UMFan83

I actually feel worse today than I did yesterday. It feels like breaking up with a girl. There are little signs and stuff throughout my day that remind me of times I was happy with the Cubs and full of unbridled hope.

For an offense we all expected to be putrid, the Bears have scored the 6th most points in the NFL.

by adding $13m to the roster and replacing most of the expiring contracts with minimum salary players? i'm not sure that checks out. Zambrano gets a 2.75M raise Ramirez gets a 1.65M raise Soriano gets a 3M raise Lilly gets a 5M raise Fukudome gets a 5.5M raise Marquis gets a 3.5M raise DeRosa gets a 750K raise Harden will get a 3.5M raise if option is picked up Gaudin will probably get a 1M raise in arbitration Thats 25.65M in salary added right there

^ You are looking at like a $160-170 million payroll, which would be a 40-50 million raise from last year, all commited during a time of ownership change.

I don't expect his stats to go up or anything. He's what 33?

Who would have thought that the Bears/Falcons game would have been a matchup between 3-2 teams? This suddenly becomes a tough game, especially with it being in the Georgia Dome. Since this is all I have to live for in sports anymore, someone start up next weeks game thread

I miss those days. The pinnacle of those days was that game against SF when we got 40 points in the first half, and I spent the entire halftime debating with my friends how many points we would score in the game. As it turns out they didn't score at all in the second half but it was fun to ask questions like "when is the last time an NFL team scored 70 points in a game?"

This game feels like a 2006 game, where I get mad when the other team scores because 31-7 isn't as cool as 31-0

I think its more the special teams being different this year than Hester.

Why not? Mostly because you only get 2 a game. Who knows if you'll need it on a much more important call.

I would do it. His H/R splits look favorable.

All offseason last year, and during the season this year, Jim Hendry has craved so badly for a middle of the order left handed hitter. Jim Edmonds was a nice piece, but he isn't causing other teams to stop throwing RH after RH at the Cubs. Jim thought he got his man in Fukudome, but when they realized what they were getting, he spent the next few months trying to find that LH bat within the organization and outside (Raul Ibanez). When he couldn't land one and we had to go with what we had, I think he pretty much knew that if we got the right matchup (the Mets) we could win it all. If we got the wrong matchup (the Dodgers) we would have to hope that our pitching shutdown the other team. The Dodgers were the worst possible matchup for the Cubs in the playoffs. In the entire series, a left handed pitcher threw exactly 0 pitches against the Cubs. They killed us with probably the best right handed pitching in baseball. The Cubs can hit righties, but in the playoffs, they aren't throwing Ian Snell at you, they are throwing Derek Lowe at you. Imagine if the Cubs were able to face Oliver Perez in one of the first 3 games? Even Johan would have been a better matchup than Lowe (injured knee or not). Imagine if the Cubs had gotten Ibanez at the deadline? Against righties: Soriano, R Fontenot, L Lee, R Ibanez, L Ramirez, R Edmonds, L Soto, R Theriot, R Against lefties: Soriano, R Theriot, R Lee, R Ramirez, R Ibanez, L Johnson, R Soto, R DeRosa, R Anyways, just my thoughts. If the Cubs had one weakness this year, it was that our lineup was too right handed. The Dodgers were the perfect team to exploit that. BTW, they will get killed by Philly.

That's a hard sell to the fans. Stick with the team that failed when it mattered most for the last 2 seasons. I'm not saying you are wrong. I just don't know at this point.

The Cubs sure did try to hand the other team a win.

Yeah, I'm pretty much over it. Not worth fretting over. Something I've obsessed over for 6 months is hard for me to get over in a night. You are a stronger man than I.

Will a Bears victory be a diversion for most of you guys? I am finding it really really hard to get up for this game at all.

Either making the DS a 7 game series, or keeping it best of 5 but going back to the 2-3 format. 2 road games followed by 3 home games. I disagree that we would have gotten swept in any length of series. A 5 game series makes it extremely difficult on the team that falls behind. If you are down 1-0 in a 7 game series, its much easier to bounch back mentally.

OK, nevermind what I was thinking about the Bears getting upset....the Lions look really bad. How many tackles have they missed so far?

What about Manny Ramirez?

If the Bears don't win by a score of like 75-0, this game will have no impact on my emotional well being.

We were only out hit 26-25 in the series, and we out hit the Dodgers in 2 of the 3 games!!!

"101 = lol" (notice how similar they look)

To me there is a difference between not winning the World Series and getting swept in the first round. I am not saying your wrong about taking your chances in the playoffs each year, but you compared the Braves to us, they were only swept in the first round once in their 14 years.

Just so you guys know, the Cubs payroll is going to go up like $30 million just from backloaded contracts next year. Almost every signing Hendry has made in the past few years has been backloaded, some with significant jumps.

You keep running out that stat but its not true 4-0 8-3 9-6 2-1 8-4 5-1 7-2 10-3 3-1 I count 56-21. Not a huge difference but lets try to be accurate here.