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According to this we will be playing the NFC East on the road the next 2 seasons. Can that be right? Would we really play at Dallas three straight seasons? By the way, I can see Jerryworld from right around the corner from my house and I will not be attending the game. I have ne desire to be around that many obnoxious Cowboys fans. Whenever it says something like NFC East, that is the game that won't be determined until after the season. The Bears will play the NFC East team that finishes in the same spot in the division as them at their place. If that happens to be Dallas both years, then yes the Bears would play them 3 years straight on the road. But it also could be any of the other 3 teams.

That playcalling at the end was a horribly inept display. I particularly liked the run call on 4th and 1 from the 39 with 10 seconds left (with 1 timeout). What did that gain them? They get a new set of downs but only had time to throw a Hail Mary anyway. I didn't mind that. You had time for two plays but had to get a first down. So you could have just thrown the HM on fourth down, I guess. Don't see what that gains you though. Not calling the timeout with about 40 seconds left was the big gaffe. Wasted a ton of time. And Bradford is still young and made a lot of mistakes, but his WRs let him down big time. Another passing play makes a lot more sense IMO. Send 1 or 2 receivers over the top with underneath receivers. If you get lucky and there's a favorable matchup, you throw it deep. If they are overprotecting the end zone (like they should) then you have an easy underneath throw that will likely gain more yards than a running play would that would make the Hail Mary a little easier. Running the ball to set up a Hail Mary doesn't really help. The lack of a timeout on the play you mentioned and the 3rd and 1 run earlier in the drive also didn't help. St. Louis did everything they could to keep the ball on that drive but they didn't really give Bradford any chance to actually score a TD.

That playcalling at the end was a horribly inept display. I particularly liked the run call on 4th and 1 from the 39 with 10 seconds left (with 1 timeout). What did that gain them? They get a new set of downs but only had time to throw a Hail Mary anyway.

CBS has the doubleheader next week. The 4 PM games on the channel that doesn't have the doubleheader are almost always terrible because they're only seen by maybe 5% of the country at most. That's why those particular games were picked.

The Cubs never even implied that it was because of attendance. And he was not the only one from that department to lose his job. The Ricketts apparently wanted their own guy last year which cost this guy his authority and then they decided they didn't need him at all after this year (along with the 3 others who were fired). The fact that they hired a new person as soon as they came on board makes me think that it truly is just restructuring the department to what the Ricketts want and not anything these people did.

They tied a MAC team that went 1-11 last year in total yards last week (turned the ball over 3 times and forced 4) and haven't looked any better so far today. Florida so far looks like a team that might not finish in the top 25.

Value and production are different things, though. Kosuke is likely to be just as productive as Crawford if the Cubs hadn't decided to bench the superior player for an extended period of time - that's not Kosuke's fault. Out of the 200 extra AB's Crawford has over Fukudome, 140 of them have been against left-handers. Kosuke would likely have a decent drop in his numbers if he had to play as much against left-handers as Crawford has.

Any chance Major Wright could be a SS? Wright and Harris seem to be the best tandem or safeties talent wise. I think he could be. He loves to hit in run support. I think Harris at SS and Major at FS makes the most sense at the moment if Wright can get up to speed coming off the injury. Also on this http://www.chicagobears.com/team/depthchart.asp it says Kellen Davis is the backup TE while Manumaleuna and Dez are the fullbacks. That's kinda weird isn't it? Probably because the Bears didn't want to be the only team in the NFL to keep four freaking tight ends on the roster. I'm not sure about anybody else but the Colts have four tight ends. Techically they have 5 listed on the roster but 1 is only the long snapper. But the other 4 will all be used primarily at tight end.

ABC has a contract to show the NASCAR race that night which is why there is no prime time game. Why would you enter into that contract if you're ABC? It's not like it's a surprise that there's college football going on the 2nd weekend in September Richmond's race last year got more viewers than the LSU/North Carolina game this past weekend (and to look at a non-holiday week it finished just under the Texas/Texas Tech game that aired the following week last year) . It's hardly a lock that college football would get much higher ratings. And Richmond has the potential to be an important race because it determines who goes to the NASCAR playoffs so NASCAR has an incentive to insist that this race is on network TV.

ABC has a contract to show the NASCAR race that night which is why there is no prime time game.

I think it's pretty easy to see why Kosuke is hated. 1) In 2008 when most fans were paying more attention then they have the last two years, Fukudome had a huge collapse for an entire half of the year. That also being his first season made a really bad first impression. 2) People believe corner OF's should hit 20-25 home runs and Kosuke doesn't hit nearly that many. 3) Kosuke his first two yeas did not maintain a high BA. His BA was below league average both overall and for RF's. 4) Kosuke has an unusual swing that leads him to look worse than he actually is overall. 5) The huge contract (and the fact that fans never saw his production beforehand that led to that contract) doesn't help. 6) Kosuke is extremely streaky and people aren't big fans of streaky players in general. The hustling and defense doesn't matter so much for a high contract player where people are looking for production. People want a high average high power guy in a corner OF. They don't care as much about defense or walks in that position and those are the two things Fukudome provides. That combined with his struggles at bad times and his unusual swing and it's easy to see why he's so underappreciated.

Capps chose the Nationals because they were offering the closer job and the Cubs couldn't offer that.

Indy is not an option. They already have too many receivers as it is. Plus they have a pretty good receiver at tight end sitting the bench because he's a weaker version of Clark already. When they go to 2 tight ends they want a blocking tight end on the other side and they drafted a guy they're excited about this year who will fill that role. Cincy just drafted Gresham so I don't know if they would want another pass catching tight end.

I believe Hendry wants to: sign a power left-handed first baseman trade Fukudome trade Z if possible (although this is cooling down) I don't believe he wants to replace DeWitt. He wanted him for a long time and I think he wants him to be at second for the next couple of years. The only way DeWitt would likely be replaced IMO is if he completely tanks over the last month. The rest of the starting position players seem pretty set in stone unless Ramirez were to opt out. I think he'll focus next on bench and bullpen. A second base/3rd base backup, a 4th OF (which might be Fukudome if he cannot find a deal but probably not), and 1-2 bullpen arms (specifically a right-handed setup man). Baker and Hill probably get released for cheaper players. If he has anything left he'll go after another starter and it will probably be an average one. This might be a high priced starter that gets swapped with Fukudome. Those aren't all moves I'd make (specifically trading Fukudome but some other lesser things as well) but that's IMO most likely Hendry's course.

Indystar says that it's for football only.

But if there's a pattern of Hendry always following those requests then getting a new manager could impact personnel decisions as well. Hendry cannot pawn blame off on the manager because ultimately it's his decision. But if Fredi comes in and requests more valuable things, would Hendry probably not honor those requests as well?

When there's a good chance that pop up is going to fall in for a hit? It's not like this was a pop up to the second baseman that he lost in the sun and Soriano wasn't running full speed around the bases. That was always going to be a ball that could easily cause problems. And it's also different from a guy who is protecting himself and is cautious all the way around the bases but Soriano is aggressive after he gets on base so why is it different for him coming out of the box? I certainly don't want any changes to the team over it, but I don't think there's any reason to try to cover up lapses in hustle either. Even though it doesn't actually affect the season, it still affects the enjoyment level of most fans greatly.

Manning acts like that all the time. He expects perfection both for himself and for everyone else. And when either one of those is off, everyone knows about it. It gets to the point that I'm not a fan of his behavior at times. But unless I missed something last night, there was nothing out of character for Manning. He gets upset at other players, coaches, the refs, and himself all the time on the field. He got caught by the mics screaming at another player in the middle of a play last year. I was very surprised by what Caldwell said last night but certainly not Manning. I think it was partly the rule but partly the application of the rule by the game refs that the Colts were upset about. The refs were not running back to their positions on every play and that was really slowing the Colts up. Plus other refs are supposed to be able to spot the ball sometimes in order to speed up the game on any long completion and that didn't happen to the Colts liking last night. As for the announcers, it didn't surprise me. Jaws is a former QB and most QB's are not going to like this rule one bit. Gruden had been quoted as complaining about the rule change several days before this game. I disagree that if Grossman had done that it would have changed their opinions but it was also clear that they decided to make it a focus of last night's broadcast because the Colts run no huddle so much. So other games it wouldn't have been nearly as big of a deal.

Yes, I did. I suggest they quit whining and play the damn game. I understand why they're upset but I don't completely agree with them. The NFL intentionally hurt the play on the field in order to keep the umpires safe. Even though now more penalties will be missed (except for offensive holding which will now be called a lot more) and the no huddle offense won't work nearly as well, I can respect that decision. I do wish the NFL had tried putting equipment on these umpires first though. There's no reason to hurt the game until you have tried another easy option first. And it's hard not to notice that the NFL isn't completely caring about their safety because they're in their old spot during the last two minutes of the half.

Perfect spot for the guy with the .913 OPS imo Catchers bat 8th, dude. *sticks a toothpick in mouth* And god forbid Colvin would start 2 nights in a row. Colvin started both of the first two games of the series. This is Fukudome's first start in 4 days. And Byrd had an off day last night and Soriano had one on Saturday.

Thank you. I knew there was a fundamental error somewhere but couldn't figure out where it was. It looks like they'll have room for one major move and some minor moves unless they free up some of the money on the roster (of which they are almost certain to do this offseason by dumping Fukudome and possibly Z)

What's my assumption? The logic in passing on Dunn is that I'm hesitant to give a four year, big money contract to a guy who will be 32 before we likely will be competitive again. I was a huge Dunn supporter 2 years ago when we signed Milton Bradley, but I don't know that potentially overpaying for Dunn now would make a lot of sense when there very possibly could be better options available a year later, when we'll actually (from my point of view) be competitive again. Replacing Theriot with DeWitt and Lee with Dunn would go a long way to making us more competitive next year. If we add Dunn ($12 mil per), and the Cubs payroll stays where it is ($144 mil), that still gives us $27 mil to make improvement to the team. They will have room to make improvements. Those #s can't be right. Are you figuring in raises due to existing contracts/arbitration? It's somewhat close. The Cubs are at 103.525 million next year according to Cots. That number is actually a little high because Cots automatically prorates all signing bonuses and when you look at how the Cubs stagger the contract it's pretty clear that they intend for that money to count for year 1. That would knock 5.25 more million off (1 million for Soriano, Zambrano, Fukudome and Dempster, and 1.25 million for Silva). So that brings the Cubs down to 98.275. Marmol, Baker, Marshall, Guzman, Gorzelanny, Hill, and Soto are in arbitration next year. I have no idea what to project here... maybe 10 to 13 million in raises for this group? I'm estimating that Marmol, Gorzelanny, and Soto get raises between 2.5 and 4 million extra from what they made this year. Marshall goes up about a million, and the others might get cut for cheaper players but won't have significant raises otherwise. These estimations are rather uniformed though. So that puts the Cubs at somewhere between 108 and change and 111 and change. Opening Day payroll this year was 144 and change so they have somewhere between 33 and 36 million to work with. So Dunn signing for 12 would leave 21 to 24 million left with those arbitration assumptions.

I don't think that would ever happen. I think Sandberg will leave the Cubs if he doesn't get the job, especially if the new manager is young. Sandberg sounds like he will take any path to a major league managerial position he can. If no one offers one this offseason and he feels that being a bench coach will get him faster to that goal, then he would take the job.

Dunn turns 31 three months from now in November 2010.

Holy Crap!!!!! Really? It's true. He's only had 21 1/3 innings on the year though because of the elbow surgery and the injury has probably helped cause some of those horrific numbers.