Transmogrified Tiger

That makes the deal CC for LaPorta and riff-raff then, correct? How is that not crazy for the Indians? I know CC is just a rental, but still. If LaPorta doesn't pan out -- and there have been plenty of AA prospects who looked good yet didn't pan out -- then the Indians could very well be looking back 3 years from now in the realization that they gave away the best player in their organization for nothing. Brantley and Green aren't riff raff, they're pretty solid prospects. They're not special though, most systems have guys just like them, which was what I was trying to get across. OK, then they might have traded a CY Young pitcher for Ryan Theriot. That's only slightly less crazy. More along the lines of Ryan Braun, Reed Johnson, and Todd Walker for Sabathia.

Wilson looks healthy to me. Sign him please.

That makes the deal CC for LaPorta and riff-raff then, correct? How is that not crazy for the Indians? I know CC is just a rental, but still. If LaPorta doesn't pan out -- and there have been plenty of AA prospects who looked good yet didn't pan out -- then the Indians could very well be looking back 3 years from now in the realization that they gave away the best player in their organization for nothing. Brantley and Green aren't riff raff, they're pretty solid prospects. They're not special though, most systems have guys just like them, which was what I was trying to get across.

Brantley and Green are simply not top tier prospects. Green isn't young for his level, has a .155 IsoP at 3B, and is a terrible defender everywhere. Brantley can't hit for extra bases to save his life. While he can take walks and steal bases, the complete lack of any type of power keeps him from being any type of elite as a potential big leaguer(especially if he's not good enough to stick in CF).

Yes. She has explained as much in the past.

Veal, Hernandez, and Coleman, nice. Did we ever hear if there's a specific reason Flaherty hasn't played in a couple games?

whoa...can i ask you to get started then...because i would be quite curious to the reasoning behind this... Sorry don't care to share and there are things that I cannot share. If you don't want to or can't say anything about it, then why hint at it in the first place? Because I was stating an opinion just like everyone else here does but guess I am also not allowed to that any more either? Most people here explain their opinions. Playing coy with "I know something you don't know" stuff is just going to irritate people.

whoa...can i ask you to get started then...because i would be quite curious to the reasoning behind this... Sorry don't care to share and there are things that I cannot share. If you don't want to or can't say anything about it, then why hint at it in the first place?

The Cubs play 25 games in September. 9 of them are in Wrigley, for which there truly is no substitute. However, 6 more are in venues where the Cubs are extremely well represented(St. Louis, Milwaukee). And another 3 are in a nearby city(Cincinnati) that will likely be dominated by Cubs fans since they'll be in the hunt and the Reds will have nothing to play for. That leaves the Mets series and the Astros(who also will have nothing to play for) as the only true hostile environments the Cubs face that month. After the way things went down at the Cell, I can't help but think that having fans on the road or being away from Wrigley but still near by will compensate for being away from Wrigley itself. How about this weekend, when we nearly swept the Cards out of St. Louis? Or last year, where we were 10-4 in Milwaukee and St. Louis and swept at the Cell?

Beane is kidding himself if he thinks he can get a Haren-like package for Harden. Haren had 2(maybe 3) years to free agency and had thrown 220+ innings in 3 straight years. Harden is an FA after next year and hasn't thrown 220 innings combined the last 3 years. It's really nice to hear the Cubs linked to him though, and there's rarely a season where the Cubs are in the race and don't make a relatively big deadline move

Sorry about that, I meant to quote you, and got the wrong text.

so has Burnett, but everyone's got a semi about getting him for whatever reason That's because Burnett has outstanding peripherals pointing to better future performance. The best thing you can say about Blanton is that he doesn't walk people.

I didn't think major leaguers could be PTBNL... They can't be playing in the same league that they would be sent to. Since the trade is with Cleveland, everyone on the Milwaukee roster is available as a PTBNL. At least that's my understanding. And if the PTBNL is in fact Hardy, then lol Brewers.

Look at the original post in this set of quotes. He said nothing about "recent" struggles. He was referring to his overall performance. It's a vague anecdote, and got the inverse vague anecdote in reply to illustrate how flimsy a commentary it was.

I'd expect nothing less.

Opitz continues to be strong peripherally, 2 for 4 with a triple and a walk tonight. For Iowa, Pie went 1 for 5 with a walk and K. Hoffpauir was 3 for 5 with a double, HR, and a walk. EPatt was 1 for 6 with a double. Ascanio got hit around in his return to the Iowa pen, 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 0/1 K/BB. Special mention for Casey McGehee. 3 for 6 tonight. He's gotten red hot after a slow start. He hit .330/.420/.489/.909 in June and is now .500/.519/.654/1.173 for July.

The Cubs play 25 games in September. 9 of them are in Wrigley, for which there truly is no substitute. However, 6 more are in venues where the Cubs are extremely well represented(St. Louis, Milwaukee). And another 3 are in a nearby city(Cincinnati) that will likely be dominated by Cubs fans since they'll be in the hunt and the Reds will have nothing to play for. That leaves the Mets series and the Astros(who also will have nothing to play for) as the only true hostile environments the Cubs face that month.

Sabathia is definitely worth being excited about. He doesn't make a HUGE difference for the regular season, but he's a clear upgrade that can have ancillary benefits, and he does make a HUGE difference for the playoffs if the Brewers make it there. This doesn't make a HUGE difference as far as the Cubs are concerned. For one, both teams can make the playoffs rather easily, so even if Sabathia propels the Brewers to 110 wins by starting every 5 days and putting up 2001 Bonds numbers with gold glove defense at 3B the other 4 days, the Cubs can still make the playoffs comfortably by beating out the Cardinals. Secondly, as it pertains to the Brewers overtaking the Cubs, the Brewers fans in general seem to be overestimating their true level of play. While it's true that the Cubs started white hot and the Brewer offense stumbled, there's not a ton of proven performance for the Brewers offense to be sure they'll return to. All of Fielder, Weeks, Braun, Hardy, and Hart only have one previous season of above average performance. That's not to say that they're all one year wonders, that'd be ridiculous, but the level of certainty that they'll return to that level is significantly lower than players with the history of Soriano, Ramirez, Lee, and to a lesser extent DeRosa. Also, while the Brewers have closed the gap on the Cubs, they haven't really shown they're up to the Cubs level in terms of run differential. At the Brewers lowest point, they had a -26 differential while the Cubs were +79. After today, the Brewers are +11 while the Cubs are now +102. That was way too much text, but the short of it is this. Sabathia improves the Brewers(especially for the playoffs), but not enough to put them on par with the Cubs, especially since they are a bit overdue to fall further behind anyway.

I was expecting a bunt. Chance to put the tying run in scoring position, having your choice of who to hit next with the pitcher's spot due up, and most importantly, LaRussa being the one making the decision? I was surprised when he hit away.

If Manny Parra is a top 2 starter then we're in great shape, because he's Sean Marshall without the MLB success.

Joba, you don't want to straddle the plate when Youkilis is bearing down on you and there's no chance of you getting him out.

That's not even close to a good comparison. do explain. vitters is somewhat of a project whose trade value, if he pans out, is likely to be highest 3 years down the road when he's continued to hit well into AA. wieters is a known commodity who is likely to come in and destroy minor league pitching right away. wieters offers more trade value on the open market at this time, which is something that should be very important to a "built to win now" team like the cubs. Admittedly, when I made the first post I was under the impression LaPorta wasn't drafted until the late teens, but the point still applies. Vitters v. Wieters was not a slam dunk case of BPA, and drafting guys because they'll have more trade value right away is a short-sighted way to go about things. We took like 20 straight college players after Vitters last year who would have trade value earlier than a high school guy, and not too many of them have dynamite trade value right now.

That's not even close to a good comparison.

You know we had something like an 8.5 game lead on them not long ago. Even when they were up 8.5 games last year, the pythagorean records were within a game or so. After their hot stretch that has brought them to within 3.5 games of us, our pythagorean record is 9 games better than theirs.

None of these are super likely, but Hudson, Oswalt, Bedard, Greinke, even Peavy are on teams that are pretty much done for the year. EDIT: Also, Rich Hill.