jersey cubs fan

Bill Freaking Simmons among many others do not get that very simple point. It is the same rules, it's the punishment that has increased.

It is pretty crazy but it's funny that people are acting as though teams are going to randomly be switching sides right in the middle of play. It's going to happen on change of possession, which already involves timeouts most of the time and a complete overhaul of personel coming onto and getting off the field. If one team drives from the 20 to the other side and goes 4 and out on the 1 or something, it will be weird. But most possession changes won't be that dramatic.

Texas is much better at execution.

http://www.312sports.com/images/stories/Bears/ManningHit.jpg Look at that form! Everybody that was whining about how don't lead with your head rules takes away hitting in football need to look at that form. He led with the shoulder, his arms are wrapped. If that was a cheapshot the arms would be tucked in and/or down by the side and his helmet would be in the guy's chest, not off to the side. This is football 101, yet people don't understand what actual tackling is.

If the guy is strictly a bench player, fine with me. But I really fear that's how Hendry would go cheap at 1B for the starter. And that would be a bad idea.

Yeah, I just read that. Gene's always like that though. ESPN takes the worst two writers in Chicago (Woj and Rogers...I guess Sullivan could make a case) and lets them be the "Chicago" writers for the national site. Wonderful. They let Morrisey alone.

Really? I'm thinking I want NYG to win, because the Bears already lost to them and if they have to compete for a Wild Card spot they are screwed.

wild and wacky stuff. Are you not allowed to return picks for TD?

I would probably classify him as high risk, low reward. If Johnson could actually stay healthy (the risk), he's likely to approach a .400 OBP. He won't slug a ton, but a .400 OBP is a pretty good reward if we can get him on a one-year deal. If it's either Davis or Johnson, though, I'd go with Davis for the upside. I'd actually like to see us add both, though, and Davis can fill in when Johnson gets hurt. He was a 4.7 and 5.4 WAR player in 2005/2006. That was a pretty long time ago now, but I would think that is around his potential high reward, probably a tick below. I'd take that. Lee was below 4 in 5 of his 7 seasons with the Cubs.

Why wouldn't you want potential high reward players? This teams needs to take some chances to get better. The other option is locking in mediocrity which is never a good idea. Where did I say I don't want potential high-reward players? I said I don't want Nick Johnson because he's an injury-prone player with a history of wrist injuries that could bring our offense down further if he's not on the field. You said you didn't want a high risk high reward player.

Like I said, if he wants to offer an insane discount, go ahead. That's a $5m average, and he is going to get $5m this year alone. Crap I didnt realize that. I figured it was somewhere around $3 mil. I was thinking 3, 5, 8, 10. in the 4 years or something. So I guess 4, $26m, so maybe 4 $30 mil or 5, 7, 8, 10 each year I think he made like 2.5 this year and would guess he makes in excess of 4.5 next year just through arbitration. Then next offseason will be his last arbitration year, and he will get around $9m if you comp him up against closers.

Why wouldn't you want potential high reward players? This teams needs to take some chances to get better. The other option is locking in mediocrity which is never a good idea.

Like I said, if he wants to offer an insane discount, go ahead. That's a $5m average, and he is going to get $5m this year alone.

Well what do we have here? A contending Bears team in late November. They look pretty pretty pretty good. So do the Eagles. That's why this game is going to be played in the late afternoon slot toward the end of a very lovely and long weekend of football. The playoff picture might look a little clearer by gametime as NYG/PHI, GB/ATL will have happened by then. If GB loses either in Minnesota or Atlanta, the Bears could be in a fantastic position to put themselves in the divisional driver's seat. Gobble gobble. Hmmmm, turkey. Sorry, I was distracted. The running game has managed to improve a little during this winning streak, but they still only managed 3.4 yards per attempt in Miami. Getting out of a road night game on short rest is almost like stealing a win, because they can go into Philly like they are coming off a virtual bye, with more time to rest and prepare. A few years ago I would have expected Urlacher to shutdown Vick fairly easily. They are going to need their linebackers to move all over the field to contain him and they will probably have to hit him hard to really shut him down. If Vick comes out of the Giants game healthy and the Eagles don't lay an egg, I think they will be favored in Chicago. But I do think it is somewhat favorable that Philly plays a Sunday night rivalry game the week before, Chicago gets a little more rest and Philly has to play the Thursday after this Bears game. If they go into December already with 8 wins, I think Chicago will have a chance to at least host a first round playoff game, and maybe fight for a bye.

That's because they were crappy against the pass for years and at the beginning of this year until turning it around of late. It helps when you don't face any good QBs outside of Rogers.

Wilson, that's a really stupid thing to even attempt to say.

He was gone? Yes, he missed a field goal in the three previous games that he attempted one, and some were not tough.

Three words: Thorough butt whooping

I have no idea what your first sentence means. As for the rest, he isn't relatively consistent from year to year. He was very pedestrian in 2009. He is coming off a career year. The vast majority of these guys are not consistent every year, and that is the reason you don't sign him. Plus, the consistent ones don't walk a million people a year. If Marmol does what he did this year for the next two years, then go ahead and think about a longer term deal. But there is just no reason you sign him now unless he is offering an insance discount just for the security. It has nothing to do with taking line drives off the elbow, it's all about the inconsistency of relievers and his ridiculously injury inviting motion.

We have 3 years to find that replacement. There is no good reason to sign Marmol to a longterm deal this year because you are afraid you won't be able to replace him by then.

All that really matters is the financial stability they get selling to Americans.

The K:BB ratio is closer for Davis and Francoeur than for Davis and Gordon. Davis has been far, far more productive in the minors than Frenchie, though. As I posted earlier, similarly productive to Gordon. Frenchie did it as a younger guy and was a starter in MLB at 21. Davis racked up his numbers playing A-AAA in his 20's.

Why? They aren't going to sell their brand of futbol in Europe. They need to work on selling in America, which is always the biggest market any company should try to sell to.

Conceivably, you'd save a little bit for each of his next 2 seasons. Maybe he only gets 4 and 7.5 on the new deal, while through arb he may have gotten 5 and 8 or something like that. Then, you get him for 2 more years after that, hopefully at or slightly below his market value as a free agent. If he continues at his present rate, I'd guess he'd be a 12 mill a year type guy on the open market. The hope would be to get for around 10 or so. But, the main thing here, would be you'd only have him for 2 years outside of his arb clock. If you wait on him, you may get stuck paying him for 4-5 years outside of arb, instead of just the 2 and maybe not able to get the discount at that point either on money per year either. In the end, it all depends on how much Marmol values security as to whether or not he'd even be willing to lock himself down like this. he would be crazy not to sign the deal and the Cubs would be crazy to offer it.

Really? Because that is what the Cubs are doing right now. It is what both World Series participants did this year. And no, FRod is not still very good. He was very mediocre in 2009 and was nothing special this year.