UMFan83

I knew they wouldnt rebuild, although I was hoping they would. Hendry would never have the patience for rebuilding. I honestly would have preferred a rebuild so I could take a real interest in the team again. Watching an underperforming team suck is much worse than watching a young team grow. Yes there are some young players with potential on this team, but too many other reminders of how mismanaged this team is.

Umm...the contract has already been voided and the decision upheld by an arbitrator and all parties have publically moved on. I'm gonna say it's been voided.

There would be a long chain of events that would occur that would end up with Dominick Hasek having to unretire becaue he's back under contract with the Hawks.

I hear Johnny Cueto loathes the Astros.

In all honesty I agree. What is the guy supposed to do, not celebrate winning the Cup? He still put in the hours of practice, still played decent in the first part of the season as the Hawks charged out to a fast start. Still practiced and put in the hours getting himself ready if needed. Just because we didn't see him on TV doesn't mean he isn't a deserving part of the team.

An article on ESPN.com (insider) seems to suggest that the NHL is going to go after Luongo and Hossa's contracts since they've now voided Kovalchuk's deal. I can't see how they would manage to void a contract that was signed a year ago and they supposedly investigated and allowed back then, but there are already reports they are looking into Lu's deal, and I think Hossa's deal is a bit outrageous. Second question....as much as I love Hossa and appreciate his help in winning the Cup, would you be really that upset if the deal was voided?

One thing's certain - you earned it big guy.

Wow 5 walks in 2.1 innings for Z so far huh? Ted Lilly used to go a month without walking 5 batters

I've been counting down the days until the Bears first preseason game for God sakes. And preseason football is boring as hell. I just want something else to look forward to in my sporting life.

Am I the only one that thinks in general sports teams fire managers too quickly? I thought Wakamatsu had some potential.

After a little internet digging, there seem to be 17 city specific interleague matchups that have no occured yet. Strangely enough Cubs @ Red Sox may not even be the most compelling matchup that hasn't occured yet. The Dodgers still have not visited the Bronx and taken on the Yankees since whenever their last WS against each other was (1981 i believe), despite the Yanks having 2 series over the years in LA. Here are all 17 matchups that supposedly haven't been played as of the end of the 2010 season: 1. Cincinnati @ Baltimore. (WS rematch) 2. St. Louis @ Baltimore. 3. Chicago Cubs @ Boston. (WS rematch) 4. Atlanta @ Kansas City. 5. St. Louis @ LA Angels. 6. LA Dodgers @ NY Yankees. (WS rematch) 7. Milwaukee @ NY Yankees. 8. Chicago Cubs @ Oakland. (sort of WS rematch, but it was Phila A's) 9. Milwaukee @ Seattle. (How have they not had a Pilots vs. Mariners matchup yet?) 10. Houston @ Toronto. 11. San Diego @ Toronto. 12. Minnesota @ Atlanta. (WS rematch) 13. Tampa Bay @ LA Dodgers. 14. Oakland @ Milwaukee. 15. Tampa Bay @ Milwaukee. 16. Chicago White Sox @ NY Mets. 17. Texas @ St. Louis.

The best was when he was in the stands and used that mirror to reflect sunlight into Holliday's eyes during that playoff game last year.

Thought it was interesting to see that our old preseason friend Mike Haas is on the Seahawks training camp roster. I hope that somehow he makes the team so that he gets a chance to prove or unprove himself in the regular season.

Seriously. I thought he was going to take it to another level this year. I guess I was right in that respect.

No but he's a nice piece for us to have off the bench, so he's pretty valuable to this particular team, which is why it's tough to trade him. Our frontcourt would be paper thin without Taj.

1-5 homestand? Nice!

And supposedly TMac signed with the Pistons.

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.