KingCubsFan

Thanks. I thought he was an outfielder for some reason.

At least age 23 and he has to have played three seasons in Cuban professional leagues (it's five years for players coming from the NPB or KBO). When does Abreu become available? Badler was really talking him up too. He's already 26 so whenever he wants to/is able to defect. Usually defecting stuff is kept pretty quiet, as some have talked about on here, so it's entirely possible he's in the process of defecting right now. Makes sense, given that Badler said he could step right into the majors. I have to think the bidding would be right around Cespedes. Hopefully the Cubs wouldn't let him go this time.

At least age 23 and he has to have played three seasons in Cuban professional leagues (it's five years for players coming from the NPB or KBO). When does Abreu become available? Badler was really talking him up too.

Doesn't really make sense. They still like Rondon, they just don't think he's ready. Regardless of whether Marmol is on the team, he's still presumably their closer of the future.

Good point. Let's get LeBron hooked on smack. I don't know, smack makes you look so much older. Is that Greg Oden's problem?

Carlos Villanueva makes over 20 starts, puts up an ERA under 4 and is called "our MVP" at least once during the season by Dale Sveum. Garza makes only 14 starts with mediocre peripherals, and eventually accepts the Cubs' one-year tender offer in the offseason. Travis Wood puts up a 3 WAR season and gets dealt in the offseason, with the Cubs winning a lopsided trade. James Russell is terrible. Trey McNutt comes up in June and solidifies a bullpen role.

I don't know where else to put this, but has anyone else noticed Jesse Rogers (ESPNChicago's new beat writer) seems absolutely clueless when it comes to baseball in general? I have no idea why they thought it would be a good idea to pull him off hockey and put him on the Cubs.

The thread on RealGM has an exclamation point in the thread title. This reminds me of the Rasaul Butler signing. He probably won't play more than 5-6 minutes a game.

Is that due to scar tissue? The knee is clearly fully healed structurally if he's been cleared for full-on practice.

Interesting comment with no elaboration: I wonder what it is. Our supercoaches are at it again. EDIT - Also, this report is a surprisingly decent assessment of the state of the organization given how little I think of Heyman. I really thought he had turned the corner with Cooper when the White Sox acquired him and he went on that run at the end of the ('09?) season. He certainly still has the fastball velocity.

walk Looks like Kyle needs something else to worry about.

Ive heard the FO wants Urlacher, Roach and Idonije back. I think change is good and u can upgrade at least 2 of those defensive positions while also getting younger. I suspect they'll try to keep the D as stable as possible so they can get another year out of it, in order to focus on fixing the offense this year. Thats fine and all but u upgrade when and where u can. Idonije became a backup and u used a 1st round pick on his position. Roach has always been replaceable. You can either replace spare parts now or replace everyone at the same time (Urlacher, Roach, Tillman, Peppers, Idonije, Jennings, etc). I agree about Idonije. If McClellin can't be the third DE in his second season, he's more worthless than I thought.

I think that's definitely the case. He has the ability to be a plus defender at 3rd, and probably more power potential than Vitters.

1998? 2008

By all accounts, Chicago was nothing more than a ploy for Carmelo to get to New York. And that's really all Chicago is for these guys: a good backup choice. That's why I'm against the Bulls trying to employ a strategy whereby they clear up cap space for a run at a superstar in free agency. The odds are not good in that situation.

I don't blame him at all. He absolutely should have taken it...he deserved it. But Reggie Rose tried to pin all of the blame on the Bulls while making Derrick out to be the innocent superstar who's locked into dealing with nothing but inferior talent with no say in the matter.

A few. Perhaps I shouldn't have said it with that type of finality, but I'm not really sure what's wrong with this conclusion. Since Jordan retired, we've tried to sign big names on multiple occasions and struck out pretty badly with stars (Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, etc.). Wish I could find the article, but I remember reading something a while back where agents were surveyed and it was largely verified that most players are not that interested in playing in Chicago.

That's reading too much into the comments. I think a good amount of people feel a similar sentiment and or frustrated at the situation. We're going to probably get pounded by Miami until the FA of 2014 if we can land a star caliber player which even then well by losing Deng reducing the net gain. There are 4 title contenders by my count and you can maybe include Denver making it 5. The Bulls will never land a star player. Chicago is just not an enticing place for players.

I think Reggie is just taking the fall as the bad guy and this is what Derrick really thinks. Which is too bad, if true, because I think this team, if fully healthy, could beat the Heat at least once over the next few years if given the chance. could be, but that doesn't really sound like derrick rose. i think derrick rose is the guy who wants the challenge of being the guy who "single-handedly" wins a title with no superstars around him. didn't he get criticism for not calling lebron and generally choosing to not recruit other star players? i think rose would relish the opportunity to come back midseason, off a devastating knee injury, and go on a run with a team nobody thinks is good enough this year. I agree that Rose did think this way, but with so many whispers over the past few months about sitting out the season/needing more good players, maybe he's sick of looking up at the Heat. But I wish someone on the radio had called Rose's brother out on the fact that (a) the Heat were a result of their own player (Wade) trying to convince these guys for years to join him (Rose sent one text to LeBron) and (b) they all agreed to take less money to play together (Rose took the supermax which really hampers the Bulls' ability to make moves).

When the Cubs have the best record in the league for two years straight, and then hang among the elite when the core of their team is out for the entire season (not sure how to compare Rose being out to a baseball team), I'll expect them to spend money. Kind of like how I expect the Bulls to go all out right now.

I think Reggie is just taking the fall as the bad guy and this is what Derrick really thinks. Which is too bad, if true, because I think this team, if fully healthy, could beat the Heat at least once over the next few years if given the chance.

And this is why my interest in the Bulls continues to decline. If this continues throughout Rose's prime, Reinsdorf is going to enter Wirtz territory. Lets start by saying that I am not sure if I believe that JR will ever pay the luxury tax (i guess we could know for sure after today). But lets say he does....even if that is the case, there's no way he's going to be ok with paying the repeater tax in a couple of years. So if its true that JR will pay the luxury tax at some point, but will not pay the repeater tax, I guess it makes sense that they would want to avoid paying it this year when its unlikely Rose is playing like Rose, and even if he does its not super likely that they can actually win the title. Next year Taj's extension kicks in and its an all but certainty that they will pay the tax next year. If we don't cut the salary this year, that will be 2 straight years of paying the tax...meaning we'd have to go under the tax the next 2 seasons to avoid the repeater penalty. Presumably those are the years that you'd want to go all out to win a title, as Rose will presumably be 100%, LeBron might be off to Cleveland, Wade will be 2 years older, the Bulls will probably have more flexibility to potentially build a better supporting cast with Deng and Boozer's contracts coming off the books, etc. Of course, you can rip JR for not being ok with paying the repeater penalty being in the 3rd largest market and being the most profitable team in the NBA for several years and never paying it in the past, etc. But that's a different discussion. Accepting that he won't pay that repeater penalty it makes sense that they'd want to avoid it this year. Both Deng and Boozer will be up soon (we'll probably amnesty Boozer for salary reasons anyways). Both the tax and the cap will inevitably rise over the next several years. Paying the tax now does not mean we'll have to pay it every year going forward. JR always said he'd go into the tax if he had a championship contender. Well, here it is. Deng and Noah are in their prime, and Rose should be 100% next season. The window on this team is going to be closed before they know it. I'm not necessarily JJ Redick is the guy they should go into the luxury tax for, but I'm sick of every potential move ending with "Bulls don't want to go into tax." Particularly when they're so profitable.

And this is why my interest in the Bulls continues to decline. If this continues throughout Rose's prime, Reinsdorf is going to enter Wirtz territory.

I'm sure he's not even thinking about his major or getting a degree. He's just trying to remain barely eligible in order to play this season and then he thinks he will probably go pro. Not bothering with school and just having tutors write papers for him in online classes gives him that much more time to train.

Johnny Manziel only takes online courses and almost never steps foot on campus. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/johnny-manziel-taking-only-online-courses-only-campus-233900102--ncaaf.html