soapy

Agreed, which is why I wish they weren't so hell-bent on trading him. They should only do so if they get a reasonable return, but I won't hold my breath on that one.

It won't be hard if they eat most of the money. But some people are suggesting it won't be hard to move him without eating money. Those are very different things. I'm sure reality is probably somewhere in between. They'll probably end eating half of it or something, unless they just take a bad contract in exchange (or some garbage prospects).

The money freed up between Cotts, Gregg, Heilman and Reed Johnson is pretty much cancelled out by raises for guys like Fukudome, Dempster and Soriano. Having said that, I'd offer arby to Harden in a heartbeat. The $10 million spent on him will probably just as beneficial to the team as $10 million Hendry would probably spend on RF/2B/bullpen "upgrades" anyway. I have very little faith Hendry can upgrade the offense significantly with what resources he's likely to have available, so they might as well try to set up a dominant-type rotation and hope guys like Soto and Soriano bounce back (and that a guy like Baker is legit). They can probably unload Harden for some prospects at the deadline if they're out of it.

Now here is some bye week garbage to sort thru! Need two: Fred Jackson v. CLE Hightower v. HOU (or Wells, I guess) Ricky Williams v. NYJ Julius Jones v. JAX Gross. Leaning toward Jackson and Hightower early because of the matchups, but I might slide Williams in for Hightower. I'm actually hoping to have Jones traded before this weeks games, but we'll see.

Well hello there, new wallpaper.

Not sure which Bradley thread to put this, so I'll go here. Bruce has an article up opining that the Cubs won't have that hard of a time moving Bradley and likely won't have to eat a huge part of the contract. He goes on to support his argument citing Bradley's OBP and relatively healthy season. All it did is for me was re-inforce the notion that he shouldn't even be traded to begin with, but whatever. It's sort of funny though how later in the article he notes that the Cubs would like to upgrade the top of the lineup with some better OBP. Hmmmm...I wonder what "available" player fits that description. Maybe even someone on your very own roster, Jim. Maybe even someone you're dying to ship out of town.

i still don't understand why he's getting so few carries. i understand pulling him late, but he had what...six carries in the first half?

holy crap it's hockey season in four hours!

Elia was fired the year he made those comments, later on. But the situations are quite different. First, it was 1983, there was minimal coverage. Second, there was a lot less business to lose. And third, it was a one-time rant. Bradley has been pulling this crap all season. He plays poorly and blames others, including fans and his fellow employees. I really couldn't care less about the suspension at this point, but why do you keep saying this? Bradley's production has been a big let down, but he hasn't blamed others for his poor play. Regardless, it doesn't really matter as he's caused enough other trouble. I just keep seeing this whole "he blamed others for his poor play" thing and I don't remeber it.

Man, if that line stays close to that I'm going to have to put a sizeable bet on the Bears when I get to Vegas Friday. Olsen has been targeted 12 times in the first two games. For comparison sake, Bennett has 15 targets, Knox has 13 and Hester has 11. For all the talk about Olsen being Cutler's favorite target in the preseason, it hasn't panned out that way so far.

I'm kind of surprised at the number of people that claim to have thought about switching because of this season. Really? I mean, I know it's been a big let down and all, but this is nothing compared to the 90's and 05-06.

Because he signed a pretty big deal, didn't perform well, and did everything he could to run himself out of town, thus hurting the team. He was basically a slightly more productive version of last year's Ryan Theriot, playing in RF, and making much more money. Because of his antics, the Cubs are almost forced to pay him to play somewhere else. Nobody wants him around, not his teammates, not his coaches, not even himself. Generally speaking I would say suck it up and keep the player, but when everybody in the organization expresses some form of relief when he's gone, it's hard to fault the organization if they feel he must go. And he brought this all on himself. There may be some blame to go around, but 99% of it is on Milton Bradley and people need to stop pretending otherwise. There's no question he's been a big disapointment both on and off the field. But he's probably not even in the top five of disapointing players this season on this team and people act like he's single-handedly taken a team from 98 wins to 83. Like I said, he was certainly going to be traded in the off-season anyway, but I don't see what suspending him accomplishes and I just can't generate the kind of hatred toward Bradley that a lot of people seem to have.

hell no. if i could do that i would have done it a long time ago. but really, the very idea that others do it fills me with rage. i have a friend who is now a huge Tigers fan after moving to Detroit (or more accurately, not until after they starting having success) after spending the first 26 years of his life as a diehard Reds fan. he loves to claim he absolutely doesn't care about the Reds now that they are garbage. it's one thing to root for the team in your hometown in addition to your favorite/childhood/etc team, but it's another to completely abandon the original team. i can't wait until the Reds actually put a team together and he jumps right back on board. i also hate it when people here in Indy get upset with me for being a Bears fan. "But you live in Indy!" so what? it's always interesting though when i ask them if they'd switch teams if they moved to a different city. the sad thing is, about half of them say yes. i have another friend in that situation. he always gave me a ton of grief for rooting for the Bears above the Colts. when i asked him if he'd root for the Colts if he lived in another city that had a team and/or if he'd still root for the STL Cardinals if he moved to another city with a team, he said yes. he would always root for his hometeam. then he moved to Cincinnati about a year and a half ago and changed his tune.

I'm not trying to pick on you as I know many people have expressed this sentiment, but I just don't see how anyone can see this course of action as the appropriate one. I don't understand how suspending Bradley for the final two weeks of meaningless games benefits anyone, other than letting the current players feel a little more comfortable (if that's even true) with out Bradley around sulking. The only impact I can see this having is driving Bradley's trade value down even lower.

i'm getting a little anxious to see the run game get going as well, particularly after seeing what the Bengals did against GB. i'm not really too worried yet, but i probably will be if they aren't able to get Forte going against Seattle.

also, people really need to stop lamenting the Derosa trade. it's actually turned out well, so far, considering the pitchers received and Derosa's play this year (particularly since joining the Cardinals).

Hey guys, the Cubs are going to have great [expletive] chemistry for the next 12 meaningless games. THANK GOD!!! There is plenty of blame to go around (including on Milton most definitely) but I really don't understand how people can hate Bradley so much. Why do people keep saying he blamed everyone but himself? He repeatedly took the blame himself for poor production in April/May. He tried to avoid the media (presumably to avoid saying something stupid, which even he probably knew he would do when frustrated) and was criticized for it. The beat writer for the biggest paper in the city admits he had it out for the guy from day one. He didn't say anything about fans/media/etc treatment until he started playing well and people were still all over him (which they were). Granted, that was really stupid of him to say and his treatment from fans/media was at least partially brought on because of his reputation and past. The situation was likely beyond repair and Bradley was probably gone after the season regardless, but people need to get the story straight. Seriously, how can you take an absolutely disastrous situation and somehow make it even worse? Oh...I know...suspend the player for the remaining handful of meaningless games and declare to the world that you will absolutely not have him back on your team. That will send that trade value through the roof. Like Milton said, I can see why they haven't won in 100+ years.

Flacco by a wide margin, IMO.

sigh

I guess nobody wants to weigh in on this? I'll probably go with Jones or Jackson (right now have them in that order). I'd go Jones. Football Outsiders love him. interesting. The Huddle loves Jackson this week after pimping Jones last week (and not predicting much from him this week).

well, they're four games back in the loss column now, no?

real consensus going on here. makes sense though, considering it's pretty much a bunch of garbage to choose from.

Whats wrong with enjoying the game? I know we need to be careful not to get our hopes up, but I spent many years of my life watching Cubs teams that werent going to be in the playoffs, so why stop now? As long as they're playing well, Ill be there watching. nothing at all wrong with enjoying the games (i've still been watching every chance i get). it's just going to take a near miracle for them to get in the playoffs and i haven't really seen any reason to believe they are capable of going 16-3 or whatever it's going to take to get there with SF and STL still on the schedule. what i meant was, don't get your hopes up.

don't do this to yourselves, guys.

LETS GO THIS? Just do with it.