Sammy Sosa

[sucka free]

vitb6 is the terrell owens of the forums

[jcbball86]

i agree with you, vit, for the most part.  yes he (sosa) is more concerned with himself lately and hitting homeruns is what he wants most, but he still likes chicago and likes being here.  hes not that bad on defense, hes got a hell of an arm.
and with trading, lets say the cubs trade him for....A rod (i know its not possible but lets say...), how much better will the cubs be? they have almost the same stats for batting.  plus 1 player cant carry a team.  instead of sammy, they should worry about the rest of their squad instead of just having 1 good hitter.  lets see how they do this year with these new guys and young players.  im betting not good, but maybe in a couple years some of these younger players may mature into all-stars? you never know.  lets just hope for the best, unless you dont like the cubs.

[Vitb6]

ED, I wasn't calling you dumb, actually I just wrote that word for lack of another one.  Sorry for the extreme offensive nature of my post.

Moving along,

Terrell Owens of the forums.....I LOVE IT!!  

And SUCKA Sosa definately did NOT want another coach.  He was getting away with murder when Baylor was here.  Baylor's undoing was his first year here in Chicago.  He had a closed door meeting with Sosa and tried to 'tame' him by telling him that he couldn't play his music in the club house before games and he couldn't bring his 'amigos' to the ballpark before games.  Well that didn't sit well with Sosa and he let Andy McPhail know about it.  Well McPhail told Baylor to let Sammy do what he wanted and that basically Sammy was above the team concept.  Ever since then day in spring training Baylor has been 'leashed' in what he can do as a coach.  That is one of the reasons Grace doesn't like Sammy.  Grace has been in Chicago longer than Sammy at that point and was getting disrespected.  Now that Baker is here we will see what happens during spring training.  It will be very interesting, especially considering that one of Baker's initiatives is to change things around the clubhouse.  I think that means Sosa attitude, but we will see.  Keep your eyes open for it.

JCBALL-  What you said is true.  If you trade Sosa it can't be for 1 other player.  It must be for mulitple good, young players.  The Cubs shot themselves in the foot in 2000 when they were actually shopping Sammy.  It was very close and he almost went to the Yankees for Shane Spencer and minor leaguers Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson.  I believe cash was also being thrown in.  I have no idea why the Cubs didn't pull that one off, except that maybe their scouting staff were a bunch of monkeys which is truly possible.  They underestimated how good Soriano was and Nick Johnson will come into his own this year.  If you can get a deal like that it is so worth it.  Think of how much money they will save and be able to spend on other players.  Sammy made $15 million last year alone.  Break that up for two $7.5 mil guys plus Soriano and Johnson and your team is much better than just with Sammy hitting HR's.  

[jcbball86]

yes, that would of been a hell of a trade.  soriano is a beast.  if the cubs traded sosa for 2 good players, they would be a lot better.  they need to start spending.  i bet if the cubs spent their money more often and in larger ammounts, the cubs could easily make it to the playoffs and win the first round at least.  they can even keep sosa and pick up another all-star like torii hunter or shawn green, for example.  just give them money and dave veres or augie ojeda or anyone.  another thing, i think bringing back beck was a terrible move.  alfonseca might not be the best, but he had 20 saves and thats not bad.  he might do a lot better this year.  beck had a very good year with the cubs with 50+ saves. what happened the next year? he blew like double that. im exagerrating, but still.  hes not going to do any good.  i think hes washed up and is a waste of time.  plus the cubs also have veres and farnsworth right?  well hopefully they keep beck in AAA because he would do more harm then good for the cubs.  the cubs need great players, not guys like troy o'leary that wont do anything.  i say instead of getting 2 or 3 somewhat ok players, they get actual Good players.
thats all i have to say.

[Vitb6]

Hindsight is 20/20 on Soriano.  The scout team should be able to foresee Soriano being a great player, oh well that's in the best.  Well at least I had the whereabouts to draft Soriano in my minor league fantasy baseball draft 4 years ago.  Boy am I reaping the benefits now.  

Alfonseca blows his ERA was 4.00 with a 1.50 WHIP (hits+BB/IP) last year.  That is really bad for a closer and he only had 19 saves.  The sad thing is that they signed him to a $5 million per season contract!!  The sad thing is that if they would just spend their money 'better' they could have picked up Ugueth Urbina (closer BoSox) for $6 mil per.  He had a 3.00 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 40 saves and 71 K's in 60 IP.  Much much better.  Even better they could have not signed a closer at all, used Farthworth as their closer and used the money they saved and give it to Jeff Kent.  You don't need to spend a lot of money (although it helps) you just need to spend it wisely.   I bet hardcore fantasy baseball fans know more about the players in MLB then all those suits sitting in the upper echelon of the majority of baseball clubs.  I am for hire and I work cheap!

Here is a name that will make his mark in the majors pretty soon.  His name is Josh Hamilton.  He's in the TB AA system now.  He would have been in the majors last year if he didn't have his back jinjury.  This guy will make an impact with Vlad type numbers as long as he can stay healthy.  He's been hurt the last 2 years, slowing his development.  FYI.

[Vitb6]

I finally made it to Denny Walling level!!!  DEE-NEE!!!!

Hey Tree, Sandberg middle name is DEE.  You should make Sandberg the celebrity forum moderator or something.

[ericdavisfan]

ED, I wasn't calling you dumb, actually I just wrote that word for lack of another one.  Sorry for the extreme offensive nature of my post.

Apology accepted with gentlemanly cyber-handshake.  Back to civil debates we go then, T.O.  (I mean Vit)    

[ericdavisfan]

I knew that bringing up the Sammy topic would not be popular (well-liked that is), but I didn't know it would create that kind of uproar!  I like the fact that everyone tries to bring stats to the table to support their argument.  The only person that I can talk baseball like that with around here is my brother.  Keep up the good work everyone!

[jcbball86]

yeah, urbina would of been a hell of an addition.  you are right, they should of gotten him for 1 mil more.  alfonseca might not be good, but i guess they see things in him for this year.  he will probably be the same, maybe 1 or 2 saves better, but not worth giving up urbina for.

[jcbball86]

about rob deer again, i was looking at a page and he was on a list for the worst hitters in major league history, i dont believe it, but its just something interesting.
heres the site.
http://www.nocryinginbaseball.com/hos/worst.html

[ericdavisfan]

I just re-read this thread.  I still say that Sammy was a bottom feeder, who wouldn't have amounted to much without a steady diet of fastballs and steroids.  I'm not sure that all of my arguments made sense, but I sure defended them

p.s.  he might be making a comeback

[ultimate7]

Can we move this thread to the Anything Goes forum

[ericdavisfan]

Can we move this thread to the Anything Goes forum

I can't.  I started this thread when I generally only posted in the RBI board.  I don't know how to move a topic.  Gantry to the rescue

[ultimate7]

I was joking

[ericdavisfan]

Gotcha, but I seriously wondered why I had this in the RBI board.  Moving it would be ok

[Big Hath]

For those who have expressed support for Slammin Sammy, let me tell you why his record (if he lasts) won't stand.


STEROIDS

[Metal King]

He could've been sneaky and been using corked bats since '98 too, luckily it didn't happen right away, when was that, 3 years ago they caught him for a corked bat?

Oh and hello everyone again,  it's been awhile, I forgot about this site (probably because I haven't been playing video games in 3-4 months)!  Never getting rid of them though,  EVER!

Eh, I guess it was mostly steroids though, he did get a little bigger in size.  But they DO workout alot too, probably every day.

Sosa will probably get to the Hall of Fame, that'd be in 2011, his 1st year eligible.

In another 5-6 months we'll find out how Big Mac fares in the HOF voting.  Gwynn & Ripken should be a shoo-in, no doubt.

[RedBarron]

Recently, all MLB teams were told to put together a "5 greatest players of all time " list for their respective teams.

The Cubs selected Banks, Williams, Jenkins, Santo, and Sandberg.

No Sosa. .. . .


From '98 - 2002, Sosa was a monster.  Roids?  Yep, most likely.  However, there was a marked difference in his approach at the dish when he began working with Jeff Pentland.

He was fun to watch when the cubs were assy, but that's about it for me and Sosa.  I was so happy to see him gone.

[JoeDirt]

How the F did Sandberg make that list?

[Stock]

How the F did Sandberg make that list?

He would make my list before Sosa.