lostfan

It's not really a wild accusation, that's just how Iraqis (and arabs in general) do business.

Bobby: I can throw fast if I wanted to but I don't Soxtalk: NUH UH!

Frankly, I don't think this team gets better by dumping Mike Brown for the sake of doing it. It's one thing when we're talking about Adam Archuleta and it's addition by subtraction, it's another with Brown since he's still a well above-average player IMO especially when other players are fulfilling their roles correctly which right now they are not. His cost isn't going to be that high, esp. if he has a deal structured the way it is this year.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 03:22 PM) What was I thinking? You're forgiven.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 02:59 PM) True, but he's a huge liability in the passing game and is a big contributor to the struggles the Bears have had defending that this year. That's more a problem with the secondary as a whole and IMO it's pretty unfair to single out Brown, with Vasher basically being worthless this year, and Payne being ok, but not a world-beater in coverage. Peanut is Peanut, solid player, but not someone who can hold it down on his own. It's also made worse by the fact that the pass rush has been pathetic a lot, which is the Achilles heel of this defense. Brown's not exactly been Adam Archuleta or Roy Williams out there being a liability in coverage, but it was never his strength. His strengths are, in order, run support, pure textbook tackling (and f***ing monster hits), leadership and knowledge of X's and O's like a MLB, and knowing exactly where to be (been caught out of position a couple of times this year though).

I thought only Cubs fans were the ones who'd call another grown man Papi.

It's not like Mike Brown is a liability and just plain sucks out there. To be honest I kind of shudder thinking about us trying to stop a run game without him.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 02:43 PM) I really think it's time to part ways with Brown, and it's really time to start letting some of these grizzled vets go. Brown is not really a grizzled vet, he was drafted in 2000 and he's only about 30. It just seems like he's a lot older than he is b/c he's been injured so many times. He's around the same age as Urlacher, who has been looking like ass because Babich is misusing him badly in the scheme, and isn't anywhere near as old as everyone thinks. Actually, the Bears don't really have that many "grizzled vets" outside of the O-line, even then it's just Kreutz and Tait.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 02:16 PM) I'm confused...most of us seemed to be fairly happy when Kenny re-signed Jon after 05' to the 3 year/27 million...why would some of you now balk at $8 million per? I'd personally love to take him back at 3/$27 or so... Well, look at how he did in '05, and look at how he did in '08. Those are 2 extremes.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 01:38 PM) Have you ever been in a car while a friend, neighbor, relative, or cab driver were driving? You're telling me you'd like all of those people to drive at the same speed as you in snowy conditions? I'm glad most of these drivers drive slower than molasses on days like this. Who knows how many more traffic fatalities we'd have if they didn't. The same speed as me? Yes, because I drive slower when it snows, but not ridiculously slow. Mind you, I'm not talking about snowstorms, I'm talking about a couple of inches over the course of a day, where the road is wet but not slippery.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 12:59 PM) I think Javy will do very well in the Internati... oops ... I mean the National League. YASNY, why must you degrade the IL by mistaking it with the NL?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 12:53 PM) Once the road gets slippery, or even if there is a little white snow on the ground, people freak the f*** out. They drive 5 MPH, they pull off the road in a snow storm. Its a case of just not being experienced. Yeah, it's hilarious to me. I just want to tell them via a loudspeaker "guys, all you have to do is drive a few mph slower, brake earlier, and turn a little slower, like you do when it rains, seriously IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL AND THE WORLD ISN'T ENDING"

If you are the Bears, do you approach Mike Brown with an incentive-laden deal that's based on games played? Mean Mike Brown can still play, maybe not like 2 years ago when he was in the convo as one of the best S's in the NFL, but I still love him.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 12:46 PM) Southern ohio is pretty mild, but literally as soon as an inch accumulated, everything shut down. We literally had ZERO plow trucks near school. If there's no plow trucks, there's nothing you can do, that's why they shut everything down in the South. I don't understand why they act like that for a light dusting though, the kind where you can still see the grass and don't even need to shovel.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 11:42 AM) Yeah, at school in Ohio if it snowed an inch school was called off. We even had heated sidewalks and they still shut it down. Haha, like it never snows in Ohio... man, I guess I treated the nonchalant way we handled snow in Chicago for granted.

Whenever it snows here in MD, which is a couple of times a year, they kill me. It doesn't snow here as much as it does in Chicago or NYC, but they act like they've never seen it before and start flipping out just like I was talking about in my last post, except here there is no excuse because it isn't the south. They get a snow FORECAST and they close school for the day, wtf? And the afternoon or night before, the lines at grocery stores get long. roffles. The snow slowdown takes all of half a day, they act like it lasts a week.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 19, 2008 -> 10:26 AM) Unless you are a teacher or go to school, snow days dont exist. Or if you live south of the Mason-Dixon, they flip the f*** out down there b/c they just don't know what to do.

QUOTE (TheBlackSox8 @ Dec 18, 2008 -> 09:56 PM) i own 2 blu-ray movies and i've had my ps3 for 2 years. I don't have a huge hd tv. i think that's why i don't own more movies at the moment. I have an HDTV but I'm holding off on buying a PS3 until I get another one that's 1080p. Which might be sometime this summer.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 18, 2008 -> 08:25 PM) Why was Javy Vazquez's $11.5 million a year to be a 4/5 starter, "reasonable", and paying Garland to do the same thing, except win a couple more games and strikeout a bunch less, insane? I'm not a big fan of Garland, but I'd rather have him than Javy. And you can probably pay him less money. I don't recall anyone saying anything like that. Or if someone did, that's a pretty gross misrepresentation of what they actually meant.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Dec 18, 2008 -> 07:48 PM) Well exactly. He's always had those 4 pitches, so how does lowering the velocity of your most dominating pitch helpful if you're not even going to put more movement on the ball? It's a whole lot harder catching up to a 100mph you know is coming than a 94mph fastball that you know is coming. Consistently throwing off a hitter's timing and balance > wildly blowing a pitch by a guy. If you have the ability to do it anyway, not everyone does.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Dec 18, 2008 -> 07:26 PM) I don't buy it. Only if all he threw was a fastball at 100mph would I. He has a hammer as well. How does lowering your velocity help you? I mean, I know it allows for a bit easier control, but at the same time, his reasoning does not fall in line with it. Because he still throws that fastball just as much, and he really hasn't developed any new pitches. 100mph which sometimes doesn't hit k zone & hammer >>> 94mph fastball which hits k zone more, but also gets more contact & hammer. Also, despite ERA, Jenks really made a lot of those innings very interesting. Always allowed a hit here or a walk there. He has gone from a strikeout pitcher to someone who depends on his defense a ton. You kind of contradict yourself here, are we talking about the same Bobby Jenks? Bobby has always had 4 pitches, there's no need for him to develop any new ones. He still has a fastball, but he isn't one-dimensional.

We were kinda joking around at work a few minutes ago, I was talking to the senior analyst about baseballs hitting you and how it hurts - she brought up softball, I said "softball's easy though." So she replies "well, the balls are bigger, and they come faster..." I dunno why she said they come faster, but there was an awkward silence while the branch chief stopped to avoid spitting his Sprite out, and I'm like uhh... say that again in your head and tell me how it sounds...

I see no reason not to welcome him back if the money was right. I'd say market value is around 10 mil per season for a pitcher like him. He'd be an excellent 4th starter.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 18, 2008 -> 03:37 PM) what does "any one can time 100 mph if they see it enough" mean? In the major leagues, pretty much anyone can hit a fastball, even if it's 100 mph. So if all you have is a fastball, you'll get your fair share of guys to strike out, but you'll also get hit, and hit hard, and it won't take long for you to get figured out.

I'm sure it's bulls***, but it's still funny.