jjgman21

at this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see Angel make a full recovery from his surgery, only to have coccyx shoot out through his taint two weeks later. why people hold out hope that this guy will ever be an effective pitcher for the Cubs for more than a couple of months, I have no idea. haven't we learned our lesson? how long will we continue to count on pitchers to stay healthy, only to put us into a bind when they so predictably get hurt again?

i don't know much about injuries and whatnot, but this is what rotoworld said on June 8th, and it might be why the Cubs waited. So further proof the Cubs medical staff is full of jackasses So you're saying it's impossible it wasn't damaged further over the last 3 full months? And are these type of tests done by some sort of exclusive "Cubs medical staff?" I thought things like this were handled by doctors that treated players in general from around the league. the most noteworthy orthopedic surgeon working on athletes in this country found nothing structurally wrong with Prior until the 'exploratory surgery.' we see this type of thing over and over. same type of thing happened with Carpenter this year. it says nothing about Cubs management or the Cubs training staff. the only thing it speaks to is the short comings of medical science and the extraordinary bad luck of the Cubs. TJS doesn't mean Guz's career is over. the fact that he makes JD drew look invincible is the problem here. sure wish the Marlins went for the best pitcher from Boise instead of the spazz with the crappy mechanics.

Jeremi Gonzalez

What do you mean by no night Big Ten games this year? Wisconsin v. Iowa next week is at night. Should be a great game. I live next to Ryan field, looks like all the night game lights are set up. Should be a good atmosphere. I think what he is saying is Evanston keeps saying various football teams can't play the Cats at night, and the first that was banned from such night games was UW.

Twins to sink into mediocrity.

Link. if I were able to render legal opinions, I would say that contract provision is unenforceable. liquidated damages provisions are enforced if they reflect a reasonable approximation of damages that would be suffered upon breech. liquidated damages provisions are unenforceable if they are merely a penalty, which are never awarded in contract disputes. the award of damages certainly isn't reasonable as there is no basis upon which to conclude that LSU would suffer 1.25M in damages if Miles left Michigan. it also is an obvious penalty as this provision only applies if he leaves for Michigan and states no reason why leaving for Michigan in particular would lead to such damages. in reality, there would be a negotiated buyout, where Miles returned a lesser amount to LSU. Miles should negotiate a price somewhere around the amount that it would actually cost LSU to find a new coach. speculation about what this will cost LSU in lost revenues is just that, speculation, and will not be allowed into evidence and therefore not considered in the damages award. but I'm not allowed to render legal opinions, so Les, if you're reading, please disregard this post. if LSU's lawyer is reading this, you should be ashamed of yourself, as you know all the above to be true.

When I started this thread, I didn't think there would be all of this discussion over semantics. My point is that Lilly has been the best Cub starter all year, has been the starter to break all of the losing streaks, and continues to be the pitcher who gives the Cubs the best chance to win games this year. To me, that defines the "ace" of a staff. I'm not talking about next year, who has the best stuff, his flyball ratio, or whether he would be the "ace" on other teams. Oh come on now Btb....if you said the sky looked blue you'd get a nice little semantic debate about what shade of blue! Anyone who knows anything, knows the sky is: Teal 12% of the time "Sky Blue" ironically only 8% Aqua 9% Midnight Blue 7% Black 32.6% various shades of the red/orange/yellow families 4% others 25.3% of the other categories "blue" constitutes less than 1% my knowledge of the subject is so far superior to those of you who observe with a crayola 8-pack mind. I see the full 256 crayon box. you are now on ignore all shades of gray are pissed that they are lumped in under "others" but can't get over their internal argument about whether it is gray or grey, and thus are unable to put forward a strong unified front to confront this stereotype.

What are you talking about? Trachsel's last start only looks good because Lou kept him in for the 6th. He had given up 3 runs in 5 innings, and the 1,2,3 6th inning is the only reason that 4.50 ERA/1.33 WHIP outing looks any good at all. but this is where it goes a little far. why does inning 'not matter' in a discussion about relief pitching, but it does matter in a discussion about starting pitching? I personally don't think the start was good period. the bottom qualifier for a 'QS' doesn't make the start good. but the bottom line is that he pitched six innings and allowed three runs and the bottom line is he went 1, 2, 3 in that inning. you can't pluck out a good inning and throw it away to cast the start as worse than it was, as I am sure you wouldn't let someone say 'throw out the fifth to declare it better than it was. What in the world are you talking about? Backtobanks said Trachsel's last outing was pretty good, but would have been very good if Lou didn't send him back out to try and get a win. Had he not gone out for that last inning, it would have been a 5 inning 3 ER game. As it stands, it was 6/3, which qualifies as "quality" but isn't all that good in my book. Where are you getting innings not mattering from? And what is going too far? guilty of skimming and not fully getting the context of your post.

What are you talking about? Trachsel's last start only looks good because Lou kept him in for the 6th. He had given up 3 runs in 5 innings, and the 1,2,3 6th inning is the only reason that 4.50 ERA/1.33 WHIP outing looks any good at all. but this is where it goes a little far. why does inning 'not matter' in a discussion about relief pitching, but it does matter in a discussion about starting pitching? I personally don't think the start was good period. the bottom qualifier for a 'QS' doesn't make the start good. but the bottom line is that he pitched six innings and allowed three runs and the bottom line is he went 1, 2, 3 in that inning. you can't pluck out a good inning and throw it away to cast the start as worse than it was, as I am sure you wouldn't let someone say 'throw out the fifth to declare it better than it was.

eating a little crow for some of my arguments in this thread. feel free to bash away at Hendry and Lou on this one.

Rex had 11 inc. today. I would say at least half of those came on plays where he had zero time. literally none. hit before he reached his drop back spot. most of the rest came on plays where he was at least hurried, and on those occasions he smartly threw the ball away, or put it where only his receiver could get it. he was a little shaky early on, but that's to be expected with bad field position, and getting lit up on his first drop back. every QB is going to throw a bad ball or two in every game. I seriously don't remember seeing him miss any open receivers, accept a couple of side line balls where the made the safe throw instead of the aggressive throw, which were probably the right decisions. He hung Moose out to dry early on and the screens were off, he also fumbled again. I don't blame him for the offensive struggles today, but he play didn't good. He doesn't work well in conservative settings, he's a rhythm type QB and this offense isn't good for passing rhythms since they're still stuck in Bronco Nagurski's jock. I agree on the ball he threw to Moose, again probably a product of that first drop back. but I think you are nitpicking. yes, he did fumble, possibly because of the injured hand, but he also held onto the ball after a couple of hits that would cause many QBs to fumble. I wouldn't call it a great game, but all things considered, I think he played a good game. he threw the ball well when he had time, and made few mistakes when he didn't. holy cow. Orlando Pace probably out for the year.

Yeah, it would have been nice to see the outcome of this one without the 3 horrible turnovers though, even with the rush-first mentality. I thought they needed to run the ball well to win anyway, which they really didn't. Rex had that deep in route working though and it would have helped to see them go to it a bit more. Plus where were the quick drop passes? Blah, I'm ready to put this one to bed 8-) while two soft fumbles like that are infuriating, they shouldn't have been running the ball anyway. 2nd and 5 or 6, between the forties. chances are its going to be third down after a run, forcing a throw on third down anyway, where you have to bring in the third down unit and advertise what you are going to do. throw the ball on second out of your base set, when in all probability they are expecting the same conservative football the Bears are known for.

The injuries are quite discouraging, though. And the receivers didn't play nearly as well as I would have hoped. Let's hope that changes and Olsen can make his debut next week. I'm not overly discouraged about the run game, though. A lot of the credit should go to SD for that. I have no problem with the run game doing this against the Chargers. I do have a problem if they're doing this next week against KC. the o-line needs to play together in order to become a cohesive unit. I wasn't hip with Tate taking the pre-season off, and am fairly confident it will come together now that they have a game as a unit under their belt.

Rex had 11 inc. today. I would say at least half of those came on plays where he had zero time. literally none. hit before he reached his drop back spot. most of the rest came on plays where he was at least hurried, and on those occasions he smartly threw the ball away, or put it where only his receiver could get it. he was a little shaky early on, but that's to be expected with bad field position, and getting lit up on his first drop back. every QB is going to throw a bad ball or two in every game. I seriously don't remember seeing him miss any open receivers, accept a couple of side line balls where the made the safe throw instead of the aggressive throw, which were probably the right decisions.

I think the most annoying part of this game was they played this game not to lose. if the coaching staff goes after the win, and let's Rex loose in the first half, or more consistently in the second half, there's a damn good chance they do win this game. I think they threw on first down ONE TIME before there was a :40 left in the third quarter. sure maybe Rex throws a few bad balls, but that was the chance you had to take to win this game, and the coaching staff wouldn't let it happen. they don't make that adjustment, instead choosing to deal with the rush by putting Rex into seven step drops, and Rex either completes the pass or is safe with the ball on those seven step drops. great, good job. a bit unidimensional, but fine. yet he doesn't use it to the full advantage. can't throw the ball down field on 2nd or 3rd and short. Kruetz p's me off, and I think he's overrated, but I guess I am with Cuse on this. they had something that was working, but just had to bust out the stupid Ditka-esque 'I don't want to win this game if we don't win the battle in the trenches' mentality.

Exhibit #1A on that play right there.

Yea Ive had no problems with them today. havent really noticed them which to me means they have done a good job. really an amazing turn around considering they were the one's that lead the 'Grossman controversy' charge last year. today, Aikman even admits that even with his less than stellar stats, Rex had a pretty good day, all things considered. they very easily could have hung this on Rex.

while it definitely is the boner prize of boner prizes, Buck and Aikman have called about the best game I have ever heard them call today.

see Raisen's post. I have no issues with what the defense does from here on out.

I agree it's aweful play calling, but the Chicago Bears need to get 2 yards in three running downs if they are going to be successful. I'm looking at you again Olin. constantly has the help of a guard, but can never move anyone one inch.

nice line play. terrible.

13 on the final two plays of the half where the Bears D was dropping back.

line and backs have to adjust to it. it's up to them to give the proper line call and execute the blocking. I'm looking at you Mr. Overrated German Hawaiian guy.

Won't matter. Mariotti has already almost finished his "Rex Butterfingers" article for tomorrow. Good thing just about everyone with half a brain knows Mariotti is a blowhard who doesnt know jackcrap. Hehe, which adds up to about 20% of the population :P oh, now fundamentalist christians are the only one's that AREN'T idiots. I kid, I kid.

damn our punter for that matter. Hopefully this one is a bit better. redemption. come on D. not too soft.