jersey cubs fan

Care to make a bet? I'll put a Bears logo as my avatar for all of Feb and March next year if the Bears have a better record than the Saints do at the end of the season. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. This isn't about the Bears. It's about the fact that New Orleans wasn't as good as some remember, and aren't as good as some thought they would be. I'm disappointed in the direction of the Bears right now. And with the apparent improvement by the rest of the division, I'm not all that confident in the Bears racking up the wins this year. However, I'm fairly confident the Saints won't have a better record.

I understand what you are saying and the media circus certainly boosted them quite a bit, but pointing to the 10-6 season is a bit disingenuous to try and prove that they weren't all that good because 2 of their losses were to the Ravens and Bengals, pretty good teams last year. Another loss was AT Pittsburgh, and in our final loss of the regular season, to the Panthers, our starters only played one series. The reason I pointed out the 10-6 record is because I'm pretty certain most people forget they were just 10-6 last year. They weren't nearly as good as people gave them credit for. Everybody picked them to beat the Bears, and when they got their butts handed to them, people chalked it up to the weather and decided the Saints would be the sexy pick in 08. They lost to some good teams, but it's not like any of those teams were elite and unstoppable.

Theriot is not good in any way shape or form, but he is adequate if he's still making minimum wage. The day he starts making money is the day he loses any value. If the Cubs solidify other spots this offseason, I'm fine with Theriot starting at SS and hitting 8th. But they clearly need to improve offensively, and if they can find that improvement at SS, I'd be more than happy to see Theriot move back to a utility role.

I think a lot of people got caught up in the emotion of the Saints season, and their decent playoff showing, but they forgot New Orleans was just 10-6 last year, and not some unstoppable force. Peter King and many others got a bit overzealous in their praise of Payton's boys, and the first two weeks have shown they just aren't that good. On the other hand, Dallas has looked a bit better than I gave them credit for, and so have the non-Bears NFC North squads. Dallas has a chance to vault themselves into the top of the pile this weekend, and the Bears' next 4 games suddenly look a bit tougher than I thought they'd be.

If we get 16 more outtings like Trachsel gave us last night we will win the Central. 5 innings, 7 hits, 3 walks, 2 HR? More often than not the opponent is going to score more than the 2 he gave up last night. I wouldn't want that outing every game. Any 2.0 WHIP game is bad, especially when you give up 2 HR and last only 5 innings.

I like Harris, but I'd much rather have Murton.

Floyd is definitely capable of getting red hot over the next 6 weeks, but regardless of how he ends, there's no way the Cubs should consider bringing him back.

I'm not sure a 2nd New England team would work. Where would you put it? Boston itself is actually quite small. The Boston metro area is roughly the same population as Detroit. Philly, Houston, Atlanta and Dallas are all bigger and aren't even the best supporters of their 1 team each. The Red Sox dominate because they have a monopoly on the baseball loyalties of 5 states, most of a 6th and parts of a 7th. There isn't another large enough city in New England to put a team, and Boston can't support another.

Oh how I would love that...I'd be putting my Nevada liscense to use a LOT more often.... I don't think any of the four major sports will ever have a team in Vegas. Even if you ban betting on the games they play in, fixing games would still be way too easy. Fixing what games, the ones going on in other cities? The truth is the only reason they wouldn't is perception. The reality is there wouldn't be an actual problem. The Marlins play in a suburban football stadium. Baseball is an every day sport, there's simply no way you can get people to drive that far out into the boonies on a daily basis. There is a reason Baltimore moved back downtown and Boston, New York and Chicago constantly draw such good crowds. Going from Miami to Pro Player would just blow. It's bad enough on Sunday, without rush hour traffic. I can't imagine why anybody would try it on a weekday. Hudson county NJ could easily support a team. They'd have the corporate support, they're surrounded by mass transit and several roadways, and it's the most densely populated area in America. Put a ballpark on the waterfront (looking across at Manhattan) and it would thrive. On the other hand, if you put it in the Meadowlands, they'd struggle.

Their success started long before Mauer made an impact. Not sure how Santana fell into his lap, they traded for him when he was young and far from a proven commodity.

I'd be surprised if Soto starts tonight with Kendall being 18 for 38 against Woody Williams in his career with a couple of doubles and a home run. Too bad the good part of his career was a long time ago.

How many FAs at any position are worth half of what they end up getting? FA is a bad investment. Thats why it is pivotal to develop players within your system. The last step of development is the majors. Players need to play to get better in the majors. This is why Pie should be playing. this is completely untrue. In most cases Free Agents are signed at the end or past prime. They will in most cases get paid more than they were getting paid for declining production. Young players coming up get paid less while there production is improving. I know there is individual cases where players are still improving after free agency, but there are cases where it was better to not where a seat belt in a car accident. I would contend that the percentages tend to show free agency as a bad tool to build a winning ballclub(unless you are willing to spend like the Yankees). As for the part of young players need time to develop in the Majors, I dont know what to tell you. For every Pujols and Braun there are 20 DLees and ARams. Most players dont have ROY numbers right off the bat. They need to play to get better. once again, this isn't true No, it's true. The thing that isn't true however is the insinuation that you shouldn't sign any free agent. You have to, there's really no way around it. You have to overpay for some of your production, because it's simply impossible to get it all, and get enough, strictly from the cheap youth. There's no room for error doing it that way.

http://www.northtonorth.com/pages/soundclips/santoohno.mp3 At the time, 660 WFAN in NY was going live to a WGN feed whenever Sosa would come up to bat, and sometimes whenever something big was happening with the Cubs. Mike and the Mad Dog were on and they went live to this game late. They were laughing their butts off at Santo and the Cubs, but mostly Santo.

If you ask any teams' announcers, players, coaches, gms, or owners, the problem with the team is that they aren't hitting in the clutch. Any team. Yeah, for New York teams, the biggest problem in general is that guys' just aren't doing the right thing when it matters the most.

They are all just part of the hilarious picture that is Ron Santo. Equally as funny most of the time is Pat's ability to block out Ronnies convulsions. Ron reminds me of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgandy. I could see Ferrell playing Ronnie. No way. Burgundy was dense, but he was mostly poised and coherent. He was prepared for his job. Santo is much more like Brick Tamland, a blithering idiot who makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but he still manages to come across as somewhat lovable. Plus, I could definitely see him yelling "Loud Noises!!!!!!!" and killing a guy with a trident. Or, he's a combination of Brick and Champ: I'm Brick Tamland. People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks. Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48 and am what some people call mentally [expletive]. Champ here. I'm all about havin' fun. You know, start a fire in someone's kitchen, maybe go to SeaWorld, take my pants off... Anyway, I've become kind of famous for my signature catch-phrase ? whammy. Like, Gene Tenace at the plate... and whammy.

They clearly need another bat somewhere, I think the easiest way to afford one is to play a guy like Pie in CF at minimum wage. But I wouldn't hesitate to trade him in a package for an impact bat instead.

This is what KenTremendous wrote at the end, and he's right. Plaschke is an idiot and a horrible writer. It was clear throughout this was about ripping on the overly dramatic crap Plaschke was putting out there.

Good for you. It doesn't mean anybody else has to buy this fluff nonsense about giving his life. You're hurt because somebody who runs a website dedicated to poking holes in the terrible baseball media poked holes in a crap article that happened to mythologize a guy you happen to mythologize as well. Sorry, but that doesn't make the guy a pinhead.

He got a job and decided not to switch careers. Big deal.

Dedicated his life to the game, given some much to the game? Oh come on with this hogwash. These aren't nuns. The guy gets paid to watch young men play baseball and tell his bosses what he thinks of them, that's it? This is a crap article written by a crap writer who constantly puts out crap nonsense that focuses heavily on mythologizing the sport of baseball in ways that undermine the reality of the sport.

How can you say that when everyone who has seen him in CF this year describes his defense as well above average? 99% of people who see Jeter play SS say he's great defensively. True, but 1) most of those fans who have seen Jeter are casual fans, while most people who evaluate the minor leagues know much more what to look for. 2) The only evidence of Colvin in CF is late last year and this year, so until we get other evidence the only thing we have is what people say about his defense, and even the ones who were skeptical of his defense in the first place have been pleasantly surprised. They all say that he's not Pie level out there, but he's quite good. I'd have to see some evidence of that. I've heard anectodal accounts of Colvin being an acceptable CF, but nothing concrete. And it's not just fans, it's so-called experts who love Jeter. Baseball men who know the game, etc, etc.

Such a great read: http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2006/08/best-ever.html What a [expletive] douche that writer is, trying to discredit the work LaMacchia does. LaMacchia has forgotten more baseball in a week than the writer, I, or anyone on this board will ever know about the game. Then maybe he should get out of the game if he keeps forgetting stuff. The douche writer is Plaschke for trying to mythologize somebody who supposedly saw something special in a player everybody already knew about.

How can you say that when everyone who has seen him in CF this year describes his defense as well above average? 99% of people who see Jeter play SS say he's great defensively.

They've been in a playoff hunt for months and have switched catchers more frequently than any position on the team. Lou doesn't seem to have problems switching catchers, it's specifically switching out experience for quality that gives him the willies. Maybe I'm not remembering things real well, but weren't the Cubs the hottest team in baseball when Bowen and Hill were catching? I don't blame Lou at all for not being too concerned about offensive production from the Catcher's position at that time. It's not very smart to take on the "well, we're winning despite X" theory and ignore a glaring problem. Anybody with half a brain knew that winning streak wouldn't last. You don't wait until after a problem becomes a glaring hole to address it.

Old news, Cubs.com had that a day or two ago. When I heard it I thought it was new because I thought that Trachsel was going as part of the DH. I don't know I'm all screwed up with this rotation. I think Trax is going Thursday, then it's Zambrano (5 days rest), Lilly/Marshall, Marquis, Hill, Zambrano (3 days rest), Lilly (3 days rest)