javy knows my name

That probably doesn't even bother you does it? Hah. Gay joke

YES. This is the most ironic thing that's ever happened.

7.9

Didn't he sign Howard to that horrific contract?

Would anyone still watch after the fifth round or so? Does anyone still watch now? Yes. Overslot pics are awesome.

Would anyone still watch after the fifth round or so?

that'd be fine with me. you'd be getting better production at a cheaper price. but willingham should be more than $5m a year (though he'll potentially be undervalued because he's not a big name and is having a down year in oakland's cavernous confines). He'll also be 33, so it's questionable what he would get, so I was being conservative. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs had to pay anywhere between $9 million and $13 million a year to ship off Soriano. $9 million was just a shot in the dark. There's a very, very good chance the Cubs would end up still spending approx $18 million in LF. If they can upgrade, great, but I'm not so sure Willingham is that upgrade. Yes, he's in Oakland, but that's a pretty steep drop in production. He's coming on very strong in the last month so hopefully it was just a slow start in a new ballpark, but his age needs to be considered in all of this. I mean, how long would you be signing him for? Ideally it would just be for a year, but who is available as an OF FA in 2012? I know Kemp hopefully would be, but I'd figure that if the Cubs went for him they'd try and and figure out CF and RF between him and Jackson. I don't know if I want to pay Ethier the big contract he's likely to get. Who else is out there? Since you talk about Kemp so often, what do you think he could reasonably command in the 2012 offseason? Not that it really matters; the guy is my favorite position player since Griffey and I'd be ok giving him whatever he requires. Monetarily speaking.

God, our CF situation was just abysmal for the 5-6 years between Lofton and Byrd. I just kind of got used to it. Jimmy will cut you. I knew I'd forget somebody. I liked Jacque quite a bit, especially those bombs he'd launch to left center

Awesome pitching matchup. I'm pretty excited for this one in spite of myself.

God, our CF situation was just abysmal for the 5-6 years between Lofton and Byrd. I just kind of got used to it.

Yeah, that's pretty accurate. The only thing that really bothered me about the handling of Theriot was when we ran him out at SS and stuck Cedeno (the much better defender) at 2B. Of course, that was all Lou and only Lou. When Hendry had control over the situation, he absolutely handled Theriot correctly.

It's really misleading to talk about how much Soriano was worth the past 2.5 years when he obviously was injured for the majority 2009. That and your numbers aren't true. Fangraphs has him with -.1 WAR in his injured '09, 3.0 WAR in '10, and 0.6 WAR in '11. Even including his injured '09 as relevant, AND for some reason averaging that 0.6 as if it's a full season in the average, you still don't get 1 WAR per year. Maybe you meant to quote someone else but I did not at any point post any thing about Wins Above Replacement. I was only talking about dollar value based upon play. So yes my numbers are true. What is wrong with this guy?

Where's the guy criticizing Sori near the wall? That was damn good to see.

What was that look from Pena? Wait, I don't care, I just love him

ARAMABOMB

Of course this is the first game I get to watch in forever.

This. The prospect of being saddled with a owner's manager would have to be a turn off for potential GM candidates. Ricketts let Hendry install Quade when everyone was expecting Ryno and he (Ricketts) obviously preferred him, so why would he change now? I don't think you're wrong, but what is the evidence of this?

Fred completely owns page 6 of this thread. Awesome.

Jesus. Well, he'll be 23 by opening day next year and he hit .500 with a 1.232 OPS for his stint in Mesa, so I think that's probably the appropriate action. He was there for like a week. It's still fast.

He was talking about his boat. BRAVO

Same. That HR/9 is just unreal.

Jesus.

Outside of the Keith Law thing (can't seem to find a link for that right now ... where was it again?), was there another report of mid-80's? And wasn't the Law report high-80's? I know JJax was throwing low 90's for a stretch this year. Law on JJax's velocity: "Matt Szczur sucks" This absolutely cracked me up. Good job.

I wish that same person would tell Hawk that. I think the difference is just that the Cubs haven't hired blowhard assholes in a while.

1 mill over slot for a second rounder is pretty rare, is it not?