SB Nation User Blog: KDoggers

Bears 2010 schedule released.

KDoggers — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:43:36 -0000

The Bears 2010 teams have been released, pending the "corresponding finishers." Using this year as a basis, it's not the worst you've ever seen, but it could be pretty tough, especially if some of those teams that are solid running teams keep running, and we keep not bothering to stop teams from doing what they feel.

Here's the link, and some thoughts below.

Home: Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, New England Patriots, New York Jets, NFC West corresponding finisher, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings

Away: Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, NFC South corresponding finisher, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings

Philadelphia again, eh? That's always fun...at least these recent ones we beat them. Washington is schizo--but they're one of those teams that might go hogwild with no cap. They could potentially buy themselves some upgrades.

The Patriots are the Patriots...they seem to contend. The Jets could be good, but that vaunted Ryan defense is going to need a few more playmakers, and Sanchez is going to have to get consistently stronger at making good judgements.

Our division is our division. We all know it.

The Dallas team, as it's currently comprised, seems like one of those teams that's just never going to be good enough. They have flashes, sometimes look great, and other times...wow. Just wow.

It's hard to say yet if Eli has truly regressed, or is just having a down period. Still, the Giants are a solid, if unspectacular team, and will probably maintain that level next year.

Buffalo...could be interesting? Depends if they land who they'd like to land to run things, but even then I'd imagine they need a year or two to get well-rounded. Miami can run, and run, and Henne manages that team pretty well. Bess is having a really great year for himself right now, and hopefully can continue it. (I like the guy.)

At this rate, like Biggs says in the article, you're likely looking at Seattle and the Panthers, though maybe the next 6 weeks can get really interesting.

So what say you, Bears Fans? Who's optimistic for next year, and where are the doomsayers? I command you---Discuss!

Is Bob Sanders the new Mike Brown?

KDoggers — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:29:22 -0000

Is Bob Sanders the new Mike Brown?

Great when's on the field, differencemaker, can't stay healthy to save his life....

A look at the Cardinals last 54

KDoggers — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:55:00 -0000

As I said, if there was enough response to this fanpost, I would go ahead and do a similar look at the last 54 games of the Cardinals.

I'm not going to sit here and lie and say that the Cardinals aren't a good team. They're pretty good, but they've blown some of the opportunities they've had to step on the throats of the Central this season, and I think they're going to regret that come the end of September.

That being said, let's go take a look...

The Central

Pirates 6 games (3 Home, 3 Away) 45-59 as of August 3rd
The Pirates are not good. I discussed this before. Interestingly, though, the Cardinals have lost 4 games to them so far this season. While the team that was playing in August and May is vastly different than the team playing now, I'm thinking the Pirates will be doing their damnedest to be spoilers later in the season, while simultaneously fighting for their big league roles next year.

I'm thinking a split across the series, 3 total wins for the Cardinals here.

Reds 6 games (3 Home, 3 Away) 45-59 as of August 3rd
The Reds are still that team we figured they'd be. Their manager refuses to understand the concept of not running your players into the ground, and so that's never going to work to their advantage.

Cardinals are .500 against the Reds right now, . having won the exact same number of home and away games. I fully expect this trend to continue, so another 3 total wins for the Cardinals here.

Astros 6 games (3 Home, 3 Away) 52-53 as of August 3rd
The Astros actually hold the season series right now, at 5-4. They tend to beat up on each other, and if the Astros can catch the backend of the rotation once, I think it could be pretty interesting, but again, I'm going to say roughly .500 ball here.

3 wins to the Cardinals.

Brewers 9 games (3 Home, 6 Away) 52-53 as of August 3rd
Here's another time where the Brewers actually own the series record right now, and still have the concept that maybe they're in this thing. (They aren't.) The majority of the games being at Miller Park, you would think, would be helpful, but they're actually not.

Anyways, Cards get 6 here. Brewers likely take 1 in St. Louis, 2 in Milwaukee. I'm not keen on the concept of rooting for the Brewers, but it shouldn't affect us too much in anyway. They don't have the pitching to keep up in a tight division race.

Cubs 3 games (3 Home) 55-48 as of August 3rd
The Cubs absolutely must take at least two of three. So by default, Cards get 1.

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The East

Mets 2 games (2 Away) 50-54 as of August 3rd
The Cardinals will want to come out strong here, but Santana is coming off a strong win against a hot Rockies team, and will want to try and prove something against a strong hitting Cardinals team.

Cardinals lose both, as Lohse won't be able to keep his stuff together in the second game.

Nationals 3 games (3 Away) 33-72 as of August 3rd
The Cardinals win 2 of these. I'm giving the Nationals a lot of credit, but even a blind dog finds water. Especially in their own home.

Braves 3 games (3 Home) 53-52 as of August 3rd
The Cardinals took 2 of 3 from Atlanta in Atlanta, but Atlanta is going to be in the thick of the East punching he's other in the face over and over and over.

Cardinals win 1 in St. Louis.

Marlins 3 games (3 Home) 55-50 as of August 3rd
The Marlins come in between the Braves and the Cubs. The Marlins will catch one off of them as the Cardinals bounce back from losing to Atlanta, but they'll be looking forward to us.

Cardinals win 2

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The West

Padres 7 games (3 Home, 4 Away) 43-63 as of August 3rd
Oh, the Padres aren't any good, but the Cardinals won't be able to hit in Petco, and will be able to in St. Louis

Cards get 4 games.

Dodgers 3 games (3 Away) 65-40 as of August 3rd
Dodgers are going to be trying to shake off their abysmal performance in St. Louis, and are really hardcore in LA. Expect a Dodgers sweep (which will help lock the West up for them)

Cards get none.

Rockies 3 games (3 Away) 58-47 as of August 3rd
Rockies take 2 of 3, as they're trying to grasp their Wild Card spot right at the end.

----

This is 26 wins for them. I realize that's slightly optimistic, so I'm willing to accept any number that's 2 to 3 wins smaller than the Cubs. Feel free to tell me how ignorant I am below.

(Oh, and BLou, we know the Cubs are going to win 83 max. So, thanks for that in advance. :P)

A look at the Cubs last 59

KDoggers — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:35:35 -0000

I know we've all been playing the "compare the Cubs and the Cards for the duration of the season" game, and it does generally look like it's one of the two teams. I've been thinking a lot about the teams and the series each team is playing, and wanted to get my thoughts into a generally cohesive format.

I'm going to take a quick look at each of the Cubs Matchups for the rest of the season, and roughly how I think they're going to go. If I get any sort of positive feedback or comments, I've got a similar list for the Cards matchups.

It's long, but it's a quick read (I'm not going to go too in-depth)

Division

The Cubs have 28 division games remaining.

Reds 6 games (3 Away, 3 Home) 45-59 as of August 3rd
The Reds have, after their hot start, proven to be the same Cincinnati team that we're used to seeing. Coming into this first series against the Cubs, the Reds are bringing a 6 game losing streak and a general lack of spirit. They still have some talent on their ball club, and may very well take a couple of games from this Cubs team, but the general likeliness is that we can fairly easily get 4 wins from this series.

Pirates 9 games (3 Away, 6 Home) 45-59 as of August 3rd
Little can be said about the now AAA Pirates that hasn't already been said, but their recent fire sale is largely the imprint of a management team trying to put their ideas and faces into the team. Perhaps in a few years, they can be contenders for something. But now, not so much. They've lost seven of their last ten, and the one bright spot for them is that they're winning games at home (28-20 as of writing), and they have a lot more home games left.

That being said, I see no reason the Cubs can't get at least 6, and more likely 7, games against this team. In fact, I'll be pretty damn disappointed if they don't.

Astros 3 games (3 Home) 52-53 as of August 3rd
The Astros are always unique. Every time we think they can't possibly be contending for something, they somehow do. Yet right now they're looking at losing seven of their last ten, and the injury/being plain bad bug seems to be biting a lot of their players right now. They don't have too tough of a schedule through the rest of the season, but they're looking at enough games against good teams (particularly 7 games against the Phils, and 6 against the Cards), that they're likely done for the season, only 4.5 games out.

With that, the Astros always seem to try to ruin my life, so we'll likely trip up in this series, and probably get one game.

Brewers 7 games (4 Home, 3 Away) 52-53 as of August 3rd
Brewers seem to have a similar idea to the Astros--play well for a while, then let your lack of depth kill you in the long run. They don't have the worst schedule in the world, but they are largely a .500 team playing .500 ball, and the distance already between them and the teams at the top of the Central will be too much to keep them going anywhere.

I figure at minimum 4 games from this matchup. Especially, the late September matchup should likely involve the Brewers taking a look at some guys for next year.

Cardinals 3 games (3 Away) 58-50 as of August 3rd
Well, it's always them, and they're the ones to get over. All signs point to this series being absolutely crucial to our success this season. It's either going to be the "stomp their throats" portion, where we can put them behind us and begin focusing on our postseason, or it's going to be treading water and maybe getting ahead (unfortunately, more likely.)

I had a whole breakdown of common opponents, schedules, records, etc, between these two teams, but I dont' have enough of a presence on the board, likely, to push this novel through, let alone another one.

Since the break, the Cards have gone 9-8, while the Cubs have gone 12-5. It's the little details like that, if we can keep them up, that are going to give us the edge.

I'm hesitant to call things must win, especially a month and a half out, but this series is. Pure and simple. We need 2 here.

---

The East

Phillies 3 games (3 Home) 59-47 as of August 3rd
The Phillies are good, and only got better at the end of last week. They're many people's favorite for the WS, and with good reason.

However, our last meeting with them our bats came alive in a 10-5 victory. The first game of that series, a Lilly that was obviously not himself (and went to the DL shortly thereafter pitched) Game 2 we lost in 13.

The Cubs can play the Phillies just as tough as anyone else can, as evidenced by that series. Being at Wrigley, we should have an advantage, even though the Phils are in that rare situation where they're barely over .500 at home, but rocking the away games.

We'll take 2 here.

Nationals 3 games (3 Home) 33-72 as of August 3rd
It's hard to sweep all 7 games of a series, but rarely do you get to play 7 games against a team like the Nationals. While it's not hard to imagine sweeping them at home, I'll say 2 games to be conservative.

Mets 6 games (3 Home, 3 Away) 50-54 as of August 3rd
The Mets are weird. Every time I think they've decided to be completely terrible, they play just well enough to keep themselves a stone's throw from first place. However, they're not good, and they're too spotty. I think we can get 4 games here.

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The West

Rockies 4 games (4 away) 58-47 as of August 3rd
I do not look forward to our west coast trips. I can't help but feel terrible things happening out there. The Rockies are playing solid baseball, and hopefully Philly can cool them off a bit before we get out there. With the way our bats have been swinging lately (namely, going over the plate and making contact with the ball occasionally), perhaps we can get something going.

As a sidenote, I can't help but really, really, really want to see Fox on the field as much as possible in the launching pad known as Colorado

2 games here, definitely, though 3 isn't out of the question.

Padres 3 games (3 away) 43-63 as of August 3rd
Go sweep them. They're bad, and they're not getting better any time soon.

3 games.

Dodgers 4 games (4 away) 65-40 as of August 3rd
Here's something that doesn't come up as often as it should--the Dodgers are not that great outside of the west, playing just 11-10 against the central. I expect this to hold too, and we can finally get some of the Dodgers out of our mental block by splitting this series.

2 games.

Giants 4 games (4 away) 58-47 as of August 3rd
Oh boy. They're playing well right now, and I wouldn't be shocked to see them easily take the wild card. I also don't see us doing so hot at the end of this 10 game trip spread from St. Louis to Milwaukee to San Francisco. We might lose three here, making that series against the Cards even more important than they always are.

1 game.

Diamondbacks 3 games (3 home) 46-59 as of August 3rd
Should the Cubs and Cards play pong for the rest of the season, this series could be important. Or you could be seeing all of the backups playing (hopefully for a good reason). Thank goodness it's in Chicago.

2 games here.

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As you can see, I'm thinking we win about 36-40 games through the end of the year, which I don't think is unreasonable, especially of a team with the potential like we have. We do, unfortunately have to hope some of those other teams can help us out, but that's where having 5 games more than they do comes into play.

The future of the season is in the Cubs hands. Let's stop being negative, and raise them up with the best our fandom has to offer.

Cubs now after Grabow?

KDoggers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:11:08 -0000

Cubs now after Grabow?

Rosenthal saying Cubs are talking to Pirates about Grabow to complement Marshall. I would think that might mean temporary replacement of Marshall for a rotation spot?

Not a bad idea...depending on what you give.

Cubs Recall Stevens to replace Johnson

KDoggers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:11:26 -0000

Cubs Recall Stevens to replace Johnson

The Score just reported during their most recent update that the Cubs will recall Stevens to take Johnson's roster spot.

Interesting, because that means they're going to keep those 40-man spots open, as I know a lot of us were considering what they'd do whether it be Fuld or a catcher-type.

And to think, we weren't willing to give him a shot.

KDoggers — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:49:04 -0000

Here's an interesting look at the statistical comparisons between the golden boy Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner.

I've spent the better part of my musing on Kurt Warner thinking, "Wow, what an unnecessarily lucky scrub." But as the Cards have continued to defy odds through the playoffs, I'm seeing a barrage of, "Well, to be fair, he's good."

And he is.

If the Cardinals win next weekend, there's a very good chance he's a Hall of Fame guy. He does not have the total yards stats......but all the rest of them are kind of there.

Cubs Sign Demps to a 4-year!

KDoggers — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:34:31 -0000

Cubs Sign Demps to a 4-year!

Go Cubs Go! Now Get a Peavy and some bats and let's get to it!