WrigleyField 22

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.

The city's ok, it's the majority of the people that suck. What high school did you go to?!?!?! haha jk

I suppose I'm a little biased, but I don't think St. Louis is that terrible. It's no Chicago, but its a decent city. Not a lot tourism wise, but a nice city.

I have a really hard time believing that would be his reasoning. After the the circus last season, what is so hard to believe about Brett Favre harboring such feelings of resentment toward the Packers? From beat reporters that follow the Packers the word is Favre has despised Ted Thompson ever since Aaron Rodgers was drafted in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft. All of this animosity became quite clear after Favre unretired, even though the Packers moved on with Rodgers. Since things didn't go exactly to plan last season it appears that he wants another chance, this time with rumors swirling that he is talking to Minnesota. Favre is a god for some people in Wisconsin, and he would tarnish his legacy permanently if he chose to sign with Minnesota. Why would any rational person choose to do something like that? The truth is they wouldn't. Favre's feelings of bitterness are so strong that he's willing to throw away everything just to have another chance to prove to the world that Ted Thompson made a mistake with choosing Aaron Rodgers to be Green Bay's quarterback of the future. Just like Flames said, Favre's reasoning should not be surprising. Its like Jim Edmonds signing with the Cubs.

Rondo, KG, and the rest of that team are a bunch of pathetic pieces of crap. F Them.

More on the jersey numbers http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=5792 The NFL is stupid. Eligible Numbers 1-49, 80-89. Non Eligible Numbers 50-70, 90-99. Done, simple.

Lets trade for Mark DeRosa.

He doesn't have to make a huge impact individually for the whole line to benefit though, IMO. He just has to be a solid rotational player, which he is more than able to do. Also I said before, it will also have to do with a combined effort in which Marinelli gets the most out of the guys. So it won't be solely on Gilbert if we improve, but having another talented body out there will help out Marinelli's efforts a lot.

I disagree. If he has talent, that means he has some specific football related skills that translate onto the field. It goes beyond athleticism and measurables. Sure, he won't come in from day one and completely live up to all his talents, and he still needs to improve his talents, but the talent is there. And if you threw him in a line with some other good players, that talent will show through in his play this year.

If he is talented, that translates into immediate impact IMO. If a player doesn't figure to factor in this year, I'd call that potential, not talent. Now I'm not saying he's gonna immediately live up to his full talent, but he has enough talent to make some impact, particularly is the added rest for Harris can help Harris. Also if he demands any amount of attention, it creates a ripple effect to the other more talented lineman.

If you think he is talented than he should improve the Bears pash rush this year. The only way he wouldn't is if everyone else on the line regresses more. Or more specifically if Harris is a non factor.

Well that just depends on how talented you think he is I guess. I think new personnel (and a lot of competition), and a good coach can get improvement out of the DLine. If we do improve it will be a combination of both things. There are 10 guys on the DLine who could legitimately compete for a roster spot, let alone the 6-8 who will be fighting for starting spots. That kind of competition, along with a good coach is bound to create some results.

Back up to an injury prone starter on a DLine that rotates bodies a lot. He'll see some time, and hopefully he'll be productive in the time he gets.

I just think Louis is just going to outgrow being a TE. If he can lose some weight and keep the 4.6 speed then sure keep him at TE, but he is supposed at 300 lbs right now, and quite frankly I don't like 300 lbs TE. I think he has potential to a better OL prospect then a TE. I much rather released Davis and bring in a guy like Drew Bennett who has some good size (6'5 a shade under 200 lbs) and brings a solid pair of hands and a veteran to compete with what I assume will be a very young WR core with Hester/Bennett and Iglesias and perhaps even Rideau. Davis doesn't do anything that Know, Earl Bennett, or Iglesias don't already do better. Drew Bennett would bring legit size to the Bears. I think we're talking about different Davis's. I mean Kellen. Sounds like you are talking about Rashied. I have no problem letting Rashied go if we replace him with a decent vet.

If you drafted a guy in the 3rd/4th, Garza doesn't have to be a lock. The only reason he is essentially a lock is because they have no more depth beyond him. True. However, since I'm generally pretty happy with the picks we did make in lieu of drafting an OL, I'm okay with putting it off this year. Duke Robinson did drop far though, and would have been intriguing. Looking at our youth, Williams and Beekman are both somewhat recent picks and somewhat early picks. Omilaye is pretty young as well. I think as long as you bring in a guy or two next year (maybe one early and one late), we'll be in good shape in the long term and short term. I'm definitely content with our line this year, even though it is on the older side. Also regarding Garza and Buenning (the two likely candidates to get the chop if we drafted a guy), neither is a huge cap strain, so its not even like you are saving yourself a huge amount. If savings are minimal, you're looking at experience. Garza has a lot of experience, and that is a good thing. Buenning has a decent amount too.