Careless

I'll provide backup

mushin would've been lucky to get a finger on that ball He'd get both palms on it, I expect And no fingers

anyone think urlacher couldn't outcatch the bears receiving corps? speaking purely in terms of hands

urlacher is still a god though

exploiting tillman again

And we watch as the bears try to avoid knocking smith down so they can hit him some more

heh taking your eye off the ball... this is pathetic

if we're making wishes, id prefer that they intercept the snap idiot refs would probably call it a penalty again like they did last time the bears managed that This coversation isn't happening if Tillman does the intelligent thing and knocks the ball down. What good is a pick on the 2 when it's 3rd and 9? Oh, I have faith in tillman being the weak point in th e offense, it's like complaining about neifi not hitting well edit: DEFENSE

if we're making wishes, id prefer that they intercept the snap idiot refs would probably call it a penalty again like they did last time the bears managed that

way to double cover

no way to say he made a move there

I could cover an empty zone as well as peppers You cannot deny his altheticism. He is a great overall player. Not sure what that has to do with buck [censoredcensoredcensored] peppers when all he did on the play was stand around

I could cover an empty zone as well as peppers

totally agreed. between that and not playing grossman at all 2 weeks ago, well, ugh I can't believe I ran back to the microwave to get food and by the time I got back the game was over

Done and done. My parents happen to be in Vegas this week. I just put a Benny on the Brewers. Bump (kind of), My dad went to the the sports book at the Riveria and the Brew crew were 60-1. I had him put $50 dollars down. Not 80-1 but a nice return on investment anyway 0.0 will get you a big promotion on wall street

Didn't he already pass that point in his career in his last season here in Chicago ? He should have stopped right after we lost against the Marlins - he had some huge homers and good games. But I guess this really shows he was only playing for himself afterall..... Come on, after the shots he was hitting in the 03 playoffs, you didn't honestly think he was going to decline as much as he did in 04. Actually, I still held out hope that he could improve on those numbers. I wonder how much that beaning had to do with his decline? I always felt like he moved away from the plate from that point forward and could no longer drive that outside pitch. In fact, opposing pitchers exploited the fact he coudn't reach the outside pitch. He never made the adjustment and his offense has been in decline ever since. Maybe that isn't it at all. I brought up this topic once before, and one of our members went back and watched video from pre-decline and said it didn't appear as though he did move back, and that he always stood that far back. Maybe the combination of a slowing bat speed and pitchers finding that out pitch by throwing outside required an adjustment, one Sammy refused to make. Maybe it was steroids. Has there ever in the history of baseball been a player that went back to back to back 60+ seasons, then literally fall of the face of the earth the next 2+ years? I'd use steroids if they could launch me into space. Pretty sure you're wrong about that, though Wrong about what? If you are too naive to think there is a possibility that Sammy used steroids to put up the numbers he did, then possibly you are the one that is wrong. You said that steroids could literally launch a person into space. That is almost certainly not true.

Didn't he already pass that point in his career in his last season here in Chicago ? He should have stopped right after we lost against the Marlins - he had some huge homers and good games. But I guess this really shows he was only playing for himself afterall..... Come on, after the shots he was hitting in the 03 playoffs, you didn't honestly think he was going to decline as much as he did in 04. Actually, I still held out hope that he could improve on those numbers. I wonder how much that beaning had to do with his decline? I always felt like he moved away from the plate from that point forward and could no longer drive that outside pitch. In fact, opposing pitchers exploited the fact he coudn't reach the outside pitch. He never made the adjustment and his offense has been in decline ever since. Maybe that isn't it at all. I brought up this topic once before, and one of our members went back and watched video from pre-decline and said it didn't appear as though he did move back, and that he always stood that far back. Maybe the combination of a slowing bat speed and pitchers finding that out pitch by throwing outside required an adjustment, one Sammy refused to make. Maybe it was steroids. Has there ever in the history of baseball been a player that went back to back to back 60+ seasons, then literally fall of the face of the earth the next 2+ years? I'd use steroids if they could launch me into space. Pretty sure you're wrong about that, though

time for people to come out with their suggestions for the US course of action pre-invasion Feel free to add your own suggestions, of course Aside from invasion I see continued sanctions and leaving them alone. sanctions seem to have kept the WMD out, while giving the world thousands of tv hours to bash the US for killing "100,000 iraqi children" Voting for that is saying "I'm ok with the world giving us crap constatly for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of iraqi children" Option 3 is to leave iraq alone, in which case saddam probably (feel free to disagree with me here) would have gone for WMD again (nuclear, if he had a brain) Again, alternatives are encouraged

Is that because they had to have a leg amputated to give the rest of the AL East a chance? No, "there boot" is a giant boot statue over there in NYC where they hide when things get tough

Well, I wouldn't be furious if they won 95 and got extensions. I'd understand. I still wouldn't give them the extensions if it was in my power, though

Bottom line, anything over 20 points scored total would be a pleasant surprise. I disagree, but I'm a bears fan and we enjoy our defensive smotherings

Don't breaking balls break less sharply at high altitudes? I thought that was one of the reasons they wanted Wellemeyer in Col. becuase he was a fastball/ change up guy. *If* that's the case then it would have an effect on making contact. On the other hand, it seems like Sosa's problem is catching up to the inside fastball. breaking is caused by air resistance, which is directly related to the air density. Higher altitude=lower pressure=lower density=less friction=less break on pitches. Now a slow bat? Well, you'd think tampa bay would be the thing (the city is tampa, tampa bay is a body of water...)

RF should be at minimum something like .290/.350/.500, and probably higher than that, given the weakness of the rest of the positions. Jacque Jones sucks. He's been bad for quite some time. He could significantly outperform expectations and still hurt this team by underperforming compared to what a RF and middle of the order guy should be doing. It was a bad signing by Hendry, especially the 3 year part. Jones would have to outperform his career averages by a wide margin every year of his deal for me to say Hendry was right. The Cubs were desperate for a bit bat and they settled on mediocrity, once again. You do realize not a single NL RF with over 400 PA's hit that minimum mark you set, right? Two guys (Giles & Jenkins) hit over .290, five had an OBP over .350, and one guy (Jenkins) had a SLG over .500. While I agree with you wholeheartedly on Jones (he does suck, and will likely continue sucking) the numbers you set as a minimum for RF are a bit lofty. I know you qualified it with the fact that the other positions are weak, but you stated that it should be even higher because of that. I just don't think those numbers are realistic. In essence you are saying our starting RF should have to produce at a level above all other RF's, as a minimum. Edit: If you lower it to 200 PA's, you add 1 guy to AVG, 4 to OBP, and 3 to SLG. Still no one meets the .290/.350/.500 line. Really a down year for RF in the NL

He really should go to Colorado with the ole blank check routine like Andre did. Then Colorado can play him in home games only, or when the lid is open in Arizona. Absolutely no starts in the California parks. That's a pretty severe stance to take (and offbase). Sammy has the power to hit the ball out of any park. The size of the park isn't the issue and has no relevence to his homerun capability. The size of the park won't change his ability to make contact between the bat and the ball. Playing at high altitude, on the other hand, does change your ability to make contact

:shock: (really, I hadn't noticed he didn't get his high, that's astonishing) In '02 and '03 he walked 98 and 88 times respectively. Last year, only 85 walks. The Chubbs really do hate the walk. I usually want a guy to try to work the count for walks. But if a guy is seeing the ball and hitting like Lee was last year, if he gets a pitch he can handle I want him to drive it. I guess I'm saying I'd rather see his OBP go up with a double than with a walk. Bottom line is: its about OBP not walks, and his OBP was a carreer high. It's still shocking that as well as he was hitting he wouldn't have enough PAs where the pitcher had no interest in throwing a strike to top his best