Middle Buffalo

I don't see why they wouldn't take a chance on signing Swihart. Maybe the Sox get lucky and he has a Justin Turner, Jake Arrieta, or JD Martinez like career resurrection.

With the improvement of the Sox and expectations for the Bears, I've dipped back into the Chicago sports shows via podcast. I pick select segments from Carmen & Jurko, Waddle & Silvy, and McNeil & Parkins. The amount of Cubs content is insane. Jesse Rogers is literally on each of the ESPN shows every day for 20 plus minutes, and they're not even the flagship station. I can see if there is some news, but he talks about the previous game and the upcoming game. It's a little much. The Score has regular segment with the Cubs announcers, and Spiegel devotes his Sunday show to them pretty regularly. I try to skip downloading every Cubs-centric segment just in case they pay attention to what gets downloaded.

Just took my pulse. Here's where I stand: 1) Was very disappointed they didn't sign Harper. This has as much to do with him being a star as it does with his numbers. He would have made the Sox relevant. Did they even make an offer? 2) Not gonna get over the Tatis thing any time soon. 3) Am very pleased with the pre-All Star break performance. 4) Excited by the development of Moncada, TA, Giolito and arrivals of Jimenez and Cease. 5) Looking forward to some of the injured minor league arms to appear. 6) Really looking forward to Robert and Madrigal. 7) Seriously doubt we'll get a big name pitcher in FA. 8) Barring a front line starter being added, I feel like next year will be .500 give or take a few games. 9) I'm tired of the perennial losing.

Actually, I shouldn't have said the vast majority of fans were upset about acquiring Shields. The vast majority of fans who were upset about the trade were upset that it was for Shields. A good amount of people were actually in favor of the trade. Some went as far as to say Tatis, Jr. wouldn't amount to anything.

Obviously, the FO should know more than fans on Soxtalk, but both when the trade was rumored and after it was made, the vast majority of fans were more anti-Shields than mad about Tatis, Jr. being included. I read the first 20 pages of this thread and skimmed the next 10 or so. Interesting read.

I'll take the split just to keep their fans quiet. Of course, now they'll act like these games aren't important to them (despite showing up in full force to each of the games).

I listen to podcasts of the different local shows. I skip the Cubs segments. I'm not sure why Jesse Rogers is on each show every day. It's incredible.

5 years $190M for Klay? In actuality, that's 4/190 with the year off. Hard to believe he is worth $48M/year.

He does some dumb stuff, but I'm a fan of his hustle. I wish Saad played as hard.

I used Baseball Reference and went season by season from 1980-2010. What a depressing list. It's really amazing how many bad players have filtered through the Sox system. Here's my list - a little 1983 heavy (and I had to stop myself from adding more) C Wayne Nordhagen 1b Greg Walker 2b Julio Cruz 3b Jim Morrison SS Alan Bannister LF Chet Lemon CF Rudy Law RF Sammy Sosa P Jason Bere ---------------------------------------- My favorite HOF/near HOF guys who spent very little time in the org. C Sandy Alomar 1b Bo Jackson (Bo knows 1b?) 2b Roberto Alomar 3b Ron Santo SS Fernando Tatis, Jr. LF Sammy Sosa CF Ken Griffey, Jr. RF Jose Canseco P Steve Carlton P Tom Seaver RP Goose Gossage

Dustin PEDroia

I don't see many games, but when I look at the highlights, the biggest problem I have with Benetti is his lack of excitement on HR calls. It's not the exclamation at the end (although his call ultimately isn't very good), it's that he doesn't seem to be able to distinguish that a ball might have a chance to go out. He's monotone until the ball is in the stands.

Head to the Wrigley troughs. They're unavoidable.

My simple text to Cubs fan friends: eLoy

In an ideal world, show up 10 minutes late and work 10 minutes late to cover for it. No problem. Unfortunately, unions make it impossible to manage something like this. If management has a relaxed policy for being on time, some people will decide it's ok to show up 15 minutes late, or 20, or 35. What's the breaking point? If management decides to discipline the employee who is 35 minutes late, the employee and union will ask what was done to the people who were 20 minutes late. Why the disparity in treatment? Fact is, a company has to have and has to enforce an attendance policy. If Jack's boss made it clear that he was supposed to be at work at 8 - not 2 minutes earlier or later, then that's the rule. It's Jack's obligation to be there at 8. FYI - I was as in a Union for 24 years, so I'm not anti-union, but they can do just as much harm as good for office morale because they often end up protecting the worst employees.

I probably should have said "It's just nice..." to counter his point. Either way, I haven't been this excited about our future for quite a while.

It really is nice to have a reason to pay close attention to this team again. The rebuild is bearing some exciting young players with more to come. After 5 or 6 years of futility, this is refreshing.

Giolito's HS coach'll fix 'im.

Eloy & Gio are products of the rebuild/tank.

Best late round picks in history. https://www.mlb.com/news/best-late-round-picks-in-draft-history Hopefully the Sox can find some guys like these today.

Wow is right. Jumpin Jim Brunzell and B. Brian Blair would be proud of that drop kick.

Unbelievable - I still get email updates from Classmates.com. One of the early social media sites. I never paid for it, but I added my name and school info to it 15 years ago. Every few months I get a random email from it saying someone visited my profile. I can't image anyone is still going to there. They must only be operating because people signed up for auto pay and never stopped.

If you believe in the power of marketing and advertising, it's easy to argue the Cubs benefit greatly from the free publicity they get. Win or lose, the papers cover them, the local sports shows their highlights, and they are talked about on local radio. It's a bit of chicken or egg. Are people not interested in the Sox, so they aren't covered by the media? Or, is the lack of coverage the reason people supposedly aren't interested? The Blackhawks might be a good comparison. For so long, they were an afterthought. Home games not on tv, not covered on radio shows, and very little about them in the paper. Then Rocky took over, they hired McDonough, media coverage increased, home games on tv, etc. Of course, getting better helped, but there was a noticeable change in the perception prior to them winning. Not having a regular beat writer or someone local to talk about the Sox really hurts them.

Maddon protested yesterday's game against the Nats because of Sean Doolittle's double toe tap delivery. Maddon is so unlikeable. I agree with Doolittle's assessment of Maddon . "Sometimes he has to remind people how smart he is." https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/joe-maddon-goes-after-sean-doolittles-delivery-thats-exactly-what-i-was-told-carl-cant-do

Add in the Cubs winning the division in '84, the explosion of cable tv, and WGN being part of the national cable package...