Chisoxfn

My presumption is if we were contending, Lauri would be coming back much closer to his original time frame. These extra two weeks are more about "tank" and being extra conservative than anything else, imo.

Umm....kickers are going to miss field goals. Entering the game against the Lions, I didn't have any massive issue with Parkey. Was he great, no, was he bad, no. I'm certainly not going to blast a guy for missing a 53 yard field goal. Those are not gimme kicks, therefor, he is going to have misses. The Arizona game was a high percentage shot and the Jets game was ugly so not one you'd like miss, but I can certainly understand it given the conditions. The Lions game was plain old awful. I'm not even sure what happened or if he just is that uncomfortable with the conditions as it seemed like he thought he made every kick. And usually kickers have a pretty good idea when they hit it, what they've done, so something was amiss yesterday. My bigger fear is that at somepoint, these type of games can get in your head (at least for the season) and those memories can be tough to get rid of.

He'd be a pretty big upgrade, imo. That said, i recognize the loss of a pick and the fact that he had a very rough post-season.

I presume he'll end up staying with Sixers.

The Bears haven't been short on cap space at any point during Pace's tenure, so I don't think cutting Gould had any impact on who we signed (especially since it wasn't until the very end of the pre-season when they cut him).

I think Nagy is making the right play in supporting Parkey. The guy has talent but is obviously in a funk. I think part of it is, people always underestimate how hard it is to kick in soldier field. The concerning part is, it can be hard to overcome a funk, so while I think an off-season could help cure things, I don't know that the regular season will save him. And no, cutting Gould was never a good move...I debated many on here at the time, but that is the past. Yes, he lost a game or two for them late one season, but they were not gimme kicks and guys who have excelled like he had deserved the benefit of the doubt. You kick as long as Gould has and you are going to have the occasional off game. All that said, I don't know if Gould would have kicked as good as he has with the Bears...I think the release motivated him to put in additional work and make some corrections that might not have happened if he stayed in Chicago.

Huge game in prime time next Sunday. I’d say it is the most meaningful football game in Chicago since that game where Conte gave up the TD to the packers late that knocked them out of the playoffs. Hopefully it is just the first of many big games for the Bears under Nagy!!!

Nice all around win with exception of more special teams miscues. Was nice to see Miller and Robinson with big days on offense. Mitch played well...bad man I’d feel better if we could run the football. Defense played very well as well. One of the tds shouldn’t have happened since it was the drive should have ended in a fumble.

A lot of football left in this game (especially since Bears have blown 2 good size leads already this season). Hopefully they finish strong!

fantastic move for Sixers.

I'm going to make this clear. The only way Harper is coming to the Sox is if it is part of a bold strategy shift by the White Sox (and offering Bryce $350M+ is a starting point) where they have set out a goal to be a premier professional sports franchise. Beyond landing Bryce, I think it takes a significant and bold statement from ownership regarding how they are going to run the franchise from a financial perspective, meaning they will spare no expense and are committed to running a sizeable payroll for the forseeable future (i.e., $175M+). Bryce could absolutely be the catalyst for this change, but this could be that "momentum that matters" as an organization and it could be the opportunity to catapult the franchise into being something more than just the secondary franchise in Chicago (and in baseball in general). Note: I am not implying they will pass the Cubs in popularity, however, they could take bold action and massively shift the dynamics and be one of the best professional sports franchises.

To me this all depends on the years and money and the bigger plan.

Who are the main Manny suitors? Phillies (if they miss out on Harper)? Cardinals / Giants. It seems like people are going to first go after Harper and than may subsequently pivot to Machado. This is going to drag out and I don't know if the Sox can wait for everything to drag out. Will be interesting to see how teams operate, do you wait for the big fish and potentially miss out or does the entire market literally drag until the two big guys sign. You know Boras isn't going to have Harper sign until at least the winter meetings.

I came to a quick knee-jerk reaction on Parker, but I can see why the Bulls thought he was worth taking a chance on. He has fantastic scoring ability and you can see he is also a solid playmaker. That said, his fit is tough since he really can't play the 3 and I don't think Lauri can either. Carter JR. has really been coming on strong lately though. Very nice to see and Hutchinson has the length and athleticism to project into a high-end defender (he could also very much suck...but his body type reminds me a lot of Paul George).

I was going to say, my presumption was everyone would still be in Carlsbad.

If they went Corbin, Donaldson, Cruz and two other guys, would that be that bad of a move, presuming you went short-term on almost everyone. I don't like long-term deals to pitchers so it wouldn't be my path, but I don't really mind signing a bunch of guys to shorter-term deals and not tying up all your cap space. How did it work for the Rangers when they signed Arod to all that money? The only reason I can somewhat get on board is the team has literally so few payroll committments, but if either guy blows up and isn't productive...that is a huge albatross of a contract.

I still don't think the Sox are getting either one of these guys.

I think they need to run it out...not sprint it out. But on close hit balls, they should be going harder. Basically, I'm not going to rip a guy for not being Adam Eaton on the basepaths. That said, I don't want them to not run at all. There is a healthy middle between those two.

I think their is a difference between running out a ball and sprinting out a ball.

Machado's hustle reminds me of "Garret Anderson" a former Angel player who would go at 90% vs. 110% and ultimately he had a very long career which was largely injury free. Dodger fans are big over-reactors and I think this got a lot of extensive press time, but the reality is Machado is a truly great player who has been on the field the vast majority of his career. The flip-side is Harper, who is an ultra talented player with lots of pizazz who will play his tail out, but has had extended stretches where he misses time (and I think there are times he lets his emotions get the best of him in the sense that he lets those emotions impact his swing/play. The only thing the two players really have in common is they are both extremely good baseball players, but how they go about it, etc is very much different.

It is free agency, if you are going for Machado and Harper, you are fundamentally going to overpay and need to be okay with that. An alternative view is to shell out big money but over shorter-term deals for guys who languish a bit longer on the FA market. You know some won't pan out but you hit on a few and than in another year or two you dabble in the deep-end.

I can buy that. I don't like the idea of spending big money on FA pitchers. Just think you have a bigger chance of "bust" vs. hitters. No idea if the stats back that up or not.

There is no bigotry in there. I don't agree with the comment, but I don't see it as bigotry. Lets make sure we all stay on topic here. It is purely a view that the more populous regions should have far more say than everywhere else. Its a view I fundamentally disagree with because what is important to an urban dweller can be much different than what is politically important to people who don't live in Chicago, New York or Dallas. The beauty of our system is it does provide some pretty good healthy checks on the entire nation (not just a pocket or two of the nation).

The flipside to that is you essentially give all of the control to a minority of states, which I don't think is a good thing either. The views of California, New York, Florida and Texas shouldn't be forced on the other 46 states.

I don’t know if he’s going to stay healthy or not but he has good peripherals. His stats last year were quiet strong...albeit I don’t know much about him.