Comments on: Blowout clearance sale at Crazy Theo’s! Everything must go!!!

By: sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo

sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:47:17 +0000

Duquette definitely deserves heaps of credit, but so does Theo. The Nomar trade alone brought Cabrera and Doug M, who were big parts of that team. He also traded for Dave Roberts, and that worked out pretty well for the ALCS. Not to discredit Duquette, but Theo had a big hand in the construction of that 2004 WS team.

By: howiehandles

howiehandles — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:28:46 +0000

Everyone step off the ledge. Any GM would say that everyone, pretty much, is available at the right price. This is coming from one reporter, not the Cubs. Lets also remember, news these days is more about page views and re-tweets, than actual reporting.

By: howiehandles

howiehandles — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:25:42 +0000

Duquette deserves credit on the first, but not the second.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:19:24 +0000

So what’s the return? Cano and ptbnl (Gardner if he proves healthy, Bichette if not)?

By: brownsbraves11

brownsbraves11 — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:33:00 +0000

Ryan Dempster and Darwin Barney please.

By: deadeyedesign23

deadeyedesign23 — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:17:28 +0000

Maybe you’re right. I’ve only had the opportunity to watch him a few times here in NY so I’m going on a small sample size. That said Castro is a butcher and a pineapple could play a better SS and I’m a Cub fan.

By: ta192

ta192 — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:02:04 +0000

Should have italicized “that”, otherwise you could get the man in trouble again…lol

By: jarhead87

jarhead87 — Thu, 31 May 2012 23:10:29 +0000

Bring the kids up now

By: js20011041

js20011041 — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:26:18 +0000

And I completely glossed over Teheran and Betancourt for Castro. Seriously? The Braves would be absolutely nuts to give up just Teheran for Castro. But to give up a catcher with a lot of potential too, absolutely not.

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:17:09 +0000

Doesn’t matter. The Yankees have a need. The Yankees are rich. The Yankees are entitled to win the World Series every year. Therefore, the Yankees are entitled to whomever they want, at whatever price they want.

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:57:46 +0000

Much as I like Harper, he’s not an above-average defender. Remember, he’s been an outfielder for a couple of years. He’s learning defense the hard way, day-to-day at the MLB level. He could become a very good defender, but it will take time. Trout, who has much more experience, seems to be doing a pretty good job defensively,

By: chadh88

chadh88 — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:53:22 +0000

We’ll take Castro in St Louis. We will give you Tyler Greene and Daniel Descalso. We’ll move Starlin to 2nd base.

By: pellypell

pellypell — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:51:22 +0000

You got me!

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:34:42 +0000

Junior Lake is hitting 300/370/489 at AA. The Cubs have a replacement in the pipeline for Castro.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:33:08 +0000

Too bad the Feesh can't use him. It'd be great to interview Slobbering Ozzie after the kid had a great game so Ozzie could say, "man, I love that Castro!"

By: themuddychicken

themuddychicken — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:30:47 +0000

Heck, I’d argue that the Gagne trade was a prime example of a good trade that just happened not to work out. Before the trade, he had a 2.16 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 16-17 in save opportunities, in Arlington of all places (if faulty human memory serves, I seem to remember watching as Pedroia gave him his loan blown save).

Adding him to what was already a good bullpen was not a bad decision, it just didn’t work out… how was anyone supposed to know he would singlehandedly turn the Sox from a 100-win team to a 96-win team?

Some poor decisions work out anyway. Some good decisions go unrewarded.

By: brewcrewfan54

brewcrewfan54 — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:30:37 +0000

You’re giving Theo a lot of the credit that Dan Duquette still deserves.

By: braddavery

braddavery — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:23:32 +0000

Wow. Lot of Starlin hate going on here. The dude is an outright STUD. Sure, he is no Barry Larkin in the field, but the kid can do it all with the bat and with his legs on the basepaths.

By: braddavery

braddavery — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:21:13 +0000

Well, you can’t win games without RBI. HRs (the ultimate RBI) and RBI are underrated in today’s current stat-head climate.

By: KR

KR — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:15:19 +0000

Did you seriously just cite RBI to evaluate a player?

By: KR

KR — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:14:05 +0000

Drew was great, and any intelligent fan will tell you so. Daisuke didn’t become the expected superstar, but he was decent enough and earned his contract anyway. Cameron became injured. Renteria had a bad year in Boston but was ok in later years, so it wasn’t a talent evaluation failure on Theo’s part there.

Crawford is iffy; wait and see.

Will totally give you Lugo and Lackey though.

By: madhatternalice

madhatternalice — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:59:08 +0000

If nobody comes down and takes Alfonso Soriano off my hands, I’m gonna club this baby seal! That’s right! I’m gonna club this seal to make a deal!!

By: purnellmeagrejr

purnellmeagrejr — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:57:01 +0000

I’m sure the Yankees would; unfortunately for them it takes two to make a trade and there is no reason for the Cubs to do the deal.

By: gloccamorra

gloccamorra — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:46:50 +0000

You can’t discount that the leak of “everybody’s available” might be a psychological move to shake Cubs players of their complacency, even Starlin Castro. Kevin Towers did the same after 2010, pretending to “shop” the D’backs’ best player, Upton. Judging by 2011, it had the effect of telling the whole team nobody’s safe here, and Theo had to notice.

Of course, Theo had to resort to the nuclear option, putting the whole team on the block, to get the same effect in Cubbie Land. During the Cubs’ 3-game sweep, Castro looked more engaged, but Soriano apparently didn’t get the message, lackadaisically turning a couple of Padres singles into hustling doubles.

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:28:53 +0000

Name one GM with a 100% track record. Crawford had no flags, nor did Daisuke – who half the damn league was interested in. Lackey was coming off a great year, and Gagne wasn’t far removed from his LA dominance. Drew had been a productive hitter for years, as was Renteria.

Hindsight is 20/20 sometimes. S**t happens.

By: humanexcrement

humanexcrement — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:27:44 +0000

Not mentioning any names here, but I have a sneaking suspicion some of the “commenters” are actually HBT writers logging into another account to say things they wouldn’t say if it meant risking their professional reputation.

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:25:44 +0000

Or, on the other hand, David Ortiz, Keith Foulke, Victor Martinez, Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller, Curt Schilling, Jerrod Saltalomacchia, Alfredo Aceves, Dave Roberts, Adrian Gonzalez…you can make anyone look bad by only listing the gambles that didn’t work out. (J.D. was fine, and the jury is out on Crawford.)

By: El Bravo

El Bravo — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:25:36 +0000

dumb. i never thought i’d say this, but samadfhds;ahjfsafjdsajfdsjaja is clearly overrated

By: El Bravo

El Bravo — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:24:25 +0000

Well played. Well fucking played.

By: js20011041

js20011041 — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:20:56 +0000

No way. Middlebrooks isn’t a future star, but neither is Castro. With Youkilis aging, they’ll need him. Besides, Aviles is giving them adequate production at SS.