UMFan83

It's an Ex-Sox and Ex-Cub list. I know, I was just teasing. Technically he is an ex-chicagoan that plays for NY :)

Agreed. They are pretty reliable in that they have a blog for just about every professional and major college program and every one is updated at least a couple of times a week and has a decent fan following so that you can get a decent pulse on what a fan base is thinking/feeling on a given day. Edit: And yes, today's BCB post about which baseball cities would be affected by today's blizzard if there was randomly baseball played on February 1st says all you need to know about that site.

Wow really? That place just got a lot more legit. Thats a bold career move. ESPN for SB Nation. Next thing you know, Buster Olney will leave for Bleacher Report.

Curtis Granderson

I've seen 3 (Black Swan, Social Network and The Kids are Alright) and that's probably my best number in years.

Something has to give when Washington visits Cleveland in a couple of weeks.

Hard to believe a majority (over 50%) of their fans thought they were playoff bound this year, and a smaller number thought they had a chance to win the division. On of their newspaper guys predicted 50 wins for the Cavs this year. Yeah...no.

Yes, because the Chicago media is filled with homers. You're finally catching on. It's just annoying because I want one of them to ask him about it just to see what he says is causing his shooting slump. I love Derrick Rose so much my insides hurt when I think about him. I want to to never miss a shot and score 50 points with 15 assists every night. It pains me when he is struggling with his shot like this. 99% of what you're complaining about every game can be explained by injury/illness/fatigue, no transition game w/o Noah leading to easy baskets, and the offensive black holes at SG and C (more SG than C) that causes Ds to collapse on him. The other 1% of it is Rose losing some of his midrange game by expanding other areas (3s, FTs, defense). And yet we're still winning. Watch if we get JR or Mayo or someone like that after Noah gets back. Rose's FGAs will go down by quite a bit, his per shot efficiency will jump up, and they'll be ready to contend. 99-1? More like 70-30. Rose doesn't have Noah for the transition game but Rose didn't have someone like Boozer to take all the attention off of him last year either. The bottom line is last year Rose led all point guards in midrange FG% and this year its down almost 7%. It's partially compensated by his big increase in 3pt attempts and % but its caused his FG% to go down 5% this year. And of course he makes 4 mid range jumpers in a row as I type this up.

Yes, because the Chicago media is filled with homers. You're finally catching on. Yes, they are. They're some of the folks carrying pitchforks trying to rail Jay Cutler out of town, but alas, they aren't the greatest media in the world (Green Bay). I know this is going back to an argument that was had the week during the NFC title game, but the Chicago media is extremely bipolar. They can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Rose does and says all the right things, and can do no wrong in the eyes of the media. Jay Cutler is guarded and stand offish, so the media is just waiting for him to slip up so they can tear him apart.

Yes, because the Chicago media is filled with homers. You're finally catching on. It's just annoying because I want one of them to ask him about it just to see what he says is causing his shooting slump. I love Derrick Rose so much my insides hurt when I think about him. I want to to never miss a shot and score 50 points with 15 assists every night. It pains me when he is struggling with his shot like this.

whoops, I forgot that sponge can't handle reading about any struggles from Derrick Rose without blowing it wildly out of proportion.

1-7 at halftime and 7-28 for the weekend. He's shooting around 41% in January. And yet the Chicago media refuses to acknowledge that he's in a shooting slump. He's still contributing a ton to this team but he is not elite when he's shooting this poorly, he's "only" at an all star level.

The ASG is in 3 weeks. Let's say Bosh comes back in a week, as speculated. I'm not sure either Bosh or the Heat even want him to play in that game two weeks removed from an injury. Really, I feel the same way about Boozer. He's injured enough, let the guy have a week off. You really think mr. "I just want to be on TV" would pass up an opportunity to play on another all star team as part of the heat trio?

I'm pretty sure Bosh will be back well before the ASG. I would assume he's in.

Who wants to risk a minimum 15 yard penalty, maximum ejection in the NFC title game?

AUGIE! AKA the man on base when Sosa walked off against the Cardinals in September 2003. Edit: Also the man that had a 1.101 OPS in 11 PA's against the Cubs in the 2007 NLDS grrr

I'd love to see what he could put up with a good team. I think he'd still have killer rebounding numbers, but with better options than Beasley and whoever else, I think he'd have trouble maintaining his scoring numbers.

The funny thing is about this whole thing is, despite the claim in that one article that he had tears in his eyes during the post game (a claim that I haven't seen anyone back up), I have to think that Jay Cutler doesn't give a [expletive] about all this crap. That's just Jay. He doesn't care, he'll go to dinner after the game, he'll go walking around LA with his celeb girlfriend who he knows will attract attention. He's just being Jay Cutler, he's playing the game for him and his team and doesn't give a [expletive] about what anyone else thinks or whatever other controverseys popup. If he cared, he'd probably have a knee brace on, or walk with a cane or whatever. But he doesn't even walk with much of a limp. Because he doesn't care if people think he's tough or whatever. He knows he's tough, his teammates know he's tough, his friends know he's tough, and that's good enough for him. At least that's how I imagine things.

Amare's stock has dropped significantly since the Knicks came back to around .500. It's a lot more than Rose vs. Amare though. I think LeBron will be his biggest challenge. I know people won't agree, but I think based on how bad the Cavs are this year, and his jaw dropping numbers , he will be a serious contender, and probably win. I think Rose can win, but I think voters probably prefer not to vote him in if there's another decent candidate in the realm of Rose. The reason being that Rose is young and has time to win MVPs. If someone like Dwight Howard steps up in the 2nd half and puts himself in contention, I think he'll win it. Or Chris Paul or whoever. I would think it will be difficult for Rose to overcome one of the more established names, like LeBron. I could be wrong, obviously. Well the thing is, Rose is getting lots of pub right now as a legitimate MVP contender or even favorite. ESPN has him as the MVP favorite right now, you have people like Barkley calling him the MVP, several other people have jumped on the Rose is an MVP candidate bandwagon. He's gonna get a lot of votes. The hype isn't just coming out of Chicago. But I still think when it comes down to it, like I said above, unless no other candidate steps up, a player that has more years in the league will get it over Rose, with the justification that Rose will get his some day. It's what LeBron went through earlier in his career too.

Ask Paul Pierce how that worked out for him.

I know CB is not super important in Lovie's defensive system, but there are 3 decent to pretty good CB's that should be FAs this offseason. Asomugha is obviously the best of the bunch and not someone we need to set our sights on. But there's also Champ Baily and Antonio Cromartie that are available. The Packers picked on Jennings the entire game and I think I read gained yardage on 9 of the 13 times they threw his way in the NFC title game. He's obviously not the long term answer. I know the Bears are big on Joshua Moore, but if we could get one of those 2-3 guys, it could be quite beneficial for us, and quite the insurance if Peanut retires/leaves/is injured.

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DID IT MENTION STAIRS? Did you read my entire post?

Amare's stock has dropped significantly since the Knicks came back to around .500. It's a lot more than Rose vs. Amare though. I think LeBron will be his biggest challenge. I know people won't agree, but I think based on how bad the Cavs are this year, and his jaw dropping numbers , he will be a serious contender, and probably win. I think Rose can win, but I think voters probably prefer not to vote him in if there's another decent candidate in the realm of Rose. The reason being that Rose is young and has time to win MVPs. If someone like Dwight Howard steps up in the 2nd half and puts himself in contention, I think he'll win it. Or Chris Paul or whoever.

which way to the old information thread? I did not say that Collins' injury was new news. What I wanted to know is whether Lovie knew Collins was injured and took him out for that reason. Would he have stayed with Collins if Todd wasn't hurt? I didn't think that was discussed. If Lovie would have stuck with Collins and only went to Hanie because he was hurt, that decision is really inexcusable in light of what happened at Carolina. you presented two pieces of old information as news. you have a certain principal skinner-iness about you. Old information? The Cutler-steakhouse-stairs news was only reported a few hours before I posted it. No one had commented on Collins' injury as it related to him getting pulled yet. I wasn't aware that I you would get all over me for bringing up an angle about a story that was only a day old. You are just looking for a fight as you usually do. I saw a story about Cutler going out to that restaurant with Kristin Cavalari after the game in the Monday Red Eye. It wasn't until Tuesday that the subject of taking the stairs was reported.