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The Bears have a lot of interesting decisions to make-they have drafted really well over the last few years, and that is going to cause the dilemma. Taking a quick look at the roster, in the next 2-3 years starters such as Briggs, Berrian, Tommie Harris, Tillman, Vasher, and Benson will all want to be compensated. The Bears won't be able to keep nearly all of them, especially since Grossman is either going to get a big deal after 1 year or 2 years if they pick up the club option or else the Bears will bring in somebody else to play QB and give them a big deal. It's going to be very interesting to watch. BTW, as far as the rumored deal, it's a strange deal. For Washington, it doesn't make sense other than it's the splash that they couldn't deliver in FA this year. For the Bears, it makes sense-it's probably favorable to the Bears, but it's not an out and out steal. I do think the Bears should take this unless they decide that they want to wait to try to get something like the Patriots first round pick instead-a pick with less value, but an extra pick that could possibly fill a need.

I thought that with the injury that will put him on the DL for part of the season (but in this case the full season), he either had to be on the roster 90 days this year or else he would have to stick the full year next year.

What makes Walker more valuable than Ward? Ward had the better year last year by far. Before that, Walker had the better years-but if Ward regresses back to his usual year and Walker keeps declining, then Ward will likely be slightly better. Both can play 3 positions-Walker the 3 in the infield, Ward the two in the OF and 1B. What is there to justify eating a million by dropping Ward and signing Walker?

There wasn't that much criticism for what we got for Walker if I recall correctly. He had marginal value and we ended up with a very solid guy in Jose Ceda. In fact the only trade that I wasn't happy with was the Maddux deal. In all the other deals we pretty much got decent players for crap like Neifi Perez, Scott Williamson and Phil Nevin. Here, there was a lot of complaining about the Todd Walker trade-it was a split opinion on if people thought he was worth more than what the Cubs got. Part of that though was just the complete lack of information on Jose Ceda (which is completely understandable) and I think more people are all right with the trade now that Ceda came in and impressed in the minors last year. Edit: I'm editing this post because I looked at the thread from last year and there were more positive things that I remember (opinion is pretty well split)-guess I'm remembering the Izturis thread and all the Izturis/Cedeno threads a little too well from that time. :D Here is a link to the thread-before it got to the Hendry debate, there is quite a few great predictions about the 2007 season that are fun to read :D viewtopic.php?t=34283&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I haven't seen him around lately-I'm sure he'll pop in and choose them sometime. Of the 7 teams left, I know the board has a Panthers, Seahawks, and Bengals fan-so if those 3 step up, that only leaves 4 teams that I'm not sure there are any fans of on the board.

Are you talking about this offseason? Some of my list will be general, and some of it will be this offseason 1. His defense has never been the greatest-teams are more willing to accept a lack of defense at other positions, but for the 4 positions in the middle, usually good defense is desired unless it's a very good hitter. 2. His numbers-His power dropped quite a bit last year, and teams are understandably concerned because he'll be 34 this year. It might be back, but you can never know for sure when a player has a down year after 30 if it's a sign of decline or just an aberrant year. Also, his numbers last year match up or are worse than some of the other second baseman on the market, even though Walker has been protected from some bad matchups for the past three years (he's been able to sit against more left-handers than he would if he were a starter like some of the others who signed, for example, and that inflates his numbers just a bit). 3. His clubhouse concerns-I have no idea how major this is, but GM's do talk. This doesn't eliminate him from all teams, but it does always thin the market for a guy who reportedly has some problems in the clubhouse. My guess this was not a major factor to 3/4 of the teams. 4. His FA status-he was a type A FA this offseason, which means that anybody who signed him depending on how good they were would have had to give up one of their top 2 picks in the draft. Walker simply wasn't worth that much to give to anybody.

The wind is also blowing out. Man, with run support like this Marquis might win 18 games. Exactly-so the only difference between Marquis and a very good outing so far is a wind-aided Arizona homer. I'll take that. So this latest run is b/c of the Arizona sun? Let's take that one off too. I'm just saying that everyone's numbers are inflated in Arizona because of conditions like this-for Marquis to have a 5-5.50 ERA in Arizona is not terrible by any stretch because of HR that would not be HR almost anywhere else like that one. He's not having a terrible outing, no matter what an Arizona homer and a misplay that wasn't called as that might say.

The wind is also blowing out. Man, with run support like this Marquis might win 18 games. Exactly-so the only difference between Marquis and a very good outing so far is a wind-aided Arizona homer. I'll take that.

Am I missing something-if Garrett Anderson's home run barely cleared the fence, then wouldn't that be an out if the team wasn't in Arizona?

I think he pitched in a minor league game a couple of days ago in order to get him some work.

Blanco apparently took Lou laughing at him to heart :D

I can't prove it yet because I can't open the source, but I have it on good faith that the Bears first game of the season is at the Chargers-Sunday, September 10th, 4:15 on Fox.

Sure, at just under 5. Yes, but the CL is very offense oriented I understand, but it's still not something to brag about. Why not? If the Cubs are doing something better than every single one of their peer group, they deserve some credit. What is more important? The actual number of the statistic itself or how that statistic compares to the rest of their peer group? When it comes to the frequency with which they're giving up runs, I would lean toward the number itself. I don't put a lot of stock in ST numbers, but just because everyone else is not good doesn't mean you should be satisfied with being not quite as bad. Well then, if you just want the numbers, the Cubs 5 starters that are going to start ST have a 4.50 ERA or better, with 3 of them under 4 and 1 of them under 3. They have pitched really well for any type of situation, and especially well considering how offense-friendly the Cactus League is.

Couldn't disagree more. What'd be the point? To get rid of an undependable (or is it non?) and injury-proned pitcher who is trying to change positions on the staff. If he weren't a Cub but some FA off the street, would you want to sign him? probably not. but he's already signed, so your question is pointless. Why is that a pointless question? It gauges his value to us if he wasn't the former Kid K who many of us thought was the heir to Nolan Ryan. I would rather have a guy who is going to stay healthy and be decent than a guy who probably will get hurt (quickly) but has a chance to be excellent. The difference is that in FA, you can go ahead and either save the money and not sign him, or sign somebody else. The only benefit to releasing Wood now is a spot on the 40 man-but the Cubs don't need another spot on the 40 man, and even if they did they could always put him on the 60 day DL and get the spot anyway. They won't save any money by releasing him, and so there is no point to letting him go at this time.

You're right - so does that make Ronnie our backup-backup middle infielder?? In what situtation do you see him playing?? They want Ronny so that 1)Theriot can get some pinch-hitting appearances earlier in games-If you pinch-hit Theriot with him being the only backup infielder, then one injury to Ramirez, Izturis, or DeRosa later in a ballgame and you have absolutely no backup. 2) Theriot and DeRosa can play 2B and RF against left-handers-if you're planning to use either of those guys as a possible platoon with Jacque, then you have to have another backup IF. 3) If an IF is gone for just a day or two (tweaked a hamstring or something, like Izturis might do over the season) you need somebody to be able to be a backup infielder on those days without putting anybody on the DL. Cedeno might not get all that many starts as the 2nd backup infielder, but he definitely is needed so that people like Theriot can get off the bench more often.

So it's Cedeno or a trade now-my guess is that they will go with Cedeno to start the season, but now we know for sure that it will not be Perez.

Update-I picked up Corey Patterson and Tom Gordon off free agency, and I traded Carlos Lee and Edgar Renteria for Garrett Atkins and Frank Thomas. My team is really shaping up now I think.

He is trying to split the two left-handers in the lineup-it wouldn't be a big deal except that neither of them can hit left-handers very well. You don't want two people who are like that batting back to back where you have to pinch-hit for at least one of them in the later innings.

What's stupid is leaving this injury prone guy on this team. He's always injured. Watch, he'll come back for 2 weeks and then go back on the DL again. And if he does? Then the team will have two weeks of Wood and two weeks of a pitcher like Cherry. Since Wood is better than Cherry when healthy, isn't it better to have 2 weeks of Wood and 2 weeks of Cherry than 4 weeks of Cherry?

Couldn't disagree more. What'd be the point? To get rid of an undependable (or is it non?) and injury-proned pitcher who is trying to change positions on the staff. If he weren't a Cub but some FA off the street, would you want to sign him? He seems like a great guy who loves being a Cub, but he's just taking up space on the 25 and 40-man rosters. If that ST article is true, I think it's time... There's nobody at this point that is really needed to put on the 40 man roster though. If Wood is put on the DL, he won't need to be on the 25 man, so no worries there. Plus, any time Wood is healthy and pitching this season is a plus for the team, even if it's for just a month or two. Maybe these injuries start to signal that the team shouldn't re-sign him after the year, but he's not really taking up space right now that anybody else really needs to fill, so the team may as well take advantage of the times that he will be healthy this season.

should I be what the Colts probably actually need, or should I be Bill Polian and draft a reciever/tight end when my defense needs help desperately and get highly criticized on draft day only to be proven right 4-5 years later? I'll take the Colts-we'll see what happens.

Another question-do I think of trading Carlos Lee for someone like Garrett Atkins (or possibly Ramirez, but with his current owner I doubt I get him)-and have Atkins, and Corey Patterson/Michael Cuddyer as my 3rd and 4th OF's, along with Teahan as my backup 3B and 5th OF? Or should I stick with Lee and Teahan? I also forgot to say that I now have Bill Hall in my utility slot, so I could put him at OF after 10 games and put somebody else in the utility slot-in fact, I could trade for one of 2 DH's on one team (Thome/Thomas)-so many options.

When the Cubs players (past or present) were at Walt Disney World for the Cubs vacation promotion. It's on WGN right now-I'm not watching it that closely, but some of the interviews were interesting.

True, but Florida isn't exactly struggling either-they are shooting 48% right now. Also, Florida is 7-14 from 3 point range while Oregon is 3-10-you would expect those percentage numbers to move closer in the second half.

MLB.com (and all the team sites) actually has decent spray chart data. Click on the player you want to look at, and then go to hitting chart. You can then sort by year or ballpark, and look at where any player hits singles, doubles, triples, home runs, ground outs, or fly outs. To give you an example, here is one of Matt Murton's from 2006: http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_hitting_chart.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=444875&statType=1