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Strangely, I like the Bears chances here. If Harris is good to go, I think they can put some pressure on Manning. The combo of Tommie and Idonje can do some damage w/o Saturday in there. I like the matchups this year better than the Superbowl. I think Harrison can be taken out of the game. He's not a great WR anymore. I think you can pay a little extra attention to Wayne and roll coverage his way, forcing Peyton to make good accurate throws which he hasn't had much practice doing this preseason. The key, though, will be tackling Joseph Addai. The LBs and safeties need to wrap him up, especially on draw plays and passes out of the backfield. Offensively, the Bears can really hurt the Colts if they kick it to Hester. Maybe the best vs. the worst run special teams units in the league. If they kick away from Hester, I think the Bears can take advantage of the short field. I think throwing the different bodies out there at WR will help the Bears. None are special, but the contrast from guys like Davis and Booker (middle of the field WRs) to Hester and Bradley (down the field) can keep the Colts DBs guessing on each play. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bears win this one. I wouldn't be surprised to see them get blown out if the D doesn't show up. My guess is a relatively low scoring game with neither team scoring more than 20.

Great time for my team to have the high score for the week. Though, I think I've had high score on the past 3 Thursday mornings, only to not finish in the top 3 any time.

Anyone know anything about this guy? I'd trust Gruden on offensive linemen. Hopefully he can help--god knows we need it. Can he play tackle? Bears still need one of those.

I agree with everything he said. I do wonder if Dubois will get a callup after the Iowa playoffs, because the Cubs have no RH power off the bench.

Weekend world series games at Wrigley!

My only problem with Theriot near the top is his propensity for bad base-running I also have an issue with DeRosa and Soto being buried in the bottom of the order My suggestion of Edmonds at #4 was just to "break up the righties" Theriot's baserunning hasn't been good, but what difference does it makes if he makes out on the basepaths hitting 2nd or 8th? And your guys that have been buried at the bottom of the order have put up great years and had tons of guys on base when they come to bat. Ramirez, Edmonds, Fukudome and Derosa have gotten on base better than Soriano and Lee most of the year. Would you rather have Theriot trying to knock in the guys who get on base the most? Way too much attention is paid to the lineup order, when it doesn't matter as long as the best players are in it. it matters insofar as I want DeRosa and Soto to have more AB's over the course of the year than Lee and Theriot Good luck with that. Soto is a catcher. He can't play 162 anyway. And it's too late to worry about who will have more ABs this season.

My only problem with Theriot near the top is his propensity for bad base-running I also have an issue with DeRosa and Soto being buried in the bottom of the order My suggestion of Edmonds at #4 was just to "break up the righties" Theriot's baserunning hasn't been good, but what difference does it makes if he makes out on the basepaths hitting 2nd or 8th? And your guys that have been buried at the bottom of the order have put up great years and had tons of guys on base when they come to bat. Ramirez, Edmonds, Fukudome and Derosa have gotten on base better than Soriano and Lee most of the year. Would you rather have Theriot trying to knock in the guys who get on base the most? Way too much attention is paid to the lineup order, when it doesn't matter as long as the best players are in it.

I agree with Raisin. This is stupid. Why take Theriot away from the top of the lineup? There's not a single player on this team that is a better fit hitting 1 or 2. Why mess with anything? Because they had a bad weekend?

Wonder if the Astros will argue that Theriot's IF hit shoulda been an error on Castillo so Oswalt can have a 1-hitter?

Soriano will swing at anything right now.

Like Brett Myers, Oswalt is starting to save what was a horrible season for him. He has gone at least 7 innings in each of his last 5 starts, for an ERA of 1.95. That is down to 1.57 over his last 3, with just 10 hits allowed in his last 23 innings. After allowing a whopping 16 HRs in April and May, Oswalt has given up just 5 longballs since. On the other side, Marquis has alternated good and bad starts all month. His last outing was his best of the season. However, even his recent bad outings could have been avoided without the 1 bad inning he has had in each of those games. Ten of the 13 runs Marquis gave up in August, came in 3 innings (6th vs. Wash, 3rd vs. Hou, 2nd vs. Pit). Missing Carlos Lee will be a huge break for Jason, as Lee and Berkman have literally molested him in their careers. Marquis should be able to pitch around the Big Puma and take his chances with the rest of the Astros lineup. The Astros have won 5 in a row, including probably ending the Cardinals season this weekend. However, they have done so by scoring 4 or fewer runs 4 times. In their last 7, Houston is scoring under 3 1/3 runs per game, and that includes an 8 run outburst. As was mentioned, this is the only matchup that doesn't favor the Cubs in this series. If the Cubs can get Oswalt out before the 7th, they will win.

I feel bad for the guy who grounded out vs. Made. He's not going to hear the end of that one.

Fred, you really putting some miles on that truck aren't you?

Anderson probably doesn't have much left. He's 33. Coming off of missing over 1/2 of the 2007 season. He was a Pro Bowler as recently as 06, but that was probably more based on reputation. That being said, he'd be an extra body capable of giving you an above average blocker upfront. He'd be an upgrade over St. Clair now (going to RT, with Tait at LT). And if Williams does come back this year, he'd be a pretty good guy to bridge the gap. The Bears have a spot for him as they could release Barton who is nothing special or they could IR Williams, if they don't think he will come back in 08. Getting Anderson would be similar to the Fred Miller move a couple years ago. May be decent for a year, but shouldn't count on him much after that.

I told you guys that Webb and Haren have thrown a lot of innings the last 3-4 years. Everybody is so worried about them in a potential playoff series. Not saying their last few starts mean anything for October, but they both have a lot of innings on them.

The Bears do go with 6 WRs. Final 53. Quarterbacks (3): Rex Grossman, Caleb Hanie, Kyle Orton Running backs (4): Matt Forte, Kevin Jones, Adrian Peterson, Garrett Wolfe Fullbacks (1): Jason McKie Wide receivers (6): Earl Bennett, Marty Booker, Mark Bradley, Rashied Davis, Devin Hester, Brandon Lloyd Tight ends (3): Desmond Clark, Kellen Davis, Greg Olsen Offensive linemen (8): Kirk Barton, Josh Beekman, Roberto Garza, Olin Kreutz, Terrence Metcalf, John St. Clair, John Tait, Chris Williams Defensive linemen (9): Anthony Adams, Mark Anderson, Alex Brown, Dusty Dvoracek, Tommie Harris, Marcus Harrison, Israel Idonije, Adewale Ogunleye, Matt Toeaina Linebackers (6): Lance Briggs, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Darrell McClover, Nick Roach, Brian Urlacher, Jamar Williams Cornerbacks (5): Zackary Bowman, Corey Graham, Trumaine McBride, Charles Tillman, Nate Vasher Safeties (5): Mike Brown, Danieal Manning, Brandon McGowan, Kevin Payne, Craig Steltz Specialists (3): Robbie Gould, Patrick Mannelly, Brad Maynard

Ah! That's probably gonna cost me some money in my fantasy league. I'm in the semifinals (wanted to end before football season) and was expecting 1 more start from him this week. I'm down 15 points and now down 3 starts to 4.

Where did you pick? Brady, Barber and Fitz are all top 15 players.

Myers has a 1.66 ERA in 7 starts, since coming back from his stint in the minors. He has also somehow become an extreme groundball pitcher since then. Though Myers hasn't allowed a run in his last 2 starts (16 innings), he has allowed 18 hits in those starts. Only 3 of those hits have gone for extra bases (2 by Matt Kemp), though he was facing the Nats and Dodgers. The Cubs offense is clearly better than those two, so I don't expect Myers to toss another shutout. On the other side, I worry about Lilly. A flyball pitcher vs. some flyball hitters. Lefties have absolutely destroyed Lilly this year and the prominent power guys in the Philly lineup are Howard and Utley. Granted Howard hasn't hit LHPs at all this year, but Werth and Burrell have destroyed them. As usual, the key will Lilly will be to limit the free passes. Odds are, he will give up at least 1 long ball today (has given up a HR in all but 4 of his last 18 starts). If he limits those to solo shots, the Cubs should be able to score enough to win.

Beltran with a 9th inning Grand slam to give the Mets the lead in FLA.

Wow. I thought McGowan was pretty good in the last 1/2 of the season last year. He was pretty good in the 1st preseason game too. Nobody on the D has been impressive much this preseason. I don't know how Payne beat him out.

It's on WGN. It was TBA.

He's gotta be unavailable tomorrow, though. Not too many 5-out saves recorded anymore. He basically threw the pitches it would take for 1 normal inning. I'd think he'd be fine, but you'd like to NOT have to use him.

BEST TEAM EVER!

Can't believe Lou could let Cedeno and Blanco have ABs with RISP and 1 out.