Soul

Kim Jong Il Likes The Bulls Though it's not part of the NBA's advertising campaign, it's widely known around the league office that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is an avid NBA fan with a preference for the Bulls. His sons have been spotted wearing Bulls jerseys on their regulation courts at the presidential palace. -- Chicago Tribune Yeah, but in all fairness to Kim, the TV feeds are a little slow and he doesn't realize Michael Jordan has retired.

Not "so" picky. Just a little bit. He's not all that great anymore anyway. All he's doing is limping to the finish line to pass the true HR King.

The step-by-step on Jimbo's desk has to read something like this: 1) Resign ARam 2) Acquire Schmitty 3) Grab journeyman 2B 4) Live with Dempster I'm pretty sure that's how it goes. I don't see any way Hendry is thinking 3 major deals (as in ARam, Schmitty, AND Soriano). It's not realistic; too many other teams out there with good money and a drive to win that surpasses the Cubs. If that first domino doesn't fall, it will be interesting to see if Hendry really does shift gears and go hard for Soriano. More likely, he'll do what he always does: wait and wait some more, hoping for something to fall his way. I sure as heck hope we can at least sign Schmidt. That might give hope for a decent ballclub in '08 assuming the health of Zambrano, Schmidt, and Prior holds up (yeah---fat chance on Prior I know).

I love the way Pax does it. I've had faith in him for a couple of years now. Angelo has had some really good moves but delaying on getting a backup QB and other stuff were always perplexing. I still consider him a good GM though. I love what Pax is doing as well. He's not just building a team --- he's building one that appears to be a perfect fit for his coach. And that coach & he share the same philosophy right down to the bone. It all looks very good. On Angelo: he took a ton of heat over his handling of the QB situation, but if he hadn't, we might never have found out that Grossman could play in this league. All of the good vets who could have been brought in, like Jake Plummer---demanded essentially that we give up on Grossman. Angelo wasn't willing to do that, and for that he got lambasted in this town. I'll put Angelo & Pax on the same level right now.

I have his rookie card SOSA!!!!!

Surely quite a few other teams can imagine what ARam's numbers on the worst team in the NL would translate to when plugged into their lineups. He's going to draw some serious offers. I'm sensing Jim Hendry with egg on his face here. ARam may love playing in Chicago, but when that kind of money starts flying I'm not convinced Hendry is going to be willing to man up with the $$$$ to keep this kid. This could be the great Maddux redux. Happening right here, right now, before our very eyes. I'm aware I'm being highly critical and negative right now, but what has Hendry done to justify feeling any differently? He's drained this team and the minor leagues in the process. Why would anyone, much less Lou Piniella, think he's going to be able to build this team back up? The mountain of evidence suggests he will fail to bring in the players necessary.

Soriano's half a ballplayer in my book. Something's seriously wrong if he draws that kind of money. I still say this league needs a salary cap....

Do we know that for a fact? Ramirez had no trade protection according to today's papers - maybe he vetoed a trade. I like Aramis. But, you can put me in the group that believes the Cubs will be fine even if he signs with somebody else. Based on what? He's the best FA bat out there. He walks, you need 2 bats to make up for it and improve. I've heard Gary Sheffield's name bandied about. You'd rather have a broken down Sheffield than Ramirez? Carlos Lee? He's wildly overrated, and can only play LF, which is a position that id ably filled by a cheap, good young player. Soriano? I'd like him in CF or 2B, but he's going to cost more than Ramirez, is older, and not as good. Trade for ARod? We don't have the parts to compete with Anaheim and the White Sox, if it comes to that. Ramirez is the best offensive player on the team. You just don't find guys to replace him laying around. He leaves, and we will not compete in 2007. I usually wait until March when most of the deals are done to make my early prediction. But I must agree in this case. I don't see any way we compete in 2007 if Aramis Ramirez leaves.

If it's one thing that the Tigers have shown us, it's that if you overpay a player, they will come to you. With the potential of A-Ram off the books, as well as the Tribune kicking up the payroll and several other chunks of change from departing players, Hendry has the opportunity to overpay for talent. Given the dire straits the Cubs are in (if or when Ramirez leaves), that's the only recourse Hendry has. As you say, the Cubs don't have the minor league talent for trades, but they do have baskets of money at their disposal. I think the important thing to keep in mind is, will Hendry overpay for the RIGHT players. In that instance, I don't think he's the best judge. He's shown the ability to pay who he wants what it will take, but Since Ramirez is the best FA bat available, why wouldn't you overpay to keep him, instead of overpaying for the overrated Carlos Lee? You have 3 "premier" offensive FA's: Ramirez, Soriano and Lee. If you were going to overpay one of them, Ramirez would be the one to do it with. He's far and away superior to Lee, and he's better than Soriano as well. Interestingly enough (perhaps ironic?), I trust Ramirez's glove more than Soriano's......and Ramirez came with the poor defense tag firmly attached. He's certainly not great, but I think he's made at least some improvements since joining the Cubs where it seems as though Soriano has only regressed. I'm starting to think this entire offseason hinges on Ramirez. I can see a lotta lotta air being let out of that shiny new Jimbo/Lou balloon if he gets away.

Anyone who thinks we're going to acquire both ARod and Soriano is sadly fooling themselves. With all due respect, of course. Look. If ARam walks, our offense is going to be lacking in power in '07. There's no way around that. Hendry will be lucky to pull off a deal or acquisition for ONE of the top free agents out there. It might be just Schmitty----and that's it. Big deals don't grow on trees, and neither does the kind of money that pays $15million/yr. There's nothing in Hendry's history that shows he can pull off multiple cream-of-the-crop deals in a single offseason, anyway. I'm not even sure he can grab even a single top player, to be honest. He was making those deals in '03 and '04 dealing from a position of strength. And even then it was basically one big deal per offseason. Now the shelves are empty. It's a whole different ballgame for Jimbo, and he's holding a poor hand.

Add to all this the fact that I really like ARam. I know he's a little lazy sometimes, but he seems like a really good kid. Mostly just quiet and productive. Oh well, enough of my crying. I hope Hendry pulls off a deal to keep him. Doing so would be a significant achievement given the level of interest ARam is already drawing.

Agreed. But "love of Chicago" or not, Aramis was gonna opt out of this contract. The time to be upset was the beginning of 2005, not today. Understood. I would only plead that March/April '05 was like, blur-bad deal-blur-more Neifi-blur-Wood/Prior hurt-ouch-bad season coming, etc. You know?

I don't think "love of Chicago" is enough to keep a good player around if the money's better elsewhere and the teams are playoff contenders. That's just my HO.

It's Lou time! Give 'em the buckeroonies! Reign of Terror! RAH! 8)

So would you say after two weeks go by if nothing is done it's alright to panic? Because this still feels "panicky" to me, despite it being a formality. It's too bad we couldn't have done some sort of deal before the end of the season to avoid it coming down to this. But, alas, it doesn't always work out seamlessly like we would want.

Why, that's Sammy money!!

I believe we are in serious trouble right now. I'll second that. The window is closing quickly. I agree. What I had meant to say was, if we lose Aram, we're in the kind of trouble that isn't likely to be resolved for '07. In other words, no Aram likely = no chance for a positive '07 beyond some rebuilding takeaways for '08.

Just to add to what raw said, the Dodgers have supposedly targeted Aramis and Soriano as their two biggest FA targets. It was bound to happen. Aramis has alot of value. A bidding war over him with another team is a fearful proposition. The grass has to be looking mighty green on the other side of the fence right about now. Though I thought I heard Aram say he would prefer to stay in Chicago. Saying something like that is usually the baseball equivalent of pillow talk. Lose Aram and we are surely in serious trouble for '07. I'm willing to say that right now.

The reason the Cards won this year is because the league as a whole sucked bones. I'd rather build a good baseball team than rely on the entire major leagues to stink again next year. We're pretty far away though, IMHO. I'm thinking 2 year plan at the moment. Who knows though. Last year took alot out of me. I'm just hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe a few Lou moments to tide me over.

I like how Howie Long summed it up in one word: JEALOUSY. By the way, I got a good laugh over some SF fans who were crying that we were running up the score. # of points the Bears scored in the 2nd half: 0. We dialed it back nicely to save their feelings, thank you very much.

I agree, I just think it's entirely too early to be thinking undefeated, so I doubt they'll bother trying. I don't think they would do it anyway until there is only one team left undefeated. You're probably right, but I wouldn't put it past them to show up. Maybe Marino too. They hold it as a feather in their cap that they were the ones who beat us in '85, even though they suffered a most embarrassing loss in the playoffs that really signaled the last best chance for Marino to get to a Super Bowl (though nobody would have guessed it at the time).

This time it's in our house. If Bob Griese, Larry Czonka, and that cavalcade of jerks shows up, they ought to be denied admission.

Realizing Sammy was a steroid cheat was bad enough, and with him it wasn't even proven. Signing a proven roid pumper like Bonds is out of the question. There's such a thing as dignity, you know.

Great game. It's been back and forth the entire second half. Edit: The Broncos have now given up more points than the Chicago Bears. Woo Hoo! They've also scored 5 more than San Diego for the league lead in points scored. I think that game exposed Denver's defense a little bit. Indy completely had their way with them. There have been teams this year who were able to shut down Indy much better than Denver. And this was a home game for the Broncs. Still, very entertaining game to watch. Actually it was a great day to have NFL Sunday Ticket. 3/4 of the late games were great until the end, and a few of the early games were excellent as well. The Bears game, to be honest, was boring. I found myself switching around for better action. I've decided it's good to be a fan of a team that puts out laughers like today :)

So, we're close to replacing the driver, but the Car Dealer, the Bank, and the Car itself remain the same. If you've got a rusty old Dodge Neon, would it matter if you changed from Dick Trickle to Jeff Gordon? Maybe a little :) OK, that's my analogy for the day...