“I have a soft spot for guys who hit everywhere they’ve ever been — hit, hit, hit and continue to hit,” Epstein told "Chicago Tribune Live" on Tuesday. "There’s this myth about the 4-A hitter. Guys who perform all the way up the minor leagues, dominate Triple-A, get a cup of coffee, they hit a buck-fifty in the big leagues, and everybody labels them a 4-A hitter.

“The reality is, I’m not so sure there is something called a 4-A hitter. It’s just (a) pretty good Major League hitter who never got an opportunity… We’re looking for assets. We’re going to scratch and claw and do everything in our power- in the draft, internationally, small trades, waiver claims... We need to build assets because we don’t have enough of them. We’re not going to look past one that might be sitting right there in our organization.”

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Pencil him in to RF.

Bryan LaHair is like Boston's very own Ryan Lavarnway.... just not as good at hitting... and Lavarnway can theoretically catch... I dunno if he's big-league-quality... but if he could catch ~80games/year and DH another ~50, assuming they dump off the big fat roiding pappy, then they'll have something cuz Ryan Lavarnway can MASH dude... he just hasn't gotten the at bats up here.

I have the feeling that LaHair is the next guy in the proud lineage of Micah Hoffpauir, Jake Fox... and man isn't there another cubs 4A/1B/DH type dude who had some 20-30HR minor league seasons, but didnt make it up here til ages 25-27, people clamored for him, and the nhe showed up was blah bad and gone? There's one more than Hoffpauir and Fox, I know that...

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LaHair had some really good at bats though it would have been nicer to have seen him get more big league at bats. Of course that was out of the question because dickface Quade had to play his "guy" all the god damn time.

I hope Theo promptly removes Reed from the roster. He is a nice guy to have as the 4th outfielder on a contending veteran team but he has no place on a team in a rebuilding phase.

He can also start unloading Hendry's stockpile of grindy white utility players.

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

I want to go young,too. I also want Reed Johnson on the team. He had a great year last season and he sets an example on how to play the game. I want young guys at just about every position except some SP & maybe a vet catching (NOT Soto). I just want vets for fill-in,injury roles.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

4A or not, anyone over 25 is not a 'prospect'...

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Possibly good hitter & not much salary. That's better than paying Pena 12 mil to bat .228
28 homers ain't shit.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

You do know this is where the "Reed Mantle" stuff comes from.

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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 Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

The only way I keep him is if Soriano is gone. If they are both on the team you are burning 2 roster spots with guys that should not be starting.

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

People can crack jokes BUT:

AVG. HR RBI Runs
.309 5 28 33

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I got no beef with Reed, jimmy. He's a useful player. I just think a guy like him is the last thing a Cub fan should be worried about right now. And I'm not bagging on the Cubs or their fans either. Plenty of Sox fans are concerned about Brent Lillibridge. He's insignificant. There are a lot of guys you can get to do what those guys do. Lillibridge can play a lot of positions adequately. Maybe that gives him some added value if a team wants to carry an extra pitcher. But really, I don't think about him and I don't want to think about him.

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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 Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

I understand what you are saying. Also agree that you can't have Soriano & Reed "mantle" taking 2 spots. I just don't want 25 rookies. Always good to have a few vets. I don't want 100 loss season and a bunch of new suits assuring me they know what they are doing. As a Cub fan,I can not accept that!

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

By cracky!!!

was it jim hendry or mike quade who said that you have to give reed mantle at bats to show everyone how the game should be played, or something equally asinine along the lines of what mister pasta said up there?

when your team is basically out of the damn race by may.... and you're looking for ways to sell the public on the idea that reed johnson must play for reasons of integrity and character... then like, fuck you leave my city plz.

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Everytime I here this or read this I laugh.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Sini,
I agree with you. I just want the guy as a fill-in. I want youngsters everywhere EXCEPT the SP and bullpen. I believe a team with solid pitching and defense can compete youngsters or not.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

And therein lies the problem for any big market team that can't simply spend over its mistakes. MLB has created a model where teams have little margin for error financially. When you've got yourself in a position where you have to sell 2.7 million tickets just to break even, you've got a problem. In a bullish economy where corporations were spending with abandon, it worked. Those days are gone for the foreseeable future. Teams are finding they can't charge the prices they do and expect fans to come out to watch an inferior product.

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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 Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

early in the season i was quite glad to come out to wrigley field and end up paying $5 to sit in section ~223 right in front of the poles to consume my inferior product. that was awesome... it had that september-at-most-ballparks feel when the team is dead in the water and the novelty of having a nice summer day out @ the ballpark is long gone and the only people who there are these weird freakshows who actually want to see a baseball game... man, you should see these losers... they keep score! they sometimes have the radio on in one ear while the game's going.... they seem annoyed to constantly get up sit down and pass beers and money along all game long?! fucking losers... i bet they don't get any pussy!

hopefully this means that teams get a bit more creative with special pricing and promotions and whatnot... idk if that one bleacher deal they had (the one with tickets + beers + food + etc) was any good, but stuff like that will help get the square families out.... not to mention once clan ricketts finds a way to get into the parking racket, they'll be able to package up tickets+vending+parking together.... and then if the commodity gets hot, they can go to the fourth phase and go to one of the awesomely-legal cubs-owned-ticket-scalping-companies and re-sell them for higher prices just in case the ticket becomes hot! =D

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LaHair has done everything asked of him. The guy is 6-5, 240, so I think we can assume he might have some power!

And being 28, on your AAA and BEING THE PCL MVP! I can understand how he could fly under Jim Hendrys Radar!!!!!!!!!!

Will the guy put together a full season of 1 HR/ 70 AB's? as his ML career in limited AB's has proven? I don't know, but what chances he has been given he has done well.

And I can understand why Hendry couldn't find playing time for him, as the OF was so crowded with all of our veteran talent!

Hendry never wanted vets to sit, because they wouldn't like him after that! Yes, that was a factor, Jim Hendry needed to maintain Good Guy Jim status so everyone liked him.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

He doesn't need to be 21 yrs old. He just needs to hit. If he continues hitting he will be productive for a good 3-4 years and that will give them time to draft and develop the future. I think Theo is on board with bringing him back next year to play full time in the bigs.

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

LaHairless

what guys are u talkin about...St Louis has a stockpile of grindy white utility players, and they wont the World Series...another inaccurate comment on ur part

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When you have the best player in baseball on your team you can have a dozen grindy white guys. I don't recall Shu or TheRiot doing much during the series. That isn't a huge stockpile that is 2 guys.

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

Ha,Ha that's funny. You mean like when the Cubs had the best player when they had Ernie in his MVP years,Williams & Hickman in 1970, Bill Madlock when he batted 350, Andre Dawson in his MVP year,Sammy Sosa in his 3 years of hitting 60 HR's in a row?

One guy or even 5 guys don't mean crap. Having a pitching coach teaching washed up vets how to cheat by cutting baseballs is how it's done.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

u forgot Freese, Descalso, Craig...along with grindy mexican Furcal

and all those guys contributed heavily to getting to the Series...even Albert didnt have a great Series, so stop with the discrediting

and u still havent named me the Cubs' grindy white players

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Whistler


Anyway, I like his thoughts here. Even if he IS a 4A player, there is some value there.

LaHair is another Micah Hoffpauir.

There's a reason a player is 28 and has spent most of his life in the minor leagues.

Dumb butts keep saying he was held down by high paid major leaguers on the teams he was in the system for.

So every other team in baseball also had no interest in getting him as a throw in on a trade in all those years either.

Those are some seriously enlightening thoughts right there.

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

Casey McGehee -- not quite as old, but you get the point.

LaHair took Big Z deep in their winter league match up yesterday. LaHair is a beast.

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