goonys evil twin

I can't believe people still believe Orton is a viable option. He made as many mistakes as Grossman without even having the freedom of making mistakes.

I completely agree.

In many ways, Padilla reminds me of Jaime Navarro, and we know how that one turned out. None of these guys are really turning me on at all, especially for the money. Rather than pursue diluted and debatable talent, I think Hendry should just suck it up and get genuine quality, spend the extra $$ for someone that can actually help the Cubs get better. The only guy I see that can do that via the FA route is Schmidt. Do that, and then get your #4 starter via trade, team would be better for it. Just say no to signing two middling FA starters at a combined $20MM/year, please. Don't. Do. It. I don't really buy the Navarro comparison. By this time is his career, Navarro had already had 2 disastrous seasons that Padilla has thus far avoided. Plus, Navarro actually had two good seasons for the Cubs. I'm all for Schmidt and somebody else, but I'm fine with Padilla and Lilly, or something similar.

In the interest of discussing the pitchers, I think Padilla is better. I think they have similar upsides, as far as how good they might look at their best, but Padilla has much less downside risk, as in how bad an off year would look. VP might have a little more injury concern, but he's still had more 200 IP seasons than Lilly (3 to 0). Ted's more likely to get a K, but he's also more likely to give up a BB, as well as significantly more prone to giving up the longball. Lilly is also almost a full 2 years older, and in the battle of bodies, I like Padilla's more powerful frame compared to Lilly's lesser physique. I can't say Padilla is hands down better across the board, or that he's a lock to outperform. But if you had the same offers on the table, I'd prefer Padilla sign it instead of Lilly. If the Cubs sign both, they will have significantly improved their starting rotation.

The Cubs traded the entire roster for Miguel Cabrera? I'd guess something to do with a stadium/relocation or a celebrity ex-Cub coaching hire.

What CFer is avalable that is left handed and has power assuming Soriano is in RF? If the Cubs use Soriano is CF I'd like to see them go after Dunn if possible. To me it makes much more sense to put Soriano back at 2nd, but that isn't going to happen. The Cubs are put together like a Piccaso painting from his Cubist period. Piccaso was Cuban? Jones is a CF with power, or at least he could be. I can't imagine Lofton or Lugo playing any better defensively.

I fail to see how either point is even worth mentioning.

You are delusional. He would have been lucky to take one step forward before losing his head.

And why can't you do that just because you have a platoon? Seriously, you are making zero sense.

The playoffs are a crapshoot and lesser teams can win, but that does not make it okay to go into the season as a weaker team than the competition, especially not the lesser paid competition. Being a bit better than the rest of the division on paper does not guarantee a title. They need to construct a team that is good enough to not just win a weak NL Central, but to withstand a surprise surge from a potentially lucky team. Im not sure how much better we could get than that, I dont think Schimdt wants to be in Chicago or at least not at a price/length of contract, that would be acceptable and I dont think that Zito is the answer. I dont think Lilly is any worse than the other availible options on the freeagent market (other than Schimdt or Zito). Im not sure how you would upgrade the everyday lineup any better without a huge trade and we dont have the prospects to deal. I just dont see to many ways to improve upon that lineup. For one, you could keep Jones, who is better than either CF option listed in that lineup. Two, we do have prospects to deal. Jim just doesn't seem interested. The Cubs farm system is far from great. But teams with lesser systems have made trades from their farms before.

I'm not concerned about the "gashing" it's par for the course with the Bears, who tend to give up chunks of yards on the ground, but still destroy the other team with turnovers. Many of those yards were gained because of all the time they had to spend on the field (since the offense and special teams seemed to either score right away or turn it over right away) or after the Bears had a huge lead. The Bears just kicked the crap out of the Vikings despite a horrible game from their QB. You can pretend the Vikes should have won, but the Bears have a tendancy to make QB's give games away.

The playoffs are a crapshoot and lesser teams can win, but that does not make it okay to go into the season as a weaker team than the competition, especially not the lesser paid competition. Being a bit better than the rest of the division on paper does not guarantee a title. They need to construct a team that is good enough to not just win a weak NL Central, but to withstand a surprise surge from a potentially lucky team.

Since Griese is not immune to mistakes and far from a guarantee for the Bears to win the SB, I think I'd rather Grossman just start playing better.

No it really doesn't. It shows you how incompetent Brad Johnson was and has been. Your defense really wasn't very impressive yesterday. It was a result of Brad Johnson being incredibly bad and poor play-calling on the part of Childress more than any great defensive performance. We completely gashed you on the ground all day long. Our three running backs had 31 carries for 187 yards (6 yards a carry). Ciatrick Fason had 1 carry all year and he had 75 yards on 11 carries yesterday, and his long was only 14. Chester Taylor gashed you, Fason gashed you and Moore gashed you. Holes were there all day long and the Bears tackling was poor. For some inexplicable reason, Childress went away from it. Second half play-calling was awful. We carried it 5 times for 25 yards in the opening drive of the second half. Then Harris went out. Then we get the INT and the ball across midfield where we throw an INT on 1st down. Oh well, defense gets the ball back down 7-6 midway through the 3rd. We bust runs of 13, 13 and 6 setting up 2nd and 4 at your 45. Instead of staying on the ground we nearly throw a pick and then Manning takes the next pass back for 6. We get the ball back down 14-6 and throw on 1st down again, right to Urlacher. Honestly look at the turnovers you forced, it was Johnson handing you the ball. One was a pass to a wide open tight end (in field goal range) who let the ball bounce off his pads into the air for an interception. Another was Johnson throwing a dump pass 8 yards too long to Urlacher. The first one was thrown right to a safety with no one in the vicinity. The Manning one was just Johnson being clueless. Wow that was a long rant. You're right, the Bears defense and special teams never make plays and that was all about Johnson.

Lovie has, for the most part, been pretty good about cutting bait. I think he's given more leeway to Grossman for perfectly acceptable reasons, and I think he's given more leeway to Jones because of how the locker room feels. In the case of the RB, I think he's just biding his time, knowing that a relatively unscathed Benson would be a big plus for the playoffs, and that Jones is susceptible to getting banged up. Lovie said many of the same things he's saying now about Orton last year. But he didn't hesitate to make a change when it was time. I think a stinker from Rex could be enough for Lovie to make a move. I read his anger in the postgame talk being directed more at Rex putting him in that position than at the media members who actually asked the questions. A ho-hum game (with a win), probably will be enough for Rex to keep his job though.

Do any other trades come to mind where Hendry vastly overpaid? He gave up a living, breathing human being for Jose Macias.

A platoon is not a weakness. A platoon is a necessity to counteract the weakness of individual players. A platoon is how you make the most of a less than ideal situation. This is like saying "studying hard is a weakness" if a student doesn't just immediately absord everything he is taught.

I definitely would not use such a threshold for keeping the job. Grossman should HAVE to be good this week to keep the job. Bad Rex = Early playoff exit for the Bears. I'm becoming less and less convinced that the good Rex was anything but a flash in the pan. I agree he has to be good, but I don't see how using QB rating as the determining factor makes any sense. What if he throws a meaningless hail mary int before half that costs him the rating but otherwise has a good game? Or what if the INT is a WR's fault?

We're trading him for whoever is necessary to get the free agent pitcher's agents to think the Cubs have some leverage in negotiations.

I definitely would not use such a threshold for keeping the job.

Didn't the Cardinals more or less use a platoon? The Mets went into the season with a plan to platoon both corner OF spots, and ended up adding 2B to the mix. The Dodgers basically platooned a couple positions throughout the season. Very few teams have 8 guys plan the vast majority of the games at their position, AL or NL. Your stance on this issue makes less and less sense the more I read it. I just don't get it.

Nobody is saying "we" were terrible. Grossman was terrible. I took issue with people saying Grossman was terrible in the Jets game. They acted as if they won in spite of Rex trying to lose the game. That was not the case. But this game was different. It just shows you how much more impressive the defense and special teams are that they could win by that much with such bad QB play. Sean Salisbury said that the Bears aren't the best defense in the league any more. Sean Salisbury was a bad QB whose biggest claim to fame is the ability to yell at a skinny nerd.

Nobody is saying "we" were terrible. Grossman was terrible. I took issue with people saying Grossman was terrible in the Jets game. They acted as if they won in spite of Rex trying to lose the game. That was not the case. But this game was different. It just shows you how much more impressive the defense and special teams are that they could win by that much with such bad QB play.

Nobody with any sense is going to go into a congressional hearing counting on his balls to carry the day over his lawyer.

This qote worries me. Hendry has acquired one bat and is going to play him out of position, that's it. The Cubs are not a good team right now. Shhhhhhhhhh, it feels better to pretend great things have happened, and are happening. although you are exactly right