Prizefight

I"m assuming ARam at 3rd?

That's just being a Cubs fan. Logic and reason don't apply to us #-o Maybe I personally value Marshall to high, but him and Vitters would definitely be off limits in a Sanchez deal for me. I'm fine with Miles/Hart/even a Hoffpauir/Fox type. Seems that Marshall has become the DeRosa of our pitching staff and I hope we don't make that mistake twice.

Normally Id agree, but with Z on the mound, things could get real ugly real fast. I think you have to do it today. Day game after a late night. Worst case scenario we go 4-3 on the trip and are 3 games back in the division.

I'm all signed up! Thanks :D

Another game where the pitching match-up favors us. When we win this game, it's a 5-2 road trip.

The AP article to save y'all from some searching: RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A woman has filed a lawsuit accusing Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of raping her last summer in his penthouse room at a casino in Lake Tahoe during a celebrity golf tournament. Roethlisberger's lawyer adamantly denied the allegations Tuesday. "Ben has never sexually assaulted anyone. The timing of the lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct. If an investigation is commenced, Ben will cooperate fully and Ben will be fully exonerated," David Cornwell said in a statement. The claim seeks at least $390,000 in damages from the quarterback, who has won two Super Bowls and is one of the biggest names in sports. The lawsuit also alleges hotel officials for Harrah's Lake Tahoe went to great lengths to cover up the incident. Teresa Duffy, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office in Douglas County, which includes part of Lake Tahoe, said no complaints were filed about such an incident either with sheriff's deputies or the district attorney's office. The woman's lawsuit says she didn't file a criminal complaint because she feared she would be fired and expected Harrah's would side with Roethlisberger. The woman said she had been promoted from VIP shift manager and was working as an executive casino host when Roethlisberger struck up a friendly conversation at her desk during the golf tournament. The next day, July 11, 2008, she said he telephoned her to tell her his television sound system wasn't working and asked her to look at it. She said she was unable to find a technician so she decided to handle it herself because she had been told how important it was to please celebrities. In Roethlisberger's room she said she determined the TV was functioning properly but as she turned to leave but the 6-foot-5, 240-pound quarterback stood in front of the door and blocked her, the suit claims. The lawsuit said he then grabbed her and started to kiss her. It said she was "shocked and stunned that this previously friendly man, that appeared to be a gentleman in her previous contacts with him was suddenly preventing her from leaving, was assaulting her and battering her." She said she feared that because he was a football player he could or would physically harm her if she tried to fight him off but that she objected and protested several times. "But instead of stopping, Roethlisberger began fondling plaintiff through her dress and between her legs," the suit said. He then "held her against her will and physically moved plaintiff and pushed her onto his bed" where he raped her, the suit says. She told him "You don't want to do this," and begged him "I am not on any type of birth control." Afterward, he asked if there was a security camera in the hallway. She said he then instructed her to claim she had repaired his television if anyone asked why she was in his room. The lawsuit says the woman required hospitalization for treatment for depression after the alleged attack. The woman's lawyer, Calvin R. Dunlap, of Reno, declined to answer questions about the lack of a criminal complaint and why the civil action was brought a year after the incident allegedly took place. "Neither I nor our client will be making any comment," Dunlap said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We believe the matter should be resolved in court rather than in the media." The lawsuit also names eight Harrah's employees as defendants and alleges the cover-up involved the chief of security at Harrah's Lake Tahoe and was carried out with the knowledge of John Koster, president of Harrah's northern Nevada operations. John Packer, spokesman for the hotel-casino, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. The suit says Harrah's security chief Guy Hyder gained the trust of her parents while she was hospitalized for depression and persuaded them to give him a key to her home. She said Hyder and others then entered her home and allegedly erased information from her computer and confiscated it. The lawsuit claims that when the woman first reported the attack to Hyder he dismissed her distress and crying and said she was "overreacting." The woman said Hyder told her that "most girls would feel lucky to get to have sex with someone like Ben Roethlisberger" and that "Koster would love you even more if he knew about this" because Koster was good friends with Roethlisberger and admired him greatly. Steelers spokesman Dave Lockett said Tuesday the team is aware of the lawsuit, and "we are gathering information."

Now I hate to be like this, but something tells me a two time super bowl winning quarterback could probably pull some better action than this sans assault.. http://www.news.lalate.com/pictures/mcnulty7.html Especially I was at Miami at the same time he was and I've SEEN some of his handy work. Seems very suspicious that it is only a civil suit filed against him and not a criminal. I hope this isn't a situation of someone trying to get paid by someone in a position of power.

That's my point, I don't know. I haven't seen enough of a sample to judge that yet. Give him 6-12 innings with the starters, see how they feel with him back there, look at his defense etc. It just seems that this he's terrible at catching belief got started based on his inexperience at the major league level and has since turned into fact in some people's eyes without any kind of significant sample size(not saying 6-12 innings is a significant sample size) I would just like to see for myself that his defense is so much worse than Hill's that it wouldn't be offset by his bat.

I'd like to withdrawal my stance that the Cubs will win by 4. Fuk in the 5 hole and Hill catching again...boy i hope he can take 3 straight strikes looking again tonight. Can we at least try Fox once starting..give him 6 innings and see what happens.

Great post. However, I don't think the stats though were even the big concern with Milton. It was the injury bug and crazy pills that he takes that were most fans concerns. If you are just looking at stats, you can certainly say Jim got a good deal. One of the biggest problems is that we signed Milton and cast him to be something he's not. He was/is a high OBP/OPS guy who can't hit from left side. While we brought him in to 'get more left handed and drive in runs' If we advertised him as a table setter type for DLee, Ramy, SotoI really think the perception would be fairly different. Then why don't we forget about the whole "we need to be more balanced" (which is horse poop anyway) and have Milton just shed the whole switch hitter thing. We can platoon him with Hoff/ Fox when we face a lefty and let Bradley hit the righty's. He's batting .333 from the right side with a modest OBP of .400. WHy cant we just slide him in the 2 hole and make him into an "on-base guy" instead of an RBI guy, (which he never was in the first place.) I really doubt Jim/Lou are going to platoon a guy who the team spent 30 million on. More likely they'll tell him to just hit righty(his natural side) before they platoon based on the starting pitcher. I actually subscribe to Dan Bernstein's belief about regression/progression to statistical means in situations like that. You have to keep throwing Bradley out there and let him figure it out. He has enough of a career sample to know last year wasn't a fluke ( cough mike fontenot cough).

Great post. However, I don't think the stats though were even the big concern with Milton. It was the injury bug and crazy pills that he takes that were most fans concerns. If you are just looking at stats, you can certainly say Jim got a good deal. One of the biggest problems is that we signed Milton and cast him to be something he's not. He was/is a high OBP/OPS guy who can't hit from left side. While we brought him in to 'get more left handed and drive in runs' If we advertised him as a table setter type for DLee, Ramy, SotoI really think the perception would be fairly different.

Central and Eastern Start Times.

Feel free to call me out on this one later... Cubs win by 4 tonight.

We have a 0.000000001 chance of moving Soriano. As you alluded too, his Luol Deng like contract makes him untradable unless the Cubs were willing to eat a LOT of his salary, which won't happen. The amount of expensive and back loaded contracts we have makes me pessimistic for the next 3-5 years of this quad in terms of being able to add any quality pieces.

I was fortunate to be at every home playoff game this year and I can't even begin to describe how loud that place was. You couldn't even hear your own voice..i still get chills listening to that today. It seems that most Hawk fans are Sox fans though based on my unscientific poll. They showed clips of both Lou and Ozzie just wishing the team well on the big screen during breaks/intermissions pretty much every game. The boo'ing of Lou rivaled the anthem volume wise every time. Oh well, can't win them all ;) Were they saying LOOOOOOUUUUUU? I originally thought that but when the meatball Sox fans proceeded to describe various things Lou can put in his mouth or places he could go burn I started to have serious doubts.

I was fortunate to be at every home playoff game this year and I can't even begin to describe how loud that place was. You couldn't even hear your own voice..i still get chills listening to that today. It seems that most Hawk fans are Sox fans though based on my unscientific poll. They showed clips of both Lou and Ozzie just wishing the team well on the big screen during breaks/intermissions pretty much every game. The boo'ing of Lou rivaled the anthem volume wise every time. Oh well, can't win them all ;)

approving? I normally don't make comments on people's grammar, but this one shook me. Wow, I deserve that. I was typing quickly because my boss was walking down the aisle. Sorry!

Love this move. His stats have been improving each month as his body has adjusted to being off the PED's. Allows us to stretch Marshall out for when Harden's arm falls off. :D edited: for slaughtering the English language

I'm working on a bottle of Jack now..misery loves company

This {expletive} team is like an Opiate and we are all addicted...

I wonder how many more games until Santo slips an audible F Bomb on the radio

The Cubs are really making me regret subscribing to MLB Radio to listen to these day games at work.

I voted for middle infielder believing that Dempster will heal within 3-4 weeks. It'd be hard to argue that the weakest spot in our order right now is 2B with Font/Miles/Blanco/Baker and I really believe our bullpen will be fine leaning heavily on Marshall/Guzman/Marmol/Gregg especially if Samardzija can give us anything substantial. That being said, I don't think anything will happen due to the clustrofuck that is the ownership situation and we'll just have to hope that some combo of those 4 at 2B can muster a 250avg and above average defender

why? Probably going to take at least 4 -6 weeks to heal properly. So there is no point on making it retro. Plus if you make it retroactive, they couldn't bring Kevin Hart back since he was on the roster on July 3rd. So those two points make it a no brainer

Bah. Why temper your enthusiasm? Why enjoy this to the max? You don't get a high quality QB, that's proven they can perform in the NFL at a high level, in his prime, via trade very often. I'm a Cubs/Bears fan...I'm used to disappointment. I can deal with that if it comes, but I'm enjoying the anticipation of this season as much as I can. +1 I've never been this excited for a football season in my life.