There are only so many guys in the world with the talent to play in the Bigs.
Otherwise every team would be filled with a bunch of new rookies each year, and there'd be alot more MLB retirees - players who were discarded because they were injured or old or named Aaron Miles.
Because of this general lack of talent in the world, baseball has developed a survival instinct where it tells itself it better regurgitate up some spent players or it won't be able to fill out all the teams.
And it would die.
I'm pretty sure there are mammals in the wild who toss their cookies and chow it right back down to survive - it's the same kind of thing.
Lerrrp...bwaaaaaarp...RALPH! - Hey look! Baseball just hurled up Jimmy Edmonds and Rich Hill!
Edmonds gets a minor league deal with the Brewers ($850,000 + incentives), Hill with the Cardinals ($575,000).
Edmonds lost his youth and wants to be the backup outfielder, Hill lost his control and had labrum surgery, and wants to be the 5th starter, but both these guys are relatively cheap and each have what gm's call an "upside". If they do well then great, and if not who cares?
Edmonds will be driven because he's 18 homers this side of 400.
Hill will be driven (he hopes) not crazy trying to get his giant hook over the plate.
And what it means in the Cubs Universe of course is that Edmonds will be in the lineup somewhere down the line and kill the Cubs in a game or two, and Rich Hill will find his marbles with Dave Duncan, the best pitching coach in baseball. He'll probably win 18 games this year.
Baseball also upchucked Xavier Nady (2 Tommy John surgeries) and Chad Tracy (knee surgery), and the Cubs are currently lapping them back up (well, the Nady deal won't be signed until he passes a physical).
Seriously, this is almost like watching a nature show.
Okay, and the Andre Dawson hat thing. Those guys in the HOF committee... over the years you just can't come to any conclusion other than they're a roomful of hateful boobs. I refuse to let them get me down with this minor detail. At least they got the right guy.
