javy knows my name

Who is asking what of whom in this exchange? I wondered the same thing. I CAN NEVER READ THESE THINGS

Goosebumps. Think he's the preferred guy to get Cashner stretched out? I sure do.

yeah, but where did you go to college? I chuckled

I might punch somebody

Exactly. Take the previous salary issue we've gone through. Our problem putting together a good team hasn't been because we had Soriano on the roster. It's because we had Soriano, Grabow, Miles, Reed, Koyie, Howry, Eyre, Kosuke, Byrd, etc., on the roster at the same time (some of those were productive players, but all were overpaid). If it were Soriano and then a bunch of cheap, productive minor leaguers, we'd have been in fine shape to go get a major impact bat and field a very good team. Going forward, if we have Pujols, expensive FA reliever, overpaid gritty MI, overpaid OF, overpaid unproductive C, overpaid productive reliever, overpaid productive reliever, overpaid productive FA OF, and average-ish FA OF, all on the roster at the same time, we're going to have trouble building a good team. But if we have Pujols, a couple of homegrown stars, and a bunch of cheap, productive players, we should have no problem building a great team. The key isn't to avoid big contracts, it's giving star contracts to star players and avoiding overpaying for support players and filler. We couldn't do that under Hendry, we absolutely should be able to do that under Theo and that's why it won't cripple us in the future. This is correct. It's also what Nuts has been saying for pages and pages on end when talking about how $25 million to Pujols in 2017 will only cripple us if horrible, horrible things have happened in the organization along the way.

Im assuming the derosa comment was because he could play 2B/3B/LF/RF in a pinch. Fair enough. I just heard solid utility player and I don't see that as a likely outcome.

Truffle's gonna be wishing so hard for the poop jokes to come back after this.

That would be excessive. And very unlikely.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Coming back to this for a brief second, this is the kind of situation that could give the team the arbitrage needed to compete sooner than the financial restrictions would allow. If you could manage to deal Zambrano and all but, say, 3 million of his salary for Morrison, that would give you the flexibility to use Jackson to get a young SP if you wanted. So Z+14 million for Morrison, a package based around Jackson and Cashner for Gio Gonzalez, Sign Pujols/Fielder, and use the remaining money on another SP like Wilson/Darvish. Then do your favorite low cost option for 3B, whether that's Headley or Stewart or Baker/DeWitt or Flaherty/Lemahieu or something else. That team competes immediately, and all the big acquisitions are under team control for 4 seasons or more. Castro Stewart/Byrd Pujols Morrison Soto Soriano Byrd/Baker Barney Wilson/Garza/Gonzalez/Dempster/Wells/Samardzija, Marmol/Marshall/Wood/Russell/Mateo/Beliveau/Samardzija This is awesomeness. Are people really going to let that grumpy old man influence dumping Morrison? How bad is the Marlins' front office, would you say?

Everything I hear about Lake indicates a total boom-or-bust guy. People aren't high on him because it's likely he'll be on an MLB roster. They're high on him because if his pitch selection and contact ability improve, and he figures out how to field his position adequately (sound familiar?), he's a potential superstar. DeRosa just doesn't seem close to his two most likely outcomes.

Good news about Martinez. Once again, I'd be happy with any one of the names reported by the media. YESSSS smart people running the Cubs.

Stunning. Doesn't every recent browser have built in spell check? Not the iPhone, which is where I post from a lot of the time. My I Phone has a built in spell checker to a fault. To be fair, autocorrect has probably never seen a word butchered that badly before

So wonderful. But pretty mean to do to someone while they're at work.

Isn't this the same guy who said he was sick of Hendry signing the best free agent all the time? So, Hendry's achilles heel is always paying the best guy and Theo's MO is to give medium contracts to middle relievers? OK dude.

Stunning.

Jesus, davell destroys this thread. Speaking of really tall, conspicuous people, I saw Uma at O'Hare like 6-7 years ago. She glowed with hotness.

Are the home and away clubhouses the same? I thought I remembered that the Cubs clubhouse is fine and up to date, while they just left the away clubhouse crappy and with things like bad hot water systems and stuff. I might be completely off, but I thought I remembered reading that awhile ago. Nope, the home clubhouse is a piece of [expletive], too

That post needs more commas

I think I have to join him on this dream. Mike Maddux would be such a coup for this franchise....he's arguably the best coach in baseball right now...and I absolutely love what Texas has said they're doing with their pitchers (something akin to pitch counts are for c-words). Yes, definitely bring him here so Nolan Ryan can ruin all our arms Seems like Texas doesn't abuse their pitchers, so this is moot, but if Ryan had it his way, from some of his comments, 130-140 pitch marathons would be the norm, and if your arm exploded, well, that was because you were a [expletive]

I think I have to join him on this dream. Mike Maddux would be such a coup for this franchise....he's arguably the best coach in baseball right now...and I absolutely love what Texas has said they're doing with their pitchers (something akin to pitch counts are for c-words). Yes, definitely bring him here so Nolan Ryan can ruin all our arms

Yes, but for that reason, it isn't really a baseball movie, so the distinction is kind of important.

Sullivan burying news again... this time about Wood Yeah, Wood also said in that interview that he won't play for anybody but the Cubs. It's Cubs or retirement. Man oh man do I love Kerry Wood.

I don't think Greg will be a pitching coach. I think he's quite comfortable where he is. I dunno, he never looks very comfortable to me http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQifE7Q-opFmuTW6st1nJY--4ZnnxbDaMLXyqNFSVwma5ulVrXa

I love Ace's Magical Market Inefficiency Tour. Solid.

Good Fangraphs article on our managerial search. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/mike-quade-fired-dale-sveum-may-join-dream-team/