5

Hmm. HMMMM. Pretend I’m making those sounds people do when they’re thinking out loud for show. HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I was thinking about going to IWA-MS but I decided I was going to hang out with people around here instead. I’m sure Scott will fill me (and YOU!) in on the great action I missed by deciding not to go to Highland today, but I’m pretty sure I made the right decision. Time was much better spent watching the same Jim Bowden segment on ESPNNews three times.

It’s 3 AM and I’m still writing scrambled thoughts.

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The tickets fell through Friday. Somehow, I think they might be even harder to get now.

That is not possible.

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I’m thinking “Wow, Maddux really wanted to make sure no one hyped up his 300th win.” Extreme measures had to be taken.

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According to the list, it goes:

Johnny Moore, Riggs Stephenson, Tuck Stainback, Billy Jurges, Dick Bartell, Billy Rogell, Bill Myers, Clyde McCullough, Hank Schenz, Bob Ramazzotti, Bruce Edwards, Vern Morgan, Frank Kellert, Bobby Del Greco, Frank Ernaga, Tony Taylor, Lou Boudreau (m), Jimmie Schaffer, Whitey Lockman (c), Joey Amalfitano (player, c and m), Q. V. Lowe (c), Adrian Garrett, Irv Noren (c), Randy Hundley, Al Dark (c), Gordy MacKenzie (c), Ruben Amaro (c), Jim Snyder (c), Chuck Cottier (c), Jim Lefebvre (m), Jim Riggleman (m), Rene Lachemann (c)(m), Tom Goodwin, Tony Womack, Michael Barrett

I think Michael might be willing to give up his number. In case a quick solution can not be had:

55: El Tappe, Ripper Collins (c), Alex Grammas (c), Al Dark (c), Larry Casian, Jeff Pentland (c), Andrew Lorraine, Augie Ojeda, Jamie Arnold, Courtney Duncan, Shawn Estes

Augie! Courtney! ESTES. You want no part of this number. Except, maybe, well: Pentland was a turning point for Sammy, so maybe a new 55 would be a turning point…?

Numbers of death this season –
19: Damian Jackson, Brendan Harris
29: Andy Pratt, Rey Ordonez

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The wonderous thing about Alex being traded – besides the fact that you can only half lie to crazy things say “Felix Herida for Nomar Garciaparra” – is that now everyone remembers Alex mad an error in Game 6. It’s like all the media people just had a collective flashback.

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Because I have a bad track record for waking up before the games on weekends, let’s do this now.

SDP --- v LAD
ATL 0.5 v NYM (1st in NL East)
CHC 2.0 v PHI
SFG 2.0 v STL
PHI 5.0 @ CHC (4.5 out in NL East)

I’ve included Atlanta to illustrate an unsettling development. They’re hot. San Diego and San Fran have not been doing and well, and so the East winner is bordering on being a better team than Wild Card one. As long as Atlanta was a couple games back in the Wild Card race, Philadelphia and Florida weren’t really in the race themselves; if you can’t win the Wild Card without winning your division, you can’t really win the Wild Card. If/when Atlanta passes up San Diego, the Marlins [6.0] and Phillies (and Mets [8.5], I guess) are in play in this race. More teams does not make this more merrier.

Otherwise, remarkably similar to the last time I did this. We’ve got to work on that. It’s getting late enough that it’s worth noting games played difference; the Giants have played twice more than everyone else on this list.

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It seemed like Yet Another Hard Luck Matt Clement loss (his agent is already preparing his Why Matt’s Record Would’ve Been Awesome With Decent Run Support” speech for teams) and nothing much going on in deadline land, so I flipped the TV off as soon as I saw the ending pop out.

Lesson #1 on how to deal with in the MLB Trading Deadline: Always wait till 15 minutes after. Something will always not come out till after the deadline.

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This the way it sounds like you can reconstruct the deal.

– Cubs wanted Orlando from the Expos, Expos will take Alex’s contract (w/cash) and get Francis Beltran. But they want one more guy – Brendan Harris – and the Cubs aren’t willing to give him up.
– Red Sox and Twins agree to have Boston pick up Mientkiewicz, but can’t agree on which/what kind of prospect
– Nomar’s agent calls him in sick to the Red Sox front office. And he might be getting more sick, nudge nudge wink wink
– Cubs call Red Sox one more time just to check if they have any leverage versus the Expos.
– Theo thinks to himself, and finally decides: “Why not?”
– All heck breaks loose.

A-GONE. Hahahahahaha.

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I think Brendan Harris will make a nice third basemen for the Washington Whatevers. Probably a Joe Randa like career, trading some power for some speed. I’ll miss him.

I think Francis Beltran will save 30 games in a season for someone. Maybe that Washington team. He’ll probably have periods of annoying inconsisentcy, but he’ll make some fans really happy he’s around to close the door. (Or he’ll turn into Courtney Duncan.)

I think Alex Gonzalez is never going to get a big contract again.

I think Justin Jones is not Dontrelle Willis, and the Cubs shouldn’t worry that every A ball pitcher they trade is Dontrelle Willis.

Basically, this is pretty awesome.

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I don’t know if we should sign Nomar. It depends on how much he wants, how well he plays, if we can steal Renteria away, a billion things.

If we could sign him for 1 year for $1 with team options for every year after that from here to 2034 and first signing rights to any children, I’d say yes. If he wanted $5 billion dollars and the land rights to Grant Park to turn it into strip mall, I’d have to decline. What he wants is somewhere in the middle. I don’t know where, so I can’t really say.

Random Digression: Actually, it may be yes it any situation the way people are unbelievably excited about the deal. If Nomar said he’d hang around Chicago for a long time if there was a clustered Professional Women’s Soccer League for Mia, there’d be a league founded with teams in Evanston, Schaumburg, Naperville, Aurora, Dekalb and Joliet by tomorrow. It’s a pretty ecstatic situation.

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Actually, for a reply on the Cub Reporter a while back, I was playing with salary numbers in order to prove that you wouldn’t have enough money to sign Nomar without a budget increase. And they need that money for maintenance, obviously.

What I found out is that it’s really not easy to predict these things until you get an idea of what the Cubs actually want to do. If they want Nomar over other things, it’s just a matter of sacrificing those other things where necessary. For the Cubs, it’s not a matter of having the cash, it’s deciding what to do with it.

So I scrapped the reply. Which is a shame, because the RAW numbers would be handy now.

(And they really need a forum instead of just using MT Comments, because the discussion is hard to follow when there’s 98 comments)

I do know this means we’re surely keeping one of the wacky second base platoon. And Kyle might pitch his way into sticking around yet.

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Being the Last Sosa Fan In Chicago and other things, my lineup card is a little different than everyone else’s made up one

1 Walker/Grudz
2 Nomar
3 A-RAM
4 Sosa
5 Alou
6 Lee
7 Corey
8 Barrett/Bako

A-Ram is also awesome.

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Of course, the flip of the coin is defense

1B ++
2B neutral / –
SS neutral or –
3B neutral or –
C neutral or –
LF –
CF +
RF –

Derek’s going to be one busy dude.

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Way off the radar but notable: USS Mariner posts the Cubs (and Giants) were going after Eddie Guardado. M’s wanted to keep him around for next season and (I’m guessing) it was likely the Cubs not wanting to part with the Guzman/Brownlie/Pie level guy Seattle was look was looking for. I think, with Rusch now definitely in the pen, we’ll do fine as far as LH. Only prayer will solve the closing issue. Or maybe, come mid-August, we get THEOLD Joe Borowski and this becomes the greatest regular season of my lifetime.

We’re probably going to need another reliever at some point, but that’s what August is for.

Don’t you really really really wish we still got to play the Cardinals NOW? The only way it can happen is if both teams make it to the NLCS. Which would be great, and not just for the brawl that’d certainly happen by Game 3.

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This is awesome.