Soul

Man seems like Lilly gives up a lot of dingers though. 28 last year in only 181 innings. Compare that to Jake Westbrook, who only gave up 15 in 211 innings. Even Meche, who I think is pretty marginal, gave up 24 in 186.

Well make damn sure you bring home the victory 8)

Oh man. Game's drawing nearer now. Getting excited! This is actually a very pivotal game for the Bears. Coming off the road trip, everyone in the league trying to smack you down in the media (like the wussies that they are). Can't lose on Sunday and give 'em ammunition. Gotta beat the Vikes, baby.

Hmmm....I understand your point, and I think it most applies to Marshall since he was the guy who actually showed some promise at times. Gooz, on the other hand, was a flaming disaster. I didn't see anything last year but a guy who has spent years & years in our system and still has no control over any of his pitches. To be fair to Guzman, his changeup was probably his best pitch, and that's a pitch that requires a lot of work to get a feel for how to throw it. His big problem was command. He walked way too many hitters, and that's a sign of rust from a guy who had really good command at every level in the minors. His stuff was great, and it he gets his command back, he's still the pitcher with the highest upside that's ML ready. I hope so, because he'll be 25 in a few days and has been with us for many years. He has yet to ROI in any meaningful way. I won't hide that I'm pretty disappointed in him. At times last year he even seemed a little lethargic or apathetic.

Myth. How do you figure? A 23 year old has more of a change to progress than a 40 year old does. Guzman, Miller, and Marshall are all decent bets to put up at least a 4.50 ERA. And it's not like 4.50 is good. It's not. 4.50 is alot better than your making it out to be. This is the same statement that was been thrown around when Glendon Rusch was signed to his extention. If last year proved anything, it was that young players don't necessarily translate into an improvement. In fact, the Rusch of 2005 was quite a bit better than any of the 2006 rookie starters. (Its too bad the Rusch of 2006 was horrible.) Another example was Niefi Perez last year. He was widely considered the worst hitter in all of baseball, it turned out that Ronnie Cedeno may be throwing his hat in the competition. 4.50 sucks. It's nothing worth paying a guy millions for. I'd rather have a 5.00 ERA at league minimum. Young players won't necessarily improve, but 41 year olds never do. That's my point. Guzman (for example) is as likely to blow up as Maddux, but the odds of Maddux having a sub-4 ERA as a Cub next season are longer than Guzman's given that last season was his first full season in a while. One is signifigantly cheaper than the other. One is signifigantly younger that the other. Save the money. Hmmm....I understand your point, and I think it most applies to Marshall since he was the guy who actually showed some promise at times. Gooz, on the other hand, was a flaming disaster. I didn't see anything last year but a guy who has spent years & years in our system and still has no control over any of his pitches.

That's what the Cubs offered him. Even if he is a player who absolutely does not care about money, no one is going to turn that down. If it's not about the money, then what is it about? I would assume it's about winning----in which case, much as it hurts me to say it, the Cubs would not be the place to come. I don't want to rain on the parade too much, because I like the signing and everything, but it's clear that it IS about the money. And I have a hard time believing Soriano doesn't realize he's about to drop quite a few games if the Cubs don't acquire some pitching. It's a 90+ loss ballclub that hasn't addressed its glaring pitching problems. He knew this coming in.

Let the bashing of a somewhat fragile sports personality by a hostile baseball fan base begin. Ascribing an actual personality to Drew might be going a bit too far.

Nice pix, thx for those of us at work :) He's an interesting guy---all smiles, ready to go. He does know we lost nearly 100 games last year, right? Or maybe the Trib advanced him his first paycheck :wink:

It matters, because stuff matters, and when your stuff lessens, your effectiveness lessens. Guys can still be relatively effective with less stuff, but they won't be as effective. And less MPH can also suggest some sort of health issue, which could lead to much worse things in the near or long-term. Probably just indicates age in Schmidt's case. He's 33 and pitched effectively last year for 200+ innings at that velocity. He's just getting old, but there's no reason he won't age gracefully.

Schmidt's velocity may be tailing off, but that's what happens to most pitchers at some point. He's been through some tough seasons already, and pitched a heck of a lot. My guess is, he'll do a slow burn down until he isn't effective anymore---and that point won't likely be reached until maybe 3 years from now. He pitched another 200+ innings last year, and he was supposed to be broken down *then*. Had another 180 K's, went to the All-Star game again (yeah, yeah---means nothing, except it actually does). I don't see him falling off the cliff like a Wood or Prior. I'd sign Schmitty to up to 4 years.

It's an improved offense, but not one I see bringing the team from worst in the league to top 5. And without a top 5 offense, I think they need at least a top 5 pitching staff, and right now, the staff is nowhere near that. Adding a couple innings eating mediocrities won't improve them enough. Agreed. Yeah, probably not enough. But then again, you never know --- could only take 83 wins to make the playoffs like last year.

I totally agree. Which is why I would prefer to target one of the AL SP's, in the hopes that moving to NL-style baseball will give their numbers a nudge in the right direction. I might sign Batista as a #5 -- but I thought we already had plenty of 5 hole starters, including Prior if you believe the Cubs.

So hard to say with Woody.

I wonder if he will still be able to throw as hard as before? My money is on him dropping 2 to 5 MPH's off his fastball. All depends on the shoulder, physically there wasn't much potential of velocity growth given how perfect he was physically. If he can get feel of his breaking pitch(es) again, he might end up being a similar version to the good Matt Morris (except diff. breaks on the curve). He has long ways to go before we see anything like we did in '03. Ability to pitch a full season, 65-70 FB, 65-70 curve, and 70 command. I'm just worried since he had a tie to House that steroids were involved and it wasn't just his shoulder. I really hope I'm wrong. Wow, really? That would really suck. I always just thought Prior was ultra-paranoid about his "golden arm" and babied it to the point where it eventually starting dipping down towards the mean.

That would be incredible. The Vikes have been stuffing everyone. They have the #1 run D in the NFl.

That's a real good rotation...when healthy. You really can't count on Beckett being healthy for a full year and Schilling has had some pretty serious injuries the last couple of years as well. But when that rotation is 100% and if they were to make the playoffs with all of those guys healthy, that would be an extremely dangerous rotation to face in a best of 5 and a best of 7. Their offense would take a huge hit if they trade Manny, though. Ortiz, Drew, and who else?I can't remember what's going on with their lineup, but I think they'd need a great staff. True, but they always seem to manage to get the runs they need in Boston. If they did pick up a bona-fide starter + another solid player for Manny, I think that's a brilliant deal for Boston. Not sure what it does to SD.

Is he really likely to improve much though? Seems like he's been around that area for quite awhile. I guess I'm hoping one of the AL targets Hendry is looking at will gain a little bit from moving to the NL. Not that I'm against Batista completely.

It depends on the length of the deal. I have no doubt Schmidt's best days are behind him, but that doesn't mean he can't still be very effective for a few more years. Plenty of pitchers are still pretty darn good after their prime years. I think Schmidt has a decent shot at falling in to that category, though no one can be sure.

I'll believe it when I see it. They have been saying all year they would bring Benson in the gameplan more, and it hasn't happened. I would love to see Cedric in there. His ability to make the defender miss the tackle or blow him up are impressing me the most this year. The Vikes "D" is pretty good against the run this year and terrible against the pass, right? Yes, they are 31st against the pass. And according to some of my Vikings fan friends, their pass rush is marginal at best. Might be the perfect time to give Ced an increased role. Maybe even a few more passing downs. I question whether TJ is the right back against the Vikings' DLine anyhow.

Awesome. Yeah, I think most Chicagoans have the wrong impression of Rex. They think he's quiet and shy. And that's just dead wrong. He's actually pretty cocky. Hilarious that Sharper is crying about Rex trash talking, considering that's all Darren ever does.

It is a silly rule. I know Ben has to follow it, but there's no reason for it. I know, let's have a new rule: No more drinking from straws. You must drink from the glass itself. If you don't, then no cake for you!!

If Dallas doesn't win out that makes their maximum record 11-5. We'd have to lose 3 of our last 5 to sink that low, not gonna happen. And I think we hold the tie breaker with them. Same for Seattle....if they lose one more, it's 11-5. We definitely have the tie breaker on them. Who else is out there as a threat for HFA? N.O.? Naw, they're gonna lose to someone somehow. If the Bears blow this thing I'm gonna scream. It's so set up for us right now it isn't even funny. There should be home games throughout, and the first one should be against the weaker of the two first-round winners. I just want to figure out what's wrong with our DLine, and have Turner and Wilson start getting Rex to use just a little more judgement out there.

What is it? Not sure.... As you know Bruce says no deal was offered, the Trib says no deal was offered........Rotoworld say no deal offered. I think no deal was offered.

They are "trying to get rid of Manny" because Manny has asked to be traded out of Boston, again. He's asked about 4 times now. It's not just a matter of a guy having a bit of an attitude, it's a case of the guy not wanting to be on the team. To be fair to Manny, he's been a good sport about it the last few years. As long as they make an attempt in good faith to trade him, he works hard for them. That's debatable. Has there ever been an established reason why Manny wants out so badly? I mean, I'm no Boston fan, but great baseball town, pretty good ballclub year in and year out, great classic stadium to play in, owners who are genuinely trying to win.... Doesn't seem all that bad to me.

I don't think they're the prohibitive favorite, but they've got an easy schedule the rest of the way: @Denver (against a QB making his first NFL start) @Arizona SF SD @TB I think they go 4-1 with that schedule and win their division going away. Dallas has three fairly tough games (@NYG this weekend - don't underestimate the difficulty of a big divisional game; vs NO, @Atl) and two cupcakes (vs Philly, vs Detroit). NO should beat SF and Washington at home, but has to play @Dallas, @NYG and vs Carolina. So, it's certainly possible that Seattle could get the bye and only have to play one game at most on the road. Hmmm...I don't view that schedule as being easy. I think Seattle will lose to Denver and SD. On the other hand, I feel Dallas has a good shot at winning out. I don't see any way Seattle goes to Dallas or Chicago and wins. But hey---I've been wrong before.