KingCubsFan

It's going to suck when we finish "second" to the Yankees.

I'm hoping Colletti would rather have David Price, so he'll wait until next offseason to sell ownership on a $150 million starter.

Nah, Zimmer is a good hire. 2nd best of the offseason, IMO, behind Bradley in Houston. I'll take proven coordinator or college coach getting promotions to HC over retread head coaches who have never won anything. I just think hiring a defensive-minded coach when your offense is a mess with no QB was a mistake.

Not overly impressed with the Lions' or Vikings' hires. I like them both from a Bears' perspective.

Passan sounds like a bunch of us. Who wants to help craft a @PoorTomRicketts tweet to him? This could be its big break! Something about being able to read the article because it wasn't behind a paywall.

Apples and oranges. By the time Javy is due to become a free agent one would hope that we are then trying to sustain our success, not add a high dollar free agent to a steaming pile of dung. The financial situation should also be much improved by then. I'm just curious how it's apples to oranges...talent is talent, no? Adding a good player is not any different than retaining one; both help you get closer to your goal of winning. Adding Ellsbury to the current pile of offensive crap makes it less bad, doesn't it? No, it's completely different. You're trying to compare a mid 20's superstar shortstop in this hypothetical to Ellsbury , who is 31 and whose value is derived mainly from speed and defense. If the Cubs ever had a player like that, and we're faced with signing him to a huge 7 year deal or letting him walk, I'd let him walk. Particularly if you're in the Red Sox situation and you have a guy like Jackie Bradley ready to take over.

Perfect way for Stoops to leave without completely burning bridges. Step One: Leave for NFL because "it's always been a dream of mine, as much as I love Oklahoma." Step Two: Fail with Browns, collect huge paychecks Step Three: Return to college with a different elite program, along with a bigger bank account.

I don't know. I think he writes a pretty compelling case, and the things that were said to him by his coaches is disturbing and unacceptable, but in terms of linking what was said/done to him and his release from the Vikings, there are 2 sides to every story. I have a hard time believing that in a results driven league, teams would actually choose to burn a 5th round pick and release an adequately performing punter because he outwardly supports gay marriage. Either way, he's certainly blackballed now. Explain Kerry Rhodes not being employed by any team last year. The Bears sure could have used him instead of Chris Conte. Yeah, I think he has a much better case than Kluwe. Given how concerned NFL teams get with "distractions" in general, I could see a team not seeing a real benefit to keeping a punter (who are generally easily replaceable) who appears to be pretty vocal on controversial issues in general (according to that article, he made comments about the Pope too), as opposed to releasing him due to his stance on a specific issue.

Maybe wants to have Frazier in place before anything. If Lovie can't get Marinelli out of Dallas I could see him pushing for Frazier. I think Lovie has already got Marinelli on board.

Lovie Smith was loved by the locker room, so it's no surprise a lot of players didn't immediately gravitate towards Trestman (especially defensive players). At this point, though, I'd find it hard to believe that any offensive player is at all upset with the coaching change given the offensive success this year. And the entire defense is expendable, so Emery shouldn't feel bad cutting anyone that doesn't buy into Trestman's philosophy.

Towers already gave away Skaggs this offseason.

I'm guessing Amaro would want one of Baez, Soler or Almora.

Probably because Aaron Rodgers is much better than Jay Cutler. Top 3 player in the NFL. He's still coming back from a major injury; it's not like being a better QB magically makes you better at healing or something. Right, but I think the rationale with the Bears was that a rusty Cutler may not be better than McCown. I don't think there's as much disagreement over the fact that a rusty Rodgers is still much better than Matt Flynn.

Probably because Aaron Rodgers is much better than Jay Cutler. Top 3 player in the NFL.

That's the most ridiculous story ever. Those dudes need a better cover than, "I was just walking by this group of people and all of the sudden a big dude punched me in the face for no reason". except it sounds like they've got a security camera video that corroborates their claim. Lewan runs 6-7, 315 lbs, and looks every bit the part of a big jock douchebag. Him randomly punching a guy in the face is much more believable than a small group of rival fans starting a fight with him at a popular UM bar. You're missing a key factor: They were Ohio State fans.

If Theo said he wants to be like the Rays (and I don't remember him saying that), it could be because (1) They've had one of the best farm systems in baseball over the past few years, (2) Their front office uses creative ways to gain an edge on the competition, (3) They want to lock up their young players like Rays did with Longoria. There are a lot of ways a team like the Cubs would want to emulate the Rays. Not spending money on purpose is not one of them. It's as if you're buying into Kyle's theory that Theo left Boston so he could take a vacation in Chicago, treating the Cubs like a game of Baseball Mogul, and trying to spend as little money as possible so he could build an all prospect team and be hailed a genius.

I don't know about that. I think it's mostly Theo's strategy and the owners are going along with it. Why would any FO willfully cut themselves off like that? That makes absolutely no sense. He's been saying for a while that Theo is baseball moguling it as an ego thing Listen to what Theo has said and done repeatedly since he left Boston. He said they got burned in Boston chasing big money guys and paying a premium for past performance. He said you have to think like a small market team. He said you are never one player away. He talked about emulating the Rays. Every single thing that has come out of his mouth and all of his actions, including hiring his staff screams it. Can you provide links for these statements? I never recall Theo saying he wanted to emulate the Rays because they don't spend any money. I'm guessing you took all of these "quotes" completely out of context. He has talked about paying a premium for past performance, and that's why it's important to get your own players from your farm system. He's absolutely right about that. Because of that model, the Yankees will now pay 140 million for Ellsbury's declining years, while the Red Sox got his peak at a discount, and will now slide Jackie Bradley into that spot for the league minimum. I'm not sure how anyone could disagree that's the optimal way to run a baseball team.

Dan Szymborski ‏@DSzymborski 3 Dec ZiPS WAR projection for Choo: 3.0, 2.8, 2.5, 2.0, 1.4, 0.7 Dan Szymborski ‏@DSzymborski 3 Dec ZiPS only has Choo a 3.0 WAR player in 2014 and Steamer's got him at the same figure, so it's not a ZiPS outlier or anything. if i'm interpreting his other tweets right, that basically gives him 6/66 valuation This post really tempered my desire for us to go hard after Choo. Choo really needs to go to an AL team and be the new Edgar. He simply can't play the outfield anymore. He's never been rated highly defensively, but he played out of position last year, and I believe had some sort of leg injury the year before that hampered his mobility. Defense aside, I'd still be interested in him given that he's so good at the Cubs' one glaring offensive weakness: getting on base.

Some good news for Notre Dame for once. They hired Alabama's former recruiting director, who was most recently at Tennessee. Looks like Notre Dame now has someone with experience in bringing in 50 person classes. Edit: Whoops, an old article. The hire was made back in June.

There's no problem in giving really good relievers multiyear deals. The problem with guys like Eyre and Howry was that they were perceived as overrated and easily replaceable when they signed. Howry was coming off a season in which he had a horrible K rate, and Eyre didn't really have a track record of success.

Maybe a RH part of a CF platoon? Nothing wrong with a 26 year old 4th outfielder that can play all 3 positions, even if he can't become a starter.

Have to keep losing. Given how bunched up all of the bad teams are in the East, trading Deng at the deadline should help the Bulls move up a number of spots in the lottery.

Rick Hahn has done well this offseason. Smart to pick on Kevin Towers.

The Yankees made $400 million in revenue last year. Levine doesn't know what he's talking about.

Gose strikes as someone who is really highly rated and everyone really wants to be good, but in reality he's just an athlete who is not a good baseball player.