WrigleyField 22

What QBs are available on waivers in your league? Anyone decent?

By the way, I now want of photo of with these guys standing together. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ucf/sports/m-footbl/auto_action/2709847.jpeghttp://static.nfl.com/static/content/catch_all/nfl_image/Gaines_Adams.jpghttp://image.blog.livedoor.jp/lovie_the_dog/imgs/2/8/28fdbb21.jpg

If Marinelli can get first round talent out of him (let alone #4 overall type talent) then it is worth the second rounder. Its a bit of a risk. Allows us to let Ogunleye go at the end of this season I suppose. Brown, Adams, Anderson. Earn your paycheck Marinelli!

Bears trade an undisclosed 2010 pick for DE Gaines Adams. #4 overall pick in 2007. Had 12.5 sacks his first two years and so far has 1 this year. Interesting to say the least. Wonder what the pick will end up being. His contract was a 6 year deal worth $46million. I'll see if I can track down the exact breakdown.

Tight Ends: Greg Olsen @ Atl Chris Cooley @ Car Wide Receivers: Larry Fitz @ Sea Brandon Marshall @ SD Michael Sims-Walker StL Greg Jennings Det I need to pick 2 WR, and another probably fills my flex spot. Any 4 of them has a decent chance of putting up a good week, so the approach I'm taking on who to sit is who is most likely to have a bad week. Part of me thinks Jennings. He hasn't gotten a lot of targets early on and if GB gets up early they'll just be running it. Its such a strong match up though verse Detroit at home. I could see Marshall having a quieter game with Denver likely to run all over SD, but how do you sit a guy whose been as hot as him? The you have Sims-Walker on a bad team, but going against an even worse team, and he has been targeted more than anyone else. Then Larry Fitzgerald is just a stud, and its never really smart to bench him. Plus, should be a close game, so Arizona should be throwing it. I'm thinking: Fitz, Walker, Marshall. Agreed?

Not at all interested. While I expect us to be competitive and make the playoffs this year, I never viewed this as a big year for us. Next off season we could just sign Owens or another WR, using this year to groom the ones we currently have. I want to use any picks we have to infuse youth into the defense and OLine. A couple of years ago there were talks of our "window". We have a franchise QB now, there really isn't any window now (well to an extent, but not like when we were relying upon an aging defense), just making smart moves. Getting a partial year of TO isn't that.

It's pretty rare for a HS kicker to make a 45+ yard field goal. Those guys were there to protect the goal line in case of a fake or broken play. The problem was they weren't instructed to leave the ball alone. I'm also not sure if it matters if that guy's knee was down, because he's the holder and he never moved from that initial position. Not sure what the rule is exactly though. Well if you're actually worried about the fake or broken play your best bet is to just line up in your standard defensive set. Two guys at the goal line aren't going to stop a well set up fake.

Here's a worse one: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Vermont-football-team-wins-after-crazy-fumble-re?urn=nfl,193475 The big question. Why did the coaches even send those kids back to return the short kick? You are already up, so as long as the ball crosses the LOS you win the game. The ball would have been dead when it hit the ground. You should be sending all 11 for the block. This one sucked too. It was awfully close whether or not the holder had his knee down when he picked the ball up. But that is a lesson to play to the whistle.

I can't say I'd be opposed to parting with a mid-level draft pick for TO at this point. I'm fine with the WRs we have and with losing a first rounder I want as many mid-round picks as possible next year. OL and defense, with maybe a RB thrown in. If we decided we wanted TO, I'd just wait for the offseason. Its not like he puts us over the top this season. Also in the offseason there would be other Free Agents. Brandon Marshall, Vincent Jackson, Braylon Edwards, and Steve Breaston to name a few. Marshall and Jackson would both be my favorites of that group, and good compliments to Hester and Knox.

Boooo! Losing 134 -114, 114 being the second highest that week and 5th best score of the season in my league. This sucks.

Orton is a nice piece to the right puzzle, and Cutler is the piece that you build the rest of the puzzle around. Thats pretty much the best way to put it.

I went E,B,C,D,A.

I say we beat the kids when thy're late. Hitting already is negative, so no loss.

Except Fukudome did match his production. Well as close as you could have hoped for at least. A little less slugging, but more or less equal.

As far as Sosa and steroids go, here is a post I made in an old Sammy/Steroid thread. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Here's my effort to try and track Sammy's size vs. production vs. age. For HR I did it as a percentage of ABs to account for short seasons. SLG wasn't changed. They are both graphed against his age. Pictures are mostly baseball cards. I figure they could be slightly off. Most likely in any given year, the picture is from the previous year (such as 2005, where he's wearing a Cubs uniform, but he was on the Orioles). It's not exact, but should provide for a decent look at progression, as opposed to just looking at 20 year old Sammy vs. 30 year old Sammy. I don't think this proves anything one way or the other, but it is interesting to look at. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/snetsrak43/steroidsammy.png Edit- the most telling one for me is to look at two pictures from 1989 and 1990. Here they are in full size. http://passtheword.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/sosa-89donrussbest.JPGhttp://www.basehit.net/CatImages/90Donruss489.jpg The one on the right is one you'd typically see from someone trying to say Sammy was just some skinny kid. But he looks pretty big in the first one. Also his head seems pretty large, which is something people will typically point to. Now like I said, nothing can be proven with these. The things with pictures is that angles and poses can create many different "tricks". We'd have to have a constant angle/pose year to year to make any significant conclusions. Still interesting to try and compare though.

Well over the life of the contract they obviously save money, but I'm talking about the cap hit for this year. I'll have to double check the figures, but I thought I recall seeing that the cap hit was bigger to cut him than to just keep him because he is so short into his new deal. On the other hand I suppose actual cash flows you would save money, so maybe it doesn't really matter as long as they stay under the cap. Another consideration I guess is the June 1st date. Any cuts after June 1st split up the cap hit between this year and next right?

I'm pretty sure we'd actually lose money by cutting Vasher at this point in his contract, so I have a really hard time believing he'd have to fight for his spot. If you at least broke even I could see him having to compete but when the choice is pay $X to have him on the roster or $X+Y to cut him, I think he stays.

Feel free to ask direct questions... we have a lot of hockey nuts here that will answer any question. The more people who wrap their arms around the Blackhawks, the better. Hockey is a beautiful sport... just not understood by many. EDIT: Love the sig ;) Thats kind of my feeling. Its always been somewhat interesting to me because of the big hits and stuff. But watching the game closely and seeing Kane's third goal, and its also obviously a very skill oriented sport, but I have no idea about those skills really. I'm not so sure I can handle being a die hard for four sports, but I'm gonna try to ease in on hockey and follow the threads now. Also I remember growing up, hockey was too hard to watch because I couldn't see the puck. Now with better T.V.s that isn't too much of an issue. Woo HDTV.

Cool. I trusted your advice and updated my sig for Walker. I've also been proudly supporting a blackhawks desktop since Tuesday.

I could have told you during the off season that you could have gotten just as much production out of Bobby Scales and Sam Fuld as you would out of Aaron Miles and Joey Gathright. Well I couldn't have told you those two specifically, but yes. A good example is Bako-Hill. Even if Bako was 80 points better on OPS (and he probably isn't even that), I'd rather save that few hundred grand or whatever it is. In Miles' case you're talking about millions. Take the ~600K from a Gathright and a Bako, the million or so from a Miles and so forth, and add it all up and you can keep an actually valuable player, like DeRosa.

I'm fine with riding players like him our as long as they are cheap. I'd sign 5 Bobby Scale's every year to minor league deals and hope one of them can perform as good as Miles and save myself the million or two million dollars.

Hendry's at least earned his right to stick around. However, I don't want to see any big (long) contract extensions or anything.

Okay I feel kind of stupid doing this, but I'm gonna anyways. I watched the last period of that game 6, and I'm totally ready to jump on the Blackhawk's bandwagon, and hockey in general. I know I could read this thread an learn a lot, but in the interest of my time, I kind of just want a run down on the Blackhawks and NHL in general. A run down on some of the key players and aspects of the NHL would be very appreciated. I know there's Toews (pronounced Taves, right?) and Kane. What's their background and stuff. Who are some other key players. Thanks for any information on this. If you're a hockey fan, this is your big sales pitch. Edit- Also an explanation on the minor league system would be cool. Its different than baseball's right? Also any type of salary structure and related info would be cool.

Most of the people that I know from Cleveland know its a crap city, except one guy who always said, "the streets are paved with gold"

Some Saint Louis positives: Forest Park - Largest green park in a city in the nation. Over 50% larger than Central Park. The zoo there is better than either of the two in Chicago, in my opinion. There are a handful of other museums there, none I have been to, so I can't really comment on that. The McDonnell Planetarium, The Saint Louis Art Museum, The Missouri History Museum, etc Neighborhoods - Soulard, some fun bars and restaurants if you know where to go. Great place for things like Oktoberfest and of course Mardi Gras (second largest parade in the nation behind New Orleans). Central West End - again, some good bars in that area. The Delmar Loop - Not as much of a bar scene, but good restaurants that are St. Louis staples like Fitz's (great root beer) and Blueberry Hill (Chuck Berry performs there once a month). Theres also the Tower Grove area, which is another large green park. Also the Landing, um good for Cougar hunting I hear? Overall a nice variety of neighborhoods with good bars and restaurants. Sports - Sure I hate the Cardinals, but putting aside my Cubs bias for a while thats a great history and Busch Stadium, while cookie cutter, is a great place to watch a game. Blues aren't a bad team either and St. Louis has a good hockey fan base. Rams could be better. Also a big soccer town, if thats your thing. Universities - St. Louis University (had to) is a very good school and Wash U is a freaking great school. Both with good medical centers. Food - A city has to have some staple foods. St. Louis Pizza (even though I prefer Chicago), toasted ravs, Ted Drew's etc. The Hill (neighborhood) - Great Italian food. The Arch- Never been, but a city should have something distinguishing. This all coming from someone who lived 18 years in the Chicago area and loved hating on St. Louis for two years before giving it a chance. Overall I think a nice list of positive things. Negatives include people's obsessions with high schools and a high crime rate. If I had to I could live in St. Louis and be happy though.