Big Z is back in the baseball!

[Franko725]

Best player on the team last year is meaningless when it comes to this season.

Yes, Soriano's contract IS spent money. Giving a guy that much money at his advanced age is not a good idea. The GM's around the league fell in love with what they were seeing from aging players that were juiced up. At some point they are going to have to stop giving out big money for guys when they are over 35. They tried to move Soriano's contract last year, he did not want to leave, so now they are pretty much stuck with him given the way that he is playing.

As for Volstad, they had to take a chance on a player that might turn into something. There is no reason not to take the chance. Paying Z 18 million to sit home would have been plain stupid. IF Volstad would have turned out to be something even marginally trade worthy at the trade deadline, the risk would have been more than worth it.

And as for having more than one 18 million dollar player on the team, it is awfully hard to field a competitive team with two guys making that much on a team with a payroll of 100 million or so. This is even more the case when your minor league system is as bad as it has been in the past. You see, when you have only 65 million or so dollars left in the budget, you are talking about an average salary of 2.8 million per player. What exactly are you expecting from players like that when you have to sign them as free agents?

 

[KBisBack!]

Not at all--I rather enjoy it here. Were not all doom and gloom......none of us want to see the team lose. But once again, our agreed stance gets misconstrued that we think this team could have done more to fix its issues......

I'm happy Rizzo is hot. I hope he stays that way, so do the rest of the "naysayers." I hope hes the player everyone is assuming he is after a sample size of less than a year at the ML level in a cubs uniform.

We hope the prospects pan out; however, history shows that that these guys are like lottery tickets, and not everyone pans out. We remain realistic...

Do I need to repeat for the umpteenth million time that we think the front office could have done more and should have after watching terrible struggles and frustrating mistakes? We are ok with rebuilding the farm, we dont want to ignore it--we also just dont think teams should scrap the season.

Jesus christ, you tell us not to beat a dead horse, but then ignore our stances, causing us to repeat ourselves......

We're optimistic, just realistic.....

Maybe about the third post I've 'thanked' since doing.

Very, very well done patg

 

[Franko725]

Not at all--I rather enjoy it here. Were not all doom and gloom......none of us want to see the team lose. But once again, our agreed stance gets misconstrued that we think this team could have done more to fix its issues......

I'm happy Rizzo is hot. I hope he stays that way, so do the rest of the "naysayers." I hope hes the player everyone is assuming he is after a sample size of less than a year at the ML level in a cubs uniform.

We hope the prospects pan out; however, history shows that that these guys are like lottery tickets, and not everyone pans out. We remain realistic...

Do I need to repeat for the umpteenth million time that we think the front office could have done more and should have after watching terrible struggles and frustrating mistakes? We are ok with rebuilding the farm, we dont want to ignore it--we also just dont think teams should scrap the season.

Jesus christ, you tell us not to beat a dead horse, but then ignore our stances, causing us to repeat ourselves......

We're optimistic, just realistic.....

Some of you are not very realistic when you expect the front office to work miracles on the budget they are given. I will give you credit that you seem to be more realistic than others from reading your posts.

No one wants to see the team lose. Martini maybe, but well, what more can I say about that. That being said, regardless of what happens with the team record wise this season, I just hope to see more improvements made to the roster. Whether it is some of the specs, or some reasonably priced free agents given the budget constraints, things have to get better.

 

[patg006]

Some of you are not very realistic when you expect the front office to work miracles on the budget they are given. I will give you credit that you seem to be more realistic than others from reading your posts.

No one wants to see the team lose. Martini maybe, but well, what more can I say about that. That being said, regardless of what happens with the team record wise this season, I just hope to see more improvements made to the roster. Whether it is some of the specs, or some reasonably priced free agents given the budget constraints, things have to get better.

Once again...

Matt Lindstrom 2.1 million. COMPLETELY unrealistic. How about Brandon Lyon's 750K? Or was that too god damn much for your tastes? Bullpen is solid the way it is, isnt it?

Eric Chavez's 2 years, 8 million to play 3rd? Too much again?

You tell us not to beat dead horses.......then spout off nonsense that "your plans cost too much money!"

 

[KBisBack!]

Best player on the team last year is meaningless when it comes to this season.

And Soriano is far from a problem this season also.

Next.

Yes, Soriano's contract IS spent money. Giving a guy that much money at his advanced age is not a good idea. The GM's around the league fell in love with what they were seeing from aging players that were juiced up. At some point they are going to have to stop giving out big money for guys when they are over 35. They tried to move Soriano's contract last year, he did not want to leave, so now they are pretty much stuck with him given the way that he is playing.

Given the way that he is playing?

Like being the best player last year?

He is one hot streak like Rizzo just had from again being the best player on the team this year. But everyone wants to anoint Rizzo as a franchise player who has yet to even accomplish what the Soriano 'plague to the franchise' provided last year.

As for Volstad, they had to take a chance on a player that might turn into something. There is no reason not to take the chance. Paying Z 18 million to sit home would have been plain stupid. IF Volstad would have turned out to be something even marginally trade worthy at the trade deadline, the risk would have been more than worth it.

If, and, but, maybe, what if.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

And as for having more than one 18 million dollar player on the team, it is awfully hard to field a competitive team with two guys making that much on a team with a payroll of 100 million or so. This is even more the case when your minor league system is as bad as it has been in the past. You see, when you have only 65 million or so dollars left in the budget, you are talking about an average salary of 2.8 million per player. What exactly are you expecting from players like that when you have to sign them as free agents?

There is so much to teach and not enough patience to do it.

You are whining that the team only had $2.8 million for basically 24 more players right??

Well you have a 5th OF and utility Infielder you can pay the minimum salary to.

So that leaves $64M to field 22 more players. We are already up to $2.9 per player.

You can probably have 2 relievers make the minimum. So we are now at $63M to field 20 more players. Up to $3.15 already.

You have your starting catcher from the worthless farm system. $62.5M to field 19 more players. $3.3 per player.

Your starting 2B for another $500k. $62M to field 18 players. $3.4 per player.

Your number #1 starter you had signed for $2.64M $59M (I'll even round in your favor) to field 17 players. $3.45 per player.

Add in a couple more bullpen guys and another backup IF for $1M a piece and we are at $56M for 14 players. Wow, we are up to $4M a player.

You whine about Soriano's $18M being a plague on the team, but let's look at all the 'dead salary' on this team this year shall we.....

Don't have to look much further than Edwin Jackson. There is $13M right there. But hey, he is $5M cheaper than Volstad. That is the only positive thing I can come up with. He has been awful.

How about Scott Baker?? $5.5M right there on a pitcher who if everything went right would be back sometime in May. Everything didn't go right and it is not looking very good to flip him for lottery tickets at the trade deadline which was the only reason he was signed in the first place.

We are already past Soriano's salary.

How about Fujikawa?? $4.5M for a shitty middle reliever. Awesome.

There is about 1/3 of your available payroll completely wasted. There is more bad money spent this offseason, but the point has already been made.

They had plenty of resources available this offseason, they didn't do a very good job with them. Sure they could have had more, but they did poor with what they had.

 

[KBisBack!]

I just hope to see more improvements made to the roster. Whether it is some of the specs, or some reasonably priced free agents given the budget constraints, things have to get better.

We all hope to see more improvements made to the roster.

Some of us just wont bullshit and claim there has been nothing but great moves made when clearly there has been plenty and plenty of poor moves.

 

[Franko725]

There is so much to teach and not enough patience to do it.

You are whining that the team only had $2.8 million for basically 24 more players right??

Well you have a 5th OF and utility Infielder you can pay the minimum salary to.

So that leaves $64M to field 22 more players. We are already up to $2.9 per player.

You can probably have 2 relievers make the minimum. So we are now at $63M to field 20 more players. Up to $3.15 already.

You have your starting catcher from the worthless farm system. $62.5M to field 19 more players. $3.3 per player.

Your starting 2B for another $500k. $62M to field 18 players. $3.4 per player.

Your number #1 starter you had signed for $2.64M $59M (I'll even round in your favor) to field 17 players. $3.45 per player.

Add in a couple more bullpen guys and another backup IF for $1M a piece and we are at $56M for 14 players. Wow, we are up to $4M a player.

You whine about Soriano's $18M being a plague on the team, but let's look at all the 'dead salary' on this team this year shall we.....

Don't have to look much further than Edwin Jackson. There is $13M right there. But hey, he is $5M cheaper than Volstad. That is the only positive thing I can come up with. He has been awful.

How about Scott Baker?? $5.5M right there on a pitcher who if everything went right would be back sometime in May. Everything didn't go right and it is not looking very good to flip him for lottery tickets at the trade deadline which was the only reason he was signed in the first place.

We are already past Soriano's salary.

How about Fujikawa?? $4.5M for a shitty middle reliever. Awesome.

There is about 1/3 of your available payroll completely wasted. There is more bad money spent this offseason, but the point has already been made.

They had plenty of resources available this offseason, they didn't do a very good job with them. Sure they could have had more, but they did poor with what they had.

Love the fact that you conveniently left out the contracts of Marmol and Garza. They are eating up about 20 million this season. Garza has yet to pitch an inning in the Majors this season and I am not so sure when he gets back that he will stay healthy. Marmol has lost this team more than a few games. But hey, they don't fit your agenda.

 

[Franko725]

Once again...

Matt Lindstrom 2.1 million. COMPLETELY unrealistic. How about Brandon Lyon's 750K? Or was that too god damn much for your tastes? Bullpen is solid the way it is, isnt it?

Eric Chavez's 2 years, 8 million to play 3rd? Too much again?

You tell us not to beat dead horses.......then spout off nonsense that "your plans cost too much money!"

Really not much difference so far this season between Valbuena and Chavez, for a quarter of the salary.

As for the bullpen, if Marmol was pitching up to the contract he was given by the previous GM, how much better would the bullpen look. Fujikawa has been pretty good since coming back from the DL.

 

[CSF77]

Really not much difference so far this season between Valbuena and Chavez, for a quarter of the salary.

As for the bullpen, if Marmol was pitching up to the contract he was given by the previous GM, how much better would the bullpen look. Fujikawa has been pretty good since coming back from the DL.

I think we have to move past the playing up to contract talk and look at numbers.

Gregg: .90 WHIP
Russell .89 WHIP
Fuji: Injured: 2.08 After DL: .33

That is not a bad closer/SU tandem.

Marmol: Apr: 1.88 WHIP May 1.62. Just bad in general. He is pitching like the king of mop up duty.

Camp: Apr: 1.68 May: 1.93. They need to ass can this turd when Garza gets back in a bad way.

Starters:
Wood Apr: .97 May: .84 constant.
Shark Apr: 1.17 May: 1.26 pretty constant but needs to control his walks more.
Feldman Apr: 1.65 May: .68 He gained command of his cutter and everything has come together.
Jackson Apr: 1.61 May: 1.45 little improvement. walks went down but hits are up still. Next game will be telling.
Villanueva: Apr: .82 May: 1.79 Talk about falling off the bench. All ties to hits with him. 17.1 IP and 26 hits. He doesn't walk many but he was throwing very hit-able stuff.

 

[CSF77]

To the topic on Z....who cares if some team picked him up. If he makes it good for him. Not my team not my concern.

On the Volstad for Z trade....last year news. Don't care that much to be honest. It is not like Z pitched Cy-young stuff last year. He started hot and fell into the pen on a over rated team that was just put together poorly an then blown up...in a ugly stadium that should be blown up with that team.

Don't care about either pitcher.

 

[Boobaby1]

Love the fact that you conveniently left out the contracts of Marmol and Garza. They are eating up about 20 million this season. Garza has yet to pitch an inning in the Majors this season and I am not so sure when he gets back that he will stay healthy. Marmol has lost this team more than a few games. But hey, they don't fit your agenda.

You can't blame Garza's injury as lost value for the dollar spent. What if Rizzo went down due to injury? Would that be Theo's fault for signing him long term? No. It just happened. Baker was signed injured, and they are trying to strike lightening in a bottle with that move. It's what they are doing with every move if you think about it.

As for Marmol, sure he has lost games and has not pitched well, but a trade for Haren could have been made. Right?

Also, Haren would have been tied to only a one year deal. As many people that claim that the Cubs are poverty-stricken and can't spend money, I would think that Haren on a one-year deal would be a lot more appealing than Jackson on a 4 year deal.

For the same price that they got Jackson, the Cubs would have basically freed up money form Marmol's contract.

It could have been a win/win. Unfortunately, now it's looking more like a loss/loss.

 

[The Bandit]

We all hope to see more improvements made to the roster.

Some of us just wont bullshit and claim there has been nothing but great moves made when clearly there has been plenty and plenty of poor moves.

Yeah Theo never makes bad moves I've clearly said that before man I'm such a slurper. I've said he fucked up before every front office does. I won't pass final judgement until 2014 or 2015 when the rebuild is supposed to take its turn.

sent from mars home of Ian Stewarts baseball skills using tapatalk

 

[KBisBack!]

Love the fact that you conveniently left out the contracts of Marmol and Garza. They are eating up about 20 million this season. Garza has yet to pitch an inning in the Majors this season and I am not so sure when he gets back that he will stay healthy. Marmol has lost this team more than a few games. But hey, they don't fit your agenda.

Didn't conveniently leave out anything, just didn't feel the need to list every player on the roster.

I pointed out how there was at least 1/3 of the available payroll that has been completely wasted that was money spent this last offseason.

I see how you conveniently failed to address that.

 

[KBisBack!]

I won't pass final judgement until 2014 or 2015 when the rebuild is supposed to take its turn.

So it will only take 4 consecutive years of bad baseball for you to complain??

Dumb.

 

[KBisBack!]

So you have no brain. Thanks...glad thats been cleared up here.

As usual you have whined while adding nothing productive and cleared nothing up.

Tissue?

 

[Franko725]

You can't blame Garza's injury as lost value for the dollar spent. What if Rizzo went down due to injury? Would that be Theo's fault for signing him long term? No. It just happened. Baker was signed injured, and they are trying to strike lightening in a bottle with that move. It's what they are doing with every move if you think about it.

As for Marmol, sure he has lost games and has not pitched well, but a trade for Haren could have been made. Right?

Also, Haren would have been tied to only a one year deal. As many people that claim that the Cubs are poverty-stricken and can't spend money, I would think that Haren on a one-year deal would be a lot more appealing than Jackson on a 4 year deal.

For the same price that they got Jackson, the Cubs would have basically freed up money form Marmol's contract.

It could have been a win/win. Unfortunately, now it's looking more like a loss/loss.

That trade would have looked really good right about now. From all reports, something in Haren's medicals spooked the front office out of making that trade. Hindsight right now shows that maybe they didn't need to be worried, but who knows if he will last the whole season? We shall see I suppose.

 

[KBisBack!]

That trade would have looked really good right about now. From all reports, something in Haren's medicals spooked the front office out of making that trade.

And the same medicals that the Nationals didn't seem worried enough about to not give him like $13M for this season.

 

[Franko725]

And the same medicals that the Nationals didn't seem worried enough about to not give him like $13M for this season.

They might end up being right. Cubs might end up being right. Never know until the season is over. Let's not act like he has been a world beater this year either. He is 4-4 with a 4.76 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and .294 BAA.

 

[KBisBack!]

They might end up being right. Cubs might end up being right. Never know until the season is over. Let's not act like he has been a world beater this year either. He is 4-4 with a 4.76 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and .294 BAA.

No one claimed he was a world beater.

Just better than Marmol and much more likely to have trade value since the goal of the season is to trade players for lottery tickets.

 

[mountsalami]

No thanks. I usually beat off into a sock.

Okay. Let me get this straight since I care about what you are desperately trying to say with this statement above.

Quite frankly. It didn't make much sense, initially, until I thought about it.

I'm always trying to be more efficient with added creativity when having to "go alone."

Corrrect me if I'm wrong. I am only speculating.....

1) You remove your shirt while or before the tears start.

2) Drop your drawers (if worn) to ankle levels and remove one sock.

3) Remain at 45 degree position, or higher, while sitting down, for optimal tear flow.

4) Let the tears run dowm your chest onto your fist, which is then absorbed by the sock, to provide a natural lubricant. Do you recommend shaving your chest hair first, if the belief at the time is, that there could be the chance at an unwanted intruder ?

5) Finish

6) Go to step three and repeat, until out of socks.

Let me know if this is a fair assessment, of what may clearly and accurately be, a staple to your daily practice as a productive human being on this Earth.

:fap: