UMFan83

Are people surprised that the Dodgers can start spending freely? Anyone who didn't catch on at first should have realized it when they made that ridiculous offer for that lightly regarded Cuban guy. OK not lightly regarded but he got more than Soler despite pretty much every scout saying Soler was a much better prospect.

So this offseason has completely blown... Anyways, the Uni Watch blog on ESPN.com rated all sports teams uniform sets from 1-122. The Bulls for some reason were 67th. The Cubs for some reason were 4th. The Bears at 2nd overall and the White Sox somewhere in the 30's are fairly reasonable. The most outrageous ranking in terms of Chicago teams? The Blackhawks at 49. 49? 49? What? Yes, he is saying that 40% of all sports teams have better uniforms than the Hawks. Is he just not a traditionalist? Nope that's not it....here are how the Original 6 teams fared in his rankings: Canadiens - 1 Bruins - 5 Rangers - 11 Red Wings - 15 Maple Leafs - 23 Blackhawks - 49(?!) This is what he has to say about the jerseys: Umm ok. Yeah its only one person's opinion but there's nothing to talk about with the Hawks or the NHL except the impending lockout.

4000 from Cutler plus 2000 from Forte Bush = 6000 yards in the season. Would only be 12th in the NFL for last year so I think its doable. Fake edit: Not sure if the stats I am looking at are from total yards including special teams or just offensive yards but too lazy to look up)

Wow did someone really give up on Rizzo after less than 200 ABs as a Cub in this thread? I'm actually surprised that I'm not more surprised.

Well they found the dude that voted Michigan #1 in the preseason AP poll and it was an......Illini beat writer from Champaign? http://annarbor.com/sports/um-football/bob-asmussen-only-writer-to-pick-michigan-no-1-in-ap-poll-defends-ballot/

Exactly. Even if he plays against the Colts, is he knee going to be ok to go 4 days later in a much more important and tougher game against Green Bay? I'm not saying the Colts are a gimme, I think they are (slightly) better than people think, but home against the Colts on a week's rest is a much easier challenge than in Green Bay with 4 days rest. Can he do both? Is it worth finding out if he's going to be pushing it just to start week 1?

No, not at all. But I do think these guys actually want to do what Hendry once said: get good and stay that way. Sure, I think it can be done different, to an extent than what they're doing it. But I think the renovation and the soon to be expiring WGN deal are both playing a major factor in all of this. They won't suck tremendously for both 2013 and 2014, but I totally expect next year to be like this one. And then once the system has a very solid base, to start making trades from it right after that. If I tried pinpointing it, I guess I see 65ish wins next year, maybe 75 in 2014 and hopefully 90+ for 5 of the following 7, with injuries, bad luck, whatever being the dropff for the other 2. Well, I'm sorry but that's just a [expletive] ridiculous plan. Let's be bad for 3 years and assume the rest figures itself out. What would be your plan for putting a 90-win team on the field in 2013? I heard a smart guy use the term dual fronts at some point. I'd go with that. So what do you think happened between the time when the smart baseball dude everyone was ecstatic about made the dual fronts statement and the revised 'hunker down for a few bad years while we rebuild the team from the ground up' plan? I am asking because I really want to know. A) Theo was lying about dual fronts and hoped no one would call him out on it when he stripped the team down to a 60 win squad B) Ricketts was lying to Theo about the resources he would have to rebuild the team and the Cubs couldnt afford a dual fronts approach until the team was paid off/wrigley was renovated/he found more revenue streams C) Theo went into this job thinking the dual fronts of winning was possible and the more he evaluated the organization he determined the only way to do this is strip everything down and start all over D) Theo and Co. are not as smart as we all thought and this was really their attempt to win now while building for the future E) ?

If it takes this administration 3 years to make us competitive than that's fail. That's crazy for a major market team to suck for three years just to gain draft picks, and never knowing if any of those picks will even pan out. We aren't the freaking Marlins. It's not about being the Marlins or acting like a small market team. Do small market teams trade players but pay their entire salary so that they can get a better prospect? Do small market teams that don't expect to contend pay $5m to a middle of the rotation veteran pitcher so that when the trade deadline comes around they have something worthwhile to sell? Sure the payroll is down but the plan, as stated hundreds of time by the management team is to build up the farm system and invest in free agency when it makes sense to. This year it looks a bit funky because the team is getting rid of so many of the larger contracts and payroll dropped quite a bit, but as time goes on you'll see the Cubs paying to keep the players that fit in our long term plans and when its time to contend you'll see the payroll go back up. I guess I can't guarantee that it will happen like that but all we have to go off of is what the management has told us...and I think they're allowed to have the benefit of the doubt until something happens to tell us otherwise.

The Cubs death train keeps on rolling. Football is getting nearer and everyday closer to week 1 the Cubs move further from the public's collective conscious. At the very least it would be nice to see Rizzo get out of his slump, Casto and Shark (until shut down) finish strong and BJax and Vitters show signs of life. Sorry for the LLF like stream of consciousness post.

As bad as Maynard was, at least he did provide some value with his directional punting. I was listening to the Score and they said Maynard might be a possibility to resign but I guess he left on bad terms. Does anyone remember anything about that?

Rizzo's season OPS down to .791 :( .260/.314/.377/.691 in his last 39 games

Seriously, why are they so bad? I dont know if thiis is every reason but Dan Haren has been terrible a lot of this year, CJ Wilson has had an ERA over 7 over his last 7-8 starts, their bullpen is mediocre to poor especially with injuries, Howie Kendrick is having a very disappointing year, Albert Pujols didn't show up until May, Greinke has a 6.19 ERA since joining LAA, Maicer Izturis and Bobby Wilson have played starting roles most of the year, etc. I still think they should be a lot better than 3 games over .500 though. I feel like the top part of their lineup is one of, if not the, best in baseball but then in the bottom half you have Kendrick (.713 OPS), Aybar (.716), Callaspo (.689), Wilson (.593), Izturis (.630).

Wow, in the last 14 days, Daytona has played on 5 of those days.

Do you guys think the Cubs should just shut Garza down for the year and put him on the 60 day DL?

My opinion, this isn't a high traffic board, so more sub-boards isn't necessary. Would rather consolidate discussions, so its easier to switch between discussions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk "View Active Topics" is your friend. Or it should be. Actually when I'm on my phone I use the Tapatalk function that showsjust new topics. Is this a function on a normal browser too? I end up reading mostly from my phone. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yes, there's a link called "View Active Topics" that works much like that, but actually does a better job filtering threads with recent activity than Tapatalk. Yeah I haven't gone into the individual forums looking for new threads in a long long time. "View new posts" is my best friend.

Could have fooled me

4-16 in their last 20 games ugh

This is interesting. I checked and they didn't have any more info on micubs.com . The location in the suburbs of Chicago is an unbelieveable coup for the Cubs. I know I've enjoyed my time at the Chiefs games (going again this upcoming Sunday), but man just driving to Kane County would be amazing! Amazing. The only time I ever see Chiefs games is when they play in Kane County. I will probably go several times a year if the Cubs switch to Kane County, especially with the young talent likely coming through there under Theo.

How much interest is there in me resurrecting the wcf or 312 boards to pick up the slack? As mentioned below there are definitely other resources out there but if there was ever a time to try to gain an audience, this is it. Personally, I liked the season we posted on WCF...I think that was 2007. It was good to have different discussion threads and not have all the discussion pushed into that weeks game thread. I am fine with whatever happens though.

He has, he's just been hitting like Ichiro. Damn, in his last 9 games, he had 0 walks and 0 extra base hits. Took care of both of those in his first 2 PAs tonight though,

Ugh, I havent watched too many of the recent Cubs games, I didn't realize that Rizzo's season OPS is down to .803. It seemed to me like he has been hitting ok from the box scores I saw.

Edit: damn you

Why now?

How the hell did Michigan get a 1st place vote in the AP preseason poll? I mean that means that one person out there thinks that Michigan should be favored over Alabama on a neutral field. I love everything that is going on with UM over the last year and think they are looking like contenders in a year or two but they are clearly a few steps behind the top 4-5 teams.