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  1. josh

    @ josh:
    If I’d been there, you could have laughed all you want. I would have been. How you kept from saying, “Smite me with your newfound powers oh revelationist” or something like that should probably be part of the next Profiles of Courage.

    I try to be nice.

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  2. WaLi

    Me: Dempster’s been traded to the Braves
    Wife: For real this time?
    Me: Yeah.
    Wife: What did we get? Prospects?
    Me: Yeah, but the one is really good.
    Wife: Prospects will break your heart

    (dying laughing)

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  3. SVB

    josh wrote:

    I try to be nice.

    Ha ha. Me too, but some things become so risible that I can’t help myself.

    NOTE: Risible is my new word for the week. I saw it used 3-4 times with the PSU coverage, and had to look it up.

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  4. josh

    @ SVB:
    Honestly, I had a notebook I was doodling in furiously. That helped. I still almost started laughing. In this case, I think it would have only reinforced this person’s sense of right (I become one of the doubters, and all good revelations need doubters to be proven wrong). Add to that the fact that the group organizer was obviously hitting on this person. Just damn awkward all around.

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  5. Mercurial Outfielder

    The Score is suggesting that Dempster is holding up the trade because he wants a two-year extension from ATL before approving the trade. Apparently, he had told the Cubs he would approve a trade to ATL, then when he heard about the deal on Twitter first, he got pissed and won’t approve the deal. This is all coming from Jerry Crasnick, but if it’s true, Dempster is acting like a real ass here.

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  6. gaius marius

    how do you get “pissed” as a professional ballplayer when trade rumors circulate about you… in the last week of July… in the final year of your contract… when your team in in the cellar and rebuilding? you were “blindsided”?

    harden the fuck up, Ryan.

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  7. jtsunami

    @ Mucker:
    I’m sure Thoyer got Dempster’s approval on ATL before even talking with them. Why would he be pissed?

    It’s like saying, “Hey [insert wife’s name], if we go out tonight, we should either go bowling, watch a movie, or go to the bars.” Then when your buddy (& his wife) says he’s going to the movies with you and your wife, you get pissed that she didn’t tell you first.

    Second part of the analogy: Then you say you don’t want to go to the movies anymore (dying laughing)

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  8. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ gaius marius:
    I hope Crasnick is getting bum scoop, because otherwise it means Dempster lied his ass off, and is now actively hurting the team’s efforts to rebuild.

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  9. Mercurial Outfielder

    Sullivan on the Score right now, says Dempster submitted a list of teams to which he would approve a trade a few weeks ago. So if he nixed this deal, he straight lied to THoyer.

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  10. mb21

    @ gaius marius:
    Do we really believe this? We know Theo and Jed have talked to Dempster about this. I think the media is just grasping for whatever they think makes sense.

    Dempster is on the road, was probably irritated by how he learned of the trade (twitter, classless move by the Cubs by the way), didn’t have a chance to talk to his wife, has a daughter who needs regular medical attention and he probably can’t just call his wife and say, “hey babe, I’m off to Atlanta, see ya in October or hopefully November.”

    I’m sure he and his wife have discussed this, but anyone who is married or has a GF knows you can’t just make this kind of decision without discussing it with your family.

    This is like Derrek Lee last year. I couldn’t care less why a player takes time to figure it out and I couldn’t care less why he might decline a trade. Dempster, like Lee, had a no trade clause and it’s his right to use it any way he wants. He’s earned it. It’s his decision and it’s a huge one.

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  11. Mercurial Outfielder

    twitter, classless move by the Cubs by the way)

    The Braves MLB.com crew leaked the deal. THoyer had no control over it being leaked.

    And it’s a week before the deadline and Dempster has known he was the block for weeks.

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  12. gaius marius

    mb21 wrote:

    @ gaius marius:
    Do we really believe this?

    no, probably not. chances are the deal gets done forthwith. after all, why would he not go? he doesn’t want a playoff run? and he has very little reason to want to force an extension considering that he’s going to free agency with a career year in the books.

    but i would have to laugh if he really was in any way “blindsided” or felt disrespected. come the fuck on, man. you’re a ballplayer, not the fucking Dauphin Prince.

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  13. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ gaius marius:

    Yeah, I’m not sure what to make of this report from Crasnick. But Sullivan has confirmed that Dempster approved a list of team for THoyer to negotiate with, so…

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  14. Berselius

    @ Mercurial Outfielder:

    It’s not like he has a limited NTC, giving them a list isn’t binding. It’s just a suggestion, he still has a right to change his mind if the other team, say, can’t keep its mouth shut and leaks the info before he even hears about it.

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  15. Mercurial Outfielder

    @ Berselius:

    It seems highly duplicitous to me to (1) approve a list and (2) give the writers a quote about being willing to approve a deal that helps the Cubs and then flip on those statements because you feel “blindsided.”

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  16. TheVan

    The media knows that the pending Dempster trade is one of the top sports stories right now, and they’ll report anything related to it, even if it’s completely irrelevant. Who cares if he’s not happy about the way the info was leaked? It’s a big change, even if he knew it was inevitable. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that Dempster has made his last 2012 start for the Cubs. I’m just quietly waiting the announcement that the Cubs will be facing the Pirates newest pitcher, Paul Maholm, tonight. That would be neat.

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  17. gaius marius

    @ Berselius:

    true, but such petty issues are why ten-and-five is something teams are rightfully averse to. i’m still not sure, frankly, why any team allows any player to get to ten-and-five. sign good players to whatever crazy multiyear deal they need, but when four-plus comes up move that guy in July under all but the most extenuating circumstances. there’s usually little reason to grant those rights to old players who are no longer salary controlled, don’t represent value and are on the downhill into retirement anyway.

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  18. mb21

    gaius marius wrote:

    but i would have to laugh if he really was in any way “blindsided” or felt disrespected. come the fuck on, man. you’re a ballplayer, not the fucking Dauphin Prince.

    Depends. I’m sure Dempster feels the Cubs should have reached out before rumors leaked. I know I would feel that way. There was nothing stopping them from contacting him and saying they’re very close on a deal. Dempster knew it was that time of the year, but I’d understand. It’s his ordeal. He has to go through it. He’s been in Chicago 9 years, made it his home and he wouldn’t be right in the head if he wasn’t emotional about this right now. This is a tough decision for anyone. There’s no 2 weeks notice, no way to find yourself a home where you’re going, no way to get settled in any manner that most people like to be and he’s leaving his wife, daughter and his Cubs family behind. I sympathize with what he’s going through and it’s his decision. What he decides is for his own reasons and that’s good enough for me. It’s not my place.

    I’m more than willing to talk about someone’s wOBA or FIP or what they might do to improve as if I have a clue, but this is personal and it’s really none of my business. I didn’t like how Lee was treated by the fans after he initially declined a trade. It’s just not right. Dempster gave up some salary to get the no-trade clause and then later earned it because he’d been in the league 10 years and 5 with the same team. It’s to do with as he sees fit.

    I don’t care what he told Thoyer and I’m definitely not believing Paul Sullivan on this one.

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  19. gaius marius

    @ Mercurial Outfielder:

    not to play armchair psychiatrist… oh hell, sure, i’ll play: Dempster has always seemed the kind of guy who masks some serious insecurity issues with his class-clown routine. i’m not sure if this is an example of him dealing with that insecurity in a different way, but then again that’s what baseless speculation on the personality of a guy i don’t know is all about.

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  20. josh

    I feel like most of this is speculation. I know that’s the nature of the biz, but I can’t get emotionally invested in rightness/wrongness based on something someone may or may not have said/thought as reported on Twitter.

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  21. mb21

    Berselius wrote:

    It’s not like he has a limited NTC, giving them a list isn’t binding. It’s just a suggestion, he still has a right to change his mind if the other team, say, can’t keep its mouth shut and leaks the info before he even hears about it.

    THIS. People change their mind, become less interested in a team. So what? This affects him; not me.

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  22. mb21

    @ josh:
    Neither can I, but more importantly to this situation, whatever the truth may be, it’s his decision to make. He has to live with whatever decision he makes. I sure as hell don’t. I get to move on as if my life didn’t change because my life is the exact same whether he’s traded or not. Because of that, it’s easy for fans to think a player should do this or do that.

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  23. Berselius

    tean and five rights always makes me think of Ron Santo, because if they were around when he played he would never have been traded to the White Sox, and might actually have played a few seasons more. He was having some health problems at the time, but from what I remember the fact that he fucking hated playing for the Sox played a nontrivial role in his retirement.

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  24. mb21

    @ Mercurial Outfielder:
    Again, do we really think that Ryan Dempster is making a decision here based on him feeling blindsided? It’s entirely possible, but among the things that might actually affect his decision, only the media could come up with something like blindsided as a reason he may not accept it.

    As for him giving the Cubs a list, who cares? That doesn’t change anything. He still has to approve a trade.

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  25. TheVan

    Maybe it’s all a clever ploy by Dempster to get the Braves to give up even more, and then when he signs with the Cubs next season they’ll be even better. See, you all fell for his ruse. Hook, line, sinker. Fools.

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  26. josh

    @ TheVan:
    It’s all Dempster, see? The leaks. The rumors. All of it. It’s part of his absurdist live-action drama, and he’s committed to it. He’s going to WAKE PEOPLE UP to the TRUTH.

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