Soul

That's basically adding one year to the deal on the table. I'd probably still do it with some kind of option / incentives. One would think if the Dodgers or Mariners were prepared to pay this much to Schmidt, then they would have made such an offer long ago. This looks very much like the 2 teams Schmidt wants to go to aren't really all that hot on paying him the level of cash he wants. That opens the door for the Cubs, even the Yanks and probably a few others.

I should eat crow on him. He's steped it up. yes he has. I love the way he and Chris Harris hit. makes me think of the Plank years I'm not going to eat crow on Johnson just yet. He lays some big wood on pass plays, but his run support is still spotty. Harris came in and showed his superior run-stuffing skills almost immediately.

His numbers will probably improve coming to the NL. His cost to aquire is a lot more palatable than paying Gil Meche or Greg Maddux. Yea, coming to the NL will help, but you never know - I don't think that's a variable you can count on to come true. Secondly, I would actually rather pay/overpay to acquire Meche. In the playoffs, Westbrook's stuff wont win you a game, neither will Maddux' - at least with Meche you have a chance. I don't see how Meche would give us any more of a chance than Marmol, Mateo, or Marshall. He's no better than any of those three are now. I think too many people put too much stock into him because of that nice little early season fluke-of-a-winning streak he had a couple of years ago. Have you seen Meche pitch or read numerous scouting reports on him? From what I understand (and from seeing him pitch a couple times) he has very good stuff. I think the poster was saying Meche has the potential to pitch great on any given day, while he believes Maddux and Westbrooke only have the potential to be average or a little above average. Hey, nothing wrong with going after Meche if that's what Hendry wants to do. What I see in Westbrook is a 200+ inning guy in the back of the rotation....say the 4 slot. I think he would be very valuable in that role. The back of our rotation has been so spotty, with guys being plugged in and out on a regular basis. Westbrook would apparently be a stabalizing force.

2 great catches earns you $50 million in baseball. I knew I went into the wrong line of work. Just knew it.

This team is going to be in a bind 5 years from now anyway. Schmidt or no Schmidt. Just because of Soriano and ARam (and hopefully Zambrano)? I doubt it. But regardless, I don't want to guarantee than Schmidt will be on this team when he's 39 years old. His pitching arm might not even be attached by then. True. I like the 3/44 rumors much better than those pesky 5/70 ones.

Come on, pull it off Jimbo. Even with declining skills, Schmitty is exactly the kind of gritty vet we need in this rotation.

If that happens then the level of complaining is going to ratchet up several notches. Lose to Minny @ home and it's going to start getting nasty, despite the 9-3 record. Hope it doesn't happen, but you know 'Any Given Sunday.'

and most importantly eliminated from the NFC North Hopefully you guys can beat Minnesota on Sunday. I haven't given up hope yet on a wild card spot yet...if we win out, we should still get in and we have a legit chance to win all 5 remaining games. And yes, I think we can beat the Bears, but only because they should and probably will be playing practice squad players for 45 minutes in that game. Depends if the Bears can actually take care of business on the games up to that final weekend. BTW, when I watch Favre now, it's becoming obvious he's lost a lot of zip on his passes. That arm is finally beginning to show its age. I was actually rooting for the Pack last night, because I consider Seattle more of a threat to the Bears for HFA. Unfortunately, that defense in GB is just terrible. Way too lightweight for a ballclub like Seattle.

What a stupid rule. If I was out there sweating like that, I would want to wear a headband too. I don't think it comes solely from Skiles though----sounds like Paxson likes this rule too. Man if something stupid like this fractures this ballclub, I'm going to start throwing furniture. :evil:

Minnesota is the #14 passing offense at 211.6 yards per game. They have the #15 rushing offense at 112.5 yards per game. Big key: Minny has 18 fumbles this year, tied for 3rd in the league. They also have 11 INTs, somewhere in the middle of the pack.

They're throwing him to the wolves. Unbelievable. He doesn't have a prayer of doing anything but embarrassing himself because the organization will just heap all the blame of the continued losing at his feet.

The one thing about this game, Minnesota is ranked #1 against the run (56.6 YPG) so they're very good. I still think we should run it, because we were able to pretty much dominate the Pats, who are ranked #3. If Rex does have to throw it, he should be able to. Minny is ranked 31st against the pass, at 242.5 yards per game.

I'm willing to go to Griese if Rex shows no improvement over the next couple of games. They will be favored in each game, and if he can manage impressive wins, then you have to stick with him. If he loses and looks like crap against 2 of the next 3, then it might be time to switch. Otherwise, it's a foolish move. That's pretty much the tact I'm taking. Certainly if Rex blows these upcoming games up, and we get in danger of losing HFA, it's going to force Lovie's hand no matter what. But I think if that were to happen, most people who are now supporting Rex (like myself) would be forced to reconsider as well. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. None of these upcoming teams can hold a candle to the Patriots so I'm fully expecting the Bears to rebound in a big way.

We'll see what happens next week. That was one of the best defenses in the league we played, and despite the turnovers by Grossman we could easily have won. If Rex loses all confidence and starts sucking at home against a team like the Vikings, then yeah I will probably start to worry. But otherwise, I think you have to let the kid grow and stick with him. Murph's on the radio right now saying this isn't a rebuilding year so you have to go with Griese. Well-----I think that's BS. In the NFL, every year you are developing someone. It just so happens this year it's Rex. Christ Almighty, we just got off the QB carousel. Was it that much fun that Bear fans want to jump right back on? I think the national media just wants to be able to put their famous "Bears QB Carousel" graphic on the screen every game, and so they're going to push for Griese so they can throw it up there again. Well screw them. At some point you need to stick with someone even through the tough times.

Excellent observations. This one needs an addition though. After we had success in the running game in the first half, I really think we didn't go to it enough in the second half. We had some 3 and outs were we didn't even run the ball. And for at least one series, we had Benson on 1st and 2nd down, and then Jones for 3rd's...this confuses me, because I have much more confidence in Benson on 3rd down than Jones. Jones gets stopped too easily, while Benson can run people over. Benson is greatly undervalued by the coaching staff, and I just can't let this go...it's really bothersome to me. It's bothersome to me as well. To me, Benson is now the superior back. Man, the way he just ran over the Patriots DB was beautiful. I almost cried :) Looking forward to seeing more of that from Ced in the future, that's for sure.

85 - 77, 2 games out of the Wild Card. '08 Piniella makes his run.

seconded I disagree that it was enough time to prove it wasn't a fluke. Players have fluke seasons, Theriot easily could have had a fluke 150 ABs. I'd say the chances it was a fluke are much higher than the chances that that is his real skill level. He might be able to produce something, but the Cubs shouldn't count on him like they did Cedeno last year. Theriot obviously overacheived with the Cubs in 2006. Regardless, his pattern of hitting since he abandoned switch-hitting has been consistant: he knows how to get on base, and what to do on the basepaths. Even when he was up with the Cubs in prior stints - he showed to be a tough out. Mind you, it really seemed like Dusty Baker was trying to give Theriot the chance to fail, instead of succeed. What I mean is Dusty was trying his damnedest to give 2nd Base to Freddie Bynum - but Theriot just came on so strong that even that idiotic platoon had to be squashed. I just feel that Theriot has arrived. I wasn't real excited about the DeRosa signing (though I'm really glad to have him) because he was filling a position that was almost earned by an actual Cub prospect. I think Theriot is much better a 2nd Baseman than a Shortstop, but I'd like to see him playing until he loses the job. At least. I'd like to see Theriot get a shot, but I don't see any way someone could conclude he's going to be solid at the MLB level based on the limited time he has. I hope he is. I also don't see how, despite what is coming from the Cubs, that DeRosa could be considered a season-long lock at 2B. A far more likely scenario in my mind (especially once the pressure of the season arrives) is that Piniella will use whichever player is successful. If DeRosa sucks, that opens the door for Theriot.

Matsuzaka will end up blinking first. His Japanese team doesn't want him, they want the 51.1 mil. He is in line to only make a few mil in 2007 versus 20 or 30 mil total here. He'll take the big pay day. Boras will just take it till the final hour to wring out every last penny. Interesting though. 7/8mil sounds well below market value to me given this year's market. Is there any scenario where other teams could start bidding for his services?

Well now that I've had a chance to sleep on it, I'm not that upset. Here's my take: 1) People were saying the Bears might get blown out. Lawrence Holmes said on the radio that the Bears were going to be "overmatched." Clearly that wasn't the case. We hung just fine with the elite AFC team. 2) The Pats had a fantastic running defense, and we just shoved it right down their throats. That's great news. I think our running game is really starting to get it's legs now. If we can do that to the Pats, believe me there isn't a team in the NFC that will be able to deny us the running game. 3) Our defense had a couple breakdowns yesterday on critical drives. The DLine in particular is starting to disappoint. Alex Brown acknowledged that fact in his post-game interview. This will need to be fixed. Giving up 17 to the Pats isn't too bad though. 4) Grossman's problems are fixable. He played conservative and didn't force the ball against the Jets. That proves he can do it if he has to. Samuel had a great game as well. One of those INTs (the quick slant) was a good throw by Rex and Samuel just beat the receiver to the spot for the pick. There isn't a better QB on the Bears roster, and I still like our QB situation better than some (ehem....Eli) 5) We stopped the Patriots' vaunted running game and the hot rookie Maroney. Basically, everyone said the Pats would be able the pound the ball on us, but clearly they couldn't. 6) Our defense is a turnover machine. The Pats take care of the ball better than just about anyone else in the league. Nobody does that to them without being very, very good. 7) I'm confident if we faced the Pats on a neutral field or at home we would have a very good chance of beating them. They didn't dominate us physically at all----in fact quite the opposite. Eliminate just a few mistakes, and we could beat that team. 8) Winning 2/3 on the road trip that the experts said would devastate us. That's a MAJOR positive. We come out 9 and 2, and ready to face what can only be considered a favorable schedule the rest of the way.

Are they really that bad? Granted he is not feet of foot but I remember that Minny game this year Grossman rolled out, was heading out of bounds and made an amazing throw on the run. He can move when he needs to. The bottom line is teams from now on are gonna send the house vs Grossman, and the Bears must adjust. Turner has not shown that he can counter this. He has the tools. Grossman in the shotgun and a quick hitch to Bradley, run a few series of no-huddles, roll the pocket...this will all slow down the blizt, I don't care who the QB is. I liked what Turner did vs. the Jets. They brought the house too, and we just ran it down their throats all day and won a low scoring game. The big play was a one-off hitch to Bradley against----suprise----a full-on blitz and the Jets were completely fooled. We can win those low-scorers all year if we have to. In fact, that's how Angelo built the team.

The Romo worship is in full force now. This interview was Rex Grossman back in early October. Now it's Romo......the new flavor of the month.

Hey I'm not saying the guy is perfect, but I think you're making some assumptions about the level of control he has, what he is trying to accomplish, the personnel he has to work with......even Bears tradition. It's like saying Rivera has ultimate control over the defense. That's just not the case. It all stops with Lovie, not Turner. I remember Ron running some shotgun at U of I, so I know he doesn't have a problem with it. Grossman's legs really, really suck so expecting big time rollouts I don't think is realistic. A few maybe. But only a few. If anything the guy just needs to stick with the damn run when he knows it's working. Anyway, a 9-2 ballclub and you want to fire the coordinator? Shame.

Amen. Also, go Florida. Judging by the newly released BCS rankings, Florida *may* be able to jump over Michigan with a win over Arkansas and of course a USC loss to UCLA. That's another reason why I don't like those playoff games. That extra game can give a team an advantage over one that just plays 12 games. Of course it can bite them too for example if Florida loses. Yeah I don't like that either. IMO Michigan is significantly better than Florida. Sorry CR, but your Bruins don't have one prayer in hell of beating USC----even though I would love to see it. We'll know tomorrow if a rusty Ben Olson will be cleared to play over the crappy Pat Cowan. Nope, they have little chance to win, given how weak the offense is. The OL will get completely manhandled, we'llbe lucky if Cowan throws more incompletions than interceptions and there are no playmakers on offense. The defense should hang in there for a while but won't be able to overcome the likely disperity in TOP and the short field from turnovers. Oddly enough, I feel the Bruins have a better chance to win this year than last. Heh, that's what I said about ND. ND doesn't have the defense to hang with USC, UCLA doesn't have the offense to hang. But UCLA's offense is worse than ND's defense, gotta hope for a letdown game, a la the USC-UCLA game in 2004. I'll be rooting for you, for whatever it's worth. My niece is also a student at UCLA right now ;)

Get used to it. Ron Turner is a terrible coach. He absorbed alot of the Wanny stink during the 90's, then ran the U of I football program into the ground. He is not the answer as our offensive coordinator. His gameplan was fine today IMO. It was lack of execution. We can't block blitzes (a problem all year), and Rex was incredibly inaccurate. Being an NFL coordinator has little to do with head coaching a Big 10 school, so I'm not sure why you keep bringing up Ron Turner's U of I record. Turner actually did what few other U of I coaches have ever done---win a Big 10 title, so even if it was a valid comparison which it isn't, it still wouldn't make sense. We can't block blitzes? So find a workaround....shotgun, no-huddle, roll the pocket. Turner is a hack. You could just block the blitz better, too. Grossman also hasn't been able to throw well under pressure, which we all know. I'd like to see more shotgun too, however.

Get used to it. Ron Turner is a terrible coach. He absorbed alot of the Wanny stink during the 90's, then ran the U of I football program into the ground. He is not the answer as our offensive coordinator. His gameplan was fine today IMO. It was lack of execution. We can't block blitzes (a problem all year), and Rex was incredibly inaccurate. Being an NFL coordinator has little to do with head coaching a Big 10 school, so I'm not sure why you keep bringing up Ron Turner's U of I record. Turner actually did what few other U of I coaches have ever done---win a Big 10 title, so even if it was a valid comparison which it isn't, it still wouldn't make sense.