jersey cubs fan

No they couldnt' have. They got rid of the 5 yard incedental, which is all that Hunter's was.

The only justification is the cheapass ways of the McCaskey family. They won't pay to buy him out and hire a Cowher. Its not cheapass. It's a huge amount of money to eat in an uncertain market and a "proven coach" doesn't guarantee anything. The problem is he never deserved that extension he got. The media uproar for that contract was ridiculous. The shame is they weren't cheap enough when that was going down.

Lovie continues to show his cowardice ways. He is so effing pathetic. Undisciplined team, horrible judgement, no adjustments, no motivation. What justification does he have to keep his job?

SO poorly coached

considering we've finished ahead of milwaukee, cincy and houston in each of the past three years, i'm not really sure what BBB was getting at there. Since he was talking about the ramifications of signing guys like Jacque and Burnitz, I'm guessing he's talking about more than the past there years, when they've finished behind those teams multiple times.

I don't see how what he reported was stupid.

The Tribune doesn't own the Cubs. They did for over 20 years without adding a jumbotron, so I'm not sure why you'd think would, even though it's a moot point. As for the earlier "why now" question. The new owner just bought the team. The reason "why now" is because he didn't have any authority to do anything before he bought the team.

If it makes you feel any better ESPN is reporting seriously injured.

Wasn't comparing Granderson to Patterson. I was comparing Granderson's drop off in production to Patterson's fall off in production. It's alarming to have interest in a guy who has seen his production drop off more than 100 points in OPS in just 2 years. And given who the Cubs have in charge of making decisions on player personnel, I'm a bit scared that this is another bad avenue Hendry might just explore. Corey had half a season of playing well, he was terribly inconsistent and rarely good. Granderson has been good every year. He's not the 900+ OPS guy he was a couple years ago, but he's been a nice player. You seem to be discrediting him because he was so good in 2007. But if his 2007 was more like his career, or his 2008 numbers, then you'd just say he was a guy who played well and had a modest decline this year. The fact that he declined 2 years in a row doesn't mean much. He wasn't bad 2 years in a row, he was very good, really good and good. He's still putting up good numbers in his decline. When Patterson declined he fell of a cliff. JD Drew has lost more than 200 points in OPS over the course of a couple seasons, on more than one occasion in his career, but he was still a decent enough player at his lows. Jason Bay lost 200 points in 2 years and turned around. Robinson Cano lost 150+ points in OPS over 2 years and bounced back strong. Had that decline also turned him into a bad player, that would be one thing, but if a down year still leaves a guy as a pretty good player it shouldn't mean a ton. I don't see a valid comparison to Corey Patterson.

No he does not. He's most of the way through his prime and he's had a SLG over .500 once, and that's as a guy whose OPS value is very SLG dependent. As he ages, and slows, he might be moved to RF, but I think the need to platoon him will be even higher, and whoever gets him should probably just plan on getting the most value they can out of the next 3 years and then maybe consider picking up the option if he beats expectations, otherwise cut him loose. Guys who strike out a lot, don't walk much and depend on their speed don't tend to age all that well. I see him having Garrett Anderson's future, good while it lasted but staying and getting paid well past his expiration date. I don't know what you expect from the guy, but he has over a .200 ISOP each of the last each of the 3 years. His power is top 50 in baseball. And his walks are just fine, just outside of the top 50, and he's been at both levels for the last 3 years, his prime years. I can go with you that he will likely be getting paid past his expiration date, but he should be at least be a similar player for the next 3 years or so and should continue to be a top 50 player until then. I expect him to be a nice player for the next couple years but not a good option to shift over to right field in 3 years.

I didn't really read into it that 2010 was all that likely. If he's up in 2011 I'm not so sure I'd want Theriot still around even if he moves to 2B.

No he does not. He's most of the way through his prime and he's had a SLG over .500 once, and that's as a guy whose OPS value is very SLG dependent. As he ages, and slows, he might be moved to RF, but I think the need to platoon him will be even higher, and whoever gets him should probably just plan on getting the most value they can out of the next 3 years and then maybe consider picking up the option if he beats expectations, otherwise cut him loose. Guys who strike out a lot, don't walk much and depend on their speed don't tend to age all that well. I see him having Garrett Anderson's future, good while it lasted but staying and getting paid well past his expiration date.

Granderson is a flawed player whose value has been greatly overhyped this offseason, however, I don't get any Patterson comparison, at all. Corey had half a season where he was as good as Granderson has been in his career. And his decline was early and much more dramatic, not to mention predictable. You had to consider it an accomplishment for him to walk 20 times in a season, Curtis has been 50 or higher every year and twice went past 70. And in 4.25 seasons he's shown much more consistent ability to not suck. Corey occasionally showed flashes of brilliances, but he much more frequently showed prolonged periods of incompetence. 2004 was an acceptable recovery from injury, but 2005 was a disaster. You can argue his bounce back year in Baltimore was okay, but he followed that up with more crap. Granderson is in his prime and he's performing, Corey spent half his prime sucking giant donkey balls. I don't think Granderson has a long career of quality ahead of him, and Detroit would be wise to sell high on the guy. But he's a good enough baseball player right now, and should be in the near-to-intermediate future. He's not a power hitter, and he's not an all around hitter, but he's a decent player, which Corey only ever was for a very short amount of time.

Goalies get hot and cold. Proven stanley cup goalies can turn soft quite easily. Every year a new goalie goes from nobody or former weak linke to the guy capable of winning for his team. There's the rare super-duper-star goalie like Brodeur but his teams haven't gone all that far in recent years. Marc Andre Fleury was considered a weak link until his team actually won the cup. Kiprusoff was once considered a surefire cup winning superstar, yet he hasn't won one and you could argue he's taken a step back. Huet is as proven and good as anybody that they could trade for, and there's about a zero percent chance that they could get some star there, so I'd rather just enjoy the season and live with what they have.

if every sports arena in the nation save one has it, I wouldn't deem it obnoxious. I'm all for keeping the ivy, grandstand, marquee and scoreboard intact but the rest of the park is a dump. Just because the team sells out every home game doesn't mean the park shouldn't be modernized. You modernize the park by making the seats, sight lines, concourses, food and bathrooms better. A jumbotron does not modernize a stadium. It adds absolutely nothing to a stadium except for a distraction.

I'm not even so sure about that. They showed Detroit they could beat them a couple years ago and that didn't do anything. I don't think much of showcase regular season games as far as messages go. I just want to see my team win.

I really liked Hub when I was a kid, but now I don't listen to a thing that comes out of his mouth. I think it's the earring. You have an earring that makes you not like Hub? Hub does, or at least he did last time I saw him on that horrible Pro Football Weekly show of his. An earring looks stupid on just about any guy, but on a man with horseshoe head it's horrible.

So not only is his professional life in disarray but now his marriage is on the rocks?

What an incredibly stupid post. Yeah, when a mediocre lineup is aging it is a problem. When you are loaded with Hall of Famers and keep acquiring new young studs it's not so much of a problem. But seriously, that was a really stupid post.

I really liked Hub when I was a kid, but now I don't listen to a thing that comes out of his mouth. I think it's the earring.

The offense sucked. The offense has sucked for much of the past decade. They had one outlier year in 2008, but other than that this Cubs organization has been horrible at fielding an effective lineup. Their core is quite old, and they have no stud hitting prospects either. It looks like they might be able to get decent production from shortstop in a couple years, but none of the other posiiton prospects are standouts. They need offensive help, and it's not just a matter of getting guys back healthy and performing as their normal self. Alfonso Soriano is going to be 34 years old, he's been injured every year as a Cub and wasn't all that good to begin with. Lee is 34, he's had 2 standout seasons in his career and other than that he's been an okay 1B most of the time and his contract is up this year. Aramis turns 32 next year and he can opt out. He's a really nice bat, but a significant step below the elite hitters. The middle infielders are crap, and the rest of the outfield is in doubt. Fukudome is okay, but he's also turning 33, and his best value is if he's playing CF in comparison to ofther CF, but he's probably going to RF, and who knows who they get to replace Bradley. The offense should not be as bad as last year, but it could still be no better than average, with their best players all approaching their mid 30's. They could fall hard the next couple years.

I think a complete fix of the line has to come through the draft, but scheme and coaching can play a big role in improving things.

I don't see it happening either. I'm guessing Lovie and Jerry get one last chance to make it work with a new OC next season. the problem there is the only kind of system that's easy enough to learn in such short a time is a turner-esque west coast system. Well yeah, it's not an ideal situation. I'd prefer they cut loose everybody and start fresh. But they will feel the need to do something, and the best thing they can do is try and get a guy who can salvage the Cutler experiment. Turner has never develop a top quality QB, college or pro. He's been around for a long time and hasn't done it. Maybe his system is fine, but he can't coach a QB to perform in it. I can't see the Bears giving them another chance to make a move with the defensive coordinator situation. The offense continues to disappoint, as it's been a bottom half squad for nearly every Ron Turner season. In 9 seasons as OC the offense has ranked in the top half only twice, and only once have they been top ten. They have been 20th or worst in most every other season. They've had a consistent lack of ability to move the ball and score points. They have to make some sort of move affecting the offense.

I didn't say he can't, I said I have doubts that he would. He's a defense first guy. And in Pittsburgh he was employed by one of the best organizations that consistently wins and has a strong ownership/front office situation. He's had a couple guys come through his system and branch out, but Pittsburgh always found success because of defense, and they haven't missed a beat since he left. They went through plenty of QB's as well. The Bears are committed to Jay Cutler right now. They have to make it work with him. They have to find somebody who can develop him, and in my opinion that requires a serious offensive mind.

That's nice, but how do you propose accomplishing that one? Their teams aren't exactly giving them away, and neither is a free agent or soon-to-be free agent. If Cabrera is available you look into it because he will likely be the best player they have a chance to acquire and the best player on the team for several years. You don't pass on an impact bat because you have your eyes on a division rival's best player who is 4 seasons away from free agency. If you can get Cabrera now, you have his services now.