Soul

Rams are much better than the 9ers. I've only really felt we would lose to the Pats and that was close. Tonight though, the injuries, the same turf Rex got hurt on before...

So the Bears have tie-breakers over New Orleans? I didn't think that was the case. WE HAVE NO CONFERENCE LOSSES HOW CAN WE NOT? If we don't get HFA, its our own fault; Bears' [8-0 in NFC] remaining schedule strength; (@STL 5-7, TB 3-10, @DET 2-11, & GB 5-8 = 15-36 [10-29 after tonight]) Saints' [8-1 in NFC] remaining schedule strength; (WAS 4-9, @NYG 7-6, & CAR 6-7 = 17-22) Yes, but look at the way each team is playing and the injury situation. HFA is far, far from assured. We would need to win 3/4. If we lose tonight, we will need to win out to secure it. If the Bears win tonight HFA is done. No way they lose 2 of 3 to Tampa, Detroit, and GB. If they lose tonight, I'll start to get worried about locking up the #1 seed. I almost want it to come down to winning the last game. That way we don't "rest" everyone for the playoffs and we also don't sit our team and let Green Bay beat us. How sure are you that we will win tonight?

So the Bears have tie-breakers over New Orleans? I didn't think that was the case. WE HAVE NO CONFERENCE LOSSES HOW CAN WE NOT? If we don't get HFA, its our own fault; Bears' [8-0 in NFC] remaining schedule strength; (@STL 5-7, TB 3-10, @DET 2-11, & GB 5-8 = 15-36 [10-29 after tonight]) Saints' [8-1 in NFC] remaining schedule strength; (WAS 4-9, @NYG 7-6, & CAR 6-7 = 17-22) Yes, but look at the way each team is playing and the injury situation. HFA is far, far from assured. We would need to win 3/4. If we lose tonight, we will need to win out to secure it. Tampa Bay, Detroit, and the Packers dont seem to be much trouble. I understand that. I'm just saying.

So the Bears have tie-breakers over New Orleans? I didn't think that was the case. WE HAVE NO CONFERENCE LOSSES HOW CAN WE NOT? If we don't get HFA, its our own fault; Bears' [8-0 in NFC] remaining schedule strength; (@STL 5-7, TB 3-10, @DET 2-11, & GB 5-8 = 15-36 [10-29 after tonight]) Saints' [8-1 in NFC] remaining schedule strength; (WAS 4-9, @NYG 7-6, & CAR 6-7 = 17-22) Yes, but look at the way each team is playing and the injury situation. HFA is far, far from assured. We would need to win 3/4. If we lose tonight, we will need to win out to secure it.

Ouch. I've had food poisoning before. NO FUN. And that's for real. Steven Jackson: when are you guys going to accept he's a criminal and cut him loose? Alright---he can shoot the basketball. There are others who can do that without the rap sheet.

Who are we going to play in nickel situations? Hester? I heard Hillenmeyer might do it too. I don't think it will be very difficult for the Rams to get favorable matchups for their WRs.

And notice who was absent.

I think this is just a crushing, crushing loss. But, Big Slick gets mad at me when I'm too negative, so I'll lay off :wink:

yeah, but he's much more patient. I do like Brady---he's gritty and comes to play every day. His defense looked to me to be very good. But as the SLG indicates, he's a singles hitter

Closer is the last thing we need. Wuertz or Woody will make great closers. Take your pick. Dempster moves to middle relief.

Yes. But it is not the only predictor. Some of the posts on how much Marquis sucks are getting rather absolute. Plus, Marquis has had some success in his fairly recent past. That doesn't mean I'm a fan of this signing. I'm not. I'm weary. I feel that going a different direction, I'm not sure which direction exactly at the moment, but not Marquis would have been wiser, certainly for the money involved. I'll feel a lot better about it if all the years aren't guaranteed. Unfortunately, the ONLY predictor of the future is past performance. I say unfortunately because even the past doesn't always accurately tell us what will happen. Guys sometimes click even though their past stats say they won't. Some guys do exactly what the stats would say they will, and then some take a nose dive for no reason, or outperform their projections, yada yada. Based on Marquis' past, I'm thinking he's going to continue to be real inconsistant. Which would make him a pretty frustrating player to watch and root for. Larry says "I found the key, we can fix him." Well I sure hope so.

So they aren't even mentioning Church anymore? That sucks. Brady Clark's accomplishments as a major leaguer: .278 .358 .389 And his better years seem to be behind him, since he's trending downward. Amazingly enough, he's already 33 years old---34 in April of next year. Last year: .263 .348 .335 He hits for pretty much no power. I've watched him field as a Brewer for a few years, he's pretty good defensively from what I witnessed.

This is true. No doubt we can accomplish that much with ease. However, HFA might require as much as 3 of our last 4, depending on what NO does, since one more loss would tie them with us in conference records. Needless to say being the #1 seed gives us the weaker of the two opponents who come out of the 1st round. Assuming it's Seattle and Dallas coming out (a big if), I'm not sure which one I consider to be "weaker." It sort of depends on the matchup.

I think that is true. A disastrous 1st half means Griese. And uneventful first half means more Rex. I agree. I think you're all simplifying it too much. If Rex has an uneventful first half, but no points are scored and we're down 0-14? I think you see Griese. I don't think this whole thing is keyed off turnovers. Rex must move the offense and put points up, especially if St. Louis can score.

So you're saying Soriano and DeRosa are the right guys in front of the middle of the order? At this stage, I think the Cubs would be best off going with Soriano and Murton at the top. Right guys? Not ideally, but the best of what they have. That's an improvement as far as getting runners on for the heart of the order (moreso w/Murton hitting 2nd than the OBP diff. of Pierre/Soriano). It would help score more runs than say Soriano and a lesser OBP. If Soriano's going to be #1, Murton had better be #2. I don't think it's much of a stretch to think Murton could be around the 380 mark next year. If Floyd comes here, Murton's ABs will likely be significantly reduced. On days he plays I wouldn't mind seeing him bat #2.

Eh, after reading some Dodger forums, sounds like his arm is about as weak as Pierre's, in addition to probably not being able to play full time. I'd rather have Church. I'd rather have Church too, but last I heard the Nats wanted the farm for him. Is he that much more valuable than a year of Lofton and then Pie to give up as much as it sounds like the Nats want? I'd love him, but I'm very unsure about the cost. I think they wanted marmol instead of marshall... Pay up Jimmy!!! Yeah, doesn't sound like they want the farm for him. More like they want the best offer they can hold out and receive from the 3 or 4 teams asking about him. Seems his value is increasing by the day, so the longer this drags out and more CFers are off the market, could take more in terms of talent to get him. Certainly not the ridiculous demands of a Tampa Bay GM. But, Baldelli is another guy I'm interested in. Unfortunately, Baldelli is another guy who struggles with OBP, which has been a common theme this offseason, even if they have done a bit better than previous seasons. Using my Cubbie sense, I'm thinking Church is unpossible.

I think these guys do this sort of thing all the time. I do it my profession as well. Yeah, I think it's kind of common. Wasn't Prior or Wood working with a Rangers employee at one point? It's like a professional courtesy, which happens in all businesses. Yeah but the Rangers aren't likely to see Prior & Wood have much of an impact on their season, unless it's the WS (unlikely). We're talking within the division here.

Not only that, but don't we nearly always lose when Belushi is in the booth? Please cancel that appearance. Please. While we're at it, can we cancel ESPN's announcers? LOL. What's even worse is, with DirecTV there's a delay so I can't even turn the volume down and listen to Joniak. Ugh.

Not only that, but don't we nearly always lose when Belushi is in the booth? Please cancel that appearance. Please.

Things looking much better now. Damn you to hell Wuertz for not letting the home games on Comcast.

Going to guess Roberto Novoa and Glendon Rusch for starters. There's no danger in DFA'ing Glendon, even if they hold back hope that he can play mid 2007 or something. Nobody is going to claim him, so DFA him, let him choose to either stay in the organization or take his money and retire, and lets move on. Novoa would be more likely to be moved for a prospect who doesn't need 40 man roster protection yet. There are also a few positional prospects who it wouldn't be the end of the world to have to cut and lose. Brian Dopirak is an obvious one. Don't even know if he'd warrant a claim. That sub .700 OPS doesn't do much for anyone at this point. Jose Reyes too, unless there's something about him worth caring about that I'm missing. It certainly is disturbing that 2 years ago I was watching Dope pound balls out of the ballpark like a King, only to find that now he isn't posting over .700 in OPS. Will the Cubs ever be able to develop a power hitter?

This whole thing is Larry's idea. I have a whole host of feelings about this, but none of them are suitable for NSBB. :x Wow. How big do his cajones have to be to think he can succeed where Duncan and Leo-freakin'-Mazzone failed? I'd sure like to know why Larry would be working with Marquis in the offseason in the first place. That seems weird to me. I thought I read somewhere that Duncan had identified where Marquis was tipping off his pitches, and he wound up throwing his hands up in disgust because Marquis wouldn't work with him to get rid of the "tells." from mlb.com: "Jason called me shortly after they got done with the World Series and asked me if he could come down and throw," Rothschild told WGN Radio on Friday night. "He'd talked to [Greg] Maddux during the season and [Maddux] recommended that if he had a chance to let me see him." "Maddux and Marquis were teammates in Atlanta. Marquis threw once for Rothschild, and the two talked pitching mechanics. " http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061209&content_id=1758640&vkey=hotstove2006&fext=.jsp Yeah but doesn't that strike you as strange? Let's say Marquis signs with the Stros, and the pitching help Rothschild provided allows him to go 3-0 against the Cubs. Sounds like a bad practice to be fixing opposing pitchers, doesn't it?

I guess I'm a little confused why Bear fans would want the Saints to win yesterday. A Saints loss would have all but guaranteed the Bears the #1 slot in the NFC. Now if we lose tonight, we're only 1 game up for HFA over NO. A Dallas win would have been preferrable.

Well, the four bad games count as much as the six good games. It's not like those bad games shouldn't count. The troubling thing is that Rex has regressed over the last several weeks. Right now, Rex is playing at a level that is unacceptable. This is a big game for him. Good Rex should be able to put up a respectable performance against a bad team such as the Rams. Even if it's a ball control performance against a team that is weak against the run, that's OK. But if he is throwing picks on Monday Night, I can't think of a reason not to go to Griese. This is the biggest thing with Rex's bad games. One shouldn't expect him to maintain his early season play nor expect him not to have bad games, but one should expect him to at least level off to a more normal play. He's getting worse and worse, and that's why the bad games are so concerning. I think he needs to sit and clear his head. It's always this way with a player-----"oh you can't sit him it will blow his confidence" or "he's only going to get better by playing" He doesn't need to "get better." He needs to take a break and gain some perspective. A player's confidence is always much more destroyed by going on the field and failing miserably than by watching and learning. Tom Brady was benched this weekend, btw. Brett Favre was benched I think twice (might have been once) last season. I think we need to do what's best for Rex, and right now I believe that is letting him sit and learn without pressure for a little while.

I suppose miracles can always happen but it's a heck of a way to run a railroad inflating the market only so we can get caught up in it and wind up with a bunch of longer-term mediocre pitching. I might have preferred fixing the hitting/fielding holes this year, and then attempting to trade for pitching or acquire a choice FA through this season and next. That would have given us time to let a few deals simmer through 2 trade deadlines and what not. I think by shooting for the moon Hendry was doomed to wind up with a couple middle-of-the road pitchers. Not that I don't think they'll be an improvement over last year, but we would have had to go further for a championship IMO. Pray for those miracles. Or just pray for Prior to start being Prior again.