apete6

That's the only thing of color that @thekapman wants anything to do with...

De Paul beats Rutgers on the road! Tough place to win as they beat and U Conn there earlier in the season.

Your friend is right. Points/game should be the ranking system. Hawks would be 3rd in the Central on this metric. Same on the home/road thing. Hawks have played more games and done better at home. The Blues have had the better season so far, but not better than the Red Wings. The rankings are probably Wings, Blues, Hawks...by miniscule margins. Except the Red Wings goal differential which is twice as good as the Blues or the Hawks. His HOF rant sounds dumb and uninformed, however.

And the Falcons made it in 1998, so it's not been forever for them. The Vikings have made 2 NFC title games since 1998. LOL at the Lions, Cowboys, and especially the Redskins.

LOL. The hits just keep on coming for the Cubs. Just another kick in the balls to Cubs fans. I wonder if Theo has a projection system that estimates how a former star shortstop would do at age 28 coming out of a 5 year prison sentence?

Take away Garza, add someone along the lines of Volstad/Wells for 2012. Add K. Wood to the bullpen and that's probably the team unless they get something for Soriano. Looks like about 70 wins.

1. Thanks for the update 2. Go right to hell, MLBPA & Bud Selig!!!!!!!

Those AFC games are just awful. No one cares about the Bengals and Texans and unless Tebow is actually God and playing a trick on everyone, the Steelers will curb stomp the Broncos.

Yeah, I don't see how Lovie's going to stay with a new boss in charge. Why the hell not? The year after the Super Bowl is the only year he underachieved based on the talent of his roster. You could argue this year, but if Jay doesn't get hurt, they win 10 or 11 games. Why pay 2 coaches when Lovie is probably a top 10 or at least top 15 coach in the NFL? That would be dumb. Let Lovie hang on as long as Urlacher & the rest of the defense and then when it is time to rebuild the defense, think about it if he has another bad season.

Wasn't DeWitt part of that Colvin trade also? Or was that DJ? Whatever. He sucks anyway.

There's a chance that 11 of the 12 players featured on the 2012 Cubs calendar could be gone before the season starts. Good times, terrible Christmas gift! January: Blake DeWitt (gone) February: Matt Garza March: Aramis Ramirez (gone) April: Andrew Cashner May: Starlin Castro (sexy) June: Ryan Dempster July: Tyler Colvin (pictured at 1st base!--gone) August: Geovany Soto September: Alfonso Soriano October: Carlos Marmol November: Marlon Byrd December: Carlos Zambrano

Cross a team off for a possible Matt Sczur trade.

There is no discount. They are the same price.

I don't care. I'd trade Noah, Deng, and multiple first round picks without a guarantee of a contract extension. We'll see how he likes Chicago after he and Rose bring a title here this spring. Worth taking the risk of winning and then a possible Howard extension. At the very least, the Bulls would have a ton of cap room after the season for FA signings and/or trades.

Leonard would probably be a top 15-20 NBA center right now. The lack of big guys who can defend the post and score without tripping all over themselves in the NBA right now is insane. It's probably the weakest the center position has ever been. A guy like Nene is probably a top 5-8 center in the entire league. Leonard will be a first round pick forsure, the only question is if the rest of this season and the workouts gets him into the lottery. I am not sure that he is that good of a defender. Whenever I watch it seems he does not do a good job keeping his body square between his guy and the basket and often is trying to block shots from behind. I know I am an MSU fan and Izzo stresses positioning and blocking out. I am quite sure that Illinois bigs are not taught the same. Maybe I am wrong but Illinois bigs seem to try to deny too much and often get themselves out of position for rebounds. That's a fair point. I'm not an Illinois fan either, but am very impressed by Leonard. If you look at the NBA, the shot blocking from the weakside is almost the main job of a center as there just aren't that many centers that require constant guarding and that get the ball in the post to do their damage (ala Shaq or Hakeem), so coming over to block shots is more important than on-ball defense, which, as you pointed out, Leonard needs a lot of work on.

That's before trading Garza, Marmol, Soto, and possibly Soriano & Dempster without receiving anyone who will likely contribute anything to the major league roster in 2012. Possibly. But we flipped Marshall for two players who could significantly contribute in 2012, so Epstein has earned a little faith from me in that regard. Fair enough. If we can get the same relative haul that Marshall brought back for Garza (let's say a current 3 starter and starting OFer) and/or Marmol (say a current 4/5 starter and cheap utility guy), then they could be decent. Either way, the best thing about the whole thing is that the slate is essentially clear for the future. No contracts past 2014 and only 1 or 2 significant ones for next year as of now. This team will be all Theo's soon, for better or worse.

Leonard would probably be a top 15-20 NBA center right now. The lack of big guys who can defend the post and score without tripping all over themselves in the NBA right now is insane. It's probably the weakest the center position has ever been. A guy like Nene is probably a top 5-8 center in the entire league. Leonard will be a first round pick forsure, the only question is if the rest of this season and the workouts gets him into the lottery.

That's before trading Garza, Marmol, Soto, and possibly Soriano & Dempster without receiving anyone who will likely contribute anything to the major league roster in 2012.

In everyone's defense of being a bit tough on Theo, there are a few things that lead people to question him a bit more than originally thought: 1. The new CBA is really going to limit the impact the Cubs can have in the draft and international free agency, which were the biggest selling points on Theo. I think Theo and Co. are smart enough to find ways to game the system, but we won't know for a while. 2. Theo has never had a full rebuild job. He inherited a team with Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, etc. in their primes. We knew he had more work to do with the Cubs than he ever did with Boston, but didn't expect a full-on giving up for at least 1 or 2 years. 3. Not resigning Aramis, not signing Pujols/Fielder, trading Marshall, shopping Garza/Demp/Z/Soriano/Soto, etc... means at least 1 or 2 years of complete awfulness without any possibility of being good. Now, that is better overall for the long term future of the organization, but it is also a slap in the face to season ticket holders who have to pay no matter what or risk losing their tickets forever. 4. Signing awful veterans such as Corpas, Sonnanstine, Jaramillo, etc... is seemingly very Hendry-like and if there's going to be a full rebuild, why not trot some prospects out there? Hendry's biggest problem was drafting terribly, but close behind was overpaying basically everyone on the roster. Sure, the Bradley and Soriano signings were crippling, but the overpayment to guys like Grabow, Rusch, Neifi, etc... were just as indefensible. We think Theo should be a much better drafter, but the CBA could limit that, he has avoided the big contracts, but that is likely temporary, and the signing of awful veterans seemingly goes against the "build from within" mantra. I know guys like Jay Jackson, Beliveau, Castillo, Clevenger, etc.. aren't awesome, but why not find out at the major league level in a season in which you are going to suck anyway? I think everyone still trusts in Theo and Co., but the grim reality is that the biggest offseason moves in a year with 2 of the 10 best offensive players in the league were out there for the taking, have been trading for an underachieving 3rd baseman and signing an outfielder whose best asset is his hot wife. These moves, or lack thereof, are kind of a cold wake-up call to fans that the Cubs really truly suck and probably will for a while. That leads to some condescending comments, lack of blind trust, etc... because, as Theo said, every year is a precious chance to win and, if his comments and actions are true, we are wasting at least 1 or 2 of his 10 years with the Cubs. Is signing Andy Sonnanstine to the 40 man roster something to lose faith over? God no, but it is a reminder that your favorite team sucks donkey balls and will not even be worth tuning into outside of the 3-6 times per game Starlin Castro comes to the plate.

This is a very Koyie Hill like pickup. Just pointless. There are 10 guys in our system who could contribute to the bullpen as much as this guy next year. The fact that his name sounds like "corpse" is appropriate for next season because Wrigley is going to be a tomb the last few months.

Not at all. Just because we are going to suck in 2012, why not keep a 28 year old pitcher who was a top-15 pitcher in MLB last year? His best comparable on B/R is John Danks. 5/$65 (same as Danks) would be fine with me. If the Cubs are not in a position to win in the next 5 years, I'm killing someone anyway, Matt Garza might as well get paid by the Cubs. He'll be worth that contract every year.

9-3 now. Not yet excited because their SOS is still putrid, but if they get even 5 wins in the Big East, they would be 14-16, which is double their win total from last year. Pretty good progress and 7 of their top 9 guys are freshmen & sophomores and they lost 2 frontcourt guys for the season and lost two incoming freshmen due to grades/transfer before the season. Anything less than an NIT berth next season will likely be a disappointment. They'll never be great, but Purnell should have them back to respectability soon.

The Brewers still look really good to me and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them win 90+ games. Even without 50 games of Ryan Braun?

Same here. There's going to be some bad baseball played in the NL Central next year and possibly the few years after that. The Reds are probably the favorites right now.

http://deadspin.com/5869737/legendary-columnist-bill-conlin-resigns-over-forthcoming-philly-inquirer-bombshell