UMFan83

Nooo...trade Zambrano AND Fukudome for Greinke? You're crazy!

Right, as much as we criticize the Bears management, you'd have to assume that they did their due dilligence in investigating every possibility of the FA process and determined through whatever means necessary how feasible every plan was. What resulted was they determined that the Peppers/Taylor/TE dude was the best scenario in terms of impact and feasibility and went hard after it. That said, it's possible they could have felt those 3 minus Brown would somehow be better than Kampman, Rolle, Brown. They probably figured it was very important to get a quality RB to compliment Forte and a strong blocking TE for Martz's offense.

I guess I just don't see how the money Ramirez will get can be redistributed to bring back greater value than an average Ramirez season. Yes he's had a terrible season, but previously he's been by far our most consistent hitter from year to year, having an .898-.926 OPS each of the last 5 seasons. So which is more likely to happen, a 32 year old hitter with is track record having another season like this year, or another season like the 5 previous? I guess part of the answer may lie with how Rammy finishes the season. But I'd be willing to bet his OPS would be somewhere between .875-.915 next year. If you get rid of Aramis, you can utilize his 16.75M salary on multiple pieces, so you could pick up a starter, a RP, and another 3B. But I don't see a lot of suggestions for a 3B that could be more than a halfway decent replacement. And other than Dunn, I don't see many options at any open positions that can replace ARam's .900 OPS year in and year out, this year excepted.

See I'd be ok with Lee leaving for nothing if he had the same contract as Ramirez because he's almost 3 years older than Ramirez. Ramirez you'd expect is still capable of a .900 OPS. Although Lee had a .900 OPS last year, at 35 it becomes much less likely that he's going to live up to the kind of money Ramirez is making. And it's not like Ramirez's contract is crippling the Cubs. If he doesn't opt out, he has what 2 more seasons left? I havent looked too much at the FA market out there but I'd think it's much easier to replace a 1B bat than a 3B bat. If you are letting Ramirez go with the intention of getting a younger run producing 3B, well then I would consider it. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense to give him up for nothing if you want to compete next year.

I don't think I agree with letting ARam go to another team without any compensation.

They are going to ride him for every penny/inning this season. Sorta like the Brewers/Sabathia. Odd that Mike Maddux was the pitching coach for the Brewers back then and now the pitching coach of the Rangers. Wonder if he has any influence.

=D>

I wonder if people think we are farther away or closer to the top of the mountain than we were in 2006? After 2006, I thought we were so far away that nothing we did could get us to the playoffs within 2-3 years. Of course I was wrong, but looking back then, it was depressing because there were really no young players that were ready to come in and take any positions, besides Felix Pie who was 1 year away. The pitching was OK...I think 2006 was the year everyone finally gave up on Prior. Zambrano was still an All-Star caliber ace in most people's minds, so at least we had that. This year, despite the awful year, we've seen Soto rebound to have a very nice year, and we've also seen Castro come up and get a ton of playing time, and so far he has proven that he's gonna be our starting SS for awhile. Colvin meanwhile keeps surprising, and although I still have a hard time believing he's the long term solution, he's still a player with value. On the other side of the ledger, in 06 we could say at least we had 2 cornerstone offensive players in Lee and Ramirez, but in 2010, they are 4 years older, both in their 30's, and Lee is a FA. Also, there is really no one currently in the majors, except maybe Cashner, that projects to be an ace quality or even top of the line number 2 starter. Dempster has been and could be a 2 on a good team but ideally a 3 on a championship contender, Zambrano, assuming a bounce back is a 2 most likely, Wells a 4-5, Silva is a short term fix. The other problem that we have in 10 that we didn't have in 6 is that obviously our payroll is much much higher than in 06...I think close to $60 million higher. And esentially that was the difference maker that allowed the 06 team to rebuild into a playoff team quickly that we just don't have in 10. There are some things to feel positive about, but in this man's opinion we were better off in 06 than right now.

What about the white folks? http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_li9ZnTHkTH4/RpJBasPYqjI/AAAAAAAAAg8/PLWpFoT6CtU/s400/larry_bird_245x325.jpg http://www.lebasketbawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Adam-Morrisson-4.28a.jpg http://scarlett-journey.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/kirk_hinrich.jpg http://silverliningopticians.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/2008_06_rambis.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_N6jO8FvQn4U/R0N8SFn4dUI/AAAAAAAAEfw/7biM7dpEeC4/s320/gheorghe_muresan.jpg

Yeah he definitely priced himself out of opportunities I think. Could be wrong and some team might save him, but I don't think teams are going to pay for the Stanley Cup goalie monkier when many people assumed they would. Niemi played well at times in the playoffs, but on the biggest stage he didn't exactly have his best series for the most part other than like Game 2 and parts of Game 6. It was enough of a performance to get teams interested in him being the starter, but maybe not for $2.75M

One wonders why our offense has been so bad this year. Here is how our starting 8 are projected to finish the season: Tyler Colvin .258 26 HR 60 RBI RF .320 .535 Starlin Castro .318 5 HR 54 RBI SS .364 .458 Derrek Lee .252 18 HR 78 RBI 1B .337 .393 Aramis Ramirez .223 27 HR 87 RBI 3B .275 .426 Marlon Byrd .316 15 HR 71 RBI CF .378 .471 Alfonso Soriano .263 29 HR 87 RBI LF .326 .522 Geovany Soto .286 24 HR 73 RBI C .398 .519 Blake DeWitt .276 3 HR 57 RBI 2B .353 .386

I love how the new ESPN angle is "Crazy old Brett Favre fooled us again. Guess he's not gonna retire afterall" when it should be "previously distinguised news organization jumps the gun and bases 20 hours of continuous coverage on a false report"

Somebody's lying then. His teammates don't have any reason to. The only person who does is him. And there are two potential reasons: more money or more attention. What an [expletive]. I would laugh if it was all a prank by Jared Allen and Pat Williams just to see everyone freak out. Really though, all of the reports only mentioned that the text said "This is it" which is incredibly vague and could give plausible deniability for everyone. I wonder if the "This is it" text was followed by a picture message of his dick.

/gvillecub'd

Yeah but CubsBearsMagic is probably considering that he believes the Bears are better than 2 years ago as well, and good enough to make up the 1 game gap they had 2 seasons ago.

OMG Cutler threw directly at some small kids?

Just another strike against ESPN for this bs. So, as I understand it, a reporter overhears a couple of Vikings players taking about Favre sending them texts saying he's retiring, and that reporter reports it. ESPN picks up on it, dedicates 75% of its TV coverage to it, as well as plenty of articles on ESPN.com. Now it seems like the rumor wasn't legit. If the report is proven to be untrue, ESPN is a pathetic organization.

Because its funny reading uninformed people act like they are informed.

I could read and post these all day. This is why Facebook and Twitter is bad for people. Everyone thinks they are experts since they have a soapbox.

I don't know what I said wrong but I believe you when you imply I did.

Oh and the Cubs tied a franchise record by giving up 26 hits tonight. They are a record setting team these 2010 Cubs.

Rosenbloom is supposed to be pretty knowledgeable with regards to hockey.

Have we played a preseason or playoff game in Oakland?

lol, the Brewers put up a crooked number in 5 of the last 6 innings of the game. That's hard to do. Almost as hard as having 4 hits in the game and having them all be doubles.

Apparently the Bulls and Knicks are poised to square off on XMas day at MSG this upcoming year. No this is not 1996, its happening in 2010.