UMFan83

I know its not at all true, but I feel like Marmol walks the first batter he faces every single time. [expletive] this ump "How does he still have a job?" - Bob

Yay for training camp optimism and fluff pieces:

Does it really matter which Ortiz it is? It could be David Ortiz for all I care. He doesn't deserve to have his name remembered. PS, which Ortiz was the one that pitched against the Cubs in the 2003 NLDS? I think it was Russ right? Ramon Ortiz Mike Hampton Aging Greg Maddux Were the 3 pitchers they threw at us in that series. No wonder we somehow won. Well, it's not like any of those guys were bad that year, and the Braves had like the best offense in baseball. ETA: I don't remember Karros hitting 2 HRs in a game at all that series. Yeah they had an awesome offense indeed. Look at their normal starting 8 by OPS+ 169 - Javy Lopez (1.065) 165 - Gary Sheffield (1.023) 137 - Chipper Jones (.920) 136 - Marcus Giles (.917) 117 - Andruw Jones (.851) 105 - Rafael Furcal (.794) 97 - Vinny Castilla (.771) 95 - Robert Fick (.753) The pitching though reminds me of the 07-08 Cubs in that, while they didn't have an ace quality pitcher, they had a lot of above average starters, 4 of them hovering between 3.75-4.00 ERA. They could be gotten to and they were to an extent.

Does it really matter which Ortiz it is? It could be David Ortiz for all I care. He doesn't deserve to have his name remembered. PS, which Ortiz was the one that pitched against the Cubs in the 2003 NLDS? I think it was Russ right? Ramon Ortiz Mike Hampton Aging Greg Maddux Were the 3 pitchers they threw at us in that series. No wonder we somehow won.

According to capgeek, Sharp was expected to have a cap hit of 3.9 million. With this extension (5 years, 30 mil), his cap hit will be somewhere around 6 million. The Hawks have 24 players signed with a projected 950,000 in cap space after Sharp. And I'm assuming since the NHL roster size is 23, one of those players won't make the team thus their contract won't count against the cap. But I'm kinda a NHL cap noob so I don't know if I am 100% right.

Niiiiice. Our core is Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp, Seabs, Keith and they are all signed for at least the next 4 seasons. Bolland is a borderline core member and he's signed the next 3 seasons. As shitty as it was to get rid of Ladd, Byfug, Campbell and Versteeg, the fact that we were able to survive our insanly tough cap situation with our 6 best (or at least most important) players signed to long term deals, and still have flexibility to build around them and a lot of young talent is a credit to Stan Bowman and co.

I dunno maybe its just me, but I hope that Williams dominates in camp and in the preseason and then continues it into the season.

Yeah sorry, I think their policy is to not allow Packer fans on the tours. Edit: Tour is about an hour, and I'd say its worth it. My tour started out in that one executives bar/restaurant, then we walked directly up to the press box. Got to walk past the home and away radios, the spanish language, etc, walked past the kitchen in there and then went into the press room where all the beat writers and other media assemble. Then we walked all the way down to the home clubhouse. Couldnt enter it but everything was layed out as if there was a game that day. You could see the weight room and stuff on your way out, and you pass by the toilet and sink that are just before the enterance to the dugout. Then you get to spend a bunch of time in the home dugout, taking photos and being allowed to walk onto the foul ground part of the field (they'll yell at you for touching dirt). Eventually you climb the wall and walk back up the stands into the concourse and then walk into the visitors clubhouse. This clubhouse I could walk in, sit in the dugouts, etc. Nothing was layed out though. Then you are done.

Sweet, time for another 7 IP 2 ER game for Garza where the Cubs end up losing 6-3

I'd allow Brett Favre to play his will-he or won't-he? game for 5 more years, if in exchange Tony LaRussa had to leave my life forever.

Yeah I actually think at some point Webb will be decent. He is/was extremely raw last year and forced into a starting role because our GM didnt build a competent line. But putting him at LT is suicide.

Jonah Keri says the Cubs are the biggest losers in the trade deadline:

And then Russ Ortiz toed the rubber

What record? Team record for most home runs in a game. They hit 6 tonight and Colvin missed one by inches when his double hit off the top of the wall. The record is 7 which they last did in 1977.

So close to tieing a record

Damn, I just watched a replay of Colvin's home run. He was maybe 5 feet away from hitting it into the river on the fly. Instead it bounced on the little sidewalk that borders the river and in. He would have been the 2nd person to hit one in the river on the fly. Can anyone name the only person to do that?

Is this the end of the "Pirates are contending" talk? If they drop this they will have lost 7 of their last 8 and 10 of their last 13

Leave it to our Cubs to wrap their first two winning streaks of the year with a 5 game losing streak.

Speaking of TE's, Zach Miller signed with the Seahawks today for $34 mil.

I think you might be a little overly negative, but not too far off. -Punter is an upgrade. I don't even know how accurate Podesh is but it's an upgrade. Maynard was horrible last year, and with the Bears inconsistent offense, we require distance punts more than coffin corner punts. -Don't know if Center is a clear downgrade. Kreutz is getting older every year and has really declined. If you want to argue his leadership contributes to the decline, then maybe I'd consider your argument. -I agree with your 2 marginal starting LBs is better than 1, but go further than that even. According to Bears.com, there are 10 LBs on the training camp roster. 4 are undrafted rookies, 1 is a 6th round pick rookie, 2 have 1 year of practice squad experience, and the other 3 are the starters, Urlacher, Briggs and Roach. I'm almost certain they will get another LB before now and week 1 though. -TE is a downgrade. I would argue that it could be an upgrade when relating to the Bears scheme that doesnt use the TE much, but the TEs we got are horrible blockers too. Who knows. -It's arguable Safety is a downgrade. Manning held his own but he's never going to be an all pro. We've used a 3rd round pick on safety in back to back years, so I'd say there is a decent change Wright or Conte gives them a similar or better performance.

If that guy could ever stay healthy...

It turned out fine, but do we believe that they really knew what they had in Idonije or did the blind squirrel find a nut? I'd like to think they knew what they had, but I'm not that convinced. Peppers really took to Idonije, which is not something the coaching staff could possibly know would happen. They obviously didn't know what they had since Mark Anderson sucked it up for half the season taking the majority of the snaps at the other DE. It turned out fine for them in the end, but it still doesnt mean it wasnt a dumb decision to cut a productive Alex Brown in an uncapped year. There is no other likely reason why they cut him other than cost cutting. i'm showing that anderson started game 1 and then didn't start again. Yeah well you suck. Regardless, I have no problem admitting that the move turned out ok, but my point was that they made the move to offset the cost of the Peppers move. I don't think they were expecting Izzy to necessarily have a career year. They were hoping Mark Anderson could have a monster year with the opponent focusing on stopping Peppers. They certainly could have afforded to keep Brown, they just didn't, and I've yet to hear a reason why except "they didn't want to spend the money on Peppers and Brown." It's not my money but if they can't even spend up to the projected salary cap in an uncapped year, it leaves me wondering why.

If he's contending for the MVP for the first five years of an eight year deal, then I was wrong and I would be down with that. Make it happen! Sarcasm is noticed. Maybe 5 years is a bit of a stretch, and I understand that people don't stay in peak form until age 38 anymore, but Pujols is such a fantastic hitter with an approach that can keep him highly productive despite a decline in bat speed. Hank Aaron: .928 career OPS, .906 OPS ages 35-42 Babe Ruth: 1.164 career OPS, 1.116 OPS ages 35-40 Stan Musial: .976 career OPS, .893 OPS ages 35-42 Ted Williams: 1.116 career OPS, 1.102 OPS ages 35-41 Now I realize these are different eras we are talking about and its much harder to get away with declining bat speed in this era (its obviously hard to measure the players from the late 80's/90's era) but the point stands that some of the best hitters this game has ever seen have been able to keep it going well into their late 30's. PS I havent read maybe the last 30 pages of this thread, so if this "declining skills" discussion has been had ad nauseum, I am sorry for likely bringing up stuff already discussed. I apologize if that came off as sarcastic. I was just saying that if you are right about that, then I will be way wrong and would love for that to happen. No disrespect intended. I didn't take it as disrespect. I just thought you were implying that you highly doubt he'll be competing for an MVP for the next 5 years.

That's a blockbuster. Interesting trade. i'm pretty thrilled about it. kolb wasn't going to play, so we basically got a second round pick and a CB who made the pro bowl in 2009 for nothing. I think it was an obviously great trade for Philly, but Vick isn't invincible... didnt he miss a good amount of time last year with a broken shoulder? Any other injuries? Now your backup is Vince Young, arguably much worse than Kolb. I guess what I'm saying is, saying that you got those things "for nothing" is not quite the truth. And now I sit back and hope that Vick goes down before playoffs and Young blows it in the NFC title game vs. the Cards. :wink: There's definitely an opportunity cost here, but anytime someone is willing to send you a pro bowl caliber CB for your backup QB, that's pretty much a no brainer, unless you don't believe in your starting QB. Vince Young is not a superstar, but he's no Todd Collins either. Plus I think he would be running a similar offense since they both have scrambling ability and strong arms. I gotta think that having the ability to bring in your backup and not have to change your gameplan mid-game has to be a big positive for the Eagles, since chances are Vick will miss at least a little bit of action this year.

If he's contending for the MVP for the first five years of an eight year deal, then I was wrong and I would be down with that. Make it happen! Sarcasm is noticed. Maybe 5 years is a bit of a stretch, and I understand that people don't stay in peak form until age 38 anymore, but Pujols is such a fantastic hitter with an approach that can keep him highly productive despite a decline in bat speed. Hank Aaron: .928 career OPS, .906 OPS ages 35-42 Babe Ruth: 1.164 career OPS, 1.116 OPS ages 35-40 Stan Musial: .976 career OPS, .893 OPS ages 35-42 Ted Williams: 1.116 career OPS, 1.102 OPS ages 35-41 Now I realize these are different eras we are talking about and its much harder to get away with declining bat speed in this era (its obviously hard to measure the players from the late 80's/90's era) but the point stands that some of the best hitters this game has ever seen have been able to keep it going well into their late 30's. PS I havent read maybe the last 30 pages of this thread, so if this "declining skills" discussion has been had ad nauseum, I am sorry for likely bringing up stuff already discussed.