CubinNY

west coast not-withstanding, I can't imagine Lee lifting his NTC to go to that crap team He lives in the bay area.

Hendry sure seems like a sentimental person. If Fox is as nice as Bruce Miles makes him out to be Hendry may just be trying to get him to take a Crash Davis type role.

Do me a favor and look up Jeter's numbers and compare them to any other SS in the HOF. Based on stats alone Bill James has his chances of getting in the HOF at greater than 100% (as only James can). Jeter is a first ballot HOFer. Mattingly is borderline but defiantly should get consideration. He's the Mark Grace of the 1980s. FYI, the Bill James metrics used for HoF evaluations are meant to measure whether they are likely to get voted in... not whether they are worthy of it. Maybe so, but James has him ranked as the 53 best offensive player of all time.

Do me a favor and look up Jeter's numbers and compare them to any other SS in the HOF. Based on stats alone Bill James has his chances of getting in the HOF at greater than 100% (as only James can). Jeter is a first ballot HOFer. Mattingly is borderline but defiantly should get consideration. He's the Mark Grace of the 1980s.

Ouch!

and after reviewing how much it would cost to buy out weis' contract, i'm guessing. It wouldn't shock me if that played a big part. I was hoping they'd fire Weis just so that they'd tempt Urban Meyer with mega money. It's pretty much the main reason Weis is being kept. If they win less than 9 games next year, I think he's gone, and they'll back a dumptruck full of money up to everyone. Meyer, Saban, Stoops, Belotti, Kelly, whomever. They'd be better to go after a Tressel type of coach (lower division, proven winner = less money) and try to rebuild from the ground up. If Wies's recruiting is up to what the "experts" say it is than whomever replaces him should have a lot of talent to mold. ND fans don't want Tressel (or his type). OSU fans only put up with him because the team wins consistently, not because he's a good coach. As per usual, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Tressel was a proven winner at the lover division and they could get him cheaply AND THAT WAS THE REASON THEY WENT AFTER HIM. They were paying a huge salary buyout for Cooper and could have gotten pretty much anyone for the right price. When he got to OSU he changed the culture of the football team almost immediately. One of his first acts as head coach was to get rid of several high profile players who failed to go to class. After he replicated things at OSU they gave him a nice contract. OSU fans don't put up with him. He's a great coach and he's won at every level. ND and their fans would be well served to find someone like Tressel. You don't listen to Columbus sports radio or read Columbus sports journalism. Tressel recruits well because his in-state competition is several levels below OSU (Akron, Toledo, Ohio, Cincy). His play-calling is terrible and he fails to show the ability to make in-game adjustments. The guy has been successful, but he's not some amazing coach that everyone should be clamoring for. That's asinine. Since when do radio hosts and sports writers decide anything? His record at every level speaks for itself.

and after reviewing how much it would cost to buy out weis' contract, i'm guessing. It wouldn't shock me if that played a big part. I was hoping they'd fire Weis just so that they'd tempt Urban Meyer with mega money. It's pretty much the main reason Weis is being kept. If they win less than 9 games next year, I think he's gone, and they'll back a dumptruck full of money up to everyone. Meyer, Saban, Stoops, Belotti, Kelly, whomever. They'd be better to go after a Tressel type of coach (lower division, proven winner = less money) and try to rebuild from the ground up. If Wies's recruiting is up to what the "experts" say it is than whomever replaces him should have a lot of talent to mold. ND fans don't want Tressel (or his type). OSU fans only put up with him because the team wins consistently, not because he's a good coach. As per usual, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Tressel was a proven winner at the lover division and they could get him cheaply AND THAT WAS THE REASON THEY WENT AFTER HIM. They were paying a huge salary buyout for Cooper and could have gotten pretty much anyone for the right price. When he got to OSU he changed the culture of the football team almost immediately. One of his first acts as head coach was to get rid of several high profile players who failed to go to class. After he replicated things at OSU they gave him a nice contract. OSU fans don't put up with him. He's a great coach and he's won at every level. ND and their fans would be well served to find someone like Tressel.

and after reviewing how much it would cost to buy out weis' contract, i'm guessing. It wouldn't shock me if that played a big part. I was hoping they'd fire Weis just so that they'd tempt Urban Meyer with mega money. It's pretty much the main reason Weis is being kept. If they win less than 9 games next year, I think he's gone, and they'll back a dumptruck full of money up to everyone. Meyer, Saban, Stoops, Belotti, Kelly, whomever. They'd be better to go after a Tressel type of coach (lower division, proven winner = less money) and try to rebuild from the ground up. If Wies's recruiting is up to what the "experts" say it is than whomever replaces him should have a lot of talent to mold.

It's not that simple.

Followed but not closely

Kidnapping is big business in many 3rd world countries. Many times the police are in on it. I feel terrible for Henry.

Colusion? Flood the market with high priced FAs to lower the cost?

That's not true at all. I wonder where people get this stuff. We love the Cubs, the ballplayer love the money and playing ball. It's unlikely Samardzija would have signed full time for baseball if it wasn't with the Cubs or White Sox. It's even more unlikely that any other GM would give him the contract that Hendry did. We can speculate on this, but there's no evidence to suggest that he was holding out for the Cubs or the White Sox. If anything, he was playing the game very wisely to get a very good deal to play a sport with less of a chance for success but more of a chance at a longer career. It's hard for me to imagine that if the Yankees or Red Sox would have drafted him and given him the same sort of deal the Cubs gave him that he wouldn't have accepted it. He's set for life no matter what happens.

That's not true at all. I wonder where people get this stuff. We love the Cubs, the ballplayer love the money and playing ball.

If Marshall ends up in a package to the Padres, I think Samardzija is in the Iowa rotation to start '09. Possibly Gaudin, also. I don't think you can go into the '09 season with so little depth in the starting rotation. If the Cubs get Peavey and they don't deal Marquis they will be fine even if they have to trade Marshall. Z Harden Lilly Peavey Dempster ---------- Marquis Gaudin I'm not sure what to make of Samardzija as a starter, but I think he'll be needed in the bullpen with Wood gone.

He once told John Olerude that there use to be a teammate of his that wore a batting helmet in the field the same way Olerdue did. Olerude replied, "that was me Rickey".

It's pathetic. It's the worst situation possible. If Wood accepts you pay him $10 mil. for one year and work around it. However, the chances are very good that he gets a better deal elsewhere after K-Rod signs. I think this did come down to not wanting to pay Wood anything and also banking on Cashner, Guzman, and The Shark to come up big next year. Kevin Gregg won't be pitching in meaningful innings if he walks guys like he has in the past. Now the Cubs are left with a lot of questions in the bullpen. The saving grace could be our old pal Angel Guzman. If he can stay healthy and get people out and if Jeff S. can keep the ball in the yard, Hendry will again come up 7s. If this happens he's one lucky son of a gun. The real problem is the future. The minor league talent is getting pretty thin.

The Cubs are happy with Theriot.

read his blog. Also, I don't think they will not offer him arbitration, but they should.

Henderson. ---------- Does anyone think that the BWAA may keep out all the steroid era players (or at least those with a taint) until such time as their value can be sorted out? I could see Bonds never getting in though. It's kind of ironic that two of the greatest of all time could be left out of the HOF.

NSBB really needs a FRA (frequently refuted arguments) stickied thread. 1. good pitching is good because it is more likely to get out hitters at a faster rate than bad pitching. It doesn't matter who the team is. That's why it is defined as "good". 2. What side of the plate one stands on is of lessor (read, no) importance than his OPS.

Gregg Sucks even compared to Howry. And Hendry is not a good GM. http://www.fangraphs.com/comparison.aspx?playerid=1793&playerid2=237&playerid3=&position=P&page=3&type=full so K/BB is the best way to judge pitchers now? I missed the memo You miss a lot of things. It's one of the more important stats when judging a relief pitchers. However, Howry's been better than Gregg in almost every category save for last year. I don't like Howry, but Gregg is terrible.

Gregg Sucks even compared to Howry. And Hendry is not a good GM. http://www.fangraphs.com/comparison.aspx?playerid=1793&playerid2=237&playerid3=&position=P&page=3&type=full

I'd say USC? PAC-10 sucks this year USC was 5th of the 8. They played a good non-con schedule (Virginia, Ohio State, ND) to make up for some of the deficiency in the conference. Plus, UCLA hasn't factored into their schedule yet. I'm going to say Alabama. Correct. Alabama checks in at the 73rd toughest schedule in the country as of right now, due to an overall lousy non-con schedule (although Clemson was supposed to be good, so tough to fault them for that), and a comparatively weak SEC West (where Ole Miss was clearly the second-best team, and LSU, Auburn, Arkansas and Miss State were all either 3-5 or 2-6 in conference). Their best win on the year, by far, was their 41-30 win at Georgia, but that was a long time ago, too. Of course, the SEC championship game this week will certainly vault them over Utah. Just thought it was interesting to see it at this point, though. I've been saying this for some time now. Bama has had one of the weakest SEC schedules in a long time for someone who has been undefeated at this point in the season. Having a weak(er) schedule is sometimes necessary to get a team to a point where they can contend for the mythical national championship. The Big 12 teams have been doing it for years. Notre Dame recently started weakening their schedule in hope that they could compete, sorry Domers. To me it's the biggest reason why they need a playoff. The talking heads keep saying the BCS are the reason the regular season is so much more important in college football than in other sports. Well kids, the regular season means less if you schedule MAC and Sunbelt teams for your non-conference games. A team like Alabama may only play one good team before the title game. If Tebow gets hurt they could luck their way into the game. I will say that OU looks like one of the better teams I've seen in a long, long time. That Bradford kid is amazing.

No the Cubs couldn't. Gregg sucks ass. Nobody is going to give a quality prospect to get him except Hendry. I bet we would both be amazed at the number of GM's that consider Gregg to be a valuable commodity simply based upon the fact that he had 29(or so) saves last year. I have no doubt Hendry could get value for Gregg, the question would be, why would he want to? He just traded value for the guy, and 2008 Gregg is definitely an upgrade from 2008 Howry, at approximately the same price. It was mentioned in the Peavy trade thread that Hendry believes the Cubs have a two year window to win. I have no issues with him going all out in attempt to win everything now. Kevin Gregg sucks. He's not an upgrade. When he starts walking people Lou won't use him and the Cubs will have another 7 man relief staff, of which 3 or 4 will be used regularly. All Gregg does is move Marmol from a high % of important innings to "closer", b/c Gregg won't be closing games for the Cubs.