Soul

The Vikings and Giants were both winning teams when we faced them. And there's only 5 winning teams in all of the NFC, and we've beaten the one of those that we've faced, so it's not like anyone in the NFC has faced a lot of stiff competition. Not to mention that if the Giants and Packers hadn't played us this year, they'd be at .500 Ok, I'm reaching here.. Giants were the sure super bowl pick according to ESPN when we faced them. Afterwards, they went into a downward spiral from which they never recovered. And guess what? The same happened to Seattle. They've never been the same since we destroyed them at Soldier Field. A division winner in name only. I think injuries to both teams have more to do with that than us destroying them when we played them. Injuries are no excuse. Everyone has injuries. You either overcome them, or you aren't good enough to. And that's it.

I want the better OBP numbers that come with Soriano hitting leadoff. I don't believe we have another good leadoff option. Nobody knows if Ryan Theriot is even a solid everyday major leaguer, much less a leadoff hitter.

I know people will bring out their career OBP's, but we did just add a guy who put up a .357 OBP last year, .351 OBP, and a .380 OBP (though in limited games). And this isn't counting in another aquisition in Ramirez who will give you a .350 plus OBP, and Lee who we didn't have for basically the entire year who will be good for .360 plus (conservative). Add in Barrett who's good for .350-.370. Murton who's good for .350-.370. I'm not thinking OBP will be as big of a problem as it was in previous years. The problem is, most of the guys you mentioned were on the team last year, and our collective OBP was bottom of the league. Most people don't feel DeRosa is likely to repeat his last year performance (I'm sure hoping he does, but I can't argue that he very well might not). His career OBP is more than 20 points lower. Soriano's career OBP also sits under the .330 mark. That leaves few options to pull us up. A solid season from Lee would seem to be our best chance at improving those OBP numbers. Maybe his presence can kick start a few other guys as well.

Time will tell whether he knows what he's doing. Agreed. They were in a position to be very good with an addition to the roster here and there. They still can be, but if they don't make the necessary moves to be competitive this year, Williams is going to look pretty bad with these moves. Detroit has improved their team this offseason. Proof is the WS ring. There are no lucky WS championships. You win it, you've proven yourself. Cub fans may not like that because it's the WS, but believe me if the Cubs won one and people called it luck, we'd be crying foul. So let's be intellectually honest with ourselves, and admit Williams got it done, so he gets the credit. What happens if the team that won the world series improves significantly in the offseason and then doesn't even make the playoffs the next year? Would you then call it luck? I never call winning the World Series luck, no matter what. And my argument is, neither should you----or you risk being intellectually dishonest. Because you know damn well if someone else called the Cubs lucky for winning it, you'd be upset. Any arguments to the contrary are just fans being fans. Why because you say so? That's a poor arguement... No, because I've seen this board after someone disses the Cubs.

The Vikings and Giants were both winning teams when we faced them. And there's only 5 winning teams in all of the NFC, and we've beaten the one of those that we've faced, so it's not like anyone in the NFC has faced a lot of stiff competition. Not to mention that if the Giants and Packers hadn't played us this year, they'd be at .500 Ok, I'm reaching here.. Giants were the sure super bowl pick according to ESPN when we faced them. Afterwards, they went into a downward spiral from which they never recovered. And guess what? The same happened to Seattle. They've never been the same since we destroyed them at Soldier Field. A division winner in name only.

Well it'll make sense when it comes to you. You know, usually when someone discredits a statistic for some reason you're supposed to change the argument. All you did was take the same statistic and show it to me in a different form. It's like you saying that Carlos Lee hits 50 homers per 800 ABs. And then I say that there are other ways to grade a hitter's performance than home runs, then refute my argument with, Carlos Lee hits homers at a rate 25% better than league average. It's the exact same argument and my previous point remains. ERA has little to do with ERA. I wouldn't say a guy with an ERA that's probably going to be five has much if any "production." And yes, Guzman and Marshall can certainly produce the same. Wait. Did you just discredit ERA as a worthwhile stat and then use it to make your point? :shock:

Why is Suppan the tipping point? He's not all that great. If the Brewers can't get Sheets back on track, their rotation will have issues that Suppan certainly can't fix. Much the same as the Cubs if they can't get Prior on track.

Time will tell whether he knows what he's doing. Agreed. They were in a position to be very good with an addition to the roster here and there. They still can be, but if they don't make the necessary moves to be competitive this year, Williams is going to look pretty bad with these moves. Detroit has improved their team this offseason. Proof is the WS ring. There are no lucky WS championships. You win it, you've proven yourself. Cub fans may not like that because it's the WS, but believe me if the Cubs won one and people called it luck, we'd be crying foul. So let's be intellectually honest with ourselves, and admit Williams got it done, so he gets the credit. What happens if the team that won the world series improves significantly in the offseason and then doesn't even make the playoffs the next year? Would you then call it luck? I never call winning the World Series luck, no matter what. And my argument is, neither should you----or you risk being intellectually dishonest. Because you know damn well if someone else called the Cubs lucky for winning it, you'd be upset. Any arguments to the contrary are just fans being fans.

They always do something later in the offseason. It's not a bad guess.

Just because that's the average market price doesn't make it a good idea. The idea is to go cheap at certain spots by using young guys so that you can spend the extra cash on real difference makers. Suppan is not likely to be one of those. Yep, and I never said it was a good idea.

Time will tell whether he knows what he's doing. Agreed. They were in a position to be very good with an addition to the roster here and there. They still can be, but if they don't make the necessary moves to be competitive this year, Williams is going to look pretty bad with these moves. Detroit has improved their team this offseason. Proof is the WS ring. There are no lucky WS championships. You win it, you've proven yourself. Cub fans may not like that because it's the WS, but believe me if the Cubs won one and people called it luck, we'd be crying foul. So let's be intellectually honest with ourselves, and admit Williams got it done, so he gets the credit.

This is the pitching market. If you want even a mediocre starter, it's 10 large per year and that's the starting point. Suppan is mediocre, maybe slightly less. BOOM! 10 mil/yr. It's automatic. Marquis got 7mil/yr because he's below average. So we know what the SP market is. It's insane, but it is what it is.

I want no more injuries more than I want a win Sunday. I know Bear/Pack rivalry and all that----I'll take a healthy squad for playoffs more than a sweep of the Pack. That said, 2 quarters of starters playing should be fine. Put Griese in for the 3rd & 4th quarters, and get our backups some more play time.

Crap. Looks like we have GOT to tie things up this year. Next year will be a BITCH. 10-6 is something to shoot for. Anything better and i'll feel reaaaaaaaal positive about the postseason. Hopefully our helpless division rivals wont make any huge strides and we'll still be able to take the division down easy. Why are you worried? Everyone's assuming next year we'll be bad for some reason. Looking at those teams, there's only one that I could see the Bears having nearly no shot to beat---SD. The rest? Flawed teams just like all the rest, who the Bears should have a decent shot at. We could easily go 11-5, 12-4 on that schedule. We'll still be a team that has been together for longer than these other guys. One more year with most of our players in the same system = big dividends. Just like this year. I would tend to agree with that. While the Bears schedule has been incredibly easy this year (with yesterday's action, the Bears schedule holds a total of 3 opponents with winning records)-that doesn't mean however that making the schedule harder will automatically make a 13 or 14 win team a 9 win team. The Bears are still a very good team, and Grossman with another year under his belt should make the Bears 11 or 12 game winners next year at least. All those receivers back together for another year. Cedric Benson now getting the bulk of the carries. Grossman's continued maturation. That equals top 10 offense, easily. The defense might slip a bit, but even if they do lose Briggs it's not going to fall out of the top 10. This is a Super Bowl contender next year too. The only thing that could stop that is the injury bug. Add to all of this the fact that Angelo is the single best GM in the league at finding gold in the mid rounds. We should be enjoying another Bear playoff run this time next year. Probably not 14-2 or 13-3.....but what does that matter?

Ahhhhh... Another package of dumb. How did they know? Edit: Repost! What a bunch of idiots. If they can't even show the competence to get the real story for the NFL team in the 2nd largest NFL market, then they shouldn't be allowed to write about the Bears. I hate ESPN. At least Clayton came on SportsCenter this morning and set the record straight (for the most part).

Crap. Looks like we have GOT to tie things up this year. Next year will be a BITCH. 10-6 is something to shoot for. Anything better and i'll feel reaaaaaaaal positive about the postseason. Hopefully our helpless division rivals wont make any huge strides and we'll still be able to take the division down easy. Why are you worried? Everyone's assuming next year we'll be bad for some reason. Looking at those teams, there's only one that I could see the Bears having nearly no shot to beat---SD. The rest? Flawed teams just like all the rest, who the Bears should have a decent shot at. We could easily go 11-5, 12-4 on that schedule. We'll still be a team that has been together for longer than these other guys. One more year with most of our players in the same system = big dividends. Just like this year.

Gordon sucks when he starts, so I guess Sef would be the only option. I'm not sure a rook is ready for a starting job, hence Duhon starts. It appears to be working anyway, so why mess with it. As Stacey King said last night on the telecast, Duhon is a guy coaches like for his on court presence, etc. His stats don't look great, but he calms the team down when he's on the court, distributes the ball, etc. Chris Duhon! What a player! What a man! I do like Duhon. He's a great role player. The problems I have are that starting 2 undersized guards can create problems on D. Also, Duhon puzzles me sometimes with his shots. He always passes up open shots. It's better than jacking shots that aren't there, but it also creates problems with the offense. Sefolosha can actually be a very solid player, maybe even a star. And he seems pretty mature to me. Long season yet, let Skiles season Sef a little more. Maybe by the playoffs we'll have a 2nd option to use that opposing teams aren't expecting.

Why not just jump off the bandwagon right now? Why wait? Has the Bears D regressed yep, but the NFC sucks. And I don't see the Aints or Cowgirls coming into Soldier Field and getting a victory. You are a funny guy, you were saying the one and done last week You forget where you're posting? Opinions can change so fast on this site it makes your head spin. I'm sure I'm just as guilty when I was still posting regularly. I've made it no secret I'm a little leary of our playoff chances, but I would have to agree that drawing any conclusions from today's game is out of whack. I mean come on. Griese put in just for the exercise in a 1-point game? Tillman held out when he clearly could have played-----same for Todd Johnson, and Tank will be in there. They're resting guys, going vanilla------having Hester call fair catches even when there's nobody within 10 yards. This was little more than a preseason matchup. We beat these guys with one arm tied behind our backs.

I seem to remember a certain white flag trade which had everyone scratching their heads, but turned out alright. I also remember a few moves such as the Pod move, Uribe, and Contreras, which everyone also raised an eyebrow over at the time. Yet it yielded a WS champ. Williams knows exactly what he's doing.

I'm a smidgeon away from scoring 2 club seat tix to the Bears divisional playoff game......at face value. I just thought you should all be aware. Feel free to alert the media if you get a little extra time today 8-)

Gordon sucks when he starts, so I guess Sef would be the only option. I'm not sure a rook is ready for a starting job, hence Duhon starts. It appears to be working anyway, so why mess with it.

They don't. I vote the title of this thread should be changed. There's no denial of anything, only a no comment on the contract talks. Floyd is still clearly in serious talks with the Cubs.

There must be a little demon who sits on his shoulder or something. He's fragile as the finest crystal. I've never seen anything like it. Well, OK, outside of Prior & Wood I've never seen anything like it.

If that's Favre's last home game then he went out with a fizzle. Terrible, terrible football game. Nearly unwatchable. NFL Network's broadcast is the worst I've ever seen. It's worse than the lowest-grade CBS or FOX team. You know, the team they send to cover those Cardinals/49ers barnburners. And NFL network isn't even offering a simulcast to the home market. What a joke. I actually felt sorry for Packer fans last night, especially when Favre waved at the crowd at the end. To miss that moment after all these years because of the NFL Network? What a disgrace.

He says he'll play 'em, but I hope he rests anyone who has even the slightest injury. Honestly, who cares about this game? People are being silly----rest the players. If we want to stay warmed up for the playoffs then fine, play more starters against Green Bay.