Banedon

They are a speed line and have never overpower anybody. Ok...true...I guess I just mean that it seemed when they got to the QB, they were doing it as a result of trickery rather than beating their man. I could just be thinking of that one Ogunleye stunt though... They did do a good job of blitzing right into blockers again. I hate when this team blitzes. When they played the Colts, they did a great job pressuring Manning...confusing the Colts line with different looks, sometimes blitzes, sometimes dropping back. What did they change since then, and why did they change it? Or are teams just familiar enough with it that it's not working?

They are a speed line and have never overpower anybody. Ok...true...I guess I just mean that it seemed when they got to the QB, they were doing it as a result of trickery rather than beating their man. I could just be thinking of that one Ogunleye stunt though...

Hard to be terribly enthusiastic about this one. It was like playing a JV team out there. I'm still worried about the D-line. The penetration that we got was because of stunts and such...confusing a bad O-line. But our D-line wasn't overpowering anyone, which is worrysome. Hester had a nice game, but he still looks slow in comparison to himself the last couple of years. I liked Manning on kickoff returns. That's about all I got one this game. That's as gimme as you get.

Delayed response, but it doesn't like words that start with f and also end with k.

I am not a Nugget! http://members.fortunecity.com/nowital/owen_hart.jpg Your pic didn't work, but I knew just what you were talking about. How sad is that? http://www.nndb.com/people/130/000065932/owen-hart-sm.jpg

If you took Sean Penn, and like inflated his nose so it was about double the size, and then gave him Robin Wright Penn's hair, I'm pretty sure you'd get Khalil Greene. http://images.gaslampball.com/images/admin/khalil_ff1.jpg

Seriously? Gee this is news to me....NOT! If your goal is for members of this board to take you seriously, I'm thinking this isn't the best way for that to happen. Did you predict that Cuban would be accused of insider trading and that it would derail whatever hope he had of being in the mix for the Cubs ownership? What exactly are you bragging about here?

I'm betting that Comcast was basing their comment on the AP story.

Wall of text crits for 9999999999 damage. You die.

Another lawyer post on http://www.blogmaverick.com. Essentially Cuban is going to argue that he was never told by the Mamma.com guy that the information was confidential.

Stubhub has the cheapest tix at $55. For the next 3 STL games, they have them in the teens. The Bears are close enough that demand will be higher than it would be for other teams.

Wasn't it David Kaplan that was all but proclaiming Pudge was a Cub a few years back?

The Cubs are already paying most of the cost of those backloaded deals as of this year. Our free agency players (excluding the arbitration players) received 16.15 million in raises from 08 to 09 (I'm counting each signing bonus in the first year, both in the past and with Dempster's contract). Those same players next year? (now counting Dempster) 4.225 million in raises. A huge difference. Between 2010 and 2011, the players under contract then actually go down by .15 million overall. So as you can see, most of the damage from backloading has already been paid. So unless another several hugely backloaded contracts come around, the Cubs payroll situation isn't really going to get much worse than it is right now, which the Cubs seem able to absorb at the moment. Most teams are going to see the value of players under contract in future years be less than it is this year. The damage does not necessarily occur when those payments rise. The damage comes when you have people like Soriano or Fukudome not performing and you have to replace them, and when you have guys like Marmol or Soto, who you can count on for cheap performance, needing a big raise. In other words, the damages have not yet been paid. The damage will be bigger in 2010 and 2011, when guys are performing at lower levels, still receiving higher payments and new big contracts will need to be offered. But that's not backloading that's the problem there. That's signing bad/mediocre players to too much money for too much time. Those are really seperate issues. Backloading by itself isn't a bad thing.

Of course this is what they'd say, but....

Comcast Sports Net is using him too. He was on Chicago Tribune Live last night (or whatever they're calling it these days).

What's more likely? That Dempster is a late bloomer (of which there are precious few examples) or that this year was a fluke (of which there are many, many examples). You might be right, but it's a high risk/high reward situation. Agreed, but I think Burnetts risk of injury is higher than most, given his history. Which is better? A sucky pitcher on the mound or a good pitcher on the DL?

Speaking of that, here's one unnamed executive who believes that Dempster will sign this deal: The rumor from this article is that the Yankees are prepared to offer Burnett 5 years, 80 million. http://www.nypost.com/seven/11182008/sports/yankees/yankees_prepare_a_j__offer_139209.htm I'm pretty sure I'd rather go 5/80 with Burnett than 4/52 with Dempster. I dunno. You think Burnett's risk of injury is less than Dempster's risk of suckitude? They're both pretty yucky looking deals.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/111808dnbuscuban.1c00744a4.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=munson_lester&id=3708545

Mark posted this on his blog:

See....DallasGreen told you guys that Cuban wasn't getting the Cubs. But you wouldn't believe him.

But, both of those guys were released by the Bears and are doing better than the Bears highest paid and expected to be #1 WR. Even a declining Moose is doing better. I haven't seen anything from Orton that says it's his fault, to me, it's a combo of Turner, lack of talent from what they have now, and Angelo not providing any talent. None of the WRs are worth a lick, IMO, which is why I want to see Bennett. I don't know if they're doing better...but certainly just as good.... Hester is 26 for 318...they have a few more yards, but I get your point. I'm just saying that the problem isn't losing Gage and Wade. They aren't any great loss. The problem is a poor job replacing them.

Agreed. I'd also look at WR early. Another rant... Is Earl Bennett worse than Davis, Booker, Hester, Lloyd, or the two TE they have lined up at WR? This WR group is awful and Bennett (a 3rd rd pick) can't see the field. Maybe one day Bennett will join the list of WRs that couldn't get reps with the Bears but are shining elsewhere. That list includes Justin Gage, Bobby Wade, and now Mark Bradley. Moose is right about Chicago being the place where WRs go to die. Gage and Wade have done better than any Bears WR and Berrian is on pace for well over 1200 yards. Both Hester and Rashied Davis have better DYAR than either Gage or Wade. That stat makes no sense to me, they have Hester almost equal with Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens despite the fact that both will likely end up with 20 or more catches, more yards, and similar TDs. You can't analyze based on opportunities b/c WRs often create their opportunties based on their ability to separate. And QB's miss open receivers or make bad throws (Grossman overthrowing a wide open Hester last week). But in any case, neither Wade or Gage are in the top 40 receivers in yardage. Gage has 21 rec for 376yds Wade has 38 rec for 399yds Rashied Davis has 29 for 369 Unless you think that Davis has been "shining", I'm not sure how you can claim that either Wade or Gage has been...

Agreed. I'd also look at WR early. Another rant... Is Earl Bennett worse than Davis, Booker, Hester, Lloyd, or the two TE they have lined up at WR? This WR group is awful and Bennett (a 3rd rd pick) can't see the field. Maybe one day Bennett will join the list of WRs that couldn't get reps with the Bears but are shining elsewhere. That list includes Justin Gage, Bobby Wade, and now Mark Bradley. Moose is right about Chicago being the place where WRs go to die. Gage and Wade have done better than any Bears WR and Berrian is on pace for well over 1200 yards. Both Hester and Rashied Davis have better DYAR than either Gage or Wade.

Agreed. I'd also look at WR early. Another rant... Is Earl Bennett worse than Davis, Booker, Hester, Lloyd, or the two TE they have lined up at WR? This WR group is awful and Bennett (a 3rd rd pick) can't see the field. Maybe one day Bennett will join the list of WRs that couldn't get reps with the Bears but are shining elsewhere. That list includes Justin Gage, Bobby Wade, and now Mark Bradley. Wait, I'd like to see Bennett out there two, but Gage and Wade are shining? I mean...they're on a good team, but aren't the Titans pretty much understood to have a bad receiving core? In fact, both Gage and Wade have negative DYAR, or Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement per Football Outsiders... http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr Bradley's only played 5 games, and yes...I'm more upset about his loss, but I don't know that one guy translates into this trend....