jersey cubs fan

Hmm...I disagree about Lovie being anywhere near the hot seat. He's had his ups and downs, but he manages to take teams that experts don't think belong near the top of the league and keeps them playing hard, and really, beyond the level that most think they should be playing. I can see an argument for Angelo being on the hot seat, but I think Lovie's pretty safe, actually. Well I kind of think raw is right that he's one bad season away from the ax, but 7-9 isn't going to do it. 4-12 could cost him his job, but simply changing offensive systems shouldn't cause them to take such a step back.

I'd actually like to see Soriano stay and platoon with Dejesus. Last year Soriano was at: 271 .312 .500 .812 against LHP. Dejesus has a similar career OPS against RHP: .292 .368 .447 .815 It's a lot of money to be playing for the small part of the platoon but if the other option is to move him and eat most of the costs then I'd rather capitalize on what he still does well. I'm not completely against the idea or anything but I don't see it happening. Soriano cried about not batting 5th everyday, I can't imagine him taking to a platoon.

It was pretty clear a long time ago that they would try and contend the next couple years, and I don't think this signing shows anything else in that regard. The major league OF was Soriano, Byrd, Colvin, all impatient hitters, some of them extremely so. They needed help out there and they filled it without giving up any other assets and spending a small amount of money for a guy who stands a reasonable chance of outperforming that contract.

A career .072 IsoD, and he maintained that even in his bad year. I certainly like that on a team that once again fell to the bottom of the barrel in walks last year and already got rid of their three of their four most patient bats.

It could very well just be me getting caught up in the moment, but if I had to put money on it, I'd bet neither Byrd nor Soriano start the season with the Cubs. I'd bet at least one doesn't start the season with the Cubs.

It fits the go from a players' manager to a disciplinarian type pretty well.

There's no reason to be super excited about him, and they didn't spend super exciting money on him. There OF is a complete mess and they need adequate players out there somewhere, especially if the talk of trading Soriano is true. I don't think he's a guy you sign and say "let him roll", he's a complementary player at best who fills a spot without standing in the way of something better.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dejesda01.shtml Maybe he's another Marlon Byrd, but he's Marlon Byrd minus 2 years, and a friendly contract. BR has him similar to Randy Winn by age and Marlon Byrd. Certainly just a placeholder and a cost effective one on a team with limited bats.

sleuthing for atm on the internet is nsfw

Dennis Erickson was a disaster of an NFL coach and yet still was welcomes back to college with open arms. Butch Davis was a joke in the NFL and got a job right away in the college. There are over 100 college positions in addition to 32 NFL head jobs, and there aren't 100 quality head coaches. There alway's going to be room for a guy who won as many games as Martz won as an NFL head coach, not to mention a guy who ran a big time offense that won a Super Bowl. He has a 53-32 record as an NFL head coach and he was involved in multiple championship game teams. I'm not sure why you would think he'd never coach again. His resume is as good as 95% of coaches out there.

I'm guessing McCown will be #2 by week's end but there won't be an announcement for a couple days. And I'm guessing the hook won't be that quick unless he absolutely chits the bed early.

It comes with the territory though, this is the point in time when coaches express interest in their next job and organizations start looking at current coaches. It doesn't take much time to send out the proverbial resume. Just let your agent know you have interest and go back and coach your guys.

They thought Terry Shea could essentially run it before. Not a good idea.

touche

wait, what?

What's he doing? Sending everyone copies of his portfolio? Any coach in his position would be talked about for these types of positions. Coaches with NFL experience (and success) have a lot of cache in college, especially at secondary programs like these two. I fully expected him to be here for just a couple years before taking a head gig somewhere and the lack of an extension solidified that feeling.

It looks like the Bears are down to 7 point favorites after opening at 9 and settling at 8 for a while. Must be a fair amount of money going against Hanie right now.

Yeah, I've heard that. Don't really know what his qualifications are. Does Martz just say, "here's my playbook". Not sure how this would work. He's been a tight ends coach, offensive line coach, tight ends coach, head coach, assistant head coach and now line coach again. I think he's probably qualified in the general sense, but I fear he'd run a dumbed down version of this scheme and isn't very imaginative, or bright for that matter. Actually, he'd probably be more to Lovie's liking consisidering his history. I'd much rather prefer the guy who could be the next head coach (the next Sean Payton as raw said and as we said last time this position was available).

My issue isn't Cutler learning a new offense. It's more everyone else. If you believe some of the talking heads, Bennett has had issues in the past learning a new offense. Knox has had issues learning the Martz offense. It's pretty clear that the OL had issues with the protection schemes in the Martz offense last year and to start this year. I don't think the other 10 guys on the field (though probably shouldn't include Forte) really can handle another offense, the 3rd in 4 years for most of them. And like the rankings show, a complete revamp probably isn't necessary. I just feel everyone would be best served by not starting from scratch, though the guys on the offense for the most part are young enough to do so and still be in their primes when all systems are clicking. I think "learning the system" is more an excuse for not being good than anything else. How much does a guy like Tice actually offer consistency in terms of scheme? He knows what Martz was doing and obviously he's involved closely. But he's got a history as a tight end and doesn't have much ties to any sort of sophisticated passing game (which is what Martz at least tries to do). I'm not opposed to it necessarily, but I have significant doubts about his ability to get the most value out of Cutler. He's be more about staying the same than taking a step forward.

It's worse, but it doesn't excuse nonsensical statements about "this not being the Tribune money Cubs". Like they were bastions of lavish spending. Again, I wasn't excusing or defending anyone. Okay then, justifying? I'm not sure what word you want to use but Vasgersian's comment displayed a lot of ignorance that a paid baseball follower should not have. It's not even something Mitch Williams would throw out there, and he's an idiot who adds nothing to any conversation he's in instead of some fake football player mentality or something.

Nonsense. I specifically said you don't need to know every in and out, but a very general knowledge of the fact that the Cubs are very clearly willing to spend money is the least you can expect out of these people.

It's worse, but it doesn't excuse nonsensical statements about "this not being the Tribune money Cubs". Like they were bastions of lavish spending.

I certainly think it signifies that Ricketts is willing to spend, but I had my doubts prior to the signing of Theo and co. Ricketts paid an astronomical amount of money to purchase the team, and he inherited a very high payroll (and certainly way more than the production dictates). However, we still don't really know what his ideal operating budget will be. Ricketts paid a hell of a lot less for the team than it was reportedly going to cost. He's not embroiled in the Madoff scandal or going through a divorce that will force the sale of the team. Why would anybody think he's suddenly going to go cheap?

How in the world does Theo have a reputation as a guy who gets players on the cheap? And the Ricketts are not new. They've spent $140m on payroll in back to back years. It's very clear they have a lot of money to spend on payroll and will spend a lot of money on payroll.

I kind of disagree with your statement. When a team is a good puck possession team like the Hawks have been, then you can get by with a (game managing, inning eating) steady goaltender. I think one of the bigger differences between Cup winning Hawks and the current Hawks is their puck possession is not as good, which exposes the goalie more. I do not think any team can get by with a steady goaltender. Philadelphia has shown that though they have skilled offensive players, they are not really good at puck control, so they need a better goaltender to win. So to agree with your statement, yes the Hawks need to be better at puck possession in front of Crawford. Their skill level on the 3rd line is not as good as the Cup team and trading Campbell is going to hurt also. Plus I am not sure that Q is really a puck possession coach. Others have disagreed with my stance on goalies as well. Sure, some teams can't do anything without their goalie, like New Jersey or Buffalo. But having a franchise goalie isn't the same thing has having a franchise QB in football. They just aren't that necessary. They can help a mediocre team stay in contention, but for one thing they come and go. There's very little consistency with the top line goalies. Ryan Miller can go from all world to just another guy in a year. Chicago and Detroit can win cups with nobodies. Khabi and Luongo can go from stopping everything to absolute garbage at times. And Philly struggles from having garbage goalies, not the lack of an elite one.