UMFan83

Come on Cedeno, be the Rnny Ceen that we all know you are.

Baker committed an out?!?!?

Anything is possible when you are a Pirate. Except winning. Or being individually good for multiple seasons without getting traded.

I didn't realize Brandon Lloyd signed with Denver. Once again, he looks like a preseason stud, as he has been his entire career. On an unrelated note, I just found out last night when I changed my cable package last week I gained access to the NFL Network, NBA TV and the NHL Network. I am really really enjoying access to this (I already had access to the MLB Netowrk)

The Bears first preseason game is a lot like the WBC and any All Star game, in that I get really excited for it, but then the game/event starts and I quickly lose interest in it. I just want to see Jay Cutler in a Bears gameday uniform.

All I'm saying is that at least these games don't count. IIRC, Orton had a hard time learning the Bears system his first year as well. They gave him a really simple playbook to use until like mid-season. Unfortunately for him, if he has another game like that, he's not gonna have a chance to develop. Oh well, Orton was not exactly one of the big pieces of the trade for them.

There was a point last year where he looked like he would be an average NFL QB. It's not over because he had a bad game today. He's learning a new system and its just preseason. I mean yeah, throwing 3 INTs is not ideal results, but that's why they play practice games before the real ones.

LOL of course. The Trib says that Jake Peavy might make his White Sox debut......at Wrigley Field on September 3rd vs. the Cubs. Figures.

braves lost to phillies. Cool so we gained on everyone but Florida, who had to win anyways.

Good day for the Wild Card it looks like with the Giants and Rockies losing. The Marlins (who are ahead of us) won (they played the Rockies), and I'm not sure how the Braves did (who are also ahead of us).

What was up with the random Brewer hating signs? Brewers fans are going to think that we are unhealthily obsessed with their team now.

Entourage He's won multiple awards with that role, so I would say quite a few people find it funny.

No "Let's Hug it out female dogs" this time?

I'm finding it hilarious. This is a fun game. I guess I'm just a buzzkill. It pisses me off to see them doing this well after looking so pathetic against the Phillies. It's like they are trying to say that there is this huge of a gap between the 2 teams and there's not. Also, I fully expect to see 3 runs scored the rest of the series.

I didn't read this whole thread...is anyone else just pure angry at this game and can't enjoy it?

Don't you listen to Dave Kaplan? Team was sold months ago. yup, they just had to wait to unload Bradley to the Tigers before the sale could be completed. Now that that's happened, sale on!

There were pretty huge expectations and hype around every Jordan Bulls team in the 90s. Theory debunked. oh come on. We all know that Jordan trumps all trends and curses. If Jordan had joined the Cubs instead of the White Sox after his first retirement, they would have won a championship by now.

this was a great prediction, except that's his line when he's 33. That was actually my post originally :)

This is the kind of stuff that's redundant: of course everyone here at least had reservations ovet the deal. Nobody was happy he got 8 years at his age for that kind of money. The arguments are against the stupid overractions when people act like he's useless or horrible or, like the thread says, "sucks." Does that mean he doesn't have his flaws and he's not frustrating? Of course not...but nobody who wasn't thrilled over his contract was any kind of savant that has been "proved" right. NOBODY liked that deal. I think people would have been able to live with an 8 year deal if he was a legit superstar, instead of mearly a good player. But when a large chunk of his value was due to his speed, and his power was offset by his mediocre OBP, and he had no real position to play those factors made Soriano's signing just awful off the bat. Again, if it was 31 year old Pujols, ARod, M. Ramirez, etc etc it's a different story because if it takes that to get an elite player here so be it.

As I was mentioning in the previous post, look at some of these quotes on the first page or two of the Soriano signing thread from people just hearing about the signing: Here is the thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36777 And that was only page 1. I guess the biggest complaint was about the length of the deal, and rightfully so. But a lot had to do with the fact that no one perceived Soriano has an elite player.

I don't know why people think Soriano is a disapointment. This year year he's been below average but this is exactly the type of play you should have expected when we signed him. First of all, Washington in 2006 was a career year. His HR, OBP, SLG, BB were all career highs. 2006 was the only year in his career where he put up a .900 OPS or better. We weren't getting a elite superstar when we signed him, we were getting a good/very good player with glaring deficiencies. Since then he's put up an .897 OPS in 07, and a .876 OPS in 2008, great but not superstar numbers. This year has kinda been a disappointment, but you also have to remember that he's going on 34 years old. People who grew up i the mid to late 90s don't realize this but you can expect severe performance regression anywhere from 33-37 years old (just making that number up I don't know the exact stats). People don't stay productive until their 40's anymore, except for extremely rare exceptions. His legs are already gone, again that should have been expected, anyoe who liked the Soriano signing because of his speed/power combo was fooling theirselves. They say speed is the first thing to go. Well that ship has sailed. Oh and as for the lazy defense, the staring at singles off the wall...guess what? He's been doing that his whole career. Nothing has changed...Soriano has been the exact player that anyone with half a brain would have expected when we signed him in 2006. Go back to the Soriano signing thread in Transactions, see how many people were less than thrilled immediately after the deal was signed. A lot of people had serious reservations about giving Soriano 8 freaking years, and they were right.

I just heard on NFL Live that the Broncos led the NFL in turnovers in the Red Zone last year. That sounds a big concerning, but I guess that's definitely not all on Cutler, there are a number of factors that lead to turnovers. Also I'd like to see how many were INTs and how many were fumbles lost.

What wasn't random?

I love reading good things about the Bears, but I fear this much fluff. For instance, its nice hearing that Cutler/Olsen is the best thing Mortenson's seen in training camp or whatever was said, but I remember before the 2007 season, Clayton said the most fascinating thing he saw was the Bears offense, and we know how that turned out. Grossman was benched by week 4 and Benson had an awful season as the offense struggled. In my life it seems like every team that I like that has big expectations and hype surrounding it has fallen flat on its face. The Cubs in 04 and 09, the 04 team didn't even make the playoffs, and the 09 team is acting like its not going either. The 07 Bears, coming off a Super Bowl everyone expected more of the same, they finished 7-9. The 07-08 Bulls, coming off a second round playoff performance, many people were picking them as the Eastern Conference's Finals participant that year, and they completely flopped, Skiles was fired in December and the team finished 33-49. So while I'm excited, I'm taking a "see it to believe it" approach to the season as I can't handle being burned again.

I understand some people have this irrational fear/hatred of Hendry, but do you honestly belive that given the limited money available and the circumstances that if he did trade Zambrano his only move would be to then overpay for someone as historically bad as Aaron Miles? The odds of some whiz kid being hired who can make magic with the very limited resources the Cubs will likely be facing this offseason and next season aren't pretty slim to nil. I'm not at all opposed to Hendry being replaced, but I'd rather it be when someone new coming in would actually have something to work with. Well he traded Mark DeRosa and added Aaron Miles, so yes I imagine he could do something pretty foolish again if given the chance. He values crap. Neifi Perez, Jose Macias, Aaron Miles, etc. Anyone willing to go with those guys over your own roster filler needs to be gone. Why is that so hard to accept? I think we might need to accept that due to the current payroll structure of the team and the finite resources we are expected to have we might need to accept that what you see is what you get for awhile. Granted if this team stayed above average healthy instead of below average we would still be up there with the Cardinals. Bad starting pitching early is the biggest reason we are in this slide and I find it hard to believe if we had Z and Lilly in the rotation 3 out of the last 7 games we would still be in this dire situation.