UMFan83

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 know people are scared with a Soriano like situation happening with along contract with Pujols. I get that. But the fact is Pujols is light years better than Soriano at the peaks of their careers. Pujols has patience and discipline that Soriano could only dream of. I wouldn't be surprised if Pujols' OPS+ would be better at 38 than Soriano in his best season. Looking at similar batters to Pujols. First of all, Albert Belle of all people is #1, but since he didn't play into his mid 30's: #2. Hank Greenberg. Played until he was 36. In his age 36 season, he had a 131 OPS+ and a 3.1 WAR. The season before he had a 162 OPS+ and a 6.6 WAR. #3 Johnny Mize. Played until he was 40. In his age 39 and 40 seasons, he had OPS+'s of 110 and 100. Sure a far cry from his career 158, but still a slightly above league average hitter at age 40. Unfortunately, #4,5,6,7,9,10 were all steroid era hitters, and #8 was Chuck Klien, but regardless, although its not the smartest thing ever to pay a 40 year old guy 30 million, I don't expect him to combine for a 1.2 WAR over 3 seasons when he's 38-40 like Soriano has so far from 33-35. And in the meantime he will be contending for the MVP for probably (hopefully) the first maybe 5 years of the deal.

This pisses me off because it's so true. The McCaskey's sure seem lax this year. You would think an owner would be so hellbent on fielding the best team they could... Even last year when we made that FA splash and signed Peppers. What did we do right after? Cut Alex Brown...in an uncapped year. For what? Not saying Brown is a Pro Bowler, but he's a solid consistent performer. No surprise that we struggled at DE all year, and traded his replacement, Mark Anderson, midseason. There was no reason to cut brown. We took 2 steps forward and 1 step back. But of course the news didn't go into that angle and praised the McKaskeys for not being cheap in an uncapped year. The funny thing is, I don't think they even reached what the cap would have been if there was one last year. That said, they aren't super cheap, I know they are usually somewhere around 1st-2nd in the division in payroll.

I dont understand why people want or think they will sign another WR. The WR group is fine, assuming that we're stuck taking a risk on Roy Williams. I mean if we had to spend money just to spend it and WR was the most efficient use of our money, then I'm fine with it because I like Floyd way more than Roy Williams. But it's not going to happen.

Bears are sure targeting winners this offseason. Awesome about Izzy. I've always thought he was really underrated. If I would have any confidence of him being around more than another couple of years, I'd consider buying an Izzy jersey. But it would probably end up at the back of my closet next to my Nathan Vasher and Brendan Ayenbadejo jerseys. Edit: Briggs is 4th worst at tackling for LBs, and Daniel Manning is 2nd best for DBs. Yay. Peanut is 7th though.

So are the Bears really prepared to head into the season well under the cap (which they'll be even with a Forte extension)

Rose Richardson Deng Mirotic Noah 6 in 8 baby (Rose takes 2 years off to play Major League Lacrosse) Man I miss the NBA, and its only still a typical offseason.

Wait, I am moderately high on Webb, but not as the LT. The most important position on the line will be filled by a raw 2nd year 7th round pick.

Gotta love any stat that lists Jay Cutler as "Below Average" and groups him with such studs as Shaun Hill, Jason Campbell, Matt Hasselbeck, Chad Henne, Donovan McNabb, Sam Bradford and Alex Smith.

lol Lee hit a home run off Z

LH SP Part of evaluating him these last two months should be to see if he can hit LHP. Tell me what we gain from having Reed starting? As of about a week ago, Quade was still talking about winning the division this year. It will take a hell of a lot more than 20 games under .500 for him to play anything but his best out there.

What next, a weighted OPS stat that factors in clutch hitting?

[expletive] him, he killed our championship dreams. What next, Derrick Lee and Juan Pierre joining the Cubs?

Plus you know that will fool this [expletive] organization into believing we just got off to a poor start this year because of injuries, and we are so close to being awesome. Going even .500 over the rest of the season would be suicide for the 2012 season.

So we signed the worst pass blocking tight end in the league last offseason to be our blocking TE. He predictably sucked as the Bears (only some credit goes to Malelelaufgshsdbgrma) led the league in sacks allowed. Then this offseason we cut him, and trade away the best pass catching tight end we have, who also sucks at pass blocking, for someone only marginally better but still among the worst in the league at pass blocking who is not known as a very adept pass catcher. Wow, what the hell are we doing? At first I thought, oh of course the numbers are skewed, our line sucked last year and we gave up a ton of sacks. Then I saw the 3 year numbers. Oops

Regarding the game, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I don't think we got embarrassed necessarily, but there's no doubt who controlled a majority of the game. The start of the game when both teams are fired up, you have the prideful Bears D going up against the awesome Packers offense with the crowd going nuts and the Packers basically cruise down the field with almost no resistance for TDs on the first 2 possessions. That was a slap in the face the players, and the fans, never really recovered from. I have no idea what if anything the Packers did schematically after that point but the Packers offense didn't score after that 2nd possession. Granted they had multiple sustained drives that led to a red zone INT and a couple inexplicable punts, the 2nd of which caused to turn to the Packer fan behind me and say, "I now understand why u guys hate McCarthy", but the defense did a really good job overall, most importantly when we scores to make it 14-7, the defense came up with 2 consecutive 3 and outs to give the Bears 2 possessions to tie it. Then after the TD to make it 21-14, the Packer really could have run the clock to a point where a tying drive would be nearly impossible but the D got them the ball back. Trust me at that point the Packers fans at Soldier Field were not thinking about how much they were embarrassing us. Anyway, it's really hard to argue that the 2010 Bears were as good as their accomplishments. No doubt about it, the Bears caught a [expletive] of Breaks. Statistically the 3rd worst offense in the NFL with the piss poor OL and the tiny group of unproven receivers somehow made the NFC title game and hosted it. But at the end of the day they were a team that won a couple of close games they probably didn't deserve to win early and somehow were able to improve to the point where people legit took them serious.

They were down 14-0 early and for most of the game, as soon as they made it somewhat interesting they were down by 14 points again. And then were down by 7 with 3 minutes left and a first down inside the 30...oh wait nevermind Lovie called a TO and then Martz called a WR screen on 3rd and 1. On second thought, I change my opinion. Very embarassing.

They were down 14-0 early and for most of the game, as soon as they made it somewhat interesting they were down by 14 points again. And then were down by 7 with 3 minutes left and a first down inside the 30...oh wait nevermind Lovie called a TO and then Martz called a WR screen on 3rd and 1.

I [expletive] hate everyone. They forgot to mention how lazy he is.

Most people think the score was a lot closer than the game was because Rodgers was intercepted by Urlacher in the end zone, and I think 2 different times the Packers opted to punt from at or inside the Bears 40. And then another interception before halftime that was on the Bears side of the field. That said, the defense really did a good job on Rodgers after the 1st quarter, and if the Bears hadn't waited 2.5 quarters to mount an offense, and/or if Hanie didn't throw one right at Raji, we could have won that game. I mean jeez, the fact that we were 30 yards away from tying the game with 2 minutes left despite a ton of stuff going wrong for us including having to play most of the 2nd half and make up a 14 point defecit with our 3rd string QB, says a lot.

DEADLINE LOSERS:

I still don't think the OL will be horrible this year. They won't be great but better than last year. I really think they should have picked up someone, at worst for depth. But the reason I am optimistic for the line this year is because of several assumptions I have made. 1) Chris Williams is settling into his G position and while won't be a pro bowl caliber OL, he will be a consistent starter from here on out. 2) I believe Gabe Carimi will be able to start and hold his own from day 1. Not saying he's going to be spectacular on day 1, but he won't have the wild inconsistency issues that Williams had. 3) Webb is a legit prospect, and again, won't be a superstar, but will be improved on last year and eventually a solid piece. I worry about Garza but he seems like he's going the other way, and I don't know what to think of Spencer and the loss of Kreutz. I know no other center but Olin. I wouldnt be surprised if this line ends up in the 15-20 range in FO's run and pass blocking stats. The issues will be if/when there are injuries, because honestly, I have no idea who backs these dudes up. Is Frank Omiyle still on the team? I also recognize if one of those 3 assumptions above don't come true, we could be looking at problems.

Time to see how valuable Kreutz was to the locker room. I'm willing to bet his teammates thought he was an [expletive] but tolerated his "leadership"

I am almost certain that other baseball executives are laughing at the Cubs ineptitude. Some of the things this team does so against the grain of rational thinking. I've learned that bad teams don't drive away fans, bad organizations do.

Yeah probably until this offseason or next years trade deadline please, do explain The Indians, after a hot start, have gone 22-36 since then. They probably aren't that good, and will likely eventually learn that themselves, and when they realize that and realize that Ubaldo has the most value on their team, they will probably put him back on the market again. why do the yankees have an advantage over other teams in acquiring him via trade? I never said they did, just that he'll be available to the Yankees and other teams.