UMFan83

Apparently Sammy Sosa had an exclusive interview with Chicago Magazine and had some critical things to say about the Cubs organization. All I can find is an excerpt of the article on the magazine's website, but the full interview is in this month's magazine, on newsstands right now. Here is the excerpt: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/September-2010/Sammy-Sosa-Speaks-Out-Against-the-Chicago-Cubs/ Interesting stuff. I figured enough time had passed where the inevitable reconciliation between Sosa and the Cubs would start to materialize, but I guess that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

Guys, I'm starting to think that we might not win it all this year.

At least our former star didn't embarrass us!

I believe I read that maximum sentence is 5 years in jail. So if the prosecutors were looking to send a message that's more or less where they would go. I exaggerated on the 30 year number. If the prosecutors are more concerned with just getting a conviction, I think its much more likely to see Clemens accept a plea bargin and settle for 6-12 months of jail plus a big fine. I have a hard time seeing a scenario where Clemens pleads not guilty, especially if that 98% conviction rate posted above is accurate. That tells me that the prosecution has significant evidence that will get Clemens convicted.

Fine, but what a thread like this tells me more than anything is that there's a growing feeling out there that Ricketts isn't particularly engaged, when we hoped he would be. I'll still withhold final judgement, but I agree a raised eyebrow or two is appropriate at this juncture. Maybe not engaged, but certainly not the hands-on type of owners they presented themselves to be when they first bought the team. I think on a scale of Moreno to Loria, they're not distinguishing themselves as anything but middle of the road so far. True, but you could probably still make the argument that they are in the evaluation stage until this offseason. If their plan was to have a mostly hands off approach for one season to observe and evaluate where the Cubs are at and what needs to be improved, then it would make sense that they've been so out of the spotlight. But yeah I did expect to see more involvement at this point, although I personally can't think of many instances where their involvement would have changed things all that much.

I'm willing to bet the exact opposite. The government is not going to lay down in such a high-profile case. Maybe your right. My thought was that they aren't going to lay down in terms of getting a conviction, but I just can't see Clemens getting like 30 years in jail. I don't think the sentence length is as important as getting a guilty plea from Clemens. For a celebrity/athlete, I feel like any jail time sends a stern message to them that lying under oath is not going to go unpunished.

For his sake, I hope someone knocks some sense into him. If he continues this "I did nothing wrong I will prove that all these allegations are lies" rampage that is equal parts denial and ego, he's gonna be in jail for awhile. Unless for some reason Clemens wasn't lying which is highly highly doubtful, no one believes him, no one is willing to wait for him to be proven not guilty to judge his career, and he's not gonna beat the government. There is no reason why he shouldn't take a plea bargin and just get this over with. I'm willing to bet his status will provide him with pretty leinient plea bargin terms.

I dunno our first round pick was somewhere around the 200th best prospect on most people's draft boards. Maybe Wilken really loves him, but he probably could have gotten him a round or two later. So why was he picked in the 1st round? I'm not knowledgeable enough about those things to say definitively but on the surface it looks like they were trying to limit their spending in the draft.

It's an interesting discussion you bring up, although to refer to Ricketts, or what we've seen of him so far as a continuation of the Tribune era isn't fair in my opinion. I wish I had answers, but the impression I get just based on words that were said, and things that have been done is that the Ricketts paid a little more than they expected/could handle, and don't seem to have a lot of extra money available to do much. So I'm guessing their goal is to bring payroll down to like 110 million and build a team that relies equally from its farm system and free agents/trades. But then again, you hear things from Hendry that we're only a couple of moves away, so it makes it seem like the Cubs aren't willing to punt any more years, meaning they are going to try the nearly impossible task of building a farm system while trying build a contender at the same time. It's ok for the Red Sox and Yankees to do that. They already have cores that can handle it, not to mention larger payrolls (especially the Yankees). But we're a team whose "core" is old and ending its useful years, so we need a ton of help. We don't have any perrenial all stars on the team, and while we have young talent ready to help out, I feel like other than Castro don't have any potential superstars. Even in 2008, we had a bunch of good and very good guys, but not great guys. Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, Dempster, Zambrano, Lilly, etc.

They've completely given up. I do not think they are this bad of a team. They seem like an 85 loss team not a 95 loss team.

On Monday my manager announced that whichever rep had the best activity numbers by Thursday at noon would be given 2 tickets to todays Cubs game, in section 120 I think. Well this morning at 8am my manager called us into a quasi meeting to discuss why our team's numbers are so unusually low this week. The prospect of going to a Cubs game is now demotivating to the average worker. Yay?

Hopefully the Cubs realize that in his last 51 games (196 PA) this is his line: .211/.272/.433/.705 I'm not saying that he's completely a lost cause as a major leaguer. His slugging especially has been a huge shock to me. But let's not assume that Colvin absolutely HAS to be given a starting job on the 2011 Cubs.

I agree with you, but I should point it it should be "For 6 weeks of half priced Derrek Lee" since we had to pay half his deal and that created extra value to get the return we did.

Ankiel started making the transition from pitcher to hitter at a much younger age. Yes but thus far Owings has had much better hitting numbers than Ankiel ever did when he was a pitcher.

Doesn't deserve to bitch If so, he can opt out if he wants after this season. Should be smart enough to realize this team sucks and has actually completely given up with 2 months to play. Also should realize that Lee and Lilly were gone after the season and Theriot sucks. Can't complain as long as he's making $18 million for 4 more seasons.

I read that Lee is only expected to be a Type B FA anyways.

Well based on their pace (30 one run losses in 120 games), they are on pace for 40.5 one run losses. Rounded up to 41 that's 3rd all time and very respectable.

A couple of national/Canadian writers have pretty much been saying the same things that these Wings bloggers did. Ok, so whats your honest opinion then? I'm not a mod but personally I'll give you immunity from being called a troll. Are we in denial, or are the 'experts' overlooking what remains on the Hawks?

Alright! Former Michigan man. Was Chad Henne's backup until he transfered to Idaho State.

Thats weird that a team would use a TeamQB over like a TeamRB which would come into play a lot more often.

Interesting. Have no idea what we could get for Ramirez at this point.

Jeff George? Chad Huthchinson?

Just trying to look at it from the Red Wings perspective, and as one of them mentioned, despite a horrific year for injuries that crippled them for a couple of months, the Wings managed to close a ton of the gap that seperated them and the Hawks when they got healthy in March/April and despite all that happened finished with the 5 seed and got to the 2nd round of the playoffs. And that was a down year for them. So imagine how much better they will be than a weakened Blackhawks team going against probably a much healthier Wings team. I'm not saying I buy all that, it's just the Devil's Advocate viewpoint.

Sorry to break up your posting spree Fred, but our bullpen is awful

I'm reading Red Wing bloggers thoughts of the Blackhawks/Central Division in general... http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2010/8/16/1625234/red-wings-blogger-roundtable-day-1 Sorry for a bunch of copy paste...I think the responses are very interesting. Obviously there is bias as not only are they competing in the same division but they are also hated rivals who want so badly for the Hawks to fail. I am not sure how on point they are, but they seem to think the Hawks kept their 6 best players and everything else is minor league scrubs. First of all our greatest asset last year was our defense. The Hawks are going to return this year with 5/6 of their top 3 D lines this year, and the player not returning was probably the 5th best defensemen. On offense, the hits are a lot larger, but we are returning our top 2 lines pretty much in entirety, and the 3rd line will have an above average offensive and defensive center, and possibly our top prospect. Where we will fail (besides possible Cup hangover with a young team as pointed out) is the depth of our 3rd and 4th lines, as well as backups to fill in with injuries. I think the Hawks could win the Central but probably won't. But unless Nashville steps it up (which is possible they made decent moves), I can't see the hawks finishing below 2nd.