BigbadB

Playing on wild card weekend might be their only chance of actually winning a playoff game. The Bears still play New Orleans at home in December, have 5 games left vs their own division, and a game with STL. They can still go 9-3 against the NFC with wins against two playoff contenders in New Orleans and Philly (plus GB/MIN). Is it just me, or has this NFL football season been one of the most unpredictable seasons to date? It's become next to impossible to predict a winner in any game.

That's not surprising considering you had 2nd string corners playing every down, and 3rd string nickel and dimes playing in passing situations.

It's a sad day when you can't trust your special teams to hold the return to less than 30 return yards. The squib kick was a horrible idea. Did Lovie honestly believe that his special teams unit would give up back to back 70+ yard returns? If they did, then they don't deserve to win. But, essentially, he never gave them an opportunity to make that stand, so this loss hangs over Lovie.

It should be illegal to generate a ridiculous amount of excitement followed so closely by a ridiculous amount of depression. So being a Cubs fan should be illegal? I suppose so.

It should be illegal to generate a ridiculous amount of excitement followed so closely by a ridiculous amount of depression.

Okay, this needs to be said. You had your fun in the last game thread, and I'm officially tired of reading it. If you don't have Bears game related material to share, please quit posting in the Bears game threads.

Being as fair as I can possibly be with a stop watch, I come up with about 10.53 seconds to complete those two plays. That's saying that each time the clock was stopped, that would mean that between the two clock stoppages, there must have been a full second for each play. I did go back and look at the Bears last drive. The clock seemed to be ticking a bit more liberally before the Bears scored. It even appeared as though 2 or 3 seconds ticked off the clock after the time out was called. With that said, I think it's fair to say that if we were really watching the clock like a hawk, the Falcons deserved a little more than 11 seconds on the clock since time should have been put back on the clock on the Bears drive. But, we know why the clock was ticking super fast when the Bears were driving now, don't we? My final summation on this is: As slowly as the official timekeeper was at starting the clock, he seemed just as slow in stopping the clock at the end of the plays (as I was still within 11 seconds on my stopwatch, and that the Bears do NOT have grounds for a protest.

That one was nothing compared to how long it took for the clock to start on the kickoff. If anyone has a DVR and can still rewind, check it out. And remember that just because it said 11 seconds on the clock doesn't mean there is a full second before it ticks down to 10. It says 11 all the way to the point there is 10 seconds left. The scoreboard clock operator took his sweet time starting that clock. I think I'll go back and see how the clock ticked off at the tail end of the Bears touchdown catch.

I rewound my DVR several times and I've determined that the first second of the kickoff was the longest second in the history of mankind. Also, the first second of the last pass play was the second longest second in the history of mankind. On the first one, the receiver caught the ball and took at minimum 2 steps before the first second ticked off the clock. On the pass play, a lot happened before the first second ticked off the clock. Basically, it was a minimum of 13 seconds for those two plays, yet it only took 10 for them to get in field goal range. Amazing.

It's Ewekeluhs, not Euclis. Duh.

I thought it was hilarious. The entire SNL Update was hilarious.

Agreed. I'm fine with Hill backing up a prospect at AA or AAA, but he's done as a major league backstop. There are other options available on the cheap that I'd be perfectly fine with. But, my first preference would probably be to bring back Blanco for 1m.

Yes, because good contact hitters like Mark Grace average 160-170 RBI a year. Hmm. Wait. You know someone who makes good contact and doesn't strike out much? Miguel Tejada. 32 GIDP's this year. What do you hate more, a strike out or a GIDP? Ryan Howard hit into 11 GIDP's. Ryan Howard= 475 outs this year Miggy Tejada= 496 outs this year

I think I can answer this one. Chad Billingsley. Good strike out pitchers can strike out anybody, not just strike out prone hitters. Sometimes, people are just going to strike out against a guy like Billingsley. Billingsley thrives on missing bats with his pitches. Come to think of it, the Cubs have a few guys like that, too.

Why would the Angels not sign Tex? They traded their starting 1b for him. Did they do this simply as a one year rental?

I bet it'd be close enough to not make it worth them to fight him in arbitration. I bet he'd get the raise and then some (and as you said, the arbitration fight could make later negotiations even more difficult.) Agreed. I haven't been a strong advocate for Hendry over the years, but one thing he has been able to do is sign players on the cheap that were deserving of much more than what they signed for had they hit the market. Picking up the option is a sign of respect to that player, and in future dealings could impact a cheaper contract than if you disrespect the player by trying to negotiate a much smaller raise.

Henry Blanco started 28 games this year. That accounts to more than $100,000 per game started. I like Hank White as much as the next guy, but come on. If they can't resign him to a million or so, it's time to bid adieu. The only teams that should be able to afford a 3m back up catcher are the Bosox and Yankees. That money would be better spent elsewhere. There are plenty of cheap catchers out there that could provide a better bat for pinch hitting purposes. I certainly wouldn't expect Blanco to reproduce the numbers he put up this year.

He's signed through 2010. Ah. Gracias.

With the other Cub fan friends, we have yet to even make "eye contact" even though we've been within a few short feet of each other. To the fans of other teams who are friends and know my passion for the Cubs, they've been as respectfully quiet as possible, or a few of them shared in a respectful way their frustration. To the fans of other teams who are not close friends, but acquaintances who know my passion for the Cubs, they have each said "what happened to your cubbies", to which I quickly and loudly said I'm not talking about it. I'll talk to you about anything else, but not that. They quickly adhered to my request.

Wait a minute. You want Chone Figgins, who had less XBH's this year than our starting pitchers, batting right after Ryan Theriot at the top of the line up? And you want to trade Derrek Lee for him? Long season, he we come.

This is still being discussed? WTH? How many more years does Lee have on his current deal? 1 year? Who is going to give up decent value for a guy with 1 year left on his contract? Why would Lee give up his NTC to go to San Francisco? The simple fact that you have to get someone like Tex before you even consider packaging Lee makes this even more unrealistic. Sign Tex, move Soriano to RF and put Tex in LF while Lee plays out his contract. However, I'm not convinced that the Cubs will be the top bidders for Tex's services. I'd expect to see a trade for a lefty bat, one that likely won't involve Lee.

I've grown a bit tired of the matter-of-fact-prediction. Maybe Dempster and Stoney can take their act out on the road together. I hear Solomon Torres is looking for a headliner for his wonderful routine.

blaming Lee's GIDPs on Theriot being on first base is kinda like blaming rape victims for looking too good It is kinda like that. But it's a bit different. It's more like blaming rape victims for looking too good and laying down naked in a park at night with their hands tied to the ground and a blindfold on. Yes. This. Except you forgot about the sign she's holding that says "me so horny".

To expound on my own quote, here are a few stats to further prove that Theriot is a bottom of the order hitter. #1. 24 XBH's in 661 PA's. That's an extra base hit every 27.5 times he comes to the plate. Remember how badly we despised Juan Pierre at the top of the Cubs order? As bad as he was, he generated twice as many XBH's for the Cubs that year than Theriot had this year. #2. Theriot scored 85 runs this year, mostly batting at the top of the order on a team that led the league in runs scored. 661 PA's and 85 runs scored is not impressive by any means. That's actually called not making much happen. Sure, he can get on 1st base with the best of them, and if getting to 1st base put runs on the board, he's an all star. Realistically, Theriot is part of the reason Derrek Lee finished the season with a ridiculous number of GIDP's. Corey Patterson scored more runs than Theriot in 2004 than Theriot did this year. #3. Soriano drove in twice as many runs as Theriot in many, many fewer at bats. The Cubs had the luxury of having quality hitters throughout the entire line up, which gave Soriano plenty of RBI opportunities hitting at the top of the line up. Soriano missed 53 games, which is nearly 1/3 of the season. Had he played in those games, his RBI total could have broached 111 for the season, good enough to tie Aramis for the team lead. There is something to be said about giving your best hitters the most at bats. I'm curious how many more runs this team could have scored if they let DeRosa hit second all year. DeRosa led the team in scoring (103 runs scored) batting in the bottom half the order all season. How many more runs could DeRosa have produced if 1) he hit at the top of the order all season, where he would have had a whole lot more at bats 2) would have got on base in front of much better hitters all season? Ryan Theriot is not the definition of a table setter. A table setter is someone who can get in scoring position a high percentage of the time. Digest this one just for the fun of it: Theriot in 661 PA's this season= 24 XBH's Cubs starting pitchers in 331 PA's this season= 18 XBH's Argue against Soriano at the top of the order all you wish, but the results will always come out way better than Theriot hitting there. Theriot doesn't belong in the discussion. Period.

Totally disagree. The Cubs led the league in runs scored this year with Soriano hitting at the top of the order. 3 playoff games doesn't change that for me.