UMFan83

Cardinals have retired 16 of the last 17 Cubs batters since Fuku's RBI double. Let's change that....I'm actually watching so give me a win.

Are you going for a reverse jinx or just being obnoxious? Apparently he's going for accuracy

If you were truly serious about not wanting to be a Cubs fan anymore, read that Sun-Times article today and take every word as the truth. It is the most depressing article you can possibly write about the Cubs. Thank God it was just that hack Gordon Whittmeyer writing it. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/5763413-573/cubs-debt-situation-figures-to-affect-free-agent-plans.html

I don't see Quade get fired unless the Cubs are planning on making major impact moves this offseason. If the Cubs are still another whole season from being financially ready to compete, it wouldnt make sense to bring on a new manager to look awful again.

Fecal League action continues as the Cubs have another date with the "faltering" Cardinals. Let's take a look at the standings: TM REC WIN% GB RUN DIF MIN 19-37 .339 -- (-84) HOU 23-35 .397 3.0 (-49) CHC 23-32 .418 4.5 (-50) SDG 25-33 .431 5.0 (-27) KCR 25-32 .439 5.5 (-30) WAS 25-32 .439 5.5 (-12) LAD 26-32 .448 6.0 (-31) BAL 25-30 .455 6.5 (-44) NYM 26-31 .456 6.5 (-32) COL 26-30 .464 7.0 +6 OAK 27-31 .466 7.0 (-4) CWS 28-31 .475 7.5 (-9) PIT 27-29 .482 8.0 (-1) What are we seeing here? -After years of being also-rans, Minnesota is back competing for the Fecal League title! This combined with their beautiful 2nd year stadium has fans in a frenzy. -Quite a few perennial contenders are once again in the thick of the race (HOU, SDG, KCR, WAS and BAL) -Pittsburgh fans have to be shocked, after years of dominance in the FL, they have had a really disappointing season and appear to be fading early from contention. If they want to get back in the race, they might need to have another fire sale at the deadline. But worry not my fellow Cub fans, the inconsistent Cubs appear to be a darkhorse as they have been adding several upgrades such as LeMahieu, Montanez, Snyder and Campana, while several veterans have been been sacrificing their playing time (Soriano, Baker, Byrd, Garza, etc) to let this entergetic group of mostly youngsters carry them into contention. Clearly they are pulling out all the stops to make a run at this title. Unfortunately, James Russell is unable to start today, so Randy Wells will have to take his place instead. On the other side, Kyle Lohse has not helped the Cards stay in the FL race, and will likely keep his (legitimately) fantastic season going. In all seriousness, Lohse is a turd and so are stupid ass Cardinals. Lose the rest of the games if you must, but win these ones plz.

Geez, I just looked the other day and he has *8* walks this year. Kinda bums me out.

Lets get swept again, just for fun.

Drats. I totally thought we had this one. Wait I'm giving up on the game too early. There's still time. Don't want to pull a CubsGM.

Uhh, no. Is that what you really took from that (rhetorical question, I know it's not)? I really don't get what you are saying. You seem to be refuting the notion that the board has struggled because of the Cubs struggles and placing the blame mostly on the decision to try out a couple failed side projects. No, I'm not. I'm saying it's a combo. Pretend to not get it again though so I can say it a few more times. I'm not pretending anything. I just don't get what you are trying to say. The way you wrote that was confusing. And I still don't get how failed side projects affected the way people post here. I don't think its a direct correlation but there's some merit to it. One example. In 2009, Tim put a lot of his spare time and energy into his 312sports venture. Part of that venture was a message board with forums for all Chicago sports teams, including the Cubs. Tim and a couple of other people were actively posting in those forums for sometime trying to generate discussion to the website. Now Tim did make an effort to try to get NSBB and 312sports to co-mingle or even assimilate into 1, but clearly Tim's attention was to making 312sports work, and not as much on NSBB. Meanwhile, for over a year the new registrants feature was broken, leading to no new members. I respect Tim greatly for everything he's done for the forum, as I alluded to previously in this thread. Even through the 312sports phase, he was still paying server fees, working on forum upgrades and he made no attempt to kill of NSBB in favor of his 312sports forum, which if you think about it competed for at least some of the same traffic. But I did get the feeling that we were just left twirling in the wind for awhile while our founder was trying to replace his original vision of NSBB. I dunno I could be way off base by suggesting the new registrant feature was left neglected because Tim was too busy focusing on 312sports. I have no idea what the thought patterns were behind the scenes, other that what I read on here or discuss with other posters in private. Anyways, so that's an example of how Tim's side projects have hurt traffic on the site, at least in terms of generating new users at least.

Actually, I like imb's post to an extent. Except, I am 99% sure Tim has never made a profit with NSBB. He might have been trying to at one point, but from whatever I remember discussing with certain people at the time, the first goal of NSBB Premium was to help with the server costs he was incurring with the explosion of traffic we were getting. I can't blame Tim for seeing a large population of people congregating at one place and thinking he could expand upon it and maybe make a few bucks for his efforts. I was never really too interested in any of it (except the interviews and chats we were doing with prospects and stuff). The poster awards were kind of cheesy, as was giving a pepperidge farm sausage or whatever it was to Eric Patterson for minor league player of the year but helped build a sense of community within NSBB. I still have no idea how IMB won poster of the decade tho. And dammit the list of returning posters should be: 1) FDB 2) YANRSLATR and Yanr is still right behind Bum. I think people forget what a classic poster he was. Yanr was Bum before Bum was Bum.

Seriously. I'd much rather bring back Reds44 and baseballnumbers How you gonna slight deucebaseman like that?

you're kidding, right? you honestly think getting stephen jackson or jason richardson would be better than getting howard? you're overvaluing the ability of a complimentary guard to rose being able to get his own shot some of the time. with howard, we won't even need to think about having a capable scoring 2. the world would open up for rose and he would be able to do whatever he wants on the court. This is what I think. Howard is clearly a game changer. Awesome defensive center, fantastic offensive force. Clearly he makes the Bulls better. At the same time, with the exception of against a few more traditional and phyisical centers (Howard being one of them), our low post defense is among the top 5 in the league. We have ridiculous defensive depth there as well with Noah, Gibson, Asik and if Thomas comes back. Are any of them as good as Howard? No but it's not a huge upgrade defensively. Especially if you consider you might have to give up 2 of Noah/Taj/Asik to get him and lose that depth. On offense, he will clearly be an upgrade and will open up Rose on the perimeter to do things. That said, Howard from my impressions rarely moves very far away from the paint and will constantly be a physical impediment to given Rose space in the paint. When Rose is best he is getting to the hole finishing, rarely does he ever score efficiently taking primarily perimeter based shots. Getting a great shooter who can create their own shot would stretch the floor out and likely give Rose a much bigger area to drive. At least theoretically. Then finally you consider the end of games. A tired argument for Howard defenders and bashers alike, but having watched my share of Magic games (likely no more than games you've watched), I see a majority of late game opportunities in close games taken by someone like Nelson or Richardson, not Howard. Why? Because teams hack Howard whenever he gets the ball in the post late in games. So blah blah blah can't hit fts, etc. So where does that leave the Bulls? The Bulls lost 4 straight games down the stretch to Miami because Rose had to create offense all by himself. How much does that change with Howard in there? It will change it some...and lets be honest, Howard making 60% of his FTs is better than Rose forcing up some offbalanced contested jumper. But I just haven't seen enough of Howard impacting games late for me to believe he will be the guy that is going to completely change the impact of close games on the offensive end. I believe having another perimeter scorer who can drive, create their own shot, and best of all hit their open outside shots will make a huge difference in how the Bulls fare is close games against elite defensive teams. I mean maybe we'll blow out more teams with Howard, making less close game opportunities, but then again we were essentially tied with miami in point differential this year so I'm not sure. Cliffs notes: 1. Howard better defensively but the difference isn't huge when you consider depth especially. 2. Howard hanging out in/near the paint with his defender all game doesn't help Rose's ability to attack the rim and limit his jumpshots 3. Getting Howard, IMO, doesn't help the Bulls finish in late game situations offensively as much as a 2nd scorer who can create and hit from long range would.

And come on JR, I've nodded my head to a couple of your points in this thread, but you are going to call out Tim of all people for this forum's "issues"? Tim has probably spent more time ensuring this forum exists than you've probably spent making posts here. He has committed literally thousands of his own dollars creating, maintaining, upgrading and contributing to this forum and despite all this seems to barely have time to be a consistently active member. I personally think Tim should be given the upmost amount of unconditional respect for giving us this place. There may (or may not) be many issues on this forum, but Tim "being a wallflower" is not one of them.

Geez I don't know. I guess I can respect someone having their opinion that they like Ryan Theriot. But can they honestly argue that having Ryan Theriot on the team making whatever he was making here last year makes the Cubs a better baseball team? If they can't argue that, and they still want him on the Cubs, then their enjoyment of the Cubs is not based on their desire to succeed as a team. I think that has to be a fundamental philosophy needed to post here. They can't like the Cubs because Wrigley Field is totally retro, and it gets really sunny in the bleachers in the summer so its good for getting a tan, and they like meeting people from foreign lands such as Iowa. I mean I guess that can be part of it, but I am not interested in participating in a forum where posters are not interested in the Cubs being the best team they can be.

I am seriously getting so sick of every thread on RealGM being about Dwight Howard. "Howard not working on extension with Miami" "(some obscure article) says Bulls pursuing Howard" "Does getting Howard put us over the Heat?" I am sick of it because even if Howard leaves Orlando I don't think there's more than a 5% chance we get him. Second of all, while Howard would clearly improve this team, I don't think it will improve the team as much as getting a top SG like SJax or Richardson would, when you factor in what we'd give up to get him. Anyways, I am bitching about Howard posts and inadvertantly attempting to initiate another Howard discussion on NSBB. Oh well. It's not that I don't want people thinking big, it's that its such a pipe dream. We should be focusing on the more realistic scenario of getting over the top with a high quality 2 guard.

If Ricketts didn't care so much about "preserving Wrigley" and taking vacations during the year, we clearly wouldn't be on whatever this list is. Stupid Ricketts.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3782/downloadee.png

Yeah, they want him dead. Or at least they used to. I think he skipped trips to Chicago for a few years for fear of his safety. I didn't know about that. I know he's from Chicago and thought he'd be a good fit. OH well, he's not available anyway. http://deadspin.com/5225981/tony-allen-is-not-very-popular-in-chicago

I like it....get all the issues out. The whole saga of NSBB in general fascinates me. I get the impression that a lot of people even prefer having this closed community of 25-50 long time posters discussing everything and anything.

Yeah, they want him dead. Or at least they used to. I think he skipped trips to Chicago for a few years for fear of his safety.

I forgot him....I'm not a big fan as some though. I'd probably put him 5th ahead of JR Smith.

1) Jason Richardson - my ideal fit. didnt fit right with orlando, but he creates his own shot, is a very good shooter and at the very least is a willing defender. 2) SJax - if available....a better shot creator than JRich, a guy who can handle the #1 scoring load on some nights when Rose is off, but a worse shooter than Richardson. But there are a lot of things to like. He can get to the line, he can slash, he can shoot of the dribble. I believe he can post up as well. And defensively, he's willing AND able. Based on who is out there, in my mind JRich and SJax are 1 and 1a and everyone else is a step below, as it pertains to the Bulls needs. I have a slight preference to Richardson because he can shoot and space the floor for Rose a little better. 3) Afflalo I don't consider this overly realistic, but depending on the CBA, if we have the money it would be stupid not to sign him to an offer sheet if richardson or jackson aren't available. He's a player I'd be willing to wait the 10 days or whatever it is for Denver to match on the off chance they wouldnt. 4) Mayo - Maybe realistic but for some reason people believe Memphis won't trade with us. After this year they've had, I think they'd be more willing if we were offering what they needed. But what is that need, and can we afford to give it to them? But I like Mayo. He's still got potential to be developed in the right system and could be an absolute steal. 5) Smith - I really don't like JR Smith. But I can't deny his ability and how much he would help us. If the other 4 were off the table, we'd have to make a move for someone like him right? Wouldnt be the ideal fit, but his shooting and his ability to go off on scoring rampages are attractive to have. I forgot which game it was, but watching him in the first round this year, he looked the part of the "star" for a team without one. 6) Lee - Lee is kind of blah. I wasn't excited about him in February, and I'm not all that excited about him now. Don't get me wrong, he's a quality player, he can play excellent D and shoot from outside, but if he's supposed to be the perimeter player that is going to make teams single cover Rose, I think the Bulls are in trouble. Hamilton isn't worth it even at minimum salary unless all other options are exhausted. A friend suggested to me the name Corey Maggette, and it sounds intreaging enough. He's another strong guy who can get to the line better then most NBA players, and can often create his own shot. Heck me might even be able to carry the scoring load on nights when Rose is off, but I wouldn't expect him to do it consistently. Whichever direction the Bulls go, they need to think long and hard about this move, assuming there is one. Fairly or unfairly, people are looking at this move as the last piece to the championship puzzle, and the Bulls are possibly lucky enough to be able to afford most of these guys (depending on the CBA). This is a huge offseason for the Bulls, as last year was.

They tend to skew older. Do you have perform an age survey I'm not aware of? The funny thing is, a 16 year old CT pretty much kept the social forum alive the first couple years of the website i, for one, miss the constant bickering between CT and Roast I can't believe you found your way back to NSBB. It's good to hear from you again!

Yeah, the Other Sports and Social forums keep quite active. They tend to skew older. Do you have perform an age survey I'm not aware of? The funny thing is, a 16 year old CT pretty much kept the social forum alive the first couple years of the website

Well it would be found here if the Cubs actually elicited an emotional response anymore. Even people who aren't on the "its cool to not care" bandwagon (such as myself), I can't see them getting too down about the repeated failures of this team. If the Cubs fielded a team that actually generated some interest, we'd see a return to emotional highs and lows for the Cubs (for better and for worse), although likely at a depressed level from 3-4 years ago.