Soul

It's the Yankee theory of GM'ing. The more money you have at your disposal, the smarter you become. This year, Hendry's got the cash to drop. But we've already seen when he doesn't he falls flat on his face. Billy Beane he is not (or substitute other GM who has been successful on a limited budget). Say what you will about the Yankees, but I think Cashman is one of the smartest GMs in baseball. Sure he overpays, but he does so in the context of what he has to spend. I have never seen him spend so much on marginal players that he couldn't afford someone who actually makes a difference. And yes...the Yankees do have a limited budget - the limit is just high. It's hard to say because we've never actually seen Cashman try to put a winner together on, say, an $85million budget. Or even push it to extremes and say $55 million. But you could well be right. I was just playing the Yankee card to illustrate a point about Hendry.

One page per SORIANO's Million right? It took me a minute to know what you were talking about. Mr. Vaguey Vaguestrom! :lol: All we have to do to make the Soriano signing seem thrifty is push this thread to 10,000 pages :)

It's the Yankee theory of GM'ing. The more money you have at your disposal, the smarter you become. This year, Hendry's got the cash to drop. But we've already seen when he doesn't he falls flat on his face. Billy Beane he is not (or substitute other GM who has been successful on a limited budget).

Detroit is starting to lose that Thanksgiving edge now. Miami is a much better ballclub than they showed earlier in the season. Too bad they dug themselves such a deep hole.

Depends where it was played. If it was really cold and SD came to Chicago, I would say the Bears have an advantage. If we played in SD, I'd give them the edge. SD is a great ballclub. I don't think they can realistically expect to get down by 17 points and come back every week though. They're going to have to fix their horrible 1st half performances if they want to go far in the playoffs. I think too many people are selling the Bears short. They just went to NY and won twice in successive weeks---something I believe no team has ever done. Everyone said the Bears would collapse on their 3 game road trip. Now they've proven everyone wrong, so all of a sudden they didn't beat the Jets by enough, and the run defense sucks, and yada yada. It's always something. Bottom line: Bears undefeated on the road this season. Bears way, way ahead of all predictions for the season.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it so far. Detroit seems like they are going to actually put in an honest week's work.

what are his politics? how do you even know what his politics are? I don't get it either. I could care less if a guy has diametrically opposed views to me on each & every issue. You deliver a WS to this old Cub fan? You're a saint.

40 year old pitchers don't tend to improve. They tend to regress. There are certain players (ehemrocketehem) who have certain techniques (ehemjuiceehem) to keep going after 40. :wink: Anyway, in all seriousness we need to do *something* pitching-wise, and probably sooner rather than later. The field is looking pretty thin, we have 2 maybe 3 slots to fill. I'd take a guy like Westbrook. Even someone like Padilla. We need inning-eaters. Gooz & Marmol would likely land our relievers on the operating table by August. Solid journeymen SP's aren't ideal, but they might be all we can realistically hope for.

I think Jones is a better player than Mathews overall. I as well. Not to mention that Jones is making what, six mil next year? Matthews wants 3/39. JONES I agree but IMO Jones and a lot of players that are his age that are signed for 2 or more years are going to piss and moan because of the money being thrown out right now. He missed his money by being a free agent a year early and I'm curious on how he'll react to it, especially if the fans continue to "get" on him. You could be right. I'm guessing the new-"ness" of Jacque has worn off, and fans will be watching Soriano for production rather than Jacque. Looking at the landscape and knowing Drew is not a possibility, I'm thinking the best route is to place Jones in CF and just concentrate on pitching. Maybe I'm crazy, but I really think Jacque has a shot to thrive in CF. Anyway, Murt - Jones - Soriano looks much better to me than Murt - Pierre - Jones, even though it's only one player difference. I like the positioning better. Never liked Pierre in CF, his arm was far too weak to play that far from the infield.

1. We're not even close a WS team in my mind right now. 2. What steps? They got Wilken, but this years draft is a very big crapshoot, even compared to the average Cub draft. Alot of risks for a farm system that has rarely coached up positional players. 3. I'd rather win next year, but I don't see how overpaying mediocre players helps us do that. 4. Any smartly run orginization with a plan can retool and be good in just a couple years. The fact of the matter is the Cubs had tradeable assets and are too afraid to use them. They don't want to piss off fans because it would cost them moooneeey to piss off fans. Why would they risk that? Or maybe its just the kind of person I am. I think quick fixes usually end up being long term screw ups. Unfortunately I do realize I'm part of a very hungry fanbase. A fanbase that has not seen true victory in almost 98 years, and is desperate for one NOW. I think our window was 3-4 years ago, we've gone downhile ever since. The farm system has deteriorated. The big league team has question marks all over the place and the plan is to fill those large holes with some nice, old, expensive, mediocre FAs. Again, no direction in this franchise. Throw money at players who get people excited because we can and see the team marginally improve. sorry, i don't usually do this, but... =D> For the most part, they are good points. However, 2 things: 1) Soriano is not a mediocre player. 2) The DeRosa contract now looks to be right in line with the market, not overpaying as it looked earlier. So yes, he's a mediocre player but given the market, Hendry did not overpay. 3) WeGotWood's main thrust is that the Cubs' farm system is terrible. Correct, it is indeed bad. But this is a problem the Cubs need to focus on better, and HAVE needed to for ages. It has nothing to do with spending on free agents. Mentioning the Yankees and Red Sox only proves this point. Both of these clubs lay out way more cash than the Cubs, yet have a proper farm-club focus as well. So the real issue here is that the Cubs don't work on their farm system enough. Agreed.

I didn't even know Morneau would be in the running. Pretty surprising. The NY media wanted Jeter to win, and I hate the NY media so that makes me feel good. And boy are they crying about this one 8)

They're desperate for Chicago to fail. It's so obvious. Grossman's such an easy target. Last week he ran Turner's game plan to a T, not forcing the ball, using his outlets, and not turning the ball over a single time. So they call him Orton. The week before he had a 100+ passer rating and racked up 260 yards in the air. So they focused on the early part of the game when he struggled. Rivers struggled against Cincy and Denver in the first half, yet all they can talk about are his movie star looks and how incredible he is. It's gotten to the point of total hypocrisy with these people. Mike Golic himself called for Grossman to take care of the ball after the Phins game. Now he's saying Grossman regressed because he did what he wanted him to? That's pathetic. Someone go over there and stuff a cream pie in his face, he deserves it. Greenie too. Freaking hypocrites.

3-8 would tend to confirm that. Maybe they'll put it together once they get off the road, I dunno. I was expecting more though. Much more.

Insane. Soriano may have been in line with the market after all. I still can't get my mind around 11 per for a guy like Matthews. I wonder how many million per year out of 11 would be directly attributable to that amazing catch he made, which was splashed all over ESPN and the ESPYs?

We're done. Guess so.

Yes, but this was the philosphy in the Clement/Willis deal as well. Not always the best move because that proven talent can end up washed out in no time while the young kid hits his stride and becomes an ace. Especially when we're talking pitchers. So the real question is, is Peavy a Clement or is he a Clemens? :) And is Gallagher a Angel Guzman, or is he a Dontrelle Willis, or something in between? That's why they pay Hendry the big bucks.

Hmmm....Lugo for CF over a just moving Jones there is stupid. Lugo '06 AVG OBP SLG TB HR RBI .278 .341 .421 183 12 37 Jones '06 AVG OBP SLG TB HR RBI .285 .334 .499 266 27 81 If that's the choice, I'd rather put Jones there. Actually, Jacque might even thrive in CF. I also don't want to remove power from our lineup since we play in Wrigley and any time I've seen an underpowered Cubs team over the last few decades it's almost always been a losing, bad baseball team.

It's likely Schmitty will have good offers out West, and that's where he has said he wants to be. Not saying this can't happen, but if Hendry draws Schmidt all the way to Chicago-----some 3,000 miles away from where the guy wants to live-----then that's one hell of an accomplishment.

Read that post right when Deng lost the ball. I blame you. I accept whatever punishment your modship decides. It really went downhill from there... Was a what, 13 point lead? Now they trail by 1 at the end of 3. I suppose why wait for the 4th quarter to grant the Nuggets the inevitable comeback, when you can just collapse in the 3rd quarter and get it over with?

Did you read that article or just look at the date? Never mind; it's not important. Panic away. What is it that you think is so evangelistic about that article? I've seen thousands written just like it when a team starts out bad. Some of them turn out to be correct, and sometimes the team just goes right on stinking. Please don't assume I didn't read something just because I'm not as swayed by it as you are.

I'd be surprised by the pronouncements in bold if they were made by anyone else this early. A recent article by Jim O'Brien seems a fitting reply, especially the condescending paragraph. That was before they lost by nearly 20 to the Spurs, and then stunk it up again against a real beatable LA team. We'll see. For now, I will only say this: I'm real glad I didn't spend that $180 buckeroonies on NBA League Pass.

Killing fan interest wouldn't be a real good plan to sell the team, true. We don't know what the profit layouts are on this club, because the Cubs don't give us the complete picture. It could very well be that the profit margins are good enough to support such a jump in payroll, and if that were the case many potential suitors might be expressing more concern over the empty seats that started showing up in August and September of last year than the increased layouts of a larger salary structure. That combined with the significantly increased popularity of the White Sox might make a big jump in payroll a necessary means towards an end.

They did what they had to do to win this game, without showing anything to the Patriots. This had classic letdown game potential, but the Bears methodically beat a good team on the road. If anything, this game showed teams that you can't go into the Bears game thinking, "stop Grossman, and we win". Everybody talked about beating the Bears by forcing Rex into mistakes. But they just showed it's not that simple. This defense made Brady look silly the week before. I think this was a play it close to the vest type of game. They held almost everything back, and did the bare minimum to win. If I'm a Bears opponent in the coming weeks, I'm thinking long and hard about how I'm going to beat them, because there is no simple plan. Rex and Turner said they had a very simple game plan for this game. It does look like they played it close to the vest. I wonder what would have happened if they got behind. Yes good analysis Goony Yes, it is a good analysis. And you touched on it too: what would have happened if we got behind? Because everyone's talking about how Grossman slings it deep if he gets behind, and Grossman can't handle pressure, and Grossman's an interception machine. That may be true, but people are forgetting Turner. He's calling plays as well. When the Bears get behind, it's also Turner who has seemed to panic, almost as much as Grossman, abandoning the run, calling alot of deep route passes, etc. Fortunately, there's no gameplan that says, "Get the Bears behind and you'll win." Well.....duh. Nobody goes into a game saying "I think we'll give them the first 10 points."

Since this is the prime game on Fox for the afternoon, we can all expect another hate-session from Joe Buck and Aikman, openly and shamelessly begging for the Pats to beat the Bears. Buck: "Grossman's having another terrible afternoon." Aikman: "The Patriots need to blitz more and rattle Grossman to win this game." Buck: "It would seem inevitable that if the Patriots blitz Grossman, he will throw an interception." Aikman: "Yes, that would probably be the case. If the Pats can stay with their game plan they have an excellent chance of coming out of here with the victory." Me: Vomit, barf, vomit.

How pathetic. Basically the #1 seed is sown up too. Giants, Seahawks: we have the tie breaker, a 6-4 record gives us a 4 game lead, so they have no shot. Anyone else: 6-4 records, 3 games back. Slight chance but it would take a complete collapse. Looking at the Bears schedule one would be hard pressed to find 3 more losses. And that would assume these clubs win out, which is highly unlikely. Even if the Bears lose at NE next week, where are the losses going to come from with the Bears D and Det,MN,GB,Stl, and TB on the schedule? It's likely a 13-3 ballclub, with 14-2 a real possibility.