minnesotacubsfan

They were still pretty good offensively, at least for half the season. I think if you took out the ST scores, the offense still ranked high. The yards weren't huge, but part of that was the field position they got, which, obviously, also helped with scoring. My point is that I don't think a "decent" offensive line results in a top ten scoring offense or 13 win season. I think they will need to be pretty darn near excellent on the line to see those rankings. 2006 O was ranked about 7, if I remember correctly. (edit: the OFFENSE, not team, was ranked #2 in scoring, about #15 in yards) They were pretty good, and that was with a decent O-line (not great). If (or when) Williams takes the LT pos, and the guard position is settled, the o-line agian will be decent, at least. Part of what 2006 had that 2007 didnt was more bynamic offense. Berrian deep, Jones in the flat, Benson up the middle. we didnt have a "true #1" WR then either, but it didnt matter. Mushin was passible, but not brilliant. Berrian basically caught the league by surprise by going deep, and Hester just did his best Hester. The D was the key. They were healthy and tee-ing off on the opposition. I think the biggest question for the Bears is their health on D. The o-line is a funny thing, sometimes the biggest surpirse is offered by the least likely to succeed. We dont have a deep pool of talent their, but they arent the picture of demise some make them out to be either. Just having Tait back at RT is a step in the right direction (it means there are more viable options or an option at LT-2 pos upgraded in one move). But this team only goes as far as Mike Browns MCL and Tommies motor. Grossman or Orton, I dont care (although I have a preference). Either can win...

yea Bears, good move.....

beautiful. thank you BCVM

you dont have the Spice channel???

heeeeey hooooo lets go CHICAGO!!!!!

does Meph work in the Royals organization? why would he have inside info?

He left the board/was kicked out. Not too sure, but there is a long story behind it. That really is too bad, Hoops was one of my favorite posters. I had been wondering what happened to him. No idea what this long story is, but would I be way off if I suspected Meph was involved somehow? Nope, you would not be off at all. Was he actually Meph? Did he have 2 screen names? Or am I missing something? Meph and Hoops had a spat, Hoops ran away. 2 dif people.

I've like Cedric, but this is just careless. thanks for wasting our time, CedBen. CYA.

hip hip holla

maybe he should ignore them more often, then it wouldnt be such a story

+1

and a non-strike throwing rich hill is better than a strike-throwing jason marquis. this is a facetious argument as we all know there is no such thing as a "strike-throwing jason marquis" pffft

Dusty is the gift that just keeps giving

I dunno, I thought he was classically handsome. we should seriously debate this i thought his neck was too long and his ears were too big for him to be called classically handsome. i think a pair of spectacles would have done wonders for him, plus he should have grown his hair out he's classically handsome in a Beaver Cleaver kind of way

the "Sanford and Son" express is riding high on Berkman, but that wont last. he aint superman

All we can hope for is that it's nothing major..... he'll be throwing the towel in simulated games in no time I'm sure

sweet. I really thought Hill was going to have a permanant place in the rotation. this news sucks.

Have fun blocking for AP. Peterson will really help him because defenses will have 8 players in the box all the time. If Tavaris has a decent year, Berrian will have a big year. I'd rather have Rex than Jackson. I find it extremely humorous how people jump all over Grossman, but Jackson gets a free pass. So what, he had a stretch of like three or four decent games last year. Grossman was much better for a longer period of time the year before that. Again, we'll see how well Jackson does. He has an easier job to do than Grossman does seeing how the box will be overloaded on almost every play. I still don't think he's a very good QB though. agreed, but to hear all my friends up here talk, TJ is the next Culpepper!! good luck with that

Minnesota is cold...REAL cold.

Friday: Cubs win with Lilly struggling prior to game Saturday: Cubs come from behind to win, bring Marmol in to shut the door. Cubs up 2-0. Sunday: Ace (big Z) on the mound against a 41 yr old pitcher. Good odds there. Cant say I blame Lou. He is rolling the dice abit, but its a good gamble. You'd rather gamble that today's game is a blowout against the best team in baseball and Marmol won't be needed than gamble that Fox/Wuertz/Howry could protect a five-run lead in one inning? That's not a good gamble; it is, in fact, an incredibly short-sighted one. all 3 of those pitchers have struggled MIGHTILY, so yea, I'd rather take my chances with Z

so Haugh thinks Benson's arrest will motivate him: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-080510-david-haugh-cedric-benson-chicago-bears,1,4047951.column

exactly

ahh..thanks. I didnt understand that.

It's just a ritual here. Every time Marmol pitches, everybody screams ZOMG HE IS BEING OVERUSED HIS ARM WILL FALL OFF ZOMG ZOMG. It's pretty amusing. (a) 95% of the complaining comes when lou needlessly uses marmol, as was the case in saturday's game (b) he's on pace to throw more innings than any reliever in baseball last season, so to laugh it off is awfully foolish. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-080510-carlos-marmol-chicago-cubs,1,4562380.story Does anyone know how he ranks among relievers in IP? I don't know how to look that up and sort just by relievers. to add on to that, is there a way of tallying # of pitches by reliever. I can only find that stat across baseball.... Looks like Carlos has thrown 364 pitches. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching?sort=thirdInnings&split=128&league=mlb&season=2008&seasonType=2&type=pitch3&ageMin=0&ageMax=99&hand=a&pos=all&minip=0 I got that, i just wanted to compare him to all relievers....