Wheelimus

Anyone else getting the awesome U-Verse kind of slow mo effect on your WGN? Great, now watching this game feels like an acid trip...strangely fitting for the team at this point in a lost season.

Also it seems a little strange to crap on Ransom when he's more than fulfilled his role on the short side of a platoon. Factor in his 1.000+ OPS versus lefties and third base has been a pleasant surprise this season. Valbuena had a terrible June but he's off to a good start in July. I'm not sure you can predict him to have a .700 OPS by the end of the season when (so far) he's been above .800 three out of four months. And even if I'm wrong Vitters couldn't sniff .700.

And it says even less when you realize that they're likely to be much more careful spending 20 mil than they are 2. To put this is in a context we can all relate to I'm much more likely to be careless with twenty bucks than I am with $200. To a baseball team with financial means like the Cubs two mil is a lottery ticket. When they buy those I think they expect, at best, 1 out of 4 to pay off.

After further consideration of what the Cubs are really playing for (#2 draft pick since no one is catching the Marlins) I'll change my mind and advocate for Ian Stewart to play third if Valbuena goes down. Of course I'd prefer we just handle it how The Who would when Keith Moon was too drunk to play and just see if someone in attendance will fill the void. I understand though that would be a bitch as far as the 25 man roster goes. Sad, it would probably boost attendance if you could promote one lucky fan chosen at random will get to play 3B.

It's really really really hard to have any sympathy whatsoever for Ian Stewart when he's getting paid two million dollars to play the game we all love. Of course your goal is to be in the big leagues but on some level you should just be happy to have such a great job. Know who I respect? All the guys on the Iowa Cubs, some who are making 1% of what Stewart is making, who are keeping their mouths shut about this. Of course they can't afford to throw him under the bus because they haven't already made $7 million being a terrible baseball player. Suspend him for as long as you can get away with and leave him in AAA to rot. Even in the event that Valbuena goes down I'd rather see Ransom start. I guess if there's nothing just terrible on the scrapheap you let Stewart be his horrible backup.

So the Cubs go up a bunch dead guys, old guys, and guys I've never heard of and still lose. Sounds about right. CM Punk is a Chicago boy and a big Cubs can FWIW. And Brian Pillman was from Cincy. I wanted to keep a Reds kicking Cubs ass slant. :twisted:

This game translated to a pro wrestling match that never happened (sadly). CM Punk (who just told all of his friends to go bleep themselves and not get involved in his match) vs Brian Pillman (who naturally brings with him the entire Hart Foundation (Bret, Owen, Jim The Anvil, British Bulldog, what the hell toss in Tyson Kidd, Davey Jr, Natalya, and so on) in a No DQ Match. Things...don't go well for Punk. :eek:

And there's something to be said for a continued incremental increase in the number of night games. The best motivation for the Cubs owner to provide to get people into the ballpark for those inconvenient day games is a winning team. The best way to get people to remember to DVR those day games is a winning team. The next time this comes up if the Cubs are a perennial contender I think there will be more agreement to increase the number.

We should pretty much buy every lottery ticket type of player we can. If things go south for us next year (and they probably will) you trade the ones that pan out for prospects. But hey, never underestimate the ability of Dusty Baker to ruin a ballclub. If he throws Chapman for 150 pitches in a game and his arm falls off all bets are off. Whatever pile of crap wins the Central next year would probably be 4th at best in the AL East but that's baseball for ya.

We're basically in a buying lottery tickets mode with our payroll flexibility during a time of top to bottom rebuilding. This guy seems like as good of a risk as most other options.

Pierre signed for $1.6 million. At that price they'll probably keep bringing him back until he's the worst player in history to get 3,000 hits. :eek:

Marlins have signed Juan Pierre per Rotoworld. Whew, dodged a bullet there.

We paid to fix Stewart. Might as well see how he looks next season. Unless the market for Youk just vanishes there aren't any other good options.

Awesome move. Going from the AL to the NL should only help him bounce back even if he doesn't get his velocity back. Great move in that you most likely deal him at the deadline for a nice pickup but maybe not if we catch a bunch of breaks and can compete. Doesn't sound like the Cardinals are doing too much. If that holds and Dusty, well, Dusty's his pitching next season you never know. Unlikely for sure but it's nice to dream.

A-, exceptional work given the circumstances but room for improvement next year. And in a few years when he actually has a league average team I can't wait to see what can happen in the craptastic NL Central.