Guancous

Neither of those guys were bad 25th men. The only problem was Dusty played them as 8th man and 21st man respectively.

I thought someone was making a Royal Tenenbaums joke when they said one of the prospects had stomach cancer. I was wrong but I'm glad the guy is healthy again.

I sincerely appreciate Meph's analysis. He just doesn't share it enough. I haven't seen anythin out of Keeper but flame wars.

Soto needs to be fired too. His career numbers are nowhere near as good as Johnny Bench's. It is irrelevant that he is a better starter than Paul Bako. Everyone in the Cubs organization should lose their jobs for this epic fail! 1908!!!1!11!~!

Yeah, saw that too. Probably a ref to T.I.'s song "Rubber Band Man" which encourages people to wear a rubber band after becoming wealthy to remind them of the struggle. The organist must use that as his batting song.

The sneeze analogy perfectly illustrates what I've been trying to explain. People sneeze all the darn time, and nothing comes of it. Just like as dextermorgan has explained, professional baseball players step awkwardly on their leg all the darn time, and nothing comes of it. So if throwing your back out sneezing is a freak injury (since you've sneezed countless times with no injury occurring), then by the same logic, tearing your ACL stepping awkwardly is also a freak injury (since you've stepped awkwardly countless times with no injury occurring). Except people almost never get hurt sneezing. That's why it's a freak injury. People get hurt by twisting their legs. You're leaving out that very huge difference. Also, I'd say that there's a pretty big difference between a sneeze and a twisting of your leg. One is a natural thing that the body does by itself. The other is something that your body is put through due to a mistake. Your definition of a freak injury is: something people almost never get hurt doing (reference the bolded statement above). You've told us over and over and over again how baseball players step awkwardly on their leg all the time without getting hurt. Therefore by your own definition of the term, when a baseball player gets hurt stepping awkwardly, it's a freak injury. That's not my definiton at all. I don't know where you're getting that. "people almost never get hurt sneezing. That's why it's a freak injury." -- dextermorgan I've seen the future. Someone wins this argument sometime in March with incisive logic and a new viewpoint, thus winning the respect of the other. Bread is broken and Cub Nation emerges from their bomb shelters. I won't tell you who wins. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

I'm not sure the Royals are trading starters unless they receive massive depth in return. Who do they have besides Greinke and Meche? I doubt Hochevar will turn the corner this year. I actually have faith in Hendry following his M.O. of the last two years: 1) Hendry signs a mediocre player. 2) Everyone on the board wails and gnashes his teeth. 3) Player puts up All-Star season and becomes a bargain.

2012 Mark Prior = 2008 Cliff Lee. I saw it on an Aztec calendar somewhere.

Don't get me wrong, the Mets and Phillies should be very strong next year. I feel (bias warning) that the Cubs are better set for the regular season. We'll be more sure once we see who the Cubs and Mets choose as 5th starters. I'm also curious about the severity of Chase Utley's injury. The Cubs have the highest upside but some fragile cogs in Harden, Soriano, Bradley and Zambrano.

I'm going to sidestep the whole freak injury controversy. My only qualm with this signing is that if someone told you, "Guess which baseball player tore his ACL because his manager restrained him from going after the umpire today." Wouldn't Milton Bradley be one of your top five choices? My concern is that Bradley runs a hot temper. I've also heard arguments that the Cubs need more of that temperament. I don't fully trust anything I can't measure quantitatively. Any type of injury clause is obviously great news. This deal might look more like Burrell's than we thought. If not, then we get extended stretches of solid production. Bradley's 2008 BABIP is unsustainable. He'll still be a positive influence. I hope the Cubs focus on killing April and May to make the 2nd half a lot more boring. They appear stronger than any other NL team.

I lived in New York and there's no joy in being a Yankees fan. Anything short of a championship is an embarrassment. If you win, everyone expected you to. I've been at games where Yankees got booed because they haven't hit a homer since the 3rd inning.

Is the 300 extra hits for the entire team or just for right field?

I apologize if this was already posted. The following data doesn't include the 2008 season. Here is what Nate Silver forecast for each player for the 2009 season. (Value Over Replacement Player/Wins Over Replacement Player.) Joey Gathright (2.4/2.3) Bobby Abreu (14.6/3.5) I've listened to the debate and I have a question. Let's say hypothetically that Gathright is the starting right fielder. Where does the extra $10 million get spent?

Man, Joey Gathright and The Big Bang Theory in the same thread... bring on Spring Training. For what it's worth, here are Baseball Reference's top ten comparables through age. I won't list which player is for which: 1. Dick Harley (968) 2. Jose Tartabull (967) 3. Bob Dernier (966) 4. Spike Shannon (965) 5. Rebel Oakes (964) 6. Charlie Jamieson (963) 7. Frank Gilhooley (960) 8. Pat Carney (959) 9. Burt Shotton (959) 10. Ty Cline (958) 1. Bernie Williams (934) 2. Will Clark (896) 3. Luis Gonzalez (881) 4. Shawn Green (879) 5. Bobby Bonilla (876) 6. Garret Anderson (869) 7. John Olerud (869) 8. Reggie Smith (869) 9. George Brett (865) * 10. Dave Parker (859)

Let's assume the deal is dead. What should the Cubs do with the extra $9 million? I say get Dunn and save the rest for the deadline.

It sounds like I can go to sleep and check back after the Rule V draft. I hope I log on tomorrow afternoon and comment on page 150.

Some posters noted that the Rule V rosters were locked in during November.

The Twins? Hmm.. I'm not surprised that more teams are interested in getting involved with DeRosa now sounding available. It would be nice if we could get Kubel out of this deal Kubel's bat would be great. With a chance to start everyday and a couple more years of experience, the guy could end up hitting 25 to 30 home runs. The only thing is that he is not a good fielder at all. If given a chance to play everyday, though, he may be as good as Abreu or Ibanez. And millions cheaper.

Hendry for President! (Except he might get a return on his investment.)

Jim Hendry could close this deal right now by eating a chunk of Marquis' salary. I bet a nickel he's trying to reduce the amount the Cubs have to pay or get a decent prospect in return.

I could see towers and hendry tripping on shrooms while going to see cirque du soleil to discuss this deal. "The tall chair is gawking at me and the short one is behaving very droll!" Maybe the holdup is the Cubs getting another player back in the deal. Remember when Minnesota expected to get Murton in the Nomar deal? Maybe Towers sees someone he likes in the Rule V draft and wants to make sure that he has roster space.

I know the Cubs are in win now mode but maybe the Padres soured on Matt Antonelli after .193/.292/.281 last year... in 57 at bats. Nevermind.

I think it's a big deal. If you're not blocked by me then it generally means that I *want* to read your posts because I *value* what you say and think you, sometimes, have a better opinion than me. Key word: generally. You're not blocked. Generally because you can't block mods, admins, or yourself, unfortunately. I tried all of the above. You do get that people are mocking you, right? And another person joins the banned list.

Angel Guzman could easily be the player whose injury history Jim Hendry was upfront about.

I like the building wave of inevitability.