Soul

I don't think he's going to get the chance to pound Grossman. I see Turner coming out with a huge, heavy dose of Benson in this game to prove a point starting the '07 season. And I see Turner instituting more shotgun, too. He's said he will look into that. I think he's going to do it. Shotgun doesn't prevent pressure. It helps the QB see better, and hence respond to pressure better. It's used that way all the time.

For me it depends on whether Encarnacion has been talked to about this before. I think it's pretty excessive to simply bench a guy the first time he does it. But if Narron's been trying to get him to hustle and he's just not responding, then I'm alright with it.

No they are not. It will be a tough test. The Bears D will be fully healthy with Harris and Brown. So while I do think the Chargers will beat the Bears, but I doubt the Chargers "are going to crush the Bears" as you think. I'm thinking a 7 point differential. Bears will win that game. Chargers are good, but the Bears will beat them physically. Bears by 3 i gotta say, i doubt it. grossman will be seeing merriman in his sleep if he doesn't develop some kind of pocket awareness in the meantime. I don't think he's going to get the chance to pound Grossman. I see Turner coming out with a huge, heavy dose of Benson in this game to prove a point starting the '07 season. And I see Turner instituting more shotgun, too. He's said he will look into that. I think he's going to do it.

I think I'm gonna cave and order the DirecTV EI package. I couldn't stand knowing there were 2 HD games on last night and I couldn't watch 'em.

I think we all knew (or should have) there was an injury behind Mark's loss of velocity. Shoulder injury. Just like JoBo, sometimes you lose velocity but feel no pain. But eventually, you start feeling the discomfort.

A bit bitter? The Trib isn't flush with cash?

All the info I need is to look back the past couple of years. And that tells you whether this injury is serious? And that tells me Prior's chances of becoming an effective starter again are close to nil. He'll be an all star pitcher :pig:

Jones shouldn't hit #2, ever. Barrett would be better as the #2, IMO, than Jones would ever be. I'd hit Soriano #2 too, over Jones. I'd also consider Murton/Soriano/Lee/ARam to be a better starting 4 than we've put on the field for any game yet this season. I think my ideal would be Murton/Barrett/Soriano/Lee/ARam

Eventually someone needs to come to their senses and get Soriano out of the leadoff spot. Come on, Lou. This guy isn't a leadoff hitter, it's such a waste.

Offense should be better than previous few years. Lee will be here. Murton will play more games than ever, and should still be improving. Derosa > Neifi/Hairston Soriano >>> Pierre And quite possibly the best thing: '07 bench >>>>>>> '05-'06 bench, in terms of hitting prowress (especially power). It's got to show up eventually.

I'd like to see Cuban try, just so Reinsdorf would have to shoot him down, thus exposing Jerry for the screwball that he can *sometimes* be. Cuban would be incredible for baseball. Anyone who wants to deny that needs to have a cold, hard look at the Mavs, and what their success and business model has done for Dallas and, indeed, the NBA as a whole. Alright yeah, yeah -- he screams and yells alot. There's no reason civilized men couldn't come to some sort of arrangement, such as Mark agreeing to sit in a luxury suite during games, or agreeing beforehand to not comment on the refs. These aren't children, they're grown men who can come to an agreement on behavior.

Bah. It's also a matter of public record, Mr. Reinsdorf, that in the final analysis, you were wrong for opposing Cuban. His positives have greatly outweighed his negatives. He's turned a nothing franchise into a financial windfall for the league and for Dallas. He's revitalized interest in the NBA for an entire segment of the country that formerly would have rather turned on women's volleyball than watch an NBA game. YOU WERE WRONG THEN, AND YOU'RE WRONG NOW. Period, end of story.

Turned on the radio this morning and all the ESPN jerks would talk about was Dice-K. Here's a clue, you morons: HE LOST. The real story was Hernandez. My goodness that guy is amazing. He does remind me of Wood.

New Jersey plays at Cleveland tomorrow night - doubly huge game for the Bulls with their opponent and their seed both hanging in the balance Come on NJ!

No they are not. It will be a tough test. The Bears D will be fully healthy with Harris and Brown. So while I do think the Chargers will beat the Bears, but I doubt the Chargers "are going to crush the Bears" as you think. I'm thinking a 7 point differential. Bears will win that game. Chargers are good, but the Bears will beat them physically. Bears by 3

Don't forget the New York SUPER FOOTBALL Giants are just on the brink with Eli. Damn Bears and their lucky plays ruined everything for the pristine Giants last year. ........pwahahah

Curry can score, but he's not even averaging a double-double. He would with more minutes, but he's too fat to take the pounding. Bah, I thought Curry would be a solid role guy with the Bulls, albeit an expensive one, but this guy is wacked out of his mind talking like Eddy's Shaq or something. Apparently logic and reason no longer exist in the Big Apple.

My God, such insanity hasn't been put into words since the UniBomber.

Oh ye of little faith.

What is the reason we can't simply wait for a little longer before acting like the team is in trouble? We're 3-5, not 0-8. Yes, we're playing badly right now. It's not even mid April yet. That goes for individual players, too. It's 8 games; it doesn't even tell you if a guy will wind up with a strong APRIL, much less whether he'll have a good/bad year.

I was critical of the Curry trade and I'm still not so sure about Wallace. But I also find it difficult to believe Curry is suddenly going to find the desire within himself to truly be great. He seems to want to coast on his natural ability, not work hard every day to improve. Maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.

Win what now though? We can likely win this division with 85-90 wins, and that's not far off the projections. We're 3-5 right now, 1 game back. There's no good teams around. I strongly suspect there will be few complaints if this team goes to the playoffs, and a mediocre team will do that. As for 100 years of losing, I've been as vocal as anyone over that. I'm frustrated too. I'm a little confused by the World Series expectations, though. I never thought this team was going to do that. I have difficulty understanding anyone who thinks this team needs to win it all this year, regardless of the money spent. The Cubs have the money to spend, so why shouldn't they spend it? What makes people think the cash flow is suddenly going to go dry? We drew another 3 million people last year for a horrid team. I think the thing that really ticks me off the most is that the Tribune probably let Hendry spend the $300 million to drive up the price of the Cubs, and not so they could leave on a good note by winning the World Series. I'm just glad that a new owner will be in place after this season and that hopefully their first order of business is to fire Hendry. The man has shown over and over again that he doesn't understand how to put together a ballclub. He's mostly shown that he doesn't care about OBP, which is the new focus around the league. He's getting raped by other teams that are using it, and he's still back in the old days, refusing to acknowledge its worth. He could have compensated if he would have gotten the pitching, but arms are fickle and he got burned there, too. The result has been badness. No OBP + AAA fill-in arms = bad baseball

Hmm, Lilly and Hill back to back huh? I thought they separated them earlier because they didn't want two lefties back to back? RLRLR was the rationale for the construction of the rotation but Piniella is smart; He would rather have Hill and Lilly against a team in the division instead of pushing Hill back to the Padres series. It didn't take Hill long to become the #2 starter....

Win what now though? We can likely win this division with 85-90 wins, and that's not far off the projections. We're 3-5 right now, 1 game back. There's no good teams around. I strongly suspect there will be few complaints if this team goes to the playoffs, and a mediocre team will do that. As for 100 years of losing, I've been as vocal as anyone over that. I'm frustrated too. I'm a little confused by the World Series expectations, though. I never thought this team was going to do that. I have difficulty understanding anyone who thinks this team needs to win it all this year, regardless of the money spent. The Cubs have the money to spend, so why shouldn't they spend it? What makes people think the cash flow is suddenly going to go dry? We drew another 3 million people last year for a horrid team.

Emphasis yours. From the conclusion you draw, I'd say you're making quite a few assumptions about what's going on in the Cubs' clubhouse.