javy knows my name

Eww, missed that. Pena 3, Soto 5. Not hard

Quade keeps saying wonderful things. Now he just needs to do all those things.

Talented starter gets injured returns to majors as reliever and wins world series: The Jason Isringhausen story. mark prior was like, the best pitching prospect of all time... not a "talented starter" who was picked in the 44th round of his draft. plus isringhausen is crazy ugly. freddie prinze jr could play prior easily This is a little weird. It's [expletive] awesome, is what it is

I think Treebeard got some 'splainin to do

I hope this is sarcasm. Dude

I'm not going to give him much credit for getting 2.5 months good months out of Silva (which was completely due to Rotschild and luck). I'm guessing that was the only offer he had for Bradley, so he pretty much had to take it. It wasn't like he sifted through offers and thought "I see something in Silva." It was headcase for headcase. I'm sure the Mariners were just as sick of Silva as we were of Bradley. Fact is, the signing made us worse in '09, worse in '10, and worse in '11 because it was a complete waste of money and took up resources that could have been allocated elsewhere. I'm not a complete Hendry hater, but I don't really see anything positive that he did here. Yes, the Bradley signing was a poor one and screwed us for several years afterwards. No, that does not mean that the Silva trade was a bad one given the circumstances. Past moves necessitate current and future moves. Always. This is the slippery slop I'm alluding to. After an unfortunate signing, Hendry made a solid stop-the-bleeding move that only helped us. Did Hendry do even an adequate job of building a baseball team the last 3 years? No. But the Silva trade was not bad in itself. That's my only issue. EDIT: Just re-read your post and you're almost completely discounting the money factor. None of us can know if Hendry had any other (likely horrific) offers on the table, but at the very least he really did trade a worse/more damaged player for a better one and saved a bunch of money in the process. Given the facts, it should be an unquestioned success.

I had never read it before, but yeah, embarrassing for sure

It was refreshing to hear; I was thinking it was the most outspoken I've ever heard Hendry. However, you really have to wonder how big of a vagina Hendry actually was with Silva and letting him in on this info. I know the Cubs don't owe Silva anything other than his $$, but Hendry's comments really lead me to believe Silva had no chance from the start. Silva's an idiot and I'm happy, but I'd probably be a little pissed if I were him as well. To me, the only way Silva truly had a right to be pissed was if he had came out and pitched great this spring, Cashner didn't, and he STILL got passed over. Then, I could see him having a reason to be upset. But, he didn't.(thank the lord) It all goes back to when we traded a turd sandwich for a giant douche. Hopefully Hendry learned his lesson with that one. What lesson was that? I won't repeat BeertownCubbie, but Hendry did just fine in that situation, given the options he had. It never should have gotten to this in the first place. Along with Juan Pierre, signing Milton Bradley was one of the biggest mistakes ever made by Hendry. He did it out of a need to get "more lefthanded" which was completely idiotic given that the idea grew out of a three game sweep by the Dodgers, and ignored the fact that we were one of the best teams in baseball against righthanded pitching in 2008. It was a mistake the moment the ink dried, much like Soriano's contract. So let me get this straight. Because Hendry made a poor signing in Bradley, we can't even look at the good trade he made to get rid of him and save a little money AND get average production from a 5 starter? This is a slippery mother [expletive] slope you're on right now.

TT, could you explain why you think this? I don't get it.

It was refreshing to hear; I was thinking it was the most outspoken I've ever heard Hendry. However, you really have to wonder how big of a vagina Hendry actually was with Silva and letting him in on this info. I know the Cubs don't owe Silva anything other than his $$, but Hendry's comments really lead me to believe Silva had no chance from the start. Silva's an idiot and I'm happy, but I'd probably be a little pissed if I were him as well. To me, the only way Silva truly had a right to be pissed was if he had came out and pitched great this spring, Cashner didn't, and he STILL got passed over. Then, I could see him having a reason to be upset. But, he didn't.(thank the lord) It all goes back to when we traded a turd sandwich for a giant douche. Hopefully Hendry learned his lesson with that one. People keep talking about this like it was Trachsel-level bad. I honestly don't see how Hendry could have done better with Bradley. The Silva trade gave us salary relief and a solid 3-4 guy for (at least half) a year that was lost, anyway. Then, we released him when he went back to suck, and we did this before he could hurt the team. WOW, what a disaster.

Hard to say they got more insane when the move should keep Lenny Dykstra away from the clubhouse. Hahahaha omg so great Green font? No sir, I found it quite funny

Sure, he definitely gets all the calls, including the most egregious homer calls in sports, probably. But that's only one of the many reasons I hate him. But, in what way are the refs "afraid" of K and Smith before him? Couldn't they just get the benefit of the doubt because they were both wildly successful and tended to churn out talent that was extremely well-coached fundamentally? Or do they wield some power over officials that I haven't considered? Otherwise, this sounds pretty paranoid.

Isn't Dawkins going to be the next Duke coach? or did that change? Nothing changed - I was bouncing off some discussion earlier about his ideal fit being Duke. And while I agree, it would require me to hate him. And that would be sad. I don't think I'd hate him even then. i think K is the reason I hate Duke. He became what he hated. Dean Smith. Not being a smartass at all here. For once. Would you care to expand on that?

Isn't Dawkins going to be the next Duke coach? or did that change? Nothing changed - I was bouncing off some discussion earlier about his ideal fit being Duke. And while I agree, it would require me to hate him. And that would be sad.

I really want Stevens to stay and build Butler up into the next Duke. I really don't want to see him anywhere else for a while (especially [expletive] Duke).

I vote we consider Rob's post the epitaph on further discussion of the merits (or lack thereof) of that horrific book.

That was exhilarating. Mentions of Eckstein, Jeter and the dawn of the Winning Percentage When a Role Player Takes Over During Injury stat? I'm going to pretend that KT wrote it ironically.

When has he had an opportunity to call him anything?

Yeah, Harrison Barnes is pretty good

hahahaha

Would anyone else be pretty surprised to see us spend a top 10 pick on a hs pitcher? Especially with that type of college talent still on the board?

Hard to say they got more insane when the move should keep Lenny Dykstra away from the clubhouse. Hahahaha omg so great

It's cyclical, dude. This happened 5 years ago w/ GM and no 1s in the tourney. 2 years ago, all freakin 1s in the FF. It's not good for college bball. It's [expletive] great for it. There is no chance for a VCU-like run to the title in any other major sport. It not only forces further reconsideration of the BCS, it serves as validation for the NCAA that they're doing it right in at least one of their major sports.

Woah. I daresay this is quite an auspicious start to the season. Quade giving me the warm fuzzies.

Oh YAY