the GNP of Venezuela

So, Zito gets to say in the same Metro area and gets a truckload of cash from her to infinity. Works out well for him. Works out bad for the Cubs.

      FA Age  2006 ERA+   2006 K/IP
Z(ito)      28       116         8.83
Z(ambrano)  26    136         6.14

Zito’s got larger counting stats, but that’s because he’s got those two extra years in the majors, and being two years younger plays much more into Zambrano’s favor. Zito’s real edges are being a lefty starter and having more big game experience. But Z also brings the home run power.

Zito’s getting 7/18. Z seems to be better, and a better bet for the long term – so 7/19? 7/20? (I’m thinking 10/25.) Even with the Cubs expanded payroll, Carlos and Soriano would be 2/5ths to 1/3rd of the entire team budget. That’s going to be a bit crazy.

The one alternative possibility is maybe Carlos is willing to sign a lesser length deal for his next contract. I don’t have any proof or example, but I’m thinking “4 year deal to age 30 + 7 year deal to age 37 > 7 year deal to age 33 + 4 year deal to age 37”, because you’d be getting two career peak deals instead of one. But who knows? It make turn out that he can get another 7 year deal at 33 if he’s still awesome, and he’s gotta be awesome.

The other thing is, July 31st, 2008, there’s going to an amazingly big trade, because I can’t imagine the Twins being able to resign Santana when his current contract runs out.

RAW 12/25

Montage of more trooperstar interactions. Torrie was proposed to by three Iraqis! She and Kidman are still meant to be, damnit. Chris Masters says his fiancee’s brother is stationed in Iraq. OMG, Chris Masters and Chuck Palumbo are engaged. – Justin Shapiro, RAW 12/25

Montage of more trooperstar interactions. Torrie was proposed to by three Iraqis! She and Kidman are still meant to be, damnit. Chris Masters says his fiancee’s brother is stationed in Iraq. OMG, Chris Masters and Chuck Palumbo are engaged.

– Justin Shapiro, RAW 12/25

Joe Versus The World – 35: Rob Naylor & Matt Foy

Rob Naylor & Matt Foy join us to recap Ring of Honor’s 12/23 show in Manhattan. Both were they live, and we run down all the results, including Homicide’s title win, a great tag match, Larry Sweeney, and the big party. Plus we have thoughts on ROH in 2006, including our thoughts for best match … Continue reading “Joe Versus The World – 35: Rob Naylor & Matt Foy”

Rob Naylor & Matt Foy join us to recap Ring of Honor’s 12/23 show in Manhattan. Both were they live, and we run down all the results, including Homicide’s title win, a great tag match, Larry Sweeney, and the big party. Plus we have thoughts on ROH in 2006, including our thoughts for best match and show of the year. Plus, ECW in a mosque, Rob cops to seeing CZW in a bar, and I don’t say a whole heck of a lot. We fly high for over an hour of power!

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To listen to this show, right click to download the mp3 file here, subscribe to the RSS feed @ http://www.thecubsfan.com/joe.xml, or add it to your iTunes Podcasts by clicking here.

Rob Naylor was earlier on the show, in September and November, talking about whatever came to mind. You can read more of him at Death Valley Driver.com. Matt Foy’s been on in May, July, September and November talking about ROH.

Please visit http://www.joeversustheworld.com for an index of old episodes. If you use a non-iTunes podcatcher, check out http://feeds.feedburner.com/JoeVersusTheWorld for easy ways to add the show to My Yahoo, Google and a half dozen other places.

If you’ve got any feedback on this show or any other, we’d love to hear it. Either leave a comment below, or contact joe at joegagne AT charter DOT net. Thanks for listening – if you enjoyed a show, we’d quite appreciated if you told your friends, or at least told us!

You can download any of our previous editions below. Right click and save them to your computer to take a listen.

Previous editions:
35: Matt Foy & Rob Naylor [year in review, ROH] (12/27)
34: Justin Shapiro [year in review, WWE] (12/23)
33: Adam & Mike [year in review, Japan] (12/14)
32: thecubsfan [year in review, lucha] (12/07)
31: Sven Mascarenhas [wrestling video games] (11/27)
30: American Balloon (2) [wrestling in Japan] (11/23)
29: Scott Christ [TNA] (11/21)
28: Tom Feely [survivor series] (11/19)
27: Rob Naylor (2) [indy] (11/12)
26: Matt Foy (4) [ROH] (11/07)
25: Vince Verhei (2) [comebacks] (10/27)
24: Justin Shapiro (4) [the Marine] (10/21)
23: Bryan Alvarez (2) [everything] (10/10)
22: Ken Dreiling and Jesse “J-tron” Irwin [IWA-MS TPI] (10/05)
21: Matt Foy [ROH] (09/20)
20: Tanvir Raquib [09/11 RAW] (09/16)
19: Rob Naylor [News and tangents] (09/09)
18: Dean Rasmussen [DVDVR, life] (08/31)
17: Phil Schneider [Best of the 80’s Japan Indies DVD] (08/26)
16: CRZ [being CRZ] (08/17)
15: Justin Shapiro and thecubsfan [WON HOF, US, Mexico] (08/10)
14: Dr. Keith Lipinski and Mike Sempervive [WON HOF, Japan] (08/04)
13: thecubsfan [lucha] (07/24)
12: Matt Foy [ROH] (07/17)
11: Bryan Alvarez [being Bryan Alvarez] (07/12)
10: Mike Coughlin [MMA] (07/01)
9: Dr. Keith Lipinkski [Japan, general wackiness] (06/27)
8: Tanvir Raquib [ECW, parallel dimensions] (06/17)
7: American Balloon [his career] (06/10)
6: Justin Shapiro [RAW, ROH] (06/03)
5: Albert Ching [Judgement Day, ECW] (05/28)
4: Vince Verhei [everything] (05/21)
3: Matt Foy [ROH] (05/14)
Bonus: Hogan Knows Best recap (05/08)
2: Justin Shapiro [WWE] (04/29)
1: thecubsfan [lucha] (04/22)

Joe Versus The World – 34: Justin Shapiro [5]

Justin Shapiro joins us for our big WWE year in review show. We cover everything, including Kurt Angle’s departure, the new ECW, the brief return of SNME, grading PPV’s we didn’t see, returns and goodbyes, rating all the newcomers, plus TNA = Wile E. Coyote, JBL’s greatness, Batista stinkiness, and Mansquito. Almost 90 minutes of … Continue reading “Joe Versus The World – 34: Justin Shapiro [5]”

Justin Shapiro joins us for our big WWE year in review show. We cover everything, including Kurt Angle’s departure, the new ECW, the brief return of SNME, grading PPV’s we didn’t see, returns and goodbyes, rating all the newcomers, plus TNA = Wile E. Coyote, JBL’s greatness, Batista stinkiness, and Mansquito. Almost 90 minutes of awesome!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

To listen to this show, right click to download the mp3 file here, subscribe to the RSS feed @ http://www.thecubsfan.com/joe.xml, or add it to your iTunes Podcasts by clicking here.

Justin Shapiro been on a few times: taking about the Marine in October, talking WON HOF in August, talking about RAW and ROH in June, and more about RAW in April. If you want more, you can check out his myspace, or his appearance on Figure Four Wrestling next week. We thank him for coming on again.

Please visit http://www.joeversustheworld.com for an index of old episodes. If you use a non-iTunes podcatcher, check out Bryan Alvarez [being Bryan Alvarez] (07/12)
10: Mike Coughlin [MMA] (07/01)
9: Dr. Keith Lipinkski [Japan, general wackiness] (06/27)
8: Tanvir Raquib [ECW, parallel dimensions] (06/17)
7: American Balloon [his career] (06/10)
6: Justin Shapiro [RAW, ROH] (06/03)
5: Albert Ching [Judgement Day, ECW] (05/28)
4: Vince Verhei [everything] (05/21)
3: Matt Foy [ROH] (05/14)
Bonus: Hogan Knows Best recap (05/08)
2: Justin Shapiro [WWE] (04/29)
1: thecubsfan [lucha] (04/22)

bad decisions

The signing of Jason Marquis is a admission of total failure by the Cubs minor league pitching system. They’re not signing Marquis because they think he’s good – they’re actually pretty clear that they know he’s not good, and it’s a pretty safe bet to project him in mop up or gone by the end … Continue reading “bad decisions”

The signing of Jason Marquis is a admission of total failure by the Cubs minor league pitching system. They’re not signing Marquis because they think he’s good – they’re actually pretty clear that they know he’s not good, and it’s a pretty safe bet to project him in mop up or gone by the end of the three year deal – they’re signing him because he hasn’t gotten hurt (yet) and he hasn’t pitched bad enough to get yanked from a bad rotation (except he totally did, but shhhhh).

They’re signing him because of all the pitchers they tried, only RIch Hill could conistently make it thru the 5th and 6th. (That he was actually GOOD is a bonus.) When they needed someone, anyone else to do the same, the likes of Guzman and Marmol and Prior failed, so either they weren’t properly prepared for the chance, or the Cubs made bad judgments in believed they’d be able to achieve at that level. Maybe both.

I think they’ve made a mistake in judgment here again – Maqruis pitched as many innings as he did because the Cardinals had as much depth problems as the Cubs did, not because he deserved to make it thru 2006. Maybe those who are optimistic will be proved right and he’ll rebound, but I wouldn’t bet a three year, 21 million contract on it.

Unrelated: I’m starting to sell myself on Jacque in CF to start the year. Anything so Hendry doesn’t finally land his white whale and start him way too much.

Sambo vs SamHo

RAW 12/18 @ F4Wonline Sambo is “a modern martial art, combat sport and self-defense system developed in the former Soviet Union“, and not the nickname of Sammy Hung, star of Martial Law, as I might have believed last night. I contend that segment was, in fact, the worst on RAW last night. (I know, I … Continue reading “Sambo vs SamHo”

RAW 12/18 @ F4Wonline

Sambo is “a modern martial art, combat sport and self-defense system developed in the former Soviet Union“, and not the nickname of Sammy Hung, star of Martial Law, as I might have believed last night.

I contend that segment was, in fact, the worst on RAW last night. (I know, I know, I know and I’ll get to it.)

My general point boils down to “What the utter heck is SAMBO?” No offensive to those trained in the Russian martial art, but it’s not exactly the a household name. Outside of Russian Dude on RAW, I vaguely knew it was a form of wrestling (only because Atlantis explained the different forms of wrestling he was awesome at on a recent CMLL show), but I didn’t have any more knowledge of it than that, and I like to think I up on these sort of things. Given the way WWE presents non-pro wrestling styles and lingo (“pound and ground”), I don’t think WWE has really expects the fans to have a clue about – and don’t know enough themselves to give an explanation.

I don’t think it’s even a credidental to those who might know Sambo. MMA fans know what Sambo is, because various Russians have been Sambo champs and very good MMA fighters. It’s hard to believe those Russian Dude will measure up in his worked Sambo style (even if he does such a thing), because if he was actually good at it, he wouldn’t be in wrestling.

The other thing is, this basically boils down to Russian MMA Fighter (where Sambo is MMA), and, looking around, didn’t they just try that with a non-Russian, and give up after three weeks? They quickly gave up as treating Turkey and Burke as anything special because of their MMA background – they’re just guys now in ECW’s midcard, wearing tracksuits and Elijah’s cutting promos, and they’re just guys. Being a MMA dude on ECW and SmackDown really didn’t make a difference, but now that it’s a Russian MMA dude, we’re supposed to believe it’s a deal? Eh.

This is the worst segment because it forebodes bad segments for months to come. It doesn’t matter if no one understands it or no one believes it, Russian Sambo Dude will get segment weekly to ‘establish himself’ and a midcard feud to go over someone to prove something (Crazy vs MMA!), and on and on. The best case scenario over all is they realize it’s pointless, and banish him to Heat, but then I’ve got to write on it weekly and that’ll be sad.

I know I’m jumping ahead here, but all I thought during that interview was “I’m going to be so sick of this guy” and “What’s SAMBO?”. Cryme Tyme with the Prez was at least secretly enjoyable in many ways. Listening to a crowd turn on a segment’s always fun, laughing at their inability to end the segment is fun, and JR deciding just to sit out all but the last bit was awesome. There’s nothing salvageable about Russian MMA dude.

site move

I moved thecubsfan.com from one server to another last night. There may be occasional DNS issues the next day and a half, but if you’re reading this message, everything’s working fine. It seems like it’s all resolved already, which is a lot nicer than moving luchawiki has gone.

I moved thecubsfan.com from one server to another last night. There may be occasional DNS issues the next day and a half, but if you’re reading this message, everything’s working fine.

It seems like it’s all resolved already, which is a lot nicer than moving luchawiki has gone.

Heat 12/16

Recap is here. Last week’s Crazy/Conway match was better. It’s weird to see Crazy throwing so many punches. Eugene as a heel has nothing. I think the upcoming schedule is 12/23: studio episode (Christmas theme? With a Xanta Klaus match? I can only dream) 12/30: studio episode (Eid ul-Adha theme? Christmas in Iraq highlights) 01/06, … Continue reading “Heat 12/16”

Recap is here. Last week’s Crazy/Conway match was better. It’s weird to see Crazy throwing so many punches. Eugene as a heel has nothing.

I think the upcoming schedule is
12/23: studio episode (Christmas theme? With a Xanta Klaus match? I can only dream)
12/30: studio episode (Eid ul-Adha theme? Christmas in Iraq highlights)
01/06, 01/13, 01/20: shows with matches

Monday: How do you get to 30?

Carlito
Charlie Haas
Chris Masters
Edge
Eugene

Jim Duggan
Jeff Hardy (fun for him!)
Johnny Nitro
JTG
Kenny

Lance Cade
Randy Orton
Ric Flair
Rob Conway
Robbie

Rory
Shad
Shelton Benjamin
Snitsky
Super Crazy

Trevor Murdoch
Val Venis
Viscera
Shawn Micahels
Triple H

That’s 25, and DX is last because they might not be in it if one of them wasn’t going to win. Cena can’t be in. Umaga shouldn’t be in if he’s getting a title shot anyway, but we’re 5 short so he’s in. Lawler? In and out fast enough to talk about it, maybe (though a 3 hour show building Lawler vs Cena might be great.) That’s still 3 open spots – Coach? Estrada? (which would make no sense given his reluctance to face Cena last week) The rest of the Spirit Squad? Slaughter? Losers from other groups?

I think they announced 30 without actually figuring the 30, not that it’ll make a difference in the end.