Cubs trade Bradley for: Chemistry.

if i were a major league player, id give it 150%, but itd still suck

for one, you cannot give more than 100%. You can exceed expectations, but that’s not more than 100%, it’s simply that 100% is more than people thought it was.

Not that Ryan Theriot does much exceeding of expectations. He is always very willing to dive for a ball that remains just out of reach, tho.

But in the playoffs, they would need Zambrano to connect with his inner Roger Clemens and Lilly to be inhabited by the spirit of Sandy Koufax.

I was responding to cedarpip’s post (“we spend a lot of time on this site talking about what’s wrong and not about what’s right. We have a team capable of winning a lot of games.”), not yours.

Because everyone thinks Castro will be ready by 2011. He might even be ready by midseason, although that might be pushing it. Then Theriot can move over to second where his range won’t be such a liability, at least until HJ Lee is ready in a perfect world.

The other option is that Darwin Barney might be a decent stopgap at a middle infield position, and if he does OK, then his trade value would go way up.

I’m saying we have a lot of money and should be using it more wisely instead of chasing after shiny objects. We have a large budget relative to the rest of the league. There is no reason that we can’t do with a large budget what other teams do with a smaller budget.

Our budget gives us an immediate competitive advantage that we seem to constantly bungle. It’s very frustrating and after awhile the whole we’re trying doesn’t cut it. Obviously the effort is there, but how is that effort being applied and is there any intelligence behind the plan? Is there even a plan? Please tell me it’s not spend spend hoping to continuously keep stop gapping holes.

Those All-Star caliber players would be paid money out of the budget. The budget doesn’t just include the big money guys with the big club. If we can develop enough young talent in the areas we are lacking then why aren’t we trying to use our money to bring in younger talent. Why do we always seem to have players on our roster who either make too much that we can do anything with them, end up losing guys because we can’t afford to pay them, or miss out on players because we can offer up enough to get them?

As far as some players on the team are concerned there’s a difference between loyalty and respect for a player and keeping a player on the team when trading said player could bring a better benefit to the team. I can’t think of any player on the team outside of Ramirez maybe, who I would feel sad about losing. That’s mainly because I’m a Cubs’ fan not a so and so fan. I root for the guys on the team, I appreciate and respect their efforts, but at the end of the day if the team can be made better by trading that player or not resigning that player than that is what should be done.

And obviously you can’t build a winner with just money, but as Boston and New York has shown it is possible to spend that money wisely to achieve success. I know there are other components to the their success, but again as popular as the Cubs are and as much money that we have had at our disposal, there should be better direction/directing of the club.

We always seem to be responding to something instead of following a plan and making decisions accordingly to that plan. I was for keeping Bradley if trading him meant taking crap back, obviously the money we will receive will mask the smell a bit and if we can use that money wisely then this trade won’t be as bad.

My problem is, where was the contingency plan for Bradley? Everyone knew his history, and from what I remember (can’t find the article) Bradley initially refused to talk with the media. The team didn’t like it and ordered him to do so. My question is why? You know Bradley is a headcase and is more a child than a professional. I’m not advocating treating every player with kid gloves, but you signed the guy and you knew he had issues. Why do anything that is going to set him off? Not because he should be babied but because it’s pretty obvious how he would respond and you have millions tied up in him.

Also if the situation in the clubhouse was as bad as some of us would have others believe, why was there no plan to cut our losses and try to get out from under the Bradley mess before it became front page news (Bradley’s insults/comments and suspension). It just feels like brass had no clue Bradley was a nut and were taken by surprise when he started throwing poo all over the walls. They then responded too late and with in my opinion a poor response the outcome of that is Silva, $6million, and we still don’t have that magical left handed bat, nor do we have a CF, etc.

Sorry so long and ranty but damn I’m trying hard to figure out what we (or club if you don’t like the use of we, us) have as a plan to win a world series and not just compete in the Central. Oh, besides the big left handed bat that will. along with scrappy mcgrit the sparkplug, finally deliver the Cubs to the promise land.