BigbadB

Thanks!

Are the Cubs playing two today? I just got back in town and I'm trying to figure out when they are making up the other PPD game.

Congrats and good luck.

Because they either haven't seen the umpteen times this year that the Cubs failed to move runners over on sac bunt attempts, or their brain cramps made them forget all those failed attempts.

Burned out on Vegas my ass. I'm there for work. My work will be done at 9:58am on Sunday morning. I don't drive home from Vegas on Sundays, thus, I have 2 minutes to get to the sports book.

I'll be at a sports book somewhere watching all the games. I'm sure I can find one of those somewhere in Vegas. :wink:

I hope the Yankees sign him to be Rivera's set up man.

I actually like it when a hitter squares up on the first pitch (as if he is going to bunt). Anything to shift the defense a little bit might be enough to punch the ball through the infield or over a defenders head. But, to actually try to bunt someone over with someone like Soto is just plain dumb. Brandon Phillips did it last night to get the go ahead run across. Although Phillips actually made contact, but it luckily went foul. Not sure how fooled the defense really was in that instance, since there were 2 outs at the time.

Hendry needs to rip Piniella for his Dustyesque performance today.

The Soto bunt was horrible, you're right. But as I mentioned in the game thread, pitching to Izturis was the right call. He's not good at baseball. You should assume that Carlos Marmol can strike him out and then retire Schumacker somehow. Loading the bases with one out for Skip Schumacker, a good hitter with good speed, would've been the wrong call. I know exactly how bad Izturis is. However, the one thing that has been a constant for the light hitting punk he is, is his ability to put the ball in play. Feel free to take a look at his K's per AB and come back and tell me it was the right call to let a light hitting, contact hitter swing away with an open base. He K's once about every 16 AB's.

The Soto bunt call was beyond ridiculous, but I'm more pissed about pitching to Izturis with an open base. A double play ends the inning.

What's Josephine got going on?

What sort of weather are you expecting Ike to create in Tampa on Sunday? Heavy wind and rain. But, it's sounding like Florida might be in the clear from this storm. Maybe I will take Tampa. I have a few more days before I need to submit my pick.

Gotta love the Brewers bullpen. No, seriously. You gotta love 'em. No wonder Sabathia goes the distance every time out.

I'd probably normally take Tampa Bay at home against Atlanta in my suicide pool, but with Ike looming in the gulf, I think I'll stay away from games that might have weather related issues. Especially considering how strong of a performance Michael Turner turned in last week. I don't like to pick teams on the road, but I just don't like any other home teams this week, so I'm going to go with the New York Giants at St. Louis.

He's trying to, but he might run out of time. In fact, it might already be too late. I can't imagine he will be much of a threat when he'll basically be starting spring training in the heart of a pennant race.

I'm not at all shocked that you are providing pessimism in the Bears game thread considering how much pessimism you toss around in the Cubs game threads. It was a tremendous road victory against a team that very well could be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl this year. By your views, we should all be gloomy and doomy with dread on how horribly the Bears will perform in the next 15 games rather than share a little excitement of how well they performed last night. Ouch. If you were playing darts, you would have just missed the board completely. -1 respect I don't think so. If I want to form the opinion that this team has an opportunity to match what the 2006 team did, why try to rain on my parade? It's really no different than wanting and hoping to see the Cubs win the World Series. I like to enjoy the positives rather than dwell on the negatives. Unlike the verbiage in your sig. If only the entire world shared the same opinion as yours, we could all hold hands and sing in unity. Oh but wait, we don't, so thats why we have discussion forums. And again, you completely missed the point. I was saying I wouldn't base the opinion of the 2008 Bears on the 2006 Bears because they are completely different teams. But you used irrational bias to assume that I was blatently being a pessimist (AFTER A WIN! LOL) or trying to rain on people's parade or something. It's perfectly acceptable to disagree with me, and I welcome a discussion of different thoughts. But the random disgust you seemed to convey towards me was quite disapointing for someone who I previously held in high regard. Admittedly, I have been riding your ass lately, and I apologize for that. Maybe I did read more into that post than you actually meant. But, it's hard for me to not see negativity in your posts considering how much you share(d) in the game thread forums. I watched the entire game, and I have already formed an opinion. You just don't go into a visiting team's stadium and kick that very good team's ass if you aren't a good team. Maybe I'm setting myself up for a letdown. I've been a Bears fan since 1972. I've had a lot more disappointing seasons of being a fan than years to be excited. And when they come out in game 1 of a new season with a can of whoop ass, I don't appreciate someone telling me that I shouldn't form an opinion based on one game. There is no doubt that this team has question marks. A rookie RB, a back up QB, old, young, and inexperienced WR's and an aging O-Line to name a few. But, if everyone does their job, this team can win 10+. But, that's every team in football, except for a small handful of VERY bad teams.

They should skip his next start.

Cain and Verlander both took pretty bad dumps this year. Odd.

I'm not at all shocked that you are providing pessimism in the Bears game thread considering how much pessimism you toss around in the Cubs game threads. It was a tremendous road victory against a team that very well could be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl this year. By your views, we should all be gloomy and doomy with dread on how horribly the Bears will perform in the next 15 games rather than share a little excitement of how well they performed last night. Ouch. If you were playing darts, you would have just missed the board completely. -1 respect I don't think so. If I want to form the opinion that this team has an opportunity to match what the 2006 team did, why try to rain on my parade? It's really no different than wanting and hoping to see the Cubs win the World Series. I like to enjoy the positives rather than dwell on the negatives. Unlike the verbiage in your sig.

I'm not at all shocked that you are providing pessimism in the Bears game thread considering how much pessimism you toss around in the Cubs game threads. It was a tremendous road victory against a team that very well could be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl this year. By your views, we should all be gloomy and doomy with dread on how horribly the Bears will perform in the next 15 games rather than share a little excitement of how well they performed last night. This team is not completely different. Sure, the personnel is different. But, the playbook looks pretty much the same. That's because Lovie is still coaching this team. Truth be told, the offense is a run oriented, ball control offense and the defense is the biggest strength of the team, and the team will live and die by how the defense performs. I can look all the way back to the early '80's and see the same identical team I see now. Back then, the team was a run oriented, ball control offense that lived and died by how the defense performs. Sound familiar? That's because the team isn't really all that different.

That Rosario cat looks scary good. He leaped completely over a Charger defender without missing a beat for a big gain. :shock:

I watched Carolina yesterday (since the Chargers game was the only afternoon game on here) and their run game ran roughshod on the Chargers defense. DeAngelo Williams and another cat named Stewart (I believe) found holes and exploited what was supposed to be a strong Charger defense. Carolina owned the ball most of the game. They did a pretty good job defensively of keeping Tomlinson in check. The Chargers didn't play well enough to win that game (except for the last drive of the game), but they nearly manage to win anyway. Glad Smith won't be playing, because he owns the Bears. Based on what I saw yesterday, Carolina will move the ball well between the 20's, but might have to settle for field goals, which is pretty much what Cover 2 accomplishes.

Delhomme was throwing to Moose (incomplete, of course) on deep patterns. LOL. If they do that again this week, Mike Brown will put Moose in the hospital.

If that division stays close, both staffs could be toast come playoff time. It's too bad these teams don't face each other in the final series.