CubsInNC

Neither of those trades could occur straight up, until well after the draft (July 10th ends this years moratorium) as neither would fit under the trade restrictions based on last years cap. Trading Hinrich for Randolph would work out decently in terms of the cap ($11mil for $13.3mil) but trading away Gordon ($4.88mil) would handicap the team to no end when attempting to fill out the bench. How horrible and snake bitten would Portland feel (and maybe they're gunshy now) to take the big man again, and have the following pick(s) go on to a remarkable HOF-like career. This morning they compared the upside of Oden to Robert Parrish. I like that comparison, and think it's where Oden will perform when all is said and done. Bill Russell's the ceiling, Eric Montross (also an LNHS alum) is the floor. But Parrish is the player he's likely to resemble the most, in my untrained eye.

Trading Hinrich makes you a worse team than trading Gordon does. That's the guard I would trade. I wouldn't trade Hinrich for Randolph. Randolph is a sieve defensively with a questionable attitude. I would, however, trade Gordon for him. I like Gordon a lot, but I think the Bulls are going to have to give him up (maybe Nocioni/Thomas/Pick would suffice) to get an inside presence. Would you be willing to trade a defensive inside presence for offense? Outside of that, I think the Bulls are hamstrung from making a trade to aquire the scorer inside they need/want.

While I think Heinrich for Randolph is unfair, to me it's unfair both ways, so it might actually work theoretically, but the salary cap restrictions might prevent it. As for PGs that might be available, I think there might be a good deal to be had on Tinsley (puke). Indy should be looking to move O'Neal and any of Tinsley/Dunleavy/Murphy this offseason. If for nothing else than draft picks in this and next year's drafts.

sorry, just turned on gamecast... it's my fault

Dadburn it... Swisher and his still ailing hammy, are actually playing, and playing well????? Put me in the "this can't last" crowd... I hope.

Yeah, I heard nothing about a couple pizzas, a few bags of cheetos, or any white castle being found at the crash site.

that was huh-----larry-us

First transaction: Drop Nick Swisher add Bill Hall

Jacque + money + how many minor league arms (or ML relievers) would net us something worthwhile?

I totally agree. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Hancock family. So sad. Sadness and prayers for the Cardinal family, as well as those close to Josh. Sadness and prayers to those close to the people who died today in Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan, Missouri, as well as those whose deaths didn't make the national news, or possibly even the local news.

I root for the D-Rays, and am thrilled that they are 1/2 game up on the Yankees for 4th in the AL East, and only a game out of 3rd. If it wasn't for the toughness of that division, I think we'd actually see them pull off 75-80 wins this season.

Nope, no coincidence-it is in fact in before the lock. thanks. now if I can only figure out what the "PB" in PB-Max stands for... is it Paul Bunyan? lol

They mentioned it last night as well, that his use was making him likely unavailable for either today or tomorrow. Maybe they are/were planning on saving him for the Sunday game.

And then Varitek makes it back ^ 4 to give the Sox a 4-3 lead. Wow. I could tell Pena was swinging to make it 5.... tried too hard. But wow,that was great to watch.

Fred, I realize very small sample size, but how many of those games for quality starts overlap with scoring first?

He almost single-handedly forced the strike in 1994. He has been tight with Selig for years, and even though his influence has waned somewhat recently, I think he could probably stop Cuban — especially if he's faced with having him in Chicago. Reinsdorf may be tight with Selig, but with the grooming of Selig's successor, and former Cub brass Andy MacPhail, his influence might be tempered by what MacPhail can bring to the table.

No econ background here, but I'll tell you how I understand it. Corporately, debt is bad. However, it's bad debt that's "really bad". Debt accrued for things that are guaranteed to fail, or already have, like if we owed Sammy Sosa $11million a year, in deferred money for the next 5 years, or owed $400mil on a stadium that always sat empty. The Cubs have increased their costs for future years, by signing all these guys to contracts, however, by signing (at least some) of these players they are increasing their likelihood of a very solid return on that investment. Individually, there may be some really bad promises of payment in that mix, but overall, the return on the investment (no matter how poor part of it might be) will be worth the cost. That's at least how I understand it. I still don't get it. Hendry did nothing to maximize bang for the buck on these deals. He paid top dollar for every ounce of improvement he made to the overall talent level of the club. I don't understand how that should increase the value of the team. The Cubs have certainly gotten better, but they took on a gazillion dollars of debt to get that way. If Hendry had made some great moves that improved the team's talent level without incurring a ton of debt then I can see how that would have increased the value of the team, but that's not what happened. I would suppose that the cost of winning versus the return on the investment is not a dollar for dollar even trade. Based on the acquisition of the players (and staff) they acquired this offseason, they are projected to earn x number of dollars. The increase in earnings from last year to this year are proportional to the "winningness" of the players/debts acquired (or lost). Because of the increase in earnings as a whole team for the duration of each contract will outweigh the cost associated with maintaining that team, the value of the franchise then rose. Marquis is owed $21mil a year over the next 3 years. Add into that everyone else who is guaranteed to be paid a set amount over those 3 years. And the forecast is that they will earn more than they spend, by such a rate because of those persons, that the overall speculative value for the team for that 3 year span, is higher by some % of those profits.

No econ background here, but I'll tell you how I understand it. Corporately, debt is bad. However, it's bad debt that's "really bad". Debt accrued for things that are guaranteed to fail, or already have, like if we owed Sammy Sosa $11million a year, in deferred money for the next 5 years, or owed $400mil on a stadium that always sat empty. The Cubs have increased their costs for future years, by signing all these guys to contracts, however, by signing (at least some) of these players they are increasing their likelihood of a very solid return on that investment. Individually, there may be some really bad promises of payment in that mix, but overall, the return on the investment (no matter how poor part of it might be) will be worth the cost. That's at least how I understand it.

13-17 per hour is poverty level? Wow, I'm behind the times. I never realized things have gotten that bad. Not really surprising under George Bush's watch, really. According to the US Census Bureau, $27,000 a year ($13/hr 2080 hours) is over the poverty line for a family of 5 or less people. Not that in most places anyone could truly live on that, but that's the federal poverty line.

1. Number of Cubs wins, 2007: 87 +275 2. Number of Cubs wins, Cardinals season series (16 games): 8 +50 3. Number of runs scored, 2007: 761 +250 4. Number of runs allowed, 2007: 699 +250 5. Final Placement in the NL Central Division: 2nd +100 Player Stats & Scoring 1. Number of DLee Home Runs: 35 0 2. Number of Soriano Stolen Bases: 31 +20 3. Murton's Batting Average: .323 0 4. Aramis' RBIs: 108 +30 5. Carlos Zambrano's Wins: 17 +40 6. Jason Marquis' ERA: 4.62 +40 7. Rich Hill's Ks: 191 +50 8. Ted Lilly's Innings Pitched: 171.2 +20 Bonus Questions I (30 points each) 1. Which will be higher: Z's batting average or Z's batting average against? Z's BAA 0 2. Which will be higher: Aramis' HRs or Marquis' HRs allowed? Aramis' HRs +30 3. Which will be higher: Cesar's OBP or DLee's batting average? Cesar's OBP 0 4. Who will have more HRs: Barrett or Murton? Murton 0 5. Who will have more wins: Hill or Lilly? Hill 0 6. Who will have a higher K/BB: Zambrano or Hill? Zambrano 0 Bonus II Questions (30 points each) 1. Most HRs: Soriano +30 2. Highest OBP (min. 350 ABs): Murton 0 3. Lowest ERA (min. 150 IPs): Zambrano 0 4. Most saves: Ryan Dempster +30 The Annual Tiebreaker: Michael Barrett's OPS: .837 off by .103 Total: 1215

CubsInNC's ENTRY Group A: Pujols Group B: A. Jones & Teixeira Group C: Fielder, Swisher -> Bill Hall, & M. Cabrera Group D: Tejada -> Adrian Gonzalez, Blalock, Ensberg, Blake & Rollins WC: Alex Gordon -> Alex Rios Edit: Thanks Southpaw for the heads up about Rivera - hadn't caught that. First Half Transactions:

Considering that recent estimates have put the number of "zombies" on the internet into the 10s of millions (I've seen estimates in the 60 million range), and the fact that zombie nets go for big bucks on the black market for spam and identity theft, to me it's not incredibly obvious that this is the work of a larger zombie network. Likely this particular hacker group/board has a few compromised machines, likely on high speed lines (US cable modems need not apply), and has them setup to scan large ip ranges injecting various sql-exploits and e-mailing successful hits to an anonymous e-mail address. Then the hacker logs into one (or a series) of their compromised machines and launches tools loaded on that computer that are "point-and-click" hacking. It's quite likely they wrote the specific tools themselves, but doubtfully are using any "new" exploits. Most likely, they then posted the successful hack onto their forum (which likely (and ironically) also runs phpBB). The nice thing they did was that they left if virtually untouched. Which indicates that they're more likely out for fame and glory in the hacking scene. As for phpBB being insecure, it's really not much different than any other forum software. More likely, it's the most commonly used so the majority of script hackers utilize tools that exploit it, as it gets them more fame. There are several dependencies for phpBB; a webserver (apache, IIS, etc), a database (server) (MySQL, SQL, Sql-Lite, etc), and any customizations or modifications a forum makes to it's code. Many times it's those dependencies that are responsible for the hack (in this case, though it could be the older version of the premium forum). Get off my lawn! Yuppie.

Tim, Did you submit the incident to the phpbb security tracking team? Sure it's an sql-injection hack, Definitely seems like it exploited the custom title, but not sure if that was the primary entry point.

I don't think he's worth $7mil/yr for 1 year, let alone 3. I don't think Lilly, Meche, or any other of the FA pitchers this offseason are going to be worth what was paid to obtain them (Daisuke, the same including the full posting fee). At this point, bad move aside, he's on the roster, and barring a Todd Hundley deal next off-season, he's not likely going anywhere. That said, the best I can hope for, out of the guy is keeping the game close, and pitching 6+ every turn in the rotation. Yes, there are plenty of other cheaper options we *should* have utilized, but what is the likelihood that we would have given any of them much of a chance this year?

I hear ya. Really the midwest bracket sucks, because none of those teams is really that dominant, consistantly. Some are pretty hot now though. So UNLV is my George Mason.