UMFan83

I'm not given the source.

How is a regular season Texas/Texas Tech game on the top 25 list. Granted it was a great game, I remember watching it. But it wasn't any sort of playoff game, neither of the teams won the championship that year (although the loss kept Texas out of the title game). I think there were bigger games that could have gone on the list.

I'm sad my favorite baseball game of the decade isn't on here. That was Rockies/Padres one game playoff. I know it's not even the first round of the playoffs, but it was a terrific drama filled game and the winner ended up going to the World Series.

Based on last year's numbers, Byrd has a reverse split. .300/.344/.491/.835 vs. RHP .244/.293/.451/.744 vs. LHP Don't know if he's the best platoon partner for anyone but another righty. But to be fair, in his "career year" in 2008 his splits were even and for his career they are even. The scary number is the H/R splits. Now remember, the road number isn't his true value because hitters in general tend to hit better at home than road where they are more comfortable. But when you're evaluating a player who is playing in a bandbox, you don't like to see these: Home: .282/.336/.538/.873 Road: .285/.322/.419/.740 Ouch, 133 point difference in OPS between home vs. road. And this one isn't a 1 year thing. In '08 when he had a better statistical season, the difference in OPS was .911 vs. 772 (139 points). And like in 09 the biggest reason from the drop in OPS is SLG, which is of course where you'd expect to improve playing at Arlington. The switch to the NL would help him, and historically he's been more of a doubles hitter than a home run hitter, which could help lessen the blow. Overall I probably wouldn't be thrilled at all with Byrd, and I have no idea how he is defensively, but he technically only has to replace Bradley's .775 OPS (although theres no way he'll reach Bradley's .378 OBP). Assuming Fukudome can hit like he has his first 2 years (mediocre) and an improvement from Soriano, you would expect the OF to perform better on the whole than the 09 outfield, but will it be enough of an improvement to matter?

Yeah, well....but what about the time before that? That's what I was thinking haha.

You have to wonder how many of those things that went "wrong" for the Cubs last year are likely to reverse themselves next year. Soriano has to be somewhat better than he played last year, but what can we really expect out of him at age "34"? Soto is an interesting case. He was basically not very much of a prospect until 07, he played awesome, started out 08 very well, kinda dropped down a bit later in the year but was still above average, and then the bottom dropped out in 09. Which Soto is real? Do we just assume that the 07-early 08 Soto is the legit Soto, or is the Soto that had a .795 OPS the last 100 games of 08 and fell apart even worse in 2009 the real one? After that who else do you really have that you'd expect to have a much better season? A full season of Aramis will certainly help if that's the case, but who else had a bad year that you'd expect to be better in 10? On the other hand, can you count on Lee to have another .972 OPS at age 34 when he's only done it twice in his career? Maybe, but how likely is it? Can you count on Wells to give you a low 3 ERA next year? Is Lilly going to have another year with a 3.10 ERA when his previous career high was 3.83? Who is even going to replace him for an entire month when he's out in April? Will Gorzelanny have numbers that even remotely resemble Harden's last year? I am not necessarily as negative about next year as my point makes me out to be. I am presenting a counter argument to people who think just hitting the reset button is going to make the Cubs back into a 90+ win team. The Lou Piniella era for the Cubs is going on it's 4th year. There have been several changes each year so comparing the teams isn't an exact science. But with this "core" around, we were an 85 win team, a 98 win team, and an 83 win team. Which one is the outlier? Can we expect another 90+ wins from a team that's 2 years older than the 08 team? The key pieces of that team are mostly all there. Only time will tell...

Yeah definitely a horrific offseason as it pertains to the short term so far.

You mean we haven't seen what Halladay can do outside the best offensive division in baseball yet? Hope he can adjust to the NL East (and remember he's pitching for the Phillies). yeah that post didn't really make sense to me either You guys have it backwards. I was saying Lee and Halladay would give you similar numbers, but I haven't seen how good Halladay will be outside the AL East. Meaning if he put ups those numbers in the AL East, I can only imagine what he'd do in the NL East. Sorry for making it confusing, it made sense to me when I wrote it.

I guess I just have low standards for Chicago sports teams. How could you not enjoy the decade at all?? We may not have gotten anywhere but the ride was fun.

Who is there even left?

Word is Santo wanted 150,000 a year, so Hendry offered him 3 years/$18 million in the absence of any other bidders.

Two winning years. One playoff series win. An average of 33 wins per season. Three fired head coaches (with time still left for a fourth). If I were listing criteria for something called "A Decade to Forget," that's pretty much what it would look like. I don't think you remember how awful the beginning of the decade was. Oh I remember. But I have a lot to remember in your so called "Decade to Forget" -Ben Gordon going on crazy scoring binges in his rookie year in 4th quarters, brining the Bulls back from several come from behind wins -Watching a team bounce back from a 0-9 start to go 47-26 the rest of the way and lock up a 4 seed in the playoffs on nothing but hustle and team work. The team started 2 rookies, 1 2nd year player and 2 third year players who were coming out of HS, plus their 6th man was a rookie. It was an incredible feat. I'd rather see a team of superstars that is a title contender, but in the absence of that, this is as enjoyable as basketball gets. -John Paxson making what could have been one of the better trades of the decade if the resulting picks panned out trading Curry for Sweetney, 2 expiring deals, the #2 pick of one draft and swapping for the #9 pick in another draft. -Watching next years team look undermanned almost all season only to turn it on in March and April, finish .500 and take the soon to be champs to 6 hard fought games, which was later said by Wade to be the hardest series the Heat had in that playoffs. -Being called the team of the future by most people in the media during this time period -Seeing "BULLS SIGN BEN WALLACE" on the front page of ESPN.com and the thrill of realizing we stole a "superstar' player from our arch rivals. Obviously it was a stupid move and it turned out horribly, but fans were absolutely thrilled when it happened, experts were calling us a EC contender, and the future never seemed brighter. -Destroying the Heat by 30+ points in their opener minutes after receiving their title rings and really igniting a pretty good rivalry in the middle of this decade -Winning 49 games the next season after a slow start, coming 1 win from the 2 seed in the east, sweeping the defending champs in the playoffs, and bouncing back from falling down 3-0 to our old rivals the Pistons to almost forcing a 7th game. -Winning the draft lottery in 2008 despite a 1.7% chance and taking a hometown guy and potential superstar that was going to turn around our franchise for good -Playing "the most exciting playoff series of all time" as many called it at the time (don't really agree but it was amazing). If someone would have told me this was a decade to forget to me while sitting in the 300 level moments after winning game 6 of that series, I would have punched them in the face. Of course most of these memories seem less awesome when seeing what happens afterwards. I agree that when judging the team strictly by ultimate success, it was a rather disappointing decade. But when looking at individual moments, and remembering how I felt "in the moment", there were so many memorable events this decade as a Bulls fan, I enjoyed it. The return the relevance, being the little engine that could, slowly earning respect amongst the league and the media, having the entire basketball watching public slobbering over a playoff series involving my team, all those were great memories for me. So yes, disappointing decade, but one to forget? Nah.

Halladay gets an extension with the trade. It's gonna be hard to beat the Phillies for the next few years. I'd like to say Lee and Halladay would give you similar numbers, and they might, but we haven't see what Halladay can do outside the AL East for a full season yet.

Wow I first thought it was just Halladay to the phillies without lee going anywhere. I was sick to my stomach thinking of a rotation headlined by Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Myers, Happ and a lineup with Rollins, Utley, Howard, Ibanez, Werth. Virtual all star team.

You are supposed to give up that bias when you become a journalist, at least in your work.

You guys are going to be disappointed come Sunday.

The comedy is this SN cover is great: http://www.blogdownchicagobears.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/orlando_pace-cover.jpg

1st official meaningless game of the year. First meaningless game for the Bears since December 2007. Yay.

Exactly. They aren't going to be like "Well we should identify the historical best teams in the Big Ten so we can assure they aren't in the same division. So Indiana has the best history in the Big Ten thats for sure, now we need a second team. Geez its hard to turn down Ohio State's past and current success, but Purdue won a couple Big Ten titles in the 1930's, and of course their woman's team is amazing. Let's make sure Indiana and Purdue are in separate divisions so we can ensure balance between the 2 divisions. Of course because of this we'll have to separate Michigan and Ohio State, but their rivalry has run its course anyways."

Next to Patrick Lalime of course. I'm sure you've answered this plenty of times but how the hell can you be a Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, Packers fan and be from NW Indiana. Actually nevermind don't bother answering. I'm not from NW Indiana, I'm from DeKalb. The Bulls were the first team I liked followed by the Packers. Favre was the reason why I became a Packers fan. Then I hopped on the Cubs in 98 and I was always a casual Hawks fan. I know quite a few people that follow that pattern. It's just odd. All Chicago teams except the Packers. Green and yellow? My dad taught me at a young age to hate all things Wisconsin. I was able to see Favre as the douche he is way back in 1994. I just get mad at the Chicago area people who are Packers fans because the Bears were bad and the Packers good when they were growing up. Be impressionable whatever, but don't root for your region's arch rivals. But whatever, to each their own. Edit: Sorry, let's get back on track. With the win, the Hawks again have the best PPG of anyone in the Western Conferece and are third in the league behind the Devils and Caps.

With 3 games left in the season, it's interesting to look at how Cutler has compared to recent Bears QBs. Obviously there are a lot of variables in play here, making the comparison less than scientific, but interesting to look at anyways G ATT-CMP CMP% YDS TD INT YPA RAT '09 Cuter (projected) 16 349-563 61.9 3721 23 27 6.6 74.9 '08 Orton 15 272-465 58.5 2972 18 12 6.4 79.6 '07 Gri/Gross/Ort 16 326-567 57.5 3692 17 21 6.5 71.7 '06 Grossman 16 262-480 54.6 3193 23 20 6.7 74.0 So with Cutler, although he's had a pretty bad season, there are some encouraging signs, the main one being that his completion percentage is much higher than any recent Bears QB, which is something we expected coming into the year, but a little surprising considering how the season has turned out. Other than that, the YPA, TD-INT ratio, and QB rating are right in line with the rest of our decrepit group of QBs. We can build on it though. With a better O-line and better receivers you gotta think he'll be at least a passable QB, probably even above average. But I no longer think he's gonna be a guy that puts it together and becomes an elite QB. I could be wrong though, it's just one man's opinion after seeing him for a season.

Next to Patrick Lalime of course. I'm sure you've answered this plenty of times but how the hell can you be a Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, Packers fan and be from NW Indiana. Actually nevermind don't bother answering.

Damn, the only fan base that I'd think Milton would have a harder time with than us would be Boston. I hope this trade comes through because Bradley in Boston would be epic.

So you didn't get an "A". LOL, nice catch