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I tend to agree with those who think that Halladay would likely extend with the Cubs if he was traded here. But I have serious doubts if an extension would actually be a good move with the money/years that Halladay will likely be asking for. The Blue Jays will almost certainly be asking for much more than I would be willing to pay because I would likely be unwilling to sign Halladay to an extension, and 1 year of Halladay is only so valuable.

Cubs ended up adding 5 to the roster. Castillo, Gaub, Dolis, and Parker as mentioned above, and then they ended up protecting Adduci as well. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091120&content_id=7696088&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

That's probably a bit overstating it. For example, the last 2 world champions have both had left-handed middle relievers who were on multi-year deals for just as much money (it's difficult to find good contract information in one place for teams before that). It doesn't make it right to do, but it's certainly not something that just teams like the Cubs do. However, that only eases the sting slightly. On the surface of just Grabow living up to his contract, it's a below average but not awful move. When you consider the Cubs were in the ideal position to risk letting him leave though, it becomes much, much worse. They had the potential for picks, the ability to minimize risk by giving him just 1 guaranteed year, and no desperation if he left due to the candidates who would be replacing him. Unfortunately, they didn't see it that way.

I see it less that Hendry doesn't value picks enough to offer arbitration to departing free agents, and more that he can't afford to have them accept. He'd probably love to have a pick or two, but not at the risk of a major budget strain. The evidence doesn't support your claim at all. He's signed numerous middle relievers in recent years that have cost the team draft picks, and he's refused to offer arbitration to guys who could net the team draft picks. In the past 3 years the Cubs have gained 1 pick overall (2 extra picks vs 1 pick lost) despite them signing several more impact free agents then they lost. Hendry now seems to have a problem with taking the risk to gain more picks (Wood, Harden, Grabow). As for losing picks? Hendry has done a great job in recent history of avoiding losing picks. In the 06 offseason, Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt were both type A free agents as was Jeff Suppan. Schmidt and Suppan were two of the popular picks for the Cubs to sign. Hendry avoided all of them and went for Lilly and Marquis instead, both who did not cost a pick. Durham who was a popular pick for 2nd base was a type A. Hendry instead went for DeRosa who didn't cost compensation. The only pick the Cubs lost for that entire free agent spending spree was the one for Soriano. In 07, the Cubs signed Fukudome which was another solution that didn't require giving up a pick. And then in 08, the Cubs signed Bradley instead of Ibanez, which again saved them their pick. The Cubs also traded for Gregg instead of signing one of the free agent closers that would have lost them another pick. The 05-06 offseason was a terrible one for wasting picks on mediocre players. But since then, it appears Hendry has learned from his mistake. Even though the Cubs have been on a huge spending spree since then, they still have managed to lose exactly 1 pick. That trend of being careful with their own picks looks like it might continue this year.

That didn't help. How the hell is Crean not able to sell playing time to a couple more top 50 players? Only one remaining 4 or 5 star recruit is considering IU, and that is Josh Selby. I don't believe they are favored to land him. IU needs impact post players and depth at guard. They have no post play presently. zero. Watford should be playing 3 not 4. IU had a big question of how many scholarships would be in that class at one point. It was possibly going to be as low as 1. Then you miss on a couple of elite players and you have the situation for next year. Plus I have a feeling that Crean will be more of a system coach and bypass some talented players that don't fit. And I'm not sure that system will ever have a lot of talented big men in it. He certainly doesn't seem to be recruiting many. I'd settle for ones that can guard the post and rebound. I was happy from what I saw from IU today. Lots of early season mistakes...passes to players who aren't there anymore, terrible free throw shooting. But they're definitely much longer on the defensive end. They do run well and Rivers was still one of the most athletic players on the court even against a team like Ole Miss. More of the ingredients seem to be there and now they just need to learn to harness them a little bit better. They're still going to struggle offensively against good halfcourt defenses, and so Rivers and to a lesser extent Creek staying out of foul trouble will be huge factors in Big 10 play as they are the ones who can penetrate.

Converting the 4th down does actually pretty much win the Patriots the game. If they convert, they can run it into the line for 3 plays in a row and then punt it back to the Colts with less than 30 seconds left on the clock and also make the Colts use their final timeout in the process. That effectively ends the game because NFL teams just aren't dumb enough to allow what needs to happen to drive 70 yards in 25 seconds with no timeouts. And remember, the Colts had just come off a 79 yard drive that took less than 2 minutes to complete. The Patriots probably make the first down between 55-65 percent of the time on that play. They probably have a 10-15 percent chance of stopping the Colts from scoring from the 30. They have another 2-3 percent chance of kicking the game winning field goal after the Colts have scored too quickly. In order to make the punt the right decision, they would need to stop the Colts from scoring at least 70-80 percent of the time after the punt. And there's no way they're stopping Peyton that often in that situation.

Just got back..that was an amazing atmosphere in the stadium tonight. I think everybody was stunned. The Patriots have done that to the Colts before but never that late in the game. Belichick has always been willing to go for 4th down plays in his own territory against the Colts. But since the Patriots have always picked up the 1st down on those gambles, it hasn't received much coverage. And I can tell you that the people in the stadium were much more scared of the 4th down play succeeding then the offense driving down the field. The Colts had been playing too much soft zone all night and the shortage in the secondary means the Patriots had mismatches all over the field. I absolutely believe they made the right percentage play there. Trying to stop Peyton when he has 4 downs to work with in the 2 minute drill would have been very difficult. The hardest part would be the red zone, and even if the Pats went for it the Colts still had to execute in the red zone. Also, if the Colts did get the ball, they would still have to worry about not scoring too quickly which could have hurt their effectiveness at getting in at all. Those other 40 yards would likely have melted away very quickly as the Patriots were struggling at covering the whole field by the end of the game. So I'm sad that Belichick has enough job security to play the odds correctly, and I'm very, very happy that it went against them this time. I'm also happy that Reggie convinced Peyton to change that last play from a fade (which wouldn't have worked) to the game-winning slant.

I really don't think the replay booth has sound on their replays. So if the officials don't notice it in the first place that they blew the play dead before there was any clear recovery, then you get mistakes like what has happened to ND each of the last two weeks. The NFL has the same problem..the Colts got a huge break on the goal line last week in which the whistles had already blown it dead before the Colt touched it, but in the confusion nobody noticed it and the replays without sound made everyone forget what happened in live action. This one was bad on both fronts though. At least last week it was actually a fumble. This was was both an incomplete pass and also no clear recovery of the fumble before the play was dead and yet Pitt got the ball. I would say Pitt has a much better chance of potentially getting an at-large after all the carnage today. #9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17 all went down today. That's also going to let teams like Penn State and Oklahoma State move very close to eligibility (Penn State will likely be eligible after this week).

If Cincy loses that game, I think they're still in at this point considering the lack of competition. Pittsburgh will be much more questionable. It will probably depend on the style points they get the next two weeks against ND/WV and how close the game is against Cincy.

They're 1 game behind Oregon and 1/2 a game behind Arizona and Stanford right now. A loss today probably gives them a trip to El Paso during the holidays. And they still have Arizona on their schedule. It also makes it much harder for the Pac 10 to get a 2nd BCS bid. The 2nd place team would be guaranteed to have 3 total losses if USC loses today. But I wouldn't be shocked to see a 3 loss Stanford if they win out get in over a 2 loss Penn State or Iowa if it comes down to those teams. Those final BCS spots are going to get very muddy if there are not upsets in the Big 12/ACC title games. It gets even worse if Boise State/TCU get upset. There just aren't that many teams with the resume that normally gets you into the BCS.

Jesus Christ are you guys all dense? Like I ALREADY said that affects it. However he is not the only on in this situation. He is however the only one with this many picks meaning he is not doing well. Open your eyes and read what I am writing rather than jumping all over a statement that is fact. He leads the league in INT's and is not the only one with a bad o-line and running game. He is forcing way too much. It's not hard to see ... unless you have blinders on. One more and you're banned. Brinoch..please let the non-Bears fans who are not very emotionally invested in this game handle it. I'm watching both sides..he's not doing anything wrong here. And Cubbiebum, do not call people dense or anything like that. This is your warning on that.

I don't think anybody has a good idea of what has happened in the David Williams situation. I don't know why he would be explaining his decision soon if it was something like Indiana chased him off, so it seems like many people are leaning towards personal problems or wanting to stay closer to home for some reason. However, he might not have wanted to come into what seemed like to him to be a hostile environment either. I think it's way too early to make any kind of good guess though. Could be, just reminds me of the way David Palmer didn't end up at Illinois. If you offer the guy, you should have to honor that offer as much as the players should honor their commitment. IMO. I agree. I think an offer should always be honored unless the player has legal troubles or something like that. This is just a strange situation. Some say that Williams never really was offered. He also might be backing out on his own. But I agree, it's not a good situation and reflects badly on the university if it ends up coming out that the offer was made and then was later pulled.

I don't think anybody has a good idea of what has happened in the David Williams situation. I don't know why he would be explaining his decision soon if it was something like Indiana chased him off, so it seems like many people are leaning towards personal problems or wanting to stay closer to home for some reason. However, he might not have wanted to come into what seemed like to him to be a hostile environment either. I think it's way too early to make any kind of good guess though.

Indiana came on late for Selby, but it appears they've made up ground fast (they made his cut down list after only recruiting him for 2 weeks). We'll know more after this weekend when Selby visits (although he won't be there in time for the game on Friday). His former teammate Oladipo might help sway him to Indiana as well. I would say the chances are still no better than 1 in 5 for Selby, but I don't think any fanbase is feeling real comfortable right now in that recruitment. Kendrick is the other one they are after. He visited IU a couple of weeks ago. IU's best connection to him is that he is A.J. Moye's cousin who was of course beloved in Bloomington so that should help. He has a lot of schools still on his list so I have no idea what Indiana's chances are. He has been pretty quiet about all his visits so far, at least from what I have seen.

People tended to describe him as the tall point guard that protected the ball, wasn't really a scorer, and played great defense. He's actually much better at driving the ball than I expected but he is probably only a little above average for a point guard at protecting the ball. He is not only long but athletic and is willing to take chances when he sees an opening. I can understand why Crean wants to start him because Rivers wants to push the ball up the court quickly as much as Crean does. I still have no idea what level of effectiveness he will have when playing against better players, but his philosophy out there is much different than I expected.

Indiana's also deciding to do a very risky strategy in the recruiting game by saving places for 2 top 10 recruits that won't decide until the spring. It would be a huge boost if they can get one of them. I can't even decide if they want the program to show progress or if they want IU to have another miserable season where they can try to ride in and save the day. I think it's the right strategy because Indiana will have plenty of depth by that point but could use an elite player. But it definitely is going to make for a tense month or two in the spring.

How many games do you have IU winning in the Big 10 this year to finish last again? I have absolutely no idea what to expect out of IU this year. They have a decently talented squad. Rivers was not what I expected whatsoever. Watford and Creek both look like they will quietly score a good amount of points. Miniru actually surprised me..he is raw, but he moves better on the court than I would expect. He can actually provide a few meaningful minutes this year and I didn't expect him to get much on the court at all. It's not all good..I'm not sure Hulls is quite ready for the speed of the Big 10 yet, but we'll see. But having a full squad will definitely help quite a bit. In the exhibition games though, I saw no evidence that they really knew how to work together to be as efficient as possible. Part of that may have been the frequent substitutions, but that will be interesting to watch as the season goes along to see if they get an identity. And they were so much worse than everybody else in the Big 10 last year that improving quite a bit might not move them up very far in the standings. But I really don't see how they are worse than Iowa, unless you feel that Iowa's strange system guarantees them a few wins every year.

Buh? So a greater percentage of the nation can get an early start on their Sunday chores? It's not as strong of competition as usual for that particular slot that week because of the three Thanksgiving games in addition to the Sunday night/Monday night games. It's Fox's doubleheader week, and their choices to move to 4:15 were this: Bears/Vikings Panthers/Jets TB/Atlanta Seattle/St. Louis Arizona/Tennessee Washington at Philadelphia Arizona/Tennessee is probably the only choice that gave them pause but Bears/Vikings almost certainly gives them better ratings.

I'd start Jackson. NO is not a great run defense, and as they showed against Indy STL might actually still run Jackson even when they are way behind. I have no idea which of the 3 I'd bench though as they seem to be about the same this week.

When did that happen? It was said in July when Hill was put on the DL:

The Cubs received cash for Hill.

I don't know when you expected Hendry to do something about Bynum. He got only 136 AB's in his 1 season with the Cubs (and he had a 764 OPS). Half of those came in late August and September when the Cubs were hopelessly out of it and were running short on available players as well. He was then traded in the offseason for better talent. Neifi wasn't really a problem until 06 when he was on the multi-year deal (obviously the Cubs didn't intend for him to get that many at-bats in 05 but he did fine as the backup SS pressed into starting duty). Hendry then made the mistake of re-signing him to a 2 year deal, but by August he had "admitted" that mistake by trading him. There are definitely situations where Hendry has kept too much faith in guys for too long, but there are also plenty of situations where players and coaches have had shorter leashes. I have a hard time seeing how he's worse than any other GM in that area.

I guess they could have continued to try to force the ball to Gore in the Colts game, but the reason they went away from it is because after the big run in the first quarter, he was getting stuffed. Here are the rest of his runs for the day: -1, 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, -1, 3, 7 The big run inflated his stats, but the running game wasn't really moving the chains whatsoever in that game. They did try to line up and just run it on both 1st and 2nd down in 2 different drives and it led to 3rd and long both times and then 3 and outs. So I agree with you a little bit (they probably should have tried 3-4 more runs during the course of the game) but I can't blame them too much because getting 2 yards a run is not going to get many drives started and Smith was throwing the ball well. I'm not sure what happened this week though.

Hmm, you're right now that I look at the standings. USC is the only one that has the quality opponents ahead of it and enough sex appeal to derail a Boise bid I think. When I'm putting in both TCU and Boise, I'm also putting in USC. I think they are a lock unless they lose again. I think the at-larges will be TCU, Boise, Alabama/Florida loser, and USC if those teams win out. What other team will be attractive enough?

The big winner today is likely Boise State. The Big 10 likely ruined their chances for a second bid. ND ruined a chance for theirs. That leaves space for both TCU and Boise to get into the BCS. If those two stay undefeated, I have a hard time seeing either a potential 2 loss Iowa or a 2 loss Penn State team getting selected over them (or a 2 loss Wisconsin). I also can't see the Pittsburgh/Cincy loser getting in over them. In the ACC, you have maybe Ga Tech (if they lose the ACC title). And would they really select Oklahoma State without Bryant? So unless they derail, I have a hard time seeing how they both don't get in. Bowl organizers will hate it, but it's going to be really tough to do anything else.