UMFan83

Hasn't DeWitt pretty much been a left handed Theriot clone?

Thanks guys, didn't realize you could listen to full shows on their site. This is awesome. Edit: "Well then you are fired from sports"

Jeez. If that is the kind of season that loses you money, with 41 sellouts of the biggest arena in the NHL (i think), ridiculous amounts of merchandise sales, 11 home playoff games and a Stanley Cup, then either the Hawks are greatly in trouble as an organization or the NHL CBA really really sucks.

I completely agree with the iffiest team designation. They Bears wouldn't surprise me if they went 12-4, but they wouldn't surprise me if they went 4-12 either. I lean more towards the latter than the former, but not by much...if I had to predict I'd say 8-8.

It only costs them 6 million to keep him next season. Shouldn't everyone not named Castro and maybe Pence be available off of that roster? The Astros don't rebuild. They probably think with Happ instead of Oswalt they save money, get a pitcher who can be decent and hopefully things fall into place and they can contend next year. No one else believes that but they've never had the guts to just dismantle their team. At this point though, I don't see many players outside of Myers that would give them much value. Berkman is old and not the player he was a couple of years ago so his value is much lower. Lee is having a horrific year and makes way too much money to get anything good for him. Pence has value but would you trade a cheap young asset like that? Maybe.

Didn't we do it for cap purposes? Oh well. I'm interested to see what Wootton can do, hopefully he'll get playing time behind Anderson. Last I checked there is no cap this year. That's what annoyed me about it. You make a big improvement in signing Peppers, and then you do away with a lot of your gain by getting rid of Brown. Brown was no star, but he was a really solid player who did good things. I do like Wootton a lot too...or at least am excited to see how he does. Hopefully he can make contributions this season. Just because there is no cap, doesn't mean there is a lack of financial responsibility. They got rid of Alex to save money. I dunno, the Bears have been called cheap for years, and it seems like they make more than enough money to handle Brown's contract, if they are really "going for it". But it's not my money so I guess I shouldn't hold it against them.

Whatever happens, I'll be pretty upset if we trade him just to trade him and get less than we would if he signs elsewhere in the offseason. Not sure who is at fault for not getting a deal done sooner, as there were a lot of decent pitchers out there this deadline, but it would suck to see Hendry make an Izturis like trade at this point.

Didn't we do it for cap purposes? Oh well. I'm interested to see what Wootton can do, hopefully he'll get playing time behind Anderson. Last I checked there is no cap this year. That's what annoyed me about it. You make a big improvement in signing Peppers, and then you do away with a lot of your gain by getting rid of Brown. Brown was no star, but he was a really solid player who did good things. I do like Wootton a lot too...or at least am excited to see how he does. Hopefully he can make contributions this season.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/07/lovie-says-bears-will-blitz-more.html Wait he's saying that they will be able to blitz more because the front 4 will provide pressure? Shouldn't that mean you need to blitz less? I'd feel a lot better about the D-line had we kept Alex Brown. I'm still extremely disappointed that we cut him for basically no reason.

Wow...Jay Cutler looks surly in that photo. Who'd a thunk it?

I would pay money to hear a tape of this. When B+B find them selves on the right side of an argument with morons, it's just classic radio. It's pretty much the opposite of Dave Kaplan having an argumetn with callers. Because he's usally the one with the ridiculous argument.

Isn't it weird that within the last ~365 days the Phillies have been able to trade for Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Roy Oswalt?

Did you know Cutler had 19 TDs and 3 INTs in games where he threw more TDs than INTs (7 games) and had 3 TDs and 18 INTs in games where he threw more INTs than TDs (6 games). Yeah, that stat is just as pointless as some of the others.

Here's what I think.... Valid points, but being the Bears best WR over the last 2 seasons isn't really saying much. That said, he's definitely been a better receiver than he is treated. I don't think he's a 1 or 2 receiver on a good offense but a pretty good number 3 would be fair. As a 1, he disappeared for long stretches of games, suggesting that he wasn't getting open/wasn't running his routes crisply. He did have some solid games at the beginning of the year last year where we was really making himself visable though. And not just as a deep threat, but over the middle as well. Still frustrates me to no end that he made that extra cut in the open field late in the Atlanta game that I am convinced if he doesn't make, he's gone for a game tying TD. Well I think that Cutler is the type of QB that has his spots and has to hit his spots to be the most effective QB he can be. Grossman was the same way. If you don't have Cutler throwing to spots on the field, he probably becomes extremely conservative dumping off to flats and trying to find the TE. You saw Cutler in some games trying to force everything to the TE because his receivers weren't getting open. But the lack of running game the Bears had last year killed them as well as the opponsing D would constantly only put 4 in the box and 7 out to defend the pass. Bottom line though, there has to be a trust between Cutler and his receivers, or the offense simply isn't going to work. And Martz is only going to make Cutler throw to spots on the field move, as his offense is predicated on making precise routes and throwing the ball before cuts are made. No but I think one thing that hurts the WRs on the Bears (in addition to no running game leaving 7 defenders out in the passing game), is the fact that they have no number 1 receiver to command extra attention out there. In fact they don't even have a receiver can get hot during a given game and demand attention.

Geez there is only around $1.5 million left on Lilly's deal. I can understand the Mets not wanting to do it because at present time they are 1 game over .500 and Lilly isn't going to push them over the edge to get back in the race. But the other teams should have no problem paying $1.5 m and give us a prospect of some sorts.

Yeah however they may be bad, but they've pushed Ethier, Kemp, Loney, Martin, Billingsley, Broxton, and Kershaw through their system over the last 5 years.

Maybe maybe not. But I think there is a very fine line between elite KRs and good ones. Hester was arguably the best kick returner ever for a 2 year stretch. But he was as great as he was because he was a threat to score a TD every time he returned a kick. However when he isn't breaking touchdowns, I don't think he's really much better of a returner than Manning. With TDs, he's incomparably better. He hasn't broken a TD in 2 seasons...so it's a tough call.

I must have missed something in this thread. The talks with the Astros are about Oswalt right? The Astros better get a better headliner than Happ. Oswalt has another year on his deal right? I'd think he'd be a bit more valuable than Lilly.

The Bears have to keep saying he is learning to become a receiver when he screws up constantly because for some stupid reason Angelo gave Hester a new contract mostly predicated on the fact that he would become at least a number two receiver. I think he knows the plays, he just doesn't have the offensive skills it takes to get open, find holes, and so forth. He just isn't smart and he doesn't have great hands and is afraid to go over the middle and get hammered. I don't care how good Daniel Manning is, Hester is best used taking all the returns and kickoffs. The Bears had the best field position in the NFL when Hester had those two great years. This offense would thrive on that. What a weapon Hester used to be. Lovie screwed up big time. I'd love to move Hester back to full time PR/KR and use him as a 4th receiver, but I'm not 100% sure how much of Hester's lack of impact had to do with too much concentration on being a receiver, how much is a worse special teams unit in front of him, and how much of it is 4 years in the NFL taking a toll on his ability. It's probably a little of all 3.

Prediction: Martz successfully designs an offense to fit Cutler's strengths, he has a good (but not great) season and everyone assumes that he's finally figured it out and hit his potential. Which, in a way, he will have. In terms of very basic stats, I'm thinking 63% cmp%, 27 TD 17 INT 7.8 YPA

Overall the Pirates and Astros are a combined 77-123 (.385 winning %) Cubs are 0-8 in series against the Pirates and Astros (1 sweep, 7 lost 2 of 3) Overall the Cubs are 7-17 against the Pirates and Astros and have been outscored 107-84.

If Cincinnati and St. Louis play .500 ball the rest of the way, then all the Cubs have to do is play at a 107 win pace from here on out. They are done. 41-21 is doable! Ok, or not.. The problem is the fact that there are 2 teams way ahead of the Cubs. If there were just 1, I'd still think it's doubtful but its a lot more likely for one team playing at a 90 win pace all year to randomly play .500 ball the last 60 games of the season than 2 teams playing around a 90 win pace falling to that level. And then that's without considering the Cubs playing better than they did in 2008 for 37% of the season.

I think I made it pretty clear that it's ok for him to want to be a starter. I just said it wasn't smart of him to publically state that his aim is to be a starter when the team you are trying to sign with has already reportedly had concerns about him accepting a role player type position with the team. Unless the quotes were taken out of context, I guarantee you that his quotes were not received well in the Bulls org. And that's what I was saying. Jeez you jump to conclusions without even reading other posts. That's still a ridiculous conclusion, and yes, you're a crybaby, as anyone who's read even just two posts by you about any of the teams you cry over. Any player's goal should be to be a starter. It's asinine to expect someone to say otherwise. In what universe do you dwell where you expect players to come out and say "yeah, I really think my ceiling is being a bench player." Did you get wood when Corey Patterson said he thought he'd make a great #6 hitter? He doesn't have to say anything if he wants a job with the Bulls. You are a gigantic doucebag and are part of the reason why half the people that used to post on this forum no longer do.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/n ... id=5412508 Shocker. I guess I wasn't being a crybaby afterall.