jersey cubs fan

How many times do the TV cameras pan-out to see that ad? 3? 4 times per game? You don't need to pan-out to see that ad, I'd guess it's visible dozens of times in any broadcast.

A guy I know who is cheating on his wife with multiple people let me play the part of him in a text exchange with one of his ladies and it was all kinds of awesome.

It doesn't take much. They just need to have the athletic department and school keep a committment to winning. FSU can recruit every player the other teams can, there's no inherent disadvantage.

You are a bad person. In recent years I've seen them in Citi Field, Shea Stadium, Citizens Bank, the Vet, Nationals Park and PNC, and most of those games were played either in 50 degrees and rain, or 100 degrees and humidity. I've been to Petco twice, never for the Cubs yet, and both games were more enjoyable days at the ballpark than all but one PNC trip.

That is what I meant by road beef shenanigans.

So what? He's already been compensated for what he's done in the past and he's going to receive some sort of naming honor if they haven't already. You don't get guaranteed employment for life, especially not at that level of compensation and with such responsibilities. The department has an obligation to the future.

Why would that statistic surprise you? Sure, the Bears aren't a very good team, but they aren't anywhere near the league of Rams-bad.It doesn't surprise me that a majority picked the Bears (I did myself), but 96% seems astronomically high to me for a team as bad as the Bears have been lately. In a straight pick the winner contest? Umm, that shouldn't surprise anybody. St Louis is pathetic. Chicago has been competitive in 4 of 7 losses, and arguably should have one 3-4 of those. They've been beaten bad by three teams, but all three teams are clearly better than them. They've also beatent 4 teams, including beatdowns of a couple lesser squads. Chicago is at home facing a clearly inferior opponent. 99% of people should think they will win. Whether they can cover an 8.5 point spread is another debate, but Chicago is not in the same ocean, let alone boat, of the worst teams in the league.

Tiger released a new statement, all but admitting his road beef shenanigans.

I could see them contending, I just think they are doing a horrible job of maximizing their odds. Agreed. Unless the Cards return everyone (unlikely), the Cubs will likely contend in 2010, even if they do nothing from here till spring training. In fact, doing nothing else might be the preferred route, judging by what Hendry has done so far. Depends on what you mean by nothing. Letting Harden walk and dumping Bradley leaves significant holes.

Maybe you don't know this but every team is only allowed 25 players on the roster, no matter who the starting pitcher is. They don't have to pay any extra people just because Harden is here. They are already onthe team and because they inist on a 12 man rotation usually guys just sit around being wasted resources. Given Harden extra rest and he'll give you 6-7+ innings of very good pitching. And it's easy to give a guy extra rest.

Harden was still very good when used properly this year. He's not a 5 inning pitcher either. This teams has lots of arms that can start games, they have very few that can dominate when pitching.

I could see them contending, I just think they are doing a horrible job of maximizing their odds.

True, but Ramirez doesn't typically miss half the season, or even a quarter of it. And I think a good part (well, at least some) of Soriano's suckitude had to do with the fact he was playing on a bad leg most of the season. He's not ever going to be the player he was even a couple of years ago, but I think he'll be better in 2010. He doesn't typically miss half the season, but he misses time and he was on the wrong side of 30 already. And since he's already had this shoulder injury, that's just another weak spot on his body to worry about next season. Also, while it may be impossible to plan for everything that could go wrong, having Aaron Miles as the primary backup at third base (and then having to go with Fontenot there) was a huge mistake, and unless they do something about the backup situations they will struggle again when he goes down. And now that they are expecting Wells, Marshall, Gorzo and Samardzija to account for 3 rotation spots, they won't have much to fall back on when one of the big guys inevitably gets banged up.

Soriano, ARam, and Zambrano have a history of injuries. So, saying the Cubs were over .500 with them being injured doesn't mean much, when it should have been reasonably expected that they would get injured anyway. They are a .500 team if they don't have contingency plans for when players get injured or underperform again. No team can have a contingency plan when they have the number of injuries the Cubs had. If you don't believe me ask the Mets. Last year ARam had 55% of the ABs that he averaged in the last 7 seasons, Soriano had 85% of the ABs that he averaged over the last 3 seasons when he has had "a history of injuries" (before that he played almost every game for quite a few years), and Zambrano pitched 80% of the innings he's averaged the 6 years before. Every team suffers injuries, but when they become excessive the Win-Loss stat is going to suffer. When your "regular" starting lineup is on the field 6-8 times out of 162 games, you aren't going to be a contender. In 2010, there's no reason to think ARam is going to miss half the season, Zambrano will miss 20% of his starts, Soriano will play most of the season on one leg, Dempster will break his toe hopping over the dugout railing, etc. Injury problems mount as guys get older and deal with more and more past injuries. And if there's one thing the Cubs didn't suffer from, it was a lack of Soriano on the field. When he did play, he sucked. More of that doesn't help. And the best of that group, Ramirez, is a lock to get injured again. He always has and he always will. He's going to miss time.

http://deadspin.com/5416369/chinese-crack-tiger-woods-case-with-dramatic-cgi-re+enactment

He should fight the ticket.

I don't know what's open, but it would seem to me that most big college options would be better. Cincy's had a nice couple years, but their program is fairly pathetic longterm. It really shouldn't be hard for any legit program to pull him away from there.

In my MLB 09 game I offered a 4 year deal and he took less money for 3 years in Oakland, so I had already accepted him being gone.

He seems like a solid coach. But he's the fallback right now. Stoops may not take the job, but he's the first guy on the list. Since he hasn't told ND he's not interested, I'm not sure why they wouldn't press for him. Especially since OU's season is over whereas Cincy has another week. Gives ND 5 full days to quietly (or not so quietly) pursue Stoops and then turn to Kelly if Stoops ultimately says no. Then you run the risk of Kelly saying no. I think ND has to do this kind of quick. Kelly has more national championships under his belt than Stoops does and he's an easier get. If they publicly go after Stoops and he spurns them, they run the risk of further embarrassment. Why would Stoops leave OU for ND, if not for the money? It is an inferior program in every way and there is much more pressure than at OU. They need to be humble for once. I think Kelly would be crazy to turn the job down no matter much he feels spurned by not being the 1st choice. I don't see him saying no. I agree. As long as they don't antagonize him in some way, or pull a McCaskey/McGinnis thing where they treat him like he should be honored for the chance to coach there, he should be more than willing. That is unless another school jumps in earlier. They can wait a week or two on Stoops before going hard after Kelly. Although they should be talking already.

It becomes a topic, I wouldn't say it becomes relevant. And I would think Urlacher is done with children.

Halladay is clearly the better pitcher, but we don't need to do this. We have plenty of prospects, that's not the problem. We may have the prospects, but we also need them. This team will need an influx of young talent to makeup for the inevitable decline and departure of the core of this team, which is already too old. If you can keep your overall prospect balance constant, or near constant, while upgrading your veteran pitching situation, that would be pretty nice.

It's the 4th, no?

She's taking gypsy cabs?

I guess nobody else wants to start this thing, and I don't feel like looking at the Vikings game thread anymore. STL sucks, problem is so do the Bears. The Rams have lost 5 games by 20 plus points this year, yet the Bears are only favored by 8.5 at home, and I'm not sure I'd pick them. The Rams do nothing well. They can kind of run the ball, but they only average 118 yards per game, outside the top 10, and that's a stat mediocre teams dominate. They can't stop the run, but the Bears can't run it either. Presumably Chicago is going to line up to stop the run, and hope for turnovers. This is probably going to be a really ugly game, either something like the Bears/Browns game with a lopside score with pathetic play, or something like the Rams/Lions game, where the gutsiest bad team pulls out a win. The only thing to be gained by a win is saving face and hopefully settling Cutler into his role. The only thing gained by a loss is making a coaching change more likely (and maybe drafting 70 instead of 75. This is truly an I do not care game, but I'll watch since it's Sunday and the good Lord gave us football Sunday and it is good.

The problem with waiting until after he makes that much money is the market dries up. I'd much rather trade Theriot too early than too late. You know you aren't going to get burned by some great playing finally putting it together.