rawaction

At the time that the Bears cut Harris, they were still under the belief that Archuleta could play and Brown could stay healthy. I don't know why they believed either, but that's another issue. RMJ had a decent 06 season, and still was thought to be valuable. He's now the 5th best CB on the roster. I didn't have a problem with Chris Harris being cut, at the time. Not the greatest move in retrospect.

There's this guy I work with who wanted Hunter on the Braves and his argument would always be. "He's better than Andruw Jones. He'll hit over .300, but won't hit for as much power as Jones, but will still hit 25-30. And he won't get more than $12M/year." Heh.

Trevelle Wharton just re-signed with the Panthers. In other news of interest for Bears fans about the Panthers....Chris Harris signed a 4-year deal also.

Uh, what?

Good first half. If shots weren't falling for UW, IU would be up big. IU seems to be taking this game the right way emotionally. Hopefully, it last throughout the 2nd half. I worry about the letdown in the next game with presumably more rumors about Sampson and the program's direction come out, but it is College Gameday this saturday, so maybe not.

Yes, that pissed me off. And I agree with your strategy...and if you get a good OL in FA, you can avoid using the first rounder on OL and wait till round 2. I'd still get one in the 1st, but probably look to trade down.

IDK, for me, it would depend on what kind of contract they could get him for. Also what other type of OL help you can get in free agency (at a cheaper price, of course). I would put Max Starks, Scott from Indy, and Gross and Wharton ahead of (another aging) Faneca That might be the order I'd take them too. But I've always been under the assumption that Gross and Scott would be signed by their current teams. Starks is a guy that will likely have a huge price tag, but has been an underachiever most of his career. He was good in the SB season, but has been lackluster otherwise. I believe Faneca can still give a team another 2 years as a top 5-10 guard in the league. What happens after that, is anyone's guess.

Granted, I haven't seen many Illinois games the last 2 years, but in the games I have seen, it seems as Illini fans frustration should be directed at him moreso than Chester Frazier. I mean, his only talent is the ability to shoot the ball from outside. But he's gone down in 3pt % every year, and he's at a barely respectable 37% this year.

Ray Durham would be interesting. He dropped from a 127 OPS+ to a 65. He had pretty much the same BB rate. He'd been above league average in the previous 10 seasons, so I don't know if he was battling an injury or not. But even at 36, I could see him being able to put up his career line of .277/.351/.436. He won't put up the power numbers of 06 again, but his game hasn't been based on speed for a long time, so it's not like losing a step has hurt him.

Seconded. But the Bears would still need another PLAYMAKING WR if they are not going to re-sign Berrian. I mean, I understand his agent is Rosenhaus, but if Chad Johnson is available, the Bears can top the Redskins offer, anyday. I would offer up the 1st and a 3rd for Chad Johnson, give him the extension (he would be worth the ext, moreso then Berrian) and that would trumps Washington's offer. I wouldn't. Too much to give up. Too many holes to fill. What's the point in having one of the best (and highest paid) WRs in the league when you don't have a decent QB to throw to him or a decent OL to allow the QB time to get the ball to him?

Really sucks for him. He's a guy I had high hopes for coming out of HS. He was Indiana Mr. Basketball. 4-star recruit. 6'3" supposedly with pure PG skills. He never developed as a ball handler. He did become a pretty good shooter though for this first 3 years. I also expected him to grow more to about 6'6", consider he has the arms of a 6'9" person. He stuck with the program through the Davis firing. He was one of two 4-year seniors this year and was coming off of a season where he averaged double figures in points. I wish him the best, and hope this team can focus once and for all with hopefully no more distractions this year.

Thanks. I was looking to see if Shelton played guard at some point, but couldn't find anything. He'll be 32 soon, but he hasn't missed a game in over 3 years. I like the idea.

Sure looks like it. Maybe a little better. I'd take it all day. I'd take another Mark Grace in the lineup. Gracie was a hell of a hitter. If that's the case, Fukudome needs to hit 2nd, where Grace should have.

The ex-Cubs are on the list, because it is a list of players "of note" to this message board. No other group of fans care about where Jose Macias is playing except us.

I've been calling it all year. KU is a real good team, but they aren't special. I have never seen them as a Final 4 team at any point.

Also, LJ Shelton was cut. He's a solid OT. More of a RT, but should be pretty cheap. I'd be interested depending on the price. I'd still like to draft a stud LT. I wonder if he or Tait could play guard.

Two of the Cubs pieces in the supposed Roberts trade (Murton and Cedeno) will be worth less and less every day they sit on the Cubs bench. What good SS is on a team that won't be in contention at the deadline? There is very likely not going to be any upgrade available for Theriot. Bullpen help will be needed even less that the upgrade from DeRosa to Roberts. The Cubs already have plenty of people in the bullpen, and even if a reliever or two goes down that will still be the case. Injury problems are a big concern, but DeRosa moving to the bench is a preemptive measure to protect against big injuries to most of the position players. Basically you're solving the problem before it even starts. Also, the Cubs will still have resources. By July the Cubs will have a better idea if Pie is going to be the long-term answer. If he is, then Colvin is expendable in a deal. The Cubs also have several 2007 draftees that many other fans have already found interesting, and they will be available to be dealt by the deadline (I believe everybody but Vitters, who wouldn't be available to be traded until August). Now if the Cubs suffer a long-term injury or two to one of their top 3 starters, then there might not be enough resources to replace them. That would be the biggest risk of this move. If the Cubs suffer major injuries, they aren't gonna compete anyway, no need to make a deadline trade.

Well, that's not gonna happen. Getting Roberts isn't gonna gut the system. Granted, it's not desirable, but by July guys like Donaldson, Thomas, and Vitters can be available. All indications the Cubs will still have Ceda, Szamardija, Colvin, and either Hart/Veal still left in their top 10 prospects.

Again, it would be great to fill the SS hole, but who, how and where? It's not a luxury to have another good baseball player on the team, which Roberts is. The way I see it, Derosa is always a possibility to fall back into his pre-Texas numbers, which are not good. Roberts is a much better bet to be a real good player, thus making the hole from Theriot's lack of production less of a burden. Renteria over Theriot would have been a much bigger upgrade than Roberts over Derosa. Ok? And what does that have to do with today? Renteria is not available. Roberts likely is. Do you not improve the team because you can't improve it as good as you could have 5 months ago? That makes no sense. Huh? Aren't we discussing ways Hendry could have made this team better in the offseason? Renteria was available after the season was over, when it was clear we needed a shortstop. No, we're talking about ways that Hendry can make the team better today. Right now, the only options seem to be a Roberts trade or to go into the season with the current team. Renteria isn't an option, and it doesn't look like any other quality SS's are either. Given those limitations, does making the Roberts trade make the team better than standing pat and playing with the current team? Exactly. If we're talking about how he could have made the team better in the offseason, there's a lot bigger fish to fry than Renteria. Arod and Andruw were both available for cash. Cabrera was available in a trade. Haren, Bedard, Santana were available. Granted those most of those weren't likely, but neither was a Renteria trade considering it was done like 2 days after the Series.

I'd rather take Malcolm Kelly. I'd draft Jackson ahead of Kelly. Why? I really don't know that his slight build will handle the rigors of the NFL and as someone else said, he loses some of his value on the Bears since Hester is a better returner. He's more explosive and athletic than anyone in the draft, Kelly is more of as possession WR and Jackson is the HR threat. The Bears need someone who can create in open space. Devin Hester is good after the catch, assuming he can catch the ball. Bradley is good after the catch, assuming he can get on the field. I'd say the Bears need a possession WR. Hester, Bradley, and if you bring him back Berrian are all HR threats. The Bears need somebody to give them what Moose was supposed to.

Again, it would be great to fill the SS hole, but who, how and where? It's not a luxury to have another good baseball player on the team, which Roberts is. The way I see it, Derosa is always a possibility to fall back into his pre-Texas numbers, which are not good. Roberts is a much better bet to be a real good player, thus making the hole from Theriot's lack of production less of a burden. Renteria over Theriot would have been a much bigger upgrade than Roberts over Derosa. Ok? And what does that have to do with today? Renteria is not available. Roberts likely is. Do you not improve the team because you can't improve it as good as you could have 5 months ago? That makes no sense.

Again, it would be great to fill the SS hole, but who, how and where? It's not a luxury to have another good baseball player on the team, which Roberts is. The way I see it, Derosa is always a possibility to fall back into his pre-Texas numbers, which are not good. Roberts is a much better bet to be a real good player, thus making the hole from Theriot's lack of production less of a burden.

Roberts is clearly available though, whereas there aren't any SS improvements over Theriot who are known to be on the market. We like to talk about Peralta and Greene, but there have been no indications that their teams want to trade them.

The more I think about it, it may not be a bad move to franchise Berrian. Sure, he'd be overpaid, but only for 1 season. He'd be a tough sign for whoever the year after, assuming he doesn't want to take a massive paycut.

I like that they compared him all the way down to his lefthandedness. They are decent comparisons though. And just because Coleman and Tisdale didn't have superstar NBA careers, doesn't mean that was their ceiling. I think DC was one of the best college big men I've ever seen. Don't remember much of Tisdale, but I believe he's considered one of the top 30 college players of all time.