rawaction

I quietly wanted Hayden a lot. I didn't think it would happen, but he'd be the perfect fit on the Bears defense.

Someone offer me a trade. I'm willing to give up Dempster for a lesser pitcher and a pick in the top 1/2 of this round.

Jonathan Sanchez

You can't ignore DE. Brown, Ogunleye, and Anderson are all unrestricted FAs after 2009. You gotta get another guy regardless. You can maybe wait until the 3rd round, but you can't ignore DE.

Salmons is a pretty good player. He's the type of big guard the Bulls have needed for a while. I'm assuming this means no Amare, but the Bulls improved their team today.

I gave up the #22 pick in the draft, my 9th rounder, a top prospect and my first pick in the prospect draft. How the hell is that the same as me just being able to keep him as an 11th guy and still having all those other things, as well? btw - Juan said that we can trade picks as long as they are worked out before the pick is on the clock. because you wouldn't have had those things had you done that trade on 2/13. you couldn't have done that trade on 2/13 because you had to limit your roster to 10 guys. but you can do it on 2/16 just because the draft has started? kinda makes the roster deadline pointless if you can just blow by the roster/points limit the day after the deadline by trading a bunch of stuff you had before the deadline. i'm not arguing that you ripped him off or anything...i think it was a fair trade. I agree. We were also told that rosters legal before trades could be made. No rosters are legal at this point.

Barnes would be great, IMO. He was great as a rookie, and then fell off for whatever reason. He's the youngest FA of the group, and I think would be helped moving to the right side of the formation. If the Bears coaches think they can "fix" him, he could wind up a Pro Bowler. Starks is Ok. People are more awed at his size and potential than anything. He's never really put it all together to me and I doubt he will. Even at just 26, he has a LOT of experience. 5 years in the league, 3 as a starter. Has about 10 games of playoff experience. Ray Willis of Seattle is probably the best fit of the bunch though. He is also young at 27. He has the mean streak that the other 2 don't have. Is a run-first blocker, but only gave up 1.5 sacks last year for a crappy team.

I wanted to take Brandon Phillips to spite Tim, but I will pick: Ryan Dempster.

Yeah, what the hell is this? Are we slow drafting? I haven't even looked at anything other than my keepers (which I did on the 12th for the first time). I'm gonna need some time.

I know I predicted a NCAA tourney bid and "contending" in the Big 10 next year......a few months ago or whatever, much to the bemusement of SSR but I will say this, I'm fine if we are merely a NIT team next year. Actually seeing the stark, cold reality of this season has me prepared. But I think we will end up being squarely on the bubble next season. I'm just very excited to see if we can maintain the same level of effort/intensity with a more talented group of kids. I didn't mean contend for the conference title. I meant contending as in not being an easy win for everyone on the schedule. The only teams I see head and shoulders above IU next year are Michigan St, Illinois and Minnesota. Purdue is an easy couple notches better, but I don't think they are great and won't get a ton of help next year. IU should be better than NW, Michigan, Penn St, and Iowa next year. And should be right on par with Wisconsin and Ohio St. How they fare vs. the teams on their level will dictate on if they play in the real postseason or not next year.

I don't know about the rest of the IU fans, but I have really enjoyed watching this team this year. I didn't think I could or would. This team is absolutely horrible. The talent level may be on the bottom 5% of division 1 basketball, and clearly bottom 10 total in all of major conference basketball. I know it's cliche, but this team does not quit. They started 4 freshman and a senior who was a walk-on today. They only went 7 deep without Dumes, their leading scorer, including 6 freshman and 5 scholarship players. I think with next year's class and the experience gained from this year's group will make this team a tourney team right away. Having an experienced big man like Pritchard next year will be huge. Having a couple experiened PGs with Jones III and Rivers will be great. Having Dumes as a senior and Roth playing with players that can create shots for him will be huge. Going from an 8 man rotation with 1 year of combined experience to a team with 9 years experience (1 for the 6 frosh and Dumes this year, and 2 for Rivers) along with a solid freshman class will be huge for this team.

Looks like John Tait is gonna call it quits. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/1430703,CST-SPT-bear14.article This would be interesting. I think the Bears were leaning toward letting him start at RT again next year and letting JSC go. If both happen, the only tackle on the active roster would be Chris Williams with no experience outside of goalline offense. That would mean the Bears would need to bring in 2 tackles and at least one practice squad guy. In order to put together a serviceable line, you are probably looking at having to sign a FA RT, draft a guy in the top 3 rounds, and draft another in the final 3 rounds. This is in addition to possibly needing another guard somewhere in the middle rounds. Does this change the draft strategy to draft an OT in the 1st? Do the Bears want to essentially start 2 rookie tackles? Do they now look to bring St Clair back? I would bring back JSC and draft a 1st or 2nd rounder to compete for a starting spot this year and force JSC to a backup spot by midseason.

Anybody not decided yet or willing to drop a lesser player to fit him under the cap? I want a draft pick or prospects.

C- Shoppach (exempt) 1B- A Gonzalez 551.5 2B- Kinsler (exempt) SS- Tulowitzki (exempt) 3B- D Wright 620.5 OF- Sizemore 611.5 SP- Hamels (exempt) SP- Wainwright (exempt) SP- Carpenter (few points) Minors C- Teegarden 3B-J Fields 3B-Walker P-Balester P-Penn P-Morton Points = 1783.5

I really like Larry English. I think he has the type of work ethic and the ability to be a solid pro. The only problem I see is his height. If he does measure at a short 6'2" at a position with a host of talent at a legit 6'4", and taller in Johnson's case, I don't know that he's worth the 18th pick. He has all the pass rush moves, enough speed, great work ethic, but doesn't have the ability to bat balls down at the line at that height. If Everette Brown and Orapko are gone at DE, and Sanchez is gone at QB then this is a great spot to trade down. Could have a team like Detroit wanting to jump TB for Josh Freeman. Could have the Ravens or Titans moving up to take a WR. Could have both top RBs on the board and Arizona thinking about moving up. Dolphins could move to 18 looking to get Maybin or Malauaga if they're still there. I would take my chances of getting English, Michael Johnson, Duke Robinson, or Heyward-Bey in the mid-to-late 20s and picking up another high pick. The perfect scenario may be Detroit, because they have the 1st pick of the 2nd round and we've seen what teams will trade for a QB (see Browns, Quinn; Ravens, Flacco). Miami would be nice too, because they also would have the ability to give the Bears 3 picks in the top 50.

So, players who have played 3 seasons (over 50 PA, 5 starts, 10 appearances) are exempt AFTER their 3rd season right?

What's the chances the Blazers are interested in that proposed trade basically involving Hinrich for Rudy Fernandez.

I don't want to pay for Atogwe. I'd much go cheaper with Landry or Jermaine Phillips.

Good cheap Free Agents: OT- Vernon Carey- RT for Miami, pretty good run team the last few years. Carey has started 54 straight games (including the playoff game this year) and hasn't missed a game since his rookie season. Only 28 this summer, so should give the Bears 3 good years at RT. Cheaper than Gross and allows the Bears to get a good OT, while still giving Williams a chance to see if he can be an NFL LT. WR- Brandon Jones- Tennessee. Had his best game vs. the Bears (8 cat, 80 yrds). That game was at the end of a 16 catch in 3 games stretch and in the middle of 22 catch 5 game stretch. Good size at 6'1", 212lbs. Could get better at only 27. S- Dawan Landry- Baltimore. Has played SS in his brief career, but has also played with Ed Reed, so FS has been out of the question. Has the skills to play FS, only 26 all thru the 2009 season. He is a restricted FA, but only played 2 games this year for a team that has Leonhard, Zbikowski and Nakumura who can all play SS and also needs to re-sign Ray Lewis and either Bart Scott or Terrell Suggs. Others: QB- David Carr, Kyle Boller, Brock Berlin -- obviously as backups. Best case scenario, one of the first 2 lives up to some of their early hype and beat out Orton and plays a league average QB. All 3 probably need a good QB coach, though. WR- Miles Austin, Malcolm Floyd

Yeah, I think that's too much. I think those are the two most likely prospects the Cubs have to be star players, since Samardzija and Cashner project better as relievers.

Hinske wouldn't be a bad guy to have when Bradley goes on the DL. But he doesn't do anything better than Hoffpauir except for playing 3B....and he's not very good at that. He would be an acceptable bench player if the Cubs don't believe Hoffpauir can hit well enough off the bench. But I'd rather see what Micah can do getting 200 Abs in RF and 1B and as a pinch hitter. Man, this team has the potential of having a really bad bench, especially if they carry 12-19 pitchers again. Uribe Gathright Bako Miles Johnson Reed Johnson's the only respectable player on that list. Three of those guys are in the bottom 25 players in the league.

I'll take Houston.

Pretty stupid to cut Vasher. Cap hit would be huge. Plus, he's not a bad corner. He needs to stay on the field though. Start Graham, Vasher can be the nickel, but keep Graham on the slot.

Even without assuming a Peavy trade, this makes the Cubs better. They got probably as much value out of Pie as they possibly could have. Now, you're probably right. But if Lou had given Pie a real shot last year, maybe we're pretty happy with our OF and don't need to sign Bradley. Maybe his 10mil goes better elsewhere. Lou bungled the situation and refused to ever give Pie a shot. Hendry did the best he could with that... I'll grant him this is about as good a trade as we were gonna get at this point. Your saying "I wouldn't have minded this trade so much" led me to believe you hated the trade. When in reality, you hated that the trade had to be made in the first place. Which are 2 different things. Also, I wouldn't blame Piniella. Hendry is the one who kept getting him crutches in case Pie didn't kill the ball. Lou went to those crutches after 2 games, but Hendry put them there in the first place.

Berry's a FA. Laboy, Berry, and Antonio Smith have all been below average. Laboy has never played more than 13 games, and never had more than 6.5 sacks. Berry hasn't had more than 6 in 5 years. Smith has never even had 6. Ogunleye would be the best DE on their roster.