Tony

How is Foles not mentioned in this post?

I honestly feel bad for the hosts in this town that will have to take calls on Dalton vs. Foles and who should start Week 6....barf

But let's say they do think that. Let's say they are fucking crazy and think this is a roster that can compete. Is Andy Dalton the guy that makes them that much better? How much better is he then Foles? Because I'll be SHOCKED if they come out and say "Andy is our starter from Day 1." You know there is going to be a competition. And if that's the case, that tells me they don't think Dalton is that much better than Foles. WHAT ARE WE DOING GUYS?

This new info just backs up my point. Fine...you can't get Russ. Watson is going to cost too much.......Why are you spending money to bring in Andy Dalton? You have Foles on the roster and if you aren't drafting a QB in the early rounds of the draft I don't know what the hell you're doing anyway......what's the point?

Again.....then blow it up now. The entire point is this move doesn't accomplish anything. The Bears are at a fork in the road. One path has them blowing it up, bottoming out, getting bad contracts/money to expire, finding the right QB at the top of the draft. The other fork has them going all in on Wilson/Watson, just getting crazy and trying to patch together a winner with Mack/Hicks/Smith/ARob still in their primes. Acquiring Andy Dalton is them standing at the fork, looking at both options and just not moving.

YOU HAVE THAT GUY ON THE ROSTER ALREADY.

Fine....then give Seattle 7 first round picks and go get Russ. If you need to win now, I can buy that. Andy Dalton is Nick Foles with red hair. You spent draft capital and a bunch of money to sign Foles last year....when Dalton was available. So he wasn't right then, bur this year he's the right fit to go along with Nick Foles? I just don't understand where they think they are going with this move. Where does it take them?

Fine, do it now. What are you doing with Andy Dalton when you already have Foles in the room? And I'm sorry, but with the way the media works today, the Bears did NOTHING to calm the Russell Wilson rumors. I don't want to hear "Well that's the fans fault for getting excited, the Bears probably never were even close." If that's the case, then you dump cold water on those reports to the "Insiders" that were reporting it. But they let it reach critical levels. Now the fan base has to accept Nick Foles and Andy Dalton in 2021. Where is this franchise going? What does this move accomplish? What is the plan here?

Unreal. Just an absolute HORSESHIT franchise.

You're really bad at this.

I mean the Bears have pretty much painted themselves into a corner, no? You just restructured the Mack contract and I think I saw on PFF tonight that it indicates there is no way you can trade Mack now after doing that sort of deal. You franchised ARob. You re-worked other deals to give yourself more cap room....you can’t do all that and just bring back Foles. It doesn’t make sense.

His entry into the team and getting back in the dugout after all these years away was going to be one of the biggest hurdles. It’s only Spring, but the comments from the players are very encouraging and if they are “good” with Tony....I don’t a ton of us were really ever concerned with the X’s and O’s. Still a ways to go, but if this team does what it’s supposed to, and Katz comes even remotely close to the expectations that have been placed on him....this all could work pretty well.

Solid read https://theathletic.com/2448040/2021/03/14/tony-la-russa-wants-his-white-sox-to-determine-their-own-fate-it-is-about-the-players/

Anyone talking about Cease and Keuchle? Where are these guys?

Here is your answer. “But the rise of analytics also has resulted in another massive shift: an influx of white, male graduates of Ivy League schools and other prestigious universities into teams' front offices. In a data analysis conducted by ESPN, the percentage of Ivy League graduates holding an organization's top baseball operations decision-making position -- which, depending on the club, could be its president, vice president or general manager -- has risen from just 3% in 2001 to 43% today; while the percentage of graduates from U.S. News & World Report's list of the top 25 colleges -- both universities and liberal arts schools -- holding the same positions has risen from 24% to 67%. This rise coincides with a drop in former players running front offices over the same period, from 37% to 20%, while the percentage of minorities running front offices has risen, but from just 3% to 10%. Additionally, no woman holds the top baseball operations position for any of the 30 major league clubs.” https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29369890/inside-rise-mlb-ivy-league-culture-stunning-numbers-question-next Manfred is simply an extension of what has been happening across MLB over the last 15 years.

He’s absolutely exhausting to listen to. I have no idea how a Front Office put up with him for two decades + Man alive..

From a semantics standpoint you aren’t wrong, but I think the poster was probably talking about starts. Maybe PA’s are the better indicator, but the point sort of remains that Leury is a valuable piece when used right. But it should be in somewhere small doses...him starting at any position isn’t a good thing for this team.

A rational human would say May. A lot of Soxtalk would say tomorrow.

Well that was very enjoyable.

I think Jed has worked with Theo long enough, and is a smart enough guy not to need him around for another year. They've been together for going on two decades.

I think similar to the Bears in 85.......the Cubs overall are disappointed the rebuild only netted them 1 World Series, but I still believe when you look at what they accomplished from 2015-2020, they had a very successful window. They captured a World Series, and went to three League Championship series. That's a very good team. Would they have liked for it to be longer? At least another World Series appearance in there? For sure. And Theo made some bad trades. Eloy and Cease for Q being on top of the list. Heyward and Chatwood were pretty awful signings. Schwarber didn't develop like they thought. And the biggest issue is they can't develop starting pitching. Like, they are really really awful at it. So you add those things up..that's how a window closes.

The goal is obviously to win consistently and while you're winning draft well and keep the train moving with waves and waves of prospects......it just doesn't seem that easy for teams and most organizations can't walk and chew gum at the same time. When you're winning, it seems like most of the time the farm system of those teams suck.....either because of low draft position or trading of prospects for "win now" players. So I do think this will be the trend for the foreseeable future. I think the only thing that changes the formula is if the CBA really gets changed next time around.

I know this is stupid and I’m on the minority here... but I really think Pace would rather not go down the Watson road as the QB that replaces Mitch. He’ll be giving up a ton of capital to replace a failed No. 1 pick when he could have just drafted Watson. Yes, the Bears will get their QB 1 but you know that narrative is going to be out there. With Russ...that doesn’t exist. On top of it, you have a superstar QB that seemingly wants to come to Chicago. I don’t know, I think the Bears get crazy and do it.

I kind of feel like the Bears are going to end up with Russ. Don’t know why, feel like they are going to pull it off.