Soul

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.

A combo of 1 & 2. The Jets are a heavy-blitz team. The way to beat blitzes is to run the ball, and get the ball outside to receivers matched 1 on 1 with a CB. And that's what they did. Kudos to Cris Collinsworth. He called yesterday Grossman's best game of the year, because he proved he could manage the game when being blitzed and not turn it over. I just find it interesting that the Bears prove the pundits wrong about something each week, yet even after being proved wrong they just come up with something else to complain about. Meanwhile, all these other clubs with deficiencies are just great football clubs who will supposedly romp the Bears. It's always going to be something with these people. They just hate Chicago and are desperate for us to fail.

Ahhh, but did he really step aside because he's a great guy who just suddenly realized after years & years he wasn't getting the job done (as he wanted us to believe)? Or was it because the Trib needed to sell, and decided to start making some big acquisitions, and that's not in line with Mac's philosophy?

New liabilities have been introduced. But it sort of needed to happen because the team was so terrible. I wonder if the Trib discovered that all the suitors weren't as hot on the idea of a perennial loser as they have been for all these years. Another thing: I found it quite interesting that Girardi wasn't even really given serious consideration for the manager's job. It was going to be Piniella from the start, and that's it. Piniella has the name recognition, something potential buyers might be attracted to. Of course, that whole deal could really just be Hendry & Piniella are two old baseball guys, and Girardi's not.....

1) Hendry grabs a big FA for the first time in his career, at top money......without even allowing a bidding war to start in order to see where the price would settle. 2) He's been the most active GM in baseball, not even waiting for the GM meetings to conclude to get started on his acquistions. 3) This is a big departure from his previous M.O. as a GM. Even in 2004 he wasn't rolling out the dough like this for flat-out cream-of-the-crop FAs for Yankee-type money. So, is this being done to save Hendry's job? Unlikely. The Trib wouldn't suddenly loosen the purse strings for one man to save his employment. However, they might do it as a precursor to selling the team. I'm just trying to get a line on why this is happening. It sort of makes sense if the Trib wants to sell for the highest price, and sell quickly, to make a quick splash in the offseason with major improvements to the team.

I know it. It's Sammy money. At least Soriano is younger than that. Barring injury he should have at least 4 good years in him I would think. Maybe by the time 2010 rolls around $17 million won't seem so bad for a ballplayer. Probably not though. The consensus seems to be, like the player but the deal seems excessive. I'll go with that, keeping in mind that if another ballclub had signed AS for $17mil/yr, we probably wouldn't think quite as badly of it. If the Red Sox make that deal people go "oh well, it's the Sox they have the money." The Trib has it too, we just know they won't spend it without limit.

We don't have 37 million left, we have 15-20 million. I wouldn't expect anything more for the offense through free agency except for one 4th outfielder. It looks like they are going after pitching now. I'm assuming the offense is done. On to the pitching. Are you kidding me? This offense is still only half baked. DeRosa, Izturis, and who in CF? All signs point to Jacque being traded. As of right now, we've got five guys with above average production for their positions in Lee, Aramis, Soriano, Barrett, and Murton... DeRosa is going to be slightly below average... Izturis is an offensive black hole... there's nobody in CF... and we have the pitcher's slot. I wouldn't exactly call us an offensive juggernaunt. We might not even end up being above average... No I'm not kidding you. It may be "Half Baked" but whose isn't in the NL? Get pitching! I'd go for pitching now too. Hope that DeRosa comes through. Hope Izzy can just be a defensive gem and hit above .230 in the 8-hole. The Cards went into '06 hoping these sorts of things about a ton of positions. So did the Tiggers. It's about damn time this club started getting a few positive suprises from players, instead of the other way around. Get pitching.

The rest of the teams in the NL Central are probably doing exactly what they did in '04: hoping the Cubs moves won't matter due to a rash of injuries or just bad Cub baseball. Why would they think anything else? It's happened before.

The only game the Bulls have lost so far that I didn't think they were going to lose this month is the Kings game, which they gave away. I was hoping for 7-7. 6-8 or 5-9 look more likely now. Meh, it's November. When they're 3-11, we'll touch base. This is an amazingly bad basketball team right now. It's not just the west coast road trip. Like when they started 1-11 in Nov 04 and finished the season with 47 wins? Way too early -- even pointless -- to panic. But I'll stop arguing with you about it if you stop insisting I should be panicking now. :D Alright.

Joe Buck was an embarrassment to football yesterday. That was the most ridiculous anti-Chicago job of broadcasting I've ever seen. He ought to be ashamed. Please don't let that guy announce another Chicago game. He isn't wanted. Stop the presses. Grossman beats the blitz for the game-ending TD pass to Mark Bradley. I find it interesting that nobody is noting this little factoid.

The only game the Bulls have lost so far that I didn't think they were going to lose this month is the Kings game, which they gave away. I was hoping for 7-7. 6-8 or 5-9 look more likely now. Meh, it's November. When they're 3-11, we'll touch base. This is an amazingly bad basketball team right now. It's not just the west coast road trip.

You should meet my friend, Mr. Facts. Hmmm, Mr. Facts shows that out of 8 seasons for Drew, 4 of them were seriously hampered due to injury and 2 others were less than 140 games. That's what is known in the real universe as a player with injury problems. Minus breaking his wrist last year due to being HBP -- which can't really be attributed to being injury prone, I think -- he's been fairly healthy the last three years. He played 72 games in 2005. Was that because he was on his Mormon holiday? Sorry, I'm being really sarcastic. I like Drew, I really do. But the fact is, chances are better with him he won't be taking the field very often than it is with Soriano. Ahhh....to me "last year" was 2006 :) My bad.

You should meet my friend, Mr. Facts. Hmmm, Mr. Facts shows that out of 8 seasons for Drew, 4 of them were seriously hampered due to injury and 2 others were less than 140 games. That's what is known in the real universe as a player with injury problems. Minus breaking his wrist last year due to being HBP -- which can't really be attributed to being injury prone, I think -- he's been fairly healthy the last three years. He played 72 games in 2005. Was that because he was on his Mormon holiday? Sorry, I'm being really sarcastic. I like Drew, I really do. But the fact is, chances are better with him he won't be taking the field very often than it is with Soriano.

You should meet my friend, Mr. Facts. Hmmm, Mr. Facts shows that out of 8 seasons for Drew, 4 of them were seriously hampered due to injury and 2 others were less than 140 games. That's what is known in the real universe as a player with injury problems.

I disagree. Aww ta hell wit it. Sign Drew up too 8)

It was BB.

Even you real die hards can't tell me you aren't starting to panic a little now. This is getting very, very bad.

I may be way behind the curve, but I heard Schmidt won't be leaving the west coast. I think the Cubs try to sign a mid-range guy like Westbrook, and then maybe a few bench positions. Then done.

I'd like to see Soriano in RF, Jones in CF, and then Matty in LF. I must admit to being a bit disturbed with reports that the Cubs would put Soriano in CF. Not sure that's a real good idea, but it's so early right now, ST is months & months away so who really knows what's going on.

I agree, it's not bad for the short term. Not sure about the option years, we'll probably find out tomorrow. I think Jimbo needs to get going on signing a mid-range SP who can eat some innings.

I have to disagree. Izturis sucks DeRosa is largely a question mark Soriano Murton Lee Ramirez Barrett DeRosa Izturis Pie no thanks. I have faith in Pie. He would do the job IMO. He's either good, or CPatt mach 2. It's a 50/50 shot IMHO. Cubs haven't had a home-grown position player of real value since Mark Grace. Consider that...

Me too. I ham happy to have Soriano, but those years scare me. If 2-3 of them are team/mutual options, that will mitigate things significantly. If it's 5/85 guaranteed, I don't see how it could be called a terrible signing. Soriano was always going to cost someone big money, it's just a matter of whether Jimbo would show the stones (for once) and pony up the really big cash for the really big fish. This time, he did.

And the fact his numbers are even in the same ballpark as Soriano's while he'd be lucky to get a contract at all doesn't scare you? It makes me angry that I'm not a GM. Are you talking about Todd *Walker*??? .278/.356/.398 9HR 53RBI Soriano: .277/.351/.560 46HR 95RBI 40+SB I fail to see how they are in the same ballpark. Not at all. Soriano is also a multiple all-star and has been each year since his rookie year. I don't get it. There's no comparison whatsoever. Soriano is a great player in his prime. Walker's got one foot out of the league, IMO. We can argue about the deal, but Soriano is such a quality pick up it isn't even funny. The comparison was the last three years production. I don't care about allstar appearances since those are just opinions of managers/players/fans/whoever. I do agree that the fact that you could get Walker and Drew for the same $ as Soriano isn't funny at all. all star appearances do reflect opinions. but opinions are formed, more often than not, because the player is actually getting the job done. they matter to me......slightly. i'm more concerned that someone would think that walker and soriano are in any way comparable players. throw Drew in there and i suppose it becomes a different argument. i like Drew but i don't think it's clear whether a deal for him would even be a possibility, so i think that's playing the game with some cards that might not be in the deck.

Soriano to Cubs, 8 years/135 million. Don't forget 2-3 of those years are options. Don't give him a heart attack now. He hasn't responded. You OK, Vance? 8)