UMFan83

Giving up on the team two weeks into the season is kind of lame so I say [expletive] them. No more like giving up on them sometime in May or June last year due to apathy. I had a similar stretch but never completely took my eye off the team...I'm a sucker like that.

Should I tell my friends that gave up on watching the Cubs that they are somewhat enjoyable to watch this year, or should I just enjoy this for myself?

On a related topic, KC Johnson had an interesting discussion on the Score today. He said that the organization is shocked and very disappointed with how the Bulls have responded since the Rose injury. The higher ups all thought the Bulls would at least make it to the 2nd round, and likely the ECF. Whether this means they will make changes, I don't think anyone knows. But the fact that Rose and Deng might will likely both be out until January, makes it less likely that they will make any drastic moves to change the team. Certainly going into the luxury tax is basically out of the question. He said there's 0% chance the Bulls amnesty Boozer for 2 reasons, 1) with Rose's extension kicking it, amnestying him doesnt open up any cap space and as bad as he is trying to replace Boozer with the MLE is a gamble and 2) The Bulls title odds are quite low next year, so they might as well get something out of the money they are paying. Also he said that the Bulls will almost certainly match any offer for Asik next year, which sort of surprised me. I'm not sure I believe that. The most another team can offer him is the MLE but do you really want to pay that much for a guy who plays like 12 minutes a game and has an extremely limited offensive game? Finally, and this is just speculation, but KC says he guesses that the Bulls will bring back AT MOST 1 of the following 3 players: Korver, Watson, and Brewer, and says the most likely one if they bring one of them back is Watson because he's a PG with Rose out. And the Bulls will probably try to replace them with minimum salary guys, and/or in house options (like Butler). I know its been common knowledge for awhile that those 3 guys are not locks to come back, but I guess I never considered that the Bulls would decline to bring back all 3. Definitely going to be an interesting but likely depressing offseason as the black cloud continues to hover over the Bulls organization.

I don't agree that they've mailed it in, but their confidence is clearly affecting their play. I think its a testament to the team that they are even close in games like yesterday with almost no scoring, but at the end of the day, they don't have anyone that can score when needed late, so they fall short at the end. The same thing happened last year against Miami when Rose was kept in check. The Sixers do suck, but the Bulls have still done an excellent job as a whole defensively in the series (besides game 2), but when you are a poor offense (without Rose and to a lesser extent Noah) and you are going up against the 3rd best defense in the NBA this year, its a tough matchup. You can't play that well defensively and be considered to be mailing it in.

The Caps have been my playoff team since the Hawks were eliminated. I'm rooting for them because for several years they finished at the top of the standings and then flopped in the playoffs and now they come in as the 7 seed and seem to be making a run. Im still not a big fan of Ovechkin for taking out Brian Campbell a couple of years ago though.

I dont think anyone's forgetting that.

Wait do you think that "everyone is expendable except rose, Noah, Rip, Taj" is a particularly novel thought? Well maybe because I much rather keep Deng than Rip. Deng is quite valuable when the ligaments in his wrist are intact. But as far as the other 3, pretty much everyone understands as has accepted for awhile that a majority of the team is expendable and now here for the long term.

Good point, I stand corrected

This team is frisky. I think they are 7-5 in their last 12 games...for many teams that's mediocre, but for the Cubs thats pretty good. The offense still sucks, but the starting pitching is keeping us in most games...I will take that. This next series against the Braves will be a pretty good test to see if our pitching is as legit as we hope. This is exactly what I wanted from the Cubs for 3 years now (other than getting to the playoffs). The last 2 years were boring as hell with the same guys underperforming. This team has a lot of question marks, but that's a good thing. It gives you something to get excited about every day. I look forward to a Shark start, a Castro AB with RISP, a LaHair AB when we need a homer, etc. It's much better than watching Z pitching below expectations with a outburst or two along the way, or ARam doing his thing for a floundering team. With the Bulls season taking a nosedive, it's good to know I might have something to get me through the summer.

Who would have picked Kings vs Coyotes and Rangers/Capitals vs Devils as what's looking like the conference finals matchups at the moment. Assuming Phoenix and NJ get the 4th win, one of those 5 teams will lift the cup. I have no idea who to root for. Probably the Kings or Capitals.

Just for fun...a list of every single injury that caused a Bull to miss at least a game this year: Rose: Sprained Toe (5 games) Lower Back Strain (5 games) Strained Groin (12 games) Sprained Right Ankle (1 game) Foot Injury (3 games) Torn ACL (4+ games) Deng: Torn Ligament Left Wrist (9 games) Bruised Ribs (2 games) Watson: Separated Shoulder (9 games) Wrist Injury (1 game) Concussion (2 games) Left Ankle Sprain (5 games) Hamilton: Strained Left Groin (10 games) Right Thigh Injury (14 games) Right Shoulder Injury (15 games) Noah: Left Ankle Sprain (1 game) Illness (1 game) Left Ankle Sprain (2+ games) Gibson: Left Ankle Sprain (3 games) Lucas: Left Groin Strain (4 games) That's 108 games missed due to injuries this year. That's a total of 20 completely separate injuries befalling 7 of our players, including 4 of the 5 starters. Starters: 84 games / 355 possible games (24% of all available starts) All-Stars: 41 games / 142 possible games (29% of all available starts) Starters in the playoffs: 6 games / 25 possible games (24% of all available starts) All-Stars in the playoffs: 4 games / 10 possible games (40% of all available starts) OK that wasn't fun at all

I never understood that. Yes Rose was a key player for a title contender, but its not like the Bulls were heavy favorites to win the title. The Bulls wouldnt have even been favored going into the ECF.

False, it will be a funeral atmosphere from the moment the game starts until the very end. I think most fans attending that game will feel like they are going to a funeral.

6 XBH for the Slugless Cubs today...not bad!

Yeah why should he play for his home country while they host the Olympics after spending 3 years building up the British national team and helping them qualify for the first time in their history? I understand your side where the Bulls pay him so he should do whats best for them, but this is a once an a lifetime opportunity for him and he's spent years committed to this summer. I have 0 problem with it.

Yeah that 8:4 BB:K ratio in 15 innings is straight baller status Nice input :roll: Yeah, way to buttress your position with facts, jerk. Go play in traffic. Dolis has great stuff, and I'm excited to see him get more opportunties. That's all I said. Yeah he's disagreeing with you and you're ripping on him for presenting facts to state his opinion.

I've noticed that. And his shooting seems marginally better as well. It doesn't make sense though....from everything I read, the wrist won't get better without surgery. Is that just wrong? Or is he more tolerant to the pain or has he strengthened the surrounding muscles enough that he can shoot and driver with his left hand and deal with the pain? If it's gonna make him less than 100%, I'd rather him just miss the first couple of months by getting the surgery. Thibs has proven he can win in the regular season with a mediocre cast, so if he can tread water through November, December and part of January, and then get Rose (at less than 100%) and Deng back, we should still be able to get a top 4 seed with no problem IMO.

I just made up a statistic IP per win above replacement: Rivera - 21.1 Clemens - 34.4 Maddux - 48.3 (i dont really believe Rivera had a better career than those 2, just thought it was interesting)

Yup thats a shitty way for a future HOF pitcher to go. Torn ACLs are really en vogue this week blah.

We're 6-5 in our last 11 games...its not THAT bad.

It was a swell 8.5 innings. What would the Cubs record be this year if Carlos Marmol didn't exist?

I don't blame them necessarily for sticking with Marmol to this point. Marmol had 4 mostly dominating years as a shutdown reliever, so I feel like he earned a chance to dig out of it this year, at least in April. Plus the team is going nowhere and at worst you'd like to have him string a few good performances together to give him some trade value. At this point though the Cubs can no longer ignore the fact that the pitches he used to dominate previously are completely ineffective the last 2 years and there are no signs of him coming out of it. After today I would expect them to make a move. At this point, any time Marmol pitches, he's hurting his trade value.

Wow...I saw it was 3-0 Cubs going into the bottom of the 9th and came back 20 minutes later to see 3 more pages in the game thread. I immediately thought '[expletive] marmol'

Dempster's ERA after today: 0.95 in 28.1 IP

That pic reminds me of the story that I think was told on here, about the guy who went to Vandy bumping into Cutler in a bar bathroom and excitedly talking to him about Vandy, and Cutler just rolls his head back while pissing and says "DONT CARRRREEEE"