raw

This kinda wants me to see us get Bautista on a 1 year deal or 1+option. He's definitely getting less than EE. Move Heyward to CF and Almora/Jay are backups with Bustista in RF and Schwarber in LF. Have Bautista lead off who can replicate Fowler's OBP from last year. Bautista RF Schwarber LF Bryant 3B Rizzo 1B Zobrist 2B Russell SS Contreras C Heyward CF I've been wondering if a lot of these FAs sit out here longer than expected, if the Cubs might be more likely to pull a late surprise ala Fowler last spring. Maybe Joey Bats on a 1-year deal, Matt Wieters or even bringing Jason Hammel back.

Team blows a 3-1 lead in the championship series and then signs the best player from the team they beat in the semifinal series. Where have I heard this before?

The Cubs? They're playing Almora and Jay there. Are we not considering Heyward as the de facto full-time CF, with Zobrist in RF and Baez at 2B? Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but neither Jay nor Almora is likely to deserve more ABs than Javy over the course of the season.

Cole, Quintana, Taillon, Nova is a pretty good rotation, if the Pirates can pull it off.

Fun fact: Since, selecting Jim McMahon at #5 overall (1 pick after the 1st QB, Art Schlichter, went off the board in 1982), The Chicago Bears have NOT drafted the 1st, 2nd or 3rd QB taken in any draft. Even their 1st round picks (Grossman, McNown, Harbaugh) were the 4th or 5th QBs selected in the years they were drafted. Part of me really wants the Bears to take a QB at 4 or 5 or wherever they'll draft because they haven't had their chance at pick all the top guys before. And they've typically had to "settle" for whatever QB they liked that was left, or ignore the position entirely, or trade multiple 1st round picks for a QB. The typical response is "oh, I'm not sold any of these guys are franchise QBs". And honestly, I understand the sentiment. But I also feel the Bears have been sitting around waiting for this perfect QB prospect to fall in their laps for the franchise's entirety. And I think if the Bears do their job correctly and take the best guy available at 4 and develop them, that would be the ideal scenario. The top QBs all, while not ideal prospects, have something going for them. Kizer- prototype. 6'4", 230ish, huge arm, extremely mobile. Ton of upside Trubisky- accurate, mobile. Body type to hold up in the pocket. A lot of upside. Watson- extremely mobile. Ton of intangibles and experience. Winner. Big game performances. 3-year starter. That being said, if the rest of the league doesn't think these guys are that great, then even if you think one of these guys is a franchise QB, you might not have to get one at #4. You can wait for the 2nd (or more likely trade back up into the end of the 1st) and get your guy. The Browns are almost certainly taking Garrett at this point. They'll have another top 10 pick from the Rams, and can either get their QB there or (more likely IMO) trade that and/or one of their 2 other top 50 picks for Jimmy Garoppolo. So, if the Bears could get Jonathan Allen AND maybe Watson is still there (my top QB). If not, I am kinda intrigued by Kaaya and Mahomes and even Davis Webb.

Eh. I'm honestly not overly concerned about the tackles. Leno is serviceable. Massie has historically been a slow starter, who gets better as the season goes on. And 1st round picks on OTs have not panned out as well recently. Eric Fisher, Luke Joeckel, DJ Fluker (guard), Juwaun James, Greg Robinson, Ereck Flowers, Andrus Peat (guard), DJ Humphries, Cedric Ogbuehi are some of the tackles who haven't made it. While only guys like Taylor Lewan and Jake Matthews have panned out. Seems to be a lot more success recently from the 2nd and 3rd days of the draft. I think Robinson's probably a top 10 pick. McGlinchey probably in the 20s. Too rich for my blood. I'd probably keep both tackles and bring in a guy in the 3rd or 4th round to compete for a backup spot. I wouldn't cry about Massie being cast aside and money spent on a FA OT (Ricky Wagner at RT would look very good).

This is rather excellent.

That's what I'm saying.

He actually was contacted by the 49ers yesterday after Vance McDonald got put on IR. He was told if he got there yesterday and learned the playbook this week, he would start on Sunday for them. The only problem is it was a 1-year deal and he would be a FA after the year and play for a dumpster fire of an organization. He actually asked my advice and I told him to stay in Minnesota, with the guarantees and have a chance at the playoffs/championship. (To be fair, his agent also recommended he stay and I was his like 8th opinion. LOL). So, the Bears called this AM and gave him more of a guarantee for the future, and even though they are bad they did beat the Niners by like 20 last week and are not quite a disaster for the immediate future. Hopefully over the next 3 weeks the Bears give him a legit shot to catch the ball. I'm completely biased, but the kid can play. 4.58 in the 40, great after the catch. Just needs a chance. Had a good rapport with Bridgewater in camp and was working with the 1s a lot. But then sprained/tore his left MCL in the preseason. Missed 4-5 weeks. Came back for 2-3 weeks, then hurt his other MCL. When he got healthy, Norv Turner (the man responsible for drafting him in Minnesota) left as the OC, and MyCole was a few days later. Landed on the practice squad and has been itching to play ever since.

YESSIR!!!!! :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: So excited to sit in the freezing cold on Christmas Eve!

That's what I want.

Look at Uehara's splits.

The Bears held Stafford to the 2nd fewest yards, 3rd lowest completion percentage, and only multi-INT game. The Bears actually have shown a pass rush at times, especially with a healthy Goldman, McPhee and Floyd. I actually think this is a good matchup for the Bears D. If they pressure Stafford, they'll have a good shot. RB out of the backfield in the pass game is going to kill them without their 2 great coverage LBs. But I like their ability to tackle if Stafford can't get the ball down the field due to pressure.

Wow. Nice job by the ChiSox.

Training camp invite with Connor Shaw, who looked good in the preseason. Winner gets the 3rd QB job. But the Bears should have 2 QBs better than both of them.

This definitely sounds like the Braves or Rays would be matches here.

Met Rich Hill a long time ago when he was with the Lansing Lugnuts. He was very quiet and soft spoken. The crazy part is that I have lived in Pittsburgh for 12 years, so that was probably 14 years ago. And he's still going strong. Happy for him. Really cool story.

I wanted that game vs. Pitt for personal reasons, but I didn't want to go to NY again. Utah's probably going to kick our asses, but back-to-back bowls for the Hoosiers is pretty cool.

Why would they not shift him to 1B? Mark Reynolds is hardly starting 1B material. Yeah, they are loaded in the OF. He'd play 1B and Reynolds is a FA, I believe.

Post 2 minute warning, and the Bears are only down 6-0 despite 0 passing yards, 2 first downs, a turnover, and a blocked punt. Pretty sure this is the worst game in the history of sporting events.

Witherow still throws mid 90s right? Numbers not terrible last year. Has a cutter he rarely throws that Bosio could possibly work with. Only 27 still.

I doubt it. If we dealt for him, I think it'd be strictly for the pen. I do think he's an excellent candidate to be a multiple inning guy though. This is what I like about him most. Guy that can give you 2+ innings in a tough close game presumably in the playoffs. And he's not so established in that role that you have to put him in only to finish the game to protect his ego. I dream of him kinda tandem closing with Edwards. Allows you to still protect CJ from back-to-backs if necessary, and you can use Colome for multiple innings and give him a day off the next day.

Wow. Just disgusting. I can't bring myself to feel relief with the Bears losing. But I was pretty indifferent. I would have been happy with the win, just because the game was so dumb. Titans could do whatever they wanted offensively and still almost blew the game to Matt horsefeathering Barkley. Of course, SF and Jacksonville may not win another game either. And the Bears play SF coming up. Sorry man, but when it's week 12 or whatever, and they only have 2 wins, I really feel no guilt hoping they don't win. This season has been a nightmare with injuries and I think there's enough talent on the team that they can bounce back and be a playoff contender next year if they nail this draft. I think they have a better chance to do that with the #2 pick. Don't think this makes me less of a fan. Sorry, that wasn't meant for you. I was saying that # of drops is disgusting. But yeah like others have said, I'll actively root for a win while they are actually playing. But I won't be heartbroken if they lose. Yesterday I just laughed at the Bellamy drop. I figured they'd still win though as that was 1st down and the Titans really showed no interest in covering anyone for the last quarter.

Wow. Just disgusting. I can't bring myself to feel relief with the Bears losing. But I was pretty indifferent. I would have been happy with the win, just because the game was so dumb. Titans could do whatever they wanted offensively and still almost blew the game to Matt horsefeathering Barkley. Of course, SF and Jacksonville may not win another game either. And the Bears play SF coming up.

Anybody get an official number on the Bears' drops today? Had to be 7+ easily. Josh Bellamy literally dropped the game-winner. Never seen anything like this. I can't believe the Bears would let this WR corps continue to look like this if they let Alshon Jeffery go. Oh and Danny Trevathan tore his ACL.