UMFan83

It was somewhat believable. Dropped below Colvin in the Cubs OF depth chart, the Cubs looking for a taker for a player who is a AAAA player at the moment and can't get enough ABs to prove himself. Going to the Yankees was the only questionable part.

Probably bigger than Red Sox-Yankees at this point due to recent playoff battles. Red Sox-Yankees is just a traditional rivalry anyways.

Capitalize on our futility! Who would do such a thing??

The first week of the season last year was on Sunday Night baseball. It was the game in Milwaukee where Reed Johnson robbed Prince Fielder of a grand slam in a game the Cubs would win. In 2008, on opening day on Monday, in Wrigley, vs Sheets. Yeah he said Sunday night though, which is more significant in prestige because it's the only game actually going on at the time and its their designated "game of the week"

I don't see why it's that outrageous to pick the Reds to win the Central with all their young talent. Imagine if Cueto pitches all year like he's shown flashes, Volquez is healthy and picks up where he left off in 08, Chapman comes up and pitches well, Jay Bruce plays like a he has in every other level of baseball he's been in, Votto doesn't have any anxiety disorders, Rolen provides solid defense and slightly revitalized hitting. That's a lot of ifs, but I don't think any of those are really outrageous. You also have to accept the premise that people get bored of picking the Cardinals to win and want to go out on a limb for their prediction. I would say that the Reds are just about as likely as the Cubs to win the division IMO.

Yes they could but don't discount the fact that the Astros are never sellers, and if they are within 10 games of .500 they will probably make moves at the deadline to fight for 4th or 5th place. The Pirates on the other hand, will definitely sell if they are in that position, not caring if they finish last again as long as they stay on their rebuilding plan.

We actually win! 101 points! A nice decisive win in the arena were this whole crap started back in January.

Also, if anyone wants to feel better, I noticed today that the Red Wings went through a stretch at almost the same juncture of the 07-08 season where they went 1-8-2 (I'm sure people remember this). How did they recover? By winning the Stanley Cup. Now we don't have years of playoff successes to keep our confidence high, but we do have the experience of making the WCF last year to motivate the team and keep their confidence high through a horrid stretch. The more I actually think about it, the more optimistic I get.

I've had that for Bulls games. I don't think it matters, I think it's just for tracking how many SROs have been sold. I've never had to sit somewhere else because I had the wrong kind of SRO, nor have I ever had to show my ticket to anyone once I'm standing in the SRO section of the UC. BTW, have we completely lost interest? 2-0 Hawks through the 2nd period.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/03/bears-angelo-might-move-up-to-draft-safety.html Where is Nate Allen projected to be drafted? This is only a blog write-up but it's pretty comprehensve about him: http://www.voodoofive.com/2010/03/02/2010-nfl-draft-profiles-nate-allen-fs/

Over the coming days, there are probably going to be a lot of websites, media outlets, and publications listing predictions for the Cubs and MLB as a whole. Rather than have 50 threads with titles like "OMG Karl Ravech has Cubs finishing 5th", I thought it'd be nice to have them all in one place like we have in the past. So I'll start.... http://espn.go.com/mlb/preview10/team/_/name/chc ESPN.com's "pundits" predict how the Cubs will finish in the NL Central. Only Bobby Valentine considers last year to be a bump in the road and has us reclaiming the NL Central crown. 3 others have us finishing 2nd, while 2 others (Ravech and Boone) have us presumably falling behind the Brewers, Reds and I guess either the Astros or Pirates and finishing 5th. 4th I can see but 5th? Of course I don't think anyone picked us to finish 6th in 2006, so whatever. What else is out there?

The first week of the season last year was on Sunday Night baseball. It was the game in Milwaukee where Reed Johnson robbed Prince Fielder of a grand slam in a game the Cubs would win.

No disrespect to Billy (and Ernie), but when are we going to have a statue of a Cub who has played even 1 playoff game for this franchise? We're enshrining career losers. I mean I guess that's the argument people have to keep Santo out of the hall, but the Hall has already opened up the floodgates for membership. I feel like statues are something that only the cornerstones of your franchise's history should be. Picking 2 great players who played together and led mostly miserably bad or mediocre teams is an odd choice in my book. But I don't want to take away from the honor that Billy Williams is receiving, good for him and congrats.

LOL, unrelated note but I just went to Cardstalk to see what they are discussing (always fun) and some of their notable topics include: (paraphrased) -When will the Cards clinch the NL Central -OMG Buster Onley picks someone other than the Rockies to win the NL! -OMG Buster Onley doesn't include the Cardinals in their top 5 lineups in baseball

Anyone get tickets? I got 2 tickets to Games 2 and 3 of the first round. If they get to the second round, I didn't bother. I don't have enough liquidity right now to spend another $150 to see if they actually make it. If they were still dominating I would but... Put it this way, if they get to the second round that means they got their crap together and can probably make it to the conference finals. In that case, I'll get Conference finals tickets when they go on sale.

The article in the Trib claims that it was either Brown or Harris that had to go because the Bears were committing too much money at one position after signing Peppers. I don't know what to think of that. It bothers me a bit that the Bears, in an uncapped year, made this big splash signing this big name DE that drew high praise from Bears fans, and quieted the people who have called them cheap over the years. Now that the excitement has won out, it's revlealed that they don't need Brown's salary on the books anymore. I don't really know what I'm talking about regarding the Bears salary situation, other than I know the Bears have usually been relatively cheap compaired to their market size, and that it's an uncapped year, but I don't see where money is a problem.for this organization. For one year I would have liked them to take advantage of the uncapped year and give the team some depth. Sure Israel might provide 90% of what Brown does, but what happens is Idonije gets hurt? Stuff like that just bothers me about the org.

Boy the Hawks sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

I think our bullpen is about league average, if not a little better. Just the absence of Heilman and Gregg is a big boost. Looks alright to me. It's hard to predict how our bullpen is going to be due to the large number of unproven players as well as the general variability of bullpens in general from year to year

Would a Cardinals fan rather see the Cubs or the Mets win the World Series?

Good point. It's just how you choose to view a rivalry against a team. More recently, the Cardinals have face the Mets in bigger games then the Cubs. Right, but that's seemingly different than the Cubs/Cardinals rivalry. The Cubs and Cards have such a long history and they play each other so often and they essentially share the same "home area" once you're outside the Chicago area. I'm not saying that the Mets and Cards playing each other is meaningless, because you'll still find plenty of Cubs fans that view games between the Cubs and Mets as a big deal, but it's simply not the same as what exists between the Cubs and the Cardinals and their fans. In fact, they way you're coming at this makes me think of how one-sided the non-rivalry between the Cubs and Brewers is because it seems like many Brewers fans are trying to prop it up into some kind of big deal while most Cubs fans don't look at it as much of anything unless both teams are in the playoff hunt. If some Cards fans are looking at the Mets as their "new rivals," well, it's definitely one-sided. I mean it like this. The Cubs-Cardinals rivalry is big and has tradition. It's a huge rivalry, I admit that, but look at the schedule now for 2010. The Cubs don't play in St. Louis until August. The Cubs and Cardinals don't play until May 28th, unlike when they usually play in late April/early May. Wait the schedule makers are in on this too? What does when the Cubs and Cardinals play have anything to do with the amount of rivalry these teams have? Also, do you think the Red Sox and Angels are bigger rivals than the Yankees and Red Sox? Because the Angels and Red Sox have been playing huge games a lot more recently than the Yankees, and also the Angels and Sox squared off in a 7 game series in the 80's too. Like you said, rivalries are in the eyes of the beholder in many ways, but a large majority of cardinals fans hate the cubs and a large majority of cubs fans hate the cardinals. Thats how it has been and how it will be. That doesn't mean you aren't allowed to have other rivals like the Mets. I mean hell the Cubs claim to have a rivalry with the Mets dating back to the 60's. Many older Cubs fans hate the Mets almost as much as the Cardinals, Ron Santo even more. But in general, the Cardinals and the Cubs are each other's biggest rivals.

Good point. It's just how you choose to view a rivalry against a team. More recently, the Cardinals have face the Mets in bigger games then the Cubs. Yeah 4 years ago you played a series of games that meant something. Do you also consider the Padres a rival because you played them just as many times in playoff games over the last 5 years? I'm going to guess that you aren't from St. Louis, Chicago, or anywhere in the I-57 corridor between the 2 citie...er between the city and the backward ass town.

You, are a die hard Cubs fan then. I'm a Cardinals fan, I went to the July 4th,2008 game in which Edmonds made his return to St. Louis. Fans cheered for him the first time, booed him the next. I consider it to still be a big rivalry, but lately Cardinal fans have started to hate the pond scum (the Mets). The look on the fans faces at Shea was priceless. I have to admit , though, the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry has lost some of its luster. In the decade where the Cubs are finally able to somewhat compete with your team on an almost annual basis would this be the time where the rivalry lost its luster to a team you play 6 times a year. Do you think the Royals rivalry is causing the Cubs rivalry to lose its luster too? Ask the dorky Cardinals youtube guy who he hates the most.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/morgami01.shtml Haha good call. How did I forget about Mike? I don't know. I personally can't forget all the horrible games he had down the stretch of the 1998 season.

Of course I do. I would rather the Brewers win the next 700 World Series than see the Cardinals win 1. I was born to hate the Redbirds. Oh and the city of St. Louis sucks and Milwaukee is slightly more tolerable, so that's another big reason.

Garvey and Bartman are both depicted, and both are credited, at least partially, for the demise of each particular Cubs playoff hope. In that case where's Chris Young and James Loney? Edit: And Will Clark and Javy Lopez (for the game tying HR in 9th inning of game 2 of the 98 lds)