Magnetic Curses

no murton.

Uhh...great observation Hanley. it was sullivan.

how many passes did tillman break up? i seem to remember him doing a lot of that this past season.

was listening to sullivan on mully and hanley and he said that mark prior ran right by him and out onto the field--and that he didn't "look injured".

For the most part, you're right. I'd like to see Mike Brown brought back but after his contract has been re-negotiated. I think D. Manning will make a step forward next season but I'd like to see one safety brought in all the same. i don't think chris harris had that bad of a run this year. aside from a couple of high profile mistakes, he made some pretty good plays down the stretch. if anyone failed, it was d. manning.

Im with you on everything here but Vasher and Harris. Ive heard a lot about signing Tommie long term. I dont see what the hurry is since he is signed through 2008. Of all the people on this team they need to build around it is him so they should tread carefully but keep in mind the cap is raised another $7M next year and im sure it will go up in 2009 when Tommie will be getting his big money. They can use the added cap space next year if they have to for signing Tommie to an extension then. If they need to make cuts they can dump Wale and his $6M+ salary after 2008 and use that money on Tommie (they could role the cap hit of dumping Wale in the year 2009). Making Tommie fit shouldnt be a problem. Also to consider is they could Franchise Tommie in 2009. If Tommie were a UFA this year it would actually be cheaper to franchise him than Briggs. Who is more valuable? Tommie. DT dont carry a huge franchise tags, which is good for the Bears. for the record, i didn't mean sign harris this year, i agree with you that we should weigh our cap options. he doesn't need to be locked up until after next season. if the price is right, yes. but i'd argue that vasher can be replaced. tillman is better, and needs to be retained, but reasonably as well. they're good players, but if a similar player can be found at a much lower price, then bye-bye. imo, this is where angelo earns his keep, by shuffling in good, cheap players at a constant rate through the draft. every once in a while, he'll come across a great player if he does his job right. mark anderson may be a great player, so he might have to be signed long-term in the future. but if he can surround urlacher, harris, and briggs (if re-signed) with good, cheap talent, then the defense will always be a strength regardless of whether or not the good players are signed beyond their rookie deals.

I'd give him mediocre status with his .330 OBP if he had something of value to offer other than speed. He doesn't, therefore he's horrible. Poor routes to fly balls, weenie arm, no power and gets caught stealing way too much for my liking. All told, horrible is a pretty good definition. He wasn't always horrible. He was serviceable in 2003 and 2004. Mediocre would be another good terminology. LA can have him and he won't be missed. If he wore #43, it would be a thing of beauty. I also don't mind not having him, but in an ideal situation I would want a better leadoff hitter than Soriano thats all im saying. I would be willing to drop Jones if we could get a guy like lofton even though hes old to play center be good defensively and could make room for Soriano back later in the order for some more pop. if soriano has a year like last, i wouldn't mind sending him up to the plate most often. you like to maximize the PA of your better hitters. you'd also like to get them runners on in front of them, but i still like the idea of soriano getting a lot of PA's. I think optimally Lee would be the leadoff hitter, but I can't remember. i know, but we'll never bat him leadoff.

the pattern that great teams use for building perrenial winners is centered on signing their great players long-term, not replacing them year in and year out, no team can do that. briggs has not outlived his usefulness and cannot readily be replaced by someone who is likely to play as well or better for less money, nor are we likely to find another player like briggs in the near future. sign him. sign harris long term as well. harris, urlacher, briggs, the nucleus of the defense. i'd also like to see them bring mike brown back if it can be accomplished cheaply, there's no better option, currently. vasher can do what he wants, he'll be replaceable. just get briggs signed already.

That's important. If the Bears final offer to Briggs was, in fact, $5.5 mil/yr as reported, then it looks like Briggs is as good as gone. Nah, I think he plays ONE MORE SEASON in Chicag. I know Angelo is hesitant on using it, but I believe Briggs is the one player (outside of maybe Kreutz/Harris and Urlacher) that warrants using the Franchise Tag atleast once. So, again, I think the Bears will franchise him. using the franchise tag doesn't guarantee that briggs will play. knowing rosenhaus, i could see briggs holding out all year.

I'd give him mediocre status with his .330 OBP if he had something of value to offer other than speed. He doesn't, therefore he's horrible. Poor routes to fly balls, weenie arm, no power and gets caught stealing way too much for my liking. All told, horrible is a pretty good definition. He wasn't always horrible. He was serviceable in 2003 and 2004. Mediocre would be another good terminology. LA can have him and he won't be missed. If he wore #43, it would be a thing of beauty. I also don't mind not having him, but in an ideal situation I would want a better leadoff hitter than Soriano thats all im saying. I would be willing to drop Jones if we could get a guy like lofton even though hes old to play center be good defensively and could make room for Soriano back later in the order for some more pop. if soriano has a year like last, i wouldn't mind sending him up to the plate most often. you like to maximize the PA of your better hitters. you'd also like to get them runners on in front of them, but i still like the idea of soriano getting a lot of PA's.

Driving the baseball does not mean pulling a baseball. It's all semantics... The #1 goal of a hitter is to get a good pitch to hit and make solid contact according to most situations, to Sully that is what he probably equates to his definition of driving the ball. To baseball7897, it probably means something else. Of course, I don't take what Sully said at absolute value as if you're Ted Lilly and Barrett is on 2nd with no outs, he better bunt him over as it'll most likely be more successful than trying to drive the ball. i'll amend my views for those who aren't good at hitting and would be better served making the eventual out they'd make anyway a productive one. it's my opinion that the only one who should ever sac bunt is the pitcher, or neifi perez.

That's where you're wrong, though. He is horrible. He has one skill. He's fast. His one skill doesn't provide him much benefit, though. He can't get on base enough to use it to steal bases, and he's not fast enough or skilled enough at stealing bases to have a SB% above 80%. He isn't a good defensive CF; his speed doesn't help him track down as many balls in the gap as it should, and that's not even factoring in his arm, which has all the strength of an 11 year old girl. He doesn't take walks, has no power at all, and excels at making outs-more outs than anyone in the league by a wide margin. He's a bad, bad baseball player. You could make a good argument that Cesar Izturis is the superior player based on his defense alone. completely agree, pierre is just a guy. someone once pointed out to me that pierre doesn't walk because pitchers generally go after him because they don't want him on base. well, if he could hit for any power whatsoever, maybe he could burn pitchers for throwing him meatballs. some of the pitches that were thrown to pierre last year, i could have hit out of the park, there's no excuse for beating them into the ground like he did. too many people learn all they need to know about baseball from the movie "Major League" and insist that fast players hit ground balls and try to leg out hits. if you're a major league player, you should be trying to drive the ball every single time up, no matter the situation, no matter your place in the order, no matter how much speed you have. when you aren't trying to drive the ball, you're cheating yourself and your team and ultimately driving down final production numbers. this is no more evident than in a player like juan pierre. i find this very amusing. do you really believe you can hit professional pitching at any level let alone the major leauges? i may be able to hit in the major "leauges". what color is the sky in your world? did you catch the quotations or are you just not getting the joke?

well, the constant calamity following illini sports has now begun to border on the tragic. prayers to carlwell and his family.

trading z would be stupid, sign the guy to whatever he wants and let's move on.

That's where you're wrong, though. He is horrible. He has one skill. He's fast. His one skill doesn't provide him much benefit, though. He can't get on base enough to use it to steal bases, and he's not fast enough or skilled enough at stealing bases to have a SB% above 80%. He isn't a good defensive CF; his speed doesn't help him track down as many balls in the gap as it should, and that's not even factoring in his arm, which has all the strength of an 11 year old girl. He doesn't take walks, has no power at all, and excels at making outs-more outs than anyone in the league by a wide margin. He's a bad, bad baseball player. You could make a good argument that Cesar Izturis is the superior player based on his defense alone. completely agree, pierre is just a guy. someone once pointed out to me that pierre doesn't walk because pitchers generally go after him because they don't want him on base. well, if he could hit for any power whatsoever, maybe he could burn pitchers for throwing him meatballs. some of the pitches that were thrown to pierre last year, i could have hit out of the park, there's no excuse for beating them into the ground like he did. too many people learn all they need to know about baseball from the movie "Major League" and insist that fast players hit ground balls and try to leg out hits. if you're a major league player, you should be trying to drive the ball every single time up, no matter the situation, no matter your place in the order, no matter how much speed you have. when you aren't trying to drive the ball, you're cheating yourself and your team and ultimately driving down final production numbers. this is no more evident than in a player like juan pierre. i find this very amusing. do you really believe you can hit professional pitching at any level let alone the major leauges? i may be able to hit in the major "leauges".

That's where you're wrong, though. He is horrible. He has one skill. He's fast. His one skill doesn't provide him much benefit, though. He can't get on base enough to use it to steal bases, and he's not fast enough or skilled enough at stealing bases to have a SB% above 80%. He isn't a good defensive CF; his speed doesn't help him track down as many balls in the gap as it should, and that's not even factoring in his arm, which has all the strength of an 11 year old girl. He doesn't take walks, has no power at all, and excels at making outs-more outs than anyone in the league by a wide margin. He's a bad, bad baseball player. You could make a good argument that Cesar Izturis is the superior player based on his defense alone. completely agree, pierre is just a guy. someone once pointed out to me that pierre doesn't walk because pitchers generally go after him because they don't want him on base. well, if he could hit for any power whatsoever, maybe he could burn pitchers for throwing him meatballs. some of the pitches that were thrown to pierre last year, i could have hit out of the park, there's no excuse for beating them into the ground like he did. too many people learn all they need to know about baseball from the movie "Major League" and insist that fast players hit ground balls and try to leg out hits. if you're a major league player, you should be trying to drive the ball every single time up, no matter the situation, no matter your place in the order, no matter how much speed you have. when you aren't trying to drive the ball, you're cheating yourself and your team and ultimately driving down final production numbers. this is no more evident than in a player like juan pierre. I don't agree with that at all. So you're saying you should go to the plate with the mindset of pulling the ball every single time? That is a horrible approach to hitting. I dont know where, or who gave you that adivce, but that person probably never played baseball in his or her life. Certain situations in baseball need a certain type of approach at the plate. If you're going to the plate just trying to pull the ball everytime, there is a good chance you wont be playing baseball for most teams. you're joking right? i'm wondering where i said anything about "pulling the ball every single time". i'm not sure where you came to equate "driving the ball" with "pulling the ball" but that leads me to believe you may have never played baseball in your life.

That's where you're wrong, though. He is horrible. He has one skill. He's fast. His one skill doesn't provide him much benefit, though. He can't get on base enough to use it to steal bases, and he's not fast enough or skilled enough at stealing bases to have a SB% above 80%. He isn't a good defensive CF; his speed doesn't help him track down as many balls in the gap as it should, and that's not even factoring in his arm, which has all the strength of an 11 year old girl. He doesn't take walks, has no power at all, and excels at making outs-more outs than anyone in the league by a wide margin. He's a bad, bad baseball player. You could make a good argument that Cesar Izturis is the superior player based on his defense alone. completely agree, pierre is just a guy. someone once pointed out to me that pierre doesn't walk because pitchers generally go after him because they don't want him on base. well, if he could hit for any power whatsoever, maybe he could burn pitchers for throwing him meatballs. some of the pitches that were thrown to pierre last year, i could have hit out of the park, there's no excuse for beating them into the ground like he did. too many people learn all they need to know about baseball from the movie "Major League" and insist that fast players hit ground balls and try to leg out hits. if you're a major league player, you should be trying to drive the ball every single time up, no matter the situation, no matter your place in the order, no matter how much speed you have. when you aren't trying to drive the ball, you're cheating yourself and your team and ultimately driving down final production numbers. this is no more evident than in a player like juan pierre.

i have to believe that jones and marshall have a decent amount of value. a ready-made hitter and a young lefty with some perceived talent might be attractive to a team like the angels.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20060416/ai_n16165873 for some reason, i think that rothschild calls the game for certain pitchers.

I keep thinking that Jones alone has some value, but there are plenty of candidates to put in a package with him......Marshall(or another young pitcher), Eyre, Novoa, etc. Jones has some value, Marshall has some value, add them together and we might actually get something in return. i really think marshall should be traded now, as i doubt that his value will ever be higher.

why? to get a better return. maybe we can get something for marshall before anyone realizes that he's just not any good. i see. i guess i should have know better than to ask. what does that mean?

they stole my LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why? to get a better return. maybe we can get something for marshall before anyone realizes that he's just not any good.

i wonder if hendry is shopping marshall with jones. i would.

Henson didn't lose a lot of Chicago kids until the whole Deon Thomas fiasco. Kruger came in during the time after Henson when Chicago coaches were "protesting" Jimmy Collins not getting the job and weren't selling Illinois to their players. And, remember, if Self stayed at Illinois Julian Wright and Sherron Collins are playing for the orange and blue. that's hard to say.