UMFan83
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Everything posted by UMFan83
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It actually looks more conclusive that he missed the tag in that photo than he made the tag IMO. Maybe I'm just blind. Either way, he's so far from the plate there it's hard to believe that there was no contact between the 2 before he went back and stepped on the plate. I think the Holliday/touching the plate call and of course the perfect game botched call are both worse than this one, but this is still pretty bad.
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Who cares if it is a proper fire sale? I'm not particularly worried that the Cubs are gonig to cut spending down to like $80 million, and I'm not particularly sold on Zambrano being an integral piece on the next Cubs contender. So if they want to sell off Z and Soriano and save $25 million in the process, we probably got better unless Hendry sets his eyes on a couple of veteran lefty relievers. -
Thanks for the midday pick-me-up Biggs
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Is a .730 OPS the baseline for what he's going to do going forward? Or is he going to rebound some and get back into the .800 OPS area he's been in each of the past 3 years (excluding 2009 since he was hurt the entire time)? You can't exclude 2009 when Soriano has some level of injuries every year. The way I look at it now is 2 of the last 3 seasons he's had a sub .740 OPS. And after a hot start in 2010, he really tailed off. In fact, if you take the last half of last year and tack it onto this year so far, this is what he's done: 191 G 705 PA 651 AB 155 H 39 2B 2 3B 30 HR 95 RBI 37 BB 4 SB 168 K .238/.277/.442/.719 This is pretty much the Soriano that we're left with. Maybe he'll go on a hot streak starting tonight and skew that, but I think it would be foolish to expect a .800+ season OPS from Soriano ever again.
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Gotta say I am disapointed so far.
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You wouldn't trade Soriano even if we ate 60%? That would save over $20 million over the next few years. The problem is, we'd have around $7 million extra over each of the next 3 years, but most (or all) of that would go into replacing him. There's not much in the minors or free agency that's going to be better than Soriano for the money we'd free up. That said, I wouldn't flat out oppose trading him at 60% value but I'd hesitate a lot. Who cares if that $7 mil goes towards replacing him, either we pay $68 million for Soriano or $68 million for a likely younger and better option. There are 37 qualified corner OFs in baseball right now, and Soriano has the 28th highest OPS, and the 2nd worst OBP (only Carl Crawford at .283 is worse than Soriano's .287) So you are looking at one of the probably 5 worst corner OFs in baseball, especially when you factor in defense (although I'm not sure how Soriano has fared this year). 7 million could easily give us better production there.
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For Soriano I wouldn't expect much back even if they eat the majority of the deal. For Zambrano, if they are picking up a significant portion they better get an excellent prospect or two back. For Soriano its a matter of paying $68 million over 4 years for a starting corner OF to give you a .730 OPS and sub .300 OBP, or paying $60 million + cost of a replacement to actually perform adequately at his job and a token prospect with mild upside.
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No hitting coaches arent going to completely change a veteran's approach to hitting or swinging. Where their value comes in is identifying when a hitter has something off with his swing. They'll also introduce subtle changes when a vet is struggling. Bob picked up on one with Aramis Ramirez between April and July. But yeah, blaming the hitting coach for an team like this is just a waste of energy. That said, when the hitting sucks and you cant fire the manager because its his first year, the hitting coach quickly becomes a scapegoat. Then again, Hendry gave Rudy a lot of money to come here, so with his job on the line it probably isn't in his best interest to admit failure there.
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I can't remember, is it last 3 years or last 2 years? Stupid down season for Aramis carrying him down to B range.
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Why couldnt the 3B just try the 3rd to 1st double play on that Soriano grounder like most other players would have done? I didnt see the play, but Pat Hughes thought he tried to step on 3rd and throw home. Because he fucked up and didn't touch the bag, we're going to lose because no way he gets the tag out at home I'm guessing.
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Ps I hate Soriano so much. I think he'd be more valuable to us on the bench. He's just not a starting caliber player anymore IMO.
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Hahaha oh man. They hold Soto at 3rd because there were 0 outs and they end up no scoring of course.
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What situation? They could contend this year with a couple of bounce back years couldn't they?
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Yeah didn't mesh with Martz. Also in week 1 he was the number 2 receiver I think and was was thrown to something like 12 times and only caught 2. He ran some routes wrong and dropped a bunch of passes. After that he was burried on the depth chart. He's an interesting low risk player with medium upside but there's a reason he's been cut by 3-4 teams already.
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670 radio reporting Bears may pursue Mike Sims-Walker It was spoken over the radio so no link yet although I'm sure there will be one later today. Does that help? LOL It's better than nothing, but not the most exciting name out there. I guess if they don't want to commit to a high priced WR (which is respectable), this would work.
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No, they don't. There's no standout #1, and I'd have no problem adding one, but I'm confident that given the talent of the QB, a stronger OL and a more well-rounded running threat would make the receivers the Bears already have look a LOT better. The O-line isn't really that far away, so I don't see the need to sign more than 1 starting O-line anyways. Maybe 1 starter and 1 backup. Between Carimi, Williams, Kreutz, Garza and Webb, the only one's I'd even consider replacing are Garza and Kreutz. But Kreutz is probably the best C we could get in the FA market even if he's pretty mediocre now. So I'm willing to replace Garza (aka make him the backup at G and C), and go with those other 4. Williams hasn't been consistently good yet but giving up on him now would be foolish as he's shown real flashes. Webb seemed like he came on strong at the end of last year and the Bears love him, so I don't think it makes sense to demote him.
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I don't understand this. We have 99% of 37 million to spend. Why not spend a little to improve your team at WR. I want to tie up Angelo and make him watch all his WRs routes in the Patriots and Packers (playoff) game on a loop. I actually kind of like the receivers we have, its just we need that marquee guy, not some undrafted FA. He might work out just fine but based on the odds, he probably won't.
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Nice logic. They could get something of value potentially for Carson, but instead decide not to even shop him simply to spite him. Regardless of whether he's in the right or not, the Bengals are only hurting themselves here. I am glad they are doing it. I can't stand how players can sign a contract and then just randomly refuse to play until traded. Less in the NFL where contracts aren't guaranteed, but still. So I'm glad they are taking a stand. And I'm even more glad it's not my team that's taking the stand because I'd kill Angelo for doing it :)
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More here... http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/42024/rare-animosity-toward-bears-dave-toub Interesting. I assumed that everyone loved him since they obviously play hard (and well) for him. Can't be good for Toub's head coaching aspirations.
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My bad. I will now sing "Bear Down, Chicago Bears" at the top of my lungs with extra emphasis on the "You're the pride & joy of Illinois" part in celebration of this move that will undoubtedly put us over the top. Practice this instead: There's a timeout......*WHERE*..........on the field....*OOOOHHHHHH*
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No need to target any FA WR's now, we just got the 225th best NFL prospect from the class of 2011.
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Interesting. I wouldn't have guessed the Bears would be targeting a LB in FA, considering the 2 FA options the Bears already are familiar with (Roach and Pisa). Maybe its just used as leverage in negotiations with Roach or something.
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What is the point of cheering for sports, dealing with watching your team lose year after year, having rivalries with opposing fan bases, etc when you can't enjoy a championship to its fullest when your team wins? Yes there's more to enjoying a title than rubbing it into your friends, but that is certainly part of the fun. In fact, you don't even have to be obnoxious while doing it, although some certainly choose to be that way and remind everyone every chance they get. Probably 30% of the reason I want the Cubs to win the world series is so that I don't have to take (as much) crap from Cardinals/White Sox fans about our futility. Obviously I did jack [expletive] to help them win the (hypothetical) title, but I invested a crapload of my time, spent money, etc. to feel like I'm at least a distant part of the team, and so when they win the title, I don't feel bad celebrating like I myself hit the game winning HR.
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I hate this idea. Players coming off career years right before FA really scare me. 17.5 Sacks in his career prior to last year (7 seasons and 66 games). 12.5 sacks last year at age 30. 2 forced fumbles prior to last year, 2 FF last year I dunno, he just screams 'huge bust' to me.
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Yeah well, you may be NFC and Super Bowl champions, but lets not forget who is the defending NFC North Champion. :) ..... :( Honestly, the Packers beating the Bears and winning the Super Bowl completely erased any enjoyment I had last season. I almost forgot the Bears won the North, as I haven't thought back on the season at all since it ended. Too painful.
