rawaction

79 thru 6. Probably 1 more for Harden, unless the Cubs get to his spot in the order!

He's been there for about a week He had a damn good series in Atlanta, and was decent in Florida. .233 /.303 /.433 on the road trip. The Cubs went 5-1 on the road trip therefor he was not in a slump. True dat.

oh snap!

Aren't the NWL parks pretty big? Vitters seems to have an abnormally high numbers of almost HRs. The kid's going to be a big time power hitter.

Have you seen the Cubs with and without him? Again, he is a leadoff hitter putting up these numbers. Would it matter if he was putting up the same numbers hitting cleanup?

I've never seen Atkins. But for some reason he reminds me of Frank Castillo. I think he can have a solid ML career (6-8 years). And he'll likely be a guy that hovers around a 90-105 ERA+. It probably won't be with the Cubs, however.

Because Orton didn't look much better when he did play last year. 2 INT in 3 games. I thought he only played 2. Still, how many passes did he throw?

Would be better, but not much better. We saw Brady with poor protection in the Superbowl and saw how that turned out.

Because Orton didn't look much better when he did play last year.

I'm totally with this. Especially when it's the willfully stupid. What's stupid is the notion that you are implying that Bears fans are somehow unjustified in dislike of Grossman. Dude was a 1st round pick. He showed flashes, got hurt. Showed more flashes, got hurt again. Was the league MVP after week 6 in 06, but then had a handful of some of the worst games a NFL QB could play. That being said, I'm probably the biggest Grossman fan here. I wanted him to succeed more than anyone. The fact is, he hasn't. He's still probably the best QB on the Bears roster, but at this point it doesn't matter. The Bears offense will stink with or without him. We've already seen it stink with him in it. Might as well see it stink in a different way with Orton.

Colvin o'meter up to: .256/.315/.421/.736. Not great by any means, but has only played 16 games in his only month above a .700 OPS. He has a legit shot to finish over .750. Second half numbers: .305/.333/.539/.872. Better than his FSL numbers from last year. If he can combine the 1st half's .070 ISOD with the 2nd half's .234 ISOP next year, he'll be a pretty good prospect again.

K- Gostkowski

Dempster may need to kill Webb himself to have a chance. And still Webb would get the sympathy vote, and still be deserving of it.

But Orton does make mistakes though. He's a game manager that makes mistakes, where as Grossman takes chances and makes mistakes. Because he doesn't take as many chances, Orton doesn't make as many mistakes, though. I'm fine with this move. I do wonder though what this means for Grossman though. With Hanie playing well and guys like Chris Simms and whoever doesn't make the Dolphins roster (McCown or John Beck) and a couple other guys out there, I wonder if the Bears would cut Rex and bring in some fresh blood.....no pun intended to Chris Simms' spleen.

Thanks for the insult. Are you saying the Bears current D-line is old and slow? Wale is the old man at 31, but is coming off maybe his best year as a pro. Anderson is 24 and he is a year removed from a 12-sack season...which means he at least has the ability to be an impact pass rusher. Harris had 8 sacks last year at about 85% health, which was the 2nd most for his position. That also makes him an impact pass rusher in my book. He's 25. The SB Colts and Pats of last year have been near the top in fewest points allowed. Both teams were far from elite defenses. The Bears won't have the luxury of an offense that puts teams in a hole or an offense that doesn't put its team on a short field, but it's very conceivable that this defense can be good enough to allow fewer points than they score more often than not. And if they aren't forced to short fields and TOP isn't horrendous, it's very possible they could be near the top of the league in points allowed again.

First, nobody said Zambrano was having a better year. And Harden's name has not even been brought up. And you just helped my point. I didn't say Dempster was that far behind Webb. The fact is he IS behind Webb in all those stats, so there's no way to justify giving him the Cy Young, unless you place some unnecessary weight on the fact that he was a reliever last year and pitches for the NLs best team. The fact that Webb is in the top 5 in every pitching category and is dominating the league in the wins category means he will win it.

Does it matter any that the Cubs face the Mets the last week of the regular season? If there is still something to play for at that point, we could be getting a 1st round preview that week. I just decided that I don't fear any team more than any other. I just fear matchups. All teams have tough potential matchups for the Cubs. Santana/Perez for the Mets. Webb/Haren. I'd also hate to see Billingsley and Lowe in LA. I'd worry about Hamels twice in any series. The thing that could throw all the matchups out the window is how the season ends. The Cubs are in a pretty good position. They are the most clear of their division. Meaning, the likelihood that the Cubs can set up their rotation is better than those other teams. It looks like the East and West could come down to the final weekend. If Hamels, Webb, Haren, and Santana have to be used just to get their team in the playoffs, that changes things completely.

Briggs, Harris, Vasher, and McGowan (over Chris Harris) are better. Urlacher, Tillman, Ogunleye, and Alex Brown are at least as good. Mike Brown, the other DT (vs. Tank or Ian Scott), and Hillenmeyer are probably slightly worse. The backups (D. Manning, Idonije, Williams, Payne, Anderson) are better than the 05 backups which included Azumah, Mike Green, Todd Johnson, Boone, and Michael Haynes among others. I don't think it's a stretch to see this defense being better than the 05 version.

Peavy has no shot of winning the Cy Young. Brandon Webb has very little shot of NOT winning the Cy Young. He has the wins, and all his numbers are good enough to justify it without much question. My vote would go for Lincecum. If you like Ks, he will lead the NL in that. If you like ERA, he leads the NL in that. If you value wins, then you have to value the fact that he will likely finish with the fewest losses of any starting pitcher, and he's on a bad team. If you like durability, he will finish top 5 in innings. A name that has been strangely quiet this year, but has put up numbers nearly identical (actually slightly better) than Webb is Johan Santana, who has put up a 2.27 ERA since June. Webb and Santana have thrown the exact same innings (2nd to Hamels), have given up the exact same number of hits and are within 4 in Ks, BBs allowed, and ERs. Dempster has been amazing, but one could argue him as the 7th best pitcher in the NL this year, behind Webb, Santana, Haren, Lincecum, Volquez and Peavy. Hamels, Zambrano and Billingsley are a strong finish away from getting their names in the discussion, but it's probably a little too late for them.

If the Cubs win the Philly (4 games) and Washington series, and split against the rest of the teams on their schedule (only 3 w/ Pirates, but doesn't matter), they will not finish the season with a losing record against any team in the NL.

I don't think the team is going to be as bad as everyone else seems to think. The offense could very well be as bad as any in recent history, though. Looks like it's Orton's job to lose right now. The Bears are going to have to get rid of the ball fast in the air. As for the running game, I feel bad for Matt Forte. He looks like an extremely talented kid. But he isn't going to be able to do much if the Bears can't get people out of the box defensively. On the defensive and special teams side, they are still good enough to win some games. I don't expect the Arizona game level of being able to win a lot of games literally alone, but they are good enough to carry the offense. Devin Hester is amazing, but when Earl Bennett is returning punts with the 2nd team return unit, the scheme is masterful. The Bears will have the ability to win much needed field position battles. If healthy, this is still the same defense won 25 games in 2 years. The LBs haven't lost anything (assuming Briggs remembers how to tackle when it counts). We saw the difference Vasher makes when he came back late last year. McGowan will be the best safety the Bears have had next to Mike Brown in his era. The DL should get back to doing damage with Harris healthier, Ogunleye and Brown playing at 2006 levels again and Anderson back as a situational player.

Our matchup this week went from determining a bye week in the East to not meaning as much. Winner still has a heads up for the division crown, and the loser will still be at worst 3rd. Adam can still win the division by winning out and having the winner of our game lose in the final week. Best chance for Adam is probably having Tootielicious beat Raw Dawgs and take care of business in the final week. Adam will have the points tiebreaker over me in that case and the head-to-head over Don. But Adam can still be left out of the playoff race with 2 losses thanks to 2 head-to-head losses to HBC.

I wouldn't put a velocity decrease out of the question. He's missed a lot of time. All the work rehabbing can take away arm strength at times. The key will be how hard he is throwing out of the pen. If he's not around that 94-97 in relief, then he may have to be rested again.

And get Ace, Aaron Harang!

I gotta do this.... Raw Dawgs select: ME! DeSean Jackson, WR Philadelphia Eagles.