Where the core four stuff coming from? I don't get it.

The Cubs are a failure because they are 19 over .500 without Almora and Baez on the team.

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the same place "Cy Rodon" comes from. There is plenty of dogshit on each side of the fence.

You're unfamiliar with the Core Four? I assure you, I didn't invent 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

It's a little different. "Cy Rodon" is a mocking creation of Cub fans. The "Core Four" is also a Cub fan creation illustrating how the brilliant drafting of Theo Epstein would lead to long term domination. Now they want to disavow the Core Four because its greatest member looks like Nick Swisher.

_________________
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 am. Where did it come from?

I imagine it came from a time before they acquired their actual core players?

Ahhh ok. This is like you attributing the Babe Ruth nickname to Cubs fans, when in actuality it came from Dan Bernstein's sources. In other words, it's safe to ignore completely.

Wherever it came from it was created by a Cub fan. You don't really believe some objective baseball analyst called this guy with a 100 minor league at-bats at the time "Babe Fuckin' Ruth", do you?

_________________
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

Did you not consider googling "Cubs core four" before pretending like the concept didn't exist?

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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!

and then we'll get someone using my Rondon-Stud-World Series draft day thread as evidence of some deep belief in a prospect.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

JORR didnt you declare Anthony Rizzo a marginal player (or worse) a couple years ago?

No. He was just a prospect.

_________________
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 know you're not judging these guys before they have even played one year though.

Okay. So Rizzo is having what's probably his best year and Castro is having what's probably his worst.

_________________
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

My point is, you seemingly rush to make permanent judgments.

Bryant will likely be better than Swisher.

You know that players not named Mike Trout have setbacks and struggles along the way. I dont know why when a young player struggles just a little bit you are so quick to call them busts or limit them.


Also not sure why you think a 24 year old all star, who got better and was an all star a second time at 25 will never reach these heights again.

I disagree. I've been watching baseball for a long time. When I see a guy, I've likely seen a guy like him. I don't look at a player and get excited because he has a great season. I tend to look at a player for his career value. It's a game of time and repetition. If we're judging guys on single great seasons, I can come up with all kinds of guys no one has heard of. Of course writers and analysts have an interest in hyping up the "next big thing". That's how they get page views.

Maybe Bryant will be better than Swisher. I wouldn't bet on that though. He's a 12 year man with 113 career OPS+. That ain't too bad. Not so great for a first baseman, but certainly a good big league player. It puts him with Hall of Famer Luke Appling and the Great Alex Gordon.

_________________
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

Anybody want to revisit Robin Ventura's 1990? Obviously he was destined to become the next Steve Ontiveros.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

You said Rizzo would be lucky to be LaRoche. This will be his second year (5.1, 5.2) with a full +1 WAR over LaRoche's best year(4.1).

Don't let your vision get clouded by LaRoche's horrible season. He's had a good career. He's played what? Fifteen years with an .800 OPS? That's a good career. I think anyone who laughs and says that Rizzo is obviously going to be better than LaRoche is getting way ahead of themselves. Rizzo is having a good year. He'll have bad years too. Do you think he's going to be better than Konerko? That's about .840 career OPS. You start saying that's a no-brainer and you're putting him in Hall of Fame territory even if you aren't actually saying 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

But, he has been watching baseball for a long time and has likely seen a guy like him and he doesn't get excited because like he said, he has been watching baseball for a long time and seen it all before. There are no prospects, only ghost of former players reincarnated.

This is how JORR sees prospects in the minors.

And that's exactly how most of them turn out. We had the same conversation about Castro three years ago. I think the narrative then was how he had more hits by age 20 than Pete Rose. Now the narrative is, "Goddamn it, Theo, when are you dumping this bum????"

_________________
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 not saying anything about LaRoche other than Rizzo is having his second year better than LaRoche's best season at an early age. Maybe their is a better comp

Maybe. Who do you think it is? I was going to say John Mayberry and I just looked and Baseball Ref has him as the number 1 comp through age 24.

_________________
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

Keith Hernandez, plus a little power, minus a little average and a mustache

Actually maybe Derek Lee.


I dont know Mayberry too well.

What about the cocaine?

Push

norm cash

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

If Mayberry is his comp.....When do we see Anthony Rizzo Jr. ?

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For a minute I thought you meant Mayberry Jr. and I thought you were high.

Mayberry Sr. had a pretty decent career. BA is lower than what Rizzo's is likely to be long-term, it was more in the traditional 60s/70s slugger mold. Walked like crazy, led the AL a couple of times. Hopefully Rizzo can have a longer peak that Mayberry's 4 years, although I don't know if Theo keeps him once he hits FA in 2020, or trades him and moves either Bryant or Schwarber to 1B for a couple of years.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal