UMFan83

Not sure if this is new news but Haugh said the Bears are pursuing Roy Williams.

I've come to terms with it today. It's no secret Martz isnt a fan of using the TE in his offense. If we want to truely commit to martz this isn't all that bad depending on our return. Olsen always had the potential and showed strong flashes of it at times but it's not like he was pro bowl caliber.

It doesn't really matter. Most of these guys are like 26-30 years old. If they are signing a 3 or 4 year deal, that's likely to carry them through the duration of their career. Also, even if a guy does this and will need to sign another deal in 4 years when he's 30 years old, teams are going to have a very short memory on this (especially since this is a very unique situation), and they're not going to make that much money at that age anyway. No I really dont think people are going to be going around reneging on these deals. The NBA does this every year when there is a week of talking before they are allowed to sign and every year people agree to terms well ahead of time and I cannot remember a single case of something announced as done ending up falling through. Sure if the story is 'Sources: Player X looking to sign with Team Y" I could see it as a possibility but if its "Player X agrees with Team Y", that deal is done.

I'm surprised theres not more celebration here.

It's funny that I was much more apathetic towards this team in May, where there were still hints of hope, than I am now where I actually find myself watching games here and there despite how pathetically awful they are. I blame the Bulls for not winning the title. When the Hawks won it last year, the resulting euphoria kept me content with sports until September.

Well Sunday's are always easier to get than Saturday's. Most (but not all) of the Cardinals fans that flood to the games from down south will be on their way back home. But there are still a ton of Cards fans in Chicago that will raise the demand. That particular Cardinals series was the first series to sell out after the Yankees series (and maybe White Sox), so I don't think you will be able to get tickets under face value. Despite how crappy the Cubs are, people still goto weekend games in the summer months, and with the Cardinals in the running for the Central, you gotta believe a lot of the Cardinal fan population in Chicago will have the same idea as you (trying to buy tickets cheap from disgruntled Cubs fans).

Yeah only Angelo can get away with making a deal and then reneging on it.

Martz....2 TE sets....does not compute

Random topic: A friend is arguing with me that adding a relagation system to American sports would be the best thing to happen and has no downsides. His big argument is that teams would never have fire sales, or be cheap and limit their spending to a fraction of what the best teams pay, etc. I'm not at all against relegation, but I can think of a few downsides. Wouldn't have a system like that in place place a value on mediocrity? Meaning, sure we aren't the best but we'll keep fielding this mediocre team with a mediocre payroll because we can't afford to spend like the Yankees, and we can't retool with prospects because we'll be in danger of being sent down. I think in a sport like baseball it would only increase the disparity between the haves and have nots in the league like the EPL is right now with 5 teams competing for the title, 5 trading spots in the middle, and the rest battling relegation. In football it would never work because the league promotes parity. In fact in every league with a cap (aka the other 3 leagues) it wouldnt work without abolishing the cap, lest they potentially put a team like the Cowboys or Lakers in danger of getting sent down at some point. Anyways, he is a pretty stupid arguer because I've said all that and he can't rebut it, but I'm right here? What advantages am I missing to going to this system? Obviously it would never ever happen but its fun to ponder.

Jesus Christ, calm down. What mythical GM WOULDN'T be hyping up how many home runs Colvin hit? With the way he's hyping up Colvin, maybe he's trying to deal Colvin too. Nah probably not.

Wait, you are allowed to trade players at the peak of their value? Seems like that's exactly what the Indians did with Abreu. Because look at those numbers he's put up, he doesnt seem to have much upside at all considering his low OBP is going to potentially develop it's way though the Cubs minor leagues now.

Would at least be an improvement on their previous philosphy that they don't even need the line just the QB.

Well he has the #1 tool we look for in minor league position players, that being having no on base skills... exactly

If? Implies they are being cheap. Can they really afford to be cheap considering they were supposedly 37 mil under the cap and have to get to 99% of the cap to reach the cap floor? Unless they are planning some extensions to existing players, I can't see them getting there with ease unless they are planning on overpaying some of the mediocre targets theyve shown interest in.

Seriously though, what the [expletive] are the Bears doing?

Haha if all these guys keep signing elsewhere, we're going to have to rework Podash's deal to 5 years 40 million so they hit the salary floor.

So we got less than 1 million dollars in salary relief, and got one "prospect" that is 25 and had a 6+ ERA in AAA last year, and another "prospect" that is in high A and has a .294 OPS and .723 OPS this year. Oh well, better than nothing I guess. Wasn't expecting to get much for Fukudome.

Perfect. Off season a success. The pieces are in place, to steal an old Wanny phrase.

Actually, they haven't scored since Aramis hit the 2 run homer in the first inning. 17 innings of 0's. And the Brewers have scored a whopping 2 runs in the same time frame. 5 actually since they scored their 3 runs yesterday in the bottom of the first (assuming you were replying to Ballgame's post and not mine)

I dunno, I think the 2006 team was worse to watch. Horrible team, horrible starting pitching, and Quade has a long way to go until I consider him worse than Dusty. John Mabry, Phil Nevin, Neifi Perez, Freddy Bynum, Tony Womack, Roberto Novoa, Glendon Rusch, Wade Miller, these are the names that made up your 2006 Chicago Cubs.

Cubs still havent scored since the blown bases loaded 0 out situation yesterday

Man U killing the MLS All Stars for the 2nd year in a row. Now up 4-0. Looking to finish the MLS portion of their American tour with an aggregate score of 18-2.

Sounds about right with Hendry at the helm. Yup he's never turned around a 90 loss team into a playoff team in one season. Anything is possible with a 120+ million payroll. He's a horrible GM and good luck to you for having faith in him. He's done it twice and didn't have a 120 million payroll in 2003. I don't have much faith in Hendry but I won't discount that it's possible we could contend next year with Hendry as GM. It's just less likely than if we had a competent GM.

Sounds about right with Hendry at the helm. Yup he's never turned around a 90 loss team into a playoff team in one season.

No hitters definitely seem less cool when the pitcher manages to give up a run, even if its completely unearned. Also is much less cool when its a combined no hitter.