He could hit 30 for 8 years and not do that. That's not saying much.


Ill bet you Viciedo never hits 30 triples in a season!

Come on now, Bryan. 250 homers for a solid first baseman over his career isn't really that much. Konerko isn't a great player by any means and he has 400. If Rizzo is a backbone guy for the Cub World Series run I would think that kind of career would have to be assumed.

One thing I've noticed is that I tend to view players on a career basis and most fans these days take a very immediate view of a player. I don't think you can find many Cub fans who think Castro is a .280 hitter (better than this year). The reflex is to judge him by his best season.

Someone like Vada Pinson is a forgotten guy. After his first seven or eight years he had to be better than Clemente.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Baez also has 21 Ks in 59 ABs at Tennessee. The obp is .242. I would worry a lot less about the power and much more about the contact and walks.

If I take the bet and die before Bryant/Rizzo retire, will you go after my kids for payment?

Not sure if I should knock the old lady up now...

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Second City Saint

Yes. I checked with Jesse Ventura and I have that right.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Kris Bryant was 0-for-5 with five strikeouts on Tuesday in his debut for Short Season Boise.

He's a bust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're like 5 posts too late with that info, your posting's a bust!!!!!!

Damn. I have to do my cutting and pasting job better.

Baez has this hit a home run and go 1-4 thing down. #6 in AA tonight but batting .206

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Ozzie Guillen is probably wishful thinking.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

That's the whole problem right there. Why would a Sox fan possibly be jealous of a Cubs fan? The fact that so many people think such a thing is possible is fucked up.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

What word would you use to describe being mad that the rival team gets more coverage and media love?

Certainly not "jealousy". But the word I would use to describe that fact is "weird". I really think what it comes down to is simply that most of the guys in the media are Cubs fans. It's not much different than the fact that most people in the media are Obama fans. But it is strange.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Well you have to break it into pieces. I'm jealous of some things, not others. I'm jealous the Cubs at least have A PLAN. Maybe it is a BAD PLAN, I dunno. But the Sox have NO PLAN, other than cobbling a low-talent team together every year and pretending they are contenders. I guess that may be A PLAN. But that is definitely, without a doubt, a BAD PLAN.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

This leads into a conversation that's bigger than Cubs/Sox. It's a larger discussion of media. The only reason you think the Cubs have a plan and the Sox don't is because it's been written in papers and spoken on radio and TV so much. There's a fine line between coverage and promotion. It's like those two videos of the kids taking the family cars. The black kid "stole" his grandmother's car. The white kid went for a "joyride".

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Or that one team stated their intentions (acquiring young talent) and are moving ahead with that and the other is still in a kind of are we contenders/are we rebuilding situation

Sox fans are constantly in denial over being jealous. Baseball is better here. It is what it is.










Don't take the above seriously

It's certainly not incumbent upon a subject to be completely forthcoming with a reporter. Simply because a team doesn't reveal its plan to you doesn't mean one doesn't exist. I agree that Theo Epstein is excellent when it comes to controlling message. That really has nothing at all to do with putting a winning team on the field. The Sox have atrocious PR. There's no doubt about that.

But a reporter should be focused on facts, not his feelings. That gets back to the whole K.C. Johnson thing and his "relationship" with the Bulls. He feels like there is a quid pro quo between him and the Bulls when the quid pro quo should really between him and his readers, i.e. we trust and respect him and he's honest and forthcoming with us.

The constant trumpeting of Theo's "plan" is hardly different than Michael Sneed relating who ate at Harry Caray's each night. Talk about blurred lines. Let's get Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams on the case.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

The Cubs have stated what their plan is, and their actions suggest they are indeed following that plan.

Minor leaguers are like a lottery ticket. A good chance you come up with nothing but at least you have hope. The Sox don't even bother buying the ticket.

In the last 8 years the Sox averaged about 82 wins and 2.8th out of 5 division teams. That fucking sucks. That is nothing to be proud of. One playoff appearance with 89 wins and a prompt ass-kicking in the playoffs. Do you like that plan??

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I don't think that was the plan. That's just what happened.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

The plan was try to get a playoff birth every year at all costs, even though you didn't have the talent or budget to do so. Good plan if you want to win 82 games and finish in 3rd place.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

This is just negative Sox fan talk. I know, I'm prone to it myself sometimes. The Sox budget has been among the top of MLB. That obviously isn't the issue. And they've certainly had the talent to achieve more than they have. Last season they outscored the Tigers and allowed less runs. There's a lot of luck involved in this game.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

8 years of bad luck???

they are only hitting rock bottom now.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

It's not just bad luck that they suck this season. They replaced A.J. with a catcher (Flowers) who had struck out in 41% of his at bats the previous season. They signed a journeyman 3rd baseman (Keppinger) who has little power, to play a position that most believe a player should have some power at. They signed Peavy to a new deal after the guy had spent over a month on the DL in 5 or 6 seasons and then are shocked when he has another season with over a month on the DL? They abused Sale last season, pitching him over 120 innings more than the season prior, and wonder why he's not the same pitcher this season? No, it's not a good organization, run by smart executives. It's an organization that made some really bad decisions and is getting bad results that might have been reasonably expected. I pointed out problems with Sale, Peavy and Flowers long ago and predicted issues with all 3. Keppinger is a guy not worthy of much discussion and the fact that he had a fairly good season last year does not erase the fact that he is really more of a good bench player than an everyday player. The fact that they are now 20 games under .500 is a surprise though. I expected they would be mediocre and finish in 3rd place. I didn't anticipate they would be this bad and in last place.

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Go Cubs!!!!

No matter how much you try and convince the world of this, you're still wrong.

Sale is pitching as good as he was last year.

The difference is the team around him.

_________________

Now, Steve would know this. He's a Cubs fan.

I never understood Cubs fans talking about Sox players, and I never understood Sox fans talking about Cubs players. Makes no sense.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

If you're a baseball fan you might talk about any player.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I don't have a problem with Steve talking about Sox players.

Just be right when doing so.

_________________

True. The usage of Sale hasn't harmed him in any way. In fact, he is physically pitching better than ever.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I don't know about anyone else, but I have the MLB.tv package and I still struggle to follow more than three teams to the level where I really understand the club and the players and what's going on. Perhaps dyed in the wool cubbie fan Steve is a better man than I. Most of the people talking (on this board) about multiple MLB teams really only watch one and rely on other sources for their opinions, which really invalidates them.

_________________
Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.