BigbadB

My advice would be to attempt this on the edge of a swimming pool. Even if you don't stick the landing, it could be less painful and less likely end up in the hospital.

I agree. I think they need to sign at least one FA WR and C before the draft. There's no way you go into the draft with such gaping holes at those two positions. They obviously have more to address in free agency, but those are the gapingest of holes. I also believe they should already be working the phones for suitors for Fields, if they do intend to trade him. Just not enough interested teams and free agency will eliminate more teams.

I'm guessing they will sign guys they feel they can flip at the deadline moreso than a long term deal for a Boras client.

Absolutely nothing wrong with it. But, the vision going into the offseason was a bidding war among a handful of teams that want to give you all the money you want to come and play for them. That's not happening here. Every team has balked at the money/years Boras and Bellinger want. Now it's about saving face. They may lose this battle of how much Bellinger gets, but if they are going to lose, they will lose at the last minute while Boras works diligently to find someone willing to jump out from a closet with a forgotten bag of cash that was just lying around. Hell, the Dodgers still have some years available to defer money to. Maybe they could find a nice platoon for him for the next 7 or 8 years. Don't think Boras hasn't thought of that, cuz that guy will do anything to get his client his money. He's got his own reputation to think about. Right now, he looks a bit like ass to the sports world with all of these unsigned players.

Now there's rumors of Getsy taking the OC job in LV. I'm kinda glad he's getting another OC job. It will give us some perspective on good/bad he was at doing the job in Chicago. It might remove LV as an option for Fields suitors, however. Can't imagine the higher ups in LV saw the Getsy/Fields show in Chicago and declared they "want some a dat".

Maybe this is a reference to Caleb and his father originally stating they didn't want to be drafted by any crappy teams that might end up being so bad they end up with the first pick in the draft? Even went as far to say he'd rather just stay in school than be drafted by a lousy team. Of course, same problem next year, and the year after that, etc... Seems to me someone has talked a bit of sense into him and told him to slow down on his narrative. I'd also imagine Chicago may not look nearly as bad of a destination as they were looking before the defense improved. Granted, they still have the history of poor QB development/play that will haunt them until someone changes that history. But, the Bears have some new coaches on the offensive side (with familiarity with some of those coaches), some talent to build on, cap space and draft picks to turn a struggling franchise back into a playoff team in shorter order than Washington and NE. Technically, the Bears were the 9th worst team, and the first pick in the draft was because of someone else being the worst team in the league. I don't know, just spitballing. He could still be just as passionate about wanting to be traded to a SoCal team or a team with tons of success and history. He does seem like a personality that will expect results in his first contract, or he'll be willing to go where he has a better chance at results on his second one.

Nearly every veteran player has been injured, still injured or released. Couple that with Bedard missing upwards of 8 weeks and yeah, I'm not even watching them right now. It's not fun to watch a team that is likely only going to score 1 goal if any. Especially when that goal or assist won't be coming from Bedard. I guess the good news is some of the youngsters are getting valuable playing time.

Yikes. Good thing I'm retired. I'd be late for work after reading that article. A lot of really good stuff there.

Coupled with KC not being all that great against the run.

I'm not so sure they can, either. But it's still the outcome I'm hoping for. The suitors don't seem to be all that enamored with meeting Boras' demands. So who knows how low it can go, or what kind of contract magic can be worked out to make it happen. Obviously, you aren't getting a buy one, get one half off deal. But, there are ways to make it work. I kinda doubt they even go down that road, TBH.

Oh, I'm not saying they didn't. I'm just saying those penalties factored in the outcome. The only penalty I questioned was the first in back to back holding calls on KC's RG. I didn't really see a hold there, although I can see how and why it was called. From a different angle, it could easily look like a hold.

While you are right about most, if not all, of everything here, Ross is no longer captaining this team. He is a play the vets manager, and Counsell isn't sold on the same idea. I'm not saying they will now hand the keys to a certain position to Mervis, but he should get a better opportunity to provide his ability to this team. I could see him start the year in Iowa, or as an extra bat off the bench/spot starter at the big league level. A lot of where he starts could depend entirely on how good of a Spring he has. I don't think they should be closing the door to Morel or Busch at 3rd base, since you could afford a bit of weaker defense at 3rd for 6 innings (Madrigal can be a defensive replacement) for the extra bat early in games. Morel is a righty bat at DH. Mervis is a lefty bat at DH. While a full on platoon might not make sense, you might want Morel to have 66% of the plate time at DH if that's the position he's destined, then 33% for Mervis vs. tough righties is still a nice amount of plate time. Then if you can get one of Busch or Morel to be a decent enough 3b for half a game or more, Mervis' ability to play 1b and provide another lefty bat could be quite valuable. I'd rather see them give Mervis a crack at the roster than Wisdom. But, I'm also still in the camp of sign Chapman and Bellinger. And yes, I know that blocks a lot of prospects. Trade some of those prospects at the deadline for pitching and a strong playoff run.

My wife thinks I should be a head coach. I told her on the first 4th and short, you gotta kick the field goal here. 3 scores is better than 2 scores. Once it's 3 scores, go for it on 4th and long if you want, I don't care. But, you need 3 scores and neutralize any chance at momentum. Not only did they go for it and didn't make it, momentum shifted in a way that I've only seen a few times. It was a tidal wave. Then he gets a reprieve. You take the tie here. You can't allow yourself to go two scores down. But they went for it and went down 2 scores. I feel bad for the Lions fanbase. You get do overs in regular season. You don't get do overs in playoffs. There are times when going for it on 4th makes sense. Those were two times that you just don't do it. I'll also add that Zay Flowers learned a valuable lesson in his game. One that people will look back at and laugh at over and over again, but he learned. I haven't gone back and looked at where each of the 5 personal fouls that were called on Baltimore happened and how many points were earned by KC by those penalties extending plays or killing drives for Baltimore, but it sure seemed like the difference in that game to me was those penalties. Hard way to lose.

Yeah, I just don't know what you would expect Hoyer to do differently here. Boras has no mystery teams. His leverage is at an all time low. He's exchanged numbers with Hoyer and there is no other team willing to go that high, but he still needs to get the best value for his client as he possibly can. I'm sure he's turning over rocks, but very few teams have a couple hundred mill sitting around collecting dust and a big hole in CF to fill. So it's Cubs or something even worse. Boras isn't ready to tell his client he isn't getting anymore blood from that turnip, so he might as well sign. His only ounce of leverage is the pressure of time. Hoyer doesn't seem bothered by the time issue, as he still feels Boras is being unreasonable with his demands. Sometime before or during Spring Training, they will find a common ground so that Boras can look better to his client and call it a "win" and the Cubs can be happy the got the best deal they could to bring Bellinger back. I was hoping to see Chapman signed, too, but there's been absolutely no fire there. Does he even have a market anywhere? Are other teams just doing the Hoyer "wait and see" approach, is there genuinely no one showing any interest in Chapman? I don't read the tabloids, just the headlines. It's probably already too painful for Jed to try to work with Boras on Bellinger, why stick yourself in the other eye with a sharp object? Probably because you need a good team to compete in this league.

Boras could still lose in this battle for Bellinger. But, if he's going to lose, it will be a day/days before Spring Training. He's got a reputation of winning to uphold, and he will make it painful for anyone he loses to.

I was only sorta half paying attention once the Lions got the ball back since they could just take a knee and end the game. I was pretty surprised when I read the article about Bowles just letting the time run out when Detroit allowed them an opportunity to get the ball back. You gotta call time out there. Missed field goal and a PI on Kindle Vildor on a Mike Evans deep pass is too likely to pass up. Not sure how they could have some sort of coach agreement to end that game from opposite sides of the field. I wouldn't consider Bowles taking the time out there to be any worse taking advantage of a situation any more than hiking the ball while defensemen are still running off the field or some other sort of take advantage of the rules type swindle. This is a playoff game. Win or go home. Detroit left a door open and Bowles closed it with a slam rather than taking a peak to see what was on the other side. The TB fan base should be livid. His response to why he didn't doesn't sit well, either. My guess is they just assumed the game was over and weren't paying close attention to the fact Detroit was taking the snap way sooner than they should. I think they just thought the same as me and thought the game was over. And by all intents and purposes, it should have been.

Maybe it's Fields intel. If by some weird chance they hire Getsy, you can eliminate the Raiders as a Fields landing spot. No way that combo works together again.

Would have been cool to be a fly on the wall on how they approached these discussions with experienced OC's. How do you approach the feelings of an experienced OC with Fields getting ready to go onto his third OC with the same team vs. drafting possibly the top QB in the draft, and then absorb that info and then compare answers to get your new OC? If Waldron was the best/second best OC candidate out there, surely there are better OC jobs with better QB's to work your scheme than Fields. Eberflus wasn't sure he was keeping his own job this offseason. Seems from everything I'm reading this morning, Fields or Williams are both still options with this signing. I

The Bears didn't have an NFL starting caliber player manning the Center position. You had injury/personal reason missed time from both starting interior linemen along with patchy play with such a weak Center playing between them. Getting Davis and Jenkins healthy and bringing in a couple of new Centers will improve the line play. Seemed to me that most of the pass rush/blitzes were right up the gut.

Torrey Craig. He's been the 7th/8th man off the bench this season.

You just explained the history of ML bullpens everywhere. The names being tossed around as replacement relievers were not even people anyone knew 3 years ago, minus a few guys who somehow make a living as a late inning reliever like Hader. 3 years from now, the entire Cubs bullpen will likely be other guys who A)we never heard of 3 years prior B) failed in their attempt to win a gig in the starting rotation C) retreads that they probably would have been better off using minor leaguers instead of hoping for lightning in a bottle. Outside of Meriweather, the guys they brought in from outside to be relievers last year was not something to write home about. Might be better off finding the bullpen help you need from within, while also hoping for improvement from the guys you already have. Leiter was looking solid until he became the main guy to bring in for every sign of trouble. With bullpen help, you just don't know what you are going to get.

Entirely without Ball. Mostly without LaVine. Partially without Vuc and Craig.

We must be reading Carr's contract details differently. I don't see Carr as even being remotely tradeable, especially as a backup consideration.

We all know that no one knows a QB better than a WR's coach's brother.

Pretty sure Poles is happy with his Tackles. Jenkins injury history, Davis and his missed time and ineffectiveness when he was in there makes it very necessary to have better depth at the G position. Center is the glaring need. I'd go so far as to say they need two Centers. Patrick needs to be shot to the moon, Whitehair cut, Feeney was a turnstyle and Kramer wasn't good enough to beat out Feeney. I think the whole line will look better with a QB that can keep defenses more honest. More weapons won't hurt, either.