apete6

Do they have 1 safety on their roster that would start on any other team in the NFL right now?

You cannot make "need" that important in a draft. So, drafting someone that is, what, 3 picks higher on your big board is reaching for need? Unless they had Pryor and/or Clinton Dix rated in the 20s, I would have thought that taking one of them would be worth "reaching" a few spots for. That, or trying to trade down, which they seemingly had no interest in given the speed of which they turned in the pick. Again, not that Fuller isn't a very good prospect who will probably play at least 50% of the time this year and 100% of the time when healthy starting next season. It's the cost benefit they seemingly ignored where they could have gone 1st round Safety and 2nd round corner. Now, there really aren't any safeties who profile the 2nd round and maybe 1 or 2 that profile to be there in the 3rd round, assuming no other teams draft them before the Bears. I'm all for sustaining long term success and this pick has a chance to do this, but most of the core of this team isn't getting any younger (Jay, Forte, Marshall) and when you've made the playoffs 1 time in 5 years, "reaching" a few spots to fill one of the biggest needs on any roster in the NFL would have been prudent IMO.

Ok, well Mayock had him as his 13th overall pick, his top CB and top DB. Matt Miller had him 18th overall, 2nd ranked CB (behind Gilbert who was gone) and 3rd ranked DB (He had Clinton-Dix two spots higher). Nawrocki had him lower than just about anybody else I've seen. I don't have a problem with the Fuller pick in a vacuum. He got picked at about the right place in the draft, will probably be a starter in the league for 10 years, and will be fine. I DO have a BIG problem with them having the worst safeties in the league and passing on the top available guys while KNOWING there was a very good chance that the top 4 would be off the board before their 2nd pick and that there is no one worth taking until the 4th round after those 4. Really pissed about the lack of awareness. Pryor/Dix in the 1st and any one of a number of corners with 2nd round grades would have been fine. [expletive] Emery always trying to prove people wrong. They took the player they rated better (and it wasn't some minority opinion to rate Fuller ahead of Clinton-Dix or Pryor) at another position of need. I hate playing the "he won't be available later so we have to pick him now" game. That's how you end up with Tyler Colvin and Hayden Simpson. You're right, comparing two of the most obviously bad baseball draft picks in a sport where you don't expect anything from most players for 5+ years is EXACTLY the same as passing up the biggest area of need on a team with a 2-3 year Super Bowl window in a sport where rookies routinely start.

what was he saying? Basically that he's going to be excellent and that he's young and will develop even more power. Said the same thing a few different ways. Also said Cubs front office thinks he will win a GG sooner rather than later.

Ok, well Mayock had him as his 13th overall pick, his top CB and top DB. Matt Miller had him 18th overall, 2nd ranked CB (behind Gilbert who was gone) and 3rd ranked DB (He had Clinton-Dix two spots higher). Nawrocki had him lower than just about anybody else I've seen. I don't have a problem with the Fuller pick in a vacuum. He got picked at about the right place in the draft, will probably be a starter in the league for 10 years, and will be fine. I DO have a BIG problem with them having the worst safeties in the league and passing on the top available guys while KNOWING there was a very good chance that the top 4 would be off the board before their 2nd pick and that there is no one worth taking until the 4th round after those 4. Really pissed about the lack of awareness. Pryor/Dix in the 1st and any one of a number of corners with 2nd round grades would have been fine. [expletive] Emery always trying to prove people wrong.

You know Rizzo has been/will be excellent that even that raging homer dbag Hawk Harrelson is gushing about him as he was during Rizzo's AB in the 9th yesterday. I almost fell out of my chair that he was fellating a Cubs player so much when the Sox were losing by 8 runs.

Haven't been paying that much attention, but looks like Tseng is just mowing people down. That's encouraging.

or trade back for ransom I don't think Cody Ransom is worth a first round pick...

Brad Biggs said if it's same pace as last year, around 830pm.

All are acceptable except Hageman.

He also hasn't had many high leverage pitches either.

Is it Sweeney? He's been hitting the ball hard, but into a lot of bad luck. Schierholtz is batting 5th, Sweeney 6th and then Castillo. Sweeney/Castillo/Schierholz would be fine, too.

Can anyone explain to me why in the hell Castillo wouldn't be batting 5th today?

Keith Law chat. http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/50508 Cubs summary: Hates Lake, wonders why he's batting 2nd, thinks Rizzo will sustain his approach and good start. Would take Fedde or Gordon at #4 if Kolek, Rodon, and Aiken off the board.

He was number 2 in overall runs saved last year.

"Jackass had it coming after what he said last week" - idiotic Cubs fans, somewhere, probably Actually, @thekapman basically said that on Twitter yesterday, so you are correct.

Yeah, agreed. At the start of the season I said getting to the conference final would be a successful season to me coming off the cup win. That's definitely the case now. Yeah. If they beat the Wild and then lose to the Kings or especially the Ducks in a hard fought 6 or 7 game series, you can't really complain, no matter how much it would suck. Losing to the Wild when you have more rest, home ice, and a healthy team going into the series would feel like a failure.

Others have said it, but come on OMC. If you're going to run a team based on local fan sentiment, it's time to find a different career. They should make the right decision for their team -- South Texas' meatballs want crooked numbers in the win column like everyone else. Those same Texans fans wanted Vince Young. Mario Williams was a better pick. That being said, Manziel is better than Young and Clowney is better than Williams, at least by overall draft grades.

Rizzo-bomb! This season is working out well. If we're going to suck, best to do it with Rizzo, Castro, and Samardzija doing well and Schierholz, etc. sucking. It would be triply depressing if we won 70 games because Schierholz had 40 bombs and Darwin Barney hit .330.

Playoff Crosby and Malkin are happy people aren't paying attention to their [expletive]. Crosby career 1.4 ppg, barely over 1.1 the last 3 years in the playoffs and -9 over that time. 0 goals this series. Malkin's playoff scoring numbers aren't that far off from his career regular season numbers, but he's a perennial top 10 goal scorer in the league and only has 7 goals in his last 25 playoff games. 1.1 ppg is actually pretty good for the playoffs. I bet if you looked at the list of PPG that's near the top for anyone that's played more than 3 series. I wouldn't expect Crosby, Malkin or any other star to put up the same numbers during the playoffs since the top lines tend to cancel each other out. As for the plus minus. It can be a very misleading stat for a forward. It's a little like charging the 3rd baseman an error because the shortstop booted what could have been a double play ball. Both Sid (4) and Malkin (9) are in the top 10 ALL TIME in playoff PPG. Even at 1.1, Sid would be in the top 15 all time. For reference, Kane is 43rd all time at 0.962 and Toews is 74th at 0.873. http://www.hockey-reference.com/leaders/points_per_game_career_p.html

DePaul also had a student rally against the athletic department for supposedly "enabling a culture of rape". All signs point to it involving Cleveland Melvin who left the team in January. If he left the team, does that really mean they enabled anything? Doesn't seem like a Florida State situation where they covered it up so they could win games. Getting rid of your best player just after conference season began seems like at least partially handling the situation. Either way, it would be great if this scandal brought down the entire athletic department, but that's just wishful thinking on my part.

Yep. That asshat Dempster gets a heroes welcome. Thanks for Game 1 in 2008, Ryan!

Some real garbage if Sosa not involved in this, which I presume he isn't. Get the [expletive] over it, Cubs.

He didn't get a warm reception, though.

Like Brett said, this is a relatively minor issue, but just another example of the Cubs having to jump through hurdles to do anything in this city. I really wish Ricketts and co at least put some sort of threat out there of moving out of the city, as maybe then we could have some leverage to get things done. It would be so awesome for Ricketts to turn today's ceremonies into a "this could be the last major celebration if we don't get our way" press conference. Just say thanks for the memories, but we'll be in Rosemont for the next 100 years and drop the mic. I would immediately donate a ton of money toward the project.