UMFan83

I said this yesterday as fact but now I'm not so sure. Could we really be eliminated before we step on the field? I am not sure... If Atlanta and Tampa Bay both win, we'll be eliminated from the Wild Card. If Minnesota wins we'll be eliminated from the Division. But Minnesota and Atlanta play each other, meaning one of those teams has to lose. The wild card (pun not intended) here is Dallas. I am not sure, have they clinched a tiebreaker over us? If they have then a TB, Dallas and Minnesota combo of wins would eliminate us. But that's about the only thing that would. Tie breakers if Dallas and Chicago only tied for the WC: 1. H2H (no games played) 2. Conference record (Dallas 7-4, Chicago 6-5). Dallas plays Baltimore this weekend so a win here wouldn't eliminate the Bears on this tiebreaker. 3. Common games (Dallas 3-1, Chicago 2-2). Dallas still plays Philly in Week 17, and they would need to lose this in order to make this tiebreaker applicable (see conference record). So if Chicago wins the last 2 and Dallas loses to Philly we're still rolling here. 4. Strength of victory. (right now Dallas +44, Chicago +29). So it looks bleak here but remember to even get to this point, Dallas has to lose once more and Chicago has to win 2 games. So Dallas cannot clinch a H2H tiebreaker over Chicago before the Bears play on MNF. So if Atl and TB both win, the Bears still alive in the Division. If MIN and TB and Dallas win, the Bears are still alive (barely) in the Wild Card. Edit: I just remembered, crap. Cleveland has to beat Philly tonight to make this scenario valid. So if Philly wins tonight, we can get eliminated in Week 16 before we play MNF If we beat GB this week, our Week 17 playoff scenario might be something like -Chicago clinches a playoff spot with a win over Houston and a Atlanta loss to St. Louis AND a Dallas loss to Philadelphia AND Chicago clinches the Strength of Victory tiebreaker over Dallas.

Hah, it has them going 22-7. That would be awesome. NW has been awesome and I've watched 2 of their games this year. I'm by no means a Northwestern fan, but I'll be cheering for them to make their first tourney.

Josh Hamilton? (I kid) Raffey Palmeiro?

So they shouldn't even try? I haven't heard them linked to any sort of pitching. I'm not talking CC or Sheets or something. Why not get involved with Lowe or someone like that. I'm pretty sure the heart of their system is hitters too.

Ryan Howard career in the playoffs: .266 .382 .500 Ryan Howard in this years World Series: .286 .375 .762

Awesomeness? /Meph

Spending all their money in all the wrong places. He'll be a big boost to their offense, but Mark Teixeira won't fix their atrocious pitching Just for fun I looked it up to see how right you were. The Orioles were 11th in runs scored this year, but 29th in pitching. Wow what questionable decisions.

How is a walk a "failed opportunity"? If you have a runner on third and 0 outs, how does a walk take away an opportunity? It's still a runner on third, along with a runner on first with 0 outs still. You still hve the same opportunity as you had before, but you do introduce the small possibility of a GIDP, while you also introduce the possibility of another runner getting into RISP with a base hit by the next batter. More people on base = more possible runs scored in the inning.

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I have to disagree as to why Dunn's OBP is so high in that situation. You sound like Dusty Baker complaining about walks "clogging the bases" when you make that point. People walk Dunn in those situations because he is likely to hit the ball 450 feet if you give him the wrong pitch. That's part of it, and the other part of it is that Dunn is really good at taking walks. It has very little to do with him being "slow" and clogging the bases.

You mean like Mark DeRosa's 2006?

Yeah its a valid concern. As most people have said, I would put him in the Rich Harden "As long as he's healthy in October" camp. It's not like Reed Johnson or Fukudome couldn't shift over to right when the inevitable injury occurs

Just agent speak because Peavy doesn't want to be on a crappy team anymore. It will be up to the Padres to initiate trade talks again, and if they do it will be up to Peavy to ensure that the Cubs are the only team that is in the bidding. If that occurs, the Cubs will be back in the discussions.

No because our payroll is like $150 million and we can afford to not have to trade one of our SPs for young players who may or may not pan out. that doesn't matter. you wouldn't like that return if the cubs were forced to trade z for whatever reason, but you think it's ridiculous to give up that package to get peavy. obviously it's not that great of an offer. It does matter. A big part of the reason for the Cubs offering what they did is because of the situation the Padres are in. Sure if the Cubs were in a situation where they HAD to get rid of Z, then I would probably dislike that package. But if I HAD to get rid of Z, I'd live with that. It's probably just as good or slightly better than what the Twins got from the Mets for Johan. But that's not the scenario you posed originally.

Well as you know he's not healthy. In both of the last 2 years he was unable to pitch down the stretch for a team fighting for their playoff lives. He ended the season tearing something his arm and while I don't think it was serious, its still pretty alarming. But then again, Burnett has had similar serious injury issues and he just got a crapload, so I guess I can see your point.

No because our payroll is like $150 million and we can afford to not have to trade one of our SPs for young players who may or may not pan out.

I bet OH has already posted it as a done deal for the O's 2-3 times already.

Sabathia Burnett Wang Pettitte (isn't he still possibly coming back) Hughes/Kennedy

Remember Desipio's rumor way back in November? LOL Kinda funny how that one never materialized, or even close to it. I wonder if Theriots name was ever mentioned in trade talks.

Imagine how good this team would be with Adam Dunn, Jake Peavy and Brian Roberts on the team instead of Rich Hill, Sean Marshall and Sam Fuld. (Just kidding on the BRob/Fuld thing)

Yeah but they got to play against Rex Grossman.

The disadvatange dome teams have is that they inevitably have to play in bad weather when it counts the most. Also, it seems like most dome teams are offense first, pass first. St. Louis proved that a dome team could win the superbowl but they could run the ball when they had to. Didn't St. Louis prove a dome team could win the Super Bowl because they had HFA and played the Super Bowl in a dome as well? They went 8-0 at home, and 5-3 on the road, with 2 of their road wins coming at the Georgia Dome and the Super Dome. So they only played 6 non-dome games all year and went 3-3, while playing 13 dome games and going 13-0. Oh and their 3 non-dome wins were against the 4-12 49ers, the 4-12 Bengals, and the 8-8 Panthers.

No I'm saying I pointed out the over the middle 15 yard passes on third downs because they were clearest in my memory. But they were hitting that hole all game, especially in the 4th quarter.

From what I remember they would've been 3 for 3 on 3rd and 15+ if Brees didn't short arm a ball to Lance Moore when he was completely wide open. The other two were completions on square ins to Colston that were wide open as well. So, you're confirming it was twice. Also, the Saints were 0-3 on 3rd and 9 or 10 (including one they went for and got on 4th down). They did convert a 3rd and 8, though. Yeah but they were using that across the middle route quite a bit throughout the game. The third down conversions just stick out in my mind.

I like the new road jerseys though, which are basically their old ones. Reminds me of Buckner

I think the TOP for the game was 36-26 in favor of the Saints.