UK1679666180

If you surround Neifi with 7 other productive spots in the lineup, he's more adequate. But, when you see Blanco, Patterson, Neifi, and the pitcher, you're into suffication by bad offensive players. I can't put enough faith into Hendry to obtain 7 quality offensive players to surround Perez or Dusty to utilize them properly.

At least in Houston, they can control the temp of the dome. If it gets about 70, they can turn on the AC and bring it down to 60, so they can play better.

I like the posters at sports-boards from the Cards part of the board, the feelings might not be mutual, but what the heck, it never stopped me from not being quiet.

Well, it looks like Colon is injured. Mechanically, he's been pretty sound throughout his career. There's alot of energy exerted in that power pitcher w/a chubby body.

They come off a bye week, 5th week of the year, Jones gets injured and they go to Peterson in the 4th over the 4th overall pick? Blitz pickup is one thing, but that tells me something. What was the longest pass play? 10 yards. No shotgun, 5 plays or less of 3WR. I thought they got rid of Shoop. 3rd quarter and they're trying to run out the clock.

Have the Bears had a 3 WR set at any point during this game? I know they have not run any shotgun all year.

Really? Is it because of Giles' perceived reluctance to leave the west coast? That's the only thing I can see holding the Cubs back. Well, that and I'm sure they won't overpay like many of us here have suggested. I think there will be some West Coast teams interested in Giles, I think LA will be a player in that. I don't see the Cubs getting in a bidding war for a player that they likely feel luke-warm on. As far as Kearns, he's not the difference maker they need out of a RF'er. If Murton didn't progress like he did, I would not mind if they traded for Kearns. But, they'll need a difference maker in RF and that won't be Kearns. I think the Cubs can win next year, Hendry will have to have a much better off-season though. Follow my blueprint and you'll have it. You don't trade Abreu to make room for Victorino, you trade Michaels to make room for Victorino. Victorino was rated as the 19th best prospect in the Phillies system by BA, that was before his MVP season at AAA. He certainly isn't some slouch.

Fixed... It'll be interesting with Giles, the Cubs will have interest, not sure how much? They had a passing interest in Beltran last year. That's the difference, the Cubs have a better chance of getting Abreu than Giles, IMO.

Assuming the Phillies are unable to trade Thome for the price they are looking for. I think teams like the White Sox (I doubt Konerko is returning), Cleveland, and Boston will inquire about him, but they will want Philly to pay more of Thome's contract than they are willing to pay as well as Thome having a no-trade clause, so he might be willing only to return to the Midwest. They'll likely look to trade Abreu or Michaels to make room for Victorino, if one is traded, I doubt the other would. If you had your choice, which you allocate more in salary and prospects to get Abreu as the more proven commodity or spend less and get someone less proven but easier to obtain. Abreu: Proven Extremely productive High OBP Above avg. defensively Ideal #4 hitter between Lee and Ramirez Expensive Below avg. 2nd half Questions about his work ethic No trade clause More expensive to obtain Michaels: Ideal CF'er High OBP Prime of his career Very good defensively Will hit leadoff Salary will be under 2 mil Has not had a full season worth of work Legal troubles

Beckert's suit is way better than Santo's tie.

Honestly, I thought Guy Morris was really good for Kentucky. At least his teams were in almost all games. He did an outstanding job at UK, they would've been bowl bound with a team that lacked talent had they not been on probation. He's turning around Baylor. It's still unclear why he left for Baylor. Media reports have it as financial, some suspect him and Mitch didn't see eye to eye. I'm hoping for Dennis Erickson, will settle for Glenn from Wyoming or hawkins from Boise St. Leach from Texas Tech is my dream candidate.

I hope McLaren gets the gig in TB.

UK was trounced by the other USC, Spurrier no matter where he goes will always trounce UK. Worst UK team in about 10 years, that is saying something. Whoever replaces Brooks at the end of the year, god bless ya.

http://www.freep.com/sports/tigers/tigers8e_20051008.htm If they do decide on Rothschild, I hope the Cubs do a couple of things 1st... 1)Look at as many candidates as possible. 2)Have Hendry in charge of the hire.

Girardi did meet w/Jeffrey Loria yesterday as Loria has an office in Manhattan and the Yanks gave Girardi permission to do so. He is the leading candidate to replace McKeon.

Notice the jersey extending over the short-shorts, that's a bad sign.

Exactly. Never has been true, and probably never will be. It's an arbitrary thing. That's why it's voted on, rather than just punching the numbers into a computer. Someday, that might change. It hasn't yet. It should be done thru a computer and not some sportswriter who is voting on a team he either sees 6 times or 162 times a year as a beat writer. It makes it much easier for a sportswriter to look at the standings rather than looking deeper into the numbers. That's why the voting system is crap and it would be wrong if they didn't give it to Lee. That's fine. I think that calling balls & strikes by computer would be a higher priority, though. And instant replay. And some sort of formula to determine strength of schedule in case of a close Wild Card race....... just to be sure that the best teams get in. All of those things should be a priority over computerizing the MVP winner, because it's a team game, and those are the things that really matter. I'd hate to see Questec and instant replay... Voting for MVP or the Cy Young has little bearing on anything except discussions with fans and potential HOF voting as well as contract incentives. Certain things should be left up to human error, calls during the game is one of them. The computers have no right with interfering

Exactly. Never has been true, and probably never will be. It's an arbitrary thing. That's why it's voted on, rather than just punching the numbers into a computer. Someday, that might change. It hasn't yet. It should be done thru a computer and not some sportswriter who is voting on a team he either sees 6 times or 162 times a year as a beat writer. It makes it much easier for a sportswriter to look at the standings rather than looking deeper into the numbers. That's why the voting system is crap and it would be wrong if they didn't give it to Lee.

Or everybody that looks at which player contributed more. As usual, yes.

Exactly.

Other than the money can you convince me why Millwood or any that were on conteders would want to come to the Cubs? this is for anybody, not just for Hoops Even with this disappointing season, that Chicago would be a top destination for potential FAs, if money was the same. The Cubs are two good players from making the postseason again. It'd take more than 2 to make it a potential lock (oxymoron), but if the Cubs are interested in a player, it is a fair possibility that the player would look at it differently than if Milwaukee was looking at FA, despite the Brewers having a better record. I think players think along the same lines as the Cubs' brass as to why the '05 Cubs failed (health and only minor improvements needed) to get them back into the NLCS.

There's not much value in finishing 4th. That's not a biased opinion. It's what most of America believes, and probably what the majority of sports writers will determine. Maybe the majority of people are wrong, and you're right. It's not out of the question. "Value" is ambiguous, though. It's not necessarily black & white. And I'm not sure that Pujols had better teammates around him (other than the pitching). He spent much of the season with people like So Taguchi and Yadier Molina hitting behind him. I'm sure he would have preferred the protection of Aramis Ramirez, and might have benefitted from it. The Cubs finished 4th not Lee, you know those other 24 players who had an impact in that. I am amazed at your inability to not separate the two concepts. Did Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, etc. have any value throughout their careers? There's a boatload of value of what did Lee for the Cubs this year, it is moronic to think otherwise. Value is black & white, when the other factors besides production are non-existant. What did Pujols do to make his better beyond his production on the field? What did Lee do to make his team worse on the field despite his production? Here we go again with these damn hypotheticals... I don't know how Pujols would've done if Walker would've stayed healthy behind Pujols or if LaRussa put Edmonds there. How would Lee have done if he had decent hitters hitting in front of him instead of Perez? Who the hell knows, who the hell cares. I do know that Lee was the best player and also the most productive in 2005. Now, if you want to factor the 24 other players as well as the coaching staff (unless you think Larussa=Baker), go right ahead, you'll be wrong. The writers would be wrong if they gave the MVP to anyone other than Lee, I don't care if 1,000 of them voted for Pujols and I was the only one voting for Lee.

Pujols is more valuable b/c he has better teammates? Quite a crappy and invalid concept. So far, Pujols deseves the MVP b/c Jocketty is a better GM than Hendry, despite Lee having the better year. Sorry, bias doesn't sell with me.

The Cubs have something in their hand but it's not a bird, and it most definitely is broke. I would not consider a trade of the studs if this team was coming off back to back 90+ win seasons, but this team sucks. Anything to improve them should be done. Would you trade ARam for Wilkerson and Hernandez and re-sign Nomar to play 3rd? I wouldn't. As much as I like Wilkerson, he's a huge downgrade from ARam. Nomar's still as likely to get hurt. And there are only handful of pitchers I would trade Ram for......Livan ain't one of them. Would you (or anyone) trade Zambrano for Miguel Cabrera. I would and use Cabrera back at SS. I concur! What would you do if he couldn't handle SS? Move him back to LF or trade ARam and put him at third? If he couldn't handle SS, I'd put him in the OF. I wouldn't trade Ramirez to clear a spot for Cabrera, unless the offer was good enough to trade Ramirez, even if he stuck with the Fish.

On this day 21 years ago, Leon Durham set the trend of Cubs and former Cubs 1B having balls go thru their legs during pivotal moments in the playoffs. The 1st of many heartbearks would follow for me having adopted the Cubs.