Chisoxfn

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 11:19 AM) I would literally cream my shorts. And if we were to trade Ben Gordon, I'd run circles around Wrigley Field in the nude. Get Ben Wall, than you still have some money to go out and replace Big Ben (plus the draft picks). Hell, you may be able to put together a package with Gordon, some free payroll that we have and a draft pick for a pretty damn good small forward or guard (with Deng playing the other position) and Noc coming off the bench, along with Duhon and we'd still have at least one draft pick to find another wing player to help us off the bench. That said there is probably a 30% chance that Detroit wins it all this year and I don't think they are just going to let Ben Wall go (plus they can offer him more money than anyone else).

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 11:12 AM) :puke Who the hell is the Thomas on the Kings?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 11:06 AM) Personally, I'd rather the Bulls made a run at Big Ben this offseason instead of Peja (think of the defense with Ben & Chandler in the same lineup) but that's just me. Id tend to agree with you. I think we need a dominate center and while Big Ben will cost a lot and will probably turn into a bad contract in the latter years. The guy is a defensive force at center and would give the Bulls enough of a presence. We'd be able to slide Sweet in for 25-30 minutes (I expect him to be in better shape) and that would be enough of a low post presence to go along with two defensive big men in Ben Wall and Tyson. However, I'm more than willing to deal Ben Gordon for something this off-season, even if it means packaging him with someone else. I think the Bulls are going to look quite a bit different next year. There are some players I demand we keep: Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and unless we get a good offer I really would like Duhon coming off the bench. If we go after Peja than I'd like to have a bigger lineup with Kirk, Deng, Peja.

Don't worry Gene. Don't let one person ruin a funny thread. Some people don't get sarcasm and this was funny. If people don't think its funny, just mind there own business. Why don't we ask TBS

QUOTE(MurcieOne @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 10:21 AM) Lovie is now 15-15... after a poor year last year, and appears to have this team on the brink of dominance in the NFC North.... My question to the board is... is Lovie Smith the Chicago Bears Head coach in 2010? Do you see Lovie leading this team deep into the playoffs, the super bowl? my answer is yes to both questions, i think Lovie is the right man for this team... I think he possesses all of Dick Jauron's good qualities (respectable, defensive genious) and yet unlike Jauron... he is not afraid to make the big move to improve his team... and will hold his players accountable for their play on the field. Lovie is here, i support him (even with that pittsburgh 3 and 13 call).... The bears should and will own this division for a number of years... and he is the right person to take this team wherever it can go. I totally agree. The guy knows what he's doing on defense and gets the best out of his players. I like our offensive coordinator for the 1st time in a long time and I think we have a really skilled GM who has a great knowledge of the cap and is going to do all he can to ensure we are able to stay good for a long time.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 07:58 AM) I thought it was funny. I got to admit, I laughed at it. And the Sign O Trouble was great.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 10:15 AM) I love that some retard regurgitating on a keyboard got 8 responses and my two solidly cited quotes from reputable newspapers are ignored. I saw it Gene. It makes sense to me. Bedard is a solid young pitcher, however the Sox would need to get bullpen help and something else out of it. I didn't even post on the 4 team deal cause I figure it has zero chance of happening. I still don't understand why Bmore can't figure out that they need to go address pitching. f*** Manny Ramirez (and I think he's the best hitter in baseball), go get yourself some capable starting pitching and worry about the offense later. They have the money to ink Jon long term, although I don't know if they have the prospects it would take to get Jon (in the sense of what I'd like). Bedard put up a 4.00 ERA and is Garland's age. The only problem is the kid has never thrown much any innings and has some serious durability issues. I know the O's have that kid Penn, but I don't think of him on the same level as the Dodgers pitching prospects.

QUOTE(DukeNukeEm @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 08:55 AM) I like how nobody heard of the suspension until it was overturned. Racist NCAA. :headshake

Cinnamon Raisin w/Butter Whole Wheat with Cream Cheese

Xmas eve a small dinner with the folks and sis. Xmas a big get together at my aunts. After that, all my buddies go over to my friends house and hang out Christmas night (usually we get in a basketball or football game).

How dare you guys. I pinned it

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 10:00 AM) In offer 2, the Cubs are giving up Prior and Hill for arguably the best SS in the game, a #3 pitcher, and a top OF prospect. Prior isn't worth that much. Hill only has his curve as of now(even Cub fans admit this). 2 is a bad deal for the O's. Thats exactly what I said. However, the deal is fair if you take Bedard out of the deal.

QUOTE(Chek2002 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 09:33 AM) I saw this rumor out there: "Reports now indicate that now the Chicago White Sox may be the third team involved in the Tejada deal. The trade would have to be something like this: The Cubs get Tejada and cash , and Baltimore gets Contreras, Garland, and OF prospect Ryan Sweeney from the White Sox, and the White Sox get Prior and a prospect from Baltimore." It's no secret Kenny Williams has been trying to move Jon Garland, who's already turned down at least one contract extension. This deal would greatly improve Baltimore's rotation giving them two front of the rotation starters in one shot. It would also give the White Sox more room financially to sign Buehrle to an extension after the '07 season." What do you think? OMG, thats the f***ing worse trade rumor I've ever seen. So we trade Contreras and Garland plus Ryan Sweeney for Prior. Ya right. By the way I should add if someone gave me a guarantee that Prior was healthy, I'd insanely enough make this trade. But since that guarantee doesn't exist, this would be a purely assinine move. Unless we also got ourselves Eric Bedard and Julio or something along those lines. On a sidenote, the cubs and Sox ain't making a deal together, imo.

The Cubs ruined what could have been an amazing rotation by killing the arms in games where they were running away with things. I'll always remember Baker trotting guys out with 120 plus pitches when his team was up 4 or 5 runs.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 09:48 AM) He could just as easily have a bad season. Look at the various inconsistent seasons he has put up. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/stats/ml...3845&statType=1 Encarnacion's career #'s .268 AVG .316 OPS .440 SLG .756 OPS A .756 career OPS from a starting right fielder is pretty bad and that's where the Cardinals will be playing him. Last year was the best season of his career (.796 OPS). He isn't a good option as a starting right fielder and the fact that he will be earning $15 million over 3 years makes it even worse. The fact is that unlike Reggie Sanders, he can play all 3 outfield positions and he can play them well. The Cards saw all those injuries last year and in Encarnacion he can kind of play all over the place. I should add I think Reggie Sanders is over-rated and I've never been much of a fan at all of his. This will be the 1st time in his career that he isn't in an extreme pitchers park (LA, Florida, and Comerica used to be a big time pitchers park before they adjusted the fences and before that he played in old tigers stadium). I'm just saying I'd probably take him over Reggie Sanders. I think he's more likely to hold up for 3 years and be decent as opposed to Sanders who I think will stink and fall apart and not be healthy for a good chunk of the year.

QUOTE(JimH @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 07:40 AM) To me, all of those deals greatly favor the Cubs. What are the Orioles thinking, my goodness. Prior is a china doll and Corey Patterson is someone they're dying to dump. Rich Hill is a nice prospect, but they would be raping the Orioles here. I hope Angelos is not that stupid but I fear he is. The O's can't back in and give up Bedard. They do that and its not a bad deal at all for the Cubs. However go for Hill, Prior and Patterson for Tejada straight up. Now thats a deal thats fair enough, imo.

Encarnacion isn't near as bad as some of you say he is. He'll probably hit 15-20 Hr's, hit .270, and he can play all 3 outfield positions.

Happy Bday Willie. Hope its a good one

Happy Bday everyone

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Dec 23, 2005 -> 01:22 AM) Nope. Nice, isnt it? Yep. I don't know what the hell the draft class is talent wise, but regardless I'd think if the Bulls wanted to (and they'll have money) they could use that pick on a player they want or put it in a package for a pretty good player. I'm kind of excited about that. Hopefully the Bulls can muster into the playoffs though. They have really suffered from having one really bad quarter pretty much every game. Plus they seem to make a habit of blowing big leads. Its so frustrating. Blowing an 8 point lead tonight too.

Talk about over-reacting.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 07:54 PM) As it stands right now, #2 and #17 Of course we could get lucky as hell and cash in with the #1 pick in the lottery, but we will probably get f***ed with #7 or somethign. So the Knicks picks weren't top 3 protected?

Am I the only one that thinks the Mariners would be nuts to deal Reed for Arroyo. I'm not a big Arroyo fan and I realize pitching is king, but Jeremy Reed is a good defensive outfielder and will be a good hitter. Plus he's going to be cheap for quite a bit longer. Bavasi is all over the place. Of course, at the same time, pitching is king and when your in a pitchers park you better make sure you can play to your stadiums strenght (ie pitching). He got stupid and paid huge bucks for hitting (power hitting) and should have built his team on speed, defense, good average hitters, and pitching.

Fogg could turn into a solid reliever, but Viz is hands down a better reliever than Fogg. Despite what some people say about Viz, the guy had a total rubber arm and pitched very very good in the 2nd half of the season with the Sox. The harder he was worked the better he pitched. Fogg doesn't have that sort of resilient arm and I've yet to see him put up good numbers out of the pen. Plus Fogg isn't any more attractive than Sean Tracey or Baj, imo.

QUOTE(BlackBetsy @ Dec 22, 2005 -> 02:24 PM) Not true when it comes to labor issues. MLB has an "antitrust exemption" that allows it some amount of protection against antitrust lawsuit by competing leagues (e.g., the Federal League in 1915) and against claims by individual owners that the league is restraining trade by not allowing them to move their team into a new city. Not terribly long ago, the owners and players went to Congress after they had agreed that the antitrust exemption should be removed for labor issues. Thus, collusion among teams when it comes to player salaries is no longer OK. In the collusion proceeding relating to the 1986 and 1987 free agent markets (Fred Lynn and Carlton Fisk got a bunch of money out of this), I believe that the owners had agreed NOT to collude in the labor agreement that came out of the 1985 collective bargaining agreement (if you recall, baseball had a 2-day strike in 1985). Thus, when they did collude, it was thus subject of an arbitration over the terms of the contract. I believe the owners paid something like $270 million (maybe it was $170 million) as a result of losing that arbitration. You are correct. Quite a few players were still getting checks as recently as a few years ago from that incident. The owners really got hammered.