Kuzul

The 2013 Hall of Fame (HoF) ballots were distributed on Wednesday, and among the more notable names are Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens. And, rather than express outrage at their potential selection due to cheating concerns, this author suggests we put them all in.

Now, before you go thinking that I am naive, consider the fact that I have written many articles over the years railing against the entire steroid era, suggesting it tarnishes Bud Selig’s legacy and disgusts this baseball fan for the greedy and selfish nature of players that would risk their health and jeopardize the integrity of the game and the sanctity of the rules by injecting themselves full of PEDs.

But I’ve since decided that such a viewpoint is just plain stupid. For one, probably half of baseball was on steroids during the height of the era, and perhaps much more if you believe Jose Canseco.

So the playing field was relatively level. And while it’s true that some, like Bonds for example, seemed to go overboard with the juice, making his head seemingly explode as muscles poured out of every fiber of his body, I say so what?

In Bonds’ case, he was Hall-worthy even before he tripled in size. As a skinny kid playing in Pittsburgh, he was a Gold Glove-caliber outfielder who could fly while hitting for average, getting on base and yes, hitting for power, albeit lacking the kind of outrageous power he would go on to develop as an alleged steroid abuser.

Bonds, in fact, was convicted of obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury about using steroids and human growth hormones, while Sosa was never formally charged, although he was caught using a corked bat in 2003 while with the Chicago Cubs.

Clemens, meanwhile, was accused of using steroids by his former trainer Brian McNamee and he was named in the Mitchell Report. However, he was acquitted of charges that he lied to Congress when he said he never used PEDs. Does that make him innocent? Not in many people’s eyes, but it is what it is.

Other players from the steroid era have become eligible for the HoF recently but have not been granted entry, most notably Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro. McGwire admitted his PED usage, while Palmeiro denied ever knowingly taking them.

But the issue of whether or not a player was caught using the stuff seems irrelevant to me. There was no drug policy in place during the steroid era, and anyway, how do we know that PED users haven’t already been enshrined?

Hey, cheating in sports is nothing new. Professional athletes have looked for any edge they could get forever. Back in the day, it was “greenies” and now it’s Adderall and even Viagra. Pitchers have been doctoring the baseball since the game began.

Heck, spitballs were legal in baseball until 1920. And how can you penalize players in a sport where “stealing” is part of the game?

I’m not saying that cheating is right or even justifiable, I’m just saying that it was and still is part of the game. So go ahead and create a steroid wing or affix an asterisk next to their names if you must, but we cannot ignore those who excelled during this era.

There is little doubt that steroids increase power. but they don’t help you hit a round ball with a round bat. Increased power alone does not make a HoF‘er.

There probably are other benefits to PEDs, especially for pitchers and those recovering from injury, but again, if more than half the sport was taking them, what’s the problem?

Players who took amphetamines had an unfair competitive advantage, right? So why penalize only those who took the PEDs from the steroid era?

The main thing I hate about the whole era is that the home run king was determined through questionable means. As I wrote before, I feel that Bonds was a certain HoF candidate well before he got huge, but I doubt he would have broken Hank Aaron’s record and become the all-time home run king without assistance.

Still, do we know with absolute certainty that Aaron, Roger Maris or even Babe Ruth never did something to enhance their performance? I mean, how can we ever be 100% sure of anything in this world?

It may be a legitimate question whether McGwire belongs in the HoF from a pure baseball perspective. But to keep him out because of steroids is silly, in my opinion.  

Also, what criteria do you use to determine which players form the era get enshrined and which ones do not and is it totally fair? If a player was convicted and admits usage do you keep him out? 

And if you do, isn’t that penalizing someone for being truthful? Is that really what we want to do?

I know, so many questions, so little common sense. Still, as much as I dislike Sosa, Bonds and Clemens, both for what they did as well as the kind of men they are, I feel they deserve a place among baseball’s immortals.

With all the uproar and furor, I’ll be dating Candice Swanepoel before all of these steroid guys get elected on the first ballot. Yet I hope that the writers who vote for this honor will see beyond the needles and look at what they accomplished.

Would they have accomplished what they did without use of PEDs? Well, it doesn’t matter because the fact is they did accomplish all they did and if you just look at the numbers they are more than deserving of enshrinement.

One thing I find almost as distasteful as the cheating are the writers who are using their vote as a bully pulpit to express their ideals. Look, professional sports aren’t a place for being sanctimonious and anyone who thinks they are just need to look at Lance Armstrong to understand.

Sosa and McGwire were credited with saving baseball after the strike, when their historic home run chase went viral. Selig and others conveniently looked the other way when it was to their benefit, so it would be hypocritical to now condemn them as frauds.

Of course, Selig was a used car salesman so I’m sure that logic escapes him. Say anything you have to to get the job done, right? The job being, in this case, saving his legacy.

Selig wants to be known as the man who cleaned up the sport, rather than the one who enabled the cheaters. Yet enable he did so now it seems awfully repugnant for him not to support the candidacy of these sure-fire HoF‘ers.

As baseball fans, we all want our teams to win championships and our players to perform to the best of their ability. Yet when the smoke clears and dust settles, we forget what that competitive drive sometimes leads grown men to do.

One final thought: wouldn’t it be delicious for a player to admit PED usage at his HoF induction ceremony?  That would be appointment television—it would certainly enhance his performance. 

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It’s a seller’s market this trade season in MLB, and one of the top attractions among starting pitchers—in fact, likely THE top attraction—is the Cubs‘ Ryan Dempster.

Here’s why.

For one thing, Dempster may end up being the best pitcher on the market, with extensions for the Phillies‘ Cole Hamels and the Brewers‘ Zack Greinke reportedly coming. And even if those extensions don’t get done, there is no guarantee that either will be offered up for sale.

But Dempster is certainly available, as the Cubs try and build for the future. As good as he is pitching right now, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have little use for a pitcher who is a free agent after the season and will be 36 next season.

Meanwhile, his recent performances have certainly increased his value to other teams. Saturday’s  performance has improved his scoreless streak to 33 innings, tied for the best ever by a Cubs pitcher.

Dempster, who allowed four hits in six innings, matched the Cubs mark set by Ken Holtzman in 1969. 

Another reason why Dempster may end up being the top starter on the market is that, with the additional Wild Card spots, more teams are expected to be buyers than ever. But the Cubs, despite their recent run of solid play, have no chance of winning anything this year, so they are sellers.

Therefore, the combination of fewer starting pitchers being available, Dempster’s historic performance and their being fewer sellers this year have resulted in at least 10 teams being interested in Dempster, according to a post on MLBTradeRumors.com.   

The report claims that the Cubs are willing to eat part of Dempster’s remaining salary (approximately $7 million) in order to obtain better prospects in a trade.

With the Tigers reportedly among the teams interested in Dempster, I wonder if they would be willing to part with hard-hitting third baseman Nick Castellanos in a trade. Although that is unlikely for a rental, it just depends on how desperate they are to try and win their division.  .

Interestingly, the White Sox are also among the teams listed in the report.

The bottom line is that the Cubs, who have not had much luck, may have picked a good time to rebuild. Players like Dempster, Matt Garza and even Alfonso Soriano should generate a lot of interest.

And that will go a long way toward expediting the rebuilding process.

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I’ll admit that I started writing this article before Carlos Marmol even took the mound to try to save the game on Tuesday night against the White Sox. But I was absolutely convinced that it would not end well for the Cubs.

Look, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, then reinstalling Marmol as the closer is insane my friends.

Or so I thought.

We have seen, far too often, that Marmol seemingly has lost whatever he once had. He simply should not be closing again. Yet there he was, trying to save a one-run game and ensure a series victory for the Cubs over the hated Sox.

When Dale Sveum removed Marmol from the closers role, Cubs fans figured we would never have to endure his slider-happy lack of control in the ninth inning again.

I realize that high leverage situations occur in the seventh and eighth innings as well as the ninth, and games are often won or lost at that time. So it’s not as if Marmol couldn’t affect the outcome of a game if used as a set-up man.

But there is something scary about watching Marmol come into a game in the ninth inning, especially with a one-run lead. Heck, even as Marmol got out the first two Sox batters in the inning, I didn’t stop writing.

In a lost season for the Cubs, it sure would be nice to beat the Sox twice in a row at their home park, I thought to myself. Sure, they swept us at Wrigley, but none of that would matter if the Cubs win tonight.

But no, Marmol is going to come in and ruin it.

I had no faith.

Meanwhile, I  was asking myself exactly what Marmol had done to earn this opportunity? I know the Cubs don’t have anyone any better at pitching the ninth inning, but I would have rather seen almost anyone trot out there except for Marmol in this instance.

I just couldn’t look as I continued to write this article. He had A.J. Pierzynski at a full count, but of course, he walked him. Even as he started Orlando Hudson at 0-2, I didn’t turn around to face the television.

But you know what? He got the third out. I sat there kind of numb, enjoying the win but dumbfounded.

I mean, that familiar dread had come over me just like it did in 1984 and 2003. I don’t understand this feeling. The Cubs actually won the game.

Now I have to eat my words. Maybe I’m the one who is insane, Cubs fans.

Words never tasted so sweet.

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Don’t pity Cubs manager Dale Sveum. He has one of only 32 major league managing jobs in the world and earns millions of dollars. Plus, he knew what he was getting into when he accepted the position.

Well, maybe he didn’t realize they would be quite this bad.

Still, one can’t help but draw comparisons between the Cubs skipper and other sacrificial lambs who have coached in Chicago. For example, former Bulls coach Tim Floyd comes to mind.

Floyd was probably never a bad coach, though his career record when he left the Bulls was the worst of all time at 49-190. But, like the Cubs now, the Bulls were a bad team after the core of their championship teams retired or left.

In a similar way, Doug Collins was just holding down the captain’s chair until the time when the Michael Jordan-led Bulls were ready to win, and then in popped Phil Jackson to reap the spoils.

And so it will likely go for Sveum, too. When the Cubs complete their rebuilding effort, he may just have one of the worst managerial records in baseball history. And what will his reward be for enduring such suffering?

He will probably be replaced by Terry Francona, who will lead the Cubs to their first World Series in more than a century.

Granted, such talk is a bit optimistic, but one thing is certain: Unless Theo Epstein gets cold feet, his plan will take a few more years to come to fruition.

By that time, Sveum won’t have any hair left, and you can slap the straight jacket on him and send him on his way.

Whether Sveum is in over his skis is not the point. No matter what you think he should have done to discipline the talented, but wandering, Starlin Castro, he is just a guy to get from point A to point B.

In fact, all that losing will make it easy for Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer to fire Sveum and hire Tito, and that could just be part of the plan. Building a farm system takes time, and turning those assets into productive major league players ready to win takes even longer.

So, assuming that owner Tom Ricketts believes in the plan enough to endure at least two more ugly seasons after this one, 2015 is around the time when the fortunes could start turning for the Cubs. But that would be the absolute earliest.

My fear is that Ricketts will try to cut corners in an effort to sell tickets and force Epstein and company to go out and try to field a competitive team. That would do nothing but continue the broken ways of past Cubs GMs and would not lend itself to consistent winning.

Sveum, meanwhile, will be doing a lot of head-shaking over the next couple years. And his thanks will be a pink slip.

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What do you do when you have a young talent who has a great hit tool but makes more errors than a weatherman’s forecast? And is run prevention as important as run production?

Those are some of the questions surrounding the Cubs new field manager and coaches as they work with the Cubs young shortstop, Starlin Castro, who made two more errors on Saturday.

It would be easy to say that he needs to move off of shortstop, but that is not only too simplistic of a solution, it may not be a solution at all. Not only would they have to find a position he can play well, but they would be reducing his value since he plays a premium defensive position.

He is too inexperienced to be given up on now, for good shortstops are so hard to find. The Cubs need to continue to work with Castro and make absolutely sure before they move him to second or third base.

Look, a lot of Castro’s errors come on throws, and there are long throws from third base. And second base is no picnic, either. Making the pivot on the double play is an important skill and who’s to say that Castro can handle that?

Meanwhile, Dale Sveum and his staff realize that the job in front of them is a critical one, for Castro is the Cubs shining light in an otherwise dismal rebuilding period. Getting him to cut down on his mistakes is a challenging, yet necessary effort.

The new “Cubs Way” focuses on defense. But Castro makes some delicious stops on balls hit to his right, and often travels a long way to tackle pop-ups that his predecessors could never reach. He does all that in between errors, which he makes a lot of.

Castro is only 22 years old, so he requires patience. Still, in 290 games,  he has made 60 errors.

Now, errors and fielding percentage aren’t necessarily valid ways to measure defensive value. Players who have better range get to more balls so it’s not uncommon for them to make more errors.

But at some point it has to get better—the errors have to be reduced. Hopefully, the work they’re doing with Castro pays off and he improves. If not, you know he will play somewhere, as his bat is just too good for him to sit on the bench.

Castro is the only “star” on Sveum‘s current roster, though Anthony Rizzo and Brett Jackson should be joining him at some point this season. But he won’t be the poster boy for what the new Cubs are trying to do, as they stress defense and on-base percentage, two of the weak spots in his game.

But the thing that makes me concerned is that many of his errors aren’t due to mechanical issues, which can be cleaned up. They are due to lapses of concentration.

We all painfully recall last season when, on national TV, Bobby Valentine noticed that Castro had his back turned on a play. That lack of concentration is not only embarrassing, it cannot be tolerated, no matter how old or how good a player is.

And those kinds of things certainly aren’t part of the Cubs Way. If this kind of stuff is allowed to continue, the danger is that other players will see this and figure that it’s no big deal.

Shortstop is the most critical defensive position on the field. It was encouraging to see that former major league SS Mariano Duncan worked closely with Castro during the offseason in the Dominican Republic. They say that he is very coachable, so there is hope for better days.

But what Castro needs is specific instruction on what he needs to change and hopefully this is where Sveum and his staff will do better than Mike Quade and Lou Piniella were able to do.  They always just said he’s young and needs to focus, but it seems like Sveum is pointing specific changes, such as keeping his head still while throwing to first base, stuff like that.

So how long can the Cubs put up with the errors? Well, I’d say that the potential payoff is too great not to give it at least one more full season before even thinking about moving Castro to another position. If he does improve, it will make him one of the best players in the game, since there are so few shortstops can play good defense and hit the way Castro can hit the ball.  

While there may be a batting title in the kid’s future. But a gold glove? That remains to be seen.

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They say what a difference a year makes, but so far with the Cubs, it’s looking like 2011 all over again. There is competent management running the team now, yet the relief issues that plagued the club last season are already rearing their ugly head after just two games of the 2012 season.

One can’t really make a judgement this early, but while injuries to the starting rotation were one of the things that helped bring the team down in 2011, blowing late leads just took the heart out of the Cubs. You fight for six, seven innings to get a lead and then the bullpen blows it.

Sound familiar?

Of course there’s a long, long way to go yet—we’re just getting started—but the first two games of this season certainly bear a striking resemblance to what we watched last year.

Two well-pitched games by Cubs starters–in this case Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza–all for naught once Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol entered the game.

Look, I understand that in Theo Epstein’s grand plan, 2012 is not a season in which they are trying to win a World Series. But they’d like to be competitive, for the fans sake if nothing else. Nothing sticks the knife into the gut of a team more than blowing late leads.

Unfortunately, Marmol is signed through 2013 and is now making top closer’s money even though he couldn’t close a door right now. I’m not sure what happened, whether it was overuse or what, but the slider is not as sharp as it used to be and the fastball is a couple of miles per hour slower.

On top of everything, Marmol has no control and doesn’t know where the ball is going once it leaves his hand. Unfortunately, at $7 million this year and almost $10 million next year, Marmol probably can’t be traded.

The Cubs are stuck with a very high priced relief pitcher who can’t be counted on to close games.

Meanwhile, Wood was re-signed because Tom Ricketts figured Cubs fans wanted him back and he would soften the blow of a potential losing season. But in truth, he cannot be trusted with a lead and will undoubtedly get hurt at some point this season as he always does.

Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in Epstein and his lieutenants. And I understand some patience is in order. But I could see that Marmol was going to be too much of a risk so I’m surprised we didn’t hear his name mentioned in any trade rumors this offseason.

But who else can close out games for the Cubs? Sean Marshall is gone, so there really isn’t another obvious candidate on the roster at this point. The bullpen looks to be a disaster right now.

I feel badly for Garza, because the bullpen blew lots of games for him in 2011 and have already done it to him again in his first start this season. This is a perfect example of why you cannot judge the value of a starting pitcher by wins and losses.

If I was Garza, I’d work on my stamina. No way I’d want to come out of a game and turn it over to this ‘pen.

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Trades often take years before anyone truly knows who “won” the deal, but in the short-term, I feel the Cubs were the winners. Not by a huge margin, but a slight one.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, or just got out of jail, the Cubs have been busy this week. First trading Carlos Zambrano to the Marlins and now sending Andrew Cashner to the Padres for Anthony Rizzo.

An everyday first baseman for a relief pitcher is, to me, always a smart investment. Sure, the Cubs were trying to do more with Cashner, and the Padres may do the same, but I believe Cashner is a reliever long-term.

Now, that’s not to say that he won’t be an elite reliever at the major league level. In fact, if healthy, I fully predict he will.

But I really like the promise this Rizzo kid brings.

I know he struggled in his first tryout at the major league level with San Diego, but he is 21, and even Cubs GM Jed Hoyer admits he was wrong to bring Rizzo up so soon.

Meanwhile, there were two other players in the transaction.

The Cubs also got right-hander Zack Cates, who is a very raw but interesting former position player-turned-pitcher. The Cubs had success with just such a conversion with Carlos Marmol, so there is precedent for this sort of thing.

In fact, look no further than the cross-town White Sox, who recently traded an effective young pitcher who was also a former position player in Sergio Santos.Cates will need to develop a breaking ball if he’s going to become a starter, but he profiles well as a reliever in any case.

Meanwhile, Kyung-Min Na also goes from Chicago to San Diego. The 20-year-old center fielder has a solid glove and plus speed, though there are questions about his hitting mechanics.

As for Rizzo, he was outstanding in AAA, so I feel Hoyer was being a little hard on himself for saying that he called him up too soon. He has a good approach at the plate and terrific makeup (no, not mascara). He has very good power and is also a good defensive first sacker.

Rizzo missed the 2008 season due to Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but he has a clean bill of health now.  

As for his struggles in San Diego, part of that could be the park (Petco is where power goes to die for many hitters, although I can think of an exception by the name of Adrian Gonzalez).

Speaking of Gonzalez, Rizzo was part of the return that Hoyer got from Boston when he traded his slugging first baseman to the Red Sox.

In addition to that trade, there is other history with Rizzo, as all three of the Cubs’ power brokers—Theo Epstein, Hoyer and Jason McLeod—were in the Sox front office when they drafted Rizzo.

Getting back to Cashner, he has an overpowering fastball when healthy, but I don’t feel he profiles as a starter in the big leagues.While pitching in Petco will likely inflate his value, a rotator cuff injury wiped out most of his 2011 season, so the Padres will have to be careful with Cashner. 

So, there are a lot of unknowns in this trade, and some value on both sides. But, for all intents and purposes, the deal comes down to an everyday first baseman for a reliever, and I like it.

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Just like the Albert Pujols negotiations, the Cubs are purposely not trying to quash their reported interest in Prince Fielder, even though they have only a small chance of signing the Milwaukee first baseman.

Yes, the Cubs presented Pujols an offer, but it was one they knew wouldn’t be accepted. It was likely for five years with an average annual salary well above what other teams were offering.

In other words. Theo Epstein and the Cubs were hoping that Albert would take a shorter-term contract worth more per year than the other offers.

But, in reality, they knew that wouldn’t happen.

Still, this kept them in the news and helped stoke the Cubs fan fires as they hoped to retain their season ticket fanbase.

Meanwhile, news keeps coming out that the Cubs are the leading candidate for the services of Fielder.

Not only is that wrong, it has been admitted by Cubs manager Dale Sveum that “At this point, I think it’s a lot of media talk more than us doing anything.” Sveum, who became close to Fielder during six years as a Milwaukee Brewers coach, went on further, “We haven’t had any talks with Prince, and I haven’t had any conversations with him. We haven’t initiated any contact at all.”

But even if the Cubs have told Fielder’s agent, the notorious Scott Boras, that they will jump in at the end, one has to wonder if the former Milwaukee slugger would take a deal much shorter than what Albert received.

It is clear that the Cubs aren’t likely to go past five years in any offer, and that won’t net players like Pujols or Fielder.

The Cubs need to stoke the Cubs fan fire. After all, they have season tickets to sell.  

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Dale Sveum hasn’t managed a game yet for the Chicago Cubs, but we’re already beginning to get an early indication of the kind of manager that he might be.

When asked by a Chicago sports radio station if he would bunt a guy over to third with a man on second and no one out, he said, basically, that “it depends.”

Which, on the surface, makes sense. I mean, you can’t really answer that question without knowing the situation—what is the score, what inning is it, etc.

Personally, I would never bunt a guy over in that situation and I am surprised that Theo Epstein would even hire a manager who likes to bunt, since most sabermatricians abhor bunting.

But it was a decent answer that showed he is thinking.

But what I really liked was his reaction to questions about Carlos Zambrano. He referred to Zambrano’s antics as “tantrums”, which implies him being a baby, and that is spot on.

He also said that Big Z already has “three strikes” and has no room for error.

The other thing I take issue with is his declaration that Carlos Marmol is his closer. Now, perhaps he said that just to keep the peace, but why?

I mean, Marmol was awful last year and despite having a closer’s salary, doesn’t deserve to be labeled as the closer right now.

What I would have rather heard is that it is an open competition.

Other than that, however, what do we really know about Sveum? Epstein mentioned that he liked the way Sveum holds players accountable yet the players still seem to like him.

But how does he know? He was only a manager for a very brief time and as a coach, it is really not the same thing.

Players often like their coaches because they can confide in them without the manager knowing.

I guess, above all, I trust Epstein and Jed Hoyer and respect their decision to hire Sveum. If this was Jim Hendry making the decision, I would seriously question it, but if Sveum is good enough for these guys, then I am all for it.

In Boston, he was beat up for his decisions as the third base coach, but was held in high regard for his use of statistical analysis and how prepared he was.

As a player, Joe Torre thought enough of Sveum that he kept him around as a bullpen catcher even after releasing him due to his lack of production as a player.

Another thing that is clear about him is that he prefers to mingle with the players on the field during warm-ups and in practice. He feels it helps players to respect him, and he gets his one-on-one talks in there too.   

In his interviews with the media, I didn’t hear him endorse OBP, but I have to assume he believes strongly in that or Epstein wouldn’t have hired him.

If so, he may fire Rudy Jaramillo and hire a new hitting coach for the team.

But no matter what, we, as Cubs fans, need to believe in Epstein and his guys. If they were wrong, they will be held accountable.

And that’s the way it should be.

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So, the guy the Cubs signed to one of the worst contracts in the history of the major leagues is unhappy hitting seventh in the order. Well, boo fricken’ hoo.

Look, Soriano, here is a memo to you: You’re lucky that Quade is your manager, because a manager with self confidence would have your lazy, swing-at-everything butt sitting on the bench.

But no, because Quade is trying desperately to hang onto his job, he plays the vets, in part because he’s in over his head and won’t confront them.

But mainly because he wants to win as many games as possible.

With that said, it’s ironic that the very thing he is seeking to avoid has come up to bite him in the butt. For Soriano, who seldom says anything noteworthy, has a beef with him and it’s made the news.

Here is what he told ESPN.com,

“I’m not a guy that fights with people,” Soriano told ESPNChicago.com. “The way they treat me this year, I don’t like it. The way they have me hit in the No. 7, 5 and 6 spots, I have trouble concentrating on the job hitting in those different spots. But (Mike) Quade is the manager and does his best to try to make the team better.”

Remember when Soriano could only hit in the leadoff spot?

Even a grizzled old manager like Lou Piniella waited a long time before moving him out of a lineup position that fit Soriano worse than a size small dress fits Oprah Winfrey.  

Another ironic part of all this is that Soriano is actually hitting better in the seventh spot.

But hey, it’s all about Soriano, isn’t it? Late in what has been an awful season he decides to raise the dust with a manager who has as much chance of returning as Brett Favre. Oops.

This is a guy who the Cubs signed to an eight-year, $136 million contract after a season probably fueled by steroids. Even if that is not accurate, it certainly was a career year.

As soon as he came to Chicago, suddenly his legs wouldn’t work any more and he couldn’t steal bases.

Even this year, when he has hit 25 homers and driven in 85 runs (his most as a Cub), he is hitting an anemic .244 with a pathetic .288 OBP.

In short, if it wasn’t for his massive contract, he would be lucky to find a full-time job in MLB.

Yet he decides that this is the right time to start spouting off about what he perceives to be a sign of disrespect.

Hey, Soriano, the only disrespect is what you’ve shown the Cubs ever since you came here.

Meanwhile, don’t let the door hit you on your way out, you fraud.

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