UMFan83

How is he supposed to hustle around the bases when he can't even hustle to Spring Training? Sorry, I know that joke has been beaten to death.

Good God this thread sucks. People aren't even commenting on insiders posts anyone. They just ignore them and go on talking about the dumbest things ever. Do I have permission to start a Brian Roberts thread that actually talks about Brian Roberts news and rumors?

Probably the best candidates: Geovany Soto, Cubs Kosuke Fukudome, Cubs Homer Bailey, Reds (pretty sure he's a rookie) Joey Votto, Reds (same) Cameron Maybin, Marlins Andy LaRoche, Dodgers Jay Bruce, Reds Colby Rasmus, Cardinals

You're right...people are reporting the Cubs are interested. Rosenthal: The Cubs aren't interested in Crisp. Miles: The Cubs really aren't interested in Crisp. Levine: If the Red Sox trade for Marquis, Crisp could be coming back, the second part is of course purely speculation. There are three things mainstream reporters have reported: 1. The Cubs would like to acquire a centerfielder. 2. The Red Sox would like to trade a centefielder, Coco Crisp. 3. The Cubs aren't interested in Coco Crisp. However Hoops says they are and some speculation by writers when the three above facts are apparent leads you to believe that they are proving him correct (when in fact they are proving him incorrect). okay, so why does this have your panties in such a bunch? It doesn't. HoopsCubs started it. By posting a rumor he heard about? Well it looks like you won't have to worry about Hoops' rumors anymore Meph

Has he always had a high OBP relative to his BA? If so I wouldn't be horribly against it other than he completely doesn't play a position of need.

This is still the "Brian Roberts thread" in name only.

Yup, in 2001, he was the Diamondbacks top prospect according to BA

Admins and Mods normally attempt to handle personal attacks privately. Please feel free to notify us when you see one. We aren't everywhere all the time. Thanks! Ahh so you guys take the Dusty Baker approach to disciplining posters?

I'm sorry.. your "sources" called the Choi Lee trade. I mean everyone and their grandma knew the Cubs were interested in upgrading the slop from 03 at 1B. I mean everyone and their grandma knew the Marlins were cleaning house. I mean even Peter Gammons said it was a possibility days before it went down, but you and your "sources" came up with it. My ass. My god don't play semantic games with me. There "may be some discussion." This is similar to me saying that the Cubs are discussing the potential profit increase by raising ticket prices. Yeah, it may or may not be going on. There may be discussion is even an understatement of what miles said. He said lukewarm, at best. To be lukewarm is to be indifferent. To have solid interest is not to be indifferent. so yeah... miles pretty much said you were wrong. not to mention every other "rumor" you have ever come up with is either A: written on the wall, B: already known, or C: too dumb to be true. So you're 1 for 1000. Outstanding. Keep em coming. And please dont ever analyze a thing about baseball, mmkay pumpkin? besides i trust my sources more than i do yours. then again i dont leak my inside information Are you kidding me? Who cares that one writer's opinion is that the interest was lukewarm. Hoops was still the first person to report that the Cubs had any interest in Crisp. I know part of your gimmick is to rile everyone up, but you are going over the line here. Not that Hoops was correct in personally calling you up and attacking you a few days ago, but you took it too far in your response. Now you're just lying. There were published reports that the Cubs were interested in Crisp during the GM meetings. Since the Cubs did nothing to solve their perceived center field problem, any person with at least crap for a brain would realize that the interest would probably remain. As usual, HoopsCubs didn't break anything. This is information we already knew. At least I did...and I'm sure most people here did. disclaimer: Hoops is smart enough to know the interest would remain. OK so there was brief mention of interest in December. Hoops reported that the sides were talking in February and low and behold, its come out that the Cubs have indeed been talking recently. I heard Bruce Levine's report on ESPN 1000 with my own ears, he stated that if the Cubs traded Marquis to the Red Sox, the big name being talked about coming back was Crisp. Thats more then just rehashing a rumor from December. I am not arguing about Hoops past accuracy. You're right there are times when he reports stuff as rumor that never comes close to being mainstream news. But in this situation Hoops reported hearing about the Cubs interest in Coco Crisp, and amazingly a week later mainstream outlets are reporting it. If Hoops received 5th hand news about "significant interest" in Crisp or whatever he said and reported it falsely, he is covered with his original disclaimer. Either way, your response to him was not necessary. Stick to statistics and acting like a know it all (which I enjoy), not attempting to attack other posters and trying to destroy their credibility.

Yeah kinda bizarre that he would accept a non-guaranteed chance to be a 25th man over a guaranteed deal to likely be the starting SS. Can the lure of winning be that great with this man?

FWIW this is what the Trib's baseball blog says:

Gotta love the iPhone It seems like a lot of the position players arrived early, so they probably already checked in, had their physicals and are ready to play. Ramirez most likely just got here and is doing that. I could be wrong but the following starters are reported to have been in camp at least yesterday C: Soto 1B: Lee 2B: DeRosa SS: Theriot LF: Soriano CF: Pie RF: Fukudome

IF depth chart: Starters: Mark DeRosa Ryan Theriot Derrek Lee Aramis Ramirez Bench: Ronny Cedeno Alex Cintron Mike Fontenot Hybrid (can play IF and OF): Daryle Ward Eric Patterson Long shot hybrids (can play IF if a catastrophy happens): Alfonso Soriano Kosuke Fukudome Henry Blanco Carlos Marmol Probably Carlos Zambrano Joking aside, thats a lot of mediocre depth

Interesting....something is brewing. There is no reason to have Theriot, Cedeno AND Cintron on this team, and there is no reason to have Cedeno in the minors again this year.

I'm sorry.. your "sources" called the Choi Lee trade. I mean everyone and their grandma knew the Cubs were interested in upgrading the slop from 03 at 1B. I mean everyone and their grandma knew the Marlins were cleaning house. I mean even Peter Gammons said it was a possibility days before it went down, but you and your "sources" came up with it. My ass. My god don't play semantic games with me. There "may be some discussion." This is similar to me saying that the Cubs are discussing the potential profit increase by raising ticket prices. Yeah, it may or may not be going on. There may be discussion is even an understatement of what miles said. He said lukewarm, at best. To be lukewarm is to be indifferent. To have solid interest is not to be indifferent. so yeah... miles pretty much said you were wrong. not to mention every other "rumor" you have ever come up with is either A: written on the wall, B: already known, or C: too dumb to be true. So you're 1 for 1000. Outstanding. Keep em coming. And please dont ever analyze a thing about baseball, mmkay pumpkin? besides i trust my sources more than i do yours. then again i dont leak my inside information Are you kidding me? Who cares that one writer's opinion is that the interest was lukewarm. Hoops was still the first person to report that the Cubs had any interest in Crisp. I know part of your gimmick is to rile everyone up, but you are going over the line here. Not that Hoops was correct in personally calling you up and attacking you a few days ago, but you took it too far in your response.

Truer words have never been spoken. What kind of sick, twisted wretch puts cinnamon in chili? You guys are insane, I LOVE skyline chili. I go at least once every time I'm in Cinci.

Bigbird is talking again, for anyone who is interested: Someone asked if the two in question might be Colvin and Veal and he replied

Sheets and Gallardo = Milwaukee Prior and Wood?

Are you kidding? When you hire Baker you hire his philosophys about managing and player acquisition. Wait until he starts complaining in the media about not having enough horses down the stretch or blaming his team's lack of success on one misguided principle or another that the GM isn't addressing. Eventually the front office realizes you have to let him have his way or die of annoyance.

So expect Roberts to be in a Cub uniform in a matter of days basically?

If we accepted conventional thinking as is, the Earth would still be flat, and African Americans would still be going to different schools and restaurants because thats what everyone has believed and that's how everyone has done it throughout the years.

Exactly. I think a brand new stadium in Miami is going to drastically increase the fans attending. The current stadium seems designed to drive away as many people as possible. you'd be surprised. people in south florida are terrible sports fans. there are a lot of transplants, and the whole scene down there is a lot more focused on fashion and nightlife than it is professional athletics. regardless of how good the product is, i doubt that they'll draw really well. I agree South Florida fans are not the best and very fairweathered, but drawing under 5,000 in games is below even them as long as its reasonably accessable to the actual city center. For instance, the Florida Panthers have never averaged less than 13,000 fans per game, in a sport that is much less popular than baseball.

You have posted your point every 3 pages for the last 100. It's not that you don't have a right to express your opinion (and I think a lot of the people arguing with you are actually for the trade, just not your premise), but the topic have been discussed ad naseum and no one wants to discuss it anymore, but you keep bringing up the point again as if it hasn't been discussed at all in this thread.

This is excellent. I don't think people understand how hard it is to build a fan base in the sort of conditions the Marlins have had to endure. The ballpark is out of the way for most Miami residents, they've played in a crappy football ball park with horrible sightlines, under oppressive conditions (rain, heat, humidity, etc) and mostly bad baseball with a cheap owner. I'm not saying I completely absolve the fans. Obviously even after all those factors, you'd expect a market as large as Miami to draw at least 20,000 a game, and they don't. But I think they deserve a chance to prove their fan base can be built.

That's the best news so far this season. Guzman could end up coming in very handy if he can make it back for the tail end of the season. Maybe he'll even get his first MLB win. That brings me to a great thought. Anyone with access to a vast majority of stats, can anyone figure out what is the record for most appearances without a win in MLB history? Guzman has 27 career appearances 80 Juan Alvarez 80 Ed Olwine 63 Chris Britton 61 Erik Plantenberg 55 Frank Fanovich 55 Terry Felton 51 Rob Mallicoat 50 Jeff Kaiser Thanks Meph. Did you find that answer with that BR program or some other tool?