jersey cubs fan

Totally different scenarios. Freel was owed nothing, Miles has a 2-year guaranteed contract. If you trade him, you aren't getting anything worthwhile.

I'm sure teams will be lining up to sign a .700-OPS corner outfielder to a $60/5 deal. If Pierre and GMJ can get their deals, maybe.......

I'm betting they're going to go with 11 pitchers til the break then. I doubt they'll expose Blanco to waivers and I'd be surprised if Fontenot gets demoted after a strong week. With a DH on Sunday, their infatuation with the extra arm and Harden's very short start on Saturday, I have extreme doubts that will be the case. But the question would have to be who is the guy that goes away. If Patton gets DLd that makes perfect sense. But if they send somebody down and have Patton be one of those 11, that would be very odd. They spent a month and a half desperate of bats with quality start after quality start and plenty of bullpen arms, but suddenly they'd be fine with a short bullpen?

I'd prefer Blanco too, but cutting Miles doesn't do us a whole lot of good at this point. Yes it does, it frees up a roster spot for somebody who can be useful, allowing you to keep somebody who can actually backup SS while getting rid of somebody who can't do a damn thing. Keep Miles and you have to decide to get rid of somebody who can help defensively or somebody who can help with the bat. The salary is eaten. It doesn't hurt the team at all. There will be plenty of other jack of a couple trades master at none players around to bring aboard if the need for such a player arises. So trade him for a PTBNL or something and shed the contract. If you can't trade him (which I doubt would be the case) and there comes a time when there's simply no spot for him, then consider cutting him. But cutting him now when it has no benefit for the team doesn't make much sense. Dew, you aren't making any sense. The benefit to the team is allowing you to keep a real backup SS and a guy who can do something with the bat, instead of losing one of those players just because you are afraid to "throw away" the money owed to Miles. Sunk cost. Aaron Miles is a sunk cost. You already have to pay him. If he was tradable, great, but I doubt anybody is picking up his contract. Instead of keeping him around solely because he has a guaranteed contract, even though he's the least useful part of the roster and entirely replacable, you just cut ties and be done with it. The mistake was signing him in the first place, but that is done.

I'd prefer Blanco too, but cutting Miles doesn't do us a whole lot of good at this point. Yes it does, it frees up a roster spot for somebody who can be useful, allowing you to keep somebody who can actually backup SS while getting rid of somebody who can't do a damn thing. Keep Miles and you have to decide to get rid of somebody who can help defensively or somebody who can help with the bat. The salary is eaten. It doesn't hurt the team at all. There will be plenty of other jack of a couple trades master at none players around to bring aboard if the need for such a player arises.

He's better offensively than Blanco. If we had a clearly better option, I'd support cutting him. But we don't, so there's no positive to cutting him. The positive is it's the only realistic way to keep an actual backup shortstop on the roster, which is something they failed to plan for all offseason, and something you legitimately need.

Ascanio, Hoffpauir, Fuld, and a random prospect might be equal to Murton and Patterson. Donaldson and Gallagher were the important parts of the trade. So, no. What is the point in comparing Harden to Bell? (or maybe more accurately, the package it required to get Harden/Gaudin to a package needed to get Bell)

Yeah most likely. Why else would he have ended up with two shots in the head and two in the chest? Sounds like this was one majorly p'd off(and emotional) chick. I wonder how long it will be before the made for tv movie about this comes out. I wonder who will get the story first, CSI, CSI: Miami, Law & Order.

I'm guessing you are thinking of John Canning who ended up not being nearly the player that all the Selig conspiracy nuts assumed he would be.

Z only has 14 starts and 90 IP so far this year though. I don't see the need of building in too much extra rest with him. I would not push to have him start on short rest, but I'd let him operate on normal rest for his next start and consider him for an inning or two on Sunday on three days rest.

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing. None of that means the expectations aren't still insanely high. If there is not a consensus belief that performance will be amazing how can expectations be high? All of what I said is an indication that expectations aren't insanely high. Sure, some individuals may have insanely high expectations, but Bears fans, if they can be classified as one, don't have those expectations. I would say they are generally high, but not insane by any stretch. People expect better performance than Orton and Grossman and therefore a better record, and they should expect that. I think you're injecting your own, more reasonable, understanding of the situation on to Bear fans as a whole. I think you are injecting a few cases of overzealous expectations onto the entire group of Bears fans. I have high expectations. I have friends and family who I consider to be a fairly decent subset of Bears fans who represent varying levels of that expectation. The vast majority of people I have spoken to about this are much less excited than I am. They don't have anywhere close to insanely high expectations. Some "more casual" fans think it's great they have a real QB, but they don't know anything about him and don't really have any expectations, other than fewer ducks. The season ticket holder crowd I know is more or less expecting mediocrity, a 7-9 or 8-8 season in which Cutler won't be able to do a damn thing to help the weak WR group and porous defense. I honestly don't see how anybody can say there are widespread insanely high expectations for Cutler and the Bears.

I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing. None of that means the expectations aren't still insanely high. If there is not a consensus belief that performance will be amazing how can expectations be high? All of what I said is an indication that expectations aren't insanely high. Sure, some individuals may have insanely high expectations, but Bears fans, if they can be classified as one, don't have those expectations. I would say they are generally high, but not insane by any stretch. People expect better performance than Orton and Grossman and therefore a better record, and they should expect that.

Does this impact us right now in any way? Can we now make some moves that we couldn't before - or are we just a bit further along towards that goal?? We're a good bit further along towards that goal. But it probably depends on how much Ricketts really wants to improve payroll. Acquired businesses very frequently begin doing the bidding of the new owner before sales are fully complete, as long as the agreement is strong. Once the Trib and Ricketts agree and then pass that news along to the others who need to review it, that would be the case.

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations. How can he possibly meet Bears' fans expectations? They think he's going to show up and shoot lightning bolts out of his ass. The first time he throws a bad pick all that love is going to turn to disappointment. It's bound to happen. I don't know how you can say this when I've heard so many mixed feelings on the Cutler situation. Lots of Bears fans are concerned about his diebetes, w-l record in Denver, attitude issues that led to him leaving Denver and the lack of receivers in Chicago, so much so that there's nowhere near consensus belief that he'll be amazing.

My wife thinks I'm in for disappointment...cuz she thinks there's no way he can live up to my expectations. Tell her that just because your marriage didn't live up to your expectations doesn't mean Jay will do the same.

Even with the DH on Sunday they can still go to 11 pitchers. If they have a short outing by a starter and the bullpen gets taxed, then DL Patton, and call up a fresh arm. The best thing for this team right now is to send down Fuld, Hart, and Shark. With or without the ASB and the DH, I just don't see these guys going with 11 pitchers. That 7th reliever is like a security blanket for Lou.

I can't trust a publication that insists the girl was gorgeous.

Zambrano last pitched on 03 July. Pitching him on 08 July is not throwing him on short rest. He's referring to Zambrano starting Wednesday, and then one of the games on Sunday.

I'm hoping they keep Lilly, Wells and Dempster on normal rest and they pitch Friday, Saturday Sunday. Let Harden have 7 days rest and pitch in one of the Sunday games, and be prepared to keep Marshall rested to possibly eat some innigs, plus Hart if he's still around. And I wouldn't be upset if Zambrano threw an inning or two on Sunday. Even though it would be short rest, it would only be one day short, a very short outing, and the ASB would allow him to rest again. Lilly is probably going to see ASG action, and if he pitches Friday that leaves him Saturday, Sunday, Monday to rest for it. They've done a horrible job of following through on the strategy from last year of resting Harden more than normal.

The stories I've seen make it seem like a fairly open affair.

They've busted others for clerical mistakes. The NFL busted the Bears on a clerical mistake. It's a simple procedure that everybody gets right most of the time. Why did these idiots send this in normal mail? Is that where they are cutting costs?

How does he do that? By hitting singles off the wall, and turning doubles into singles because he doesn't run hard? I know that you can create runs by being a good base runner, but I don't think Fonzie is the greatest base runner around... Team runs are extremely important. Individual runs, though, do not show anything about a player's skill that his other stats don't tell us. It's a fairly pointless stat as far as grading a player, IMHO. Who cares if he's a good base runner when he's hitting doubles off the wall constantly? That was his point. And again, you're oversimplifying that they mean by runs. Isn't saying he constantly bangs doubles off the wall oversimplifying things? Or lying.

Like I said, I'd be fine with waiting a bit. I don't think we should be desperate at this point. But, it's highly unlikely Ricketts will be able to get the sale completed, give Hendry the ok and then Hendry work out a good deal all in the span of a month. I'd love it if that happened, but that would be a complete change from the pace the sale has taken the past 2 years. The pace of the sale is going to stop instantaneously once an agreement is signed. Hendry does not need more than a day to make a trade. He could already be in contact with Jim saying that once it gets to a certain stage, Hendry has the authorization to make a move. Maybe the sale doesn't go through until next year, maybe it's done tomorrow.

Edit. Jeff, do you know when they start counting the 90 days that a Rule 5 player has to be on the roster? Is it when rosters have to be sent in or the first day of the season? Either way, if they wanted to DL Patton, within a few days from now they could do that and already have satisfied the entire length of time of the Rule 5 stipulations. They could DL him until early August, then send him on a rehab assignment until September 1st, and then bring him back up when rosters expand and have no problems. It's 90 days active right? Wouldn't that be opening day?

That's not at all what I see. He said they toyed with it in May, and he'll check back again now. Odds are, if they stuck with him through June, they will stick with him for as long as they need. That fact that they considered it earlier in the year means the possibility exists. How likely it is, however, I don't know. I can understand what he's saying though. At the time that they considered it, Patton had pitched very badly and they still had to keep him on the roster for another 4 1/2 months. Now Patton is coming off a month where he pitched well and they have only 3 months left to keep him. They're much less likely to want to get rid of him now. Yeah, I can understand it. Now, however, they like Blanco, Fox has hit well, they may like Fuld and they acquired Baker. There's a chance that the roster will have enough bats to Hendry's liking that he may decide to parts ways with Patton. I still think the insistence on having a 12 man staff is going to make that unlikely. It would have to be a situation where they aren't getting innings out of the rest of the staff and feel forced to move him, rather than the desire to keep another position player.