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ESPN article says he'll miss at least the first 2 months of the season Awesome. That puts a serious dent in our chances of finishing ahead of Detroit

we've known that colvin sucks for quite a while now

at least he didn't do his horrible "hell yes" thing that he seems to be doing routinely now

we know. we also know that he more than makes up for it with his bat.

i think the guy that posted that just doesn't know how to read.

who cares. gary matthews jr is awful, and so is patterson. a ton of horrible players have great tools and talent. corey patterson has proven that he sucks.

gary matthews jr is awful

There's a huge difference between the performances and/or rosters of 2008 and 2009. The Cubs lineup last year was way better, than this year, plus the Cardinals lineup (If they add Holliday) is significantly better than it was last year. Two different lineups. This is all if they add Holliday. that's not at all what you said, but nice try.

that's a pretty stupid statement. pujols was way better than any player on the cubs last year too. who scored more runs?

Yeah, let's trade Vitters so we can have a catcher for 3 weeks. We might not have to give Vitters, but we may have to give Soto + good prospects for him. Only? I would definitely not make that trade I didn't say only. I wasn't advocating it. wow i completely misread that. i could have sworn it said only. sorry

Yeah, let's trade Vitters so we can have a catcher for 3 weeks. We might not have to give Vitters, but we may have to give Soto + good prospects for him. Only? I would definitely not make that trade

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4350887

delores

i would definitely not give them that for george sherill

why the hell would you trade rasmus for lee? that makes zero sense

but uzr says he's a badass

seems like another smart decision by the red sox front office. victor martinez is somewhat overrated, especially as a first baseman. his value comes from catching. an .850 OPS first baseman really is not that hard to find.

yeah, hart has been terrible. he has 15 walks in 15.2 innings and only 5 k's.

why so serieses

Except that when he actually faces someone on the mound better than a cardboard cutout (as in the playoffs the last two seasons) he is inept at leading off, hitting homeruns, and pretty much anything else offensively... Soriano smells like a rose when he swings at the first two pitches of an AB. He bats .375-.400 in his CAREER when he puts the ball in play in those situations. He's a fastball hitter and does everything AGAINST the theories of what a leadoff hitter should do... He's a great stat padder, but when the game is on the line, and he has two strikes on him, he will FAIL because he refuses to adjust and play the team game. 3-28 with a solitary walk in the last two playoff series is ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW... .107/.138/.245 0HR 0RBI Now post Aramis' numbers in the last 2 postseasons Yeah, he's been terrible too. But this thread is about Soriano. Sammy was terrible in the postseason too. Aramis I give a reprieve because he he was key in 2003. Soriano had a big home run in the World Series with the Yankees. So he should get a "reprieve" too.

Except that when he actually faces someone on the mound better than a cardboard cutout (as in the playoffs the last two seasons) he is inept at leading off, hitting homeruns, and pretty much anything else offensively... Soriano smells like a rose when he swings at the first two pitches of an AB. He bats .375-.400 in his CAREER when he puts the ball in play in those situations. He's a fastball hitter and does everything AGAINST the theories of what a leadoff hitter should do... He's a great stat padder, but when the game is on the line, and he has two strikes on him, he will FAIL because he refuses to adjust and play the team game. 3-28 with a solitary walk in the last two playoff series is ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW... .107/.138/.245 0HR 0RBI Now post Aramis' numbers in the last 2 postseasons

.792 career OPS as a left handed batter is terrible? It's not exactly all world, but is it terrible? Especially considering the last four years before signing as a Cub he had OPS of .940, .937, .793, and .856 as a lefty? Really? And a career OPS of .820 is mediocre? Really? Even whille hitting in non-band box type stadiums at home like in 2007 when he OPSed 1.000 as a Padre? I'm sorry, but all these people like you with I-told-ya-so's about Bradley have no ground to stand on because the chief complaint was that he would be injured. At this pont he's played in 5 less games than our iron man Derek Lee. Nobody was predicting that he wouldn't perform when he played. It all comes down to the fact that he's having a terrible year at the plate. Nothing more, nothing less. Slumps happen in baseball. Just look at our beloved Jim Edmonds who OPSed a whopping .728 in the '07 season and .458 to start the '08 season before miraculously turning it around with the Cubs and hitting for a .937 OPS. Ugh. First of all, you know exactly what I meant. No, a .792 OPS by itself isn't "terrible', but in the context of the situation, it is. The main goal of Hendry's offseason was to get a big left handed bat. When you trade key players just to make that happen and you're taling about a corner outfielder who is supposed to be a sluggr from that side, yes, a .792 OPS is terrible. Maybe if Bradley was a middle infielder that would be nice production. And for a corner outfielder, how can you say an .820 OPS is anything but mediocre? I mean, seriously. Among qualified RF in the NL this season, an .820 OPS would be exactly in the middle of the pack. It would be 8th of 16. In the AL it would be 8th of 15. It literally is the very definition of mediocre. And no, nobody thought he would be this bad, but he didn't have to be this bad for it to be a bad signing and for people wanting his head. If he was putting up an .820 OPS right now, we'd be saying the same things. I questioned how good he would be before the season (although I thought he'd be a high .800's OPS guy) and I remember other people questioning as well, so don't say that nobody did. It was stupid to think it was a foregone conclusion that he'd rake. And for people saying his career numbers aren't relevant. Guess what? He's now performed at them or below them in 4 of the last 6 season. Umm, that's pretty relevant. Not to mention the fact that one of the 2 good "seasons" that break up the 4 career average ones was a total of 144 ABs in San Diego, and the other was played in Arlington.

.792 career OPS as a left handed batter is terrible? It's not exactly all world, but is it terrible? Especially considering the last four years before signing as a Cub he had OPS of .940, .937, .793, and .856 as a lefty? Really? And a career OPS of .820 is mediocre? Really? Even whille hitting in non-band box type stadiums at home like in 2007 when he OPSed 1.000 as a Padre? don't bother, we've tried this before with dexter. Tried what, making it look like Bradley has had some great career when he hasn't? Yeah, you've tried that a bunch.

Pujols has proven he can be productive in the middle of the lineup. Soriano has not. I really thought the "Soriano hitting leadoff is counterproductive to scoring runs" stuff would stop after we led the league in runs last year. Guess not.

Well, yeah. But that's what people said before last year, too. I think the same could also be said about Milton Bradley after he lead the world in OPS. Like I said, we caught lightning in a bottle last season with Edmonds. It was highly unlikely for that to be repeated. I really don't get the point of this post. You just said the same thing that I just quoted, in nearly the exact same words even. Honestly, I agree with your point. I just think we should have given Edmonds the chance to show us that he was done, rather than assuming it. I mean, if we had signed him to an affordable deal, the worst case scenario would not be so bad. We would end up releasing him, trading him, or DFAing him. However, the potential upside would have been very large. You're not agreeing with me. You're saying he should have been signed. Really, at the beginning of the season, how would he have fit in? Fukudome was going to get another shot to start in center and Johnson filled out the right handed half of the platoon. Right field was the only outfield position to fill, and it would have been silly to sign him instead of one of the other RF options out there. Once a permanent right fielder was signed, there was no place for Edmonds. Hendry made the right move by letting Edmonds go. The problem is that he signed the wrong right fielder. All of this mess could have easily been avoided by signing Dunn. Oh well, I guess Hendry doesn't like guys who put up .900+ OPSs every season and completely mash right handed pitching. Oh wait, that's exactly what he was looking for. Instead he signed the injury prone headcase who has mediocre overall career numbers and terrible career numbers from the left side. Even if Bradley was performing as expected, he still owuldn't be fitting the description of what Lou and Jim so desperately wanted. He's always sucked from the left side. ok end rant