general health are overprocessed, chemicalized food and environmental pollution, as well as communicable disease. Cubbie swagger says food is well regulated, but this really isn't true. Compared to Europe and many other developed areas, our food regulation is an absolute joke (less of a joke if you buy organic). Of course this is also a symptom of larger populations. It's hard to properly source and make affordable good foods for some many people. You also say the older people get, the sicker it gets. This is obvious. But there is increased incidence/diagnosis of diseases like cancers in younger people, which is a result of two things: improved diagnostic procedures/tools, and increased environmental hazards. There is a tradeoff when you talk about moving from hunter/gather societies to centralized urban/argrarian societies, but not all of the negative effects we see are present as a matter of cause or necessity. I pretty much agree with all of this, including the part about food regulation. I didn't mean that our food was WELL regulated, because it's certainly not. Just to clarify. You make good points about cancer. People are getting all sorts of cancers at younger and younger ages... and it's not normal. It's nice that we're able to diagnose cancer much more easily these days. The sad part is our approach to "curing cancer". The cure to cancer is to eat healthy and keep toxins out of your body. The last thing I'm going to do is pay for chemotherapy so I can live like a vegetable for a few more years and then die anyway. The fact that most people don't have access to good food is what's really unfortunate. I just recently left Illinois and moved to Eugene, Oregon. One of the main reasons is because local organic food is readily available here, and it's part of the culture. Not to mention, it's reasonable priced. There's health food stores and organic restaurants on every corner. Go Ducks!

This.

it's totally normal because people didn't start making it to 40 with regularity until very recently, thanks in part to synthetics. You are correct that synthetics have played a role in lengthening the human lifespan, but not as big of a role as people like to think. Mostly just eliminating mass diseases/plagues. In general, antibiotics are WAY over-prescribed and also very harmful. Really, the reason that we live longer today is because of our infrastructure. Food is widely available and regulated. We don't have to go around hunting and eating/drinking whatever we happen to find that day (risking all sorts of diseases, etc). Also, we don't get eaten by bears and lions and stuff as much anymore. The bottom line is that people get things like cancer, Alzheimers, diabetes, autism, food allergies, etc at astronomically higher rates today than ever before. It's because of all the toxins we put into our bodies. Boy... now I'm really off topic.

How do you feel about double rainbows? I would have to rank double rainbows ahead of shooting stars, but behind the loch ness monster as far as general awesomeness. Just to give you a range.

I'm into heavy weight lifting myself... so I know very well how prevalent steroids are at the gym. I've never used them myself, and I never will. The whole "no side effects" thing is pretty much a flawed argument. Just because you don't notice something visibly wrong with yourself doesn't mean that everything is okay. Western medicine and pharmaceuticals in general are a big evil scam and there's no reason why a human body should be consuming synthetic chemicals unless it's absolutely medically necessary. Almost ALL of the health problems that people get are caused by the food that we eat and other environmental toxins. It's funny that people act like it's totally normal to get all these medical conditions in your 40's and 50's. It's a result of all the stuff you did to your body when you were young and you went around saying "well I don't notice any side effects". So... if you aren't concerned about preserving your long-term health... go right ahead and take whatever you want. You're probably already zapping your food with radiation before you eat it, and wiping aluminum all over the most absorbant skin on your body on a daily basis (your arm pits).

With even a little speck of Paul Wilson's blood on it, that ball would be essentially priceless.

So your Cubbie Swagger is feeling a little less swaggerish these days. Unfortunately, yes. The 2012 Cubs are suffering from a swag deficiency.

Even if everything goes right, I really don't see how we're going to be better than .500 this year. I do like what Theo and Jed are doing with the team, though.

This is America. You don't go to prison for 5 years for something petty like rape. You've gotta get caught with DRUGS to do any real time. The problem with the justice system in regards to more serious crimes like rape and murder as opposed to drug possession and petty theft is that it's a lot easier to prove the latter, thus those types of offenders are more likely to serve time. I assure you that a convicted rapist will serve more time than someone getting caught with a dime bag or even caught with a trunk full of cocaine. That is just absolutely not true, man. Are you aware that they hand out LIFE sentences for like... a few kilos of cocaine? I personally know someone who was arrested with 280 hits of LSD before they were even old enough to drink, and they will be an old man when they get out of prison. It was of course a class X felony. Meanwhile, convicted rapists ROUTINELY get out of prison in less than 5 years. Just check your local sex offender database. I am sure that you will find plenty that are out on probation or parole after serving only a few years. Even child sex offenders don't get any serious time. Our country is a MESS.

This is America. You don't go to prison for 5 years for something petty like rape. You've gotta get caught with DRUGS to do any real time.

I think the injury excuse might work just fine to the average random Cubs fan (who doesn't follow baseball or care if the Cubs win).

At least on this site there were very few people who thought he signed for too much. There might have been a handful of people saying he signed for too much, while most of the complaints were over the deal being too long (wanted 2 not 3 years) and him not being an impact player (true). There were very, very few complaints about the money in the deal. I was gonna say the same thing. Byrd was a good bargain and the signing made sense at the time considering the other options. In a couple years when Wood retires, I'm sure you'll find a couple idiots saying things like, "He's overpaid!" and "We should have never brought him back!" but that's because you can find at least a couple people that think chickens give live birth.

And I got him for $1 in my auction draft this year. Lucky me.

WELL IT SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CUBS IF WE CAN GET HIM FOR THE MINIMUM. HIGH REWARD AND LOW RISK. Oh wait.

I dropped Chipper, and the guy I've been playing for the past week picked him up immediately. Chipper has proceeded to rip it up against me, meanwhile McGehee isn't doing anything. I hope this ends up working out for me. Luckily it's just the bench, as someone said.

10 team, H2H C - Russell Martin 1B - Joey Votto 2B - Juan Uribe 3B - Evan Longoria SS - Hanley Ramirez 2B/SS - Starlin Castro 1B/3B - Adam Dunn OF - BJ Upton OF - Ichiro Suzuki OF - Carlos Beltran OF - Jason Kubel OF - Sam Fuld UTIL - Buster Posey BENCH - Freddy Sanchez BENCH - Johnny Damon BENCH - Chipper Jones/Casey McGehee (I have to get rid of one of them right now to make room for Longoria coming off the DL) SP - CC Sabathia SP - Josh Beckett SP - Carlos Zambrano SP - Matt Cain SP - John Danks SP - Matt Garza RP - Carlos Marmol RP - Jonathan Papelbon RP - Brandon Lyon My outfield doesn't hit for much power, but overall I think it's a solid team. I have a few guys who I haven't gotten any production out of yet who are generally safe bets like Longoria, Hanley Ramirez and Dunn. I think once those guys get back to their normal production, I'll be pretty gravy.

This is a daily H2H league on ESPN. Like the title says. Evan Longoria is coming off the DL hopefully on Tuesday, and I will have way too many third basemen. I figure I need to trade/drop Chipper Jones or Casey McGehee to make room. I also have Juan Uribe and Carlos Pena on my bench. But Uribe is there cuz he's eligible at 3 positions, and dropping Pena would leave me with an entire bench of third basemen. Although Pena has been worthless so far as we all know. I'll probably drop him for an outfielder. Chipper is having a good year so far but obviously he's a huge injury risk. McGehee is probably a safe bet to put up decent numbers but he could regress. Any thoughts?

Pena has never really had a year in his career where he played close to a full season without hitting for power. I feel like as long as he stays healthy and keeps getting at bats, he'll hit home runs. Anything we get out of him besides home runs is just a bonus.