Banedon

I believe he's guaranteed about $4.5m. The highest paid kicker angle is not overplayed. Just because the cap is going up doesn't mean you have to overpay a kicker who can't kick for a lick from distance. The Bears put a tremendous about of effort into special teams. They have a highly compensated long snapper and more than most teams emphasize coverage units and returns. Gould is the weak link on kickoffs, and they have no faith in him from anything beyond 45. He was fine as an undrafted free agent, but it's a joke to make him the highest paid before he was even a free agent. A lot of this is unprovable conjecture. Can you provide evidence that the Bears emphasize special teams more than other teams or that this is the reason why the kicking game has been excellent rather than Gould himself? Gould is not the mediocre kicker you're making him out to be. You're over weighting the need to be able to kick LONG field goals above the effectiveness of making reasonable attempts at a high clip (which Gould is among the very best in the NFL at). And Gould has been just fine on kickoffs. He's not consistently booming it out of the back of the end zone but our coverage units have been able to make up for it. If he's a weak link it hasn't manifested itself negatively. Throwing around words like "a joke" just reeks of off season histrionics that should be reserved for the fact that we have two dreadful options at quarterback. smart..smart...smart...DUMB Yeah...I was right with him until that last part.

:lol: =D> =D> :tomato:

Maddux has been pretty bad this year hasn't he?

Probably a dumb question, but is Edward Kaplan any relation to David Kaplan of Tribune Live and Sports Central on 720?

This would seem to be one huge step for Cuban. Does anyone know whether this "approval" indicates that Cuban will no longer have to worry about getting a majority of the owners to let him in? http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080513&content_id=2691506&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc I think this is misleading. I think they've just approved these ppl getting the financial books.

Yankees throw in Hughes and it's a deal.

How old is this student?

But if the Dodgers fall out of it, and the Cubs overpay in a trade, something that is not unheard for the Cubs, I could see a Furcal trade happening. If the Dodgers fall out of it, they have Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny and Estaban Loaiza and others that they could consider dealing to get ready for '09. Of all the veteran players they have, the only one they have that is a real keeper is Furcal. Considering what he's doing for the team right now, a lynching might be in order if they allow Furcal to test the free agent waters. Of course, as well as Furcal is playing, he might prefer that road anyway. His next contract might be his last. True, but also out of those players you named, what can bring in real value? The question is are they just wanting to shed payroll, or are they wanting to get young talent? You're probably right...a team like the Dodgers is probably about shedding payroll, and rebuilding through free agency (which has clearly worked well for them).

But if the Dodgers fall out of it, and the Cubs overpay in a trade, something that is not unheard for the Cubs, I could see a Furcal trade happening.

Now if we can dump Marquis when Hill comes back. Or even plug in Marshall if Hill continues struggling.

I don't understand why everyone is so down on Benson. Its not like he was put into a very good situation to succeed last year. What good is cutting him when he is at worst going to be your second best RB. The good is salary savings. He's getting paid an awful lot to be a backup, and if Forte is better, that's where you're going to end up. If salary is not an issue, then yeah...there's no problem hanging on to him.

We should never ever ever laugh at bad players being cut. That just means they could end up here.

How long until he's removed from closer duties? I can't imagine that they can keep losing like that much longer.

Until he proves that he can hit ANYTHING else, it's pretty crazy to throw him a FB anywhere near the zone. I might try and throw some really high fastballs out of the zone when I'm ahead in the count, but that would be it. Nahhh...if you can get him out consistently without throwing that, why chance it?

Hilarious. 2 AB's, no fastballs, 2 outs for CY. Why EVER throw him a FB?

Yours is wrong and mine is right? :)

Who needs a DH?

You're opposed to strategy?

Damn. Cubs are getting OWNED by Haren. This is gonna be a fast game!

It wasn't like Soriano strategically decided to give it a bad hop though. It was still just a grounder to 3rd.

I have been, and will continue. 1 out, runner on 2nd. Lilly up. Thx.

Gameday crashed and burned. Can someone do PBP?

The stickie was in Social for some reason. It's been moved here. I'm going to go ahead and lock this.

I remember going to a game in the 30's and sitting in those luxury seats. They folded out into a sleeper sofa and came with an automatic awning if it rained. they want to restore it to it's original look? i think they should mandate that every man in attendance where's a wool suit and a bowler hat Wouldn't restoring it to it's original look require tearing down the bleacher additions they just freaking added?

Given the choice I'd prefer it stay Wrigley, but I'm not adamant about it.