lostfan

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Mar 23, 2009 -> 09:45 AM) cowley said right now on monsters in the morning that he likes wise over owens bcuz that when it was crunch time and the games really matterd, he stepped up. really? i dont recall seeing that in sept and the last week lol I recall one HR in that playoff game off the top of my head... in September he was brutal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 23, 2009 -> 07:41 AM) Its also our right to call Magglio whatever the hell we want to call him. If you don't like it, tough, this is a free country. Well, yeah, of course we can (short of slander). But if Magglio wants to support Chavez's socialism and live here that's his prerogative. We can disapprove of it, we can call him out in public, we can boo him etc. and he has to deal with the consequences, but he's entitled to his views in this country just like anywhere else.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Mar 22, 2009 -> 11:20 PM) How many times was I actually wrong though? Also, I'm talking about just baseball, not my views on politics which usually I get flamed for by everyone. I remember once when you got carried away and said you were in support of the United States doing summary executions and didn't realize that's what you said. Hilarity.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 22, 2009 -> 10:31 PM) He was pretty damn good his final season in Green Bay. Yeah 2007 kind of came out of nowhere. He was hot garbage in '05 and '06 though (especially in '05). Obviously I'm a Bears fan, but objectively, I fully supported the Pack's front office shoving him out the door when he tried to push his way back in unannounced. Hindsight only proved them right.

I think it's mostly just to get him to see more ABs.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Mar 22, 2009 -> 02:11 PM) Right, but I think the difference is that Flowers projects to be a (maybe) good hitter for the catching spot, whereas Beckham many believe will be a top flight hitter regardless of position. That's kind of contradictory - a premium bat at C or SS is like finding the holy grail. There's a big difference between Beckham being a serviceable SS and putting up quality production and Beckham just being a decent LF. The only one that wouldn't be a significant step down would be 2B. response to your edit: if his ceiling is being a solid defender at SS and being an .850-.900 OPS type player, that's one of the most sought after players in baseball.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 22, 2009 -> 02:08 PM) Nice work Steve Trying to give Jason's penis thread a run for the 2009 Thread of the Year I see? The competition is only nominal, that thread is a shoo-in.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Mar 22, 2009 -> 01:46 PM) If he can hit, he can hit, you shouldn't care what position he is at. If Ramirez and Getz gel as a SS and 2B combo, it would be stupid to change it up. True, but I'd much, much, much rather have that kind of bat at a MIF position than in the OF... players like that don't come along very often. Why would you say that guys like Chase Utley, Hanley Ramirez, Brian Roberts etc. are so highly rated? It wouldn't be that way if they were outfielders, they'd be solid players for sure but nothing like what they are now. edit: And yeah, if Getz ends up being an All-Star (like the expectations we have of Beckham right now - I like Getz but I really doubt this) then we're talking a totally different scenario - that is a really good problem to have actually.

When my brother was a kid he had a dream he was taking a crap and one of his ass cheeks fell off into the toilet. He was freaking out about it.

I have dreams where I'm struggling a lot, or in trouble, or about to die, but I never actually die. I wake up right before. One time I was on trial for murder (I wasn't guilty, but my lawyer was having a hard time convincing them that I wasn't the guy for whatever reason) and I woke up right before the verdict was read. I used to have the dreams where I was falling and right before I'd hit the ground I'd wake up and jump up startled, but I haven't had one of those in a few years. Don't normal people dream about getting laid and being rich? Can't I just have one of those every now and again?

QUOTE (almagest @ Mar 21, 2009 -> 10:52 PM) Did you watch the game? No, obviously, I occasionally watch ST games but I don't watch them like they're real games nor should I. It's spring training. I don't care that much and it's silly to overreact. edit: Anderson also has had trouble with accuracy sometimes.

QUOTE (qwerty @ Mar 21, 2009 -> 06:43 PM) His arm strength has been questioned for a while now, along with his accuracy. At the very best he has an average arm all around at this point in time. Accuracy, maybe. Arm strength, no.

QUOTE (almagest @ Mar 21, 2009 -> 05:58 PM) Quentin has a terrible arm. Um. what?

lol, I was pretty pissy in this thread earlier.

Consistency makes me happy.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 08:25 PM) I won't attack Obama, nor would I attack one of my Republican politicians because I would be a hypocrite if I did. As bad as it is , I've made a joke about the mentally disabled in the past. It's not right, but I think it's happened with many people in the past. I think I honestly make a reasonable effort not to make fun of the mentally disabled, for example I don't say "retard" or things like that and I tell kids I don't want to hear them using it around me, and at work there is a company that hires mentally handicapped people to clean up, and I'd probably be very offended if a co-worker didn't treat them with the same dignity and respect anyone else would get (nobody does this, fortunately). But I'm not perfect about it, I'll call someone out in a heartbeat if I think they're stupid (big difference between being mentally handicapped and just being plain stupid IMO), and I say "are you retarded" or "I think so and so is mildly retarded" even though I probably shouldn't.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 08:01 PM) I think in this case you can throw away party lines and just say, its was a dumb thing to say. Sure there will be people from each side looking to exaggerate or defend anything like this but at the end of the day there wasnt anything malicious about the comment. Its a dumb analogy a lot of people have made and a joke thats probably said behind a lot of closed doors. While I do think ANY president should know better than to slip and say it, there are more important things going on in the world. Hey now, I hardly ever make partisan rants like that, just let me have my one! My mini-rant isn't really directed at what people are saying about Obama, or partisanship in general (as I said in the first post, he deserves his criticism, but it'll blow over sooner rather than later), it's more about people who only see the First Amendment as it suits them. Let someone call them out for saying something insensitive that pissed people off (which 1A has absolutely nothing to do with by the way, if you say something dumb and there's consequences, it's your fault, that's not protected), then it's PC America gone crazy. But that doesn't apply if someone they don't like does the same thing. Flame away!

Now, I'm not about to defend Obama's "Special Olympics" comment (it was stupid and in poor taste, so he deserves the criticism he's getting right now)... but am I the only one who can't help but to think that if Obama was a Republican and generated a similar backlash, that the conservative talking heads would be whining about how there is only "politically correct" freedom of speech in America? They do the whole faux outrage thing whenever someone makes a racially insensitive remark or a gay joke that they're forced to apologize for later, I can't see why this would be any different.

Sigh. I'm not really in the mood right now to clarify what I meant by that and I especially don't have the free time to dig up quotes, all I'm going to say is that it wasn't supposed to be read in the extreme like that (the fact that someone could take that out of context also kind of proves the point I was trying to make). I also wasn't really talking about only Soxtalk.

QUOTE (Soxpranos @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 07:01 PM) isn't Lillibridge a plus defender? Spare me. I'm above this.

QUOTE (Soxpranos @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 06:55 PM) Everyone knows he a plus defender, Not true, hence why I said it. Also not true. This isn't what's argued, everyone knows this, and it's just a strawman. Furthermore, people that say he's the tallest midget or otherwise participate in the discussion (like I'm doing right now) but aren't really arguing about how good he is tend to get categorized as fanboys because they're not ripping on him or whatever. Therefore this goes around and around in pointless circles ever since 2006. You don't, and really nobody on the board has ever actually said this except to say that if conditions A, B, and/or C are met, then Anderson is ok to hit 9th. Whether or not he'll ever hit more than .230 is disputed, along with the reasons he hasn't. And that's ok. But virtually every time his name comes up this part of the conversation is passed over.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 06:34 PM) BA could murder my family and I would still give him his props as far as being a very gifted defender. I don't see how anybody can dispute that. I don't either. The fact that he's been pretty miserable with a bat in the major leagues (which nobody disputes) shouldn't have anything to do with his defensive ability.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 06:13 PM) I love the fact that there is never any in-between in regards to Brian Anderson. People either love him or hate him. You never see the "eh, he's OK" There's actually not even really that much love for him, just people that think he can be a decent player and are realistic about how much he's underachieving or say he's better than Owens/Wise. That "love" only exists in the minds of the people that are irrational about how much they hate him and won't entertain any other argument besides "omg he's so f***ing horrible" or mock the idea that he's a plus defender.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 05:39 PM) Thats a risk a good team must be willing to take. I'm not sure how Angelo would pay money in a trade (i'm assuming you mean give up picks). I would be hesitant to agree with you about running Cutler out of town. A) if he has been given a bunch of guaranteed money (as you say) hes not going to be run out of town B ) I think that Cutler would - if anything - give Angelo/Lovie more of a honeymoon period because their success/failure would be tied to Cutler. C) What makes you think Cutler will struggle badly? Why not sign a RT (Levi Jones, I guess), and a WR (Holt?), you already have Matt Forte and the offensive line wasn't pathetic last year. If Chris Williams is the player we thought when we drafted him... your offensive line would be pretty average. Forte, Olsen, Clark, Holt (or Harrison or Toomer etc...) Hester (ugh) thats not an offense that would struggle badly with Cutler at the helm. - by "payment" I meant what Angelo actually gave Denver (I'm not at all opposed to bringing Cutler here, but I don't want him if it means a retardedly one-sided package) - the ones who would run him out are the bipolar dumbass Bears fans who will lay the blame solely at Cutler's feet not recognizing the circumstances. I live and breathe Bears football but goddamn if they don't have a dumbass fanbase. - He would struggle because I was talking about as the offense is currently constructed and assuming that the previously mentioned one-sided trade would include a player like Olsen or Forte plus whatever else, and that Angelo is going to half-ass his rebuilding of the O-line, like he is doing now. He doesn't seem to put much value into the O-line and it annoys me to no end, in fact I was shocked when he actually did the right thing and drafted Chris Williams last year (back injury notwithstanding). Of course, if Angelo somehow completely changed his approach to that and added a legit WR everything I've said here is moot, minus the loss of key players.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Mar 20, 2009 -> 04:52 PM) A) almost all of them? maybe we're not looking at the same statistics. The only Qb's that got considerably worse on that list were Chandler (injured) Gannon (injured) Roethlisberger (pre-season motorcycle accident) Hasselbeck, and Grossman. B ) nobody will argue that a franchise QB will immediately make a team like the bears into a contender. OF COURSE the talent around him is going to determine that outcome. However, what that list tells you is that UNLESS you have a pro-bowl level QB your team is probably going to face a considerably more difficult time making the superbowl. YES you need a good overall team, but why not GET a franchise QB and then make the team better around him? we've been able to make decent overall teams (Def and Spec teams) but we HAVE NOT had an offense that can consistenly score! So yes... getting Jay Cutler wont make the offensive line magically better, or turn his receivers into pro bowlers... but he will solidify the one position that is PARAMOUNT to all others and fill a need this team hasn't been able to fill for 60 years! If we follow your line of reasoning... we will assemble a team that is finally good enough to support a franchise QB, but have no franchise QB. Then we will need to find a franchise QB... which this organization has already proven, it cannot do. So the rest of the team around the slightly above average to poor QB will have to carry us to the superbowl... which as indicated by that list... does not happen with any frequency. I like my plan better. If Angelo paid an inordinate amount of money in a trade and re-did Cutler's contract with a bunch of guaranteed money without quickly building an offense around him (admittedly, once you have the QB, that's the easy part), the only thing that will happen is Culter will struggle badly, be run out of town, and fans will once again be calling for Angelo's head.