DivineBovine

Barrett.

What a game.

I can't see how you can blame the ump. This one is on Holliday. Horrible play. Should be an error.

So glad the Cubbies aren't playing in a game like this. I couldn't take it.

I remember once he was interviewing Shaq during a Miami Heat game and Shaq said, "That's an awful suit" to open an interview. Yeah, he always wears horrible suits. I've seen him in a powder blue suit several times. What's with the TNT guys who cover the NBA? Sager and Ernie Johnson both try and be more hip than they can pull off.

Ouch.

That used to annoy me about Barrett. Once he gets behind with 2 strikes, he swings at everything. All you need to do is keep throwing pitches out of the zone and you'll get him out.

I'd let Wood close.

theres another

Never been on NSBB during a Cub playoff run, looking forward to it.

Seven games in first place with 17 left to play, and now they are officially on the verge of being out of the playoffs with 2 games left. How painful.

Are the Marlins going to get stripped again? In the past, they have run their payroll low for a few years and then when they think they are close, they spend. Are they officially done with the spending thing?

Thank you thank you thank you St. Louis.

Soriano swings at everything.

Aramis got a strike call on a pitch that was outside by about a foot- the same one Derosa got called out on in the prior AB. Two pitches later, he flied out on that same pitch, which he must have felt he swung at only to protect the plate because of the terrible call on the prior pitch. Sportscenter made Aramis look bad because they showed the previous pitch on TV- which was a called strike which was actually probably a strike. Aramis was more pissed off about the pitch before. The ump had been calling it all night. Monroe was called out on the same pitch.

You clearly are accusing him of lots of things, none of which with any sort of proof besides the braindead ramblings of Stone. If all Stoney said was he'd like to be on that workout program, then I think some are making a little more out of it than it really is. It's not like he actually mentioned PEDs. He was doing what he does, coming up with snide sarcastic comments to entertain the audience. That said, I agree that since Stoney has been doing these radio sessions he's become more apt to make stupid little comments like that, and it does hurt his credibility. I didn't hear Steve Stone's interview this morning, but yesterday afternoon on Boers & Bernstein he hinted strongly that Soto had used performance enhancing drugs. He never specifically mentioned drugs, or any workout program for that matter, but it was heavily implied. His argument was based on a pure comparison of numbers from year to year and how 2007 is completely out of line with his past history. Stone had absolutely no proof of anything and I truly hope that Soto's emergence came about naturally, but I can hardly criticize anyone for being suspicious. Wow, if an implication like that was made purely on numbers, that is totally unprofessional. Tough to make any judgments on Stone like that without hearing the clip, but it's absurd to make an allegation about cheating just based on numbers and nothing else. If there's one terrible thing the Bonds story has done, is caused every good player to be questioned no matter what. If testing by the MLB says a guy is clean, who am I do say he isn't. People can't ever just get better?

That would be so illegal in so many ways. Bravo to the person who made up this ridiculous rumor.

No way anyone is more valuable to a contending team than Prince Fielder. It just depends how much the Brewers not making the playoffs hurts him. If not him, then it's David Wright.

I thought the wind was blowing in. He crushed that ball.

man crush on Aram.

Man he sucks.

I love Soto, but man is he slow. Sloto. :lol:

Why do you say that? Look at 2007 payrolls: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=nyy 1. NY Yankees 195,229,045 2. Boston 143,123,714 3. NY Mets 116,115,819 4. Chicago Sox 109,290,167 5. LA Angels 109,251,333 6. LA Dodgers 108,704,524 7. Seattle 106,516,833 8. Chicago Cubs 99,936,999 9. Detroit 95,180,369 10. Baltimore 95,107,808 There are exceptions, but the numbers roughly correlate with wins. You can bring up examples of teams that have won with lower payrolls, but they have a hard time contending year after year without getting lucky with some good players. Teams that are perennial contenders are going to be the ones that spend money. An owner who cares more about winning as opposed to purely maximizing profit is going to spend more on the team and that will help them win. Given the Cub's fan base and market, they should make enough money to compete with NY and Boston in terms of spending. And given today's free agency rules, any team that spends like NY and Boston should be consistently competitive like they are. Why not? What about this do you think is so wrong on so many levels? Do you think is so wrong on so many levels?

I would think that any owner would want that. The question is how to go about doing it. I don't want a new package of feces with the same old faces of retread GMs, scouts, AGMs, and mangers who all Played The Game and use the same old conventional wisdom that has got the Cubs 99 years of crap. I don't know that these guys will do that sort of thing, but I have my suspicions. Especially if Steve Stone is in any way linked to them. It's pretty simple in today's MLB for a big market team like the Cubs. Money. As long as Isiah Thomas doesn't decide to run an MLB team, teams that have spend money generally win. The others get hope to strike lightning with the right group of prospects and role players getting hot the right year. The formula is simple. Maximize revenue and invest a fair portion of your revenue back into the team. Something that the Tribune company has not ever done until maybe this past offseason to boost the value of the team for sale. I have no solid proof of this, but we will see what these smart businesspeople decide to bid on the team after they see the books. I doubt they would bid all those hundreds of millions on a team that can't make money like the Trib has claimed for so many years.

I understand it. He'll give you great numbers, but in 120 games or fewer. PLus he's difficult to get along with. The way I see it, he has three options: 1. Sign with a team where his shtick will not overshadow everything else and may pay him what he will ask for: NYY, Boston. 2. Sign for a lot less to play for a team where he will be a huge distraction, but will put butts in otherwise empty seats. At a huge discount. 3. Retire. For a contender in the AL, he could be huge. He'd be good for more AB's as a DH, and can even come off the bench in crucial moments when he's not starting. In a pennant race or the playoffs, I could name few guys I'd rather trot out there in a big situation than a 43 year old Barry Bonds. The numbers he still puts up in one of the biggest parks in baseball are absurd. Fans will get over the steroid thing real quick. One way I could see the BoSox getting involved, even with Ortiz, is if the Yanks get involved. I think he has to go to a contender, though. Not a team who's hoping to get better. He can push a contender over the top, but I wouldn't build a team around a 44 year old DH. That's why I can't see Texas as a good fit. For the $10 million or so he would fetch, he's worth every penny to the right team, baggage and all.