jersey cubs fan

Really? I mean I only know a couple of them, but they were pretty upset.

Trades saved the Cubs a few million during this season. It's entirely possible that profits came about from cutting those costs in July. That would leave the break even point at a lower payroll price point. And who knows what those profits are, $100,000, $1,000,000 or $10,000,000. You can also pour that money back into the team in a variety of ways. Improving the stadium, increasing scouting and international free agent signing, the draft, etc. Financially I don't have a problem with where the Cubs are right now. The biggest knock on Ricketts is that he appears to be going forward with proven failure Jim Hendry running the team. He shouldn't need more time than he's had to evaluate Hendry, and if his evaluation is that Hendry has done a good enough job to keep his job, than he's an idiot.

Anything to piss off LaRussa.

I apologize for not understanding your implication.

I never understood where those rumors came from in the first place. Every indication has been that they will hold steady. However, a big part of breaking even this year was probably all the tickets sold in February, when people had hope, and all the money saved in trades later in the season. There had to be a few million dollars taken off the payroll by the end. If they had a payroll of 140m going in and end up spending 137 after all the trades, then that could be where they start next year.

Why do you say this? I'd be surprised if we don't wind up with Dunn. I'd be surprised if they do.

He's probably capable of flirting with an 800 OPS again. He was an 800 OPS player in the prime of his career. He'll be 32 next year with a major injury in between and has shown no signs of rebounding so far this year. He has never walked much at all. His strikeout rate is actually getting worse as the season has gone along. His power is getting worse as the season is going along. He's shown really no signs of recovering. His improvement has been a mirage. I was actually somewhat supportive of Nady coming back because I bought in to the he's returning to the player he was as he continues to recover. But when I took a deeper look it simply isn't true. And I'm not willing to sign him based on the 5% chance that he could be a very good bench player. He was in excess of an 800 OPS player when he was in his prime. At 32 he's past his prime but still well within the range of a guy capable of getting close to what he's done in the past. I feel that the Cubs were overly optimistic about his time frame for recovery, and that after taking a full year off and showing up to camp unable to play, it's quite possible he's just not in proper condition to play 6 months of baseball this year. If he can go through an offseason of regular workouts and go into spring training actually playing baseball, I really don't think it is at all a stretch to see him somewhere between his 780 career OPS and the 800 level. That is an above average bat on a team that struggles to be average, and useful.

He's probably capable of flirting with an 800 OPS again.

Last night the Rays beat CC with 13 baserunners in 5 innings scoring 7 runs.

I understand the negatives. But the guy has a history of being able to hit and has improved the further away from surgery. I think he's a nice bat off the bench and potential fill-in starter if need be. If they are going with only 1 or 2 vets on the bench, he'd be a solid option. He has improved sure but that's to the tune of a .719 OPS in the second half. And that's with a .388 BABIP over that time frame and terrible ISOD's (.043) and ISOP's (.096). If he had followed up August with at least a decent September the case for his improvement might be better but right now it just looks like he got lucky one month. The Cubs are also going to carry only 5 bench spots again next season. One is for the backup catcher. Hopefully Fukudome stays and one spot is for Colvin/Fukudome. One spot is for a backup MI. Of the two spots remaining, do we really want one spot to go to a backup 1B/corner OF that really has shown very little offensively, doesn't have much to offer defensively, and may be injury prone? Yeah, on a team that is almost certainly not going to have a very good 1B, having a backup 1B like Nady available is a pretty decent idea. What other spots do you want to spend on the bench? Barney is fine for backing up SS and 2B. There's no need for a specific CF backup, since you have three guys capable of filling the position already. What you need in those spots on the bench are bats, not specific positional backups. Nady is having a weak enough season that I doubt many teams are banging down his door for a starting gig. But he's had a good enough career, and isn't old enough to be thought of as washed up, so he fits the bill pretty well. If they get Dunn at 1B, you can probably go another direction there, but I'm not sure anybody else is much better.

Is the wind enough of a factor? Did somebody know something about how Dempster slept last night?

I know people who come pretty close to it, so yeah, somebody who from every indication is a completely self absorbed douchebag probably could be like that. lebron loves the yankees and cowboys, too. And he's not a douche?

I understand the negatives. But the guy has a history of being able to hit and has improved the further away from surgery. I think he's a nice bat off the bench and potential fill-in starter if need be. If they are going with only 1 or 2 vets on the bench, he'd be a solid option.

KC Joyner plays the role of Mr. Wolf, telling Bears fans not to start sucking each other's $$$$$ quite yet with regards to Cutler. He goes on to make some decent observations that could mean Cutler will still be turnover prone despite a strong start. But his entire premise is flawed as the first comparison, which apparently indicates that if Cutler turns into Brett Favre that would be a bad thing. Maybe Favre's risky behavior doomed his recent teams in the end, and maybe it prevented him from winning more than 1 Super Bowl. But the guy still put up HOF numbers and kept his team in contention nearly every year. That's not a bad thing at all. Additionally, his entire premise is based on him watching game tape and deciding whether or not a QB made a bad decision. That's a flawed way to create a stat. Sometimes you can tell if it's a bad decision, sometimes you can't. Sometimes bad decisions don't actually result in bad things happening. I fully expect Cutler's INT ratio to increase as the season goes on. He's not finishing with 8 unless he gets injured early. But that doesn't mean it's doom and gloom.

If it exists, this is the week when the "more desperate team wins" theory should take hold in the NFL. Nobody wants to start 0-2, but 1-0, 0-1 isn't much of a difference. Teams desperate to get their season started versus teams happy to be off to a surprise 2-0 start is a bigger deal.

Stan Kasten is resigning from the Nationals. I've heard some CTL types talking about him as the type of guy the Cubs could/should hire as president of baseball ops. I don't think he's done much other than hiring Schuerholz with the Braves. But he's probably got better credentials than Crane for running a baseball team.

Just picking winners the Packers are the obvious choice to make.

SSW at 20 MPH is straight out to center.

I know people who come pretty close to it, so yeah, somebody who from every indication is a completely self absorbed douchebag probably could be like that.

sorry, 2.5 years.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2010/09/bryce_harpers_favorite_sports.html Harper basically just reiterrated the point that he's a total douche by listing his favorite sports teams. I'm guessing everybody can predict them without reading the article.

Gruden's biggest problem is that he can't pick a QB. He had Rich Gannon in Oakland, but he went through so many QBs in Tampa and never could settle on one. They never developed one (or even tried, I believe) either. He was rumored for the Tennessee job after Fulmer was fired (though I don't think it was ever realistic) and while I was intrigued, his inability to settle on and develop a QB concerned me. It'd be the same way for an NFL team. Gruden's "going through QB's like the QB goes through chearleaders" mentality could be highly entertaining if matched up with Romo and all the doubts people have about him.

Of the four, Kosuke has a pretty comfortable lead in OPS+ and OBP. He's 4th in games played and third in PA. All four of them have had bad months, but I think Kosuke is the only one who people think of as having been bad for an extended period of time. Jersey, what do you think of the idea of the Cubs bringing Nady back for the bench next year? I don't know if he'd be willing to accept a deal like that with how he's come on late, but if he can be had for the right price I'd like to see him back. I am for it. I have been for a while without saying much about it because part of me thinks it's s stupid idea, but I like it.

Of the four, Kosuke has a pretty comfortable lead in OPS+ and OBP. He's 4th in games played and third in PA. All four of them have had bad months, but I think Kosuke is the only one who people think of as having been bad for an extended period of time.

I saw something today about Aromashadu not knowing what his role will be and that Bennett leapfrogged him. In the note, they mentioned that Bennett had a great downfield block on Olsen's TD, but if you watch that play, the guy that was covering Bennett simply never turned around until the last second. Bennett didn't really have to block him, then he leaped toward another guy but didn't make much of an impact. The other receiver cut his route short and the defender stayed with him, taking himself out of the play.