Bull

like on wall street?

Only if he pitches shirtless and in an open vest. And pantsless.

You just made me hate Trump less.

Always the bridesmaid, never the WS champ

I don't want Feldman, but the idea of having Scott Feldman, and possibly bouncing San Francisco out of the playoffs again, while poor Samardzija watches is on is highly amusing. In the alternate universe where samardzija isn't a jerk, we never trade Castro, never get Russell and never sign Lackey. We still win the World Series.

Any news on how our reclamation project is coming along?

Also have never been to the convention and have no interest in it either but I always enjoy watching video of the opening ceremonies, and the hype video... they hype video this year should be pretty fun. I went for the first time last year. It was a great time. Too many signature people. The sessions with the braintrust were relatively empty. I even got to ask Joe a question. I told my 65 year old father, "If we are ever going to go to the Convention, this is the year." Seeing this team introduced for the first time was pretty special. That said, I imagine this year would be even better. The main difference is I got my tickets by meeting someone on Craigslist for $50(all he wanted was the peel off chance to stand in an autograph line), and resold them for $40 on Sunday morning. This year, last I checked, you're looking at $400 a ticket on StubHub.

If you can't say anything good about your manager's handling of your pitching staff... Seriously though, what do want him to say? My manager was right to overuse chapman, he was the only decent reliever we have...uh had. All the rest of these guys are garbage! Or I love all my guys. My manager is an idiot. Not much he can say.

And vice versa. Sports fans are ridiculous. Before I moved to Cardinal country, I was mostly ambivalent about the cardinals. Most Cubs fans I know are as well. I hated the Astros, mets, cards, in that order. After living there for a few years I love to razz my cards fan friends. But many/most cardinal fans genuinely love to hate the Cubs and have a weird insecurity about them. There's also the extrem big brother syndrome about all things Chicago contributing as well as (where I was, on the Illinois side of the river) the hatred of Chicago's domination of state politics. It really is different than typical fan rivalry hatred.

The blatant bigotry from hccf and yeti was a black eye during some dark times I think you mean "black guy"

That's just describing every fan base out there. True, but Cards fans (in general) are just far more sanctimonious about it. There is also a special paranoia with Cards fans with respect to the Cubs.

I'm glad for them to wait a little to hand down a punishment. Let the Cubs dominate them for several years beforehand, so no one will ever get confused and say "MLB helped the Cubs by taking away cardinals draft picks." Except no one is going to say this. Really?!? Im guessing you don't know many cards fans. I lived in saint louis for five years. They say all of the awful, stupid things there. They selectively remember, rewrite history and only see things through cardinal red glasses. Some of them genuinely believe the MLB told the umps to call balls strikes and strikes balls to help the Cubs win. Either way cards fans will believe any punishment is a Cubs conspiracy. I just want it as far removed from the WS win as possible.

I'm glad for them to wait a little to hand down a punishment. Let the Cubs dominate them for several years beforehand, so no one will ever get confused and say "MLB helped the Cubs by taking away cardinals draft picks."

This is amazing. I don't even have to click through a slideshow. Great content, limited ads. nsb is the best. Tim is the best, bukie is the best. I love this and I love everyone here. God bless, us every one.

I would rather not see the best infielder in the game turned into an outfielder. There are so many ways that Javy could be a starter for us in the regular season like he was in the post season, but we don't have to force it. Lets enjoy having him as an above average utility player while Zobrist is still a weapon, and then eventually transition the two if/when Zobrist's skills diminish more and Javy's develop. There is a non-zero chance that his bat takes a big step forward. There is a decent chance heyward returns to form or better. If (remote chance) both of these happen, do you prefer zobrist-RF, heyward-CF, Baez 2B or Zobrist 2B, Heyward-RF, Javy CF? I'm pretty sure I prefer the first, but I'd like to see (IN SPRING TRAINING) if the second alignment is viable to even do in a pinch.

I would like to see the return of the Javy in cf experiment during spring training.

what are you saying mistakes aren't mistakes as long as the outcome is good or what are you saying It is the cowards approach to life. Bull

That already happened for us. His name is Rizzo. Don't get greedy.

This thread is becoming legendary. Right up there with the Brian Roberts thread.

Yes, and that moment will almost surely not pass. When Theo came, there was a theory that hitting would become scarce and teams with hitters would have a trade leverage advantage. That theory does not appear to have been fulfilled. It's not that hitting would become scarce, it's that hitters are a more predictable, less volatile asset, which is undeniably true. So while other teams have tried to ransom young pitchers with some pedigree, or build a rotation full of guys with great stuff and injury/control risks, the Cubs have won 200 games the last 2 years and a world series with a rotation that's 40% a pre-arb reject(Arrieta) and a low-ceiling prospect(Hendricks) providing about 19 fWAR over that time. There was an observation that power numbers were dropping precipitously, and a perception that Theo was accumulating power as a market inefficiency. That trend reversed in 2015 and even more so in 2016 with the 2nd highest hr/game rate in history, second only to 2000 (1.17 vs 1.16).

I like your line ups, but personally I'm not sold on the Almora/Jay platoon in CF. Baez and Zobrist are both better players than Almora and Jay. Playing Almora and Jay regularly will cut into Zobrist and Baez's playing time, unless the Cubs decide to make Heyward the odd man out. To me it seems the best option is to move Heyward to CF full time, Zo in RF full time, Schwarber in LF full time, and Baez at 2B full time. I want Baez's defense on the field as many games as possible, especially at 2B. Almora and Jay can spot start when the match ups favor them or someone needs a day off. Almora will see plenty of playing time late in games as well. Jay to me is nothing more than a 5th outfielder, probably a tier or two better than Coghlan. Trust me, I'm not in love with the idea of moving a perennial gold glover, Heyward, out of his comfort zone in RF to CF, but to maximize Zobrist and Baez's playing time this seems like the only option. This is where I'm at opening day: Zobrist RF Schwarbs LF Bryant 3B Rizzo 1B Russell SS Contreras C Heyward CF Baez 2B You want javys defense in there as much as possible and in order to do that want an of of schwarber, heyward, zobrist. I'll ask David to do the math but to my human eyes that doesn't add up. Yeah, I don't mind that lineup once a week, if the matches are favorable, but most days I prefer a centerfielder in centerfield, especially if he's sandwiched between a catcher on a recently reconstructed knee and a second baseman who seems less than confident in wrigley's difficult right field.

They were planning on it, but the loss of evanstonian as a season ticket holder sustaining them really put a long-term damper on their capital expenditures No way. They decided to sell his tickets individually on StubHub and make an extra 20 grand.

Is there a waitlist? I'm pretty sure there are over 100k people on it. I'm number 37094. I've been on the list since 2011 or so.

Cup of Ross

Kinda like that its vs the Dodgers though.