brinoch

Why this doubting the Colts and the unbelievable love for the Chargers here? You know, that 7-4 team? Sorry, but the Colts far outclass the Chargers. Not even close. LT's great, and Brees is solid, but the Chargers just can't keep up. In terms of the toughest games for the Colts, I'd say they are past -- they were Cincinnati and Pittsuburgh. For the games left, it's Seattle and maybe Jacksonville. The Seahawks are a good team. Jacksonville, at home, is a tough team, though with Leftwich out that makes things interesting. The Colts have Tennessee, at Jacksonville, San Diego, at Seattle and Arizona left to play. They won't lose at home, in the dome. So that leaves Jacksonville and Seattle to stop them.

They'll move kent to first, and Walker will play second. As for Konerko, I don't think the Dodgers would be interested.

I'd rather use Walker as trade bait elsewhere and pick up Bradley for free, but I have to say that I do like the interest the Cubs are apparently have for Bradley. Despite his issues (and I acknowledge they are legion) he would be an excellent pick-up for the Cubs.

I don't see how anything you showed proved that he isn't bad. At best he's a good platoon player worthy of a 1 year deal. 2/12 is insane for that crappy production from a RF. He had mild success in his mid 20s, then a career year in Colorado, and has regressed in his 30s. He would be a terrible choice for RF. You are basically locking yourself into 2 more years of Burnitz like underperformance at a crucial offensive position in an already weak lineup. Look dude, Christian Guzman is bad. Preston Wilson is not bad. Wilson is bad. Guzman doesn't even rate "bad" on any reasonable scale since he's quite awful.

I'm with goony on this one. However, I don't think you go to Grossman until he's really healthy. I don't think he's there yet, and I don't think he'll be there until after the Green Bay game. Of course, I'm not a doctor, and I'm not one of the coaches, so I don't really know -- that's my deduction based on reports I've read. I think the Bears won't need Grossman to defeat the Packers. More than likely, the defense will win this game all on its own. They have to be salivating at the prospect of Gado and Favre as unprotected as they seem to be. But Pittsburgh and Atlanta are another story, particularly Pittsburgh (I think Atlanta is less dangerous than Tampa, who I think is better than Carolina). The Steelers are a *good* team, with a very solid defense. I think they could easily hold the Bears offense to virtually nothing. Frankly, with the O-line as solid as it is, a decent quarterback who can force defenses to respect the pass -- even a little -- would bring this offense to life. Defenses are reacting to the Bears' ability to run by stacking 8 men in the box, and they are getting away with it because Orton hasn't shown that he is worthy of their respect. With a decent QB, a defense that plays 8 men up against the run is going to suffer tremendously against a solid passing attack. Likewise, the running game gets knew life when a defense is forced to react and drop more men into coverage. Granted, it's the Colts, but bear with me. Look at the effectiveness and apparent unstoppable momentum the Colts have on offense. Is that all Peyton Manning? Or does the ability of Edgerrin James factor in here, too? What about their o-line? Replace Manning with, say, Brees or Hasselback. Would the offense still be good? Yes, because they would still have balance and the ability to move the ball either passing or running. Certainly there would be a downgrade -- I'm not arguing that Manning is any less incredible than he is. He's simply awesome. The point is that a good, but not necessarily great quarterback will still move the ball effectively in that offense. Now, look at the Bears offense. Look at that line. Look at Jones, Benson and Peterson. Look at MM, Gage, and Bradley (before the injury). And insert Brees or Hasselback. Grossman may not be Brees or Hasselback. But he could be, we don't know since he's been hurt so much. On the other hand, we *know* Orton isn't going to be that effective. We *know* that defenses don't respect his ability.

Ah... I can imagine. But it'll never happen. After all, can he catch the ball?

That is a lot of looneys and twoneys the Jays are spending! IMO Toronto is one of the most beautiful cities in America. Agreed.

I forgot to ask, is that offer in Canadian dollars? ;)

I love Giles and all, but I don't think I would offer 5/55. I felt that a blow your doors down offer early on of around 3/39 would get it done immediately, but evidently that's too nice.

I was not impressed with Orton this game, or very much at all, frankly. He's been the best option with Grossman out. That's it. He's probably still the best option, but I have no confidence that the offense can move the ball with him at the helm. His passes are sloppy and his timing is pretty bad. When Grossman is a little more healthy -- maybe against Pittsburgh or Atlanta -- he needs to get back into the game. You don't squander an opportunity like this one. A defense like this comes around once in a blue moon. A competent offense, combined with this defense, could conceivably win out this season.

Ironic isn't it? Do you think if Nomar was more 'motivated' he could have avoided such an injury? And here we are two years after the trade, counting on Murton and watching backwards Ramon take 55 out of town. Nomar has one of the most intense workout regimens in baseball. I think SI did a story on a while back. Good point. Don't try to piggyback his thoughts. Right. CPatterson never has an original thought. Gimme a break.

Read the thread. Crappy is fine. Swear words are not. I edited out his choice of language.

Let's tone down the language, please. This is a family site, and swearing is generally not accepted. Thanks! is that a swear word? or already edited I edited out the swear word.

Let's tone down the language, please. This is a family site, and swearing is generally not accepted. Thanks!

Mabry works for me.

Let's just use Cedeno and Walker. If you can get Castillo in a package from the Fish, great. If not, Walker and Cedeno are a great economic deal in the IF, and would allow the Cubs to take on salary for Abreu or Giles, or whoever else they go for in the OF. Again, baseball is about economics, and where you can do the greatest good with a given amount of money. $10,000,000 spent upgrading RF would be better spent than $10,000,000 for SS -- given the options available internally for the Cubs. Getting Giles is a huge upgrade in the OF. I'd wow him with a great contract and get him in the fold as my #1 priority. Cedeno won't be Furcal, but he's cheap. Having Walker, Cedeno and Giles is better than Furcal, Cedeno and, say, Burnitz. Cheap production is crucial in modern baseball economics. Corey no longer provides that (neither the production nor the inexpensiveness, frankly). With raises in the near future for Zambrano and Prior. This is the direction I'd take.

The hypocracy is palpable. Cuse has already asked to get this thread on topic and to stop labeling posters. Let the Mods do their jobs. If you have a concern, let one of the online Mods know and he or she will handle it as quickly as possible.

All right folks, let's drop the bumping discussion and get back to the topic of the thread, please.

Wow, that was a ridiculous thing to say. This has hardly been 18 pages of complaining. I've seen a lot of the space used for questions, clarifications and praise. But it's good to see the spirit police spring into action to try and haul in those evil people who have the audacity to question a move made by the impeccable Cubs management team. I've read the thread, the majority of it has been complaining. Spirit police? LOL. No, it's just that no matter what Hendry does (or doesn't do) he gets slammed for it, and frankly it gets old. Signing Howry will make our team better. The specifics of the contract may not be ideal in your eyes, but answer me this: when was the last contract that a Cubs player signed that you thought WAS ideal? Dem's the breaks of a messageboard. You are always going to attract adherents of various philosphies that clash in their immediate, long-term, and player targeting priorities. Some want to upgrade pitching, some the offense, others want more defense. Everyone has an opinion, and I'm glad to see that many are offering those opinions! Debate is healthy, and the lifeblood of a messageboard.

I'd rather have Castillo and Cedeno than Furcal and Cedeno.

Why allow a social forum? Why have a rants forum? Why allow anything not baseball related? 70% of the posts on this board aren't 'necessary'. But the HCP were fun, just like a lot of the non-baseball aspects of this board. Can you justify that anything is necessary on this board? I'm still waiting for the justification that it needed to be cancelled. I did justify it, and I did explain it in my original post. I thought it was pretty clear. 1. NSBB is a family-friendly site. Kids post here, as do women, and we need to be welcoming of everyone. 2. Given the nature of the site, the content of the polls were to be PG-rated. However, much of the posted content was well beyond that rating level. 3. Much of the commentary about the various "candidates" was completely out-of-line, and some of it was very degrading to women in general. 4. We received many complaints and there were concerns about the polls. 5. It very quickly became an extremely divisive issue for many members of this community. Frankly, it's not impossible that we didn't act with proper celerity to shut down the polls, and by allowing things to slide in the early going we perhaps created a belief that such examples were allowabl. If so, that's a mistake we made in not keeping close tabs on the polls. Perhaps, too, a better discussion is whether we erred in having such a poll last winter. I don't know, and I suspect there's no way to get at the answer. Rocket, there's really no way to defend many of the comments made in those polls, as well as some of the pictures themselves. Perhaps it was fun and enjoyable for you -- along with many other posters -- but there were many people for which it was not fun, and not enjoyable.

That's not precisely what I was saying, but I can see where you might read my words differently. It was a commentary, rather than an indictment. Regardless, my apologies to anyone who may or may not have been offended by my post. I've edited the post.

A) I don't think I've seen anyone use "dumpster" in a derogatory way since 2004, which is well before the ban on such names. B) there should be a double standard in a community this small between long time posters and newbies. The mods here know the people with thousands of posts. They know their general intentions and know if they can be trusted to reign it in if they're instructed to do so. There is a VERY GOOD REASON THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE LAW. We have the sort of legal system ENTIRELY because we live in a society where most people do not know most other people they may run into. It's simply not a good idea to apply to this sort of community because the judges actually know everyone involved in the incidents they moderate. shouldn't the long time posters set the example?? if someone w/ 10000 posts is constantly flaming, someone w/ 100 posts probably thinks it's ok to act up as well. Again, if you think someone is flaming/being flamed, PM an online mod and point it out, or wait 'til we see it. We'll then take care of it. I doesn't matter if the poster has 100 or 10,000; we'll reign them in. And, for the record, the vast majority of warnings, cautions, and reminders take place via PM and the board-at-large doesn't see them. Just because it wasn't publicly stated doesn't mean it wasn't dealt with. Additionally, we get testy in threads as well, though we try to be even-handed. We've all done it. We're human. If you feel a mod unjustly came down on you -- politely open a dialogue via PM with the mod. No one will bite your head off, and it can only help things. More communication is good.

Okay folks. Enough is enough. These polls were completely out of hand. I’m posting this announcement to let you know that this contest is over. This is not open for discussion or debate. The contest is over. What started last winter as a rather quiet distraction very quickly became an all-consuming monster this offseason. Not only have the pictures been out of line, but many of the comments were inappropriate, misogynistic and completely unacceptable. This is a family site, welcoming to kids and to women. It was made clear after initial objections surfaced where the boundaries would be -- effectively, a PG rating. However, the content of these threads was most decidely not PG, nor was it family/female friendly. The mods attempted to monitor the various threads. However, very quickly complaints and concerns -- as well as the content itself -- overwhelmed our ability to police these threads effectively and in a timely manner. Merely editing the offensive portions of messages, deleting inappropriate pictures, and/or removing offending posts clearly failed to improve the situation. Inappropriate pictures were removed by a mod, only to be re-posted later in the day. Rude commentary was encouraged, repeated and applauded. Indeed, these threads quickly reduced the environment of the polls forum into a locker room where grading women's looks, attractiveness, breast-size, and other attributes was expected behavior and the norm. It is apparent that you cannot and will not control yourselves and maintain even the slightest amount of decorum and board appropriateness. This is a baseball site dedicated to the Cubs. We all appreciate that it is the offseason and we’re bored waiting for the 2006 version of our beloved Cubbies to be revealed in all their honor and glory. However, that doesn’t mean that it is acceptable to while away the winter viewing an extended series of polls crudely objectifying women – be they models, actresses or otherwise.

New posters are always going to be more closely watched than older posters; it's the nature of the beast. Presumably, older posters know the drill. Additionally, be realistic with your expectations... the mods aren't on all the time patrolling every forum and every thread. We have jobs, families, and other responsibilities. If you see something that you think is out of line, please contact whoever is online and they'll deal with it as quickly as possible. Keeping on eye on new posters, helping them learn the ropes, and then moving on proves, generally, to correct most problems.