UMFan83

I'm starting to see blogger predictions for the season popping up lately, and so far everyone seems to be down on the Bears. The thing is, knowing how we've followed the offseason up close, we probably will overrate the Bears, while fans of other teams will probably underrate the Bears. The people that are making these predictions seem to analyze the Bears thinking that they are 2008 Bears - 2008 luck and Kyle Orton + Jay Cutler. Then they say "Jay Cutler is an upgrade but he's not going to pass for as many yards in Chicago. Some of them follow up with a "if they can get Burress or Marshall they could make a playoff run. I swear people that claim to be knowledgeable football fans think that QB + RB + WR is how you judge an NFL team. NO FREAKING CRAP, Jay Culter isn't going to throw for as many yards as he did in Denver. We don't need him too, and that's not why we traded for him. First of all, there are a lot of things to like about the Bears offseason beyond Cutler. First of all, I like the moves that we made on the line and think that will be much better this year. Pace was a good acquisition although we'll be holding our breath on his injuries/age. We also basically have a first round pick in Chris Williams who people are ignoring. Second of all, If Kyle Orton could put up those numbers with those receivers, you have to think of how much better Cutler can do with them. How much better will our RBs do now that KJ is healthy and Forte won't have to run through 8 defenders every rush. Think of how much better we'd have have been last year if Orton could have hit Hester deep even half the time last year. And that's just talking about offense. Now the defense does worry me a bit, but there are also a lot of things to like there. First of all, the defensive line should be better...Marinelli is there, Tommie Harris seemed determined to prove all his doubters wrong (hopefully), Ogun is on a contract year. The LBs got better and deeper with Pisa signed. Also, while there are a lot of doubts about our secondary, there are also a lot of interesting options here. We all liked how Corey Graham improved last year, Vash will have something to prove, etc etc etc. Now I know I sound like a horrible homer here, and my post is full of coulds, woulds, shoulds, and mights. But the bottom line is, there is more to this team that 2008 Bears + Cutler. I relish being in the underdogs role and think it will help the Bears become playoff contenders next year.

I really liked WCF and I definitely think it got a really decent following in 2007. Instead of piling all the info into one thread like this one, I like the idea of seperate discussions in separate threads. Honestly I've looked around the web and I've never found a decent Bears message board that's worth posting at besides this forum, so the Bears should really at least get their own subforum. As for the Bulls, they do have a couple of good forums, and myself and several posters here post at RealGM so I'd be much less enthusiastic about that forum.

13-19 on the road this year. Wish that game wasn't rained out as we wouldn't have faced Vazquez.

Javier settling in there. Could be a long game...

Dempsters control had been bad lately.

Sucks that we have to face Vasquez, as we weren't scheduled to face him in the previous series.

Well I mean there are 30 teams out there and it's been 20 years. I understand the point about Wrigley being a historic place but I think in the MLBs minds there are teams that need it more than the Cubs. I guarantee you there will be another ASG at Wrigley but the question is when.

Well it was a fun show.

This is awesome. I went to the Cubs game today and due to the high unliklihood of the US advancing I didn't bother to follow the game on my phone. Imagine my surprise when curiosity got the better of me and I checked the score on the walk home. How can they look so bad against Costa Rica, Brazil, Italy etc and then put together a performance like this? How can they look awful against Czech Republic and then draw Italy in 2006? This kinda stuff has to stop. Predictions for Spain game? I say 4-1 ESP

I wasn't really a Cubs fan in 1990 so I didn't see the last All Star game that was played there. Well they are showing little half hour All Star recap shows on MLB Network today and at 5:30 CT they are showing the 1990 game. Just figured I'd give everyone a heads up whose never seen this game or wants to see the highlights again.

Good to see that Soto is actually alive and well. I was worried about him yesterday.

Berkmans OPS is lower than Derrek Lees. He's not having a great year.

Lee's BA crept about .290 for a bit today before finishing at .288. His OPS is now at .867, and his SLG is now at .502. He keeps this up and him, not Lilly, will be the Cubs All Star.

I was gonna do a closest but you all know about the Chicago teams, and Michigan football and basketball have won in my lifetime so whatever. (note: I didn't include the 89 bball title in my list because I wasn't a fan back then but I still use it for bragging rights so I got some benefit out of the championship so yeah)

Nope....St. Louis is winning their game and is only 0.5 back coming into today. The Cardinals are winning 3-0 right now and if they win and Milwaukee loses its 2.5 back.

What do I keep saying? Another key AB and Blanco finds his way up again.

Geo must be bored.

Gotta think its gonna be Fukudome, Soto, and Blanco here.

I'm glad we've committed to keep Patton on the team all year.

You would know better than I, who would be available in AAA to start tomorrow? They might use Wells instead of Demp Oh wait nevermind that stupid jerk hit another one.

no one....I'd expect to see Dempster or Wells walking from the dugout to the pen in between innings. Patton will pitch 2, possibly 3 no matter what as long as the game continues that long.

Yeah, good to know we can hit against a guy with an ERA of 11, .395 BA against, and a WHIP of probably 2. Yeah like I said above, I gotta say that I was pretty disappointed with that last inning. I'm not saying they should have scored, but they should have at least gotten a base runner that inning, or at the very least gotten to a 3 ball count in the inning. You had your 3-4-5 up, all right handed, against a lefthander that is really struggling and helped blow the game yesterday. The approach was awful, Bradely only had one outcome on his mind, Lee same thing. Johnson at least took some pitches but he also check swung at a few bad ones.

Because Wood is their closer and they don't want Perez to have to be their last defense if they take the lead. Not saying its necessarily right, but the majority of managers manage that way.

I think the Cubs came up there way too aggressive this inning. Everyone wanted to hit the walk off blast and failed because that's what you do most of the time you try to do that. Work the count boys.

Which is amazing considering all the rainouts.