12/01/2003 09:27:00 AM by Rob

Luis Castillo/Jose Vidro/The Northside Lounge

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday...mine was good, even considering the fact that I accidentally fileted myself yesterday. The good folks at Coon's Grove Tree Farm of Dimmick, IL outfitted me with a brand new tree saw, and its superior sharpness proved to be just the thing to allow effortless felling of our beautiful 7 foot Scotch Pine. However, the last stroke happened to intersect with the top of my left hand, neatly butterfly-ing it. Very gross. But, it didn't even hurt, it didn't bleed much, and no tendons were injured. Very lucky and embarrasing indeed.

Do you want Luis Castillo? More than Grud? I guess so. More than a trade for Jose Vidro? See, to me, the trade with Vidro not only nets us a great second baseman, and lets us keep the first round draft pick that we would lose in signing free agent Castillo, but it would allow us to send players to the Expos that, in their subtraction, may end up adding to the whole. Like if we sent Farnsworth there, or Cruz, and let their potential be someone else's albatross. Questions that have hung over us for years: "Will Farnsworth close? Will Cruz fit in the rotation? Can he make it through the lineup more than once? Should he relieve?"

What appears to us as "potential" looks entirely different in the myopic world of the clubhouse. There, it just looks like questions, and as we have seen over and over again over the years, ballplayers don't like uncertainity and chaos. They thrive on routine, order, and value the sure thing over great expectations. And Vidro is as sure as it comes.

The Expos represent, for quite unfair reasons, a rare opportunity for the Cubs to quite boldly steal from the poor for their own benefit. We don't need the fine, fine Guerrero or Vazquez as much as Vidro. We would almost appear beneficient, allowing them to keep their most famous star by taking Vidro's contract off their hands. How nice!

Finally, anybody who knows Scott and Dennis at the Northside Lounge, ask them when did I piss in their Cheerios? They got links to a lot of us, but no Love for the Sloth? I have written them, and not rated a response. It's a fine site, I read it daily. I would be honored if they hooked up with me.

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