Chisoxfn

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 8, 2014 -> 10:46 AM) Considering we are getting negative plays with bad returns, how much worse could we be? I would be a better return man. When it comes to our returns (I actually have no issue with Holmes on punts), we just need to take a knee and start at the 20. Holmes has been ok when he's had blocking and he's had a few good returns, most of which have came back because of penalties. Holliday is a guy that could create some really negative plays so I am leery there as we already have an issue with that to begin with.

Donny baseball will be fired.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 01:44 PM) There was a stat Sunday that showed Bears are last in the league in play attempts greater than 20 yards or something along those lines. This is also about the time of year where Jay gets hurt and misses a few games. I also don't think that stat is on Jay. That is the exact opposite of his DNA / Nature. I realize some was probably due to some injuries. I think a big problem has been the lack of time Jay had to work with the majority of our secondary wideouts. He's thrown 2 picks in the direction of Holmes, who he doesn't appear to have a good rapport with yet (understandably) and Morgan was in / out and that was one of the picks (GB game) and to be frank a lot of coaches will tell you when it comes to a slant, it is the wideouts job to win the coverage, etc, and I had heard a commentary saying that pick was more on the wideout then Jay and Trestman / Jay have both talked about how it was the right read, blah blah blah and the DB made a great play. Either way, its pretty apparent that Jay had a whole offseason where he spent the bulk of the time with Wilson (IR - Temp), Alshon, B, and MartyB and the rest of our wide outs are kind of running around and our big negative plays that have led to picks have been focused in the area of those two (with exception of the 2 picks that were poor routes on B/MartyB and the pick this week that was forced to B).

Bout time. I say if they think the guy can hit and play then who cares what hand he uses.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 01:33 PM) He would have been great for Forte, I don't think Marshall and Alshon would like Alex at all. I don't know why, most everything we've ran for them the past few weeks has been relatively short. He's good at getting ball out quickly, mobile with his feet, and pretty smart, etc. I'm not saying we should trade Jay, not at all, just saying that in another planet, had Jay not been with Bears when we hired Trestman, Smith really is an excellent fit to be a QB in a west coast offense. PS: You haven't exactly seen us throw the ball down field a lot, which is relatively typical of a true west coast offense. That said, we did it a lot last year and I still don't understand why we aren't doing it this year.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 11:15 AM) I like Morse. I just think the Sox are not going to plug up the LF spot with a guy who can't field and hits right-handed. Now if the Sox could satisfy the left-handed need in LF and then bring in Morse to DH I would be more inclined the buy into it. Ding ding ding. That isn't a bad move. It should be noted that when the Giants gave Morse the money he did, the contract was viewed as being one of the worst in all of baseball from a pure WAR perspective (based upon his more recent WAR's).

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) Jermaine Dye signed with the White Sox for his age 31 season. He is also only one year older than Torii Hunter. If anything, signing Torii Hunter at this point is comparable to bringing in Harold Baines at the end of his career except that Harold Baines was a better hitter. Guys at Hunter's age typically fall off very quickly. He should not be an option for the White Sox at this point. At the end of the day, I'm just glad the Rick Hahn is the GM. Michael Morse's season numbers couldn't have been any closer to his career averages. 2014: .279/.336/.475/ .355 wOBA Career: .281/.335/.473 .351 wOBA His wRC+ was actually significantly higher this year (133 vs 122 career) partly because of the park he played in. Frankly, it was a really good year for Morse and he simply got hurt down the stretch. He is a bad defender though. Which is why we need to stop talking all a bout this mighty wRC and factor in defense. A metric the Sox absolutely suck in. Now in your defense you are presumably talking about Morse as an option for DH, which is fine, but he isn't left handed and well quite frankly, he sucks defensively. When it comes to position players we need to be finding some guys who can catch the ball and hit (at least one of them) and then we can focus on potential platoon options at DH but it would be nice if they were capable positional players as well.

You know who I like and think is underrated, Alex Smith. He'd have been the type of guy that would have been a nice fit in Trestman's offense. I'm not writing off Jay yet but Bears obviously need to hit on the talent devlopment part. That is somewhere we have sucked and have started to see some offensive talent development and now need to see it on the defensive side. I really like Fuller and our young DT's. They all look like players.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 01:02 PM) Yeah, that guy is incredible. If I'm building a franchise, I'm still building it around Rodgers. Rodgers has had to literally put an entire team on his back and win. Wilson has a beast of a rb and an exceptional defense that allows him to do a lot of things. Rodgers might have some wideouts but his line has generally been bad and he's pretty much had no running game most of his time in GB. He also has had, outside of a couple years, a horrendous defense. PS: I like Wilson a lot but he's not at the same level as Rodgers / Luck. Both of those guys are running my franchise before Wilson, although Wilson is pretty high on my list of guys I'd take for QB if I were to build a franchise.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 12:13 PM) The curl route was covered the fly was wide open. If jay recognized this as marshall did it would have been a touchdown. Had Marshall stopped and ball thrown back to him, I don't think that play was covered.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 12:08 PM) How is it that other QBs are sometimes able to go hundreds of pass attempts without an INT when they have to deal with such things? Not many do. And for those that do, you will typically find that you are talking about a top 3 QB. Yes, QB's from time to time have various streaks but the guys that throw minimal picks are either top 3 or so in the league at the time and typically in similar systems with good protection, etc. Or in rare exceptions they are a game manager and have fewer attempts or some other variable.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 10:23 AM) I Love That Jay Cutler Doesn’t Care That I Love Him He sums up most of my feelings.

Jay is on pace for 28.8 turnovers over 16 games. Which would put him near the high point of his career. A lot of that is driven by the fumbles lost increasing his rate.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 7, 2014 -> 07:19 AM) Honestly, he's not bad enough to justify it, and this team needs to continue to get cheaper talent through the draft. We have Cutler for 3 more years, it's done. They need to continue to invest in the defense and probably need to find a way to get a speed wide-out in one of the rounds and obviously don't ignore oline so you have youth to step in, especially since I have massive faith in Kromer / Trestman in regards to oline. Defense, specifically LB / Safety / Corner are huge areas of need. We also can't ignore the fact that if we thought there was an impact DE available, we'd have to look at him.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 02:27 PM) We agree here...I was never a fan of the squared off feeling of the 4/5 series iPhones...I mean, they weren't bad, and in that smaller form factor that squared off design worked quite well, but the squared off edges on phones this big would just be terrible. The 6 is a stark departure from the 4 and 5 series iPhones, back to the rounded shape I always felt was more comfortable to hold. I'm confused...I'm looking at my 4S and the corners are rounded. What do you mean by squared off?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 01:51 PM) The NBA has completed its extended deals with Disney/ABC/ESPN and TBS. Total comes to ~$2.6 billion/year, compared to $900 million a year currently. Would think that would set the stage for some pretty hostile labor negotiations. Would certainly think that the cap would see significant increases.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 01:14 PM) LOL. I quit.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 01:07 PM) One of these things is not like the other. Dunn's contract was nowhere near as bad as ARod or Fielder's. You are talking about 9 and 10 year contracts versus a 4 year contract. Think about that for a second. Anyways, plenty of these contracts are just fine. It's just not advisable to give 6+ years to guys who are older than 30. And, frankly, you have to assume players will have down years every now and then. How did you feel about Buehrle's 4 year, $56 million deal that he signed with the Sox in 2007? That's the same exact amount as Adam Dunn's. How about Paul Konerko signing a 5 years, $60 million deal after 2005? How about Jose Abreu signing a 6 year, $68 million deal? Do you feel any of those are bad contracts? Yanks aren't even paying Arod right now (or at least I don't think they are). Yanks won a world series with him. He had a 40.8 WAR over 10 seasons, which was just over 4 per year and includes 2013 which was shortened significantly due to injuries, etc. Adam Dunn, -1.5 WAR. Arod made 297.4M from Yankees over that tenure and that worked to 7.2M per win above replacement. Dunn on the other hand, equated to 37.3M per NEGATIVE win above replacement. Dunn was a far worse contract then the Arod one. It isn't even close. Dunn was truly pathetic. I'm curious to see what the bottom WAR was for qualified players over the span Dunn was with White Sox. I'd imagine it is bottom 10 in all of baseball.

I think these iphones are the least comfortable in the hand. I don't know if it is the aluminum backing or what, but they don't feel right.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 01:00 PM) All bears talk aside, it has been a really weird year across the board. A lot of teams expected to be good, not(Patriots). A lot of teams expected to be bad, actually looking decent(Atlanta). Nobody undefeated anymore. Just strange I think your example of Falcons isn't necessarily a good one. I don't know anyone who thought they would be bad. Injuries bit them a ton a year ago and were the reason they went from very good to very bad. I do agree with the parody (yes..since you called me out, I decided I'd take the time to spell it vs. just type as fast as I can) though. Saints were supposed to be great and they look lousy. Then again, its funny. Eagles have a very good record but if you watch them play, often times they look pretty poor too. I think a lot of the successes in the league have to do with a few plays going with / against you + the ease of your schedule. Bears schedule is just absurd. I still don't get how a team has to play that many early season road games.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 10:53 AM) Agree with a lot of this. My biggest issue is they have no desire to crush teams. Keep going for touchdowns. Knock them out before the end of the half. Too many conservative play calls. And I think that's partly Trestman simply not trusting Jay. I think that's why we're seeing a lot of screens. They're good at them, for one, but Jay can't f*** it up either. Bennett makes that catch late in 1st half and we might have another TD. Don't know for certain and we could have still ended up having to kick a FG and gotten that or missed. But more time comes off the clock and Panthers would get worse position. That was a huge change in momentum and helped get the Panthers back into the game and feeling good at half. They come out with a great drive and really turn momentum and we had some poor penalties and some real ineffective rushing in 2nd half. Jay was pretty limited in 2nd half. They didn't seem to let him do much at all and his one pick, I still think might have been a penalty but at least it wasn't a boneheaded throw. It sailed on him which will happen to any QB in the league. In general, he's been much better then years past, but offense continues to not do the little things and they have lost a few games on the details and it is unacceptable.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 10:48 AM) That's true, a little. But even then, you make some moronic mistakes and you're 10 yards further back than you should be. It's not like they gave up 1-2 return touchdowns. A longer field doesn't help, but it's not as much of a factor as a moronic QB throwing moronic throws. Or the offensive line choking on the biggest drive of the game. 1 return td and then we had a stupid penalty that negated a long return and pinned us back inside the 10. Oh and a missed field goals. It was still an F on special teams.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) That will only prevent people that are full on incubated...you can carry the flu for days without showing a single sign, same goes for Ebola. Having a fever at that moment, or sniffling/sneezing may mean you have the flu, but you can exhibit zero symptoms for days leading to it taking hold, despite being infected. And for the record, I'm not advocating banning flights to/from anywhere, whatever the CDC says we should do, we should do as far as I'm concerned. I didn't say that worked I just said its been done. I am not a doctor. I thought I had heard that Ebola isn't contagious or maybe it is difficult to pass on until you have the symptons, etc. Not sure if that is the case or not but if it was, then screening, especially those parts and people coming in from those parts would make absolute sense. And at a minimum, at least you are cutting percentages down significantly.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 6, 2014 -> 05:08 AM) Even as it happened, the consensus seemed to be that he pulled a Yost, should have left him in. That being said, Storen has been outstanding. The odds of him giving up two hits before getting an out were pretty slim Except in the posteason. Small sample size but that is two huge blown saves Storen now has in a limited postseason career.

Dodgers / Cards game was a lot of fun on Sat. Grienke continues to be the Dodgers postseason ace. Also had 2 hits and was running all over the basepaths. Glad Kemp hit the HR to bail him out. That series is going 5.