XZero771679666304

so traditionally everyone has just accepted that there are lower standards of conduct for him, but his problem now is that he's no longer playing well enough to get away with that, and he probably knows it, and maybe that's the source of the retirement threats. personally i was more annoyed by the marmol thing though. i don't mind dramatic outbursts as long as no one else is dragged into it. Aramis Ramirez is a racist and using latent latino stereotypes. To be clear, no one is saying Z isn't clearly unbalanced. No one is saying racism is the cause of any of this, or that Z isn't worthy of heavy criticism. The "racist" angle comes from the people who routinely imply that his issues and perceived problems with ARam, Soriano, etc. all have the same root.

Z has always been bad ass. He is probably the one player I'd least want to have to fight in all of MLB. No one wants a piece of Big Z. It was just that much cooler when he would intimidate and totally own the opposition.

Dave Bush opted out of his minor league contract with us and is a FA now, or am I wrong?

Are people really shocked by this? I mean I raised an eyebrow, but that was about it. Maybe I'm just jaded, but given all that Z has said and done, this can't be completely shocking to anyone who has been paying attention. He has said he would retire when his contract was up, maybe he just figured he couldn't stomach being this ineffective and decided to pack it in. Granted he may well not go through with it, but I am far from stunned by this turn of events.

If he does retire, it frees up enough money to replace him. There are a number of guys that will be on the market who can replace what he gave this year, probably for less.

Yeah, I find this sad more than anything. Sad that he's potentially not pitching anymore, but more sad that this is a man with apparently less emotional maturity than the children he has. And I'm sad that our pitching rotation will be Matt Garza, Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, Rodrigo Lopez, and Casey Coleman. At this point, who cares?

Whatever they say isn't going to make things any worse at this point. They say some idiotic stuff, but hard not to when they are continually fed this type of crap on a silver platter. It's hard not to? Really? These guys were/are tripping all over themselves to get to their computers to type whatever racist, sensationalist swill they will spew forth on the issue. They love it. It may be hard not to comment on a story like this at all, but it's not difficult to not get off on using it to instigate. Yeah, it's not like I'm expecting people to not talk about it. I'd just prefer a less meatball, sensational/hysterical approach. If people like Bruce and the like comment/criticize, that's one thing. But you can practically hear and read the implications of the atmosphere of brown skinned uppity-ness being behind it all that will come from the meatball segment.

Whatever they say isn't going to make things any worse at this point. They say some idiotic stuff, but hard not to when they are continually fed this type of crap on a silver platter. It's hard not to? Really? These guys were/are tripping all over themselves to get to their computers to type whatever racist, sensationalist swill they will spew forth on the issue. They love it. It may be hard not to comment on a story like this at all, but it's not difficult to not get off on using it to instigate.

Yeah, pretty much. If he wants to retire, I hope someone encourages him to do so.

The key is not to read their columns or listen to them.

I'm fairly certain Chipper didn't figure into whatever Z is thinking.

I don't remember the earlier posts in this thread, but just in case this hasn't been covered yet, I would just like to say: Awesome. This guy needs to be in the majors yesterday. Any chance he'll get traded to the Cardinals? Let's not just give them another elite hitter, which for all his dbaggedness, he still could be. Like the quality of their ballplayers has ever made a difference. They'll compete regardless. Not only would they be infinitely more fun to hate if they had Harper, but it would be a no-win for the BFIB, who would be forced to either love the biggest DB in the league or turn on the hometown star. The wholesomeness of the BFIB would permeate him and cause him to undergo a miraculous transformation into a model MLB citizen and paragon of sportsmanship.

The only people who spend time actually studying the game are nerds who live in their mother's basement, duh.

You tell him slugger.

somehow i doubt this. one of these days we're going to have a fred post saying "Greetings one and all from beautiful Gary, IN !!!" I can't recall if it's Gothenburg or Lexington, but it's the place I always seem to need to fill up at and always, regardless of season or weather, manages to smell like pig [expletive]. And then there's all the rubes. And the Super Wal-Mart. But that's just Nebraska, I guess. That's Lexington that has the Wal-Mart and the pigs. Gothenburg is 20 miles to the west and is a quiet little one horse town with a really nice Mom & Pop truck stop and a really good restaurant. Their one and only tourist attraction is an original Pony Express Station. I'm pretty sure Lexington is the closest to a real life Bartertown as you could expect to find.

somehow i doubt this. one of these days we're going to have a fred post saying "Greetings one and all from beautiful Gary, IN !!!" I can't recall if it's Gothenburg or Lexington, but it's the place I always seem to need to fill up at and always, regardless of season or weather, manages to smell like pig [expletive]. And then there's all the rubes. And the Super Wal-Mart. But that's just Nebraska, I guess.

Why do you think Garza is a #3 pitcher (at best)? Add to that why he thinks Dempster is a #3 at best. Because of their ERAs and W/L, duh OK, so who's the #1 right now? Enlighten me. Z's a 3-4. We don't have a #1, but that's a far cry from Z/Demp/Garza being 3/4/5s. Garza is at least a #2, Dempster is a 2/3 and Z is a 3/4 at this point, IMO. Add Wilson to that and you're doing pretty well.

Why do you think Garza is a #3 pitcher (at best)? Add to that why he thinks Dempster is a #3 at best. Because of their ERAs and W/L, duh

I don't think there are really many Hendry "defenders" here. If he's retained beyond this season, I think just about everyone will be pretty pissed off.

Berkman will be a FA too. So if they add Bell, then they have he, Berkman, Jackson and Pujols as FAs, and Furcal and Carpenter with sizeable options. Berkman is going to be looking at a sizeable bump, Furcal does suck, and there's no guarantee they'll be able to keep Carpenter, who is getting old anyway. Jackson is a Boras client, so they won't be retaining him for cheap.

If Hendry is serious about not entertaining trade offers for Pena - and I can't truly believe he is - I don't know what to say. Even if he planned on bringing him back, he's going to be a FA anyway. Not trading him does virtually nothing to increase the chances of him being a Cub in 2012.

He's done a good job coping with the Sisyphean task of managing a hopelessly moribund franchise. What more could he do? /Buck+McCarver

I loved hearing McCarver say Castro has "too much range", and that it's a problem because it leads to more errors. What an idiot. I love what he just said. Essentially, "Tony LaRussa is a genius because he moved Skip from 2B to RF, because second basemen aren't used to making long throws, but Skip got an OF assist last night on a long throw." Whut?

This organization's "plan" seems to be to assemble a patchwork roster each season with false optimism that they will compete for a title. Now that this year is shot, they shift their plan to a futile attempt to win next year. They are never willing to sacrifice the present for a better chance of winning in the future. Now I am all for the win now philosophy if it is a realistic goal, but this Cubs team just doesn't have the core to do that. Even if they were to go out and sign Pujols or Fielder, there are still too many holes. This half-assed rebuilding (and hoping to win at the same time) mode isn't getting us anywhere. There is no reason to blow the team up and rebuild. Big market teams don't have to do that. Sign Fielder/Pujols and a SP like Wilson and probably compete in 2012. More money comes off after 2012, use that money to improve more. By 2013/2014, the talent we're bringing in now and that is in the low minors should be cropping up on the big league team. And really there aren't that many holes when you consider we have a pretty good group of young role players. Castro, Soto, Barney, etc. are all average or better. Byrd is good and cheap, and Jackson looks to follow him. The only things this team really needs is a centerpiece player and a front of the rotation pitcher, both of which could be picked up this offseason (and neither is going to come from our farm anytime soon). This notion that the team has to settle for being bad for a couple years to progress long term is small market nonsense. The team is in a position where most of the positions can be manned by good, young, cost controlled players. You couldn't say that for almost all of the last decade, where all the holes had to be filled via FA. Now the Cubs have the money to acquire the pieces they need, and those pieces are going to be available. You can't say it hasn't worked because this is really the first time the team has been in the position of having only a couple big holes and a ton of money to fill them.

The difference (unless I'm mistaken) is that we weren't going to get any comp picks for Kosuke, but we can for Pena. And Pena is more valuable.