SouthSideRyan

That was Len and Bob right? Those guys are going to get so much love when the Cubs are a good team and they keep working together. I hope when the Cubs Network happens they take the booth. You know the Cubs had two pretty good teams, including one that just pounded on the opposition in 2008, while Len and Bob were here, right? That said, yes, Len and Bob are awesome. I'm still trying to figure out what the relevance of the first part is. Is pretty good a standard or something? In all likelihood the 2008 team will be better than the Cubs team that wins the World Series.

So you don't have any evidence at all then.

Burke is 24, not 26. 24 at A ball is a little old, but not too much to be concerned about, especially if he gets bumped to A+ about mid-season. Right now he is more like a low round college pitcher then a person who has been in a system for 6 years. The biggest concern is that he can walk at the end of the season. Well yeah, you've gotta get him to A+ ball soon to give you enough of an idea on rostering him.

Twins fans were probably the most gracious home fans I've ever sat among.

Slugging Average in Earl Weaver Baseball II for me.

ESPN is terrible at recruiting rankings.

I'm saying it's very strange that you think Ian Stewart is a piddling pile of crap, and felt the need to introduce Mark Trumbo as some sort of gotcha when the 2 have similar peripherals on the season.

Yeah, and we probably win a series until we face the Astros.

Is that his signing bonus?

It would be, but getting Hamels is a huge longshot. I HEARD HE'S FROM SOCAL

Tough to buy him as a meathead.

Guys who can be gotten from clubs for next to nothing whenever we need them are literally the definition of 0 WAR. Of theoretical WAR

A) They didn't methodically build up his innings. B) The Cubs minds? Seriously? The fact that it may not have cross the minds of the reckless, foolish, overmatched dolts that ran the Cubs makes me wrong? The consensus on Cashner at draft time was he was a reliever. The Cubs thought they could make him a starter and they did a piss poor job of trying to convert, or reconvert him back into one, let alone one who a reasonably smart person would think could make 30+ starts with 200+ innings in a season. What would you have done differently? He had the oblique injury to start 2009 and then the Cubs built him up slowly. Then in 2010 he was averaging 6 innings a start before moving to the bullpen. Would you have kept him in AAA until they had to shut him down because of innings in 2010? (which probably would have been about a month before the minor league season ended) Would you have given him any chance at the major league roster in 2011 even though he still wouldn't have been able to throw more than 165-175 that year? You're acting like his move to the big league pen was a way to limit his innings rather than them wanting a setup man. Cashner wound up throwing 10 more innings that year because of it. The goal of 2010 should've been to have him ready to take a near-full slate in 2011. You stretch him to 140-150 in 2010(if he kept pitching like a freak in AAA, you give him a taste of the big leagues, 5 starts or so, and shut him down. But as typical with the Hendry era he was a reactionary, saw a hole, and thought hey this guy used to relieve let's do that, future be damned.

A) They didn't methodically build up his innings. B) The Cubs minds? Seriously? The fact that it may not have cross the minds of the reckless, foolish, overmatched dolts that ran the Cubs makes me wrong? The consensus on Cashner at draft time was he was a reliever. The Cubs thought they could make him a starter and they did a piss poor job of trying to convert, or reconvert him back into one, let alone one who a reasonably smart person would think could make 30+ starts with 200+ innings in a season. The Cubs were doing a fine job converting him until they freaked the [expletive] out in 2010.

Again: Trumbo: BB% 9.3 K% 21.7 LD% 19.3 BABIP .402 GB/FB: 1.24 Infield FB: 14.7% HR/FB: 17.6 % Stewart: BB% 9.7 K% 18.8 LD% 17.9 BABIP .221 GB/FB: 1.90 Infield FB: 3.3% HR/FB: 13.3 %

Nobody cared about trading Marmol, it was that penciling in Mark Trumbo as your first baseman of the future was and is stupid. ETA: And until you can learn to cite stats correctly, I don't see what the point of arguing with you is. You can't go one post without misreading a statline.

All of this talk about Cespedes' contract that we wouldn't give him and you think the Cubs are going to give Hamels the 7 year/$150 million contract he's seeking. Yeah, they probably won't ever sign somebody to more than 2Y/9M

didn't he get 4/36? and don't we assume 5 million per WAR? unless one of those is wrong, he'd have to flame out pretty hard to not be worth the money. Well he's sitting -0.6 right now, so he's not off to a great start.

A work in progress that is only signed for 4 years. Is that a bad thing? I think people went a little overboard with the whole "years of team contract" obsession this offseason. If he's a work in progress, how is it not? A "work in progress" in a sense of it'd probably take him a season or bit more to figure things out. Or he'll never figure it out. I feel a lot more comfortable molding a 19 year old in your likeness than trying to overhaul a 26 year old.

A work in progress that is only signed for 4 years. Is that a bad thing? I think people went a little overboard with the whole "years of team contract" obsession this offseason. Yeah, no kidding; and yes, he's older, but I'm still surprised you've got people talking like it's a surprise that he's struggling two months into his MLB career. The main selling point around him seemed to have been his raw talent and ability and how it would have be molded to succeed here. Call it backlash to the spazballs who wouldn't shut up a week into the season about how we passed on a star.

A work in progress that is only signed for 4 years. Is that a bad thing? I think people went a little overboard with the whole "years of team contract" obsession this offseason. If he's a work in progress, how is it not?

A work in progress that is only signed for 4 years.

Ya know, Cespedes really hasn't been that good.

I wouldn't be apoplectic if they pushed him to 165 or so. He threw 141 in each of his first 2 full seasons, then 124, followed by 130 before moving to pen full time last year.

Including playoffs?