Soul

He didn't break any bones? I can feel our luck changing already.

Looks like this was already done in the past, so instead of complaining about having the ad, we should be complaining about being deprived of it for 80 years.

If that's the case, then there's only one word to describe the Indians' closer situation: desperation.

Nothing. Complete silence on Lovie.

All this talk about Big Teddy Bear Lou is hilarious. There's no way in hell he doesn't run out of that dugout if something terrible happens with the umps. You can't remove a temper like that from a man. It's just not possible.

I still don't get how it's possible for a minor-league contract to be considered one of the worst offseason moves. I don't care if it's for Rush Limbaugh. And JD Drew the worst offseason move of all? Huh? What, is this guy on crack?

His arm might be somewhat wasted at 2B anyway. It's been a good long while since I've seen a Cubbie rack up some serious outfield assists.

I knew I should have been a baseball player. It was -20F here this morning, my Truck brakes needed to be pumped a few times just to get enough brake fluid to keep me from rolling into the ditch across from my driveway. Even a coaching position would sound good right now. How about "director of hydration?" Anything to get down to Zona :)

It's true that this one ad isn't going to destroy the mystique of Wrigley. It's more like the collective effect of all the successive times that we've seen "just one ad" be put up in Wrigley will eventually diminish the mystique considerably. It's a slippery slope. An ad here, an ad there, and we always say, it's just one, it's OK if it's tasteful, and before you know it Wrigley is no different from any other park in baseball as a way to sell people crap. On an mostly unrelated note, there's way way way way way too much advertising in pro sports (and college for that matter, at my 10,000 student mid major college alma mater there are no fewer than 5 sponsored half-time and timeout events during the basketball games). The way things are going, all sports will end up like Nascar, with ads every conceivable place from the tiny decals for every piece of the automobile to the ginormous NEXTEL in front of the name of the league. I'm not looking forward to watching the Seattle Windows take on the St. Louis Buds for the Wal-Mart championship trophy in the General Electric World Series, played on beautiful Pepsi field in the spacious Citipark. Everyone always cites the NASCAR example. The fans of NASCAR love the ads. They've basically adopted the advertisers of each driver. It's viewed as a positive, not a negative. I don't think baseball will ever be like NASCAR. But I also don't view advertising as inherently bad, either.

They tore down the entire damn bleachers and didn't lose the 'mystique' of Wrigley. Adding yet another ad doesn't change a thing. Probably nothing will, as long as that ballpark is standing in Wrigleyville. The first time Soriano hits a double off that sign, Len will make some wisecrack and wa-la, it becomes just as much a part of the Wrigley mystique as everything else.

Certainly has worked for the Yankees. Won't happen as long as the Cubs have the incestuous relationship with WGN television. Maybe WGN could spin off a new channel. They've got to start thinking about doing something because that one channel is kind of stagnant.

I remember when that shirt used to say 312 on it, as all of Chicago was 312 and all the suburbs were 708 I remember when Naperville was 312..... Yes, I am old. 8-)

Hahahahaha. Oh, Lordy. The trials and tribulations of Cub fandom.

People need to get over the TE fascination. The Bears TE group is fine. There are only a handful (maybe 5?) really good TE in football. Unless you get one of those, there's no reason to be spending 1st round picks on them. Every year there's 2-3 guys who are considered can't miss TE who are picked early and flame out. Yeah, the general rule of thumb is that Angelo won't draft a 1st round TE anyway. I wonder if McShay realizes this. Kiper could be right, although I think some of it hinges on whether Briggs is kept. We do need OL help soon.

I think the NBA is a completely different animal than the NFL. I don't want to say Skiles' teams wear down by playoff time, because I haven't really seen that. Actually Skiles, for all his faults, plays alot of his bench often to keep guys fresh. What I'm seeing is a club that was put together by Paxson for Skiles. And it's worked pretty well. But how far can this go? To me, I'm seeing players who leave this club and stretch their legs a bit, starting to do better than they did in Chicago. What if Skiles isn't giving a guy like Deng all the opportunity he needs to be that superstar? I do worry about things like that.

You mean stop the hands of time? I'd love to, but my Mom told me it doesn't work that way. Really? Because I think that's the plan for the forseeable future. They've been replacing pieces of the ballpark for years. How is that not changing anything?

You mean stop the hands of time? I'd love to, but my Mom told me it doesn't work that way.

I haven't been ticked off before now at anything personally. The homeplate signage was inevitable. The Bud Light bleachers, eh. The computer scoreboards around the park, yes, please. But this is needless and stupid. All these things you speak of were sources of great angst when they were announced. Now they're just passing memories. It's all inevitable. All ballparks will eventually have many more ads. Wrigley field will eventually be called "Bank One Park at Wrigley Field" or some such nonsense. The old grandstands will eventually be replaced. EVERTHING will eventually be replaced. The past is the past. Let's win a World Series, shall we?

Wowza. 5th round pick for Carr? Wouldn't just about every team jump into those trade talks? I think that's low. Carr's failures have clearly been partially due to an inept franchise.

Pax has followed that plan so far. Pau's four years younger than Garnett, and their production's within shouting distance this season -- KG, 25.39 to Pau, 23.63. I adore the Big Ticket but I'm not sure I'd give up much more for him than I would for Gasol at this point. I think the point is, do we think of the solution in terms of getting another player? Or do we need to think about whether we've reached the ceiling of what Skiles can accomplish as an NBA coach? I don't believe in coaches that can only take a team so far. I think you are either a good coach or a bad coach. Skiles is a good coach. Wasn't Tony Dungy perceived as a coach who couldn't get his team "over the hump"? Yet he was the coach that brought home the Lombardi trophy to Indianapolis. Do you think if Skiles was the coach of the Bulls teams in the 90s that they wouldn't have won a Championship? I'm pretty sure they would have. My biggest problem with Skiles is that he isn't playing Tyrus Thomas enough. I think we will, however, see more of TT in the 2nd half and into the playoffs. I'm pretty sure that Bulls team would have run Skiles out of town. Jordan owned that ballclub; Jackson was able to get out of the way enough, I don't think Skiles would. And that's what I'm getting at. There's a certain player Skiles works best with. Often they aren't the superstars. Gasol's a good example. Everyone wants to bring him in. Have you seen Gasol? This is not the kind of player who will react well when Skiles screams at him, in my opinion. He'll likely shut down until he's traded. He just seems very low-key to me. If you want to build a team of tough, gritty journeymen then Skiles is your guy. He did a good job pulling us out of the doldrums----taking players who just wanted to work hard and using them to put up respectable records. But championships in the NBA are about superstars. And I question whether Skiles is the right coach to work with a true superstar player. Or whether he will allow any of the potential stars on his team to flourish enough to reach their potential.

It's been a long time since DeRosa played SS for significant games. I know Izzy's weak at the plate, but DeRosa/Soriano up the middle would likely be nightmarish. Plus, that outfield is no better than last year's, and probably worse offensively since Pie is likely to struggle. I like the idea of plugging Soriano in the outfield better to boost offensive output while hopefully minimizing the defensive damage he can do.

Pax has followed that plan so far. Pau's four years younger than Garnett, and their production's within shouting distance this season -- KG, 25.39 to Pau, 23.63. I adore the Big Ticket but I'm not sure I'd give up much more for him than I would for Gasol at this point. I think the point is, do we think of the solution in terms of getting another player? Or do we need to think about whether we've reached the ceiling of what Skiles can accomplish as an NBA coach?

Chandler is doing well. Curry is scoring but is a huge creampuff who can't rebound or block shots. Curry's PER is 17.87 to Chandler's 15.37. Eddie's more than holding his own even if you factor in defense. Chandler's flourishing away from Chicago. That's absolute damnation for Skiles. I think the bloom is off the rose, gentlemen.

Aren't Chandler and Curry both doing well? Something's wrong here. I suppose the solution is to give away Deng and watch him become an all star somewhere else. I don't know what to do. Maybe fire Skiles. This team should be better, even without a big man. Christ, other teams don't have big men who can score but can still beat the friggin' Bobcats.

So it's Murt/Soriano/Jones, with Floyd subbing in. Maybe a little smattering of Ward Do we have a real defensive outfield option?