All teams have hot prospects. Some of them make it. Most of them don't.

But "hope" is a condition of- and a prerequisite for- being a Cub fan, thus, their prospects are discussed in a way that other teams' simply are not.

_________________
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

Hope is probably a condition of any group of fans who havent won a title in a while. Like 87 years for instance.

Pretty sure this is what bigfan does.

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You like to say that, but you ignore that the Sox had 17 straight winning seasons from the 50s to the 60s and were one of the better teams throughout the 90s, and the Cubs are the worst team in baseball post- WWII. If you're going to take the bernstein-like posture that the team that loses the World Series is equivalent to a team that loses 100 games, we can argue all day long.

Outside of the Yankees, and to a far lesser degree, the Cardinals, teams don't win World Series more than about once every fifteen years on average. If the Sox hadn't thrown the one in '19 and had won the one where they were favored in '59 would you view their franchise history differently?

_________________
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

No. He just happens to be a fan of that Tyler Perry show on WCIU and catches the Sox when they preempt it.

_________________
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

None of this has anything really to do with the point being discussed here. Both sides of town hype their prospects. Cub fans do it. Sox fans do it. Hope and post WWII records have really nothing to do with it.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Its been 5 years and at this point its not "hope." It is expected.

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(6 years Frank.)

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Hope has everything to do with it. The Sox have had tons of Josh Vitters type guys that no one has ever even mentioned.

_________________
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

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010

5 years, current season notwithstanding because we don't know who is going to win it all this year.

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I have a pretty good idea who will.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Ok if you say so. But Mike Caruso and Joe Borchard disagree with you.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Joe Borchard was about as big as bust as there can be. Right behind him are Corey Patterson and Felix Pie though.

Mike Caruso was a guy who nobody knew of that came up and had a great rookie year, then faded away. There have been a lot of guys to do that too, so try again.

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Borchard maybe. But Mike Caruso is a bad example.

I'd go with Scott Ruffcorn.

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We may not know who will win it, but we know who won't. 6 years.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I agree.

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Good call, or Chris Snopek

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

To me a bust is a guy who has high expectations and never does anything in the MLB. Pie and Patterson just turned out to be guys that were marginal big leaguers. Patterson is still playing...

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The Sox were better than the Cubs and had more winners in that period.

87 years is still a real long time without a title.



Seriously?

What if the Cubs won in 69 and 84?

What if Froemming called that Pappas pitch a strike?

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I don't ever remember anyone thinking Borchard or Caruso or Snopek were "can't miss" guys. Borchard was notable because he got that huge signing bonus, but I can't think of one Sox fan ever expressing a sentiment like, "Wait until Joe Borchard gets here!"

You have to remember, the Sox had developed top players- McDowell, Fernandez, Frank, Ventura. It wasn't some big deal like it is for the Cubs. I heard more than one Cub fan compare Patterson to Willie Mays. WILLIE MAYS!!!!! Rozner and Spiegel actually discussed whether Castro will get 3000 hits. You Cub fans posting in this thread may not see that as unreasonable. I think anyone else would see it the same way they saw you thinking Prior and Wood were locks for 300 wins.

Cub fans have been hyping their prospects from Glen Hobbie through Karl Pagel and Ozzie Rosiniski to Patterson, Pie, Prior, and now Castro.

_________________
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

Whether minor leaguers were mentioned is hard to guage.

Certain fans seek out that kind of information.


Certain Sox fans have no idea who Scott Ruffcorn is and certain Cub fans have no idea who Ty Griffin is.

They would not be nearly as popular.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

They weren't even close.

The Sox almost won in '19 without half the team trying. They were a heavy favorite in '59.

The '69 Cubs lost the division by about 8 games and they were never going to beat Detroit in 1984.

I think even Les would admit that.

_________________
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

_________________

Im confident in saying no one on the planet used the word Lock for 300 Wins.

That was a hell of a run of #1 draft picks for the Sox in the late80's/early 90's



Castro 3000 hit discussion is dumb. But thats Gravy for ya.


Its not all on Cub fans. A lot of it is Patterson. He was crazy hyped by people outside the organization. Perhaps Cubs fans ran with it, but a lot were skeptical too.


Also, I dont think its crazy to get excited about a young players future when he's dominant at the Major league level. Like Prior was.

Felix Pie was always compared to the Bust Patterson. No one was hyping him like crazy without the disclaimer that "we've seen this before and it might not work out"

People were saying Beckham was a sure HOF shortly after he came up. They look pretty foolish today also.

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A heavy favorite that lost 4 straight?

Does that mean they were close or incorrectly percieved to be close?

Anyway I dont have to be an all or nothing Bernstein to say almost titles dont count.

Also, lets not lose sight of the fact that the Cubs are a national team and everything they do is going to get more coverage than the White Sox.

Of course a Cub prospect is gonna seem superhyped. The Newspaper in town owned the team and ESPN is all over the Cubs dick.

They didn't lose four straight.

_________________
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