Roast

Good. Maybe this will end any roberts speculation forever.

Jim seemed pretty slim at the convention this year. You know, by Jim Hendry standards.

Despite what we're all hoping from, it's hard to say he's gotten a raw deal in the past, given his behavior. Why? Because he threw some balls and some bats that one time? Since then he's been pretty clean. We can point to that thing with the ump last year all we want, but when you get down to it, the ump walked after HIM, not the other way around. The problem is he throws some bats/balls/coolers/whatever once or twice when he's young and those images get replayed year after year after year. Now all of a sudden he's got this reputation as a nutcase when his true persona seems to be nothing of the sort.

I hate hate hate that my dorm doesn't get CSN. I don't know how you can be in chicago and not get CSN. Of course, my freaking dorm decided not to put ESPN/ESPN2 on it's random ass roster of channels either. Ugh.

I have honestly never been LESS excited about spring training. I really don't even care. Stupid cubs.

lol, that was my initial thought. That's like one third of one bleacher section.

Not to mention he looks like herman munster http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20090212/i/r3816003397.jpghttp://the-reelgillman.com/munsters/images/herman_crying.jpg

did he give you any concrete reasons behind his "feeling" or did he leave it at that?Not to step over bruce, but from what Hendry was saying at the convention, I believe he started working out earlier and I think I remember hendry saying he has made great strides in strength training.

Bullpucky. They are beautiful. Well, okay, they're not great. But they're lots better than the ugly road grays, IMO.

Just cause he was out for a season having a tommy john surgery doesn't mean he was a pitcher... He was, though. They moved him to pitcher to see if he was worth a hoot there.

Heh, funny. The guy in charge of security/some stadium operations was pretty adamant there weren't going to be any more events like this because of the damage they do to the field. Apparently even the ice rink did some pretty good damage.

I LOVED that game. 8-) Anyway, on topic; Yeah, there's a good chance he probably did juice. It's pretty unfair to say that anyone from that era didnt unless there is undeniable proof. But at the same time, like has been stated before, there's still no evidence he ever did so to assume he did isn't really the best idea either. Regardless, though, Sammy is probably the sole reason I'm a Cubs fan today. I'll never forget the first cubs game I ever went to was Sept 18, 1999 - the day Sammy hit #60 for the second year straight. God, that was an amazing moment.

Congrats to all four. All Four well deserved. I assume I'm next in line...... :-))

That's exactly what I thought. Schumaker at 2nd? That would be awesome to watch.

Nice find. Yeah, his melon looks pretty big in that first picture.

Oldest one I could find was 04 J.D. Drew (Bos - OF,Util) 0% 118 31 93 12 .305 .436 Chone Figgins (LAA - 2B,3B,OF,Util) 0% 83 5 60 34 .296 .350 Todd Helton (Col - 1B,Util) 0% 115 32 96 3 .347 .469 Derek Jeter (NYY - SS,Util) 0% 111 23 78 23 .292 .352 Chipper Jones (Atl - 3B,OF,Util) 0% 69 30 96 2 .248 .362 Jeff Kent (LAD - 2B,Util) 0% 96 27 107 7 .289 .348 Mark Kotsay (Bos - OF,Util) 0% 78 15 63 8 .314 .370 Kevin Millar (Bal - 1B,OF,Util) 0% 74 18 74 1 .297 .383 Jorge Posada (NYY - C,Util) 0% 72 21 81 1 .272 .400 Larry Walker (StL - OF,Util) 0% 51 17 47 6 .298 .424 Rondell White (Min - OF,Util) 0% 76 19 67 1 .270 .337 Eric Gagne (Mil - RP,P) 0% 7 45 114 2.19 0.91 LaTroy Hawkins (Hou - RP,P) 0% 5 25 69 2.63 1.05 Scott Kazmir (TB - SP,P) 0% 2 0 41 5.67 1.62 Cliff Lee (Cle - SP,P) 0% 14 0 161 5.43 1.50 Jose Lima (NYM - SP,RP,P) 0% 13 0 93 4.07 1.24 Russ Ortiz (Hou - SP,P) 0% 15 0 143 4.13 1.51 Troy Percival (TB - RP,P) 0% 2 33 33 2.90 1.25 Brandon Webb (Ari - SP,P) 0% 7 0 164 3.59 1.50 David Wells (LAD - SP,P) 0% 12 0 101 3.73 1.14 Woody Williams (Hou - SP,P) 0% 11 0 131 4.18 1.32 Carlos Zambrano (ChC - SP,P) 0% 16 0 188 2.75 1.22 My team sucked. 8th place out of 12.

Marmol and I think Zambrano I think I remember reading that Z didn't want to risk injury playing in exhibition games? I could be wrong, but I thought he said he wasn't taking part in the WBC

This thread really needs a roast-post. Or not, but oh well. As others have pointed out, pretty much every piece of evidence people hold against Sammy is either completely circumstantial or just plain useless. We can compare side-by-side pictures all we want, but they don't really tell you much. Even those two pictures The other 15% used don't tell you much of anything. Like IMB pointed out, if that was taken after a workout, his muscles would have looked much larger than normal since they would still be warm, etc. Also, the angle his arms are at in that picture could very well make them look much bigger than they actually are. With his arms at that diagonal angle they look massive, but in reality that may not be so. As for the other picture, the sleeves of his jersey make it very hard to see how much muscle is/isn't there. Not to mention you're looking at two pictures taken probably 12 years apart. A year-by-year comparison may paint a much different story. And such is the problem with photos. With that said, there is still no denying Sosa bulked up a lot after being in the big leagues for a few years. SouthSide pointed this out a little earlier, but the difference between someone like Sammy bulking up and say, Barry Bonds, is that Bonds was never mal-nourished. I read that when Sosa first came to America he was terribly malnourished and completely underweight. Remember, he lived pretty poorly in a third world country. Bonds, on the other had, never had that problem. Furthermore, once Sosa was in America, pretty much all of his teammates will tell you that he became a complete gym rat. Which, one could argue was a result of the 'roids giving him extra energy/stamina/whatever to work out that long. Conversely it also may very well account for his seemingly rapid growth. Some also say the corked bat incident proves sammy was a cheater. Now, sammy of course had his defense, which whether you believe it or not was at least a rational series of events. Even if he was completely intentionally corking his bat, to say that proves his steroid use is asinine. It may cast more suspicion, but beyond that it's not worth much. Then there's the head size thing, which takes you right back to the picture problem. You can make a persons dome look massive or minuscule or anywhere in between based on the angle the photo is taken at. So until someone actually finds some measurements, the head size argument is pretty worthless. Next, I suppose there is that ridiculous thing about him using a translator at the senate hearing. Which, to me, makes perfect sense. Sammy's English was always terrible. He spoke it, but not very well. So, if you were going to a hearing in front of the United States Senate, don't you think you'd want to speak the language that you were most fluent in. Wouldn't you want to make sure that you and the people you were talking to understood and comprehended absolutely every word that was said beyond all doubt? That seems simple to me. The most interesting thing, to me, is what Andy and others pointed out earlier. We're a couple years into steroid investigations, there have been a couple reports, and yet Sammy has avoided absolutely any mention of steroids. What makes it more interesting is that there are seemingly so many people who really want to know that Sammy did/didn't juice. I mean, the monster HR numbers he/McGwire/Bonds put up for a few years are right at the heart of the steroid investigation, and yet nothing. Now maybe Sammy was really really smart about how he injected, maybe he only used cash and only took them in private, etc. But at this point, a couple years into an investigation that one would only logically assume would have taken a hard look at him/his activities, there has been absolutely nothing damning to come out into the open. Maybe, eventually, something will come out. I certainly understand why people are suspicious of Sammy, but what's interesting for him is just about every piece of evidence that people like to use against him to 'prove' his guilt is either completely useless or has a somewhat logical non-damning explanation behind it. And the more time that passes without any evidence coming out against him makes things all the more interesting.

All I know is that the cubs had him working on core training, something that was non-existant in his workout when he played in japan/last year. That's about all I've heard. What's core training? Abdominal, oblique, and back strengthening stuff, to my understanding. Yes. Basically Lou said that in Japan Kosuke never was exposed to that kind of training to strengthen his abdominal/oblique/back area. Apparently, they only work on baseball skills there; hitting/throwing/fielding/etc. That, along with adjusting to the longer season and increased travel amounts in America led to Kosuke tiring/fading out pretty early in the season. At least that's the theory, and it makes a lot of sense.

From listening to lou talk at the convention, it didn't sound like he was in his 'dog house' at all. In fact, he sounded pretty optimistic about Fukudome.

Quote from thread: I was also into Westbrook a bit. He just got hurt. I also liked Cliff Lee. Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back, there.

All I know is that the cubs had him working on core training, something that was non-existant in his workout when he played in japan/last year. That's about all I've heard.

And yeah, Girardi has had a GREAT managerial career. Look, no one is arguing that Lou is perfect, but he's done a much better job than any cubs manager in recent memory. Overall, he's pretty darn good.

Wait, Soto hit something like 23 last year, so why would two more HR's = a breakout?

I thought Neifi hit it big.