bukie

I'll agree they were the least efficient. Whether or not that money was wasted is determined by the benefit they received in spending the money. Even weirder was that they didn't count the Blue Jays in the "most efficient" category, because they didn't get at least 87 wins (which is a threshold only 11 teams reached this year), because the author wanted to set an efficiency threshold of "5 games over .500".

I was just pointing out that in fact the Yankees were in fact the least efficient team in MLB in terms of Forbes arbitrary analysis of wins/$. They just determined that the Yankees and Red Sox don't count because they won more games than they lost.

Actually, the Yankees did. They just don't count because they made the playoffs.

Neither team has had a hit since the 3rd inning.

Congrats Deven! You win bragging rights. :)

Due to a combination of several personal and family issues, I don't think I will be adequately able to run my team next year. Too many other things have cropped up in the last couple years that have eaten away my time, and I've really just drifted away from following any baseball the last 9 months. I just want to be clear that this has nothing to do with the recent rules issues or anyone in particular (and Adam, I wasn't ignoring your offers, and was seriously considering them), or the fact my team tanked this year. I made the trades I made on purpose to clear a lot of points going into next year with the plan to buy low on an A-list player or two from the few teams I knew would be over for points. This team has potentially over 1000 points to play with, so I could afford anyone. This is the most intense, fun fantasy league I've been involved in, and don't come to the decision lightly. I'm also not opposed to taking over in future years should a team become available (even this one). Just too much crap going on right now and in the foreseeable future that I need to compromise some hobbies to make time elsewhere.

FO is not kind to the Bears this week. Dropped to 27th in DVOA overall, offensive line 32nd against the pass, 27th against the run, defensive line 32nd against the pass, 3rd against the run, Cutler's statistics took a dive, only Knox is listed above average, and the offense dropped from above average to 22nd.

Initial FO stats: Cutler had one of the worst games in DYAR history, being sacked on 45% of his dropbacks. And he managed it in just one half. Whether it was all the line, whether the concussion attributed to his slower than usual delivery, whether it was the playcalling, it was certainly an awful performance that was up there with Ryan Leaf in the hall of shame.

S&P+ Top 25 (after 5 weeks): 1 Alabama (5-0) 300.0 3 +2 173.4 1 113.1 18 2 Ohio State (5-0) 289.9 1 -1 125.2 14 143.5 3 3 Arizona (4-0) 276.8 4 +1 122.2 17 144.9 1 4 Miami (3-1) 276.7 2 -2 126.4 12 144.2 2 5 Florida (4-1) 266.0 6 +1 119.5 22 131.3 4 6 Iowa (4-1) 258.4 9 +3 130.9 4 111.5 24 7 Boise State (4-0) 255.6 15 +8 118.0 27 122.4 7 8 Missouri (4-0) 254.6 10 +2 129.7 5 114.4 17 9 TCU (5-0) 252.3 12 +3 114.8 32 116.8 12 10 Auburn (5-0) 249.9 11 +1 134.5 3 107.7 33 11 South Carolina (3-1) 249.2 18 +7 128.6 8 117.1 11 12 Nebraska (4-0) 247.8 8 -4 103.1 49 116.6 13 13 California (2-2) 247.2 16 +3 129.2 6 118.2 9 14 Stanford (4-1) 244.2 5 -9 135.1 2 107.3 34 15 Oregon (5-0) 242.7 13 -2 121.0 19 104.4 38 16 Illinois (2-2) 242.1 46 +30 123.4 16 123.2 6 17 Virginia Tech (3-2) 239.5 24 +7 113.8 34 111.9 21 18 Clemson (2-2) 238.3 21 +3 118.2 25 110.5 26 19 LSU (5-0) 238.0 17 -2 110.9 37 110.7 25 20 Oklahoma (5-0) 237.9 26 +6 116.6 29 107.0 36 21 UCLA (3-2) 237.1 7 -14 111.8 36 121.3 8 22 Pittsburgh (2-2) 235.7 29 +7 116.6 29 107.0 36 23 Michigan State (5-0) 233.9 27 +4 111.8 36 121.3 8 24 Arkansas (3-1) 233.8 25 +1 108.3 40 116.2 15 25 Notre Dame (2-3) 233.6 28 +3 103.6 48 128.8 5 More weird sample-size related craziness, that will eventually sort itself out (unless Missouri really is that good and Oregon/Oklahoma aren't). More funny than anything at this point.

You mean Prior or Wood, here? I'd really enjoy seeing Wood knock out Dusty's team in the playoffs.

You mean every week?

And now the Cubs are tied with the Astros.

Cubs update: The Cubs' pitching staff has now combined for 27 consecutive scoreless innings over 4 games.

Fred, you wouldn't happen to know the record for consecutive scoreless innings by a team, would you?

Yes, they changed it, but not sure when.

Nice to see Illinois is playing to try to keep the score close. Big moral victory, there, guys.

This game gives me hope that Illinois isn't awful.

What is that, now, back to back shutouts and 3 shutouts in the last 6 games?

These games actually have a little meaning, as if the Cubs sweep, they pass the Astros in the standings, and thus fall behind Houston in the draft order.

For me, it's an egregious enough offense from Jack Warner for us and Mexico to legitimately start making inquiries about the possibility of joining CONMEBOL. That would make it far tougher to qualify, unless FIFA decided to shift 2 bids from CONCACAF to CONMEBOL and make the remaining CONCACAF teams share a bid with Oceania or something.

USC-UCLA?! Really? It's a huge deal out west. Way bigger deal than Knicks-Heats is...anywhere. Yeah, I can probably name 5-10 teams in the NBA that have bigger rivalries with the Knicks than the Heat. Hell, the Bulls probably have more of a rivalry with the Knicks than the Heat do.

I have some concerns, but not many. Obviously the lack of a running game hurts, but I'm hopeful that we're going to swing a trade before the deadline. One thing that upsets me is we have better tackles that aren't getting enough burn. Bulaga should be at LT and TJ Lang should be at RT. There's no excuse to continue to play Clifton and Tauscher. Our defense has held up very well despite missing Harris and Bigby for the first three games. I'm really impressed by that. Once we get them back after week 6, that should give us plenty of depth there -- something that we're solely lacking right now. Special teams is always a concern for this team, just because they're not coached well. The stupid ginger punter was fine the first two games but he was obviously a mess on Monday. Jordy Nelson has really impressed me as a kick returner, though. Every team has some weaknesses. I think we're fine compared to most teams around the league. Our strengths far outweigh our negatives. Yes, even with the loss, the Packers have been the most efficient team in the NFL overall. Special teams is bad, because, well, special teams has always been bad. They should still be considered a Super Bowl favorite, but undisciplined enough to lose in any situation.

Completely disagree. Having a mediocre DL doesn't get your star QB killed though. We spent $90 million on the D-line this past offseason. Time to put that kind of effort into the O-line. According to FO, the 3 teams we've played so far all have O-lines ranked in the top 10 in pass protection. The Giants are ranked 20th. We should be able to get to Eli. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol Not to go all chicken-egg analogy on you here, but maybe those three teams are top 10 in pass protection because they've played just 3 games, one being against the Bears DL. FO's numbers will be opponent-adjusted after next week, which will make them more representative and predictive overall and less speculative. The biggest concern right now that I have for the Bears is the pass defense, because everything else has gone as well or better than expected (or in the case of the rushing offense, as bad as expected and it's not going to get better).

I believe it. I don't think DVOA looks kindly at "bend but don't break". And we've been living too dangerously on that this year. Yesterday's game was the rare "double negative". Basically, a team's VOA is a mirror of their opponent's, except for instances where the other team didn't affect performance (penalties and missed FGs). Outside the penalties (which still count!), the Packers offense significantly outplayed the Bears defense, while the Bears offense slightly outplayed the Packer D and the Bears special teams wiped the floor with the Packers special teams.

As suspected, the Bears actually dropped to 12th in the FO ratings this week (KC is up to 9th), mostly due to a complete lack of winning anything impressively. The defense is actually the weak link at this point.