biittner77

If the Cubs will take on salary ina a Vasquez and Green to the Cubs deal that reduce the pricetag in terms of talent or so it would seem. It would add a legit LH middle of the order bat at a position of need and that extra starter that Hendry has said he has wanted from day 1. What does AZ need? Seems like pitching would be their #1 priority. :santa:

Who takes over as GM if Hendry dies laughing?

I suppose someone could draft Sing but why draft a guy unless he has some really serious potential? It would be one thing to draft a guy like Doparik, hide him for a year then send him to fall league and back to the minorsbut Sing is a little long in the tooth as a prospect. He might make a good bench player but so what.

Jeff Blake? :oops: Is there a difference?

At this point the question is not should Orton get benched but when. After yesterday's game I found myself wondering if Tony Banks could really be any worse. Banks at least has had some experience and has also had brief success as an NFL QB. It seems like Orton is feeling the pressure and rather than step up his game he's found a way to be even worse.

the thing is though, the order of the lineup is much less a factor in runs scored than the players in it. But the players in that lineup would get on base and hit the ball hard- unless Perez is a starter. No matter what any statistical analysis says, I have trouble accepting the notion that Perez batting 8th would not be any different than having him lead off.

The advantage of getting both Bradley and Wilkerson is that it pretty much idiot proofs the lineup so long as Walker is still at 2nd and the SS bats 7th or 8th.

Is this the Mets trying to adopt the Card's formula of getting a really good lineup, get lucky with a couple of scrap heap players and then find pitching from unexpected sources?

His power makes up for his Ks. Do the Cubs really want someone trying to steal bases ahead of Lee & Ramirez? Why is power wasteful in the leadoff spot? The Cubs have starting pitchers that can swing the bat and should also get good production out of the 8 slot.

Doesn't it also benefit the Cubs if the market is high? Perhaps he overpaid for these 2 guys but he effectively knocked a lot of teams out of the FA pitcher market thus creating more of a demand for pitching via trades. If his intention was to drive the price up so high that teams with limited resources couldn't get players they wanted then I'd have to say it worked out pretty well in that he got the 2 guys he wanted and everyone else is left overpaying. The trick now will be to use that surplus pitching he has in trades for OF help.

There are two things that are never funny: cancer and Macias signing an extension.

By that logic every team should change their names to the Fans. After all, there aren't any Trojans at USC or Spartans at MSU or Blue Devils at Duke.

I'd rather not trade for Pierre and then go get both Bradley and Wilkerson. If Furcal signs- as seems likely- the lineup is almost fool-proof as Bradley, Wilkerson, Walker, Murton and even Barrett could bat 2nd.

What a difference a couple years makes. The Sox couldn't give Konerko away two years ago.

And that is exactly my point about CYA. It's a play not to lose mentality, and a terrible decision making process for a coaching staff. I'm just hoping this staff isn't so scared of having a decision backfire that they would rather make the wrong decision if it meant preventing criticism. What happens if they lose with Grossman? Well odds are they would have lost whatever game it was with Orton anyway. And why would 1 loss with Grossman be all that bad? They've lost 3 with Orton, and 2 were against bad teams, the third being a blowout completely on the shoulders of Orton. The bottom line is Orton isn't winning games, he isn't making it any easier to win games. The only reason this team is winning is because the defense is the best defense this league has seen in several years. Without that defense, this team stinks, which would make the decision easy. The only reason you stick with Orton is if you think luck is what brought you here, and that changing the QB will somehow change your luck. It's a play not to lose your job mentality. One way to keep a job in coaching professional sports is to keep the press off your back. Once Orton loses a game no one will 2nd guess the decision to go with Grossman. Until then the "If it ain't broke..." mentality wins out. The real question is do the players have confidence in Orton? If they do then he has to keep playing. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing that. Presumably, Orton does have friends on the team that would be upset if he got benched. Unlike baseball, where team chemistry is grossly overrated, in football it is very important to keep everyone on the same page. In short, I'd bench Orton but I understand why the Bears don't.

And that is exactly my point about CYA. It's a play not to lose mentality, and a terrible decision making process for a coaching staff. I'm just hoping this staff isn't so scared of having a decision backfire that they would rather make the wrong decision if it meant preventing criticism. What happens if they lose with Grossman? Well odds are they would have lost whatever game it was with Orton anyway. And why would 1 loss with Grossman be all that bad? They've lost 3 with Orton, and 2 were against bad teams, the third being a blowout completely on the shoulders of Orton. The bottom line is Orton isn't winning games, he isn't making it any easier to win games. The only reason this team is winning is because the defense is the best defense this league has seen in several years. Without that defense, this team stinks, which would make the decision easy. The only reason you stick with Orton is if you think luck is what brought you here, and that changing the QB will somehow change your luck. It's a play not to lose your job mentality. One way to keep a job in coaching professional sports is to keep the press off your back. Once Orton loses a game no one will 2nd guess the decision to go with Grossman. Until then the "If it ain't broke..." mentality wins out. The real question is do the players have confidence in Orton? If they do then he has to keep playing. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing that. Presumably, Orton does have friends on the team that would be upset if he got benched. Unlike baseball, where team chemistry is grossly overrated, in football it is very important to keep everyone on the same page. In short, I'd bench Orton but I understand why the Bears don't.

I agree. I think it's more of a CYA route though. I fear that the staff is looking for a really bad game by Kyle, a loss, or an injury to make their decision for them. That is how the Jauron regime would handle things. But this staff might be different. The way they handled the FS and FB situations makes me believe they are solely interested in putting the best player out there, and not all that concerned with potential backlash for making an "unnecessary change". I cannot believe that with all the faith this regime (from the GM down to the QB coaches) placed in Rex, that they are impressed enough with Orton to have changed their minds. With the bye on the line, homefield advantage in question, and even the playoff spot in jeopardy, I don't want to see this team wait for a loss to suddenly say it's okay to make a change. The team is winning, but Kyle is making it very hard. The players will understand such a move, even if you have them buying into the "just enough to win" mindset. What happens if the Bears bench Orton in favor of Grossman and the Bears lose? That's the scenario that the Bear's coaching staff fear most. Things could get really ugly if the very good defense starts pointing fingers at the lousy offense. There's an old saying among coaches "If you have 2 QBs you don't really have any". A QB controversy is OK in training camp but there's too much at stake this late in the season. It's easier for us as fans to see that there is little risk to playing Grossman over Orton. It's pretty clear that the Bears aren't going to win any playoff games without better play from their QB so to us we'd rather roll the dice with Grossman. The coaches have a much different prespective. Even if they believed they have no chance with Orton they could never admit it publicly. So they are stuck with letting Orton play his way out of the starting lineup.

I remember that. Wasn't is because they wanted to make room for Delino F. DeShields? I think it was that they wanted to keep Augie Ojeda because the SS (whose name escapes me) was banged up and they felt that Ojeda could help the team more. The worst part of the move may have been that by releasing GM Jr. it necessitated promoting Patterson to rot on the bench instead of playing every day in Iowa. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Sarge Jr. couldn't hit for crap? Sure but at the time neither could Patterson. GM JR was a very good CF and the team's ERA suffered after he left. Given the choice, I would rather have GM JR riding the pine and Patterson in the minors. Defense helps, but if you have a team of 8 guys (excluding the pitcher) who are all gold-glove defenders, but can't hit for crap, you'll lose 95 games. A guy like that is ok if you have big bats in the lineup around him. But you can't have a bunch of guys like that as some people around here seem to want. Defense + hitting > hitting and average defense> defense alone. I wouldn't consider GM Jr as starting material- nor did I then. However, a switch hitter with tremendous speed is not a bad thing to have in a 4th OF. In the context of that particular season, the Cubs added offense in CF but tanked anyway, partly due to a noticeable rise in XBH. Maybe they still tank with GM Jr. in CF, who knows.

A few thoughts: I can't help thinking that the '85 Bears would have had Simms running for his life by the second quarter. Tampa's play action worked every single time they used it in the 2nd half or so it seemed. Orton won't lose his job until the Bears lose. I expect that to be the game against the Steelers. They talk about the rookie wall because of the longer pro season, perhaps that explains Orton's regression. Whenever people mention the current Bears and compare them to the Ravens they never give enough credit to Trent Dilfer. No, he wasn't a great QB but he was better than anyone the Bears have.

I remember that. Wasn't is because they wanted to make room for Delino F. DeShields? I think it was that they wanted to keep Augie Ojeda because the SS (whose name escapes me) was banged up and they felt that Ojeda could help the team more. The worst part of the move may have been that by releasing GM Jr. it necessitated promoting Patterson to rot on the bench instead of playing every day in Iowa. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Sarge Jr. couldn't hit for crap? Sure but at the time neither could Patterson. GM JR was a very good CF and the team's ERA suffered after he left. Given the choice, I would rather have GM JR riding the pine and Patterson in the minors.

I remember that. Wasn't is because they wanted to make room for Delino F. DeShields? I think it was that they wanted to keep Augie Ojeda because the SS (whose name escapes me) was banged up and they felt that Ojeda could help the team more. The worst part of the move may have been that by releasing GM Jr. it necessitated promoting Patterson to rot on the bench instead of playing every day in Iowa.

Don't see how the Eyre singing's redundant. Williams may be on the move. Perhaps the Cubs can get Wilkerson. The Eyre signing affects Ohman more than it does Rusch. I'd rather keep Ohman but if he is part of a deal for an OF than so be it. I'd imagine Ohman would be pretty attractive to a lot of teams due to his experience, price and Lefthandedness. I see the pen shaping up this way: Dempster Howry Eyre Williamson Wuertz Williams Rusch This assumes that Baker will yet again go with a 12 man pitching staff and that Hendry is serious about having 7 starters and going out and getting another SP arm. This makes Novoa and Ohman expendable in trades.

I'm not really Larry Biittner but if the real Larry Biittner wanted this user name then I would gladly hand it over to him in favor of MikeVail81 or perhaps ThadBosley84

The priorities for a #2 hitter in order of importance: OBP contact 1-3, score from 1st on XBH speed Power stolen bases BA I really can't see any one area besides power where Soriano is a better fit than Walker, especially considering that Walker bats LH. Neither is a plus defender. Soriano has more speed but makes less contact.

Are the Cards bringing back Reggie Sanders? Seems like Jones would probably come just short of equalling Sanders' production. It would be nice if the Cards' streak of finding gold in the scrap heap would finally run out.