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You know the media will jump on anything to try to make a story out of nothing. Especially when its a 7-0 team against a 1-6 team. But it isn't the worst Dolphins team since before '85. The front 7 is very good and the WRs and RBs are pretty talented as well. The secondary and O-line are pretty horrible and the QB play has been inconsistent. There were, however, some much worse teams in the Wandstedt era. Yeah, I know they have some talent. Just venting a little.

Can you remember the last time when one of those players deserved a top flight contract on the open market? There's a big difference between Hendry wanting to keep Neifi and Glendon, and Hendry paying what Aramis deserves to be paid. He's going to let him walk. Granted he has re-signed most of his own FA's early, but he has a pretty good track record with Wood, Lee, Barrett, and others.

Agreed. But "love of Chicago" or not, Aramis was gonna opt out of this contract. The time to be upset was the beginning of 2005, not today. I've never understood the hatred of the opt out clause. Sure, everyone knew he was going to opt out after two years. If Ramirez and his agent came to the table though at the beginning of 2005 and said "You give us this or we go to free agency after the year" do you expect the ownership to just let him go to free agency? It at least delayed things for one year-now the team has to lock him up. Well, Ramirez had no leverage then. He was not due for free agency yet. He didn't have the Cubs by the balls like he does now.

Agreed. But "love of Chicago" or not, Aramis was gonna opt out of this contract. The time to be upset was the beginning of 2005, not today.

If you were hired for your job 2 years ago, had the ability to re-negotiate your pay, and knew there were several other companies with a need for your specific position, wouldn't you want to see what the other companies are willing to pay for your position before agreeing to take a salary from your current employer? What's the point of the opt-out clause if Ramirez wasn't gonna use it?

This is not a surprise at all. This is what many on this board said would happen 2 years ago when he signed that contract. Edit: and this is not a bad thing. It only becomes bad if he's not signed 2 weeks from today.

I really don't see how this is a similar situation to 1985. It's in Chicago. It's 8 games into the season instead of 13. It's the worst Dolphins team since before '85.

I think LA sees their lineup as it is now: Furcal-SS, Ethier-LF, Drew-RF, Kent-2B, Loney-1B, Kemp-CF, Martin-C, Betemit-3B. I think they want to upgrade at 3B. And if they can't get a big enough bat there, which they likely won't if Ramirez re-signs and ARod stays in NY, they will look to replace Drew. I fully believe they will enter the Carlos Lee/Soriano sweepstakes. The Dodgers don't have the big RH hitter. Nomar will likely be gone. Kent is an injury risk who will be 39 in March and shouldn't be counted on as more than a 5th or 6th hitter for a good offensive team. Kemp isn't there yet. I don't think they will want to go into the season with their 2 biggest hitters, being their 2 biggest injury risks. Kent will be impossible to trade....again being 39 and in the last year of his contract. And the fact that LA gave Drew a huge contract and he has barely has a full season's worth of plate appearances in his 2 years there could lead to him being traded.

O-O are you Pantsless Mascots? My count has me with a 39-29 lead with Longwell and NE D left to go tomorrow night. Funny, you had no starting 2nd RB, but I had Reggie Bush get -2 points for me. You got 0's from your TE and WR/RB positions, but I got 0's from Reggie Brown and and Leon Washington. I didn't start Reggie Wayne and his 24 points. Would have been a much different game had you started Brady, Thomas Jones and Witten and I started Wayne.

Basically, the big selling point for Jackson can be summed up in 2 words, BIG PAPI Ortiz went from a career low .800's OPS hitter to being a top 5 player in baseball the moment he came in contact with Jackson. And Ortiz himself gives Jackson a mountain of credit for it. In his four years in Boston, his teams have hit: -2006: .269 with a .351 OBP -2005: .281/.357 -2004: .282/.360 -2003: .289/.360 I know he did have Manny and Nomar, who were already great hitters. And Ortiz could have figured out anyway entering his prime at the same time of his arrival to Boston and hitting around Manny, but Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, Kevin Millar, and Bill Mueller support Jackson's ability. Varitek went from an average offensive catcher at best, to one of the elites. Nixon had 2 career years, before injuries took over. Millar had better seasons in Florida, but became a much more patient hitter, which he needed considering his bat speed started to go when he hit 32. Mueller was coming off an injury and had shown flashes in 1 season with the Cubs, but put up a monster season in 03 under Jackson and a couple more solid ones after. He was hitting coach in Milwaukee in 1999, and ironically (or not) enough that team hit .273 with a .350 OBP a lot like the great Red Sox offenses, considering the lack of DH. Jeff Cirillo, Jeromy Burnitz, Dave Nilsson, Ron Belliard had years they have not since repeated. Geoff Jenkins has only come close to repeating that season once. And Jose Valentin hasn't come close to the BB/PA of that season. He's as good as it gets, people!

Yeah, it will be. Have to divide of time for 2 spots for Deng, Brown, Noc, Tyrus, and Khryapa. I think last night's game is a pretty good indication of what it will be like early on, and it looks a lot like last year. Gonna see a lot of Hinrich and Gordon in the backcourt together. Hinrich may average 40 minutes this year, with Gordon easily getting 32 minutes/game. Griffin will play a lot in certain matchups (Lebron comes to mind). Gonna see a lot of Noc/Deng at the 3-4 together. I don't expect much more than 15-18 mins/game for PJ Brown. Tyrus and Thabo won't play too awful much, but should get in most games for 4-5 minutes apiece. Wallace will play more minutes up front than Chandler, simply because he's better at staying out of foul trouble. And that's a win-win, because it cuts down Sweetney's time! I don't expect Duhon to get nearly 30 mins/game again. If I had a guess, it would be: PG- Hinrich 30-32 mins/Duhon 15-18, with the rest going to Barrett in mopup or injury duty. SG- Gordon 32-35 mins/Hinrich 8-10/Griffin 8-10, with the rest going to Thabo SF- Deng 30-32/ Nocioni 10-15/ Khryapa/Griffin 8-10 depending on the matchups, with the rest going to Tyrus. PF- Brown 15-20 mins/Nocioni 15-20 mins, with Sweets getting most of the rest with occasional Thomas and Khryapa depending on size of other team. C- Wallace 35 mins, with PJ, Sweets and Andruiskevicius getting the backup minutes.

This upsets me, I'd much rather have Chris Harris out there than Todd " i get blocked 40 yards downfield on a screen pass" Johnson. This Mike Brown injury, compounded with possible suspension and injury of Ricky Manning Jr. could put a lot of pressure on our already weakened secondary. Bad News Bears. I say give Cedric Benson 15 carries this game and see what he does with them. He does well? Keep give him 15 carries. Thomas Jones' act is starting to get old with me. When everyone was calling for Benson last year, Jones kept him on the bench by having a real good season. I think Jones comes out running the ball hard and makes us all forget about that dancing crap he pulled against Arizona. As for the DBs, they were fine last year without Brown for a while. And they never really had a consistent nickel back. They also had a rookie at FS last year, in Harris. Tillman and Vasher have to step up their game. Pass rush has to keep coming. The Bears will be fine.

Very excited about this Bulls team. No reason why they shouldn't lead the league in rebounds and defense this year. They were 3rd in the league last year, before Wallace and PJ. They were solid defensively last year with the 3rd best mark in FG% against and the 6th best mark in forced turnovers. They were middle of the pack in points allowed and blocked shots. And that's before adding Wallace who was top 10 in rebounds, blocks, and steals, including a huge margin over any other front court player in the league. I'm sure Ben and PJ have lost a step from last year. But they are not being added to a group consisting of Marcus Fizer, Jalen Rose, and Jamal Crawford. They are being added to a team that was over .500 with a bunch of 1-2 year players two years ago, and .500 last year in, by far, the toughest division in the league. I'm very encouraged that the core of this team has stayed together and all should be hitting their stride this year as a group. I also love the fact that they didn't just go out and get old guys for veteran leadership. I love that they brought in more young players that can be a part of this thing for a long time.

As bad as I want the Cubs to win the world series....I'd settle for a team like the As, who seemingly are always in the playoffs, though they haven't won. I'll settle for at least having a chance every year. Obviously, the Cubs are in a special situation, where 1 championship would mean more to them than any other team in the history of sports, but non-desperate part of me would be very pleased with 5 trips to the playoffs in 7 years.

Yep. I believe you and I were the torch bearers for Nomar. I said in August of last year, I thought the Cubs should re-sign Nomar, go out and get the best players available, and then figure out where to play Nomar. If you re-sign Nomar before the Furcal fiasco, he's the fallback option at SS. If you are in a spot where you are forced to settle for Jacque Jones, you try Nomar in RF. But that's old news. I am not at all stressed about Ramirez filing for freeagency. I'm more worried about the Cubs willingness to give him what he wants to stay.

I got a couple things from that article. 1. Aramis is only opting out of his contract because he can. I think he, personally, is fine with playing out his current contract, but knows it would be stupid to do so. 2. Aramis will re-sign with the Cubs for less than 6 years. 4yr/$60M or 5/$75 should get it done easily. And I don't see why the Cubs would have a problem giving up that. Actually a 4 year deal still makes him likely to get another big contract if his body holds up, as he would be just 32 at the end of it.

On the flip side, he also said Neifi Perez, Rey Ordonez, and Manny Alexander were sure-bets for several .300, 30, 100, 30 SB seasons apiece.

If Sheff would have been a FA, I wouldn't mind signing him for 1 year for 6-8 mil, provided the Cubs could get rid of Jones or put him in CF and get big production out of 2B, SS, or CF also.

Seriously, what's wrong with Novoa, besides consistency? He was great down the stretch in August and Sept. He was better than Eyre and Dempster over the course of the entire season. He gave up a crapload of HRs, but 12 of 15 were before August 1.

Ah, that's where we differ. I don't want my best reliever in the 9th inning throwing with a 2 or 3-run lead, which happens more times than not. I want my best reliever getting the ball in the 7th inning of a 1-run game in order to make it to the 9th with a lead. I want a pen full of guys who can get the ball in any situation and not fail miserably because they are too stuck in their defined roles.

But to be fair, Howry/Eyre performed admirably especially for their contracts. And while it seems the best bullpens are consisting of "failed starters" you have to take in considersation "Stuff" and "other intangibles" also. Wainwright and Johnson both are considered to having "GREAT" stuff. So, to honestly think to throw a "failed starter" into the bullpen is the best bet to build a bullpen, is abit naive. It needs a little of both to succeed. Eyre was not good. He gave up a crapload of baserunners. He gave up a .265 BAA. He walked a ton of people. Gave up an almost .200 ISOP. He had the worse season for him since 2000, almost by far. I agree you need balance, that's why I wouldn't completely get rid of Eyre, Howry and Dempster. But that's also why (along with the numbers above) I would keep Novoa in the Cubs pen over Eyre and or Dempster.

WOW. Didn't realize his numbers were so good. He'd be a decent platoon partner for Jones. .882 OPS, .095 BB/PA. He strikes out at an alarming rate so platoon would probably be best for him. BTW, where did you get those stats? ESPN has him hitting .238 vs. LHPs in 2005.

IMO, that second bullpen would get torn up. You don't create a successful 'pen by stringing together some arms with good stats. Who would you have as closer, setup men, loogy, etc? Not to be an ass, but did you read my post? Dempster is still the closer, first off. Secondly, I made the point the Wuertz and Ohman were in the setup and loogy roles respectively in 2005....in what was a better bullpen than the one in 2006. Well maybe I didn't make the exact point, but still they were in those roles in 2005 and the 2005 pen was miles better. If you don't make that exact point, then don't get upset when someone points out the lack of clarity in your post. <--- Not trying to be an ass. So you have: Closer - Dempster Setup - Wuertz Setup - Rapada LOOGY - Ohman Long Relief - Aardsma Middle Relief - Wood Is that right? I'm just trying to be clear about the roles. I don't know why roles are important. But I would switch Wood and Rapada. Oh and who says you can't throw a bunch of arms together to make a good bullpen? The Cubs went out and spent big money on Eyre and Howry. The Cards gave bullpen roles to Wainright, Thompson and Hancock. The best pens in the ML were full of cheap failed starters.

I like Jackson a little more than Chambliss for hitting coach. Those are really the only 2 choices I can think of that I like. I do love Von Joshua, but again, he is more valuable in the minors. 1B coach doesn't matter much, but I wouldn't mind a guy like Listach in that role. Jody would be interesting too.

True story, but Howry has had a much better WHIP than Wuertz in each of the past three years. And personally, I don't put a lot of stock into ERA's of relievers, considering that often times they're not even in the game when the run they're being charged with scores. I'll give you that, but Wuertz Ks more, gives up a much lower BAA, and keeps the ball on the ground a lot more.