UMFan83

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.

Save it for the Bears/Packers game threads, or maybe the Bulls Season thread sometime in November or December.

I remember Dodger fans being pretty excited about him around the time of our playoff series against them 2 years ago. It wasn't as much "He's the next Chase Utley" as much as it was "here is another reason why the future is bright with our club, he should be our starter for the next 10 years".

That will change everything! But seriously, I'm not in love with, nor do I really dislike the song. I say the more tradition the better. Seperates us from any other generic baseball club, much like our historic streak of championshipless futility does. I suppose we should worry about changing that tradition first.

Can't argue Kosuke because we all wanted him. But that contract looks like an eyesore now. Soriano's contract is historically bad in both years and amount, regardless of the economy. I can't imagine how much worse it would be without the value adding NTC that you speak of. Z may have given us a hometown discount, but you can easily question whether it was smart to resign Z to a long term contract at that point. I probably supported the move at the time but many people questioned it on the day it was signed due to the work that has been put on his arm, his attitude and his decreasing numbers (ERAs the last 4 seasons until his extension: 2.75, 3.26, 3.41, 3.95). I think Hendry would definitely consider an alternative route had he been able to do it over again. Also you don't point out how Milton Bradley got a 3 year 30 million dollar deal, despite having the worst numbers against RHP (the targeted area of need for this signing) than Ibanez and Dunn. Dunn absoutely embarrasses RHP over his career, and he signed for less money and years with a shittier team after publically pining for the Cubs. But Hendry went with Bradley despite the off the field and injury issues and despite the fact he hits much better vs. lefties than righties, because Bradley was more versatile, something Hendry was hot for (and probably still is). And I'm not even mentioning how Hendry was rumored to have outbid himself for Bradley (similar to the rumors he did the same for Maddux and Soriano in the past). I'm not sure what we are really arguing about anymore, because its slowly turning into pro-Hendry vs. anti-Hendry and you're next post will somehow be about the good signings Hendry has made in his defense. I don't hate Hendry as much as some, although I do greatly dislike him and do not think he should be in charge of the next rebuild because I don't trust him to spend our money properly.

A Red Wings fan in my office was nice enough to (excitedly) point out that Turco has a 1-9-2 career record at Joe Louis Arena.

I don't know what you want him to say. He could say nothing at all, but I think he's going the old "floating in positivity instead of drowning in negativity" route.

Scott Eyre gave the Cubs a 4.03 ERA in 148 appearances for the Cubs and Howry gave the Cubs a 3.90 ERA in 234 appearances for the Cubs. Considering the variability of relievers, averaging around a 4 ERA for 2 guys over 3 seasons is decent, but I don't see how they should be paid $8 million combined for that performance. Now those contracts didn't stop the Cubs from adding payroll while they were signed, but the original point (which we both agree on lol) is that Hendry should not be given another opportunity to spend a sizable chunk of money on building a team because of examples like this. If he is willing to give Grabow almost $5 million next year to be a setup man with his track record during a time where there is little to no payroll flexibility, I can't imagine him resisting more overpaid relievers in the future. Z, Kosuke and Soriano are largely untradeable at this point because of poor performance/benching. Kosuke may become moreso next year when less of his contract is left, however. Lilly was just traded for a good return and Lee and Aramis have 10/5 rights and we had no real desire (or reason) to trade them before last season. I did forget about Shark, but he's making $2 mil a year. I don't see how the NTCs are keeping us from rebuilding the team if the desire is there. Regardless of NTCs, blowing the team up would not be a particularly good idea anyway. I really don't see the issue. If no player had any type of no trade protection, who would we have traded to this point that we have not and would trading that player have been a good idea? Well we don't really know who would or would not lift their no trade clause if traded because none of them (besides Lee) have gotten to that point. But who knows why? Just because it hasn't hurt them yet doesn't mean it is a smart idea to give everyone NTC. Do we know for a fact that Soriano would OK a trade elsewhere if the Cubs actually found a team to take on some of his deal? Zambrano, as much as he's had with the team this year, I can't say for certain he'd accept a trade somewhere. We know Lee won't, Ramirez might. Even Fukudome I am not sure would accept a trade somewhere. Maybe if it were a big market or maybe Seattle. But he's not oking a trade to lets say Denver most likely. Maybe I'm putting a little too much emphasis on the NTC and not enough on the enormous salary these guys all make. I don't deny that's a huge reason too...probably bigger reason. It's not worth Hendry's times to look for trades where we get 20 cents on the dollar for a player like Fukudome, and pay half his salary, and have to worry about getting all the way down to an agreement and Fukudome nixing the trade.

I like your other one with Leddy in there.