whitesoxfan101

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:45 PM) Maybe it wasn't a good counter, but it has as much merit as all of you the last couple pages. You guys sound like a bunch of whiny old men. My main concern is that Paxson and VDN might be back next year. If they are both gone, I'll be happy.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:50 PM) It does not matter WHO the spend the money on. They spend money. I was all for the Tommie Harris signing at the time and I know I was not in the minority. They gave Urlacher a little money to shut his mouth. It was either that,trade him or take a chance it would not carry into the season. Sure they were wrong in a couple areas, you can't always bat 1.000. Even New England could have been pretty close to giving Cassell all that money and try to trade him when it is too late. Mistakes happen. It does not mean they don't spend money. What was Urlacher going to do if they didn't give him a little money to shut up? Nothing, because there is no market for an aging linebacker on the downside of his career with a bad neck. And I think most people were against the Tommie Harris deal at the time because of his injury concerns.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:47 PM) The Bears try to keep their team together. It doesn't seem like they spend because there's never too many new guys. It's because guys like Harris, Vasher, Tillman, Clark, Hester, and Urlacher are getting extensions. That is probably where I had the confusion. But most of those extensions were really bad decisions in my opinion, which brings up a seperate but still important problem.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:45 PM) The offense isn't really in that horrible of shape, get a league-average O-line and something resembling a serviceable WR corps to help Orton out and it could be "ok." It has Matt Forte, Greg Olsen, Desmond Clark, the other TE whose name I forget but I like, and if there is a bona fide WR to play alongside him, Devin Hester. He seems to be putting a lot of eggs in Chris Williams's basket though. Which, if his back is actually fine, could be fine, but he's pulling another Kenny Williams doing this. They have the worst WR corps in the NFL, a below average QB in Kyle Orton, and a poor offensive line that lacks depth. Other than Forte, Olsen, and Clark, the offense is one giant hole in my opinion. Even Olin has lost it quite a bit at center the last couple of years, and he was one of the league's best for a while.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:45 PM) Their use of their entire cap every year since then argues against you. If it's a recent trend, it's a this-year trend. Frankly though I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were cutting back salary this year if they think their ticket base is weakening. If that's the case, then the idiotic contract extensions I've mentioned were more expensive than I realized, something I'm willing to admit I was possibly off on.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:40 PM) 1. Have you looked at the Bears payrolls through the years? Do you know as a fact that they are always toward the bottom? 2. Every team in the NFL has ammo. The NFL draft is just around the corner. Do you really think it is a coincidence the Broncos are putting him on the block right before the draft? If you are going to crap in this thread with your negativity, at least throw some facts our way. I choose to be cautiously optimistic for the following reasons.... 1. Jerry Angelo's quotes about Orton and the QB situation not long after the season ended. 2. The lack of big spending as of yet. You have to admit, the Bears have made plenty of moves since 2004 (fa signings or trade). The money is there and will be spent in some form . There is almost 10 mil left after the rookie cap is spent. 3. All these little side signings. The shaffer signing for example, makes our 1st round draft pick a little more expendable. (don't mistake that with expendable). The Bears unwillingness to spend money is definitely a RECENT trend, I am not saying they are a cheap franchise, I am just saying they have been lately (basically since after the Super Bowl ended). The only real things they've done since then is give out one expensive and in my opinion wise contract in Lance Briggs, and some absolutely idiotic contract extensions (Tommie Harris and Brian Urlacher come to mind).

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:39 PM) Limas Sweed, Rashard Mendenhall (never been sold on him, maybe I'll be proven wrong but color me unimpressed before the injury) My issue with Angelo isn't his drafting as much as it is his general inability to identify offensive talent (with very few exceptions). He's known for his ability to identify defensive talent, but the defense is getting old now, had a dropoff last year, and to me is going to have an even bigger dropoff this year due to age, injury, and injury problems, unless they have a BIG draft.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:28 PM) I'm not an Angelo apologist and I won't make excuses for him because he appears to be completely clueless about how to put together an O-line, but it's not like the guy had a complete track record of cluelessness. He's put together a decent resume. Sure, there's holes in it, but he has accomplished some things since he's been here. That is true, but you are right that his resume is full of holes. The only team under his leadership to win any games in the postseason was the Super Bowl team, which was fortunate to survive an OT home game against a mediocre Seattle team, then to draw a soft dome team in New Orleans the next week. He has accomplished some things while here, but most guys are going to stumble onto some success if they hold a job long enough. And I know it's sketchy to call a team that went to the Super Bowl " a fluke", but I'm willing to use that word when you consider Jerry Angelo was the GM and Rex Grossman was the QB.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:29 PM) I dunno, draft picks carry a lot of weight in the NFL. edit: Also there really is no merit to saying Angelo won't spend money, because he does. Angelo doesn't control the purse strings as much as the people above him do in my opinion. In that sense, I blame Ted Phillips more for this free agency season than Angelo, so I guess I should say that to be fair. As for draft picks, you are right that they carry a lot of weight in the NFL. That's why I think Cutler will end up in Detroit.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 09:24 PM) Eh Kenny Williams does it too. I'm not his number 1 fan either, although at least he has a ring to prove that he has some semblance of a concept of how to do his job.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Mar 30, 2009 -> 04:35 PM) Bears met with Orlando Pace today... interesting. Haha that would be such a Bears move, sign the washed up guy years after he was great. Jerry Angelo sickens me.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 08:27 PM) maybe you should apply for the job Classic response of somebody who is out of counter arguments. I love when a person resorts to this though, it's no different than waving the white flag. And after watching again tonight, maybe it indeed is better for them to miss the playoffs and make sure VDN is gone. For that matter, I hope Paxson's sorry ass resigns too, they are both a joke. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 12:06 PM) Looking at the plus minus stats for the Bulls, Hinrich is +181, Gordon is +59, and Rose is -96. The only guy who has a lower number than Rose on the Bulls is Tyrus who comes in at a horrible -132. Plus/minus in basketball is simply a stupid stat (and this isn't the first time I've said that). And for the record, if Rose sees his plus/minus move to +200 next year, I'll still say it's a stupid stat because it is. As for Tyrus and Noah improving this year, it's because they have received more minutes, that's all. And somebody mentioned a coach can't control defense in the NBA, but he made my point for me. The Bulls played defense for Skiles...when they listened to him. Everybody knows towards the end of Skiles time, the team tuned him out and the first sign of that was they stopped guarding. The first sign of a team not listening to their coach is lack of effort on defense, outside of a team like Los Angeles who screws around and only guards when they have to because they are that good or the rare team like Phoenix who just doesn't want to guard because of their system.

This will never happen because: 1. It would cost the Bears money. 2. The Bears suck, and don't have the ammo to make such a trade even if they want to. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it. And Jerry Angelo SHOULD get blame when Cutler is dealt somewhere else, but not because he didn't try to deal for him. The blame he should get is because the roster he assembled is full of holes and didn't have enough ammo to make the deal happen. Although even if they did, it would be 50/50 if the ownership would loosen the purse strings enough to allow the deal to happen anyways. (Can you tell I'm pissed at the Bears?)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 11:58 AM) The big problem with Rose down the stretch is that he is terrible defensively. What ever he creates on the offensive end, he gets exploited for on the defensive end. I shutter to say this, but I would rather have Ben Gordon's defense on the floor right now versus Rose. Rose is definitely bad on defense, but EVERYBODY on this team is bad on defense, so that's no excuse to keep him out late in the game. This team simply does not try or care on defense, which to me is a serious indictment of the coach.

That's fantastic, I wish I could blow it up into a big poster and put in on my wall, seriously. Well done.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 11:50 AM) You are not accustomed to following a team where rookies come to die. Well any idiot could coach a rookie as good as Derrick Rose and see the kid put up good numbers, even Del Negro. Although Del Negro spent a long period of time not wanting to see those results in the 4th quarter, and not shockingly, the team was pretty damn bad even by their standards during that stretch of time.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Mar 31, 2009 -> 11:29 AM) Rather than agree with your pre-season concerns, I am going to look at the net results. Playoffs + ROY= he stays. I couldn't disagree more. I haven't seen a single thing out of Derrick Rose all year that tells me "he's coached well", and if anything, I've see many cases where he was mysteriously not in the game in critical spots. And if the Bulls make the playoffs as a below .500 7th or 8th seed, that isn't any sort of proof that the coach has any idea what he's doing at all. If missing the playoffs means Del Negro is gone, I'd almost rather they miss them, but hopefully the front office is smart enough to realize Del Negro has no idea what he's doing, regardless of where the team ends up at the end of the regular season.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Mar 28, 2009 -> 03:27 PM) Tyrus had 18 pts 8rebs and 7blks today... a bunch of good performances today. Yeah, and although I had to get that little rant out about Ben's defense today, I think overall the Bulls played very good defense after the 1st quarter. It was unfortunate they had a big hole to dig out of, but the last 3 quarters were pretty much played very well by the Bulls. Brad Miller was FANTASTIC off the bench (17, 6, 3 dimes, 3 steals.)

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Mar 28, 2009 -> 02:47 PM) Ben Gordon has just been dominating today: 25 pts 11-17 Shooting 5 Reb 5 Ast -- 1 TO 3 Stls through 3 qtrs Gordon was great today on offense, but another guy who was dominating in this game was the guy Ben Gordon was "guarding", Brandon Rush. Rush, who averages 6.6 points per game, had 29 on 13-19 shooting and no turnovers in 39 minutes. Ben had a great offensive game (25 points, 5 boards, 5 dimes, 11-18 shooting), but his defense on Rush (who had I think 17 points in the 1st quarter, where Indiana outscored Chicago 35-21) was a big reason the Bulls had to climb out of a 14 point hole today. Now, with that all said, today was another big win for the Bulls, who seem to struggle with Indiana for some reason. Hopefully they had some legs left tomorrow and can get a win in Toronto.

QUOTE (T R U @ Mar 28, 2009 -> 04:36 AM) Ide pay to f*** that prostitute This post seems like it might have been under the influence between "Ide" and the time of it, but I have a hard time arguing. For a prostitute, she's not bad.

This seems closer to accurate than baseball prospectus IMO.

Meh none of this means a lot to me. He was part of a division winning team that had a memorable season, and we've got Alexei in his spot now and Getz at 2nd, with Beckham on the way to the majors, so it's not like we had to let him go and leave gigantic holes on our roster. This is just water under the bridge to me, and I wish OC the best.

QUOTE (gbuk @ Mar 28, 2009 -> 01:12 AM) I think anyone here that has been around sports realizes that situations like Gillispie's are very fluid and can change very quickly. I never pretended to have sources, although I realize how it looked that way. The situation changed quickly after one certain Gillispie quote and Lee Todd (the president) having more of a say than the AD. I don't need to apologize to anyone. I appreciate whitesoxfan101 trying to give me a lesson in message board posting, but it's quite clear that what I said was based off of what I had thought of the situation. I still think firing Gillispie is a major mistake, something I made clear in my post if it happened. But thankfully I had whitesoxfan to PM me to call me out. Never seen that. No problem bro, anytime. You almost never post here, so I wanted to make sure you at least came back after basically calling all of us idiots for suggesting he might get fired. Next time, maybe you won't pretend to know of what you speak when you don't.

Anybody who was here last year knows my feelings on Richard. I just hope I am very wrong about him.

I was flipping around the other day and happened to catch this/her story on Hardball. It's pretty amazing, and she should be very proud of herself.