SouthSideRyan

Holy crap, Xavier's ranked 10th? That's not really right. And why is Jackson St./MS Valley St. on TV?

But you've said he's been efficient except for those 6 weeks. He wasn't efficient the remainder of last year. He wasn't efficient throughout his minor league career. With the notable exception of '06 and '07 he hasn't been an efficient base stealer.

Is Painter wearing a polo with the top button buttoned?

Big Ten homering you say?? GUFFAW!! Georgia Tech is just a bad basketball team, 0-6 in the ACC before today. Wake should be embarrassed.

Why do you feel it appropriate to write off both his most recent sample of base stealing and his cumulative sample of base stealing. It's not like he was injured last year, he just sucked at it.

They don't care about the baseball records. They care that he lied to in an attempt help Victor Conte get off the hook on the case they really cared about. Sets a bad precedent if they let people lie to a federal grand jury to save their friends in a high profile case like this and then don't punish them for it. If Barry Bonds was Marvin Benard, the feds wouldn't give a Veterans Committee. They're nailing him to the wall cause he dared to break the HR record. If that was their real motive, why didn't they going after McGwire? He broke the single season home run record. Did McGwire perjure himself?

I wanted Swisher over Bradley.

Excepting his entire minor league career where he stole at a 70% rate.

They don't care about the baseball records. They care that he lied to in an attempt help Victor Conte get off the hook on the case they really cared about. Sets a bad precedent if they let people lie to a federal grand jury to save their friends in a high profile case like this and then don't punish them for it. If Barry Bonds was Marvin Benard, the feds wouldn't give a [expletive]. They're nailing him to the wall cause he dared to break the HR record.

Yeah, voters are gonna say, oh Robbie Hummel has a hurt back, so we'll ignore that he's about 15th best player in the Big Ten right now, we're gonna give him an award cause dammit, we said so back in October!

I coulda sworn LewJack and his 45 point per game average would be the frontrunner for Purdue. Nobody cares that Hummel won preseason player of the year, that has nothing to do with who's going to win player of the year. Nobody cares that Hummel hasn't practiced since December. And no, I don't believe this either. Nobody cares that he has a gimpy back. Nobody cares that you for some reason think his scoring will go up despite playing tougher competition. Robbie Hummel will be lucky to make 2nd team all Big Ten.

For the love of God, somebody take Dave Kaplan.

Bubba. Big penis.

And they choked a 3-2 lead to the Yankees.

Isn't he essentially only a backup 1B at this point? I don't see the point in Millar. His attitude wasn't nearly as important as his team's ridiculous production. Yeah, he is pretty much a backup 1B. Knowing how you think (and a lot of people here), its hard to believe that someone's attitude or clubhouse presence had a difference in the play of a team. But if it was possible, if any team could use a boost like the Red Sox allegedly benefited from, its probably the Cubs with their history and recent postseason success. A) We don't have a Yankees. B) Boston won because as often as they were good, it was bound to happen. C) If there's a team in the NL that needs some sort of mental boost, it's much more likely to be the Mets than the Cubs. That team has blown divisions two years in a row in glorious fashion. D) If Millar was any good, I'd be perfectly fine adding him in hopes that there was some sort of intangible mental benefit on the side. However, he's not any good, and he plays a position (RH backup 1B) that the Cubs really have no need for. Boston also faced a number of challenging mental situations during those playoffs that could have ate them up and spit them out including playing the Yankees who had a mental edge on them, facing a 3-0 deficit, their ace playing on one ankle. They had to stay loose somehow. There's no point in arguing it though because its impossible to quantify any sort of mental/chemistry influence in baseball. I don't even think I believe there is much effect. I just brought up Millar and his reputation for chemistry because someone was going to. And yes the Red Sox were very very good in 2004. But so were the Cubs last year. So were the Red Sox in 2003 and 2005.

He didn't break any records, so the feds don't care.

I ironically loved Paul Bako before it was cool. Now a bunch of douchebags are going to ruin my Bako memories. That's my real problem with this move, there I said it.

Hoff would probably put up better numbers, but the way the Cubs think, they'd rather get someone less talented but more proven for their bench. At least Millar can come up and hit some dingers, although I wouldn't go as far as to say he could provide power off the bench, given his anemic SLG last year. Millar isn't even a lefty.

Shut up Jake, we just signed Paul Bako.

If we want a cheerleader we can call Ribbee up from the minors, Millar would be a waste of time.

Been hanging out at Dallas Green's steakhouse?

The Cubs told Blanco to follow Kerry Wood out of town back in October. Given the choice, I'd imagine Blanco would prefer to stay on the team he's been on for 4 years, the team he happens to be comfortable with, and the team that actually has a chance to go to the playoffs vs. going to the worst team in baseball where he could get an extra 200 ABs. Jim Hendry(as usual) misread the FA market and didn't think he could get Blanco as cheaply as he came.

my guess is that they want a veteran to help mentor the young, still developing geo soto. What can Bako teach Geo besides to be more goofy looking?

Aaron Miles. He should give half his salary to LaRussa for making him an "experienced SS" last year.

blanco had 120 at bats last year, with a 717 OPS. through the same number of at bats last year, bako had a 774 OPS. bako isn't going to get 300 at bats this year, like he had last year. If only there were ~120 AB seasons in Bako's past we could judge him on. Which would you prefer we go with, the 533 OPS or the 490? Nah, I'm sure he established a new level of mediocrity at the age of 36. Something just clicked.