Splendid Splinter

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Lisfranc_fracture.jpg/322px-Lisfranc_fracture.jpg It's the oval part. This one also had fractures where the arrow is as well. Trust me. It sucks. I had the same thing this photo shows except mine was distal 3rd (middle) to 5th (pinkie toe) metatasal bones. The photo shows 2nd-4th.

If Hester's not going to return punts for TDs, then he needs to make good decisions on whether to catch the ball or let it go. If he can't do either one: put Bennett in. Good decision. I'm not questioning the taking Hester out part. It's putting in Bennett. If not Weems, then why did Bears sign him in the first place?

So... they take Hester out of punt return and put in Bennett??? Don't they have Weems still or is he just strictly a KR?

When in doubt... go to Brandon Marshall.

What joke? This is a message board. I've voiced my opinion on the Cubs broadcast booth. You don't have to agree with it, and many here don't. In fact, based upon the last few pages, my preference for an announcer is not the preference of anybody else on the board. I wasn't aware that it was against NSBB rules to post a positive comment on a rival announcer. Hawk is so bad that I take my cochlear implants out and hit the mute button when the Sox are playing an AL team I like. AND I still can hear him. Even quite a few White Sox fans don't like him. At least my White Sox friends don't. I know you said Len is boring and whatnot, but isn't most pbp guys, in general, "boring" for the most part? I want a pbp guy who can call a game well, give some cool stats/tidbits, and not try to distract you from the game itself. Len is one of best when it comes to that. The color guy is where I wanna hear some cool stories, stats, and personality, but not being too over the top either.

Wait what? The next four games for the Bears are Lions, Carolina, @Ten, Houston. Now granted, the Houston game could be a loss, but that's still only 7-2. If we can assume that the Pack are going to go 4-0 in those games, surely we can assume 3-1 for the Bears? He counted the bye week for the Packers as well so it would actually be 5 weeks. SF is after HOU correct?

How about Plaxico Burress? There's really not much out there in WRs. According to this site, Patrick Crayton, Lee Evans (isn't he somewhere though?), Jabar Gaffney, Anthony Gonzalez, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Mike Williams from Seattle are all available.

Pretty sure Cutler was pissed at Tice because on that drive, they were passing the ball and moving down the field then Tice called 3 straight running plays that ended up with 4th and 1...

Man I hope Saints win next week so both Packers and Saints are 1-3...

First 12 games - 44 ABs 3:23 BB:K Past 8 games (including tonight)- 22 ABs 8:9 BB:K

There sure as hell is. Not really, most of us have to deal with people we can't stand at some point. Work, school, etc. Not if you're deaf like me... Just act like you're fixing your hearing aids or cochlear implants and turn them off when you put them back on until they leave. It's a pretty nice ignore feature. Although I will not recommend that you do it in a classroom.

How far behind them is the 4th worst team? Astros: 39-85 Cubs: 47-76 Rockies: 49-73 Twins: 51-72 Indians: 54-70 Padres: 56-70 Those are the only teams with 70 or more losses right now. So Twins are 4 back from Cubs.

You're all like "who said this" and "who said that?" when the answer is clearly nobody, because I never said that anyone did. They are statements that I personally made that did not refer to anyone else. I think that Castro is overrated by "Cubs fans in general" because he has been over-hyped from day 1 as being a future superstar, and I'm just not quite on the bandwagon yet. Folks on this forum are more realistic than "Cubs fans in general", though, so again, I'm not referring to specific posters on this forum. We've seen what he can already do offensively; now we're seeing what he can do with improved defense. He's only 22, so he manages to put those things together and continue developing as a player and you're talking about an incredibly valuable asset: a SS who can pull off a 5-6 WAR for years. Yeah I have no idea what WAR is, so you got me there. I'm not not all baseball-y like that. That explains a lot. Actually, pretty much everything.

That's the part that really bugs me. He should've be taken out right away then. He was out for almost a month (came back August 5th) and was lights out for the rest of the season (11 starts: 82.2 IP/95 K/1.52 ERA/1.00 WHIP). That's during the crazy pitch counts as well. If you could go back and look at every start Prior made that season, you could probably cut 20 innings that he didn't need to pitch, but Baker kept him out anyway. I know Kerry Wood was basically damaged goods by this time, but Baker didn't help whatsoever. His pitch count is just as bad, if not worse when you take in account of his injuries by that time of his career. Zambrano wasn't as bad as those 2 on pitch counts, but it was still horrible for a 22 year old who went from 117 IP in 2002 (minors and MLB) to 230.2 IP in 2003. That's an insane jump of IPs. I don't know how Z's arm didn't fall off. Looking back on 2003... it was extremely fun to watch (I was 18/19 during that season), but it's depressing just how horrible/reckless the managing and organization was.

Is it just me or does B Jax looks like he needs to come to the plate a little closer?? It just seems like he's away from the plate a tad too far esp. in the first AB tonight.

I'm going to give you an example from year to year from another sprinter, Tyson Gay. He went from a 10.07 in 2006 to 9.79 in 2007. It's not as big of a jump as Bolt's, but it's close.

Seriously? That's like saying Mark Cuban is an average business man. I'm talking average by billionaires standard, not regular guy standard. BTW... 10.03 would've been last in this Olympics. 6th and 7th were 9.94 and 9.98. That 10.03 time was his very first time at an official race. Think about that.

Yeah I agree with you. I'm not sure where he gets the "average" or "run of the mill" sprinter here. Some of you may not realize, but in his final Jamaican High School Championships in 2003, he ran a 20.25 200m and a 45.35 400m. This was at the age of 17. Then his tournament debut 100m in 2007 I believe, he ran a personal best 10.03. That's not an "average or run of the mill" sprinter.

While the PC's are bad enough, even more frustrating to me was that Dusty left him in there to achieve some of those super high pitch counts in games that were well in hand. I want to say a couple of those 130+ games were games Dusty was trying to let Prior get a complete game shut out, or finish off an inning he got himself in trouble with. ETA: Perfect example was the 131 PC start against St. Louis with a 7-0 lead after 6 innings. Dusty leaves him in there for 8 innings. Next start, 5-1 lead after 5, Dusty takes him out after 7 with 129 pitches thrown. Dumbass! That's why it's not apples to apples and innings aren't all created equal. If they limit him on pitches, the innings number could be pushed. Also, it has to kill any pro athlete to basically sit down and watch his team try and win a title in what could be their only chance. I'm pretty damn sure numerous teams thought they were "going to be competitive for a long time" and "had a ton of young talent" and then ended up never making it back. There's no guarantee that if the Cubs shut down Prior in September of 2003 that he would have come back and dominated again in 04 or 05. They could have, however, certainly treated him a lot more cautiously. But, if he had gotten 5 more outs vs. Florida and they could have won the WS after that, I'm sorry, but I'd sacrifice his arm for that. I want to talk about the two things that are in bold. The first one about the pitch count. Granted that Baker ran Prior into the ground with that and several of those starts Baker left him in too long. There were other factors as well. Here's the difference between Prior and Strasburg. Strasburg has like 40 starts in his career so far and only 2 of those starts were more than 110 pitches and 7 more from 100-109 pitches (all 9 starts are from this year). Nats are already limiting Strasburg in BOTH pitch counts and innings so far in his career. It's a great way to go with a guy like Strasburg IMO. They want to make sure they have him for multiple seasons. Could he get hurt again? Of course, but the reason will be because of something Strasburg did (or his mechanics) or a fluke thing happened (collison with someone/liner to head or elbow/etc.) and not because Nats were reckless with him. The 2nd part... Why would Cubs need to shut down Prior in Sept. of '03??? I'm not sure where you're going with that. Prior pitched like 170 innings in 2002 (minors and MLB) and went 210 (plus 23 in playoffs) in 2003. He also didn't have any injuries before 2003 and was regarded to have great mechanics at the time IIRC. Yes, they should've been more cautious with him, but the problem was having Baylor (check out his 2002 game logs) and Baker as his managers. I don't think it was how many innings he pitched in 2003. It was the pitch counts in a lot of the games in his career and leaving him in too long when they could've went to the bullpen. Had they been more cautious about that part, they probably would've cut 10-20 innings easily in the 2003 season and also a buttload of pitches that he didn't even need to throw. Now do I think it would've saved his career? No, but I think it would've extended by another year or possibly two before the injuries. He was bound to have shoulder/arm injuries eventually with his mechanics. I'm not sure about the whole "if he had gotten 5 more outs vs. Florida and they could have won the WS after that, I'm sorry, but I'd sacrifice his arm for that" deal when he really shouldn't been out there in the 8th in the first place. Why would you want him to pitch a complete game anyway? Of course you would sacrifice his arm to be in the WS and have a chance to win. You already know what happened afterwards and how messed up his career is to this point. Plus it has no effect on your life (besides being a fan of the Cubs and the emotions of getting into the WS). It's stupid and pointless as pretty much everyone else would say the same thing now (except for probably Prior and his family).

Yeah He's built like me. In the past 10 years, I've weighed from 195 (high school) to 285 (3 years ago) and now I'm 230. And all this time, I have wore 1 pant/short size and that's a 42. I'm just a shade under 6'3". Some are just naturally built wider and bigger. I have wide shoulders as I've wore a XL or XXL in shirts in that time. Does anybody know what Vogelbach weigh now? I know he lost 30 lbs since high school, but I'm curious as to where he's at now.

Oh god. I thought I was the only one who thought Skyline sucks. Literally like everyone I know but 2 or 3 that have tried Skyline fell in love with that crap. Now I can't go to Cincy with anyone because that means I have to go to Skyline.

I don't agree with giving his "return" any headlines. He hasn't been a difference maker in a long time now. He might not been a difference maker, but he was pretty darn good in 2010 with the Bengals (yes, I know it's before his injury and he hasn't been in the NFL since then). Probably the best age 37 season (according to Pro-Football Reference) for a WR. Then again, there aren't many WRs who made it to their age 37 season and only a handful who did something at that age. You could make a case that he was a difference maker that year (I don't think so, but you "could"). He had 72 receptions for 983 yards and 9 TDs in 14 games (11 starts). If you go by his game logs, his #s were actually in 13 games and his last game was 1 catch for 22 yards so I'm not sure if he got hurt in that game or not. So had he played the last 3 games and kept the pace or close to it.. his line would've end up something like 85 receptions for 1200 yards and 11 TDs. That's legit Pro Bowl #s right there and top 10 WRs in the NFL that season.

Shoeless Joe Jackson- 1911 It starts and ends with him IMO if you're talking offense only and include the deadball era.

He's awesome. I saw him like 6 times in AA last year. That's when I became a fan of his. I picked him up in my keeper league then and traded Hanley Ramirez so I could keep Trout. Worked out pretty good. Plus he's a great kid. I talked to him a couple times before the game and got his autograph. I wish my silver marker didn't crap out on me that day as it doesn't look that great. [attachment=0]Mike Trout.jpg[/attachment]

Wouldn't a B or B- prospect be a good return for Soto? I know he said *might*, but lets just say it's possible. From Sickels list (before the season)... Angels had 2 B and 6 B- prospects. They are in order: Garrett Richards/Jean Segura/Taylor Lindsey/Kaleb Cowart/CJ Cron/John Hellweg/Luis Jimenez/Nick Maronde.