illiniguy

McCamey would be a legit NPOTY contender next year. That kind of hype helps a lot. As far as what he can improve on, he can show a lot more on defense and can still improve both his PG skills and scoring. He's got a lot to gain by coming back. Trying to remove my own vested interest from the situation, I think it'd be dumb not to come back without a 1st round guarantee Yeah this would be really dumb if he doesn't stay in the first round. On a lot of levels. If he's guaranteed the first round he should go. If not he needs to come back get his degree for free and then see what happens.

If you can show that you can lead a team deep into the tourny it does wonders for your draft stock. That's how Deron Williams went ahead of Chris Paul.

Not me. If we had LMA, then I doubt the Bulls land Derrick Rose. And I take Rose over LMA every day. That's pretty dumb. Sure I would rather have Rose than LMA but Rose wasn't part of the deal. You traded LMA, who was picked No. 2, for Tyrus Thomas, who was picked No. 4, and some foreign guy who never made to my knowledge. That was the trade. If you have LMA you would be a lot better and while you likely wouldn't have Rose you would have some other draft pick in his place in addition to LMA. That could be Beasley, Love, Mayo, Westbrook, Lopez, Gordon or some other player that is pretty good. I would take LMA + one of the guys mentioned over what you ended with which is Rose and a couple years of Tyrus sucking. If your 2nd best player is Lamarcus Aldridge you're not contending for a championship. He's a nice piece but pretty replaceable. Jump shooting power forwards who don't rebound or block shots are nothing special. I'd rather have Rose and nothing than Aldridge and a guy that isn't nearly is as good as Rose. This, Rose is better than LMA and all the guys he mentioned. Not to mention other good players might actually want to come play with Rose.

Well we already knew he was stupid. I've seen the tweets as well, and it doesn't look good. He'll get drafted but he's an idiot if he actually hires an agent this year. I'm not sure he gets drafted. Weber has to be sweating bullets over this.

And is probably just as clean as all of the Larussa superstars.

So were their final fours.

Vitters for Bell would be a great parting gift.

Weren't you the one complaining about people predicting the Cubs getting swept not 2 weeks ago? To me there is a huge difference between someone posting that we will be swept in our season opening series and saying based on the first two weeks of crap I don't expect the team to be good at all. I don't believe we will be below .500. I think we will end up with between 85-90 wins but I am OK with people saying that the team has looked like crap and based on that I don't expect us to compete. I do have a problem with fans who before the season has even started post a short, one sentence saying we're going to get swept. One has at least some analysis and reasoning behind it. The other is the always pessimistic, give up, loser attitude I hate in some Cubs fans. I always get pissed at lab rats who are conditioned to do something, then do it too.

Follow the minors. We have a lot to be excited about down there.

Wait, wait, wait...you clearly recognize that it's only 3 games back only 2 weeks into the season. Yes. My point is that we are three games back and the season is only two weeks old and I don't have much faith in our team. I'm saying that I think there is a good chance that we will end up way out of first place. if you thought that there was any way we finished better than 3rd in the division, you were deluding yourself to begin with Who else in the division is better than us? St. Louis for sure. I could see Cincy or Milwaukee giving us a run as well.

The half season of Ramirez hurts, Byrd will play approximately as well as Bradley (less on base but more slugging, given his career numbers) but I'm not convinced we'll get anything better out of Zambrano or Harden's replacement(s) or even Soto this year So whats the big difference between this year and last year? Less Bobby Scales? Ok, peg us for a few extra wins on top of the 83 mark then Then go ahead and subtract a few more for a slightly worse bullpen and a month less of Lilly The big difference is we got older. Plus some of our guys are aging badly, Soriano. We will look better when Ramirez starts hitting, assuming he does. The thing that bothers me is I really don't think that the Cardinals are that good. They have two pitchers, one being held together by band aids one elite hitter and then one very good hitter. Why does it seem like they always overachieve and we always underachieve?

No, not 2 seasons later. Some guys are definitely regressing, but that's due mostly to age and injuries. If you're arguing that their window is closing or is closed due to that, I'm with you. If you're saying it's basically due to being bummed over the playoffs in 2008, that's a stretch. Well I don't think that is the sole reason, but I do think it is some of it. The window is rapidly closing, being slammed shut since St. Louis never has to rebuild. Why would they be "hungover" still in 2010 but they weren't "hungover" in 2008 from 2007? Ok, I could be way off base on this, but my thoughts are they were suprised to even be there in '07. When they got swept they then used it to get better. Then the next year they did get quite a bit better adding Soto and Harden. They thought that they were the best team in baseball. Hell, so did I. Then when they get to the playoffs and again are swept, I think that they were done.

No, not 2 seasons later. Some guys are definitely regressing, but that's due mostly to age and injuries. If you're arguing that their window is closing or is closed due to that, I'm with you. If you're saying it's basically due to being bummed over the playoffs in 2008, that's a stretch. Well I don't think that is the sole reason, but I do think it is some of it. The window is rapidly closing, being slammed shut since St. Louis never has to rebuild.

I seriously just think that it's time to break the core of this team up. I think a lot of damage was done to the team's psyche after getting swept in '08 and this group has done as much as it's going to. Wait, really? Their "team psyche was damaged?" Come on, man. They're not delicate little flowers. I've said myself I have no problem moving key players off of this team by the deadline if they're 5+ games out of it in July, but to think that it needs to happen because of a playoff sweep 2 years ago? If a Cubs team is "damaged" by big losses then you're probably going to be blowing up the team every season. You really don't think that after steam rolling the national league like they did only to have it all come crashing down on them at once had any hangover effect? Also I know your stance on trading guys off, I am just saying what I think, this group has reached its peak and it's now regressing. Not to beat a dead horse here but we're 2 years removed from that 2008 team. All the major players on that team are either entering their mid-30's or gone. The sole exception is Soto, and while I cannot possibly guess whether he'll return to his ROY self or replicate his 2009 season, it may not even matter. In many ways this team is just an older version of the 2009 season, with perhaps a marginal upgrade in Byrd and downgrade in our bullpen. That 2009 team wasn't over or underplaying their abilities, they just were what they were. I disagree. That team last year missed half a season from Aramis Ramirez, had Milton Bradley, Carlos Zambrano, and Rich Harden have by far the worst year in their careers, and had Soto fall off of a cliff.

we don't have any of those for some reason unless you count "dribble the ball at the top of the key until durant comes off a screen" a set I do, I call it the Kevin Durant is awesome set.

Finally, Ryan Theriot is awful at baseball the fact that he gets the most at bats on our team is laughable.

I seriously just think that it's time to break the core of this team up. I think a lot of damage was done to the team's psyche after getting swept in '08 and this group has done as much as it's going to. Wait, really? Their "team psyche was damaged?" Come on, man. They're not delicate little flowers. I've said myself I have no problem moving key players off of this team by the deadline if they're 5+ games out of it in July, but to think that it needs to happen because of a playoff sweep 2 years ago? If a Cubs team is "damaged" by big losses then you're probably going to be blowing up the team every season. You really don't think that after steam rolling the national league like they did only to have it all come crashing down on them at once had any hangover effect? Also I know your stance on trading guys off, I am just saying what I think, this group has reached its peak and it's now regressing.

I seriously just think that it's time to break the core of this team up. I think a lot of damage was done to the team's psyche after getting swept in '08 and this group has done as much as it's going to.

i think he did quit after Game 2 against the Dodgers when we kicked the ball around. He just didn't bother to tell anyone.

Hell no, but I'd love to kill our Cajun Connection. Can we whack Geoff Blum first? He only gets a chance to beat us what 13 times a year? Those two clowns beat us on the regular.

Hell no, but I'd love to kill our Cajun Connection.

I think they are easily worse than last years Yep, no Harden and Soriano a year older and worse. In a way it might be better if we don't stick around long enough for Hendry to trade away Vitters or Castro.

Without Lance Berkman.

Somebody needs to let Aramis know the season has started.

Gonna drop 2 of 3 to the Astros at home, without Lance Berkman playing.