jersey cubs fan

Someone that throws deep and into coverage? Hmm, last time we had a QB who did that he was almost literally run out of town by fans. Our receivers were better back then too. There's nothing wrong with throwing into coverage deep. An INT way down the field isn't the worst thing. It's the fumbles behind the line and INTs in the flat and underneath that will kill you. Or deep INTs that don't even give a receiver a chance to make a play.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4411373 Plaxico is going to plead guilty and serve 2 years. Ummm, I guess the Bears shouldn't sign him.

Yes. He has some legal stuff going on. He's at best a 1-year solution. He would be taking time away from someone that could actually develop as a long-time future target of Cutler like Bennett, Rideau, Iglesias, Knox, or Aromashodu. Also, that would mean one of these guys would NOT make the team, along w/ Davis....and that's if the Bears keep the max 6 WRs. I'm with you on this, but isn't Harrison's legal issue a thing of the past? I thought nothing came of it.

You are pretending this is genuinely about a guy who can't make up his mind and regrets retirement. That's nonsense. He has gone out of his way to avoid training camp 2 years in a row, playing the aw shucks routine about indecision. In every team sport if a player skips practice he is criticized. And Troy Aikman's retirement has nothing to do with this story. 10 years ago, and much longer before that, the media and those who consume that media would have discussed at length a story of a guy retiring, unretiring, retiring, unretiring, switching teams and skipping practice. Your theory has big holes. There is no theory. My point is who cares, move on, talk about something else. You are theorizing that this is just some media creation. It is not. It's a former star football player finagling the system and doing whatever he can to avoid practice, and a coach allowing him because he's desperate for help. Your "point" is rather pointless. Talk about what? Training camp just ended and Favre just signed with a team he said he wasn't going to sign with. Why can't people talk about that? It's rather silly to try and pretend this isn't a story and should not be discussed. If sports should be discussed at all there is absolutely no reason why this should not be part of that discussion.

Most of the difference between Rob's "actual line" and "expected line" is luck. For instance, Soto and Fontenot have been extremely unlucky this season. Meaning they've hit the ball hard, but it's gone right at defenders. Players in those situations are good bets to improve either later in the season or the next year. Likewise, players who don't hit the ball particularly hard but have it fall in nonetheless are getting lucky and, thus, are not good bets to continue that production for an extended period of time. Luck doesn't always even out over the course of a season, but sometimes it does. How lucky was Soto last year?

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/news/story?id=4409633 felony charges dropped, indicted on misdemeanors

I don't believe Fukudome is or has been the problem, its the complete lack of production from Soto, Soriano and 2b. Add Soto with a little more luck and anything from Soriano or 2b and I believe the Cardinals would been looking up at the Cubs. Talking about moving Fukudome isn't really calling him the problem, it's talking about restructuring the payroll situation on a team with way too much money tied up into guys who aren't productive enough. Presumably you'd get something valuable back and then replace him in a cost effective manner.

Did that look anything like this fight? Ok, that's awesome. the batter is former cub prospect nic jackson. I heard them say the name and was wondering if that was him.

$9.5m spread over 5 years is 1.9m per. His cap charge is currently 2.9+1.9 = 4.8. If they cut him I believe his cap charge would go to 7.6 (bonus from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012) this year. If they wait until next year, when his normal charge would be 4.85, the hit would be 5.7, so a little more justifiable. I think with the depth issues he's safe, for now. But with them being below the cap this year (I believe) and knowing they will have to do something with Cutler, perhaps they'd want to get it out of the way.

You are pretending this is genuinely about a guy who can't make up his mind and regrets retirement. That's nonsense. He has gone out of his way to avoid training camp 2 years in a row, playing the aw shucks routine about indecision. In every team sport if a player skips practice he is criticized. And Troy Aikman's retirement has nothing to do with this story. 10 years ago, and much longer before that, the media and those who consume that media would have discussed at length a story of a guy retiring, unretiring, retiring, unretiring, switching teams and skipping practice. Your theory has big holes.

No, but he's not an ideal defensive CF, has basically been a platoon partner, and more importantly, potentially the only tradable position player. 2/26.5 for his age 33 and 34 seasons, I think the Cubs might be able to find a better way to spend that money. Well that would be fine if they could find a way to spend the money, but I'm not comfortable with Bradley as a full-time CF(not cause of his defense, but because of the prospects of Reed Johnsons starting 70 times a year.) I'm also not comfortable giving Jason Bay whatever insane contract he's likely to get. Finding a CF platoon(or player) that hits like the ones we've had the last 2 seasons, is costly in dollars or talent. I'd rather eat 3M/Y on Dempster and trade him than open a gaping hole in CF. Start the Colvin watch to work in with Bradley. Jason Bay is better than the free agents the Cubs have gone after in recent years. Although I don't think that's the approach I'd take.

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2009/08/this-woman-would-like-to-report-a-rape.html#more-17852

Did that look anything like this fight?

No, but he's not an ideal defensive CF, has basically been a platoon partner, and more importantly, potentially the only tradable position player. 2/26.5 for his age 33 and 34 seasons, I think the Cubs might be able to find a better way to spend that money.

You have a point. Prior to Baker, Fontenot was carrying the team's production from the 2B spot with fewer than half the PA. Miles, Blanco and Scales all have sub 600 OPS with 200+ PA of the 460+ total PA from the position. The problem is mostly Miles. And we really shouldn't forget that. Baker/Fontenot is not a horrible idea for a platoon. Although I'm still hoping for a Theriot/Fontenot with some new SS coming in.

i'm not really sure what you're saying here. I'm guessing he thinks Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly, Wells and maybe Harden if he returns are all #2 quality starting pitchers. i'm a huge Ramirez fan but he's not one of the best players in the league. also, he's established a bit of a track record of being injured at this point and I won't assume he'll be healthy more often as he ages. Yeah, Ramirez may be the best Cub hitter, but he's not one of the best players in the league. The Cubs last year had success A) Because just about everything went right, and B) They were good just about everywhere, with no holes, but weren't really great anywhere. They don't have a stud. They need production from multiple spots. It helps because it means you don't run the risk of having your season end because of one injury, but it hurts because it leaves lots of opportunities for disappointing production to hurt the cause. The Cubs got close to the top production from just about every position last year, and not much in the way of bottom of the barrel stuff that characterized 2005/2006/2007. In terms of OPS their worst position, in comparison to the league, was probably RF, but they at least had good OBP out there. This year they aren't getting top of the line production anywhere, and they are getting below or well below average production from several positions and lacking significantly in OBP at many of them. 2B, C and LF have just made far too many outs.

Amusing Slate piece documenting the oft-discussed King/Favre relationship with quotes that show King drift from a worshipper to a jilted lover. He equates the situation to a father talking glowingly about his child and then the kid becoming a drug addict and repeatedly lying to his father.

How does that sum up the season well? And why is that necessarily sad? Two guys with an OPS over 1000 in August isn't sad to me, and doesn't come close to explaining how a team can't score or win much. Also, Fukudome has been just as bright of a spot, with a 1000+ OPS in August as well.

I'd say that's been Hendry's number one mistake. He heads into the off-season and believes he has to fix X, and goes full-steam to fix it. RF/LH was an example. He decided it should be Bradley (defensible in that Bradley is as good a choice as Dunn, Abreu, Ibanez, indefensible in that he's a fielding liability and not so good LH), but lost a ton of flexibility pursuing that fix. I'm a little confused about what you are saying here. Are you saying they don't need to make improvements and should just stay flexible and tinker? Or are you saying that instead of just looking to improve, Hendry goes on a myopic mission to acquire some unnecessariliy specific item that does not necessarily improve the team?

That's not true. He struggled for part of the season, but I think he's been above average. His value in free agency is hurt by his health issues much more than his performance. He's having the type of season that got Lilly 4/40 from the Cubs and much better than what Marquis did to get 3/21. I don't think he's been any worse than Burnett before he got his monster deal. It's all about the health and lack of expected innings, not really performance.

Screw that, predicting win totals is great for gambling purposes.

Yes, the base line talent is there, but come on. You really don't see how drugs can help you train to be faster?

That's not exactly a good thing. At best we could hope to pick up one game during that series. A sweep is unlikely. Then you're 3 games out in the loss column with no games against STL. No, the best we can hope for is that we sweep them and have like 40 or 50 games or however many it is to make up 1 game. That series isn't tomorrow, but the concept is the same. Needing to hope for a sweep is not a good thing. If they were 4 back with 6 games against STL there would be reason to be optimistic. Also, games back in the loss colum is a nice measure when you are talking about a good team that is likely to win a lot of games, but when the team barely wins half their games, the loss column advantage is less meaningful.

i think you aren't good at posting links

That's not exactly a good thing. At best we could hope to pick up one game during that series. A sweep is unlikely. Then you're 3 games out in the loss column with no games against STL.